Bulletin of Catholic University of Peking

64 BULLETIN NUMBER FOUR

cerning all subjects. I humbly beg your Celestial Majesty to summon this Musha and to inquire from him concerning my affairs and my desires, as well as the tenets of his religion. As I know that he is endowed with so much talent and ability, I therefore request Your Majesty to accept his services and to allow him to build

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a church and to practise his religion’.

Although the name of Mani does not occur in the above passage, it is evident from the occurrence therein of the technical term ‘‘Musha,” as well as from the information already gleaned from the “Scripture of the Religion of Mani’, that we have an allusion to Manicheism. The term Musha, in fact, appears five times in the Scripture of the Religion of Mant. Besides the places where this term is mentioned in conjunction with that of Butotan, it is used separately. towards the end of that volume in the following three passages:

“At that time, when the Mushas of the congregation had been apprised of the existence of this Scripture, they were in the highest transport of joy and confessed that they never even suspected its existence...”

“At that time, whenever the Mushas worshipped the Messenger of Light, they went down on their knees and folded their hands and performed the following rituals. .”

“Moreover, whenever the Mushas addressed the Messenger of Light they performed the following rituals....”

The office of the Mushas was higher than that of the Butotans; for the former received the appellation of ‘‘Great Mushas.”” In the ‘‘Supplement to the National History”’ by Li Shao, an historian of the T’ang dynasty (618-906 A.D.), the Mushas were called ‘Great Manis”, whilst ‘‘Small Manis”’ is undoubtedly an equivalent expression for Butotans.

From the various sources just quot-

ed, we have the certitude that the Great Musha and astrologer from Tokhara was a Manichean high-priest. Mani himself was a great astrologer and his followers were naturally addicted to the study of astrology. St. Augustine, too, whilst still a Manichean, was given to the study of astrology, as is expressly recorded in his Confessions (Bk. IV, chap. III). In the Chinese translation of his Confessions by the Kuang Hsitieh Hui (a Protestant Institution at Shanghai), Manicheeism is rendered by ‘‘The Religion of Darkness and Light”’, and astrology by “‘the Science of the Stars.’’ Moreover, the ““Record of Emperor TeTsung” in the 13th volume of the Chiu T'ang Shu contains the following words:

“In the 4th Moon of the 15th year of Chen Yuan (799 A.D.), on account of the prolonged drought, men of Darkness and Light were ordered to pray for rain according to their rituals.”

The “Men of Darkness and Light”’ were Manichzan priests; for in the section concerning the Manichzean church, in Book 49 of the T’ang Hi Yao, we read:

“In the 4th Moon of the 15th year of Chen Yuan, cn account of the prolonged drought, the priests of Mani were ordered to pray for rain.”

In recording an identical event, therefore, the Z’ang Hua Yao makes use of the expression “priests of Mani” instead of ‘‘menof Darknessand Light.” We have now, too, one more proof that the Mushas were well-versed in astrology. The king of Tokhara was a follower of Mani. His eagerness to bring his faith to the knowledge of the Chinese Emperor was clearly dictated by his religious zeal as a Manichzan.