Buddhism is said to have been introduced into China from India in the reign of the Emperor Míng Dì (明帝), A.D. 58–76 of the Eastern Hàn Dynasty. It is fundamentally a religion of meditative training, charity, gentle words, benevolence, and common benefit, though in China it has undergone considerable modifications (vide SHÂKYAMUNI BUDDHA).
Bó Gû Tú
(博古圖)
A well-known work in twenty volumes, containing about 900 plates of bronze vases, tripods, bottles, mirrors, etc., used or made during the Shāng, Zhōu and Xià Dynasties. It was from this publication that Mr. P. P. Thoms compiled his work, A Dissertation on the Ancient Chinese Vases of the Shang Dynasty from 1743 to 1496 B. C., illustrated with 42 Chinese wood engravings, London, 1851. Mr. Thoms also wrote on this subject in the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, Nos. 1 and 2, in 1834. Mr. Thoms remarks in his book that “in the early periods of Chinese history, a custom seems to have prevailed of interring with the dead honorary vases, which reposed with them for ages; but during the civil wars, more particularly that about A.D. 200, the graves of the ancient monarchs and eminent statesmen were dug up and their ashes dispersed; then there were many of these ancient relics discovered, and a new order of things having been established, they have been preserved to the present period. Regarding them merely on account of their symmetry and style of ornament, they cannot fail to be interesting to all who attach a value to what is ancient; while their inscriptions establish, unquestionably, the fact that the present Chinese written character is derived from hieroglyphical representations.” The Bó Gû Tú contains illustrations and much valuable information concerning the symbolic meaning of various forms of ornament. It was compiled by Wáng Fú (王髓), an archaeologist and art critic of some repute.
Books
(書)
Professor F. Huberty James, of the Imperial University of Peking, wrote of Chinese literature in 1899:“It is the legitimate offspring of the ultra-oriental mind, the expression of the Chinese heart, the story of the home-life, school-life and national life of half the population of Asia. It is the precious, though fragmentary, record of the hopes and fears, the doubts and convictions, the struggles and labours, the victories and defeats, the songs and laments, the dreams and visions, the feasts and fasts, the vanities and realities, alternately blessing and cursing, musing or deluding, inspiring or depressing the souls of countless millions of pilgrims on their passage through this world to the vast and wondrous future.”
Scholastic acquirements have always been deeply venerated in China, and the written character is regarded as sacred; it is therefore considered in accordance with propriety that all waste paper containing print or writing should be respectfully burnt. “Some of the Chinese classics, such as the ‘Book of Changes’ (易經), or the ‘Great Instructor’ (大學), are regarded as able to keep off evil spirits when put under the pillow of the sleeper, or kept near by in the library. He who is able to repeat memoriter passages from these books when walking alone need not fear the spirits.”23
Bamboo tablets were commonly used before the invention of paper. It is asserted that block-printing can be traced to the Suí Dynasty A.D. 581–618. Movable types originated at the beginning of the eleventh century. Books were first bound up in leaves about A.D. 745, before which time they were in rolls. The self-styled “First Emperor” (始皇
A book often runs to an extraordinary number of volumes or sections (卷). According to an old distich,“If one wishes to be acquainted with the Past and the Present he must read five cartloads of books!” (要通今古事須讀五車書). There is a general work of reference (類書) known as Gû Jïn Túshü Jíchéng (古今圖書集成), first published in 1726, in 10,000 books, arranged under 6,109 categories, and containing about four times as much matter as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. A copy of this wonderful production is to be seen in the British Museum. Notices of some of the principal Chinese literary works will be found in the Appendix to the Author’s Manual of Chinese Metaphor.
A common conventional design of good augury consists of two books placed together and decorated with a fillet, when it is classed as one of the various categories of EIGHT TREASURES (q. v.).
Brahma
(梵王)
Brahma, according to Indian mythology, is the creator or first person in the trinity of the Hindoos, the other two being Vishnu, the preserver, and Siva, the destroyer, of the creation. He is generally represented with three faces and four arms.
This deity has been made by the Buddhists into an attendant or vassal of Buddha, and the Taoists have in turn borrowed him from the Buddhists as their supreme god. He is also identified with Indra, and the Jade Ruler (vide THREE PURE ONES). He is sometimes represented as a woman.
The “Brahma Sutra” (梵王經) is used as a sacred classic in the Buddhist monasteries. It is described by De Groot in his Le Code du Mahâyâna en Chine, as “the centre of gravity of the Church, the marrow, the heart, the axis on which turns the whole existence of the monks.”
Bronze
(古銅)
The Chinese use the same denomination tóng (銅) for copper, brass, and bronze. It is made up of the character jïn (金), “gold,” and tóng (同), “similar,” indicating, according to Chinese commentators, sound, harmony, and assembling, possibly because employed in the manufacture of musical instruments.
In order to study the symbolism of China from its fundamental origin, it is necessary to devote some attention to the early bronzes, of which a detailed description, together with the significance of their ornamentation, is given in the BO GU TU (q. v.), a work published during the Sòng Dynasty.
According to the Shü Jïng (書經), nine tripods were made in the Xià Dynasty, 205–1818 B.C., of metal sent as tribute from the nine provinces, and each had a map of a province engraved thereon, though some say they were decorated with representations of spirits and demons; the earliest specimens now extant are engraved with provincial maps and date from the Shāng and Zhōu Dynasties, 1766–255 B.C.
The ancient religion of the Chinese was undoubtedly a primitive nature worship in propitiation of the elements productive of rain and sunshine for the benefit of the crops. A belief in numerous gods and spirits of mountains, rivers, clouds, etc., the deification of the luminaries of the firmament, and also of various imaginary powers, became gradually evolved, and, though no images were anciently made, certain symbols were devised to suggest the various deities, and they were engraved or moulded on the ancient bronze, food, wine, and sacrificial vessels. These symbols, with variations, have survived to the present day.
The earliest forms of the Chinese written character are to be found on the antique bronzes, of which a fine collection is on view at the Peking Museum (1930).
The age of a bronze article may be determined from the colour and brilliance of its patina, which depends partly on the composition of the alloy, and partly on the nature of the soil in which the object was buried.
Vide also DIAPER PATTERNS, DRAGON, PHOENIX, WRITTEN CHARACTERS.
Broom
(帯)
The emblem of Shí Dêi (拾得), a poet of the 7th century. It typifies insight, wisdom, and power to brush away all the dusts of worry and trouble. To read the book of nature (vide SCROLL), and sweep away all mundane difficulties, is the ideal and motto of the naturalistic theory of the ancient Chinese.
The