Excerpt from Chinese Buddhism: A Volume of Sketches, Historical, Descriptive, and Critical
The number of Buddhist in the world has been much exaggerated. Formerly it was stated to be four hundred millions; and this incredibly large estimate led to careful consideration. Dr. Happer, resident for more forty years in Canton, thinks that the rest of the China the tonsured Buddhist priests ate twenty millions in number, and he declines to allow that the rest of the Chinese can be rightly called Buddhists. Dr. Gordon, of Japan a good authority who has carefully studied Japanese Buddhism, consider that it would not be fair to represent only the tonsured Buddhists as followers of the Buddhist religion in Japan; yet it is a fact that few of the laity in China and Japan make and keep Buddhist vows. The same is true of Tauism. The most of the population of China claim to be Confucianists, and conform occasionally to Buddhist and Tauist ceremonies. The rich Chinaman calls himself a Confucianist, and therefore he must count as such. But he subscribes to the rebuilding of Buddhist temples and pagodas, because he thinks the act will bring him prosperity. He worship Tauist idols more than those in Buddhist temples; but he adores the Buddhist images also on the occasions. He conforms to three religions, but on the whole he is made by ancestral worship properly speaking a Confucianist.
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