Buddhist “Tso-fu-sze” ceremony performed to evoke rain and end drought, illustrated in a charm.
The annexed is a Buddhist prayer-charm.
When the country has suffered from prolonged drought, Buddhist priests offer prayer, and perform the ceremony known as “Tso-fu-sze”. This is similar to that called K’iu-yü, begging for rain. Then the Dragon stirs up the seas, and a beneficent rain falls on the parched earth.
All this is graphically expressed in the annexed picture. The four characters: Fung-tiao-yü-shun written in the four corners, mean “genial distribution of wind and rain”.
Source: Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine par Henri Doré. Le Panthéon Chinois, Zi-Ka-Wei 1916.
