Note 4 — Chapter VIII · WOO-CHANG, OR UDYÂNA. MONASTERIES, AND THEIR WAYS. TRACES OF BUDDHA.

Nâga is the Sanskrit name for the Chinese lung or dragon; often meaning a snake, especially the boa. ‘Chinese Buddhists,’ says Eitel, p. 79, ‘when speaking of nâgas as boa spirits, always represent them as enemies of mankind, but when viewing them as deities of rivers, lakes, or oceans, they describe them as piously inclined.’ The dragon, however, is in China the symbol of the Sovereign and Sage, a use of it unknown in Buddhism, according to which all nâgas need to be converted in order to obtain a higher phase of being. The use of the character too (度), as here, in the sense of ‘to convert,’ is entirely Buddhistic. The six pâramitâs are the six virtues which carry men across (度) the great sea of life and death, as the sphere of transmigration to nirvâṇa. With regard to the particular conversion here, Eitel (p. 11) says the Nâga’s name was Apatâla, the guardian deity of the Subhavastu river, and that he was converted by Śâkyamuni shortly before the death of the latter.