l. They drew up liturgies to resemble the
Buddhist _Sutras_, and also prayers for the dead. They adopted the
idea of a Trinity, consisting of Lao Tzu, P'an Ku, and the Ruler of the
Universe; and they further appropriated the Buddhist Purgatory with all
its frightful terrors and tortures after death.

Nowadays it takes an expert to distinguish between the temples and
priests of the two religions, and members of both hierarchies are often
simultaneously summoned by persons needing religious consolation or
ceremonial of any kind.

Doubts.--In a chapter on "Doubts," by the Taoist philosopher Mou Tzu, we
read,

"Some one said to Mou, The Buddhist doctrine teaches that when men die
they are born again. I cannot believe this.

"When a man is at the point of death, replied Mou, his family mount upon
the house-top and call to him to stay. If he is already dead, to whom do
they call?

"They call his soul, said the other.

"If the soul comes back, the man lives, answered Mou; but if it does
not, whither does it go?

"It becomes a disembodied spirit, was the reply.

"Precisely so, said Mou. The soul is imperishable; only the body decays,
just as the stalks of corn perish, while the grain continues for ever
and ever. Did not Lao Tzu say, 'The reason why I suffer so much is
because I have a body'?

"But all men die whether they have found the truth or not, urged the
questioner; what then is the difference between them?

"That, replied Mou, is like considering your reward before you have put
in right conduct for a single day. If a man has found the truth, even
though he dies, his spirit will go to heaven; if he has led an evil life
his spirit will suffer everlastingly. A fool knows when a thing is done,
but a wise man knows beforehand. To have found the truth and not to have
found it are as unlike as gold and leather; good and evil, as black and
white. How then can you ask what is the difference?"

Buddhism, which forbids the slaughter of any living creature, has wisely
abstained from denouncing the sacrifice of victims at the Temple of
Heaven and at the Confucian Temple. But backed by Confucianism it
denounces the slaughter for food of the ox which tills the soil. Some
lines of doggerel to this effect, based upon the Buddhist doctrine of
the transmigration of souls and put into the mouth of an ox, have been
rendered as follows:--

My murderers shall come to grief,
Along with all who relish beef;
When I