n 730 after translating several Tantras and spells. His
companion and successor was Amoghavajra of whose career something has
already been said. The fourth Patriarch, Hui Kuo, was the instructor
of the celebrated Japanese monk Kobo Daishi who established the school
in Japan under the name of Shingon.[846]

The principal scripture of this sect is the Ta-jih-ching or sutra of
the Sun-Buddha.[847] A distinction is drawn between exoteric and
esoteric doctrine (the "true word") and the various phases of Buddhist
thought are arranged in ten classes. Of these the first nine are
merely preparatory, but in the last or esoteric phase, the adept
becomes a living Buddha and receives full intuitive knowledge. In this
respect the Tantric school resembles the teaching of Bodhidharma but
not in detail. It teaches that Vairocana is the whole world, which is
divided into Garbhadhatu (material) and Vajradhatu (indestructible),
the two together forming Dharmadhatu. The manifestations of
Vairocana's body to himself--that is Buddhas and Bodhisattvas--are
represented symbolically by diagrams of several circles.[848] But it
would be out of place to dwell further on the dogmatic theology of the
school, for I cannot discover that it was ever of importance in China
whatever may have been its influence in Japan. What appealed only too
powerfully to Chinese superstition was the use of spells, charms and
magical formulae and the doctrine that since the universe is merely
idea, thoughts and facts are equipollent. This doctrine (which need
not be the outcome of metaphysics, but underlies the magical practices
of many savage tribes) produced surprising results when applied to
funeral ceremonies, which in China have always formed the major part
of religion, for it was held that ceremonial can represent and control
the fortunes of the soul, that is to say that if a ceremony represents
figuratively the rescue of a soul from a pool of blood, then the soul
which is undergoing that punishment will be delivered. It was not
until the latter part of the eighth century that such theories and
ceremonies were accepted by Chinese Buddhism, but they now form a
large part of it.

Although in Japan Buddhism continued to produce new schools until the
thirteenth century, no movement in China attained this status after
about 730, and Lamaism, though its introduction produced considerable
changes in the north, is not usually reckoned as a Tsung. But numerous
societies a