They
correspond to some extent with the manifold sects of Christendom, and
yet this illustration or reference must not be misleading. It is not as
though a new Christian sect, for example, were in A.D. 500 to be formed
wholly on the gospel of Luke, or the book of the Revelation; nor as
though a new sect should now arise in Norway or Tennessee because of a
special emphasis laid on a combination of the epistle to the Corinthians
and the book of Daniel. It is rather as though distinct names and
organizations should be founded upon the writings of Tertullian, of
Augustine, of Luther, or of Calvin, and that such sects should accept
the literary work of these scholars not only as commentaries but as Holy
Scripture itself.
The Buddhist body of scriptures has several times been imported and
printed in Japan, but has never been translated into the vernacular. The
canon[1] is not made up simply of writings purporting to be the words of
Buddha or of the apostles who were his immediate companions or
followers. On the contrary, the canon, as received in Japan, is made up
of books, written for the most part many centuries after the last of the
contemporaries of Gautama had passed away. Not a few of these writings
are the products of the Chinese intellect.
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