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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
vinced that the Buddhist doctrine transcends any other.
The favourite books read at that time, that is, in the fifth and sixth centuries, were the Hwayen-ching, the Nie-pan-ching (Nirvana Sûtra), the Wei-mo-ching (Vimalakirti Sútra), the Lotus, the Four Divisions, the Po-jo-ching (Prajña Sútra), and the Discourse on the Earth (Dasabhumi Sutra).
A devoted student would read 4000 or 5000 characters a-day, and, if he had a good memory, would recollect all he had read. Some are described as reading Buddhist books when from five to six years old, and at nine years, by studying the Nirvana discourses, to have perceived that the world deserves contempt.
One devotee is represented as finding in the Nirvána a cure for sickness and cold, so that a single grain of rice with vegetables, and one garment with straw in addition, would satisfy him; for while his body grew weak, his mental animation would be more and more perfect.
These saints, when young, are described as distinguished by modesty and decorum. One of them, who became a monk in A.D. 470, in the time of the Emperor Ming-ti, of the Sung dynasty, at sixteen years of age was remark
able for his attention to the instructions of his teachers. If they were very sick, he would not eat for several days. He constantly waited on them all this time. So long as they did not take food, he would not. When they ate or drank, he would do so too. When they were quite recovered, he would again take his former amount of nourishment. Thus his ascetic virtue became strong and clear. At the same time he grew in knowledge, and was in fact more profoundly wise than the barbarians, the author meaning by this phrase probably the Hindu Buddhist saints, and those of Kabul and Turkistan. The princes of that time appointed conferences, at which select priests were appointed to discourse. In these conferences, when the lot fell on our hero, sitting on the last seat, he distinguished himself
above all that came before him.
According to the same narratives, the middle life of distinguished monks in the monasteries was marked by careful reading of the Sútras of Buddha. Much of their fame for devotion consists in this, but retribution came with sure footsteps to substantiate their claim to be admired.
[APRIL, 1883.
The same priest who was so sympathetic and respectful to his teachers, when twenty-nine years old, met with a female fortuneteller, who could foretell the future exactly as it subsequently occurred in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, and in fact, so it was said, in the hundredth case too. She said to him, "Teacher of the law! you are learned and wise, and your fame reaches all over the world. But unhappily you will only live to thirty-one." Hearing this, he ceased his public teaching, and applied himself to self-improvement and reflection, making a vow not to go out of the door of the monastery. He then searched the Sutras, and meeting with the Vajra Prajña, or Diamond Sútra, he took it reverentially to his room to read. When the end of the year came, he bathed himself with perfumed water, made the room perfectly clean, and chanted this book, intending thus to meet his approaching death. But on a sudden he heard a voice in the air, saying to him, "Good and brave man, last year thy life was fixed by retributory fate to end at thirty-one. But now, through reading the Prajña, you have by the strength of that book acquired a lifetime twice as long!" Our hero after this went in search of the fortuneteller, who exclaimed on seeing him, "Why! what is the reason that you are etill living? Formerly I saw distinctly that you would lead a short life, now I see that I was wrong. Sham : Your fate I see plainly cannot be foretold." Our hero asked, "How long shall I live now ?" She replied, "I see by the structure of the bones of your face and head that you will live to be more than sixty." To this he answered, "I should not have called fifty a short life, but now I am to live longer than that." He then told all that had occurred to the fortune-teller; and it need not be added, that she received with great delight this confirmation of her prophetic power. After this he lived to the time foretold by the wise woman. In consequence, all over the region known then as Kiang-tso, and now called Kiangnan and Kiang-su, the practice of chanting the Diamond Sútra grew fashionable; and many other proofs of wonderful efficacy following on reading this book were spread abroad. The popularity of certain treatises among the Chinese Buddhists is based on their fame for magical efficacy, which they have accidentally
