Note 893 — Chapter XLVI
Reading edition
It may possibly be traceable to Manichæism which taught that souls are transferred from one sphere to another by a sort of cosmic water wheel. See Cumont's article, "La roue à puiser les âmes du Manichéisme" in Rev. de l'Hist, des Religions, 1915, p. 384. Chavannes and Pelliot have shown that traces of Manichæism lingered long in Fu-Kien. The metaphor of the endless chain of buckets is also found in the Yüan Jên Lun.