M A 1 1 A V A X A BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY. 



261 



to compare this Trikdya doctrine with the Christian doctrine of 

 the Trinity. 



( >thers, however, prefer to compare the three main objects of 

 Buddhist worship in China with the three " Persons" in one God 

 in whom we Christians believe. Thus Dr. Timothy Richard 

 speaks of " The Amitabha Trinity " as consisting of 



" Amitabha in the centre, 

 Ta Shih Chili on his right hand, 

 Kwanyin or his left," 



and he compiles from " The Amitabha Scripture " the following 

 account of the Chinese Ta Shih Chih, called Dai Seishi in 

 Japanese, though no doubt using Christian terms much too freely, 

 as is this writer's wont. 



" God has two supreme heavenly beings as counsellors. The 

 name of one is Kwanyin, and the name of the other is Ta Shih 

 Chih (the Great Mighty One), who always sit on each side of Him. 

 God took counsel with them about past, present and future 

 affairs of the universe, and desired that they should separate 

 from Him and go and become incarnate in one of the worlds 

 and help Him to save it, without losing their original unity and 

 state. . . . The Scripture of Boundless Age says of Ta Shih Chih 

 that he can put an end to the iTarma-chain of endless births and 

 deaths caused by sin by removing sin altogether, without need- 

 ing a single re-birth, but go straight to the Pure Land of 

 Paradise, and live for ever there (Meditation 12)." Of the other 

 member of this Triad, the goddess Kwanyin, Dr. Richard writes : 

 " This Inspirer of their highest and holiest thoughts they call 

 Kwanyin in China and Kwannon in Japan, which means the 

 one who looks down upon human suffering and is the inspirer of 

 men and women to save their fellows. Sometimes this Inspirer 

 is represented by a male, Manjusri, and sometimes by a female, 

 the goddess of Mercy."* 



Here again our author allows his imagination to guide him 

 into statements which are likely to lead his readers very much 

 astray, though he incidentally shows that Mahayanism in China 

 has assimilated a great deal of Chinese polytheism and idolatry. 

 Ta Shih Chih and Kwanyin are genuine Chinese Deities, though 

 the latter has been identified with the Northern Buddhist 

 Avalokitesvara. Avalokitesvara and Manjusri were Bodhisatt- 

 vas worshipped by the Mahayanists in India as early as the 

 time of the Chinese Pilgrim Hiuen Tsiang, in the seventh century 



* New Testament of Higher Buddhism, pp. 13-15. 



