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This circumstance must account for the strong attempt which was repeatedly made to establish a secular order—a lower order of Buddhist clergy who could live in matrimony. This was, in fact, done, and one can find traces of it far down [19] TRUTH AND TRADITION IN BUDDHISM through the years. Lamaism, both in its sculpture and its practice, has, indeed, often played upon this string. Not only in Tibet and Mongolia can one, at the present time, find _pictures_ and _ statues. which, even in certain sections of China; and in the Lama temple in Peking, the same thing may be seen. In order not to misjudge this, one must always remember that the motive is not to represent licen- tious art, but to make a quiet appeal to Buddhism’s friends to remember that the reproduction of life is and will be one of the chief tasks for human society. Such an appeal might be needed in Tibet, where so large a percentage of the population go into the monasteries; but in China, with its abounding vitality, it is quite unnecessary. The changing conditions for Buddhism continued also under the Ming dynasty; but, on the whole, the times were more favourable. One of the sovereigns, Wu Tsung by r name Seeger a great linguist, who the Buddhist church, s SO o that, | in ne day, the number of monks increased enormously. Under his successor the literati sent in a long complaint asking that the society be suppressed. This, however, only resulted in the closing of the Buddhist chapel in the “Forbidden City.” On the other hand, the monasteries on the island of P‘ut‘o (3% Bé) were established, and free copies of Tripitaka were distributed all over the empire. During the later years of the Ming dynasty, Roman Catholic missionaries began their work in earnest in [20] INTRODUCTION INTO CHINA China, and a stirring of fresh interest began about the year 1600, when these missionaries made their influence felt. . To begin with, it was noticed how strikingly the outward ritual of these two religions resembled each other. Later, when the “Pure Land” party began to expound more of their doctrinal system, it was seen that there were also points of remarkable similarity in the content of their teaching. This, instead of giving a point of contact, led to rivalry and disagreement, and, unfortunately, neither side was possessed of men so spiritually great that they could, with tact and wisdom, guide to a useful settlement. Thus again a great opportunity for the natural introduction of Christianity to China was missed. A few Jesuit missionaries did, indeed, later try to make use of some of the points of contact with Buddhism; but this was often done so crudely that their more critical colleagues felt they must pro- test and dissociate themselves from such methods. This caused a strong reaction —a reaction from which the missionary propaganda of the Catholic Church in China is still suffering. The force of this reaction was partly due to another cause, namely, the unfortu- nate quarrel which, a little later, developed between the powerful emperor of the Manchu dynasty, K‘ang Hsi, and the pope over the designation for God in Chinese. The Jesuits, with great appreciation of the importance of the matter, had adopted the mighty expression ‘‘Shang-ti” (_ ‘i#) for God, a term in which the loftiest thoughts of the Chinese [23] oc) . = TRUTH AND TRADITION IN BUDDHISM about a supreme god of heaven who grants powe! to all earthly authorities find their fullest and most majestic expression. The Dominican and the Francis. can monks, who came later, thought that this was inadmissible, and therefore referred the matter tc the pope for decision. 'The Emperor K‘ang Hsi, the great linguist, naturally considered that the right of decision should belong to him, and, as he did not get his way, he took revenge by gagging and persecuting the very flourishing Catholic mission—one of the saddest pages in missionary history. This unfortunate occurrence, as can be understood, has, to a great degree, had an effect on the subject which we are here treating. For it was after that time that the paralyzing papal bull of 1742 was issued by Pope Benedict XIV, the bull which, under threat of the severest punishment, forbade the Catholic mission- aries “to make any use whatever of the Chinese ritual.” This decision, framed to prevent the wrong use of such ritual, prevents also the legitimate use of points of contact in worship and preaching. While the similarities between the two systems cannot be denied, all is explained by saying that this is another of “Satan’s wiles for the seducing of souls.” In other respects, K‘ang Hsi, like most of the emper- ors of the Manchu dynasty, was not merely passive but quite frankly inimical to the Buddhists, Therefore a series of severe edicts against them were drawn up under this dynasty, edicts which have greatly hampered the society and hindered its progress. The decree that each monk may have only one novice [22] Vey SESS oN ISLAND, CHINKIAN RAL VIEW OF GOLDI * Dy GENE INTRODUCTION INTO CHINA # (pupil), that only a selected number of the larger monasteries in each province has the right of ordina- tion, that officials have the right to inspect the monasteries, etc.—all this contributed largely to weaken the movement. It was still worse when the Revolution broke out and China in 1911 was declared a Republic. In their zeal and eagerness, the Republican leaders, with Huang Hsin and Sun Yat-sen at their head, began to seize temples and monasteries, and to confiscate their property for school purposes, etc. Even the old and venerable Heavenly River Monastery on the Golden Island near Chinkiang, where all the abbots of the larger monasteries go through their severe course of meditation and asceticism—even this holy place was to be transformed into a school. It was not long, however, before public opinion put a stop to this vandalism. The oldest among the monks are also practised diplomatists who know how to make the best of affairs in difficult times. A number gave their lives in order to retain the old sanctuaries. Thus it happened that, while a number of local temples be- longing to the other religious societies in China have gone for public use, the Buddhist society saved nearly all its possessions. As religious freedom has, to some extent, been really established during these last years, it has quite naturally come about that this period has brought more favourable conditions for the Buddhist church. As we shall see later, this renaissance also has other ‘causes of a more innate nature. [23] TRUTH AND TRADITION IN BUDDHISM Here we shall merely mention the fact that through- out China, especially in the southern coast provinces, there is developing a feverish activity in the restora- tion of the old sanctuaries and the preparation of the material facilities for the reception of the great crowds which, during the unrest and disintegration of recent years, are pressing into the monasteries as aspirants for the dignity of monks, or coming as ordinary pilgrims. In the years before the Revolution, this renaissance was also, in a way, stimulated by Japanese Buddhists. Without doubt there lay much real religious zeal behind this; but, as so often in the history of modern Japan, this was utilized by the leading politicians and militarists to promote the ends of national politics. On this account, it all came to nothing. When, during the war (1915), Japan openly brought forward the two notorious points regarding the work of Buddhist mis- sionaries,! it served only to mark outwardly the breach. Nevertheless, no one must believe that this vigorous Buddhism from Japan, such as is represented especially in the Shinran School (Amida School) is hereby permanently cut off from all influence on Chinese Buddhism. When the political excitement 1The demands were to this effect: 1, Japanese hospitals, churches, and schools in the interior of China should have the right to purchase land on the same basis as Christian missionary institutions. : 2. Japanese citizens should be granted the right to carry on Buddhist missionary work on the same basis as Christian missionaries from the West. Both demands were refused. [24] INTRODUCTION INTO CHINA has abated, we shall see that the “mother and daughter church” in the Buddhist world of the orient will find each other again, and undreamed-of results will ensue. [25] CHAPTER II THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF CHINESE BUDDHISM DURING THE EARLY CENTURIES Having given in the preceding chapter a short account of the outward circumstances of Buddhism in China, we shall now turn to a still more interesting part of our subject, that which aims at disclosing the lines of inner development of this great system of salvation. There are two things which will very quickly draw our attention: on the one hand, the faithfulness with which China has preserved and carried further the lines of thought which had the peculiar stamp of Indian Mahayana Buddhism; and, on the other hand, the artistic and harmonious manner in which the Buddhists of China have been able to introduce some- thing of the specifically Chinese spiritual element into the system. It lies beyond the scope of our subject to sketch in detail the radical transformation which took place in Hinayana, the original Indian Buddhism, when it came to China. Already, as early as the time of King Asoka, the narrow atheistic system had begun to break up, although the appellations “Mahayana” and ‘“‘Hinayana” were first taken into common usage somewhat later. We learn that, at this time (245 3.0.