Chinese rites

The use of herbs once belonged partly to the realm of magic, in the healing rites performed by shamans (men and women of natural wisdom ) and also stems from observations of how animals treat themselves by using various plants when sick or wounded. But a careful study of herbs and their properties over thousands of years has developed Eastern herbal medicine into a highly refined and complex discipline. In Chinese medicine, diet is a matter of great importance in preventing... 

The model for the Scottish Rite operation is the ethnic secret society — Jewish, Italian, or Chinese. Closest to hand among Palmerston s agencies was the Order of Zion, a highly... 

Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) is believed to be one of the most ancient crops cultivated by humans (1). It was first recorded as a crop in Babylon and Assyria over 4000 years ago. The seeds of the crop are used both as condiment and oil source. The Babylonians made wine and cakes with sesame seeds, whereas sesame oil was used for cooking, medicinal, and cosmetic purposes. Ancient Indians used sesame oil as lighting oil, and sesame seeds were commonly used in the religious rites of Hindus. The Chinese believed that sesame seeds could promote health and longevity. 

The discovery that twisted strands of fiber were much stronger than individual strands was followed by developments in the arts of spinning and weaving fibers into fabric - innovations that ended man s reliance on animal skins for clothing. Here, too, it was hemp fiber that the Chinese chose for their first homespun garments. So important a place did hemp fiber occupy in ancient Chinese culture that the Book of Rites (second century B.C.) ordained that out of respect for the dead, mourners should wear clothes made from hemp fabric, a custom followed down to modem times. 

The earliest explosive, gunpowder, first appeared in ninth-century China. It was a combination of sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal. The Chinese used gunpowder for limited military purposes, but its primary purpose was to provide pyrotechnics and fireworks for ceremonial and religious rites. By the thirteenth century, gunpowder was being widely used in European firearms and cannons. Because it was relatively weak, gunpowder had few industrial or commercial... 

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