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



India with the view of bringing the most learned of their Buddhist 

 priests into China to explain more fully the original tenets of their 

 sect, a purpose from which his minister Wang- Yang-Ming, who was a 

 man of letters and a philosopher, attempted to dissuade him in an 

 eloquent address, wherein allusion is made to the tenets of Fuh as a 

 religion which had its origin in the distant countries of the west, and 

 to Fuh himself as being the sacred sage of foreigners. It may be 

 here remarked that the Chinese have no character whose initial sound 

 corresponds with B ; consequently their pronunciation of the word 

 Buddh would be P'hudh, or Fut, Fuh. The emperor Mingti, who 

 is supposed to have flourished during the first century after Christ, sent 

 ambassadors into India, in consequence of a saying of Confucius, viz. 

 that the most holy was to be found in the west, who returned with the 

 books and doctrines of Buddha. These did not make much way 

 against the doctrines of Confucius until about 518 A. D. when a 

 Buddhist priest named Darma or D'herma (an Indian name) came 

 into China from Seitensku which, says Ksempfer, according to Japanese 

 explanation, means, that part of the world which lies westwards of 

 Japan. On the island of Honan there is a large Buddhist temple 

 called the Fut-kaon*, containing many inscriptions indicating the 

 origin of their religion. For instance Hoe-teen Fok-te the " happy 

 region near the sea." Nam-teen-fut-kwok " the nation of Buddha 

 in the southern region." — Hoe-van Poo-te " the god Buddha on the 

 shores of the sea." Three large images of the Jam-pow-fut. The three 

 precious Buddhas, past, present, and future. In this temple there is a 

 single image of Amida (immeasurable) Buddha ; in Chinese called 

 O-mi-to-Fuh-ti. 



Corea. — Shortly after the appearance of the Buddhist priest Darma 

 in China, Buddhism made rapid progress to the east.f The first 

 idol to Buddha in the peninsula of Fakkusai or Corea was erected 

 in 543 A. D.| Professor Wilson states the introduction of this religion 

 into Corea to have taken place A. D. 530. 



From Corea it may be traced to Japan and the Chusan group ; one 

 of which, the island of Poo-to, was visited lately by Mr. Gutzlaff the 

 missionary. § The immense number of Buddhist temples and 

 priests, sixty two of the former and two thousand of the latter, on this 

 small island, the area of which does not exceed 12 miles, can only 

 be accounted for by supposing it to be a place of peculiar sanctity 

 where Buddha is supposed to have first made his appearance. This 

 is corroborated by the large inscriptions hewn in rocks of solid granite, 

 and the many gigantic statues of Buddha. The highly picturesque 



* Indo Chinese Gleaner vol. in. page 236. 



* Ksempfer, 



% Preface to Sanscrit Dictionary. 



| Quarterly Review, vol. Li . page 475, 



