n
instead of Indian, it is only natural that the doctrine too should
take on some local colour.[531]

Thus the dated inscription of the temple erected in Turfan A.D. 469 is
a mixture of Chinese ideas, both Confucian and Taoist, with Indian. It
is in honour of Maitreya, a Bodhisattva known to the Hinayana, but
here regarded not merely as the future Buddha but as an active and
benevolent deity who manifests himself in many forms,[532] a view
which also finds expression in the tradition that the works of Asanga
were revelations made by him. Akasagarbha and the Dharmakaya are
mentioned. But the inscription also speaks of heaven (t'ien) as
appointing princes, and of the universal law (tao) and it contains
several references to Chinese literature.

Even more remarkable is the admixture of Buddhism in Manichaeism. The
discoveries made in Central Asia make intelligible the Chinese edict
of 739 which accuses the Manichaeans of falsely taking the name of
Buddhism and deceiving the people.[533] This is not surprising for
Mani seems to have taught that Zoroaster, Buddha and Christ had
preceded him as apostles, and in Buddhist countries his followers
naturally adopted words and symbols familiar to the people. Thus
Manichaean deities are represented like Bodhisattvas sitting
cross-legged on a lotus; Mani receives the epithet Ju-lai or
Tathagata: as in Amida's Paradise, there are holy trees bearing
flowers which enclose beings styled Buddha: the construction and
phraseology of Manichaean books resemble those of a Buddhist
Sutra.[534] In some ways the association of Taoism and Manichaeism was
even closer, for the Hu-hua-ching identifies Buddha with Lao-tzu and
Mani, and two Manichaean books have passed into the Taoist Canon.[535]

Nestorian Christianity also existed in the Tarim basin and became
prominent in the seventh century. This agrees with the record of its
introduction into China by A-lo-pen in 635 A.D., almost simultaneously
with Zoroastrianism. Fragments of the New Testament have been found at
Turfan belonging mostly to the ninth century but one to the fifth. The
most interesting document for the history of Nestorianism is still the
monument discovered at Si-ngan-fu and commonly called the Nestorian
stone.[536] It bears a long inscription partly in Chinese and partly
in Syriac composed by a foreign priest called Adam or in Chinese
King-Tsing giving a long account of the doctrines and history of
Nestorianism. Not only does