One picture of Kwan-Yon with the fish bears an inscription which is a poetical expression of wonder at the mystery of incarnation, and following a literal translation we render it into English as follows:
KWAN-YON AND THE FISH.
In the Pei-lin at Singan-fu. After a Chinese color-print.
“Untidy o’er her temples
Falls her disheveled hair.
The maid is easy-going—
In sooth she does not care.
Not decked in precious jewels
Nor dressed in gaudy lace,
She carries in her basket
A fish to the market place.
Who thinks that Buddha were
Made human form in her!”
A POEM ON KWAN-YON.
Paper impression of a carving in stone.
The Chinese deity Kwan-Yon may, for all we know, be the Magna Mater of most primitive China. At least she was an ancient popular goddess. When Buddhism was introduced into the Middle Kingdom she was too dear to the people to be abandoned or degraded in rank, and so she was interpreted to be a female incarnation of the Buddha himself. Some pictures or statuettes represent her as denoting motherly love by holding a baby in her arms, which