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MISCELLANEA
OCTOBER, 1882.]
notably the case in Japan; and the modifications referred to have perhaps shown themselves earlier in that country on account of the lively susceptible character of the people. In illustration of this, the speaker gave an account of a visit which he had made in company with Mr. Nishima, a native Christian pastor, to a Buddhist College in Kioto, the ancient capital.
The buildings suggest reform by their external appearance, being in the best style of European architecture, and in strong contrast with the famous Hungkon temple, to which they are attached. They were erected, it is said, at a cost of 360,000 yen, or $ 300,000. The organization is not yet complete, but provision is made for the various departments of instruction usually found in western universities. In the department of Natural Philosophy, he was shown a large collection of apparatus mostly imported for the purpose of teaching experimental physics; and in the department of theology he saw a class of forty candidates for the priesthood taking notes of a lecture that was being delivered by a venerable looking Bonze.
The name of the sect to which this establishment belongs is Shinsiu, or the new doctrine;' and a tract which the speaker received from one of the professors indicates how justly it may claim that designation; explaining that the adherents of the Shinsiu have abandoned the practice of compulsory celibacy, renounced ascetic rites, and rejected the worship of all Buddhas or other deities, except Amida, the Unlimited or Eternal. This document further states that the soul is in a state of salvation the moment it exercises faith in the love of Amida: all of which are Christian doctrines under pagan names.
In China such reformed sects are numerous; but they have not in any case approached so near to the adoption of Christian dogmas, and are distinguished from the current Buddhism of that empire chiefly by an attitude of protest against certain forms of popular idolatry.1
THE SUTRA IN FORTY-TWO CHAPTERS, TRANSLATED FROM THE TIBETAN,
BY W. W. ROCKHILL, OF BALTIMORE, MD. This brief Sútra, one of the canonical works of Buddhism, has been already twice translated from the Tibetan-by A. Schiefner (1851) and L. Feer (1878); and also once from the Chinese, by Mr. S. Beal (J. R. 4. 8. vol. XIX, 1862). Mr. Rockhill has been led to make a translation into English from the Tibetan version also, by the fact that it contains in a concise form the most im
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portant points of Buddhist dogma and morals. The text used by him is the lithographed one published in 1868 by M. Feer from a copy in four languages (Chinese, Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu) brought to France by the Abbé Huc.
The introduction. (placed in the original text at the end of the work), giving the usual history of the importation of Buddhism into China, is as follows:
"In the 24th year of Tiu Tou Wang (the emperor Chao of the Chow) the year of the woodtiger (1029 B. C.) the 4th month, the 8th day, a body of light coming from the southwest appeared in the king's palace. The king and his ministers, having seen it, questioned the wise men, who answered by the following prophecy: 'It is a sigh that a mighty Lord will appear in that quarter (of the world), and that after a thousand years his doctrine will reach this land."
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"After that, in the 53rd year of Mub Wang (949 B. C.) in the year of the water-ape, the second month, the 15th day, the Master (S&kyamuni) showed the way to enter into Nirvana.
"After 1013 years (from the luminous apparition), in the reign Yung-ping, (65 A. D.), the eighth of Hân Ming-thi, in the first month, in the night of the 15th day, the king had a dream. A being of more than eight cubits in height, of the colour of gold, (whose body) emitted light like the sun, descended into the palace. My doctrine,' he said, will spread itself gradually over this country.' The following day, (the king) having questioned his ministers (about this dream), the minister Hphu yi (Fu yi) answered him thus: Long ago, in the time of Tiu Tou Wang, there was a prophecy made in answer (to a question); this dream of the king's agrees with it.'
"Then the king looked over the old records, and was made happy by finding this prophecy of the time of Tiu Tou Wang. The king sent eighteen men, among whom was the minister Wang Tsun, into the west, to try to discover the teaching of the Buddha.
They arrived at the kindom of Yuo-chi, where two men of India of the family of Kasyapa the Arhat Matangipa and the Pandit Gobharana (helped them) to put on a white horse the fundamental works, the Sútra in 42 chapters and other Sútras, both of the Great and the Little Vehicle, and also a vase full of relics of the Master. (After that) they started back by the road by which they had come. At the end of the 12th month they arrived at the fortress of Lo-yang.
"In six years from that time, the Arhat and the Pandit had converted the unbelievers of the Black Plain (i. e. China).
Extracted from the Proceedings of the American Oriental Society, October 1880.
