1837.] and on the Progress of Buddhism to the Eastward. 15 



mens of its written character given by European writers. If not, a, 

 notice of its construction, with an alphabet and vocabulary at the hands 

 of any Chinese scholar, would be highly interesting, as well as of 

 those of the Bon-se, the language and character in which the sacred 

 writings of the Buddhists of Japan are written. It is probable they 

 will both be found polysyllabic, and to bear great affinity to the Pali 

 and Magadha languages of India, Ceylon and Siam, &c. Both the 

 Bon-se and Fan-yu are unknown to the laity of China and Japan, and 

 the written characters are said to be very dissimilar to those in com- 

 mon use. That of the Fan-yu is said by the Chinese* to have existed 



unpli ringed from the commencement of the world, as is the Magadhl 



by the Cingalese. The Bon-se of Japan is said to be of divine origin, 

 and to have been first introduced from Fiaksae-f in the west of Corea 

 A.D. 552. The sacred books of Buddha were subsequently procured 

 from India by the Dairi-kwanum in 805. Although the priests of 

 China and Japan make use of these languages, in their idolatrous rites, 

 I was assured by some Chinese officials at Malacca, that the Fan-yu 

 was seldom understood even by the priests themselves, and this is 

 probably the case with the Bon-se of the Japanese. The Fan-yu is no 

 doubt the language in which Mr. Gutzlaff, the missionary, heard the 

 Buddhist priests of the island of Poo-to, one of the Chusan group, chant 

 their vespers, and which he states to have been in the Pali language* 

 Identity of Deity and Religion. The Burmese and Siamese worship 

 Buddha under the names of Gaudam or Gautama. The Chinese under 

 that of Sheh-kea, and the Japanese adore him under the appellation of 

 Saca or Sacya, spelt by the Dutch Siaca, and by the Portuguese Xaca. 

 The Pirt of the Siamese, the Fuh of the Chinese, and Bodso of the 

 Japanese, are used as general terms for the deity among these nations, 

 and are evidently corruptions of the word Buddh or Buddha.% The 

 names given by the Hindu Buddhist§ Amaracosha, to the last sup- 

 posed incarnation of Buddha, viz. Sacya, Muni, Gautama, &c. clearly 

 identify him with the present Sheh-kea or Sacya of the Chinese and 

 Japanese, and the Gaudam or Gautama of the Siamese, Cingalese, and 

 Burmans. The identity of these deities is further proved by the testi- 

 mony of Francis Buchanan, who saw the Chinese ambassadors wor- 

 shipping the images of Buddha, at the capital of the Burmese empire, 

 as if their own, and by that of a Chinese, long resident at Siam, who 

 informed me there was but little difference in his religion, and that of 

 the Siamese, and that they worship the same images.5[ The Adi Saca 



* Indo-Chinese Gleaner, vol. in. p. 143. + Chinese Repository, vol. III. p. 203. 

 t For the explanation of the Chinese corruption Fuh, vide page 9. 

 $ As. Res. vol. ii. page 123—4. 



IT Mr. Gutzlaff in his journal of a residence in Siam states, that he saw the Chinese 

 make offerings to an idol of Buddha in a temple at Kokram, 



