Yet the regulations of the monasteries are all Chinese, and the schools to which the monks belong are those which have sprung up in China itself. One establishment belongs to the Lin-tsi school, and the other to that of Ts'au-tung. The following is the mode of teaching in these schools. The instructor utters a few sentences to his pupils adapted to enlighten them on some point considered of importance. The pupils in the Tsung-men division of Chinese Buddhism, to which both these schools belong, depend not on books or on a regular course of study, but simply on the living teacher. The founder of the Lin-tsi once said, in answer to a disciple's questions, "What is really Buddha? What is dharma (the law)? What is religious progress?"--"That the heart be pure and calm, is Buddha. That the mind be clear and bright, is dharma. That hindrances in all directions be removed, and the mind calm and bright, is 'religious progress' (tau)." There appear to be more monasteries now belonging to this school than to any other.

The visitor to the Buddhist sacred island will notice the green and yellow tiling of the two large monasteries. The same material was employed in the Nanking porcelain tower now destroyed, and is found in the monasteries of the lamas in Peking. This glazed pottery is of the five colours at Nanking, viz., blue, yellow, red, black, and white. Here it is only green and yellow. It is called lieu-li-wa. Lieu-li is a word introduced to China, like po-li "glass," by the Buddhists. It is one of the Eight precious things, and is called at full length in Sanscrit Vaiduria. This name appears to be given by the Hindoos to a natural and an artificial substance (as in the case also of "sp'atika" or po-li, "glass").

The buildings are on a large scale. Thus the great hall of Kwan-yin, in the first monastery, is fifty yards long and thirty wide.

Both the large monasteries are dedicated to Kwan-yin p'u-sa, instead of to Shakyamuni Buddha. In other monasteries the central position and the most monstrous image are always assigned to Shakya, the Buddha reigning in the present kalpa, and the teacher to whom every monk unites himself when he takes the vows. Here, however, Kwan-yin presides, and is therefore called Chu Fo, "the Ruling Buddha," of the monasteries and of the island.

Instead of the usual name Ta-hiung-pau-tien, "The precious hall of the great hero," alluding to Shakyamuni, we have the Ta-yuen-t'ung-tien, "The hall of the complete and correct doctrine," referring to Kwan-yin.