OBITUARY 243 



Christian era, Buddhism brought in its wake the traditions and the 

 sciences of its Indian cradle, augmented by contributions from Greece 

 and Iran which it had absorbed during its passage west and east of 

 Pamir. It is by Buddhism that China definitely enters the history of 

 the world ; hazardous speculations have tried to connect her much 

 earlier with the civilizations of the Near East, but it is only in 

 connection with Buddhism that facts become obvious, numerous, con- 

 tinuous. Chavannes applied his diligent patience to map out the stages 

 of this so fertile movement ; he studied the biographies of the pilgrims 

 who went from China to India and from India to China to seek or to 

 propagate the divine revelation, defying all obstacles, braving the 

 dangers of the mountain, the desert, the ocean. In a collection of 

 three volumes he gathered together 500 tales and moral fables of Indian 

 origin which the preaching of buddhists had made popular in the 

 Middle Kingdom. He gathered in a volume which the Academy of 

 Petrograd esteemed it an honour to publish, all the texts which throw 

 light on the history of the western Tou-Kieue's, that Turkish people 

 which was on equally good terms with Byzantium and Persia, the 

 Indian Rajahs and the Son of Heaven, open to every influence, wel- 

 coming every creed, bonzes as well as monks, Nestorians as well as 

 Manicheans. Gradually, almost without being aware of it, Chavannes 

 had annexed Central Asia." 



It is to this great savant that Sir Aurel Stein rendered hommage 

 by handing him for publication his documents on Central Asia. 



"It is impossible to pretend to mention here, even summarily, all 

 the varied activities of this indefatigable worker. The savant who has 

 the courage to consecrate himself to special studies too far removed 

 from the public, must before entering his career, abandon all hope of 

 becoming popular ; a too great want of knowledge separates him from 

 the ordinary reader. Nevertheless Chavannes had a right to aspire 

 after social success, had he desired to do so ; an article on Confucius in 

 the 'Revue de Paris,' a lecture at the Academy on the rewards of 

 virtue in China show what he would have been able to accomplish. An 

 elegant teacher, a harmonious speaker, rich in broad vistas and ideas he 

 could attract and fascinate vast audiences. He preferred to continue 

 his daily task in solitude, supported by the estime of his peers and the 

 respectful affection of his pupils. 



"The explanation is this, that in Chavannes the man and the scholar 

 were inseparable ; the intelligence blended with the character. The 

 blue limpidity of the eyes, the graveness, so easily unbent, of the 

 handsome face revealed the perfect balance of a delicate sensibility and 

 a vigorous rationality. Arrogance was unknown to him ; he listened 

 with a respectful attention to opinions which might save him from 



