Abstract of Four Lectures on Buddhist Literature in China (An Old and Rare Book)

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Is the introduction to a work 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 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 priesta, 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.