Reading section 39

Another class of holy days includes the birthdays[889] not only of Sâkya-muni, but of other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the anniversaries of events in Sâkya-muni's life and the deaths of Bodhidharma and other Saints, among whom the founder or patron of each monastery has a prominent place. Another important and popular festival is called Yü-lan-pên or All Souls' day, which is an adaptation of Buddhist usages to Chinese ancestral worship. Of many other festivals it may be said that they are purely Chinese but countenanced by Buddhism: such are the days which mark the changes of the seasons, those sacred to Kuan-ti and other native deities, and (before the revolution) imperial birthdays.

The daily services are primarily for the monks, but the laity may attend them, if they please. More frequently they pay their devotions at other hours, light a few tapers and too often have recourse to some form of divination before the images. Sometimes they defray the cost of more elaborate ceremonies to expiate sins or ensure prosperity. But the lay attendance in temples is specially large at seasons of pilgrimage. For an account of this interesting side of Chinese religious life I cannot do better than refer the reader to Mr. Johnston's volume already cited.

Though the services of the priesthood may be invoked at every crisis of life, they are most in requisition for funeral ceremonies. A detailed description of these as practised at Amoy has been given by De Groot[890] which is probably true in essentials for all parts of China. These rites unite in incongruous confusion several orders of ideas. Pre-Buddhist Chinese notions of the life after death seem not to have included the idea of hell. The disembodied soul is honoured and comforted but without any clear definition of its status. Some representative--a person, figure, or tablet--is thought capable of giving it a temporary residence and at funeral ceremonies offerings are made to such a representative and plays performed before it. Though Buddhist language may be introduced into this ritual, its spirit is alien to even the most corrupt Buddhism.

Buddhism familiarized China with the idea that the average man stands in danger of purgatory and this doctrine cannot be described as late or Mahayanist[891]. Those epithets are, however, merited by the subsidiary doctrine that such punishment can be abridged by vicarious acts of worship which may take the form of simple prayer addressed to benevolent beings who can release the tortured soul. More often the idea underlying it is that the recitation of certain formulæ acquires merit for the reciter who can then divert this merit to any purpose[892]. This is really a theological refinement of the ancient and widespread notion that words have magic force. Equally ancient and unBuddhist in origin is the theory of sympathetic magic. Just as by sticking pins into a wax figure you may kill the person represented, so by imitating physical operations of rescue, you may deliver a soul from the furnaces and morasses of hell. Thus a paper model of hades is made which is knocked to pieces and finally burnt: the spirit is escorted with music and other precautions over a mock bridge, and, most singular of all, the priests place over a receptacle of water a special machine consisting of a cylinder containing a revolving apparatus which might help a creature immersed in the fluid to climb up. This strange mummery is supposed to release those souls who are condemned to sojourn in a pool of blood[893]. This, too, is a superstition countenanced only by Chinese Buddhism, for the punishment is incurred not so much by sinners as by those dying of illnesses which defile with blood. Many other rites are based on the notion that objects--or their paper images--ceremonially burnt are transmitted to the other world for the use of the dead. Thus representations in paper of servants, clothes, furniture, money and all manner of things are burned together with the effigy of the deceased and sometimes also certificates and passports giving him a clean bill of health for the Kingdom of Heaven.

As in funeral rites, so in matters of daily life, Buddhism gives its countenance and help to popular superstition, to every kind of charm for reading the future, securing happiness and driving away evil spirits. In its praise may be said that this patronage, though far too easy going, is not extended to cruel or immoral customs. But the reader will ask, is there no brighter side? I believe that there is, but it is not conspicuous and, as in India, public worship and temple ritual display the lower aspects of religion. But in China a devout Buddhist is generally a good man and the objects of Buddhist associations are praiseworthy and philanthropic. They often include vegetarianism and abstinence from alcohol and drugs. The weakness of the religion to-day is no doubt the want of intelligence and energy among the clergy. There are not a few learned and devout monks, but even devotion is not a characteristic of the majority. On the other hand, those of the laity who take their religion seriously generally attain a high standard of piety and there have been attempts to reform Buddhism, to connect it with education and to spread a knowledge of the more authentic scriptures[894].

When one begins to study Buddhism in China, one fears it may be typified by the neglected temples on the outskirts of Peking, sullen and mouldering memorials of dynasties that have passed away. But later one learns not only that there are great and nourishing monasteries in the south, but that even in Peking one may often step through an archway into courtyards of which the prosaic streets outside give no hint and find there refreshment for the eye and soul, flower gardens and well-kept shrines tended by pious and learned guardians.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 855: [Chinese: ] For a specimen of devotional literature about the heart see the little tract translated in China Branch, _R.A.S._ XXIII. pp. 9-22.]

[Footnote 856: [Chinese: ] For text translation and commentary, see De Groot, _Code du Mahâyâna en Chine_, 1893, see also Nanjio, No. 1087.]

[Footnote 857: De Groot, p. 81.]

[Footnote 858: The identity of name seems due to a similarity of metaphor. The Brahmajâla sutta is a net of many meshes to catch all forms of error. The Fan-wang-ching compares the varieties of Buddhist opinion to the meshes of a net (De Groot, _l.c._ p. 26), but the net is the all-inclusive common body of truth.]

[Footnote 859: See, however, sections 20 and 39.]

[Footnote 860: See especially De Groot, _l.c._ p. 58, where the reading of the Abhidharma is forbidden. Though this name is not confined to the Hînayâna, A-pi-t'an in Chinese seems to be rarely used as a title of Mahayanist books.]

[Footnote 861: The Indian words are transliterated in the Chinese text.]

[Footnote 862: More accurately reading the sûtras on their behalf, but this exercise is practically equivalent to intercessory prayer.]

[Footnote 863: [Chinese: ]]

[Footnote 864: The full title is [Chinese: ] Pai Chang is apparently to be taken as the name of the author, but it is the designation of a monastery used as a personal name. See Hackmann in _T'oung Pao_, 1908, pp. 651-662. It is No. 1642 in Nanjio's Catalogue. He says that it has been revised and altered.]

[Footnote 865: See _T'oung Pao_, 1904, pp. 437 ff.]

[Footnote 866: It is probable that the older Chinese monasteries attempted to reproduce the arrangement of Nâlanda and other Indian establishments. Unfortunately Hsüan Chuang and the other pilgrims give us few details as to the appearance of Indian monasteries: they tell us, however, that they were surrounded by a wall, that the monks' quarters were near this wall, that there were halls where choral services were performed and that there were triads of images. But the Indian buildings had three stories. See Chavannes, _Mémoire sur les Religieux Eminents_, 1894, p. 85.]

[Footnote 867: [Chinese: ] or [Chinese: ] For this personage see the article in _B.E.F.E.O._ 1916. No. 3, by Péri who identifies him with Wei, the general of the Heavenly Kings who appeared to Tao Hsüan the founder of the Vinaya school and became popular as a protecting deity of Buddhism. The name is possibly a mistaken transcription of Skandha.]

[Footnote 868: [Chinese: ]]

[Footnote 869: [Chinese: ] See Lévi and Chavannes' two articles in _J.A._ 1916, I and II, and Watters in _J.R.A.S._ 1898, p. 329, for an account of these personages. The original number, still found in a few Chinese temples as well as in Korea, Japan and Tibet was sixteen. Several late sûtras contain the idea that the Buddha entrusted the protection of his religion to four or sixteen disciples and bade them not enter Nirvana but tarry until the advent of Maitreya. The Ta-A-lo-han-nan-t'i-mi-to-lo-so-shuo-fa-chu-chi (Nanjio, 1466) is an account of these sixteen disciples and of their spheres of influence. The Buddha assigned to each a region within which it is his duty to guard the faith. They will not pass from this life before the next Buddha comes. Piṇḍola is the chief of them. Nothing is known of the work cited except that it was translated in 654 by Hsüan Chuang, who, according to Watters, used an earlier translation. As the Arhats are Indian personalities, and their spheres are mapped out from the point of view of Indian geography, there can be no doubt that we have to do with an Indian idea, imported into Tibet as well as into China where it became far more popular than it had ever been in India. The two additional Arhats (who vary in different temples, whereas the sixteen are fixed) appear to have been added during the T'ang dynasty and, according to Watters, in imitation of a very select order of merit instituted by the Emperor T'ai Tsung and comprising eighteen persons. Chavannes and Lévi see in them spirits borrowed from the popular pantheon.

Chinese ideas about the Lohans at the present day are very vague. Their Indian origin has been forgotten and some of them have been provided with Chinese biographies. (See Doré, p. 216.) One popular story says that they were eighteen converted brigands.

In several large temples there are halls containing 500 images of Arhats, which include many Chinese Emperors and one of them is often pointed out as being Marco Polo. But this is very doubtful. See, however, Hackmann, _Buddhismus_, p. 212.]

[Footnote 870: Generally they consist of Śâkya-muni and two superhuman Buddhas or Bodhisattvas, such as O-mi-to (Amitâbha) and Yo-shih-fo (Vaidûrya): Pi-lu-fo (Vairocana) and Lo-shih-fo (Lochana): Wên-shu (Manjuś-ri) and P'u-hsien (Śamantabhadra). The common European explanation that they are the Buddhas of the past, present and future is not correct.]

[Footnote 871: [Chinese: ] and [Chinese: ]. For the importance of Ti-tsang in popular Buddhism, which has perhaps been underestimated, see Johnston, chap. VII.]

[Footnote 872: I speak of the Old Imperial Government which came to an end in 1911.]

[Footnote 873: [Chinese: ]]

[Footnote 874: De Groot, _l.c._ p.51.]

[Footnote 875: See Kern's translation, especially pp. 379 and 385.]

[Footnote 876: See Nanjio, Nos. 138 and 139. The practice is not entirely unknown in the legends of Pali Buddhism. In the Lokapaññatti, a work existing in Burma but perhaps translated from the Sanskrit, Asoka burns himself in honour of the Buddha, but is miraculously preserved. See _B.E.F.E.O._ 1904, pp. 421 and 427.]

[Footnote 877: See I-Tsing, _Records of the Buddhist Religion_, trans. Takakusu, pp. 195 ff., and for Tibet, Waddell, _Buddhism of Tibet_, p. 178, note 3, from which it appears that it is only in Eastern Tibet and probably under Chinese influence that branding is in vogue. For apparent instances in Central Asian art, see Grünwedel, _Budd. Kultst._ p. 23, note 1.]

[Footnote 878: Branding is common in many Hindu sects, especially the Mâdhvas, but is reprobated by others.]

[Footnote 879: It is condemned as part of the superstition of Buddhism in a memorial of Han Yü, 819 A.D.]

[Footnote 880: See those cited by De Groot, _l.c_. p. 228, and the article of MacGowan (_Chinese Recorder_, 1888) there referred to. See also Hackmann, _Buddhism as a Religion_, p. 228. Chinese sentiment often approves suicide, for instance, if committed by widows or the adherents of defeated princes. For a Confucian instance, see Johnston, p. 341.]

[Footnote 881: See _e.g._ Du Bose, _The Dragon, Image and Demon_, p. 265. I have never seen such practices myself. See also _Paraphrase of the Sacred Edict_, VII. 8.]

[Footnote 882: [Chinese: ] This word, which has no derivation in Chinese, is thought to be a corruption of some vernacular form of the Sanskrit Upâdhyâya current in Central Asia. See I-tsing, transl. Takakusu, p. 118. Upâdhyâya became Vajjha (as is shown by the modern Indian forms Ojha or Jha and Tamil Vâddyar). See Bloch in _Indo-Germanischen Forschungen_, vol. XXV. 1909, p. 239. Vajjha might become in Chinese Ho-sho or Ho-shang for Ho sometimes represents the Indian syllable _va_. See Julien, _Méthode_, p. 109, and Eitel, _Handbook of Chinese Buddhism_, p. 195.]

[Footnote 883: For details see Hackmann in _T'oung Pao_, 1908.]

[Footnote 884: They apparently correspond to the monastic lay servants or "pure men" described by I-Ching, chap. XXXII, as living as Nâlanda.]

[Footnote 885: _A Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese_, pp. 339 ff.]

[Footnote 886: The abbot and several upper priests wear robes, which are generally red and gold, during the service. The abbot also carries a sort of sceptre. The vestments of the clergy are said to be derived from the robes of honour which used to be given to them when they appeared at Court.]

[Footnote 887: II. 16. Cf. the rituals in De la Vallée Poussin's _Bouddhisme et Matériaux_, pp. 214 ff. Târanâtha frequently mentions burnt offerings as part of worship in medieval Magadha.]

[Footnote 888: I do not refer to the practice of turning disused temples into schools which is frequent. In some monasteries the monks, while retaining possession, have themselves opened schools.]

[Footnote 889: It is not clear to me what is really meant by the _birthdays_ of beings like Maitreya and Amitâbha.]

[Footnote 890: _Actes du Sixième Congres des Orientalistes_, Leide, 1883, sec. IV. pp. 1-120.]

[Footnote 891: _E.g._ in Dipavamsa, XIII; Mahâv. XIV. Mahinda is represented as converting Ceylon by accounts of the terrors of the next world.]

[Footnote 892: The merit of good deeds can be similarly utilized. The surviving relatives feed the poor or buy and maintain for the rest of its life an animal destined to slaughter. The merit then goes to the deceased.]

[Footnote 893: It may possibly be traceable to Manichæism which taught that souls are transferred from one sphere to another by a sort of cosmic water wheel. See Cumont's article, "La roue à puiser les âmes du Manichéisme" in _Rev. de l'Hist, des Religions_, 1915, p. 384. Chavannes and Pelliot have shown that traces of Manichæism lingered long in Fu-Kien. The metaphor of the endless chain of buckets is also found in the Yüan Jên Lun.]

[Footnote 894: See Francke, "Ein Buddhistischer Reformversuch in China," _T'oung Pao_, 1909, pp. 567-602.]

CHAPTER XLVII

KOREA[895]

The Buddhism of Korea cannot be sharply distinguished from the Buddhism of China and Japan. Its secluded mountain monasteries have some local colour, and contain halls dedicated to the seven stars and the mountain gods of the land. And travellers are impressed by the columns of rock projecting from the soil and carved into images (miriok), by the painted walls of the temples and by the huge rolled-up pictures which are painted and displayed on festival days. But there is little real originality in art: in literature and doctrine none at all. Buddhism started in Korea with the same advantages as in China and Japan but it lost in moral influence because the monks continually engaged in politics and it did not win temporal power because they were continually on the wrong side. Yet Korea is not without importance in the annals of far-eastern Buddhism for, during the wanderings and vicissitudes of the faith, it served as a rest-house and depot. It was from Korea that Buddhism first entered Japan: when, during the wars of the five dynasties the T'ien-t'ai school was nearly annihilated in China, it was revived by a Korean priest and the earliest extant edition of the Chinese Tripitaka is known only by a single copy preserved in Korea and taken thence to Japan.

For our purposes Korean history may be divided into four periods:

I. The three States (B.C. 57-A.D. 668). II. The Kingdom of Silla (668-918). III. The Kingdom of Korye (918-1392). IV. The Kingdom of Chosen (1392-1910).

The three states were Koguryu in the north, Pakche in the south-west and Silla in the south-east[896]. Buddhism, together with Chinese writing, entered Koguryu from the north in 372 and Pakche from the south a few years later. Silla being more distant and at war with the other states did not receive it till about 424. In 552 both Japan and Pakche were at war with Silla and the king of Pakche, wishing to make an alliance with the Emperor of Japan sent him presents which included Buddhist books and images. Thus Korea was the intermediary for introducing Buddhism, writing, and Chinese culture into Japan, and Korean monks played an important part there both in art and religion. But the influence of Korea must not be exaggerated. The Japanese submitted to it believing that they were acquiring the culture of China and as soon as circumstances permitted they went straight to the fountain head. The principal early sects were all imported direct from China.

The kingdom of Silla, which became predominant in the seventh century, had adopted Buddhism in 528, and maintained friendly intercourse with the T'ang dynasty. As in Japan Chinese civilization was imitated wholesale. This tendency strengthened Buddhism at the time, but its formidable rival Confucianism was also introduced early in the eighth century, although it did not become predominant until the thirteenth[897].

In the seventh century the capital of Silla was a centre of Buddhist culture and also of trade. Merchants from India, Tibet and Persia are said to have frequented its markets and several Korean pilgrims visited India.

In 918 the Wang dynasty, originating in a northern family of humble extraction, overthrew the kingdom of Silla and with it the old Korean aristocracy. This was replaced by an official nobility modelled on that of China: the Chinese system of examinations was adopted and a class of scholars grew up. But with this attempt to reconstruct society many abuses appeared. The number of slaves greatly increased[898], and there were many hereditary low castes, the members of which were little better than slaves. Only the higher castes could compete in examinations or hold office and there were continual struggles and quarrels between the military and civil classes. Buddhism flourished much as it flourished in the Hei-an period of Japan, but its comparative sterility reflected the inferior social conditions of Korea. Festivals were celebrated by the Court with great splendour: magnificent monasteries were founded: the bonzes kept troops and entered the capital armed: the tutor of the heir apparent and the chancellor of the kingdom were often ecclesiastics, and a law is said to have been enacted to the effect that if a man had three sons one of them must become a monk. But about 1250 the influence of the Sung Confucianists began to be felt. The bonzes were held responsible for the evils of the time, for the continual feuds, exactions and massacres, and the civil nobility tended to become Confucianist and to side against the church and the military. The inevitable outburst was delayed but also rendered more disastrous when it came by the action of the Mongols who, as in China, were patrons of Buddhism. The Yüan dynasty invaded Korea, placed regents in the principal towns and forced the Korean princes to marry Mongol wives. It was from Korea that Khubilai despatched his expeditions against Japan, and in revenge the Japanese harried the Korean coast throughout the fourteenth century. But so long as the Yüan dynasty lasted the Korean Court which had become Mongol remained faithful to it and to Buddhism; when it was ousted by the Ming, a similar movement soon followed in Korea. The Mongolized dynasty of Korye was deposed and another, which professed to trace its lineage back to Silla, mounted the throne and gave the country the name of Chosen.

This revolution was mainly the work of the Confucianist party in the nobility and it was not unnatural that patriots and reformers should see in Buddhism nothing but the religion of the corrupt old regime of the Mongols. During the next century and a half a series of restrictive measures, sometimes amounting to persecution, were applied to it. Two kings who dared to build monasteries and favour bonzes were deposed. Statues were melted down, Buddhist learning was forbidden: marriages and burials were performed according to the rules of Chu-hsi. About the beginning of the sixteenth century (the date is variously given as 1472 and 1512 and perhaps there was more than one edict) the monasteries in the capital and all cities were closed and this is why Korean monasteries are all in the country and often in almost inaccessible mountains. It is only since the Japanese occupation that temples have been built in towns.

At first the results of the revolution were beneficial. The great families were compelled to discharge their body-guards whose collisions had been a frequent cause of bloodshed. The public finances and military forces were put into order. Printing with moveable type and a phonetic alphabet were brought into use and vernacular literature began to flourish. But in time the Confucian literati formed a sort of corporation and became as troublesome as the bonzes had been. The aristocracy split into two hostile camps and Korean politics became again a confused struggle between families and districts in which progress and even public order became impossible. For a moment, however, there was a national cause. This was when Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 as part of his attack on China. The people rose against the Japanese troops and, thanks to the death of Hideyoshi rather than to their own valour, got rid of them. It is said that in this struggle the bonzes took part as soldiers fighting under their abbots and that the treaty of peace was negotiated by a Korean and a Japanese monk[899].