Taking Advantage Of Their Influence At Court, They Persuaded
Kublai To Decree The Burning Of These Books, And It Was Carried Out In
Peking." (Palladius, 30.) - H. C.]
The term which Polo writes as Sensin appears to have been that popularly
applied to the Taosse sect at the Mongol Court.
Thus we are told by
Rashiduddin in his History of Cathay: "In the reign of Din-Wang, the 20th
king of this (the 11th) Dynasty, TAI SHANG LAI KUN, was born. This person
is stated to have been accounted a prophet by the people of Khita; his
father's name was Han; like Shak-muni he is said to have been conceived by
light, and it is related that his mother bore him in her womb no less a
period than 80 years. The people who embraced his doctrine were called
[Arabic] (Shan-shan or Shinshin)." This is a correct epitome of the
Chinese story of Laokiun or Lao-tse, born in the reign of Ting Wang
of the Cheu Dynasty. The whole title used by Rashiduddin, Tai Shang Lao
Kiun, "The Great Supreme Venerable Ruler," is that formerly applied by
the Chinese to this philosopher.
Further, in a Mongol [and Chinese] inscription of the year 1314 from the
department of Si-ngan fu, which has been interpreted and published by Mr.
Wylie, the Taosse priests are termed Senshing. [See Deveria, Notes
d'Epigraphie, pp. 39-43, and Prince R. Bonaparte's Recueil, Pl. xii.
No. 3. - H. C.]
Seeing then that the very term used by Polo is that applied by both Mongol
and Persian authorities of the period to the Taosse, we can have no doubt
that the latter are indicated, whether the facts stated about them be
correct or not.
The word Senshing-ud (the Mongol plural) is represented in the Chinese
version of Mr. Wylie's inscription by Sin-sang, a conventional title
applied to literary men, and this perhaps is sufficient to determine the
Chinese word which Sensin represents. I should otherwise have supposed
it to be the Shin-sian alluded to by Baldelli, and mentioned in the
quotations which follow; and indeed it seems highly probable that two
terms so much alike should have been confounded by foreigners. Semedo says
of the Taosse: "They pretend that by means of certain exercises and
meditations one shall regain his youth, and others shall attain to be
Shien-sien, i.e. 'Terrestrial Beati,' in whose state every desire is
gratified, whilst they have the power to transport themselves from one
place to another, however distant, with speed and facility." Schott, on
the same subject, says: "By Sian or Shin-sian are understood in the
old Chinese conception, and particularly in that of the Tao-Kiao [or
Taosse] sect, persons who withdraw to the hills to lead the life of
anchorites, and who have attained, either through their ascetic
observances or by the power of charms and elixirs, to the possession of
miraculous gifts and of terrestrial immortality." And M. Pauthier himself,
in his translation of the Journey of Khieu, an eminent doctor of this
sect, to the camp of the Great Chinghiz in Turkestan, has related how
Chinghiz bestowed upon this personage "a seal with a tiger's head and a
diploma" (surely a lion's head, P'aizah and Yarligh; see infra, Bk.
II. ch. vii. note 2), "wherein he was styled Shin Sien or Divine
Anchorite." Sian-jin again is the word used by Hiuen Tsang as the
equivalent to the name of the Indian Rishis, who attain to supernatural
powers.
["Sensin is a sufficiently faithful transcription of Sien-seng
(Sien-shing in Pekingese); the name given by the Mongols in conversation as
well as in official documents, to the Tao-sze, in the sense of preceptors,
just as Lamas were called by them Bacshi, which corresponds to the
Chinese Sien-seng. M. Polo calls them fasters and ascetics. It was one of
the sects of Taouism. There was another one which practised cabalistic and
other mysteries. The Tao-sze had two monasteries in Shangtu, one in the
eastern, the other in the western part of the town." (Palladius, 30.)
- H.C.]
One class of the Tao priests or devotees does marry, but another class
never does. Many of them lead a wandering life, and derive a precarious
subsistence from the sale of charms and medical nostrums. They shave the
sides of the head, and coil the remaining hair in a tuft on the crown, in
the ancient Chinese manner; moreover, says Williams, they "are recognised
by their slate-coloured robes." On the feast of one of their divinities
whose title Williams translates as "High Emperor of the Sombre Heavens,"
they assemble before his temple, "and having made a great fire, about 15
or 20 feet in diameter, go over it barefoot, preceded by the priests and
bearing the gods in their arms. They firmly assert that if they possess a
sincere mind they will not be injured by the fire; but both priests and
people get miserably burnt on these occasions." Escayrac de Lauture says
that on those days they leap, dance, and whirl round the fire, striking at
the devils with a straight Roman-like sword, and sometimes wounding
themselves as the priests of Baal and Moloch used to do.
(Astley, IV. 671; Morley in J. R. A. S. VI. 24; Semedo, 111, 114;
De Mailla, IX. 410; J. As. ser. V. tom. viii. 138; Schott ueber den
Buddhismus etc. 71; Voyage de Khieou in J. As. ser. VI. tom. ix. 41;
Middle Kingdom, II. 247; Doolittle, 192; Esc. de Lauture, Mem. sur la
Chine, Religion, 87, 102; Peler. Boudd. II. 370, and III. 468.)
Let us now turn to the Bon-po. Of this form of religion and its
sectaries not much is known, for it is now confined to the eastern and
least known part of Tibet. It is, however, believed to be a remnant of the
old pre-Buddhistic worship of the powers of nature, though much modified
by the Buddhistic worship with which it has so long been in contact.
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