107 



The Chinese themselves, however, mostly call the ball a "pre- 

 cious pearV. We find it explained in this way in Boerschmann's 

 highly interesting work on F^u fo shan \ where a gilt ball of 

 glass is said to hang from the centre of the roof of the Great 

 Hall of the Buddhist temple Fa(h)-yu-sze (^pf #, "Temple 

 of the Rain of the Law"), while eight dragons, carved around 

 the surrounding "hanging pillars", eagerly stretch their claws 

 towards the "pearl of perfection" ^ This term sounds Buddhistic 

 and is appropriate to the Buddhist surroundings, as well as the 

 number eight of the dragons, which is, indeed, fixed by the 

 form of the roof, but is also found on the staircase of the 'Yu(h)- 

 fo(h)-tien (p. 57). Dragons trying to seize a fiery "pearl" which 

 is hanging in a gate (the Dragon-gate, cf. above, p. 86) are 

 represented twice in the same temple (pp. 46, 87). Leaving 

 aside Boerschmann's fantastic ideas about the " dragons playing 

 with the pearl" (p. 43), we may be sure that the Chinese 

 Buddhists, identifying the dragon with the Naga, also identified 

 the ball with their cintamani or precious pearl which grants all 

 desires. The question rises: "Was the ball originally also a pearl, 

 not of Buddhism but of Taoism?" 



Mr Kramp pointed out to me, that the character f^ , combined 

 from jewel and moon, though not found in the dictionaries of 

 Wells Williams, Giles or Couvreur, is given in the K^ang-hi 

 dictionary. I found it also in the Japanese lexicon entitled 

 Kanwa daijiten (p. 852), explained as a " divine pearl " ( jjj^ ^ ), and 

 with the Japanese-Chinese pronunciations getsu, gwachi. This is 

 evidently based upon the K'ang-hi dictionary, where we read s. v.: y 

 "M M ^. ^ v^ . f$ ^ "tfii • "T^® same pronunciation and meaning 

 are given in the lexicon entitled Tsze-wei. This sacredC^eA_£earl) 

 probably dues its holiness to its connection with the moon, for 

 the second part of the character J^ may not only form the 

 phonetic element, but it may indicate that this is "the pearl of 

 the moon", as there is also a "pearl of the bright moon" 

 C^ >^ ^ ^> Couvreur's Dictionary s. v. ^ ). It is possible that 

 in the little sentence mentioned above : p^ ^ ^ ^ » the last 

 character has taken the place of the fuller form J^, in which 

 case the two dragons would be said to "face the moon-pearl". 



1 Ernst Boersohmann, Die Baukunst und religiose Kultur der Chinesen. Band I: 

 P'm f^o shan. 



2 Dragons and pearl: pp. 18, 35, 57, 59, 77, 124 One dragon with the pearl in 

 bis claw, other dragons flying from both sides to the spot, p. 35. 



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