Page:Christianity in China, Tartary, and Thibet Volume I.djvu/340

328 o28 CHRISTIANITY IN CHINA, ETC. This monumental work is found in all the libraries of the great Buddhist convents. Chakia-Mouni experienced in his apostleship a lively opposition from the priests attached to the more ancient creeds of India ; but, after a solemn discussion with them, he triumphed over all his adversaries, and their chief prostrated himself before him, and confessed him- self conquered. Chakia-Mouni then revised the fundamental prin- ciples of morality, and the Decalogue. The moral principles he reduced to four: — 1st. The force of mercy, established on an immovable basis. 2nd. An aversion to all cruelty. 3rd. A boundless compassion towards all creatures. 4th. A conscience inflexible in its ob- servance of law. Then follows the Decalogue, or ten special prescriptions and prohibitions : — 1st. Not to kill. 2nd. Not to steal. 3rd. To be chaste. 4th. Not to bear false witness. 5th. Not to lie. 6th. Not to swear. 7th. To avoid impure words. 8th. To be dis- interested. 9th. Not to avenge one's-self. 10th. Not to be superstitious. This last prohibition is a very remarkable one, and one which certainly the modern Buddhists do not observe very strictly. Chakia-Mouni declared that these precepts and rules of human action, had been revealed to him after the four great trials to which he had subjected himself, when he first devoted himself to the state of sanctity; and, according to the legend, this code of morals was beginning to be generally diffused in Asia, when Buddha, then twenty-four years of age, quitted the earth, putting off his material envelope to be re-absorbed into the uni- versal soul, which is himself. Before bidding farewell to his disciples, he foretold that his doctrine would