INTRODUCTION.

IN the introduction to a work1 published in the year 1871 I called attention to the fact that we possessed at that time, in England at least, no complete set of the Buddhist Sacred Writings as they are known in China and Japan. These Sacred Writings, constituting what is called the Tripitaka, or three receptacles, had been printed at various times in China from wooden blocks, which were as often destroyed by fire or civil war. It is said that during the Sung and Yuan dynasties (A.D. 960-1330) as many as twenty different editions had. been produced, but during the troubles occurring towards the end of the Yuan period all these perished. During the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1360-1620) two editions, called the Southern and the Northern, were published, the latter of which was reproduced in 1586 by a priest called Mi-tsang, after twenty years' labour. This edition is known in Japan as the Ming tsong, or Tripitaka of the Ming dynasty.

It is this copy of the Sacred Books that I requested His Excellency Iwakura Tomomi to procure for the India Office Library, and which he so generously promised to do, in 1874. A similar request had been already made at Pekin, but the Chinese Government, jealously conservative, had declined to accede to it. We were fortunately able to look elsewhere; and in 1875 the entire Tripitaka was received at the India Office, in fulfilment of the promise made by the Japanese ambassador.

Lest these books should remain on the library shelves unexamined and uncared for, I thought they might provide

1 Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, from the Chinese.

me with material for a course of lectures I had undertaken to deliver at University College, London, on the subject of Buddhist literature in China. Accordingly, having prepared a catalogue of the books, imperfect indeed, but sufficient for practical purposes, I proceeded to examine some of them more attentively. The result of my inquiries I embodied in the lectures I delivered during the years 1879-1880, and I have in the following pages printed an abstract of these, with a view to call attention to the subject.

I thought, first of all, it would be interesting to recount the names and the labours of those Indian, or at any rate foreign, Buddhist priests, who during 600 years and more after the beginning of the Christian era continued to arrive in China with books and manuscripts, which they subsequently translated, or assisted to translate, into the language of that country. It is surely an interesting study to inquire how these foreign priests succeeded in converting China to Buddhism. If they had failed, yet the exhibition of this fresh energy in the world— this energy, I mean, of religious propagandism-would naturally excite some curiosity. We should be inclined to ask whether it was derived from the genius of the Buddhist religion, or whether it was but a widened circle of an energy excited from another centre. And if it could be shown that it was an independent movement, we should be led to inquire further how far it was confined in its direction, and why so. But, apart from this, we have in the fact of the rapid spread of the Buddhist belief throughout the eastern portion of Asia a study sufficient for the present at least. The mere record of names would be of itself useless if it did not convey the idea of earnest and persevering work. And it is for the purpose of calling attention to the reality of this work that I have recited the names of some of the Buddhist priests who came to China and worked there, teaching and translating, during the first six centuries of our era. With respect to the character of their work, it would be surely enough to point to results. new literature was produced-a literature essentially Indian, and therefore Aryan; the Chinese were inspired with new thoughts and ideas about religion; a rude blow was dealt to

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their national exclusiveness, another turn was given to their studies, and fresh combinations of men and women formed into religious societies; the country was covered with temples and pagodas; and thousands, stirred by this new impulse, sought to find out in the solitude of the hermit's cell the secret of the unrest that had seized them.

The Buddhists of India brought about all this, and much more than this; for what occurred in China happened also throughout the regions beyond; and in due course Corea, Japan, on that side, and Mongolia and Tibet on the other, were converted and made obedient to the same faith, or whatever it was in Buddhism, that had conquered the Eastern world.

But my task is not to exhibit the mode or even the character of this change, but to call attention to the fact and the steps which led to it.

No doubt one cause of the rapid spread of Buddhism northward from the valley of the Ganges is to be found in the existence of a Northern people, the Vajjis or Samvajjis, in the neighbourhood of Magadha, where this religion was first preached. It is a curious discovery to find that a republic, so to speak, of Northern invaders, the Yue-chi of Chinese history, were already settled in India when Buddha lived, and were converted to his doctrine by his own instrumentality. Yet such is the case. We arrive at it in this way. The Vajjians, who lived in Vesâli and some other neighbouring towns, are denoted in Chinese by the same symbols as are used to describe the Yue-chi. Mr. Rhys Davids, in his Buddhist Suttas1 (chap. i. § 3), gives a translation relating to the Vajjians, which I had already translated as referring to the Yue-chi (Fa-kheupi-u, pp. 165 and 166); and M. Léon Féer, in his translation of the Sûtra of Forty-two Articles, had noticed that the Getæ (Yue-chi), in my translation of the same book, ought to be restored to Vrijjis. This was sufficient to show that the symbols employed by the Chinese to denote the Northern people, who are in fact the White Huns or Viddhals of history, are also employed to denote the Vajjis of Vesâli. But the

Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi.

Vajjis are also called Litsavis or Litchavis, and these again Mr. Brian Hodgson (Essays, p. 17 n.) had identified with the Scyths. On turning again to Mr. Fergusson's "Tree and Serpent Worship" (pl. xxviii. fig. 1, and text), I was glad to be able to identify the people here drawn as the inhabitants of Vesâli. For this worshipping of the Tope is, in fact, the dedication feast of the Vajjians after they had obtained a share of Buddha's relics. This will be plain from observing that all the scenes connected with it, viz., those on the inside of the right-hand pillar of the Northern gateway, relate to events which happened at Vesâli. The group given on pl. xvi. fig. 2 (op. cit.) is found immediately beneath it, and is a view of the monkeys bringing a pot of honey to Buddha near the Markaṭahrada at Vesâli, as related in Hiouen Thsang (ii. 387). Beneath this again is the scene describing Mâra's interview with Buddha, when he exhorted him to leave the world (Jul. ii. 391). This is plain from the marked presence of the women (his daughters), who take such a conspicuous part in the Buddhist temptation-scene. In the same group (pl. xxvi. fig. 1) is the representation of the Kinnaras who followed Buddha when he was going to the scene of his death at Kusinagara, as related by Hiouen Thsang (Jul. ii. 390). The perfect agreement of these plates with Hiouen Thsang's account of what he heard (or what was believed) at Vesâli, seems to prove that this portion of the pillar was finished at the expense of the Vajjian Buddhists. Now Mr. Fergusson

had already commented on the strange appearance of the worshippers in the upper group (pl. xxviii. fig. 1). He says (p. 136), "These people are not Hindus, but an entirely different race, who are seen at Sanchi only in this bas-relief. Their hair is short and curly like a negro's, or as that of Buddha is represented to be in more modern times. . . . The Roman double pipe replaces the flute. The trumpets are of a kind seen nowhere else in the sculptures, but are almost identical with those represented on the arch at Orange and elsewhere by the Romans as belonging to the Celts or their barbarian enemies, whoever they were. Their banner alone, with 'stars and stripes,' or rather stars and Union Jack combined, is like