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THE REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, D.D., OX 



this respect from the great mass of other Chinese translations. 

 The author's name is said to have been Asvaghosha, a name of 

 not uncommon occurrence ; but authorities differ much in 

 stating the date at which he lived. * Some think he wrote 

 about 300, others 370, others 500, others 600 years after 

 Siddhartha's death. The latter date would place him in the 

 first century of our era, and would probably lead to his 

 identification with the author of the Buddha-car it a. But many 

 scholars are very doubtful indeed about this identification. In 

 fact not a few Chinese accounts mention the author of The 

 Awakening of Faith by quite different names. It is perhaps 

 impossible at the present time to decide either his name or his 

 date ; but this is not of great importance in our comparison 

 between Christianity and Mahay anism, because it is not too 

 much to say that there is not the remotest resemblance to be 

 found in The Awakening of Faith to one single doctrine of the 

 Xew Testament. Yet this is the book which a modern 

 European writer ventures to entitle The New Testament of the 

 High* r Buddhism ! 



To his credit be it spoken, Dr. Timothy Richard does not 

 attempt, as not a few German and English writers have done, to 

 bolster up his assertions regarding the supposed resemblance 

 between Mahayana Buddhism and Christianity by referring to 

 the absurd legends contained in the Zcdita-vistara and other 

 books of uncertain ami late date accepted by the Xorthern 

 school of Buddhists. It is, of course, evident that, as these 

 books were all composed as least some considerable time after 

 the Gospel had reached Northern India, their legends would in 

 any case have no weight in the matter. The arguments adduced 

 from them against Christianity have been fully met by Dr. 

 Kelloggf and others. But there is one matter to which it is 

 perhaps well to refer very briefly before concluding this paper, 

 because it is frequently brought forward even now. I mean the 

 assertion that the Virginity of Buddha's mother, Maya, is 

 taught in certain Mahayana books. This is quite contrary to 

 fact. The doctrine is taught in neither the Northern nor the 

 Southern Canon, nor is it accepted by Buddhists anywhere. On 

 the contrary, in many places it is clearly asserted that his father 

 was SuddhSdana and his mother Maya. In others there is the 



* See Suzuki's "Introduction" to his translation of the book. 



t The Light of Asia and the Light of the World. He completely answers 

 Prof. Seydel's Das Evangelium von Jem in seinen Verladtnissen zu 

 Buddha-Sage und Buddha- Lehre. 



