e Chinese language is full
of Buddhist phraseology,[584] not only in literature but in
popular songs and proverbs and an inspection of such entries in a
Chinese dictionary as _Fo_ (Buddha), _Kuan Yin_, _Ho Shang_
(monk)[585] will show how large and not altogether flattering a part
they play in popular speech.

Popular literature bears the same testimony. It is true that in what
are esteemed the higher walks of letters Buddhism has little place.
The quotations and allusions which play there so prominent a part are
taken from the classics and Confucianism can claim as its own the
historical, lexicographical and critical[586] works which are the
solid and somewhat heavy glory of Chinese literature. But its lighter
and less cultivated blossoms, such as novels, fairy stories and
poetry, are predominantly Buddhist or Taoist in inspiration. This may
be easily verified by a perusal of such works as the _Dream of the Red
Chamber_, _Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio_, and Wieger's _Folk
Lore Chinois Moderne_. The same is true in general of the great
Chinese poets, many of whom did not conceal that (in a poetic and
unascetic fashion) they were attached to Buddhism.

It may be asked if the inspiration is not Taoist in the main rather
than Buddhist. Side by side with ethics and ceremony, a native stream
of bold and weird imagination has never ceased to flow in China and
there was no need to import tales of the Genii, immortal saints and
vampire beauties. But when any coherency unites these ideas of the
supernatural, that I think is the work of Buddhism and so far as
Taoism itself has any coherency it is an imitation of Buddhism. Thus
the idea of metempsychosis as one of many passing fancies may be
indigenous to China but its prevalence in popular thought and language
is undoubtedly due to Buddhism, for Taoism and Confucianism have
nothing definite to say as to the state of the dead.

Much the same story of Buddhist influence is told by Chinese art,
especially painting and sculpture. Here too Taoism is by no means
excluded: it may be said to represent the artistic side of the
Chinese mind, as Confucianism represents the political. But it is
impossible to mistake the significance of chronology. As soon as
Buddhism was well established in China, art entered on a new phase
which culminated in the masterpieces of the T'ang and Sung.[587]
Buddhism did not introduce painting into China or even perfect a
rudimentary art. The celebra