As for Pao An Shen Dong interior has changed little in the knowledge of its oldest worshipper.
Years og majestic dignity and hears, the. supplication unworthy bending before him. The weapons of his soldiers still stand to one side and though they may be of modern vintage certainly we can make this one concession, Off to another side the medicine shop where sits an hoary ancient musing on the foibles of the present day and the. dark future that. is China's with the acceptance of the foreign devil's: ways.
Opposite him in a special wing sit a half hundred goddesses presiding over the destinies of woman's ills from faithless husbands and faithless lovers who will not "bs come husband:
'They, by fax; are faced by- more favour' seekers than even the god of war anil the visitor with sharp eyes can detect a subtle something that marks most of these supplicants from the women appealing. £0 the other gods Questioning the hoary priest one Jearns that Pao An Shen Dong is special haven for the weaker characters of every-day-life, who have been swept away by the strong forces about them, and are now seeking restitution' in the eyes of their special deity from the sins. of the flesh.
One Iooks. aloft into the upper reaches of the frail building now aged toa rich gray with the smoke of countless incense sticks and wonders what scenes it "presided over in years past..
Time whispers that it has offered peace and meditation. to innumerable thousands who have made th mark on the broad canvas that is Chinese: history; motto boards are everywhere, and hushed names a: whispered by the: priest of those la the forefront of a bygone day who sought its protecting roof.
The Temple's New Arch Before, Shanghai Pao An Shen Dong looked down on mud flats and winding stream, -and, after, Shanghai Pao An Shen Dong_wi still stand a relic of the infinity that is Buddhism, according to priest.
No story of the aged edifice would be complete without mention of the beggars who crowd its door, tall and short young and old, a polyglot group whose whines and beseechings have sent some away rich and kept others still richer to continue the good thing that is the benevolence of the old temple's worshippers.
The priest will tell you proudly that with the new building will come new entrance arch for the temple and to one of any sentimentality this is looked on with a haunting fear that perhaps the western progress is even invading Pao An Shen But a glance back into its smoke filled caverns, a sight of its worshippers, some affluent, some beggared, some arriving on foot and others in costly automobiles, and the answer is written, Pao An Shen Dong will go on.
defi to the tenets of a new day, and for all of its smoky interior, strange gods and images, and even its eye doctors, one is secretly glad and delights in its lasty challenge to the new day.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.