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The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ who was the first emperor of China to adopt this religion; it was he who arranged its ritual and external ceremonies. Yao, the fourth of the Chinese emperors who belonged to this faith, published the moral and civil laws and in 2228 B. C. he framed a penal code. The fifth emperor, Soune, proclaimed in the year of his accession to the throne that the Religion of Savants would thenceforth be the religion of the State and in 2282.B. C., he enacted new penal laws. His laws, modified by the Emperor Woo Wang, founder of the Chow dynasty in 1122, are really known under the name of "Changes."
On the other hand, the doctrine of Buddha Fo whose true name was Shakya Muni, was written on parchment. Foism began to spread in China about 260 B. C.; in 206 an emperor of the Tsine dynasty desirous of studying Buddhism had invited a Buddhist named Silifan from India, and the Emperor Ming-Ti of the Hane dynasty a year before the birth of Jesus Christ, procured from India the sacred books written by the Buddha Shakya Muni, founder of the Buddhist doctrine, who lived about 1200 years before Jesus Christ.
The doctrine of Buddha Gautama or Gotama, who lived 600 years B, C., was written on parchment in the Pali language. At this time, there existed already in India, about 84,000 Buddhist manuscripts which had been compiled for a great number of years.*
While the Chinese and the Hindus possessed already very rich written literature, among less fortunate or more ignorant people who had no alphabet, accounts were transmitted orally from generation to generation. Owing to the untrustworthiness of
Buddha Shakya Muni and Buddha Gautama are really the same. But the Buddhists believe that many other Buddhas preceded the Buddha who lived 600 years before Jesus. As to the year when the Buddha Shakya Muni died, the Buddhists books differ considerably-the most distant periods mentioned being the years 2422 and 544 B. C.-Translator.
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