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BUDDHISM IN CHINA 233 ing the shrine, in accordance with the donor's intention, they too were terrified by similar manifestations. While Hiuen Tsang was lodging at the shrine during the rainy season, the monks besought him to use his influence with the spirit to obtain permission to expend the treasure on urgently needed repairs of the steeple. The pilgrim complied, burned incense, and duly assured the guardian spirit that no waste or misappropriation would be permitted. The workmen who were set to dig up the spot then suffered no molestation, and at a depth of seven or eight feet found a great copper vessel containing several hundredweights of gold and a quantity of pearls. The balance of the treasure left after the repairs to the steeple has doubtless been appropriated long since by excavators less scrupulous than the pious Master of the Law. The monks of the Chinapati monastery were follow- ers of the ancient form of Buddhism known as the Hinayana, or Lesser Vehicle, and the narrative implies that the Chinese prince belonged to the same sect. If he was really a Buddhist, it is of interest to speculate whether he brought his creed with him or learned it in India. The stories dating from the seventh century which narrate the arrival of Buddhist missionaries in China in 217 B. c., although favourably regarded by Professor Terrien de Lacouperie, are generally disbe- lieved and are highly improbable. The missionaries despatched by Asoka in the middle of the third century B. c. were directed to the south and west, not to the east, and there is little or no evidence