Thus it will be seen that Annam was at no time really detached from China.  In spite of political independence it always looked towards the Chinese Court and though complimentary missions and nominal vassalage seem unimportant, yet they are significant as indicating admiration for Chinese institutions.  Between Champa and Annam on the other hand there was perpetual war:  in the later phases of the contest the Annamites appear as invaders and destroyers.  They seem to have disliked the Chams and were not disposed to imitate them.  Hence it is natural that Champa, so long as it existed as an independent kingdom, should mark the limit of direct Indian influence on the mainland of Eastern Asia, though afterwards Camboja became the limit.  By direct, I do not mean to exclude the possibility of transmission through Java or elsewhere, but by whatever route Indian civilization came to Champa, it brought its own art, alphabet and language, such institutions as caste and forms of Hinduism and Buddhism which had borrowed practically nothing from non-Indian sources.  In Annam, on the other hand, Chinese writing and, for literary purposes, a form of the Chinese language were in use:  the arts, customs and institutions were mainly Chinese:  whatever Buddhism can be found was imported from China and is imperfectly distinguished from Taoism:  of Hinduism there are hardly any traces.[903]

The Buddhism of Annam is often described as corrupt and decadent.  Certainly it would be vain to claim for it that its doctrine and worship are even moderately pure or primitive, but it cannot be said to be moribund.  The temples are better kept and more numerously attended than in China and there are also some considerable monasteries.  As in China very few except the monks are exclusive Buddhists and even the monks have no notion that the doctrines of Lao-tzu and Confucius are different from Buddhism.  The religion of the ordinary layman is a selection made according to taste from a mass of beliefs and observances traceable to several distinct sources, though no Annamite is conscious that there is anything incongruous in this heterogeneous combination.  This fusion of religions, which is more complete even than in China, is illustrated by the temples of Annam which are of various kinds.[904] First we have the Chua or Buddhist temples, always served by bonzes or nuns.  They consist of several buildings of which the principal contains an altar bearing a series of images arranged on five or six steps, which rise like the tiers of a theatre.  In the front row there is usually an image of the infant Sakyamuni and near him stand figures of Atnan (Ananda) and Muc-Lien (Maudgalyayana).  On the next stage are Taoist deities (the Jade Emperor, the Polar Star, and the Southern Star) and on the higher stages are images representing (a) three Buddhas[905] with attendants, (b) the Buddhist Triratna and (c) the three religions, Buddhism, Confucianism