e all is emptiness," said Bodhidharma, "nothing can be
called holy."

A neat compliment, thinks good externalist Wuti, may improve
things.--"If nothing can be called holy," says he, "who is
it then that replies to me?"--holiness being a well-known
characteristic of Bodhidharma himself. Who answered merely:

--"I do not know"; and went his ways. The final comment on the
interview is given by a Japanese writer thus: "Can an elephant
associate with rabbits?"

For the rest, he spent the remaining years of his life in a
cave-temple near Honanfu; and died after appointing a Chinaman
his successor. Besides this small stock of facts there is a
sort of legend; as for example:

After leaving the court of Lian, he crossed the Yangtse on a
reed,--a theme in sacred art for thousands ever since,--and
because of this miraculous crossing, is worshiped still by
Yangtse boatman as their patron saint,--on the 28th of February
in each year.--Once, as he sat in meditation, sleep overcame him;
and on waking, that it might never happen again, he cut off his
eyelids. But they fell on the earth, took root and sprouted;
and the plant that grew from them was the first of all tea
plants,--the symbol (and cause!) of eternal wakefulness. He is
represented in the pictures as being footless; in his missionary
travels, it is said, he wore away his feet. Thus where there is
no known life-story, but all hidden away beneath a veil of
esotericism and a Master's seclusion, myths have grown, and a
story has been made.--He sat there in his cave silent through the
years, they say; his face to the wall. Chih Kuang came to him,
asking to be taught the doctrine; and for seven days stood in
the snow at the cave-mouth, pleading and unnoticed. Then, to
show that he was in earnest, he drew his sword and sliced off his
left arm; and the Master called him in, and taught him.--Legend
again, no doubt.

I imagine we can only judge of the man and of his astounding
greatness by the greatness of the ages he illumined. It was as
if he gave, in East Asia, the signal for nation after nation to
leap into brilliant being. As for China, she became something
new. The Age of Han had been golden, strong, manly, splendid.
But Han was like other empires here and there about the world.
Henceforth during her cycle China was to be as a light-giving
body, a luminary wondrous in the firmament with a shining array
of satellite kingdoms circling about her. Her own Teache