l82 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



conduct may cause him to be reborn after death as a king, a scholar, a 

 merchant, a woman, a beggar, or as a snake, a bird, an animal, or an 

 insect, and any of these may be the present incarnation of one's ances- 

 tor. Therefore, according to strict Buddhism, and this theory in gen- 

 eral, one should not kill any living thing. 



There are many kinds of good deeds that will accumulate merit, 

 improve one's karma, and insure a better fate in this Hfe and in the 

 lives to come. A very common kind is the giving of money to beggars 

 or to begging priests, who often urge one to do good deeds in order 

 to accumulate merit. Other common methods are to contribute money, 

 meat, rice, or some other commodity to the priests or to the temples, 

 or to help pay for the erection of a pagoda, a shrine, or a temple, for 

 the construction of an idol, for giving the idol a new coat of paint, 

 or to pay the priests to chant the sacred books. 



Merit can be accumulated by doing something good, and demerit 

 by doing something evil. Building or repairing bridges, constructing 

 or repairing roads, giving food to famine sufferers and to others who 

 are hungry, helping people in distress, and healing diseases — these 

 and many other good deeds add to one's merit. Missionary doctors 

 have often been told that they have great merit because of the many 

 people they have healed. 



While returning from an expedition beyond Mu-p'ing, on which 

 I was collecting natural history specimens for the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, I was stopped by a swollen mountain stream which had washed 

 out a bridge. With the aid of a carpenter, I cut down some ncarljy 

 trees, made a new bridge, and was soon on my way. Chinese in- 

 formed me that by building this bridge I had added to my merit. 



The doctrines of karma and transmigration i)rovide strong motives 

 for doing good and not evil, and no doubt have helped keep the con- 

 duct of the Chinese people on a comparatively high level. These, 

 however, are of course not the highest motives for good conduct, for 

 they are selfish. 



Today karma and transmigration are not exclusive doctrines of 

 the Buddhists, for they are believed and taught by both Buddhists 

 and Taoists and are also basic assumptions in the popular religion of 

 the Chinese and of many other ethnic groups in China. In the 

 main they strongly influence for good the everyday living of the 

 people. That this is so is a credit to the efficient teaching of Buddhist 

 leaders for many generations. 



