boldly rescued them; but this affords no satisfactory solution. It is likely that some degenerate Nestorian Christians amalgamated with their faith and ceremonies the prevailing errors of China, and caused the priests of Budha to adopt many of their rites." In one instance that missionary saw a marble bust of Napoleon, before which incense was burnt in a temple; hence, he adds, it would not be extraordinary if they had also adopted among their other idols so conspicuous an object of worship as the Virgin is among Catholics.

In corroboration of this surmise may be adduced a very curious account of Christ, taken by Dr. Milne from the Chinese mythological history, in which Jesus is ranked among the number of the gods.1 That the account was received by the Chinese from the Catholics seems indisputably proved by the epithets applied to the Virgin, and the virtues and powers attributed to her. The work in which it appears is called 'A Complete History of Gods and Genii,' and was compiled in two-and-twenty thin octavo volumes by a Chinese physician, during the reign of Kanghy, at a time when many Catholics were in China. "The extreme western nations say, that at the distance of ninety-seven thousand ly from China, a journey of about three years, commences the border of Sy-keang. In that country there was formerly a virgin named Ma-le-a. In the first year of Yuen-chy, in the dynasty Hân, a celestial god reverently announced to her, saying, The Lord of heaven has selected thee to be his mother.' Having finished his discourse, she actually conceived and afterwards bore a son. mother, filled with joy and reverence, wrapped him in a cloth, and placed him in a horse's manger. A flock of celestial gods (angels) sang and rejoiced in the void space. Forty days after, his mother presented him to the holy teacher, and named him Yay-soo. When twelve years of age, he followed his mother to worship in the holy palace. Returning home, they lost each other. After three days' search, coming into the palace, she saw Yay-soo sitting on an honourable seat, conversing with aged and learned doctors about the works and doctrines of the Lord of

1 Chinese Gleaner, p. 105.

The

heaven. Seeing his mother he was glad, returned with her, and served her with the utmost filial reverence. When thirty years

of age, he left his mother and teacher, and travelling to the country of Yu-teh-a, taught men to do good. The sacred miracles which he wrought were very numerous. The chief families, and those in office in that country, being proud and wicked in the extreme, envied him for the multitude of those who joined themselves to him, and planned to slay him. Among the twelve disciples of Yay-soo there was a covetous one named Yu-tah-sze. Aware of the wish of the greater part of his countrymen, and seizing on a proferred gain, he led forth a multitude at night, who, taking Yay-soo, bound him and carried him before Ana-sze in the court-house of Pelah-to. Rudely stripping off his garments, they tied him to a stone pillar, inflicting on him upwards of 5400 stripes, until his whole body was torn and mangled; but still he was silent, and like a lamb remonstrated not. The wicked rabble, taking a cap made of piercing thorns, pressed it forciby down on his temples. They hung a vile red cloak on his body, and hypocritically did reverence to him as a king. They made a very large and heavy machine of wood, resembling the character ten, which they compelled him to bear on his shoulders. The whole way it sorely pressed him down, so that he moved and fell alternately. His hands and feet were nailed to the wood, and being thirsty, a sour and bitter drink was given him. When he died, the heavens were darkened, the earth shook, the rocks, striking against each other, were broken into small pieces. He was then aged thirty-three years. On the third day after his death, he again returned to life, and his body was splendid and beautiful. appeared first to his mother, in order to remove her sorrow. Forty days after, when about to ascend to heaven, he commanded his disciples, in all a hundred and two, to separate, and go everywhere under heaven to teach, and administer a sacred water to wash away the sins of those who should join their sect. Having finished his commands, a flock of ancient holy ones followed him up to the

2 The Chinese write ten with an upright cross.

He

celestial kingdom. Ten days after, a celestial god descended to receive his mother, who also ascended up on high. Being set above the nine orders, she became the Empress of heaven and earth, and the protectress of human beings."

There appears, upon the whole, some ground for supposing that the legend of Fokien province, concerning the Queen of heaven, may have had its origin in the Romish accounts of the Virgin Mary, since the title by which the Chinese designate their goddess is Teenhow Neang, "Our Lady the Queen of heaven." On the other hand, the Chinese at Canton, who are fond of finding parallels and resemblances of the kind, give the name of the Virgin (in conversing with Europeans) to their Budhist idol Kuân-yin; and in the same way apply the name of Kuân-yin to the Romish idols of the Virgin. To every saint who has a church at Macao they contrive to give a name, founded on some supposed analogy in their own idols. St. Anthony they call "the fire god." There is nothing in the Catholic worship at that place, or in the character of the priests, that is calculated to give the Chinese a very exalted idea of this corruption of Christianity. In the former, they witness graven or molten images, processions, tinkling of bells, candles and incense, exactly resembling their own religious rites; in the latter, a number of ignorant and idle monks, professing celibacy, but with indifferent moral characters, shaving their heads, and counting beads very much after the fashion of the Budhist priests. A few Catholic missionaries still make converts of the lowest and poorest Chinese, who occasionally appear at the churches and receive each of them a small donation of rice, for which reason they are sometimes called in Portuguese,"rice Christians.'

The curious resemblance between the practices of Budhism and the Roman Catholic church goes still farther. Dr. Milne, whose zeal and talents accomplished much in a little time, but whose labours were cut short by an untimely death, supplied the following observations to the Chinese Gleaner: 1"There is something to be said in favour of

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those Christians who believe in the magic powers of foreign words, and who think a prayer either more acceptable to the Deity, or more suited to common edification, because the people do not generally understand it. They are not singular in this belief. Some of the Jews had the same opinion; the followers of Budha, and the Mahomedans, all cherish the same sentiment. From the seat of his Holiness at Rome, and eastward through all Asia to the cave of the Jammaboos of Japan, this sentiment is espoused. The bloody Druids of ancient Europe, the naked gymnosophists of India, the Mahomedan Hatib, the Hoshang (Budhist priests) of China, the Catholic clergy, and the bonzes of Japan,-all entertain the notion that the mysteries of religion will be the more revered the less they are understood, and the devotions of the people (performed by proxy) the more welcome in heaven for their being dressed in the garb of a foreign tongue. Thus the synagogue, the mosque, the pagan temple, and the Catholic church, seem all to agree in ascribing marvellous efficacy to the sounds of an unknown language; and as they have Jews, Mahomedans, and pagans on their side, those Christians who plead for the use of an unknown tongue in the services of religion, have certainly a host, as to number, in support of their opinion. That Scripture, reason, and common sense should happen to be on the other side, is indeed a misfortune for them, but there is no help for it.

"The sacred language of the Budhists is called The language of Fân,' which is the name of the birth-place of Budha. It is totally unknown to the Chinese generally, and the priests themselves know nothing of it, beyond the sound of a few favourite words and phrases. There are, it is true, glossaries attached to some of their religious books, which are designed to explain these technical shibboleth; but the definition is sometimes given in other technical terms equally unintelligible, and from their general ignorance of letters very few of the priests are capable of consulting such helps. Among them there may now and then be found a scholar, and some have written books, but as a body they are extremely ignorant. Beyond the

know the sense-it is profound and mysterious; yet the benefit of often repeating the sounds is incalculable; it is infinite!

"Let us now attend for a moment to the sentiments of the Malays on the same subject. Their religious opinions are derived from the Koran, the principles of which they profess to imbibe, and daily observe its ceremonies. No language but the Arabic is allowed in their public religious services, and though there be not one in a hundred Malays that understands it, they tenaciously stick to it, and consider worship as profaned by the use of any other. Let them speak for themselves. "The Arabic language possesses superlative glory in the Islam religion, and no other can be allowed in the Mahomedan mosques. If prayers be offered in the Malay, Javanese, Buggis, Bornean, Hindoostanee, or other languages, they are rendered profane and useless. The Arabic is that in which the Mahomedan faith was first given. The angel Gabriel was commanded by God to deliver the words of the Koran exclusively in Arabic to the prophet Mahomed.""

are

But to return to Budhism. The paradise of Fo includes those circumstances of sensual indulgence which the founders of most false religions have promised to their votaries; but unlike the elysium of Mahomed, no houries are to be supplied to the saints of Budhism, for even the women that are admitted there must first change their sex. "The bodies of the saints reproduced from the lotus 1 pure and fragrant, their countenances fair and well formed, their hearts full of wisdom, and without vexation. They dress not, and yet are not cold; they dress, and yet are not made hot. They eat not, and yet are not hungry; they eat, and yet are not satiated. They are without pain, irritation, and sickness, and they become not old. ***** * They behold the lotus flowers and trees of gems delightfully waving, like the motion of a vast sheet of embroidered silk. On looking upwards, they see the firmament full of the To-lo flowers, falling in beautiful confusion like rain. The felicity of that kingdom

1 The lotus is a favourite type of creative power, and representations of it perpetually occur in connexion with Budhism.

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The hell of the Chinese Budhists may be described from a translation, 2 made by Dr. Morrison, of the explanatory letter-press on ten large wood-cuts, which are exhibited on particular occasions in the temples, and copies of which have been mistaken sometimes in Europe for the criminal punishments of China, giving rise to very unfounded notions of the cruelty of penal jurisdiction in that country. Prior to their final condemnation, the souls are exposed to judgment in the courts of the She-ming-wang," the ten kings of darkness:"3 the proceedings in these courts are represented exactly after the manner of the Chinese judicial trials, with the difference in the punishments, which in these pictures of the infernal regions, are of course sufficiently appalling. In one view are seen the judge with his attendants and officers of the court, to whom the merciful goddess Kuan-yin appears, in order to save from punishment a soul that is condemned to be pounded in a mortar. Other punishments consist of sawing asunder, tying to a burning pillar of brass, &c. Liars have their tongues cut out: thieves and robbers are cast upon a hill of knives; and so on. After the trials are over, the more eminently good ascend to paradise; the middling class return to earth in other bodies, to enjoy riches and honours; while the wicked are tormented in hell, or transformed into various animals, whose dispositions and habits they imitated during their past lives.

One of the Emperors of Ming dynasty, who was much attached to the Budhist tenets, and who meditated sending, about the commencement of the 16th century, an ambassador with expensive presents to India, for the purpose of bringing some of the most learned of that sect to court, to explain their doctrines, was addressed by one of his ministers in the following strain:-"That for which the people of the world most honour and love Shakia himself amounts to this, that he con

2 Chinese Gleaner, vol. iii. p. 288.

3 There is a festival to the honour of these about the month of August. See Festivals, vol. i. p. 312. Q

tinued to teach his doctrines during the space of forty years, and that he died aged eightytwo. This was indeed a great age, but the years of Shun were a hundred and ten; those of Yaou a hundred and twenty. Supposing that your majesty's extreme affection for the sect of Fó springs from a genuine wish to discover the good way, I venture to entreat your majesty not to love the name merely, but to seek diligently the reality; not to regard the end only, but carefully to search for the principle; and not to seek them from Fó, but from the spotless sages; not from foreigners, but in our own country. Could your majesty be persuaded to regard our sacred sages with the same ardour with which you love Fó, to seek the the doctrines of Yaou and Shun with the earnestness which leads you to those of Shakia, there will be no need to send many thousand miles to the happy land of the west, for the object is at hand, and before your eyes. * ** I adduce the testimony of Confucius, who says, "The very moment that I desire to be virtuous, the attainment is made,'" &c. It is by arguments allied to these that the introduction of foreign innovations has perpetually been restrained and checked in China, although occasionally, as in the case of Budhism, they have been tolerated, and for short periods gained some strength.

*

*

*

We may include within our sketch of Chinese Budhism some extracts from Mr. Hodgson's account1 of that religion, as he found it in the 'Bauddha Scriptures of Nipal,' much nearer to its source, and greatly better understood than it is in China. The primary motive for doing good, and worshipping Budha, according to these scriptures, is the hope of obtaining absorption into the nature of the god, and being freed from transmigrations. Between the highest class of votaries and Budha there is no difference, because they will eventually become Budhas. Those who do good from the fear of hell, are also above the the class of sinners, and their sufferings will be lessened; but they will be constrained to suffer several transmigrations, and endure pain and pleasure in this world until they obtain mukti, or absorption.

1 Royal Asiatic Transactions, vol. ii. p. 232.

The mystic syllable AUM is not less reverenced by the Budhists than the Brahmins; but the latter apply it to their own Trimurti, or Triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; while by the former it is applied to Budha, Dharma, and Sanga, which is the Triad represented by the three gilded images in the Canton temple, described at page 218, and alluded to in the Chinese books, when they say that "Fŏ is one person, but has three forms." Their scriptures contain in native characters, which imitate as nearly as possible the Sanscrit sounds, the following invocation to the Triad, Namo Buddhaya, Namo Dharmâya, Namah Sangaya-Om! that is to say, "Adoration to Buddha, adoration to Dharma, adoration to Sanga-AUM!" concluding thus with the mystical monosyllable, which represents the three terms united in one sign.2~ The three divinities are called by the Chinese "the three pure, precious, or honourable Fő," concerning whom Rémusat has given the following explanation :-" According to the interior doctrine, Buddha, or the Intelligence, produced Dharma, the Law, and the two united constituted Sanga, the Union, or combination of several. According to the public doctrine, these three terms are still the Intelligence, the Law, and the Union; but considered, in their external manifestations, the intelligence in the Buddhas to come, the law in the writings revealed, and the union in the multitude of the believers, or the assembly of priests. Hence it arises that the last have, among all the Buddhist nations, the title of Sanga, united, which, being abridged in the Chinese pronunciation, has formed the word Seng, rendered by the missionaries "bonze," but which signifies literally, ecclesiastic. Such are the sense and the origin of this wellknown word, the etymology of which has not before been investigated."

one of

The same writer has the following observation concerning the goddess Kuan-yin, the most important divinities in the Budhist mythology:-De Guignes (he says), wishing to explain the Chinese names of Poo-sa and Kuân-she-yin, adduces a passage from Kircher, who supposes that the being to whom these names are applied is Nature, and calls her

2 Abel Rémusat sur la Doctrine Samanéenne,

p. 27.