88 Sarat Chandra Das— Rise and Progress [No. 2, 
of Buddha. By this prediction he first made known the sweet name of 
Buddha in the country of China. 
Chwan-tse. —Again the founder of another religious sect, called 
Chwan-tse, saw in a vision that he was metempsychosed into a butterfly. 
After awaking from sleep, he reflected on the meaning of such a transient 
and empty dream which lavishes all on you and at last vanishes as a 
phantom, and inferred that life was an illusion. 
Yit-s'i. —Again another teacher named ‘ Yu-su’ (meaning the lord 
of the world), who was famed as born of a rose, preached a religion which 
forbade the destruction of human lives and instituted the taking of vows for 
observing ten moral acts, similar to those of the Buddhists. It also taught 
that, the results of virtuous actions being multiplied, the jfious should be 
born as gods to enjoy eternal happiness; that on the other hand, the 
perpetrators of sinful actions should be plunged in hell, to be afflicted 
with everlasting pains; and that despite their repentance or confession of 
sins, greater damnation would await those who had knowingly and deliber¬ 
ately transgressed. 
All these different sects prevailed in China as can be gathered from 
the religious histories of China. They did not spread all over the country, 
nor did their influence guide men for any considerable length of time, but 
they paved the way for the reception of Buddhism in that vast country. 
In the 26th year of the reign of Chou-Wan, the fifth of the Tehu 
Dynasty, there appeared, towards the south-western boundary of the king¬ 
dom, a halo of golden light, the lustre of which illuminated the realm. 
The king having witnessed this wonderful spectacle asked the astrologers 
what was meant by it. They declared that it presaged the birth of 
a saintly personage in that quarter, whose religion, after one thousand 
years, should be known in their own country (China). The king recorded 
this wonderful phenomenon in the Imperial debthers , 2 It was in that 
very year 3 that Buddha was born. Some authors believe that it was 
the 24th year of the Emperor Chou-wan’s reign. At the age of 
twenty-nine Buddha entered on the life of a mendicant, on the 8th 
of the 2nd lunar month; he turned the wheel of Dharma between 
the 30th and 49th years of his age, and last of all it is mentioned in the 
works of Chinese Buddhists that he obtained nirvana 4 in the 79th year of 
his age, on the 15th day of the second month. 5 Buddha died in the 53rd 
year of the Emperor Moo-wan’s reign. In the 8th year of the reign of the 
Emperor Mindhi-yun-phan of the great Han dynasty, 1013 years after 
2 Records. 
3 The year 1882 A. D. = 2835 A. B., after the birth of Buddha. 
4 Died. 
5 This does not tally with the more correct account of the Indian historians, as 
may be collected from several Tibetan chronologies. 
