Curiosities of Superstition Part 3

_Yo-sse-jou-la-pou-youen-kong-te-king (Arya bhagavati bhaichadja gourou pourwa pranidhana nama maha yana soutra)._

_Lou-men-t'o-lo-ni-king (Chat moukhi dharani)._"

He had ministered to the wants of upwards of twenty thousand persons among the faithful and heretical; he had kindled a hundred thousand lamps, and purchased thousands upon thousands (_ocean_) of creatures.

When Kia-chang had finished this long catalogue of good works, he was ordered to read it aloud. After hearing it, the religious crossed their hands and loaded the Master with congratulations. Then he said to them:--"The moment of my death approaches; already my mind grows feeble and seems to be on the point of quitting me. Distribute at once in alms my clothes and goods; let statues be fabricated; and order the religious to recite some prayers."

On the twenty-third day, a meal was given to the poor, at which alms were distributed. On the same day, he ordered a moulder named Song-kia-tchi, to raise, in the Kia-cheou-tien palace, a statue of the Intelligence (Buddha); after which he invited the population of the convent, the translators, and his disciples, to bid "a joyous farewell to that impure and contemptible body of Hiouen-thsang, who, having finished his work, merited no longer existence. I desire," he added, "to see poured back upon other men the merits which I have acquired by any good works; to be born with them in the heaven of the Touchitas; to be admitted into the family of _Mi-le_ (_Maitreya_); and to serve the Buddha, full of tenderness and affection. When I shall return to earth to pa.s.s through other existences, I desire, at each new birth, to discharge with boundless zeal my duties towards the Buddha, and finally to arrive at the Transcendent Intelligence (_Anouttara samyak sambodhi_)."

After having made these adieux, he was silent, and engaged in meditation; then with his dying tongue he faltered forth his bitter regret that he did not enjoy more of the "world of the eyes" (the faculty of seeing), of the "world of the thought" (the faculty of thinking), of "the world of the knowledge which springs from observation" (the knowledge of sensible objects); of the "world of the knowledge which springs from the mind"--_l'esprit_ (the perception of spiritual things); and that he did not possess the fulness of the Intelligence. Finally, he p.r.o.nounced two _gubhas_, which he caused to be repeated to the persons near him:--

"Adoration to _Maitreya Tathagata_, gifted with a sublime intelligence! I desire, with all men, to see your affectionate visage.

"Adoration to _Maitreya Tathagata_! I desire, when I quit this life, to be born again in the midst of the mult.i.tude who surround you."

The Master of the Law, after having long fixed his gaze upon Te-hoe, the sub-director of the convent (_Karmmadana_), raised his right hand to his chin and his left upon his breast; then he stretched out his legs, crossed them, and lay down on the right side.

He remained thus, immovable, without taking anything, until the fifth day of the second moon. In the middle of the night his disciples asked him:

"Master, have you at length obtained to be born in the midst of the a.s.sembly of _Maitreya_?"

"Yes," he replied, with a failing voice. And having spoken, his breathing grew rapidly weaker, and in a few moments, his soul pa.s.sed away.

His servants, feeling quietly, found that his feet were already cold, but that the back part of the head retained its warmth.

On the seventh day (of the second moon) his countenance had not undergone any alteration, and his body exhaled no odour.

The religious of the convent having pa.s.sed several days in prayers, it was not until the morning of the ninth day that the sad news reached the capital.

The Master of the Law was seven _tchi_ high; his face was of a fresh complexion. His eyebrows were wide apart, his eyes brilliant. His air was grave and majestic, and his features were full of grace and vivacity. The quality or tone (_timbre_) of his voice was pure and penetrating, and his language at times soared to a lofty eloquence, so n.o.ble and so harmonious that one could not refuse to listen. When he was surrounded by his disciples, or animated by the presence of an ill.u.s.trious guest, he would often speak for half-a-day, while his hearers sat riveted in an immovable att.i.tude. His favourite attire was a robe of fine cotton stuff, proportioned to his height and figure; his gait was light and easy; he looked straight before him, throwing his glances neither to the right nor to the left. He was majestic as those great rivers which embrace the earth; calm and s.h.i.+ning as the lotus which springs in the midst of the waters. A severe observer of discipline, he was unchanged and unchangeable. Nothing could equal his affectionate benevolence and tender pity, the fervour of his zeal or his inviolable attachment to the practices of the Law. He was reserved in his friends.h.i.+p, made no hasty bonds, and when once he had entered his convent, nothing but an imperial decree could have drawn him from his pious retreat.

On the third day of the second moon (of the period _Lin-te_,--664), the Master of the Law had sent Hiu-hiouen-pi to inform the Emperor of the wound he had received, and of the malady it had induced.

On the seventh day of the same month the Emperor, by a decree, ordered one of the imperial physicians to take with him medicaments and attend upon the Master of the Law, but by the time he arrived, the Master was already dead. Teou-sse-lun, governor of Fang-tcheou, announced by a report this melancholy event.

At the news, the Emperor shed tears copiously, and cried aloud in his sorrow, declaring that he had just lost the treasure of the empire. For several days he suspended the usual audiences.

All the civil and military functionaries abandoned themselves to groans and tears: the Emperor himself was unable to repress his sobs or moderate his grief. On the next day but one, he spoke to his great officers as follows:

"What a misfortune for my empire is the loss of Thsang, the Master of the Law! It may well be said that the great family of Cakya has seen its sole support shattered beneath it, and that all men remain without master and without guide. Do they not resemble the mariner who sees himself sinking into the abyss, when the storm has destroyed his oars and his shallop? the traveller astray in the midst of the darkness, whose lamp dies out at the entrance to a bottomless gulf?"

When he had uttered these words, the Emperor groaned again, and sighed many times.

On the twenty-sixth day of the same month, the Emperor issued the following decree:

"In accordance with a report addressed to me by Teou-sse-lun on the death of the Master of the Law, Hiouen-thsang, of the convent _Yu-hoa-sse_, I order that his funeral take place at the expense of the State."

On the sixth day of the third moon, he issued a new decree as follows:

"By the death of Thsang, the Master of the Law, the translation of the sacred books is stopped. In conformity to the ancient ordinances, the magistrates will cause the translations already completed to be copied carefully: as for the (Indian) ma.n.u.scripts which have not yet been translated, they will be handed over in their entirety to the director of the convent _Ts'e'-en-sse_ (of the Great Beneficence,) who will watch over their safety. The disciples of Hiouen-thsang and the translators' company, who previously did not belong to the convent _Yu-hoa-sse_, will all return to their respective convents."

On the fifth day of the third moon appeared the following decree:

"On the day of the funeral of the Master of the Law, Hiouen-thsang, I permit the male and female religious of the capital to accompany him _with banners and parasols_ to his last resting-place. The Master of the Law shone by his n.o.ble conduct and his eminent virtues, and was the idol of his age. Wherefore, now he is no more, it is just that I should diffuse again abundant benefits to honour the memory of a man who has had no equal in past times."

His disciples, faithful to his last wishes, formed a litter of coa.r.s.e mats, removed his body to the capital, and deposited it in the convent of the Great Beneficence, in the middle of the hall devoted to the labours of translation. United by the sentiment of a common sorrow, they uttered such cries as might have shaken the earth. The religious and the laics of the capital hastened to the spot, and poured out tears mingled with sobs and cries. Every day the crowd was swollen by fresh arrivals.

On the fourteenth day of the fourth month, preparations were made for his interment in the capital of the West. The male and female religious, and a mult.i.tude of the men of the people, prepared upwards of five hundred objects necessary for the celebration of his obsequies; parasols of smooth (_unia_) silk, banners and standards, the tent and the litter of the _Ni-ouan_ (Nirvana;) the inner coffin of gold, the outer one of silver, the _so-lo_ trees (_salas_,) and disposed them in the middle of the streets to be traversed by the procession. The plaintive cadences of the funereal music, and the mournful dirges of the bearers resounded even to Heaven. The inhabitants of the capital and of the districts situated within a radius of five hundred _li_ (fifty leagues,) who formed the procession, exceeded one million in number. Though the obsequies were celebrated with pomp, the coffin of the Master nevertheless was borne upon a litter composed of rude coa.r.s.e mats. The silk manufacturers of the East had employed three thousand pieces of different colours in making the chariot of the Nirvana, which they had ornamented with flowers and garlands, loaded with precious stones. They had asked permission to place the body of the Master of the Law upon this resplendent catafalque; but afraid of infringing his dying command, his disciples had refused. So it went first, bearing the Master's three robes and his religious mantle, of the value of one hundred ounces of silver; next came the litter constructed of coa.r.s.e mats. Not one of the a.s.sistants but shed copious tears or was almost choked with grief!

Upwards of thirty thousand religious and laics spent the night near his tomb.

On the morning of the fifteenth day the grave was closed; then, at the place of sepulture, an immense distribution of alms was made, and the crowd afterwards dispersed in silence.

On the eighth day of the fourth moon of the second year of the Tsong-tchang period (669,) the Emperor decreed that the tomb of the Master of the Law should be transported into a plain, situated to the west of the _Fan-tch'ouen_ valley, and that a tower should be erected in his honour.[15]

CHAPTER II.

_MAGIANISM: THE Pa.r.s.eES._

THE ZENDAVESTA.[16]

When the pure morality of Christianity is adduced as a proof of its high origin, one of the favourite devices of Modern Unbelief is to claim an equally high standard for the morality inculcated by the primitive creeds, and to rain praises upon the ethical systems embodied in the Soutras of the Buddhists, the Rig-Veda of the Brahmans, or the Zendavesta of the Pa.r.s.ees. In making this claim our philosophers probably calculate on the little knowledge which the mult.i.tude possess of any creeds but their own.

They are well aware that, to the popular mind, the teaching of Buddha or Zoroaster is necessarily a sealed book, and that the whole extent of its purport is known only to a few scholars. Hence, when they come to support their thesis by quotations, they are able to select those isolated pa.s.sages which s.h.i.+ne with the l.u.s.tre of genuine diamonds, and produce an absolutely false impression of the general character of the writings in which they occur; thin veins of precious metal s.h.i.+ning here and there through ma.s.ses of worthless ore. No doubt the Veda contains numerous utterances of the highest beauty, in which the soul's devotion to a Supreme Power is expressed with a lyrical fervour inferior only to that of the Sweet Singer of Israel. No doubt the Zendavesta, or the books of K'ung-fu-tze, like the works of later and maturer intellects--a Xenophon and a Plato, a Seneca and a Marcus Aurelius--are enriched with thoughts of the loftiest description, and frequently breathe the most exalted aspirations. But what we have to remember is, that these are wholly exceptional; that they are the most arduous efforts of each self-absorbed thinker, and the indications of his boldest flights. At other times the wing grows feeble; at other times the music is faint and even discordant; the bird can do no more than creep along the ground. In the sayings of our Lord, however, or in the writings of His Apostles, the tone is always sustained, clear, definite. There is no uncertainty or hesitation. Nothing mean or unworthy is woven in their texture. No concessions are made to man's coa.r.s.er desires or grosser pa.s.sions. The system set before us is rounded in perfection, and shows not a flaw from beginning to end. We feel that He who speaks, whether in His own Person or through His disciples, speaks as never man spoke before; and that the Voice which fills our ears and stirs our hearts is, in deed and in truth, a Voice from Heaven.

We propose to furnish in this chapter a general view of the construction and teaching of the Pa.r.s.ee Scriptures, with the view of showing the signal inferiority of the creed it embodies to Christianity in all that can elevate the mind and satisfy the soul. At the same time we admit that the Pa.r.s.ee creed, and all similar creeds, possess an intrinsic value, apart from their ethical deficiencies, as ill.u.s.trating the recognition of an Almighty Will, an Eternal and Supreme Force, by all the higher races of mankind. They show us the hopes, fears, and desires of great tribes and peoples which existed in the days before men wrote history; and they show us how their wisest teachers groped in the dark, and stumbled in the th.o.r.n.y path,--favoured occasionally, it is true, with a wonderful glimpse of light, and striking now and again into the pleasant places, but never rejoicing in the glory which rose upon earth with the Sun of Righteousness, never treading in that narrow but secure way which leads to Eternal Life. We see in them the great minds of the early world, like children on the seash.o.r.e, perplexed by a music which they could not comprehend, and astonished by a power which they were unable to define.

Yet happier and wiser they than the cold materialist of a later age, who resolves all mysteries, all phenomena, into the working of a blind inflexible Law, and takes out of creation its light, beauty, and joy by denying the existence of an all-powerful and all-loving Creator.

The religion professed by the ancient Persians, and still accepted by the Pa.r.s.ees of Western India, and by a scattered population in Yezd and Kerman, is taught in the books known as the Zend-Avesta. This t.i.tle comes from the Sa.s.sanian term _Avesta_ or _Apusta_, that is, the text;[17] and _Zend_, or _Zand_, that is, the commentary upon it. The meaning of the latter word, however, seems to have varied at different periods.

Originally it signified the interpretation of the sacred texts handed down from Zoroaster (or Zarathustra) and his disciples. In course of time the interpretation came to be esteemed not less authoritative and sacred than the original text, and both were called _Avesta_. But the language in which they were written having died out, they became unintelligible to the majority of the people, and a new _Zend_ or commentary was required before they could be understood. The new "Zend" was the work of the most learned priests of the Sa.s.sanian period, and consisted of a translation of the double "Avesta" into the vernacular language then in vogue.[18] And as this translation is the only key which the priests of modern Persia possess to the old creed as taught by Zarathustra, it has usurped the place of the original Zend, and is now the recognised official commentary.

But, anciently, the word "Zend" implied something more than a simple interpretation of the "Avesta," or sacred texts. That interpretation was the source of certain new doctrines, the whole of which were considered orthodox, and designated _Zandi-agahi_, or Zend doctrines; doctrines which, it can hardly be doubted, supplied Plutarch and some other of the Greeks with ethical suggestions. The name _Pazend_, which frequently occurs in connection with _Avesta_ and _Zend_, denotes a further exposition of Zarathustrian teaching, as contained in the Vendidad, to which we shall shortly refer.

Thus far we have been indebted to Dr. Haug's account of the origin of the Zendavesta. His views are confirmed by Westergaard, who a.s.serts that the sacred books belong to two epochs; that is, that they are written in one age, and collected and systematised in another, in much the same way as, according to Wolf, the Homeric poems were produced and a.s.sumed their present form. All the earlier traditions ascribe their origin to Zarathustra; but modern philologists affirm that they could not have sprung from any single mind, because they present no defined or self-consistent system of religious belief or moral economy. Like the hymns of the Vedas, and the strains of the Norse Edda, the several portions of the Zendavesta, so they say, must have been composed by different bards, each of whom coloured his particular theme according to the hues of his lively imagination. This theory, however, though it may have an element of truth in it, is hardly the whole truth. The Zendavesta is unquestionably wanting in unity and completeness. But it seems to us that traces of a dominant mind are everywhere visible; that the various parts are held together as on a thread by the teaching of Zarathustra himself; and that the additions made by later and inferior writers are not such as wholly to obscure the original work.

It is to the celebrated Frenchman, Anquetil Duperron, that the scholars of the West owe their knowledge of these remarkable books. Happening to see a facsimile of a few pages written in Zend characters, he resolved on setting out for India in order to purchase ma.n.u.scripts of all the sacred books of the Zarathustrian religion, to acquire a thorough insight into their signification, and to obtain a knowledge of the rites and religious observances of the Pa.r.s.ees. His means being limited, he entered himself as a sailor on board a s.h.i.+p of the Dutch Indian Company, and worked his way out to Bombay in 1754. With money supplied by the French Government to a.s.sist him in his ingenious researches, he bribed one of the most learned _dustoors_ or priests, Dustoor Darat, or Surat, to procure the treasures he desired, and to instruct him in the Zend and Pehlvi languages. As soon as he had acquired the requisite proficiency, he addressed himself to the task of translating the whole of the Zendavesta into French. This was in 1759. Returning to Europe, he convinced himself of the genuineness of his purchases by comparing them with MSS. in the Bodleian Library; and, after several years of arduous labour, produced the first European version in 1771. At the outset, the authenticity of his work was challenged both in England and Germany; but all doubts have been set at rest by the inquiries of Rask and others; and thus, through the fanciful enterprise of a young Frenchman, the veil has been lifted which for so long a period shrouded the mysterious religion of the Magi.

We do not, however, possess the whole of the Avesta. It is a.s.serted by an Arabian writer that Zarathustra himself covered with his verses no fewer than twelve thousand parchments, and who shall compute the extent of the literature acc.u.mulated by his disciples? Whether this literature perished at the epoch of the Macedonian conquest of Persia, or whether it was destroyed by Alexander the Great, or whether it gradually perished as the influence of the Greek philosophy prevailed over the Zarathustrian theology, it is impossible to determine. The remains of the sacred books, however, with short summaries of their contents, have been handed down to us. Originally they were twenty-one in number, called _Nosks_, and each _Nosk_ consisting of "Avesta" and "Zend"--text and commentary. The number twenty-one corresponded to the number of words composing the "Honovar," or most sacred prayer, of the Zarathustrians. It is, we may add, a magical number, being the result of the multiplication of the sacred numbers, _three_ and _seven_.

Of these divisions the _precis_ now extant, and collected for the first time by the Danish scholar Westergaard, comprise the following books: First, the _Yasna_, which sets before us the devotions proper to be offered in connection with the sacrificial ceremonies. This Yasna is divided into seventy-two chapters, representing the six Yahanhars, or "seasons" during which Ahura-Mazda, the Good Principle, created the world.

The reader will here note the coincidence between the six creative seasons of the Magian seer, and the six creative days of the Hebrew lawgiver. The Yasna consists of two parts, the older of which is written in what is called the Gatha dialect, and had acquired a peculiar sanct.i.ty prior to the date of composition of the other books. It may be described as a treasury of songs, hymns, and metrical prayers, which embody a variety of abstruse reflections upon subjects of metaphysical inquiry, and are much better adapted to stimulate the intellect of the student than to foster the devotion of the wors.h.i.+pper. They are rhymeless, like the poetical effusions of Caedmon, and in their metrical structure bear a curious resemblance to the Vedic hymns. Of these collections, or Gathas, there are five, and their leading t.i.tle seems to be: "The Revealed Thought, the Revealed Word, and the Revealed Deed of Zarathustra the Holy." It is added that the Archangels first sang the Gathas. Their general purport is an exposition of the work and teaching of the great founder of Magianism, who is represented as inveighing against a belief in the _devas_, or G.o.ds, and exhorting his disciples to lift up their hearts only to Ahura-Mazda, the Supreme Goodness.

Now it seems necessary to correct a popular error, that the Zendavesta is largely liturgical: an error confirmed by the a.s.sertion of Gibbon, who says: "Every mode of religion, to make a deep and lasting impression on the human mind, must exercise our obedience, by enjoining practices of devotion for which we can a.s.sign no reason; and must acquire our esteem by inculcating moral duties a.n.a.logous to the dictates of our own hearts. The religion of Zoroaster was abundantly provided with the former, and possessed a sufficient portion of the latter." But Zarathustra himself, in one of his best-known precepts, warns his followers that "he who sows the ground with care and diligence, acquires a greater stock of religious merit than he would gain by the repet.i.tion of ten thousand prayers." It is the tendency of all ethico-religious systems, at least in their earliest stage of development, to discourage purely liturgical observances, and to enjoin on the disciple a state of self-concentration and self-absorption varied only by physical activity. Unaided by a divine Revelation, their founders never rise higher than the pa.s.sive virtues of endurance and patience. As time pa.s.ses away, and the new creed falls into the hands of a special school of expounders, minute rites and rigid practices are acc.u.mulated in order to impose upon the neophyte, and deepen the influence of those who alone possess a clue to their meaning. The formalities which enc.u.mber the Zarathustrian wors.h.i.+p were invented long after the death of the master, and no indication of them appears in the oldest section of the Zendavesta. They are to be found chiefly in the much later pages of the _Sadder_, where fifteen different genuflexions and prayers are required of the devout Persian every time he cuts his finger-nails!