BON 



6(J0 



BON 



Bonzes. 



Bononiaa BONONIAN Jars or Bottles, are small thick 

 jars of unannealed glass, which break into a thousand 

 pieces by the impulse of a single grain of sand. See 

 Bruni, Phil. Trans. 17lo, p. l 212; and Dr Thomas 

 Young's Nat. Phil. toI. i. p. 644. See also Anneal- 

 ing, (tn) 



BONPLANDIA, a genus of plants of the class 

 Pentandria, and order Monogynia. See Botany, (w) 



BONTI A, a genus of plants of the class Didyna- 

 mia, and order Angiospermia. See Botany, (te) 



BONZES, a name given to the priests and devo- 

 tees of the god Fo, in China, Japan, and Tonquin, 

 and other oriental countries. They are distinguished 

 by different names in the different countries where 

 their superstition prevails. In Siam they are called 

 Talapoins; in Tartary, Lamas; Ho-chang in China ; 

 and in Japan, Bonzes; by which name they are best 

 known among Europeans. They are exceedingly 

 numerous, and generally live in separate communities, 

 in places wholly consigned to themselves. Splendid 

 apartments are assigned to them in the temples of 

 their god, around which they have rich and exten- 

 sive domains. Their pagodas are most numerous in 

 the province of Kiang-Nan, where they are agreeably 

 situated, and well endowed. In the north of China, 

 on the other hand, the greater part of these pagodas 

 have fallen into ruins. The island Pon-to, near 

 Chusan, is wholly occupied by bonzes, who lead 

 there a recluse life, like monks in a convent. There 

 are also female bonzes, who attach themselves to 

 particular temples, and, like nuns in the Romish 

 church, take a vow of perpetual celibacy. These 

 devotees worship their divinity under a great variety 

 of forms, representing the different animals into 

 which they suppose him to have transmigrated pre- 

 vious to his deification. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, 

 and the vilest animals, had temples, and became ob- 

 jects of public veneration ; because the soul of the 

 god, in his transmigrations and metamorphoses, might 

 have inhabited their bodies. See Grozier's China, 

 vol. ii. p. 218. 



If we may credit the accounts given of them by 

 the European missionaries, the bonzes are the most 

 odious set of impostors that ever disgraced the priest- 

 ly character. The hatred which these missionaries 

 naturally entertained against a set of Pagan priests, 

 who were the most violent adversaries of the Chris- 

 tian faith, renders it necessary, indeed, to regard their 

 representations with some suspicion. Yet, after every 

 fair allowance that can be made for the exaggerations 

 of prejudice, it is impossible to contemplate the cha- 

 racter of the bonzes, without feeling horror for their 

 crimes, and a mingled emotion of contempt and com- 

 passion for the credulous and ignorant people who 

 are the dupes of thei. knavery. Among the precepts 

 which they enjoin on all the faithful votaries of Fo, 

 they inculcate, with particular eagerness, deeds of 

 beneficence to the bonzes, as the surest means of 

 reaping the full benefit of their prayers and mortifi- 

 cations ; obtaining the remission of their sins ; and a 

 happy transmigration in a future life. The Jesuits, 

 who declaim so vehemently against these crafty 

 priests, were never half so accomplished in the arts 

 of hypocrisy and fraud. Their ordinary income must 

 be considerable ; for they are consulted in all cases of 



sorcery, which forms an essential part of every pub- Bonzet. 

 lie and private deliberation ; their advice is taken in ' y 

 the most common affairs of life ; and they preside at 

 funerals, and mark out the places of interment suita. 

 ble to the deceased. From this last office they derive 

 considerable emoluments ; for there is generally a se- 

 cret understanding between them and the proprietors 

 of the ground, who share tire spoil. Not content, 

 however, with these regular means of subsistence, 

 they have recourse to the lowest and most unwarrant- 

 able tricks, for the purpose of extorting money from 

 the superstitious. " We saw," says M. de Guignes, 

 " at Hang-Tchedu-Fou, upon the borders of the 

 lake Sy-Hou, a pagoda, which contained five hun- 

 dred gods. The emperor Kien-Long, then living, 

 was of the number ; and it cannot be doubted, that 

 this deification was advantageous to the pagoda, fur 

 it was in the best condition. The bonzes shewed 

 us a well, into the bottom of which they let down a 

 light, to discover to us the trunk of the tree of which 

 the pagoda was constructed. This miraculous tree 

 renewed its branches all the time necessary for the 

 construction of the edifices, and ceased to grow as 

 soon as they were finished." 



Many of them, who have not the address to ex- 

 tort presents by their knavery, endeavour to pro- 

 cure them by the humbler method of exciting com- 

 passion by the penances and mortifications which 

 they voluntarily undergo. Sometimes they appear 

 in the squares and public places dragging large and 

 massy chains, which are fastened round their necks, 

 and legs ; sometimes they mangle their bodies, and 

 cut their flesh with hard flints till they stream with 

 blood ; and sometimes they carry burning coals upon 

 the tops of their naked heads. In this situation, 

 they go about from door to door : " You see," say 

 they to those whom they supplicate, " what we sui- 

 ter, that we may expiate your sins ; can you be so> 

 hard-hearted as to refuse us a small pittance ?" Fa- 

 ther Le Compte mentions a very extraordinary pe- 

 nance, of which he was an eye-witness. A young 

 and handsome bonze, of the most insinuating address, 

 stood erect in a kind of narrow chair, stuck full of 

 sharp nails, pointed in such a manner that he could 

 not move without being wounded. He was convey, 

 ed slowly from house to house, and endeavoured to 

 excite the compassion of the people, by declaring, 

 that he had shut himself up in that chair for the good 

 of their souls, and resolved not to quit it till they 

 had purchased all the nails, the number of which ex- 

 ceeded two thousand. Each of these nails, he assured 

 them, would prove a source of numerous blessings to 

 them and their families ; and even to purchase one, 

 would be an act of heroic virtue. 



Yet all these devices are trifling and harmless when 

 compared with the enormities of which they are often 

 guilty. When any person is so audacious as to provoke 

 them, by withstanding their petitions, or refusing to 

 be duped by their impostures, their diabolical revenge 

 can seldom be satiated without the murder of the un- 

 fortunate offender. A mandarin passing with his reti- 

 nue along the highway, observed an immense concourse 

 of people, and, on coming up to them, found that 

 the bonzes were celebrating an extraordinary festival. 

 Ou a large theatre was constructed a very high ma- 



