stimation
a religion specially concerned with funeral rites.[662]

Some authors[663] try to prove that the influx of Nestorianism under
the T'ang dynasty had an important influence on the later development
of Buddhism in China and Japan and in particular that it popularized
these services for the dead. But this hypothesis seems to me unproved
and unnecessary. Such ceremonies were an essential part of Chinese
religion and no faith could hope to spread, if it did not countenance
them: they are prominent in Hinduism and not unknown to Pali
Buddhism.[664] Further the ritual used in China and Japan has often
only a superficial resemblance to Christian masses for the departed.
Part of it is magical and part of it consists in acquiring merit by
the recitation of scriptures which have no special reference to the
dead. This merit is then formally transferred to them. Doubtless
Nestorianism, in so far as it was associated with Buddhism, tended to
promote the worship of Bodhisattvas and prayers addressed directly to
them, but this tendency existed independently and the Nestorian
monument indicates not that Nestorianism influenced Buddhism but that
it abandoned the doctrine of the atonement.

In 819 a celebrated incident occurred. The Emperor Hsien-Tsung had
been informed that at the Fa-men monastery in Shen-si a bone of the
Buddha was preserved which every thirty years exhibited miraculous
powers. As this was the auspicious year, he ordered the relic to be
brought in state to the capital and lodged in the Imperial Palace,
after which it was to make the round of the monasteries in the city.
This proceeding called forth an animated protest from Han-Yu,[665] one
of the best known authors and statesmen then living, who presented a
memorial, still celebrated as a masterpiece. The following extract
will give an idea of its style. "Your Servant is well aware that your
Majesty does not do this (give the bone such a reception) in the vain
hope of deriving advantage therefrom but that in the fulness of our
present plenty there is a desire to comply with the wishes of the
people in the celebration at the capital of this delusive mummery....
For Buddha was a barbarian. His language was not the language of
China. His clothes were of an alien cut. He did not utter the maxims
of our ancient rulers nor conform to the customs which they have
handed down. He did not appreciate the bond between prince and
minister, the tie between father and son.