Bulletin of Catholic University of Peking

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF PEKING 63

_ THE COMING OF THE MANICHAANS TO CHINA

E give no credence to the legend > that Mani himself visited China. So far as our present knowledge extends, the first Manichezans came to China in the first year of Yen Tsai under the T’ang dynasty, as recorded in the Fo Tsu T’ung Chit (“ Genealogy of Buddhist Patriarchs’’). In volume 39 of this work we read: “In the first year of Yen Tsai, Butotan from Persia came tothe Imperial Court, presenting the false religion of the Scripture of the Two Principles.” Now, the first year of Yen Tsai corresponds to the year 694 of the Christian era, and the reason why I claim that the foregoing passage refers to the Manichzans is because the terms Butotan and Two-Principles occur likewise in a mutilated book called “The Scripture of the Religion of Mani,”’ which is now preserved in the Peking Library, and in which we find the following passages:

“The Musha and the Butotan are physically and mentally ever merciful, meek, prudent, placid, and sociable...”

“The wise things taught by the Masters of the Law (Fa Shih), the Musha and the Butotan, are expedient in method and solemn in performance; they are to be scrupulously observed and may never suffer alteration by reason of the opinion of individuals.”

From the foregoing passages it is legitimate to infer that Butotan is not the name of a person but of a hierarchical grade or religious office inferior to that of the Musha. I do not know, at present, of any existing copy of the Scripture of the Two Principles, although J am strongly inclined to regard the mutilitated book in the Peking Library as identical with the Scripture

in question. Unfortunately, however, both the introductory and the concluding portions of this book are missing. It Contains, nevertheless, a very minute exposition of the doctrine of Light and Darkness, and the expression ‘Two Principles’’ occurs twice in the text. Thus where it speaks of the ‘‘Tree of Will’, we read:

“The root of the Tree itself is Wisdom, the trunk represents the Two Principles, and the branches are understanding of the Doctrine and discernment of the Talent.” And where it speaks of the faithful heart, it says:

“The believers in the Two Principles

have a pure heart unsullied by doubt;

they reject darkness and follow light, as -announced by the Holy One.”

Light and Darkness are, of course, the two principles. Inasmuch, therefore, as the Manichzans were undoubtedly

believers in the ‘‘Two Principles’’,

and inasmuch as they alone had Butotans from Persia, we are justified in concluding that the ‘False Religion” mentioned in the Fo Tsu T’ung Chi was none other than Manicheism. The original commentator, however, made the mistake of confounding the characters for Po Sze or Pa Si (Persia) with those for Ta Ts’in (the Eastern Roman Empire).

The following passage is taken from Volume 971.0f the 7s’e Fu Viian Kua:

“In the 7th year of K’ai Yiian, the king Shah Tihana of Tukhara (Tokharistan), in presenting an astrologer, a great Musha, to the Chinese Court, said in his memorial:

“He is a man of great wisdom, and possesses inexhaustible knowledge con-