PREFACE. 



The student of Chinese and Japanese religion and folklore 

 soon discovers the mighty influence of Indian thought upon the 

 Far-Eastern mind. Buddhism introduced a great number of Indian, 

 not especially Buddhist, conceptions and legends, clad in a Bud- 

 dhist garb, into the eastern countries. In China Taoism was 

 ready to gratefully take up these foreign elements which in 

 many respects resembled its own ideas or were of the same 

 nature; In this way the store of ancient Chinese legends was 

 not only largely enriched, but they were also mixed up with the 

 Indian fables. The same process took place in Japan, when 

 Buddhism, after having conquered Korea, in the sixth century 

 of our era reached Dai Nippon's shores. Before a hundred years 

 had elapsed the Japanese mind got imbued with foreign ideas, 

 partly Chinese, partly Indian. To the mixture of these two 

 elements a third one, consisting of the original Japanese concep- 

 tions, was added, and a very intricate complex was formed. 

 Whoever studies the Japanese legends has the difficult task of 

 analysing this complex into its parts.- — 



No mythical creature is more familiar to Far-Eastern art and 

 literature than the dragon. It is interesting to observe how in 

 Japan three different kinds of dragons, originating from India, 

 China and Japan, are to be found side by side.' To the super- 

 ficial observer they all belong to one and the same" class of rain 

 bestowing, thunder and storm arousing gods of the water, but 

 a careful examination teaches us that they are different from 

 each other. 



The Indian serpent- shaped Naga was identified in China with 

 the four-legged Chinese dragon, because both were divine inhabi- 

 tants^ of seas^and rivers, afld givers- ef rain. J_tJa_n o--woflder that 

 the Japanese- in thi^ blBnding"^XlMneserairdrlndian ideas recog- 

 nized their own serpent or dragon-shaped gods of rivers and 

 mountains, to whom they used to pray for rain in times of 

 drought. Thus the ancient legends of three countries were com- 

 bined, and" features of the one were used to adorn the other. 

 In order to throw light upon these facts we must examine the 



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