Buddhist China

Front matter

.ZlZ

I

BUDDHIST CHINA

Contents

PAGE

THE “THREE RELIGIONS*’ OF CHINA . 1

BUDDHISM UNDER ASOKA AND KANISHKA . 20

Index

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Kuan-yin {from painting hy a Chinese monk) .

Archway at the Pi-yun Temple, Western Hills Archway at the Wo-Fo Temple, Western Hills Part of the Archway at the Pi-yiin Temple Stupa at the Pi-ytin Temple ....

Archway in Grounds of Old Summer Palace, Western

Hills

Pagoda, Western Hills .....

Hsi-yti Monastery, Chihli ....

Tombs of Monks, Hsi-yii Monastery Pagoda at Hsi-yii Monastery, Chihli Pavilion at Hsiao Hsi - t'^ien {“ Little Heaven ”), Chihli ......

In the Shang-fang Hills, Chihli Temples on the Shang-fang Hills, Chihli Bodhidharma ......

The White-deer Grotto, Lu-shan, Kiangsi Images of Mencius and Tseng-Tzii at the White-deer Grotto, Kiangsi .....

Amitahha Buddha .....

The Ship of Salvation .....

Form for recording utterances of the name of Amitahha The Western Heaven .....

Rock-carvings at Lung-men, Honan Colossal figure at Lung-men, Honan Colossal rock-cut figures at Lung-men, Honan Rock-cut colossal figure of a Bodhisat at Lung-men, Honan ......

Lu-shan, Kiangsi .....

Mountain and Stream, Southern Anhui Jizo (Ti-tsang Pusa) . . . . .

At the Southern Base of Chiu-hua A Mountain Stream, Chiu-hua . . . .

Jizo (Ti-tsang Pusa) . . . . .

The Hearts of Men . . . . .

:sv

Frontispiece Facing p. 10 „ 10

„ 20

« 162

,, 172

,, 182

.. 194

„ 206 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Charm used at Chiu-liua when offering prayers for

offspring ...... Facing p.

Chiu-hua-shan (from the north-west) .

Central cluster of Monastic Buildings^ Chiu-hua (from the Eastern Ridge)

Eastern Ridge and T‘ien-t^ai, Chiu-hua . . ,,

The Pai-sui Monastei’y, Chiu-hua . . . „

Protective Charms from T^ien-t^ai, Chiu-hua-shan . „

Hui-chou city and Bridge . . . . ,,

On the Ch'ien-t'^ang River, Chehkiang . . ,,

Sketch map of Puto-shan

The Fa-Pang, Southern Monastery . . . ,,

T'ien-Hou, the Taoist Queen of Heaven, Puto-shan . „

Pavilion in front of Southern Monastery . . ,,

Courtyard in front of Great Hall of Kuan-yin, Southern

Monastery ......,,

A Hermit of Puto at the door of his Hermitage . ,,

Kuan-yin Pusa (drawn in blood by a Hermit of Puto-shan) ,, Kuan-yin as “ Compassionate Father ” . . ,,

Inscribed Rock near summit of Puto-shan . . ,,

The Chusan Islands, from Puto-shan . . . ,,

The Prince’s Pagoda, Puto

The Hall of Imperial Tablets, Southern Monastery . ,,

The Kuan-yin-tung and other Temples, Puto-shan . ,,

A Pilgrims’ Pathway, Puto ....,, The Lotus-Pond of the “ Southern Monastery ” . „

The Yu-t^ang Road, showing rock-carved figures . „

The Lotus-Pond of the Northern Monastery . . ,,

Witliin the grounds of the Northern Monastery . „

An alabaster image of Buddha, Puto-shan . . ,,

Tlie Grave of the abbot Hsin-chen . . . ,,

A P‘u-t‘ung-t^a (for the reception of the ashes of

deceased monks) .....,,

A Monastery Garden, Puto-shan . . . „

Courtyard in the Northern Monastery, Puto-shan . „

BUDDHIST CHINA

Chapter I The “ Three Religions ” Of China

Within the grounds of one of the most famous Buddhist monasteries in China — Shaolin in Honan — may be seen two stone tablets inscribed with pictorial statements of a doctrine that is familiar to all students of Chinese religion and philosophy — the triunity of the San ckiao, or Three Doctrinal Systems of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. On one of these tablets, the date of which corresponds to the year 1565 of our era, there is the incised outline of a venerable man holding an open scroll on which a number of wavy lines like tongues of flame converge and blend. The old man’s draperies are symmetrically arranged, and his crouching figure is skilfully made to assume the appearance of a circle, the centre of which is occupied by the open scroll. The whole drawing is surrounded by a larger circle, which signifies ideal unity and completeness, or represents the spherical monad of Chinese cosmological philosophy. T^he other tablet, which is more than seven hundred years old, is of a less symbolical or mystical character. It shows us the figures of the representatives of the three systems standing side by side. Sakyamuni Buddha occupies the place of honour in the centre. His head is surrounded by an aureole, from which issues an upward-pointing stream of fire, and beneath his feet sacred lotus-flowers are bursting into bloom. On the left of the central figure stands Lao-chiin, the legendary founder of Taoism, and on the right stands China’s “ most holy sage ” — Confucius,

The words which are ordinarily used to sum up the theory of the triunity of the three ethico- "religious systems of China are San chiao i — the Three Cults incorporated in one organism or embodying one doctrine.^ The idea has found fanciful expression in the comparison of the culture and civilization of China with a bronze sacrificial bowl, of which the three “ religions ” are the three legs, all equally indispensable to the tripod’s stability.

Such teachings as these are abhorrent to the strictly orthodox Confucian, who holds that the social and moral teachings of Confucius are all that humanity requires for its proper guidance ; but they meet with ungrudging acceptance from vast numbers of Buddhists and Taoists, who, while giving precedence to their own cults, are always tolerant enough to recognise that Confucianism, if somewhat weak on the religious side, is strong

THE SAGE FU HSI and rich on the ethical side. They find an echo, indeed, in the hearts of the great majority of the Chinese people, who show by their beliefs and praetices that they can be Buddhists, Taoists, and Qonfucians all at the same time.

/ A vivid and picturesque statement of this truth is contained in a quaint little story which is told of a certain sixth-century scholar named Fu Hsi. This learned man was in the habit of going about dressed in a whimsical garb which included a Taoist cap, a Buddhist scarf, and Confucian shoes. His strange attire aroused the curiosity of the Chinese emperor of those days, who asked him if he were a Buddhist. F u Hsi replied by pointing to his Taoist cap. “ Then you are a Taoist ? ” said the emperor. Fu Hsi again made no verbal answer, but pointed to his Confueian shoes. “ Then you are a Confucian ? ” said the emperor. But the sage merely pointed to his Buddhist scarf.

It is a far cry from the sixth century to the twentieth. The China of to-day has crossed, for weal or woe, the threshold of a new era. What has been true of the Chinese in past ages will not necessarily continue to be true in future. Will the three cults continue to form “ one body,” or will they fall apart? If they fall apart, will each maintain a separate existence of its own, or are they one and all destined to suffer eclipse and death ? Who will be the Fu Hsi of the centuries to come ? What are the symbols that wiU replace the cap and the shoes and the scarf that Fu Hsi was proud to wear ? And who — let us ask with bated breath — is to take the place of Fu Hsi’s imperial master ?

These are gravely important questions for China, and their interest for Western nations is far from being merely academic. The forces that mould the character and shape the aspirations ot one of the greatest sections of mankind cannot be a matter of indifference to the rest of the human race, whose future history will be profoundly affected, for better or for worse, by the nature of the ideals and ambitions that inspire the constructive energies of the makers of the new China.

If the ultimate fate of the “ three religions ” were dependent on the degree of respect now paid to them by some of the more zealous spirits ^ among China’s foreign - educated reformers, we should be obliged to prophesy a gloomy ending for all three. Taoism is treated as a medley of contemptible superstitions, and multitudes of its temples, with their unquestionably ugly clay images and tinsel ornaments, are falling into unlamented decay. Buddhism meets with scant courtesy, and is threatened with the confiscation of its endowments and the closing of some, at least, of those beautiful monasteries which during the happiest centuries of China’s history were the peaceful refuge of countless poets and artists and contemplative philosophers. The moral sovereignty of the “ uncrowned king ” — Confucius

L] THE ALTAR OF HEAVEN 5

— totters on the edge of an abyss which has already engulfed a throne more ancient, if not more illustrious, than even his — the imperial throne of China. There are rumours that the state subsidies hitherto granted at regular intervals for the upkeep of the great sage’s temple and tomb at Ch‘u-fou will perhaps be withdrawn, and that in the state schools and colleges reverence is no longer to be paid to the canonised representative of Chinese civilization and moral culture. There are signs that not even the holiest sanctuary in China is to remain inviolate : for the whisper has gone forth that the silent and spacious grove that surrounds the Altar of Heaven — that marble index of a religious system which even in the days of Confucius was hallowed by the traditions of an immemorial antiquity— is to be adapted to commercial uses and turned into an experimental farm.

Among the guiding spirits in the destructive and constructive work undertaken since the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty are men of fine ability, unquestioned patriotism, and earnest zeal for their country’s welfare ; but many of them have been so bewitched by the glamour of Western methods, and so impressed by the material successes of Western civilization, that they have lost all touch with the spirit of the traditional culture of their own race. The iconoclastic tendencies of to-day have not been guided by the will of the people — for the will of the intimate connection between ethics and statesmanship in this chosen land of moral philosophers, in spite of the fact — inevitable in China as elsewhere — that practice has not always conformed to precept. A Chinese Government which disclaimed full responsibility for the moral welfare and guidance of the people, or which confined its activities in this direction to the occasional amendment of its penal code, would be regarded as having definitely cut itself adrift from the most sacred traditions of past ages, and would have to face the hostility of all the conservative sections of Chinese society.

The separation between religion and politics will not necessarily, in China, affect the traditional intimacy between politics and morals. In spite of the references to supernatural powers and agencies, and to religious ceremonies, in the old-fashioned Chinese proclamations and rescripts, it is undoubtedly the fact that in China the distinction between creed and morals — or perhaps we should say their separability — has for ages been tacitly recognized. The view that sound morality is impossible except in alliance with a definite religious creed, belief in which is therefore an essential condition of good citizenship, is a view which has never been accepted by Chinese thinkers or rulers. It is a curious and instructive fact that while in the West — under the influence of a privileged and intolerant Church — ethics and institutional religion are regarded, or were till

I.] RELIGION AND MORALS 9

recently regarded, as inseparably linked together, in China the association has been rather between ethics and politics. This is part of the practical outcome of the national recognition of Confucius as the supreme Teacher. It is in Confucianism that we find the closest approach to a fusion between ethical and political ideals, and it was Confucius who, while showing a genial tolerance towards the tenets of popular religion, recommended his disciples to consider and minister to the ascertainable needs of men before perplexing themselves over the problematical demands and requirements of the gods.

According to the educational theory which in parts of Europe has for some time dominated the relations between religion and the State, definite religious instruction forms no necessary part of the content of ethical education and has no vital relation to moral conduct ; but it is usually agreed, nevertheless, that respect should be paid to the religious idea, and to spiritual interpretations of life, and that tolerance should be shown to all forms of religious expression.^

1 Cf. tlie speech by the French deputy at the Moral Education Congress held in London in September 1908. Canon Lilley has more recently (August 1912) told us that in France “ a new sense of religous need is everyTvhere making itself felt throughout the national life.” This is very probably true : man’s religious instincts will not suffer themselves to he extinguished at the bidding of a political party. But a revival of religion does not necessarily imply a revival of belief in a theological system or a readiness to subscribe to definite credal formulas. The French intellect once emancipated from ecclesiastical domination in spiritual matters is not likely to return of its own accord to a condition of spiritual servitude. France is

This is no place for an enquiry into the justice or adequacy of such views, but that they are in entire harmony with the letter and spirit of Confueian teachings is a fact which, if it were fully realized, might go far towards bringing about a permanent reconciliation between the moral and educational and to a great extent even the political aims of the “ progressive ” and the conservative parties in China. It has long been recognized that Confucianism is an ethicopolitical rather than a religious cult.^ Such definitely religious elements as the system contains, including those resulting from the elevation of Confucius to quasi-divine rank, might be got rid of, or might be ignored by the State, without gross violence being done to any deep - rooted popular prejudiees ; for the ritual solemnities that took place at regular intervals in the Confueian temples were always the affair of the emperor and his officials, and their suppression growing restless because she is realizing the insufficiency of a civilization which concentrates its whole attention on material interests and is contemptuous of the needs of the spirit. As for China, she, too, will discover, sooner or later, that Western civilization, in spite of its outward splendour and its alluring promises, is but too prone to pamper the body and starve the soul ; though whether China will find it impossible to satisfy her spiritual needs except by throwing away her own spiritual heritage and adopting that of another race, is a different question.

^ It is true, no doubt, that Confueian statesmen have been guilty from time to time of persecuting Buddhism and other cults which were, or were believed to be, irreconcilable with Confueian teachings ; but such persecutions have been undertaken on political and social grounds, not Avith the aim of crushing or penalizing religious opinions as such.

ARCHWAY AT THE PI-YUN TEMPLE, WESTERN HILLS.

ARCHWAY AT THE WO-FO TEMPLE, WESTERN HILLS.

[Facing p, lo

ANCESTOR - WORSHIP would not interfere with any cherished religious customs or practices of the people. Thus the Chinese Government which retains Confucianism as a basis for moral training need have no fear that it will be convicted of having betrayed the cause of political progress or of giving State support to any organized system of religious worship or belief; and such a Government will assuredly gain the glad support of all who wish to see the evolution of China proceeding, so far as is reasonable and practicable, along the lines of its own immemorial past.

If it were our task to undertake a full treatment of religious conditions and prospects in China, a special chapter would have to be devoted to the consideration of the weighty problems arising out of the so-called worship of ancestors, which is in many respects the most deeply-rooted religious cult in China. This cult is independent of Confucianism, though it may be said to have grown and prospered under the protection of the Confucian system, and to have received a certain amount of qualified approval from the great sage himself. Ancestor - worship would not necessarily lose its hold on the people if Confucius were dethroned ; and though it will doubtless undergo various modifications and adaptations, and will be seriously menaced by the gradual disintegration of the present organization of society, in which the family rather than the individual is regarded as the social unit, it nevertheless seems likely to last, in one form or another, quite as long as any other religious cult at present competing for the popular favour. There are superstitions connected with ancestor-worship which the spread of education and of scientific knowledge will infallibly sweep away, but the essential ideas at the root of the cult are sound and healthy, and their forcible removal would constitute the severest moral catastrophe which could befall the Chinese people.

But if Confucianism and the cult of ancestors — shorn of their superstitious accretions — may still be destined to play an active and beneficent part in the moral guidance of China, what expectation is there that anything but ignoble decay awaits their rivals ? W ith regard to Taoism, let us admit at once that as an organized religion with temples and a priesthood it is already moribund. Taoist wizardries shrink from contact with the gleaming lances of the knights of modern science, and already excite the ridicule of those who once came to marvel and to revere. The opening of every new school nowadays may be said to synchronize with, if not to be the direct cause of, the closing of a Taoist temple. The priests of the cult are not only ceasing to enjoy the respect of others, they are losing confidence in themselves and in the potencies of their gods and demons. An enlightened China may be Confucian, it may possibly be Buddhist, it may “ worship ” its ancestors, it may be agnostic

TAOISM or rationalistic, but it will certainly not be Taoist. The venerable system of philosophic mysticism from which modern Taoism claims descent is still, indeed, of interest and value to thinkers of the present day, and it may be admitted that the fantastic musings of Taoist sages and mountainroaming hermits were not wholly unproductive of strange discoveries in certain unfrequented bypaths of psychology and natural science. Yet the disappearance of Taoism as a distinct cult will not be a thing to be regretted by the friends of China. If its teachings contain a good deal that is true, they also contain much that is crude and false. The false may well be cast aside and forgotten, the true will in due time be claimed and classified by science and philosophy. As for the ethics of popular Taoism, as distinct from the lofty teachings ascribed to Lao-tzu, they contain very little that is original, very little of value that may not be found in Confucianism or in Buddhism.

There is only one way in which Taoism can hope to survive the shocks and changes of the coming years, and it will be by treading the narrow path of humility and self-sacrifice. Taoism must throw away its gaudy trappings and relinquish its claim to be “ a way of salvation.” It must be content to play the humbler parts of a handmaid to art and poetry and a guardian of folklore and romantic legend. The fear has been expressed of late that the triumph of Western civilization in

China will involve the irremediable decay of the country’s literature and art : indeed many have found reason to doubt whether China has not already ceased to be a producer of beautiful things and a foster - mother of artists and poets. So pessimistic a view as this is hardly justifiable ; but the future leaders of China’s artistic development will be doing an injustice to themselves and an injury to the gesthetic and spiritual instincts of their race if they turn contemptuously away from a wonder-working fountain whence the poets and artists of their country have drawn copious draughts of inspiration for a period of nearly two thousand years. In the imaginative literature and art of China Taoism has had an influence which is not unworthy of comparison with the influence wielded in Western art by the Greek mythology, or by the ideals of medieval chivalry, or by the legends associated with the beginnings of Christianity. The Greek gods stepped down from their thrones on Olympus long ago, but in performing this act of humiliation they were fitting themselves to become the occupants of new thrones in an ideal world of poetry and romance. In a similar ideal world the divinities and wild-eyed mountainwizards of Taoism may find themselves not quite forlorn, and though their clay images may be trampled into mud and their temples levelled with the ground, they may still find themselves in a position to take an honourable share in the creation or evocation of the dreams and visions of

BUDDHISM the painters and poets who will guide the fortunes of a Chinese literary and artistic renascence.

If Confucianism and Taoism are only to survive on condition that they cease to claim the honours and privileges usually accorded to religion, what is to be said of the prospects of Buddhism ? It is true that Buddhism itself has often been denied the name of a religion, and that many people prefer to regard it as a system of philosophy. With regard to this point, it is enough to say that the Indian sages of the time of the Buddha would have been puzzled if they had been asked to draw clear lines of distinction between philosophy and religion. W e may well hesitate to give Sakyamuni the name of philosopher and deny him that of religious teacher; while if we concede the latter title as the more appropriate, we must also admit that it would be difficult to exclude the name of the founder of Buddhism from any comprehensive history of Indian philosophy.

As to the form of Buddhism which prevails in China, perhaps we may fairly say that it is not only both a religion and a philosophy, but that it embraces many religions and many philosophies, and that these are not always consistent with themselves or with one another. Chinese Buddhism has drawn its doctrines from many sources and from many schools of religious and philosophic thought. India, Central Asia, Persia, China itself, have aU contributed to the final result, but no religious genius has yet undertaken the colossal task of fusing the various elements into one homogeneous system. The Chinese Tripitaka has sometimes been called the Bible of the Buddhists ; but it should rather be described as a miscellaneous library, in which the Buddhist, the moral philosopher, the psychologist, the metaphysician, the student of comparative hierology, the historian, the collector of folklore, and the lover of poetry and romance, may all find ample stores of the kind of literature in which they take delight. There are many highly - cultivated members of polite society in China who would deny with some vehemence that they were Buddhists, and who yet take a deep and intelligent interest in various aspects of Buddhistic philosophy ; and there are many people of fine literary discernment who never enter a Buddhist temple except from curiosity or to inspect its artistic treasures, and who will nevertheless admit that they take a keen intellectual pleasure in much of the fine work bequeathed to Chinese literature by some of the saints of the Buddhist Church.

These considerations are enough to convince us that even if Buddhism collapses as a religious system (“ system of religions ” would describe it better), it may still continue to wield an immense though perhaps impalpable influence over Chinese thought. Indeed it may actually regain some of the influence which it has been gradually losing over cultivated minds when it shakes itself free from the worthless superstitions with which the

I.] BUDDHISM AS A RELIGION 17

need of satisfying the crude religious instincts of an ignorant populace has forced it into more or less grudging alliance. Moreover, the fact must not be overlooked that Buddhism has taken a part no less distinguished than that of Taoism in constructing the channels through which have flowed, for many past centuries, some of the main currents of the Chinese artistic and poetic imagination. Neither the pictorial art nor the poetry of the Chinese can be properly understood or adequately appreciated without a sympathetic knowledge of Buddhism and Buddhistic lore ; and there is no proof that Buddhism as a fountain of artistic and poetic inspiration is exhausted.

But it would be rash to assume that even as a religion, in the ordinary sense of the word. Buddhism has run its course. Confucianism and Taoism, as we have seen reason to believe, must abate something of their loftiest claims (or the claims that others have made on their behalf) if they wish to maintain a strong hold on Chinese hearts and minds ; but it is not quite certain that Buddhism must follow their example. Access to Western fountains of wisdom has not resulted in the disappearance of the Buddhist faith from Ceylon or Siam or Burma, and even in so progressive a country as Japan we find that several schools of Buddhism are at present showing signs of renewed vitality and vigour. It would be rash to attempt to prophesy, in these days of convulsion and transition, what the future may have in store for Buddhism in China ; but that the subject is one of interest and importance few students of religion or of world-politics will feel disposed to deny. A Christian theologian of our own day has recently observed that Buddhism is the only religion in the world that can be regarded as “ a serious rival to Christianity.” ^ If this be so, then for that reason if for no other it is incumbent upon the peoples of the West to form some correct notions about the history and present condition of Buddhism in that country which, in spite of the attractions of rival faiths, contains a greater number of Buddhists than any other country in the world.

An attempt will be made in these pages to introduce the Western reader to some of those aspects of Chinese Buddhism with which he is least likely to be familiar, and to conduct him on imaginary pilgrimage to some of those great monasteries which long have been, and stiU are, the strongholds of Buddhist influence among the Chinese people. It may be that he will return without having formed any exalted conception of the fitness of Buddhism to take a dignified part in the future development of Chinese civilization. Yet his pilgrimage will not have been wholly in vain if it enables him to enter into partial communion with that mysterious entity which has baffled and bewildered so many W estern minds and has so often been declared inscrutable — the

1 Rev. J. A. Selbie in the Expository Times, April 1912.

L] MONASTIC BUDDHISM 19

Soul of China. For it is a fact that few of us can hope to gain true insight into the spiritual core of Chinese culture until we have followed in the footsteps of the great poets and painters of T‘ang, Sung, and Ming, and have wandered as they did among the beautiful mountain-homes of monastic Buddhism. There we must cast aside — so far as it is humanly possible for W estern men and women to do so — all occidental preconceptions and prejudices, and try to hear with Chinese ears and to see with Chinese eyes. Only then will stream and wood, crag and waterfall, cast over us the same spells that they cast over China’s hill-roaming painters and minstrel-pilgrims. Perhaps when we are watching a browsing deer that refuses to take fright at our approach, perhaps when, on some lonely mountain - slope, we are listening to the deep, soft note of a monastery-bell, we may see a little way into the secret of the intense love of the poets and painters of China for rock - throned pagoda and forest-guarded hermitage, and learn how it was that they acquired their wonderful knowledge of the ways of those wild animals that flee in dread from the dwellers in the plains, but come without fear to share food or shelter with the Buddhist monks whose homes are in the quiet hills.

Chapter II Buddhism Under A^oka And Kanishka

Buddhism had already passed through its main

doetrinal developments before it sueceeded in

establishing itself as one of the three religions of

the Chinese people. Before we can hope, therefore,

to understand the history and present position of

the Buddhist religion in China we must know

something of its varying fortunes in the land which

gave it birth. Buddhist China is unintelligible

without some acquaintance with Buddhist India.

^akyamuni Buddha is now believed to have

died in or about the year 483 b.c. Under the

patronage and personal support of the emperor

Asoka (whose reign probably extended from 264 to 231 B.C.) the religion founded by Sakyamuni consolidated its position in the Gangetic valley, where it had originated, and extended its influence to other countries both in India and beyond its borders. Buddhism, in fact, became a missionary religion, and its missionaries proved themselves as intrepid as they were zealous. It is to be gathered from one of the Asokan edicts that the emperor

PART OF THE ARCHWAY AT THE PI-YUN TEMl’LE. (For stereoscopic view of detail. )

CH. IL]