This part of the legend is not contained in the Pootoo ver: and is unknown to the ordinary monks; but there may be some learned priests and abbots who know this chapter. But just these, amongst them the Arch Abbot Hüo Hai, are not any more in Pootoo—because of the hostilities they have dispersed to branch temples on the mainland with which they have friendly relations The dominating school in Pootoo is the Meditation Sect, the doctrine of Which was brought to China, according to tradition, in 520 A.D. by the Patriarch Bodhidarma and which was then fully developed by the sixth Chinese Patriarch Hui Neng. In a branch of this sect, the branch of the Patriarch of Lin Tsi, the psychological trick was introduced to effect the sudden stroke of enlighten-of the main monastery is dedicated to the "Mistress of Heaven," Tien Hou. The old gods have been enlisted as the lower classes of the spiritual hierarchy of the Buddhist universe and they have directed the broad stream of religious preception of the masses to be incorporated into Buddhis and its philosophical spiritualization.
Amongst the many legends coming from this stream of religious feeling and winding themselves round the figure of the Buddhist Madonna, the legend of the "Miao Shan" (Miracuiously Good One) being a previous and older form of the Kuan Yin, is of special interest. It appears in the Luang Shan chapter of the "Sutra of the Previous Earthly Pilgrimage of the Great Goddess of Mercy Kuan-shih Yin Bodhisattva," the first print of which did not, so far as we know, appear earlier than in the 17th century. The qualities Tatze Tapei (Great Loving and Merciful one in Sanscrit, Mahamaitri Mahakaruna) are strongly emphasized.
The characteristic feature of this legend is that it comprises nearly all previous details and statements of textbooks of native and Buddhist tradition about the Madonna and her tutelage in a most wonderful manner.
According to this legend Miao Shan is transferred to the island of Pootoo. Of the four holy mountains of Buddhism in China, Pootoo is called ihe "Holy Island" and is the centre of the cult of the Madonna. To interpret this legend and to analyze the different relations is therefore an important scientific task. ment by shouting at the man sunk in deep meditation "Ho!" or by a blow with the fist against the heart.
Although the Patriarch Bodhidarma is considered to be a manifestation of the Kuan Yin, this meditation sect has taken over the cult of the Madonna proper only recently and then formed it in its own way. For the members of this sect wisdom, sudden inspiration and highly personal inner experience were the "one and all," but philosophy, studies of the holy scriptures and pious cults were suspicious and dangerous, Nevertheless this sect had in due course to borrow something from the cults and philosophies of other schools, particularly from the sect of the Mountain Tien Tai; for the idea is not yet equal to the content, but it conveys its meaning.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.