Buddhism and Buddhists in China — A Reader’s Guide

The Author’s Descriptive Strategy

Hodous builds his account from specific, often visual details. He notes that the four great Buddhist mountains represent “wind, water, fire and earth” and are centers for worship of four Bodhisattvas. When describing a pilgrimage group, he itemizes members by origin and status: an abbot from Hangchow, a lay Buddhist from Wuchang, a young monk from Tientsin, and a servant. This cataloging technique gives the text an ethnographic texture. He also records ritual actions precisely: pilgrims “purchased each three sticks of incense and two candles” and “reverently placed them before the image.” Such details ground his analysis in observable behavior rather than abstract doctrine.

Diction and the Missionary Frame

Hodous’s vocabulary reflects his dual role as scholar and missionary. He uses terms like “salvation,” “faith,” and “heaven” to translate Buddhist concepts, but he also employs Chinese loanwords such as fêng-shui and Tsai Li. His description of the Chin Tan sect as “related to Christianity” through the Nestorian tablet shows a willingness to draw cross-religious parallels. However, his language occasionally carries evaluative weight: he calls vegetarian sects “simple and sincere” and notes that their members “are preparing for rebirth in the land of Amitâbha.” The missionary frame is most explicit in the final chapter, where he lists “questions which Buddhists ask” and suggests Christian emphases on “the æsthetic,” “the mystical,” and “the Person of Jesus Christ.”

Structure and the Layering of Evidence

The book’s structure moves from historical overview to contemporary practice, but within chapters Hodous layers evidence from multiple sources. In “Buddhism and the Peasant,” he discusses monastery control of fêng-shui, then provides a detailed description of a rain prayer service, including the altar arrangement and the service’s meaning. He often follows a pattern: state a general claim, illustrate with a specific example, then add a brief interpretation. For instance, after describing the pilgrimage to Puto, he notes that “all go for the joy which travel in the spring gives,” blending observation with a psychological gloss. This method gives the text a cumulative, almost journalistic feel.

Recurring Motifs: Pilgrimage, Sects, and the Dead

Several motifs recur across chapters. Pilgrimage appears as both a social and religious practice, with Hodous emphasizing the “happy companies” and the “pious, village dame” who organizes groups. The vegetarian sects, such as Tsai Li and Chin Tan, are described as mediators among the three religions, using “Buddhist prayers and incantations” while forbidding wine and opium. Services for the dead are another thread: Hodous notes that Buddhism harmonizes ideas of purgatory and heaven with ancestor worship. These recurring topics suggest that for Hodous, lived Buddhism is defined by its integration into family and community life, not by monastic doctrine alone.

The Christian Comparative Lens

Hodous consistently compares Buddhist and Christian practice, but he does so through specific observations rather than blanket judgments. He notes that the Chin Tan sect “exalts the teaching of universal love” and sees this as a point of contact. In the chapter on present-day Buddhism, he lists “publications,” “lectures,” and “Buddhist societies” as signs of “social ambition,” implicitly measuring Buddhist vitality against Christian institutional models. His final chapter offers a detailed set of Christian emphases—historical Jesus, revelation, salvation—that he believes can speak to Buddhist concerns. This comparative lens shapes both his diction and his selection of evidence, making the book as much a missionary handbook as a descriptive study.

Hodous’s work is best read as a document of early 20th-century cross-cultural encounter. His attention to ritual detail—the three sticks of incense, the organization of pilgrimages, the prayers for rain—provides a vivid record of Chinese Buddhist practice as observed by an outsider. Readers interested in the history of missionary writing or in comparative religion will find here a careful, if partisan, account. The book rewards those who attend to its concrete scenes rather than its theological conclusions.

The rain drummed on the roof that afternoon, and I lost myself in Lewis Hodous’s quiet observations of village monks and family shrines. What stayed with me was how simply these people folded the sacred into the everyday—no grand theology, just living ritual. That thought drifted later toward an older question about where such ideas begin, and I found myself reaching for The Evolution of Theology: an Anthropological Study Essay #8 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" — Key Ideas to Explore, almost without deciding to.