Although the Fan-wang-ching does not mention this burning of the head as part of ordination, yet it emphatically enjoins the practice of burning the body or limbs, affirming that those who neglect it are not true Bodhisattvas.[874] The prescription is founded on the twenty-second chapter of the Lotus[875] which, though a later addition, is found in the Chinese translation made between 265 and 316 A.D.[876] I-Ching discusses and reprobates such practices.  Clearly they were known in India when he visited it, but not esteemed by the better Buddhists, and the fact that they form no part of the ordinary Tibetan ritual indicates that they had no place in the decadent Indian Buddhism which in various stages of degeneration was introduced into Tibet.[877] In Korea and Japan branding is practised but on the breast and arms rather than on the head.

It would appear then that burning and branding as part of initiation were known in India in the early centuries of our era but not commonly approved and that their general acceptance in China was subsequent to the death of I-Ching in A.D. 713.[878] This author clearly approved of nothing but the double ordination as novice and full monk.  The third ordination as Bodhisattva must be part of the later phase inaugurated by Amogha about 750.[879]

This practice is defended as a trial of endurance, but the earlier and better monks were right in rejecting it, for in itself it is an unedifying spectacle and it points to the logical conclusion that, if it is meritorious to cauterize the head, it is still more meritorious to burn the whole body.  Cases of suicide by burning appear to have occurred in recent years, especially in the province of Che-Kiang.[880] The true doctrine of the Mahayana is that everyone should strive for the happiness and salvation of all beings, but this beautiful truth may be sadly perverted if it is held that the endurance of pain is in itself meritorious and that such acquired merit can be transferred to others.  Self-torture, seems not to be unknown in the popular forms of Chinese Buddhism.[881]

The postulant, after receiving these three ordinations, becomes a full monk or Ho-shang[882] and takes a new name.  The inmates of every monastery owe obedience to the abbot and some abbots have an official position, being recognized by the Government as representing the clergy of a prefecture, should there be any business to be transacted with the secular authorities.  But there is no real hierarchy outside the monasteries, each of which is an isolated administrative unit.  Within each monastery due provision is made for discipline and administration.  The monks are divided into two classes, the Western who are concerned with ritual and other purely religious duties and the Eastern who are relatively secular and superintend the business of the establishment.[883] This is often considerable for the income is usually derived from estates, in managing which the monks are assisted by a committee