mens of its written character given by European writers. If not, a notice of its construction, with an alphabet and vocabulary at the hands of any Chinese scholar, would be highly interesting, as well as of those of the Bon-se, the language and character in which the sacred writings of the Buddhists of Japan are written. It is probable they will both be found polysyllabic, and to bear great affinity to the Pali and Magadha languages of India, Ceylon and Siam, &c. Both the Bon-se and Fan-yu are unknown to the laity of China and Japan, and the written characters are said to be very dissimilar to those in common use. That of the Fan-yu is said by the Chinese[1] to have existed unchanged from the commencement of the world, as is the Magadhi by the Cingalese. The Bon-se of Japan is said to be of divine origin, and to have been first introduced from Fiaksae[2] in the west of Corea A.D. 552. The sacred books of Buddha were subsequently procured from India by the Dairi-kwanum in 805. Although the priests of China and Japan make use of these languages, in their idolatrous rites, I was assured by some Chinese officials at Malacca, that the Fan-yu was seldom understood even by the priests themselves, and this is probably the case with the Bon-se of the Japanese. The Fan-yu is no doubt the language in which Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary, heard the Buddhist priests of the island of Poo-to, one of the Chusan group, chant their vespers, and which he states to have been in the Páli language.
Identity of Deity and Religion. The Burmese and Siamese worship Buddha under the names of Gaudam or Gautama. The Chinese under that of Sheh-kea, and the Japanese adore him under the appellation of Saca or Sacya, spelt by the Dutch Siaca, and by the Portuguese Xaca. The Pirt of the Siamese, the Fuh of the Chinese, and Bodso of the Japanese, are used as general terms for the deity among these nations, and are evidently corruptions of the word Buddh or Buddha.[3] The names given by the Hindu Buddhist[4] Amaracosha, to the last supposed incarnation of Buddha, viz. Sacya, Muni, Gautama, &c. clearly identify hint with the present Sheh-kea or Sacya of the Chinese and Japanese, and the Gaudam or Gautama of the Siamese, Cingalese, and Burmans. The identity of these deities is further proved by the testimony of Francis Buchanan, who saw the Chinese ambassadors worshipping the images of Buddha, at the capital of the Burmese empire, as if their own, and by that of a Chinese, long resident at Siam, who informed me there was but little difference in his religion, and that of the Siamese, and that they worship the same images.[5] The Adi Saca
- ↑ Indo-Chinese Gleaner, vol. iii. p. 143.
- ↑ Chinese Repository, vol. iii. p. 903,
- ↑ For the explanation of the Chinese corruption Fuh, vide page 9.
- ↑ At. Res. vol. ii. page 183—4.
- ↑ Mr. Gutzlaff in his journal of a residence in Siam states, that he saw the Chinese make offerings to an idol of Buddha in a temple at Kokram.
