polytheism, fetichism and magic.  In many respects it resembles the Pure Land school.  Its principal deity (the word is not inaccurate) is Vairocana, analogous to Amitabha, and probably like him a Persian sun god in origin.  It is also a short cut to salvation, for, without denying the efficiency of more laborious and ascetic methods, it promises to its followers a similar result by means of formulae and ceremonies.  Like the Pure Land school it has become in China not so much a separate corporation as an aspect, and often the most obvious and popular aspect, of all Buddhist schools.

It claims Vajrabodhi as its first Patriarch.  He was a monk of the Brahman caste who arrived in China from southern India[845] in 719 and died in 730 after translating several Tantras and spells.  His companion and successor was Amoghavajra of whose career something has already been said.  The fourth Patriarch, Hui Kuo, was the instructor of the celebrated Japanese monk Kobo Daishi who established the school in Japan under the name of Shingon.[846]

The principal scripture of this sect is the Ta-jih-ching or sutra of the Sun-Buddha.[847] A distinction is drawn between exoteric and esoteric doctrine (the “true word”) and the various phases of Buddhist thought are arranged in ten classes.  Of these the first nine are merely preparatory, but in the last or esoteric phase, the adept becomes a living Buddha and receives full intuitive knowledge.  In this respect the Tantric school resembles the teaching of Bodhidharma but not in detail.  It teaches that Vairocana is the whole world, which is divided into Garbhadhatu (material) and Vajradhatu (indestructible), the two together forming Dharmadhatu.  The manifestations of Vairocana’s body to himself—­that is Buddhas and Bodhisattvas—­are represented symbolically by diagrams of several circles.[848] But it would be out of place to dwell further on the dogmatic theology of the school, for I cannot discover that it was ever of importance in China whatever may have been its influence in Japan.  What appealed only too powerfully to Chinese superstition was the use of spells, charms and magical formulae and the doctrine that since the universe is merely idea, thoughts and facts are equipollent.  This doctrine (which need not be the outcome of metaphysics, but underlies the magical practices of many savage tribes) produced surprising results when applied to funeral ceremonies, which in China have always formed the major part of religion, for it was held that ceremonial can represent and control the fortunes of the soul, that is to say that if a ceremony represents figuratively the rescue of a soul from a pool of blood, then the soul which is undergoing that punishment will be delivered.  It was not until the latter part of the eighth century that such theories and ceremonies were accepted by Chinese Buddhism, but they now form a large part of it.