Chapter VIII

. that one of those mountains is still the resort of pilgrims. As to Ts'ai, one commentator at least has inclined to the opinion that it must be looked for in the Omei range (see Legge's _Chinese Classics_, vol. iii. part i. p. 121). If this identification be correct, we must regard the brief notice in the _Shu Ching_ as the oldest reference in extant literature to Mount Omei. The student of Chinese who wishes to pursue further the vexed question of Mêng and Ts'ai will find a discussion of it in the 16th _chüan_ of the _Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih_. The probability seems to be that both Mêng and Ts'ai were close to Ya-chou, and that neither of them should be identified with Omei. Mêng seems to be one of the hills that lie to the south of the city; Ts'ai may or may not be the somewhat famous mountain generally known as Chou Kung Shan, or the Hill of Duke Chou, which is situated a couple of miles to the east. Chou Kung, who is said to have died in B.C. 1105, is perhaps chiefly known to Europeans as the legendary inventor of the famous "south-pointing chariot," but he is regarded by the Chinese as a pattern of many virtues. His zeal for the public good was so great that he seems--if we may believe Mencius--to have anticipated the all-night sittings of the House of Commons. His merits indeed were of so extraordinary a nature that, as we know from the _Lun Yü_, Confucius regarded it as a sign of his approaching dotage that for a long time he had ceased to dream of Chou Kung.

Other people besides Confucius were in the habit of dreaming of this great and good man. The hill near Ya-chou, according to a story preserved in the official annals of Ssuch'uan, owes its name to a dream-vision that came to the famous Chinese general, Chu-ko Liang. This distinguished warrior flourished in the second and third centuries of our era. He made his name by his successful campaigns against the Wild Men of the West--the Man-tzŭ and others--and on one occasion when he was proceeding at the head of his army to inflict chastisement upon them he spent a night on the slopes of the Ya-chou Hill and dreamed that Chou Kung paid him a visit. He regarded this as of such happy omen for the success of his expedition that he immediately caused a temple to Chou Kung to be erected on the auspicious spot. Since that time, the hill--which may or may not have been already sacred, under the name of Ts'ai, to the memory of the Emperor Yü--has always been known as Chou Kung Shan. The fame of the general Chu-ko Liang has almost rivalled that of Chou Kung himself. This "darling hero of the Chinese people," as Professor Giles calls him, has had temples erected in his honour in many towns of Ssuch'uan, and he is a well-known and popular figure on the Chinese theatrical stage.

NOTE 2 (p. 65)

BODHIDARMA

Bodhidarma (逹摩大師) is the original of the _Ta Mo_ so often found in Ssuch'uanese temples. Catholic missionaries, struck by the sound of the name and the fact that Ta-Mo is sometimes found wearing an ornament shaped like a Christian cross, have clung to the idea that Ta-Mo was no other than the Apostle St Thomas. (See _Croix et Swastika_, by Father Gaillard, pp. 80 _seq._) Bodhidarma is regarded as the founder of the Zen sect in Japan. Japanese children know him well, for he is a conspicuous object in the toy-shops in the form of the legless Daruma. (See Lafcadio Hearn's charming essay in _A Japanese Miscellany_.)

NOTE 3 (p. 70)

"GODS" IN BUDDHISM

[Sidenote: NIRVANA]

On this subject may be consulted the passage on the "Eel-wrigglers" in the Brahma-gâla Suttanta, translated by Rhys Davids in the _Sacred Books of the Buddhists_, vol. ii. Buddhism refrains from denying, rather than distinctly affirms, the existence of the Brahmanical gods; but these gods, if existent, are regarded as neither omnipotent nor immortal. They are subject to the law of karma just as man himself is subject. The Arahat is greater than any "god" because released from all change and illusion, to which the "gods" are still subject. (See Rhys Davids, _Hibbert Lectures_, pp. 210 _seq._, 4th edn.) The abolition or retention of the Brahmanical deities would really make little or no difference to the philosophical position of canonical Buddhism.

NOTE 4 (p. 71)

NIRVANA

The view of Nirvana set forth in the text is that taught by Professor Rhys Davids, the veteran scholar to whom all European students of Buddhism owe so deep a debt of gratitude. (See his _Buddhism_, _Hibbert Lectures_, _American Lectures_, and his valuable contributions to the _Sacred Books of the East_. With regard to Nirvana, see especially his _Questions of King Milinda_, vol. i. pp. 106-108 and vol. ii. pp. 181 _seq._) As regards the _tanha_ or "thirst" for existence, which according to the Buddhist theory keeps us in the net of illusion and prevents the attainment of Nirvana, Huxley (_Evolution and Ethics_) mentions as a curious fact that a parallel may be found in the _aviditas vitae_ of Stoicism.

The Japanese views of Nirvana are set forth clearly and authoritatively in Fujishima's _Le Bouddhisme Japonais_. "Selon les écoles du Mahâyâna, ce qui est vide au dedans et au dehors c'est l'existence composée et visible (_samkrita_): l'anéantissement de ce vide n'est donc pas lui-même le vide, mais plutôt la plénitude." The author goes on to quote from a sutra which declares that "illusion passes away; reality remains; that is Nirvana." To an English reader this naturally recalls some of Shelley's lines in _Adonais_, too well known to quote. Japanese Buddhism has, of course, developed somewhat on lines of its own. The popular Buddhism of Japan is portrayed with rare insight by Lafcadio Hearn, as in his _Gleanings from Buddha-Fields_, pp. 211 _seq._

Among recent attempts to escape from the pessimistic conclusion that, according to strict Buddhism, Arahatship must lead after all to complete extinction, Schrader's interesting essay in the _Journal_ of the Pali Text Society, 1904-1905, is worth consulting. The question is one of deep philosophic interest, but a discussion of it cannot be attempted in the narrow space at our disposal here.

NOTE 5 (p. 76)

THE MAHAYANA

For explanations of the rise of the Mahayana, see (among many other authorities) Max Mūller's _India_, p. 87 (1905 edn.) and his _Last Essays_ (First Series) pp. 260 _seq._ (Longmans: 1901); see also p. 376 in R. Sewell's essay on _Early Buddhist Symbolism_ (J.R.A.S., July, 1886). For the growth of the Mahayana and kindred schools in China, the works of Beal, Edkins, Eitel and Watters are among the first that should be consulted. There is still a great deal that is mysterious in the early history of Mahayana and allied systems, and it is reasonable to hope that the discoveries recently made, and still being made almost daily by Stein and others in Chinese Turkestan and neighbouring regions, will throw a flood of light on the whole subject, and perhaps destroy many existing theories regarding the history of Buddhism during the ten or twelve first centuries of the Christian era.

NOTE 6 (p. 86)

ANTIQUITIES OF MOUNT OMEI

As Baber's discovery of the _chüan tien_ or spiral-shaped brick hall and the bronze elephant which it contains aroused very natural enthusiasm among persons interested in Far Eastern antiquities, and is still repeatedly referred to in connection with Chinese archæology, it is with hesitation that I suggest a doubt as to whether either the building or the elephant is as old as Baber--and others after him--have supposed. (See _Supplementary Papers_, R.G.S., vol. i. pp. 34-36, and Archibald Little's _Mount Omi and Beyond_, pp. 64-5.)

In the 41st _chüan_ of the _Ssuch'uan T'ung Chih_ there are two passages relating to the Wan-nien Ssŭ, and one of them Baber apparently overlooked. It was written about 1665 in commemoration of a restoration of the Wan-nien and Kuang Hsiang monasteries under the auspices of a Provincial Governor. In it occur some remarks of which the following is a rough translation. "From the T'ang to the Sung dynasties the name of the monastery was _Pai Shui P'u Hsien Ssŭ_. In the time of Wan Li of the Ming, its name was changed to _Shêng-shou Wan-nien Ssŭ_. As originally built (_yüan chien_) it contained a _tsang ching ko_ (_i.e._ a library) consisting of a revolving (circular?) spiral structure of brick, strongly built, of exceptionally delicate workmanship, very lofty and imposing, and of a beauty unsurpassed in the world." Now the existing _tien_ is a most curious building of a foreign (probably Indian) type, but to describe it as lofty and imposing and of delicate and elaborate workmanship would be to spin a traveller's yarn of the baser sort. How, without impugning the good faith of the chronicler, can we reconcile such a glowing description with existing facts?

[Sidenote: MOUNT OMEI]

When we learn from the local records that the Wan-nien Ssŭ has been several times destroyed by fire, the obvious supposition is that the original splendid structure described in my quotation perished with the rest of the monastic pile. Baber himself points out that the tusks of the elephant inside the _tien_ are of late date, the old ones having been "melted off," he was told, "by the intense heat." It seems natural to suppose that when the rebuilding of the monastery took place (and it was rebuilt, as we know, late in the sixteenth or early in the seventeenth century, and again about 1665) the monks had neither funds nor skill sufficient to enable them to restore the _chüan tien_ to its pristine magnificence, and contented themselves with putting up a much smaller and meaner building, preserving as far as possible the original peculiarities of design.

This, however, is mere supposition. I now return to our Chinese authorities, and in the 9th _chüan_ of the _Omei-hsien Chih_ I find an allusion to the Wan-nien Ssŭ by one Li Hua Nan (李化楠), an official who apparently flourished in the seventeenth century. He states most emphatically that the monastery was restored or rebuilt in both the Sung and the Ming periods, but had undergone such complete destruction by fire that nothing was left _except a chüan tien belonging to the period of Wan Li_. Wan Li was the reign-title of a Ming emperor who reigned from 1573 to 1619. That the _chüan tien_ was _carefully and thoroughly restored_ under Wan Li is admitted by the authority quoted by Baber himself: the only question seems to be whether the restoration left enough of the original building to justify our regarding it as a veritable monument "fifteen centuries old"--as Baber conjectured--or whether, as the evidence seems to indicate, the restoration was such that we have only a small and inferior copy of "a lofty and imposing building, of a beauty unsurpassed in the world."

No one, so far as I know, has yet drawn attention to the fact that the spiral building of the Wan-nien Ssŭ is not--or was not--the only building of its kind on Mount Omei. Among the few monasteries on the lower slopes of the mountain which I did not enter is the Hua Yen Ssŭ (not to be confused with the temple of the Hua Yen Ting mentioned on page 91). It was not till after I had left the province that I came across a description of this monastery, which made me much regret that I had not visited it. I translate the following passage from the _Omei-Shan Chih_ (quoted in the 41st _chüan_ of the _T'ung Chih_): "There is a very ancient and wonderful revolving (circular?) spiral building (有旋螺殿極奇古), and a tablet of the Shao Hsing period of the Sung dynasty, on the left side of which are carved the words '15 _li_ to Omei-hsien' and on the right the words '70 _li_ to the summit of the mountain.'" The words used to describe the shape of the "revolving spiral" building are identical--so far as they go--with those applied to the brick edifice in the Wan-nien Ssŭ: and the whole passage certainly implies that, whatever the date of the spiral building in the Hua Yen Ssŭ might be, it was at any rate prior to the Sung dynasty. The next visitor to Mount Omei should not fail to examine the curiosities of the Hua Yen Ssŭ; a close inspection of its spiral building--if it still exists--and a comparison of it with that of the Wan-nien Ssŭ might assist us in assigning a date to the latter, and might perhaps prove that however old the latter may be it is not without a rival in mere antiquity.

So much for the brick building. What is to be said about the bronze elephant that Baber so properly admired, and which he believed to be "the most ancient bronze casting of any great size in existence"?

Li Hua Nan, the writer who ascribes the _chüan tien_ to the Wan Li period, goes on to add a piece of information which is much to our purpose. "There is a P'u Hsien 1 _chang_ 6 _ch'ih_ in height, with a gilded body, riding a bronze elephant, set up in the _Jên Tsung period of the Sung dynasty_." The sentence is somewhat ambiguous, for the date might refer to the image of P'u Hsien only and not to the elephant. Baber believed, on artistic grounds, that the P'u Hsien was of much later date than the elephant. On the whole, however, it seems probable that Li Hua Nan referred to both images. The Jên Tsung reign lasted from 1023 to 1063, so that if we select the middle of the period we may assign the elephant approximately to the year 1043. This cuts many centuries off the age of the elephant as reckoned by Baber.

There is no reason for doubting whether so fine a bronze casting of an animal unknown to China could have been made as late as the eleventh century. There were still Buddhists in India at that time, and Chinese pilgrims had not yet given up the habit of visiting India in search of relics and _pei to yeh_ (palm-leaf manuscripts). Indian Buddhists, too, frequently came to Mount Omei. There is, indeed, no necessity for mere guesswork, for the monastic and provincial records contain ample evidence that the casting of large bronzes for Buddhist shrines was, during the Sung period at least, a regular industry in the city of Ch'êng-tu.

[Sidenote: BUDDHA'S TEETH]

The numerous miniature "Buddhas" that line the walls of the present _chüan tien_ have attracted the attention of several European visitors, and perhaps deserve a few words of comment. Some are the property of pilgrims who leave them in the holy building in order that they may acquire sanctity, but the greater number are evidently antique and seem to be of uniform pattern. Baber was informed that they were of silver--darkened with age and the smoke of incense. Mr Archibald Little says they are of bronze. I made my own enquiries on the matter and was assured by the monks that they were of iron. Where did they come from? I conjecture that they are the images that once adorned a vanished hall of the Wan-nien Ssŭ, known as the _San Ch'ien T'ieh Fo Tien_--Pavilion of the Three Thousand Iron Buddhas. I cannot find any history of this building, but from a poem by Ku Kuang Hsü, a Ssuch'uan chief justice of the Ming dynasty, I gather that it was remembered but had disappeared by his time. It existed in the Sung dynasty, for it is mentioned by one Fan Ch'êng Ta (范成大) who visited it during that period. The number of the images is easily explained as an allusion to the three thousand disciples who are said to have sat at the feet of P'u Hsien in the days when, according to the legend, that great Bodhisattva expounded the Good Law amid the forests of Mount Omei.

NOTE 7 (p. 86)

"BUDDHA'S TEETH"

The most famous of the supposed teeth of Buddha is, of course, the celebrated relic preserved in Kandy. The Buddhists of Ceylon will have none of the story that the original tooth was ground into powder by a pious Portuguese archbishop of the sixteenth century, and they firmly believe that the genuine relic still reposes in Kandy at the Malagawa Vihara. China possesses, or is supposed to possess, several of the alleged Buddha's teeth, but they seem to have acquired no more than a local reputation. One--similar in appearance to that of Mount Omei--is described by Fortune as being in possession of a monastery at Fu-chou. A writer in the _Fan Ju Tzŭ Chi_ (范汝梓記), commenting upon the specimen in the Wan-nien Ssŭ, remarks that it weighs 15 catties, equivalent to about 20 lbs. He says that in the Ching Yin (淨因寺) in Ch'êng-tu there is one that weighs 3⅓ lbs., and another in the Chao Chiao Ssŭ (昭覺寺) in the same city that weighs 9½ lbs. He goes on to describe a far more remarkable specimen that had the singular property of producing out of its own substance myriads of other _shê li_ or Buddhistic relics, some of which flew off into space while others fell on the floor and knocked against the furniture with a jingling sound. This surprising tooth appeared by special command before the emperor, but we are not informed whether the _séance_ was a successful one. Our historian shows something of a tendency to indulge in frivolous speculations regarding the capacity and measurements of the mouth that could accommodate teeth of such monstrous sizes and singular properties, and he points out that according to tradition a true Buddha's tooth is always marked with certain sacred symbols, such as the _dharma chakra_ or Wheel of the Law.

Marco Polo mentions a great embassy sent by the emperor of China to Ceylon in 1284 for the purpose of obtaining certain relics of "our first father Adam," such as his hair and teeth and a dish from which he ate; and he remarks that the ambassadors, besides acquiring the dish, which was of "very beautiful green porphyry," and some of the hair, "also succeeded in getting two of the grinder teeth, which were passing great and thick." It need hardly be said that the monarchs of the Yüan dynasty took a very considerable interest in Buddha, but none at all in "our first father Adam." That they sent embassies to Ceylon for Buddhist relics is probably true, for the fact is mentioned in Chinese Chronicles; but it is impossible to say whether any of the numerous "teeth of Buddha" that have appeared in different localities in China formed part of the relics then brought from Ceylon. (The notes appended to Cordier's edition of Yule's _Marco Polo_, vol. ii. chap. xv., should be consulted by all interested in the subject of the migrations of Buddhist relics.)

NOTE 8 (p. 89)

THE K'AI SHAN CH'U TIEN

The name of this monastery shows that it claims to be one of the original religious foundations of Mount Omei. According to tradition it was here that P'u Kung, as related in