The sacred rice is for sale at the
temples, not only to feed but to fatten the holy pigeons.
Yet, while all this care is lavished on animals, the human being
suffers.[50] Buddhism is kind to the brute, and cruel to man. Until the
influx of western ideas in recent years, the hospital and the orphanage
did not exist in Japan, despite the gentleness and tenderness of Shaka,
who, with all his merits, deserted his wife and babe in order to
enlighten mankind.[51] If Buddhism is not directly responsible for the
existence of that class of Japanese pariahs called _hi-nin_, or
not-human, the name and the idea are borrowed from the sutras; while the
execration of all who prepare or sell the flesh of animals is
persistently taught in the sacred books. These unfortunate bearers of
the human image, during twelve hundred years and until the fiat of the
present illustrious emperor made them citizens, were not reckoned in the
census, nor was the land on which they dwelt measured. The imperial
edict which finally elevated the Eta to citizenship, was suggested by
one whose life, though known to men as that of a Confucian, was probably
hid with Christ, Yokoi Heishiro.[52] The emperor Mutsuhito, 123d of the
line of Japan, born on the day when Perry was on the Mississippi and
ready to sail, placed over these outcast people in 1871, the protecting
aegis of the law.
Pages:
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408