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MODERN BUDDHISM.
Influence of
Independent of its professors, Buddhism has exerted a great influence in tempering the character of Chinese religion. The discountenancing of sacrifices, Buddhism in the tenderness to animal life, the conception China. of a spiritual aim in religion, and of self-discipline as of supreme importance, have not been without far-reaching effect on the Chinese. The example of Buddha as beneficently desirous of being born in the world to save it, his patience and self-sacrifice in his successive lives, his teaching of the noble path and the desirability of freedom from the fetters of this life have all tended to elevate the popular faiths. A more doubtful influence of Buddhism has been the popularisation of beliefs in material hells. A great variety of tortures and circumstances of punishment are described, and the demons are represented as delighting in human sufferings. On the one hand it is alleged that the beliefs on the whole have tended to discourage the crimes that are said to be visited with such punishments, on the other, that the popular mind is thereby familiarised with pictures and descriptions of horrible cruelties.
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The tolerance inculcated by Buddhism, too, has had its effect in spreading a considerable indifference to religion in China, while on the other hand it has favoured its own existence. But the extent of mutual concession and accommodation to be found among the Chinese in religious as well as other matters is a very pleasing feature, when it does not signify lifelessness or mere indifference. The Buddhists too deserve credit, for their representations of Buddhas and Bodhi-satvas are pre-eminently merciful, although their objection to suffering as an evil loses sight of its medical and beneficial influence. Buddhism, too, has in China acquired more regard for filial duty than elsewhere.
We may also note how greatly Buddhism has contributed to the artistic and literary development of the Chinese. The pagoda form is theirs especially. It is derived from the Indian tope or dagoba; the base or platform signifies the earth, the semicircular building covering it the air, and the railing above, the heaven; the spire and umbrellas above have been expanded into
