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Bretschneider adds that the legend in question seems not to be known to the Chinese; yet in view of the fact that Buddhism itself, with all its marvellous legends, was received by the Japanese from China, it is certainly probable this legend had a Chinese origin, subsequently disguised by Japanese chronology.
Theology shared in the movement above mentioned in the church. The Rationalists were most profuse in their publications, Paulus at Heidelberg, and, more particularly, the Saxon authors, Tschirner, Bretschneider, etc. Ancient Lutheran vigor degenerated to shallow subtleties and a sort of coquettish tattling upon morality, in which Zschokke's "Hours of Devotion" carried away the palm.
But it was long before any one could be found fit to bend the bow which Lessing and Spinoza had wielded. A succession of able scholars Semler, Eichhorn, Paulus, Schleiermacher Bretschneider, and De Wette were required to examine, with German patience and accuracy, the details of the subject, and to propound various untenable hypotheses, before such a work could be performed as that of Strauss.
My authority for this bit of folklore is the brief statement published by Bretschneider in the "Chinese Recorder" for 1871: "A Japanese legend says that about A.D. 519, a Buddhist priest came to China, and, in order to dedicate his soul entirely to God, he made a vow to pass the day and night in an uninterrupted and unbroken meditation.
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