Description of and remarks upon an ancient calvaria from China, which has been supposed to be that of Confucius / by George Busk.

  • Busk, George, 1807-1886.
Date:
[1870?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of and remarks upon an ancient calvaria from China, which has been supposed to be that of Confucius / by George Busk. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/14 (page 78)
    “ The Tibetan letter/^ he adds, “ eannot be older than a.d. 600- 700, and is probably later.” With the utmost deference to any hint from so weighty an authority, it seems to me that a great difficulty lies in the way of the above supposition, from the circumstance that Buddha, or the Buddha with whom Ananda was connected, died at the latest between five and six hundred years before Christ; and consequently the inscription must have been placed on the skull eleven or twelve hundred years after the death of its owner,— a circumstance that, of itself, would tend to cast great doubt upon its authenticity, although, as we know from evidence much nearer home, doubts of this kind, as regards relics, do not weigh much in the theological mind. Mr. E. Thomas, on the other hand, has thrown out the sug- gestion that the letter might have been intended for the initial of the word Aum or Oni, Avhich, as Mr. Eergusson informs me, though sometimes used to express the Deity, is also equivalent to the exclamation Ave! or Hail! But as an objection to this interpretation it might perhaps be urged that the same Tibetan alphabet in which this form of A occurs contains also a slight modification of the same character, answering to au or o, as well as one signifying am, and it might reasonably have been thought that one or the other of these two characters would have been employed to represent om rather than the simple A. B\it on the present occasion it would be useless for me to speculate further on a matter upon which I cannot pretend to give any opinion. A second interesting subject of inquiry is that of the probable object or purpose of the specimen when entire. With respect to this, however, I am unable to offer anything beyond the vaguest conjectures. We may regard it either as a simple monument of piety or veneration (without any special use or purpose), as a dnnking- vessel, or as a sort of mortuary coffer or reliquary. Of these, the supposition that it was intended to be used as a drinking-vessel, or perhaps as a libation-chalice, though at first sight not very probable when we regard the weight and form of the setting, becomes less improbable when we consider that the skull itself does not appear to have been in any way fixed upon its stand, but simply to have rested on the three golden heads, from which it could, consequently, be readily lifted to the lips. On the other hand, that its destination might have been for some such purpose is rendered still more probable by what we know of the very general prevalence, throughout the ancient Avorld and amongst the most widely separated peoples, of the custom of using the skulls of their enemies, or of their friends and re- latives, as drinking-vessels, on high and solemn occasions. The