As with us, this being one of the points in which customs in the east
and west go by contraries. Very occasionally, the editor indicates by
a single character, equivalent to "right" or "wrong," which reading in
his opinion is to be preferred. In the notes to the present
republication of the Corean text, S stands for Sung, M for Ming, and J
for Japanese; R for right, and W for wrong. I have taken the trouble
to give all the various readings (amounting to more than 300), partly
as a curiosity and to make my text complete, and partly to show how,
in the transcription of writings in whatever language, such variations
are sure to occur,
"maculae, quas aut incuria fudit,
Aut humana parum cavit nature,"
while on the whole they very slightly affect the meaning of the
document.
The editors of the Catalogue Raisonne intimate their doubts of the
good taste and reliability of all Fa-hien's statements. It offends
them that he should call central India the "Middle Kingdom," and
China, which to them was the true and only Middle Kingdom, but "a
Border land;" - it offends them as the vaunting language of a Buddhist
writer, whereas the reader will see in the expressions only an
instance of what Fa-hien calls his "simple straightforwardness."
As an instance of his unreliability they refer to his account of the
Buddhism of Khoten, whereas it is well known, they say, that the
Khoteners from ancient times till now have been Mohammedans; - as if
they could have been so 170 years before Mohammed was born, and 222
years before the year of the Hegira! And this is criticism in China.
The Catalogue was ordered by the K'ien-lung emperor in 1722. Between
three and four hundred of the "Great Scholars" of the empire were
engaged on it in various departments, and thus egregiously ignorant
did they show themselves of all beyond the limits of their own
country, and even of the literature of that country itself.
Much of what Fa-hien tells his readers of Buddhist miracles and
legends is indeed unreliable and grotesque; but we have from him the
truth as to what he saw and heard.
3. In concluding this introduction I wish to call attention to some
estimates of the number of Buddhists in the world which have become
current, believing, as I do, that the smallest of them is much above
what is correct.
i. In a note on the first page of his work on the Bhilsa Topes (1854),
General Cunningham says: "The Christians number about 270 millions;
the Buddhists about 222 millions, who are distributed as follows: -
China 170 millions, Japan 25, Anam 14, Siam 3, Ava 8, Nepal 1, and
Ceylon 1; total, 222 millions."
ii. In his article on M. J. Barthelemy Saint Hilaire's "Le Bouddha et
sa Religion," republished in his "Chips from a German Workshop," vol.
i. (1868), Professor Max Muller (p. 215) says, "The young prince
became the founder of a religion which, after more than two thousand
years, is still professed by 455 millions of human beings," and he
appends the following note: "Though truth is not settled by
majorities, it would be interesting to know which religion counts at
the present moment the largest numbers of believers. Berghaus, in his
'Physical Atlas,' gives the following division of the human race
according to religion: - 'Buddhists 31.2 per cent, Christians 30.7,
Mohammedans 15.7, Brahmanists 13.4, Heathens 8.7, and Jews 0.3.' As
Berghaus does not distinguish the Buddhists in China from the
followers of Confucius and Laotse, the first place on the scale really
belongs to Christianity. It is difficult to say to what religion a man
belongs, as the same person may profess two or three. The emperor
himself, after sacrificing according to the ritual of Confucius,
visits a Tao-sse temple, and afterwards bows before an image of Fo in
a Buddhist chapel. ('Melanges Asiatiques de St. Petersbourg,' vol. ii.
p. 374.)"
iii. Both these estimates are exceeded by Dr. T. W. Rhys Davids
(intimating also the uncertainty of the statements, and that numbers
are no evidence of truth) in the introduction to his "Manual of
Buddhism." The Buddhists there appear as amounting in all to 500
millions: - 30 millions of Southern Buddhists, in Ceylon, Burma, Siam,
Anam, and India (Jains); and 470 millions of North Buddhists, of whom
nearly 33 millions are assigned to Japan, and 414,686,974 to the
eighteen provinces of China proper. According to him, Christians
amount to about 26 per cent of mankind, Hindus to about 13,
Mohammedans to about 12 1/2, Buddhists to about 40, and Jews to about
1/2.
In regard to all these estimates, it will be observed that the immense
numbers assigned to Buddhism are made out by the multitude of Chinese
with which it is credited. Subtract Cunningham's 170 millions of
Chinese from his total of 222, and there remains only 52 millions of
Buddhists. Subtract Davids' (say) 414 1/2 millions of Chinese from his
total of 500, and there remain only 85 1/2 millions for Buddhism. Of
the numbers assigned to other countries, as well as of their whole
populations, I am in considerable doubt, excepting in the cases of
Ceylon and India; but the greatness of the estimates turns upon the
immense multitudes said to be in China. I do not know what total
population Cunningham allowed for that country, nor on what principal
he allotted 170 millions of it to Buddhism; - perhaps he halved his
estimate of the whole, whereas Berghaus and Davids allotted to it the
highest estimates that have been given of the people.
But we have no certain information of the population of China.
