Note 47 — NOTES, AUTHORITIES, AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Reading edition
Footnote 47:
(return)
The word bonze (Japanese bon-so or bozu, Chinese fan-sung) means an ordinary member of the congregation, just as the Japanese term bon-yo or bon-zuko means common people or the ordinary folks. The word came into European use from the Portuguese missionaries, who heard the Japanese thus pronounce the Chinese term fan, which, as bon, is applied to anything in the mass not out of the common.