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About this cime he dreamt that he saw a high hill in the middle of the ocean, on SCRIPTURES FROM THE CHINESE. 245 The cluster of hills that compose T'an-tai (in the province of Cheh-kiang) terminate abruptly to the south-west. An imposing- hill, called Chih-cheug, ci'owned with a pagoda, is conspicuous from the time-worn walls of Tian-Tai, 180 miles S.W. of Hang-cheu. This is the southern extremity of the hilly region known by the same name. From a valley on its left flows a mountain stream, which, after traversing the plain, amves at the city just named, and thence bending to the S.E., arrives at Tai-cheu, and after a short course of ten or fifteen miles, pours its waters into the ocean. It was up one of the feeders of this stream that Chi-k'ai, near the end of the sixth century, wended his way in search of a lonely mountain residence suited to his meditative cast of mind. He was travelling in a region threaded by few paths, and in a direction that seemed to lead nowhere, but further away from the habitations of men. In this wilder- ness of hills and valleys, occupying many square miles, although unknown to the agriculturist, he yet found some few residing whose views of human life were congenial to his own. Local tradition points out the spot where he lived and reflected. An antique mausoleum, with a long inscrip- tion of the Sui d3masty, marks the place where his ashes were deposited. At a little distance from it, the Kau-ming monastery comes into view. It is in a deep valley, shut in the summit of -which was a priest beckoning to him with his hand, and who received him into his arms on the top of the hill. At eighteen he quitted all worldly couuexious and entered a monastery. After some years, having heard that T'heen-t'hae (Tian-tai) was a most romantic spot, he wished to settle there in order to carry out his intention of founding a system. The Emperor commanded him to remain in Nanking, but he refused compliance. This occurred a.d. 575. When he arrived at Theen-thae, he settled near the Kwo-tsing monastery. The Emperor thrice recalled him, but in vain. He finally settled in this region, and published seventy-six distinct works, all of which, in the year 1024 a.d., were admitted into the Chinese Buddhist Canon. The Pagoda contain- ing the remains of Che-k'hae (Chi-chay) is still standing on a part of the Theen-thae range, and many miracles are reported to have been wrought at this shrine.'' 246 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST all round by wooded heights. The visitor is shewn a large square silk garment, the cloak worn by Chi-kai. A metal bowl, worn by long use, is another curiosity. A Sanscrit manuscript is another.^ Chi-kai continued his wanderings in this elevated region, where the valleys do not sink further than 1500 feet above the sea level, and which is, by its loneliness, well suited for the ascetic. Solitude reigns here, for many miles round, in one of the most densely populated provinces of China. No fewer than twelve monasteries mark the spots where he formed a cottao-e of stone and straw, or caused a modest building to be erected. It was, however, at a place called Si-tsoh, not far from the present Wan-nian monastery, that he com- posed the system of doctrine called ^^Chi-Kwan," which has ever since distinguished his school. He had in early life followed the teaching of the contemplative school, which had been established in China by Bodhidharma, the wall- gazing Brahman; but afterwards, being dissatisfied with this system, which discarded all book learning and rejected everything external, he formed the outlines of another sys tem, which he taught to multitudes of admiring disciples The system of Chi-kai was founded on the principles advocated in the Tchong-Lun (Prauyamiila Sastra Tika), written by Nagardjuna, which rejects all antitheses, and endeavours to find the central truth or central method in the conciliation of antinomies. The true method is found neither in book learning, nor external practice, nor ecstatic contem- plation ; neither in the exercise of Eeason, nor the reveries of fancy ; but there is a middle condition, a system which includes all and rejects none, to which all others gravitate, and 1 This ^IS. is said to be written on palm leaves, and was once read and explained by Chi-kai. It is now unintelligible to the priests. The leaves are written on both sides, and are carefully let into slips of wood, which are fitted on the same central pin, and the whole, amounting to fifty leaves, are enclosed in a rosewood box. They are still in a state of perfect preservation. (Shanghai Almanac.) - Shanghai Almanac, 1857. >}2 SCRIPTURES PROM THE CHIKESE. 247 in wliicli alone the soul can be satisfied. The term " Clii- kwan/^ by whicli the Tian Tai system is generally known, has been sometimes translated by the words '' fixed con- templation^'; but, as we shall find from the woi'k itself, the ti'ue meaning of the phrase is "knowledge and meditation/' implying that both the one and the other are necessary for arriving at perfection. This idea is also plainly referred to in the Dhammapada (372). " Without knowledge there is no meditation, without meditation there is no knowledge ; he who has knowledge and meditation is near Nirvana."^ A recent visitor to one of the monasteries of this district makes the following remarks : — " Having descended from the- Pagoda of Chi-chay, we passed along a most romantic and wild pathway, which brought us to the monastery Kwo- tsing-sze. We found this to be one of the largest about these hills, and the priests both numerous and respectable. The Superior was a middle-aged man of considerable energy, and surrounded by a number of persons well acquainted with the system of Buddha. The argument maintained here was that all systems were alike and all led to the same result.- One of the priests, in the evening, maintained a very lively and interest- ing conversation regarding the peculiarities of Buddhism. He spoke of attaining the state of Nirvana, in which a man would have no more to do with the past or the present, with happiness or misery, with production or annihilation. He was asked if men had anything to do now with production and annihilation ? To which he re- plied in the affirmative, adding that at birth our lives are produced, and at death annihilated ; so with all the works of art, when we make them they are produced ; when we destroy them they are annihilated. We suggested to him that in the production of things we do not create them out of nothing, nor at their destruction can we reduce them ^ Max Miiliers version, Buddhaghosha^s Parables, clx. - This is the " middle method," advocated in the Shaster alluded to above. 248 A CATENA OF BUDDHIST to nothing. This was a new idea to him; but he contended that when a candle is burnt out it is annihilated^ and when any material substance is reduced to atoms it ceases to be. As he still continued to maintain his position, he was asked how many elements there are ? to which he answered four, viz., fire, air, earth, and water. He was then asked whether, if a portion of the earth were burnt, it must necessarily be annihilated, and whether it might not still exist in the form of air, though invisible to us ? He acknowledged that it mig-ht be so. He was then told that philosophers in the present day had proved that it was so, and that nothing could be annihilated by the art of man. So, also, nothing could be made by the art of man without something previously existing out of which to make it. That, in fact, there was only one who could create and destroy, and that was God, from whom all things sprang, and to whom all honour and obedience were due." On the next day the discussion was renewed. ''We told the priests that it appeared to us, from their own classics, that they knowledged no Creator or origin of things ; that the uni- verse with them seemed to be a succession of changes, without beginning or end, without author or aim. Our Buddhist friends did not like to acknowledge this, but they were obliged to own that such was the fact. They were then shewn the impropriety of such a Godless system, and the necessity of worshipping and relying on one Supreme. The Buddhist said that his heart was the Supreme. Your heart, it was replied, is not the ruler of mine, nor of that belouging to anyone else.