REVIEWS.
JANUARY 5, 1872.]
Beal, “that the 350 or 400 million people who in habit China are Buddhists, but yet Buddhist modes of thought and phraseology prevail largely amongst them, and it is hardly consistent in us, whilst we deal with religious questions, to overlook the litera ture which contains the sacred deposit of the faith of so many millions of that population as do strictly belong to the Buddhist faith. Moreover, it must be evident that so long as we are ignorant of the details of their religion, they will not be induced to listen to our denunciation of it; nor can we expect that our indifference to their prejudices will tend to remove them or induce them to overlook ours.” An
other important service which a careful study of the Chinese version of the Buddhist Scriptures may render to the cause of literature generally, but es pecially towards a critical acquaintance with the original Sanskrit text of the Tripitaka ; as Max Müller suggests. “The analytical structure of the Chinese language imparts to Chinese translations the character of a gloss; and although we need not follow implicitly the interpretations of the Sanscrit originals adopted by Chinese translators, still their antiquity would naturally impart to them consider able value and interest.”
Another important consideration is the advantage we may derive from having in China copies of many of the sacred books which are unknown else where.
Such are the numerous works
of the Nor
thern School, as it is called, and which, so far as is at present known, are not to be met with in their original Sanskrit form, either in India or Nepal. Such are, for example, the Avatamsaka Sūtra, written by Nagarjūna, and which, under the name of the Fa yan king, is one of the commonest and most widely circulated Sūtras in China—the Kosha and
Vibásha Shastras, the Surajgama Sūtra, and many others.
“Incidentally,” says the author, “we shall derive from these studies much information relating to the more obscure parts of Indian history, and the struggles of the conflicting
Indian sects.”
27
or Santi Topes near Bhilsa, where also, over the northern gateway of the great Topes, we find sculp tured the same history of Bodhisatva as Vessan tara, giving away his whole possessions, his chil dren and his wife, so that there might be no remnant of selfishness left in his nature, and thus
he might be fitted to undertake the salvation of men. But it is hardly necessary, recollecting the labours of M. Julien, and the school of French Sinologues, amongst whom he is conspicuous, to bring farther instances of the manner in which we may derive funds of information from China re specting the civilization of India. The connection is also noted between the history of Buddhism in the East, and the progress of Christianity in the West. In the middle ages there was a favourite legend known throughout Europe, and generally accepted as genuine, under the name of Barlaam and Josaphat. This history is at present widely circulated in the modern edition of the Lives of the Saints, by Symeon, the translator. But on examina tion we find that the life of Josaphat, who has somehow crept into the Roman Martyrology, was but a copy of the well known history of Shakya Buddha, and was appropriated doubtlessly by the early Christian hagiographers as being in itself a very touching and natural account of the struggle of a sensitive conscience with the temptations of a wicked and ensnaring world. We quite agree with Mr. Beal too, when he says—“The widest and most interesting result to be derived from such studies as these, is the means they afford us of arriving at a correct judgment in the science of comparative religion”—so far as that is possible. “The scope of the present work is to present the reader with a brief Catena of Buddhist Scriptures arranged, so far as possible, in a chronological order, with a view to exhibit the origin and gradual expansion of the system, aud to point outin what particulars it demands our candid consideration, and in what particulars
In the
it fails to deserve either attention or inquiry. The former phase will be found to consist of its peculiar
history of the mission of Song Yun, for example,
purity as a religious system properly so called,
We have an account of the effect which a picture
whilst the
of the sufferings of Bodhisatva, when he was born as Vessantara, produced on the rough Indo-Scythic
divergencies of the system from its original charac ter, into a scholastic and vain philosophy, which
tribes who invaded North India at the beginning
ended in its ultimate confusion with other sects in
of
the Christian Era. He tells us they could not
latter
will embrace those
numerous
India, or in its present lifeless condition in China refrain from tears when they saw the picture of the
and Japan. The works here translated are mostly
- "terings of the Prince. This little incident may
"º reasonably account for the conversion of the whole tribe of invaders who, under the rule of Ka
standard ones, and if not, strictly speaking, in the
mishka and his successors, became the most devoted
South of China.”
!"ns of the Buddhist faith, and “the magnifi ºut founders" of Topes and Temples, the ruins of which at present survive. And from this reference
tory anticipations. He has given an elaborate and splendid contribution to our knowledge of early
º * Yun to the Vessantara Jataka, represented is º sº Elephant Temple, Varousha, the writer, th
"Connect the Sang-teh or Sānti temples in
- "ghbourhood of that city with the Sanchi
Canon, are yet of great authority, and are found in the libraries of most of the monasteries in the
Mr. Beal's work more than achieves his prefa
Eastern Mythology. His notes and comments ex hibit a wide acquaintance with European orientalism, and his tone of thought a width and liberalism al together unusual. Mr. Beal's handsome and deeply
