47
sititated in the northwest part of Canton, under the jurisdiction of the Nanhái magistrate. In the time of the Eastern Hán (A.D. 25–190), the Longevity Monastery was erected on the spot, and a neice of the Imperial house of Liú dwelt there as a nun. In the reign of Tátung (A.D. 537), the lama Tányü erected a pagoda here to hold a relic, and called the edifice the Precious Dig- nified Monastery; this was recorded in a tablet put up about the year 620 by Wang Poh. In 968, the name was changed to Taing Wei; at this date the pagoda was dilapidated. About the year 1090, Lin Siú, the deputy district magistrate of Pauki in Shensi, took the lead in giving funds for rebuilding it. He had fixed the limits of the ground, when a god appeared to him in a dream and told him to make the place broader; so he made it 45 cubits broad; on digging, he came to an ancient well, and found nine rings spread around the wall just where he had measured to build, and a huge tripod in which were discovered three swords and a mirror shining as bright as a newly buried Bud- ha's tooth; under these the foundations of the old pagoda were recognized. He collected laborers and procured tiles, and raised it 207 cubits, calling it the Tsing Wei monastery and Thousand Budhas' Pagoda. In the reign of Shaushing (A.D. 1095), the minister Sú Tungpo coming here called the monastery the Six Banians; and in 1374, half of it was taken down to erect a granary; two years after, the abbot Kienyü built a Budhist temple on the east side of the pagoda, and changed the gate of the monastery to the east, ordering the priest Kin-pien to fast there very strictly. At present, the monastery receives the rental of about 240 acres. Next to the Kwang-háu sz,' or Bright Filial monastery, this is the most ancient in Canton.'
40 A native friend tells me that the baniaus mentioned in this notice still exist, but I suppose this assertion is to be taken like the legend given of the mulberry tree near Cairo, under which the Virgin rested when she came into Egypt from her flight out of Judea-namely, that other banian trees stand where they did; for since the famous poet Sú Tungpo came to Canton, it has been sacked twice, and almost burned to ashes. These trees are, I think, cherished for the sake of the poet, aud it is pleasant to find that in China too, genius can hallow spots in the eyes of posterity. The Hưá ták is a good deal out of repair, and the citizens are no longer allowed to ascend it as formerly to enjoy the prospect, lest accidents occur.
These five are all the pagodas visible when ascending the Pearl river, but according to the same work from which I have before quoted, there are fifteen others in this department alone, of which I have seen only the one near Hiáugshán town, a lofty spire nearly 200 feet high perched on a hill fully 500 feet above the river, and forming one of the most conspicuous objects in that region. On asking a na- tive friend the reason why none have been built during the present dynasty, he says the fung-shwui doctors, or geomancers, now decry