ulation were
restricted by religious prohibitions. Perhaps the chief interest in its
study lies in the fact that we may see today the persistence of views
about disease similar to those which prevailed in ancient Egypt and
Babylonia. The Chinese believe in a universal animism, all parts being
animated by gods and spectres, and devils swarm everywhere in numbers
incalculable. The universe was spontaneously created by the operation
of its Tao, "composed of two souls, the Yang and the Yin; the Yang
represents light, warmth, production, and life, as also the celestial
sphere from which all those blessings emanate; the Yin is darkness,
cold, death, and the earth, which, unless animated by the Yang or
heaven, is dark, cold, dead. The Yang and the Yin are divided into an
infinite number of spirits respectively good and bad, called shen and
kwei; every man and every living being contains a shen and a kwei,
infused at birth, and departing at death, to return to the Yang and the
Yin. Thus man with his dualistic soul is a microcosmos, born from the
Macrocosmos spontaneously. Even every object is animated, as well as the
Universe of which it is a part."(26)

(26) J. J. M. de Groot: Religious System of China, Vol. VI,
Leyden, 1910, p. 929.

In the animistic religion of China, the Wu represented a group of
persons of both sexes, who wielded, with respect to the world of
spirits, capacities and powers not possessed by the rest of men. Many
practitioners of Wu were physicians who, in addition to charms and
enchantments, used death-banishing medicinal herbs. Of great antiquity,
Wu-ism has changed in some ways its outward aspect, but has not altered
its fundamental characters. The Wu, as exorcising physicians and
practitioners of the medical art, may be traced in classical literature
to the time of Confucius. In addition to charms and spells, there were
certain famous poems which were repeated, one of which, by Han Yu, of
the T'ang epoch, had an extraordinary vogue. De Groot says that the
"Ling," or magical power of this poem must have been enormous, seeing
that its author was a powerful mandarin, and also one of the loftiest
intellects China has produced. This poetic febrifuge is translated in
full by de Groot (VI, 1054-1055), and the demon of fever, potent chiefly
in the autumn, is admonished to begone to the clear and limpid waters of
the deep river.

In the High Medical College at Court, in the T'ang Dynasty, there
wer