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the Holy Doctrine; since the fourth century large bodies of pilgrims, 

 while accomplishing their pious journey, have done at the same time 

 considerable geographical work: Hiuen Tsang, to name the most 

 famous among them, not only takes a place in China with the 

 most revered personages of his church, but stands in the foremost 

 ranks of the great Asiatic travelers, by the side of the illustrious 

 Venetian Marco Polo. However, it was not until 1410, under the 

 Ming Dynasty, that the Chinese obtained at last possession of the 

 full canon of Buddhist Books which serves to millions of adherents 

 in the Far East as a guide for their conduct. 



From Central Asia, Buddhism spread to China; from China, as 

 early as 372, it entered Korea, and thence in 552 passed on to Japan. 

 In the mean time it had been introduced in 407 to Tibet, where after 

 being severely persecuted, it has achieved its greatest triumphs, 

 the King of Tibet, Srongtsan Gampo, having been converted to the 

 new faith by his Chinese and Nepalese wives (640) . With its doctrine 

 Buddhism carried along everywhere this subtle art which had felt the 

 influence of the ancient Greeks, brought to the banks of the Indus by 

 the companions of Alexander the Great. From the fourth to the 

 eleventh century, that is to say, between the beginning of the inroads 

 of the Indo-Scyths and the Mohammedan Conquest of India, during 

 the Buddhist Middle Ages, the Graeco-Buddhist art was in a highly 

 flourishing state and its influence spread to the Far East. 



However, in paying a just tribute to this delicate and charming art 

 which played so important a part in the artistic development of the 

 Far East, it would be unfair not to mention that the Chinese, previ- 

 ously to its introduction in their empire, had a national art, not 

 despicable in the least degree witness this fourth century picture of 

 Ku K'ai-che, described by Chinese historians, happily discovered and 

 rescued at Pe-king during the events of 1900, and now kept safely 

 in the British Museum, forever we hope. 1 



Buddhism, now one of the three state religions in China, after 

 suffering persecutions in Japan from the hands of Nobunaga in the 

 course of the sixteenth century, somewhat somnolent for many years, 

 is at present in a period of magnificent renaissance in the Empire of 

 the Rising Sun, where the labors of Bunyiu Nanjio and of Takakusu 

 secure for it an important place. Many Japanese scholars, fascinated 

 by the doctrines of evolution, think these are to be found in Buddhism. 



Christianity spread at first in Central Asia under the form of 

 Manicheism and of Nestorianism; only recently the Mo-ni, lost 

 among the numerous religious sects mentioned by Chinese historians, 

 have been with some degree of certainty identified with the disciples 

 of Manichee, who played but a small part compared with that of the 

 1 Cf. Burlington Magazine, January, 1904; T'oung-pas, July, 1904. 



