Buddhist Encounters and Identities Across East Asia
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Dynamics in the History
of Religions
Editors-in-Chief
Volkhard Krech
Licia Di Giacinto
(Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany)
Advisory Board
Jan Assmann (Ruprecht-Karls Universität, Heidelberg)
Christopher Beckwith (Indiana University, Bloomington)
Rémi Brague (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München)
José Casanova (Georgetown University)
Angelos Chaniotis (Oxford University)
Peter Skilling (University of Sydney)
Guy Stroumsa (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Boudewijn Walraven (Leiden University)
VOLUME 10
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/dhr
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Buddhist Encounters and
Identities Across East Asia
Edited by
Ann Heirman
Carmen Meinert
Christoph Anderl
LEIDEN | BOSTON
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Cover illustration: Part of a paper scroll found in Cave 17 of the Mogao (Qianfo dong) caves in Dunhuang,
© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Heirman, Ann, editor.
Title: Buddhist encounters and identities across East Asia / edited by Ann Heirman,
Carmen Meinert, Christoph Anderl.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2018. | Series: Dynamics in the history of
religions, 1878-8106 ; volume 10 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018010833 (print) | LCCN 2018014905 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004366152 (E-book) | ISBN 9789004366008 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Buddhism—East Asia.
Classification: LCC BQ614 (ebook) | LCC BQ614 .B825 2018 (print) |
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LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010833
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Contents
Acknowledgments vii
List of Illustrations VIII
List of Abbreviations xi
Notes on Contributors xiii
Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
Tansen Sen
1
PART 1
Translocal Networks
1 Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
Claudine Bautze-Picron
21
2 Noise along the Network: A Set of Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas
in the Indian Himalayas 52
Rob Linrothe
3 Nation Founder and Universal Saviour: Guanyin and Buddhist Networks
in the Nanzhao and Dali Kingdoms 81
Megan Bryson
4 A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō and Aizen in Medieval
Shingon Esoteric Buddhism 108
Steven Trenson
5 The Transmission of the Buddhadharma from India to China:
An Examination of Kumārajīva’s Transliteration of the Dhāraṇīs
of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra 137
Bryan Levman
6 The Journey of Zhao Xian and the Exile of Royal Descendants in the
Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) 196
Kaiqi Hua
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vi
Contents
PART 2
Negotiating and Constructing Identities
7
Wailing for Identity: Topical and Poetic Expressions of Cultural
Belonging in Chinese Buddhist Literature 227
Max Deeg
8
How the Dharma Ended Up in the “Eastern Country”: Korean Monks
in the Chinese Buddhist Imaginaire during the Tang and Early
Song 253
Sem Vermeersch
9
Buddhist Pilgrimage and Spiritual Identity: Korean Sŏn Monks
Journeying to Tang China in Search of the Dharma 283
Henrik H. Sørensen
10
The Rebirth Legend of Prince Shōtoku: Buddhist Networks in
Ninth Century China and Japan 301
Pei-ying Lin
11
Because They Entrusted to Them a Part of Their Buddhist Selves—
Imagined Communities, Layered Identities, and Networking 320
Bart Dessein
12
Bodily Care Identity in Buddhist Monastic Life of Ancient India
and China: An Advancing Purity Threshold 340
Ann Heirman
Bibliography
Index 416
371
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Acknowledgments
The present volume is the proceeding of the international conference “Network
and Identity: Exchange Relations between China and the World” organized by
the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, Ghent University, in cooperation with
the Buddhism in Motion group of the KHK Dynamics in the History of Religions
between Asia and Europe, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, on December 18th to
20th, 2013 at Ghent University (Belgium). The convenors Ann Heirman (Ghent
University) and Carmen Meinert (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) are grateful to
the Chiang Ching Kuo Foundation for Scholarly Exchange, Taipei (Taiwan),
the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Ghent University, and the KHK Dynamics in the History of Religions between
Asia and Europe (Bochum) for generously supporting this exciting scholarly
gathering, and to thirteen conference participants to contributing their fine
pieces of scholarship to the present volume. After the conference, Christoph
Anderl (Ghent University) joined the editing team. Furthermore, the editing
team is glad that the editors-in-chief of the book series Dynamics in the History
of Religions, Volkhard Krech and Licia Di Giacinto (both Bochum), kindly
accepted the book for publication in the series.
When a book is about to approach the final stage of the publication process,
further work awaits, which would not have been possible without many helping
hands. Therefore, we are grateful to Gwendolin Kleine Stegemann (Bochum)
for her assistance during the editing process; Iain Sinclair (Melbourne) for
proofreading the final manuscript and Thorben Pelzer (Bochum) for finalising
the index. Last but not least, our sincere thanks to two anonymous reviewers
who kindly offered numerous suggestions to improve the volume as a whole.
We hope that this book contributes to understanding how Buddhist developments in the Asian world were shaped not merely through inner discourses
but in fact through translocal and transcultural exchange relations across East
Asian Buddhist networks.
Ann Heirman
Carmen Meinert
Christoph Anderl
Ghent/Bochum, April 16th, 2018
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List of Illustrations
Figures
1.1
1.2
1.3
1.4
1.5
1.6
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.10
1.11
1.12
1.13
1.14
1.15
1.16
1.17
1.18
1.19
1.20
1.21
1.22
2.1
2.2
Buddha, Thambula: Northern side of the central core. (All photos
are courtesy of Joachim K. Bautze unless otherwise mentioned) 24
Buddha, Thambula: murals in the Eastern hall, Western wall 27
Buddha, Thamuti-hpaya 28
Buddha in Vajrāsana and Eight Great Stūpas. China, Tangut State
of Xixia, Kharakhoto. 12th–13th century. Inv. no. XX-2326. The State
Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Photograph © The State
Hermitage Museum. Photo by Leonard Kheifets 29
Cushion under the Buddha (detail of fig. 1.2) 30
Buddha, Bihar, Potala Museum, Lhasa, photo courtesy of Ulrich von
Schroeder 31
Group of foreigners flanking the Northern entrance, Thambula 33
Detail of the murals on the Northern entrance, Thambula 34
Detail of the murals on the Northern entrance, Thambula 35
Two foreigners worshipping a stūpa, Temple 1077, southern wall 37
Group of eight foreign rulers, Southern wall, Nandamanya 38
Left part of the group of eight foreign rulers, Nandamanya 38
Right part of the group of eight foreign rulers, Nandamanya 38
Temple 1077, Southern wall 39
Detail of the mural in temple 1077, Southern wall, left group 40
Detail of the mural in temple 1077, Southern wall, right group 41
Doorkeeper, Western entrance, Let-put-kan 43
Doorkeeper, Western entrance, Let-put-kan 44
Foreign soldiers among Māra’s army, Kubyauk-gyi, Wetkyi-in 46
Mongol hunters, Kyanzittha-umin, Southern corridor,
Northern wall 47
Upagupta, Kyanzittha-umin, mural above an entrance 48
Upagupta, Kyanzittha-umin, central room, Eastern wall 49
Detail of the silk handscroll entitled “Miracles of the Mass of Universal
Salvation Conducted by the Fifth Karmapa for the Yongle Emperor.”
Lhasa Museum. Photo 2005 53
Gilt metal Yongle-period standing bodhisattva, once in the Qutan
monastery, now in the Qinghai Provincial Museum, Xining (China).
Photo 2007 54
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List of Illustrations
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
2.16
2.17
2.18
2.19
3.1
ix
Overview of Qutan monastery (Drotsang Dorjechang) Monastery
in Amdo (Qinghai, China). Photo 2001 55
Arhat painting, part of a set of Chinese Ming Dynasty paintings
in Sera monastery, near Lhasa, Tibet. Photo 2005 56
Lake Tsomoriri, with Korzok monastery along Northwestern bank
in Southeastern Ladakh (India) 58
Korzok monastery and village, Southeastern Ladakh (India) 59
Eight fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroideries belonging to a
partial set of the Bhaiṣajyaguru maṇḍala now hanging in Korzok
monastery courtyard during masked dance (Tib. ’cham) 60
Blue Buddha, probably Bhaiṣajyaguru, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 61
Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 62
Sūryaprabha Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 63
Maitreya (?) Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 64
Possibly Pratibhānakūta Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 65
Meruśikhara Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 66
Mekhila (?) Yakṣa General, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 67
Caundhara Yakṣa General, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery
now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 68
Detail of Figure 2.9, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming
dynasty embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India) 69
Bhudevī (Pṛthivī), one of the 10 guardians of the directions in charge of
the West, riding a sow. National Museum, New Delhi, acc. no. 51.223;
38 × 19.5 cm. Photo 2012 70
Rakṣa, one of the 10 guardians of the directions in charge of the
Southwest, riding a reanimated corpse. National Museum, New Delhi,
acc. no. 51.222; 38 × 19.5 cm. Photo, 2012 71
Detail of the back of one of the fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India), with
Chinese inscription 72
Acuoye Guanyin, 1147–72 / San Diego Museum of Art, USA 92
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x
List of Illustrations
4.1
Aizen with Two Heads. Kakuzenshō (Kakuzenshō Kenkyūkai
edition; Kamakura-period manuscript preserved in the Kajūji
勧修寺) 114
4.2 Composition of the Aizen maṇḍala as shown in the hanging scroll
of the Burke Collection (dated 1107) 122
4.3 Core structure of the Great Platform rite of the Shōugyōhō 130
Maps
3.1
3.2
Nanzhao Kingdom 89
Dali Kingdom 99
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List of Abbreviations
CE
Chin./Ch.
BCE
DDB
BTD
DN
DZ
EMC
Fig.
G.
GDhp
HAR
ibid.
Jap./J.
K&N
KG
Kor.
LMC
MI
MS
MSS
ONWC
P.
PB
Pkt.
RE
S&H
SDP
Skt.
SZ
T.
Common Era
Chinese
Before Common Era
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (http://www.buddhism-dict.net)
Buddhist Transcription Dialect
Dīgha Nikāya
Daozang 道藏. Taipei: Xin wenfeng chuban gongsi 信文豐出版公司
edition, 1977.
Early Middle Chinese
Figure
Gāndhārī
Gāndhārī Dhammapada
Himalayan Art Resource, www.himalayanart.org
ibidem
Japanese
Kern and Nanjio 1908–1912
Bernhard Karlgren
Korean
Late Middle Chinese
Middle Indic
manuscript
manuscripts
Old Northwest Chinese
Pāli
Pulleyblank
Prakrit
Rock Edict
Soothill & Hodous 1937
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
Sanskrit
Shingonshū zensho 真言宗全書. 44 vols. Edited by Shingonshū
Zensho Kankōkai 真言宗全書刊行会. Kōyasan: Shingonshū zensho
kankōkai, 1933–1939.
Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新修大蔵經. 85 vols, ed. Takakusu
Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō
Issaikyō Kankōkai, 1924–1934.
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xii
TZ
Tib.
trans.
W
List of Abbreviations
Taishō shinshū daizōkyō zuzō 大正新修大蔵経図像. 12 vols. Edited by
Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1932–1934.
Tibetan
translated
Wan xuzang jing 卍續藏經. 150 vols. Ed. Xinwenfeng Bianshenbu
新文豐編審部. Taipei: Xinwenfeng Chuban, 1975.
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Notes on Contributors
Christoph Anderl
holds a Dr. Art. (2005) in Chinese Linguistics, is Professor at Ghent University
(Belgium), and teaches classes on Chinese Buddhism and Philosophy, and
Classical and Medieval Chinese. His publications focus on Medieval Chinese
syntax and Buddhist rhetoric (e.g. Studies in the Language of Zu-tang ji, Oslo:
Unipub, 2004; Zen Rhetoric in China, Korea, and Japan, Leiden: Brill, 2013), and
text-image relations in the representation of Buddhist narratives. Currently,
he works on a monograph entitled “Syntax of Late Medieval Chinese.” He is
the director of an international database project on the digitization, mark-up
and analysis of vernacular Dunhuang manuscripts, and since 2016 he is coinvestigator and research cluster leader of the large international project
“From the Ground Up: Buddhism and East Asian Religions” at the University
of British Columbia.
Claudine Bautze-Picron
is a Research Fellow at the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
in Paris, UMR 7528 “Mondes Iranien et Indien” and teaches Indian art history
at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Her research focuses on the art of Eastern
India and Bangladesh from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, on various
issues related to Buddhist iconography in India, and on the murals of Bagan
from the tenth to the thirteenth centuries. Among her recent publications,
see: The Bejewelled Buddha from India to Burma, New Considerations, New
Delhi/Kolkata: Sanctum Books/Centre for Archaeological Studies & Training,
Eastern India, 2010 (Sixth Kumar Sarat Kumar Roy Memorial Lecture), and The
Forgotten Place, Stone Sculpture at Kurkihar, New Delhi: Archaeological Survey
of India, 2014.
Megan Bryson
is Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. Her research focuses on Buddhism in the Dali region, particularly
during the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. Recent publications include Goddess
on the Frontier: Religion, Ethnicity, and Gender in Southwest China (Stanford
University Press, 2016), “Mahākāla Worship in the Dali Kingdom (937–1253):
A Study of the Dahei tianshen daochang yi,” Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies 35 (2012/13): 3–69, and “Religious Women and
Modern Men: Intersections of Ethnicity and Gender in The Tale of Woman
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xiv
Notes on Contributors
Huang,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 40.3 (2015): 623–646.
She is currently working on a project about Buddhist networks in the Dali
kingdom.
Max Deeg
has a Ph.D. (1990) in Classical Indology and a Habilitation (1998) in Religious
Studies (both University of Würzburg) and is Professor in Buddhist Studies
at Cardiff University (Wales, UK). His research interests are the spread of
Buddhism to Central Asia and East Asia, the interaction of Asian religions
and the history of research (Religious and Buddhist Studies). Among his
major publications are Das Gaoseng-Faxian-zhuan als religionsgeschichtliche
Quelle. Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs
über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des Textes, Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz, 2005, a German translation of Kumārajīva’s translation of the
Lotus Sūtra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, Chin. Miaofa lianhu jing, Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2007), and Miscellanae Nepalicae: Early
Chinese Reports on Nepal—The Foundation Legend of Nepal in its TransHimalayan Context, Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2016.
Bart Dessein
is Professor at the Oriental Department of Ghent University. His field of
research concerns the philosophical development of the Śravakayāna
Buddhist schools, the development of the Buddhist literary tradition, and the
early history of Buddhism in China. Among his major recent publications in
this field are “The Mahāsāṃghikas and the Origin of Mahayana Buddhism:
Evidence Provided in the *Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣāśāstra”, The Eastern
Buddhist New Series 40.1–2 (2009): 25–61, and “ ‘Thus have I heard’ and Other
Claims to Authenticity: Development of Rhetorical Devices in the Sarvāstivāda
Ṣaṭpādābhidharma Texts”, in Zen Buddhist Rhetoric in China, Korea, and Japan,
edited by Christoph Anderl, 121–192, Leiden: Brill, 2012.
Ann Heirman
holds a Ph.D. (1998) in Oriental Languages and Cultures and is Professor at
Ghent University (Belgium), where she is teaching Classical and Buddhist
Chinese. She has published extensively on Chinese Buddhist monasticism and
the development of disciplinary rules, including Rules for Nuns according to
the Dharmaguptakavinaya (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002), The Spread of
Buddhism (edited volume with Stephan Peter Bumbacher, Leiden: Brill, 2007)
and A Pure Mind in a Clean Body, Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of
Ancient India and China (Academia Press, Ghent, 2012, with Mathieu Torck). At
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Notes on Contributors
xv
Ghent University, she is director of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, an
international research centre that focuses on India and China.
Kaiqi Hua
is a Sheng Yen postdoctoral fellow in Chinese Buddhism at the Department
of Asian Studies, University of British Columbia. He holds a Ph.D. in World
Cultures from the University of California, Merced. His research interests include the history of the Mongol Empire, Chinese lay Buddhism, the Buddhist
canon, and Tangut studies. His dissertation “The White Cloud Movement:
Local Activism and Buddhist Printing in China under Mongol Rule (1276–
1368 CE)” focuses on a unique Chinese lay Buddhist movement called the
White Cloud sect and its relationships to the Mongol state, Chinese local
activists, and Tangut diaspora monks. Previously, Kaiqi Hua was visiting
researcher at the Lingnan University in Hong Kong, the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Bryan Levman
has just completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto (2014) where he is a
Visiting Scholar. His research work utilizes comparative linguistic techniques
to isolate the earliest recoverable language of Buddhism, and investigates the
process of the buddhadhamma’s transmission and linguistic ambiguities in
the canon. He is also engaged in studying the structure of the administrative
and trade “common languages” (koine, linga franca) current at the time of the
Buddha and how these affected Middle Indic phonology as well as the diffusionary influences of indigenous languages (Dravidian, Tibetan, Munda, etc.) on
Middle Indic, both in terms of word borrowing, structure, phonology and culture. His most recent publications include “The Language of Early Buddhism”
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 3.1 (2016): 1–41; “Language
Theory, Phonology, and Etymology in Buddhism and Their Relationship to
Brahmanism,” Buddhist Studies Review, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2017): 25–51; and “Putting
Smṛti back into Sati (Putting Remembrance Back into Mindfulness),” Journal of
the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies. Vol. 13 (2018): 121–149.
Pei-ying Lin
is Assistant Professor at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan. She was awarded
a Ph.D. degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London in July 2012. Her doctorate examines cross-culturally the textual transmission of Zen Buddhism in China, Japan and Korea in the ninth century. Her
recent articles include: “Cross-national Buddhism and Identity Construction
in Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn’s ‘Four Mountains Stele’,” Fudan Journal of the Humanities
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xvi
Notes on Contributors
and Social Sciences 8.1 (2015); “A Comparative Approach to Śubhākarasiṃha’s
(637–735) Essentials of Meditation: Meditation and Precepts in Eighth Century
China,” in Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, edited by Yael Bentor and
Meir Shahar, 156–94. Leiden: Brill, 2017.
Rob Linrothe
is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History at Northwestern
University, Evanston. His research is mainly based on fieldwork in Ladakh and
Zangskar. He received a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Chicago. In
2008–2009 he was a Scholar-in-Residence at the Getty Research Institute. In
2016–17 he received a Senior Fellowship from the American Institute of Indian
Studies to conduct fieldwork in eastern India. Among recent publications are
“Mirror Image: Deity and Donor as Vajrasattva,” History of Religions (2014):
5–33; “Site Unseen: Approaching a Royal Buddhist Monument of Zangskar
(Western Himalayas),” The Tibet Journal 40 no. 2 (2015): 29–88; Collecting
Paradise: Buddhist Art of Kashmir and its Legacies (New York: Rubin Museum
of Art, 2015); Seeing Into Stone: Pre-Buddhist Petroglyphs and Zangskar’s
Early Inhabitants (Berlin: Studio Orientalia, 2016); and “‘Utterly False, Utterly
Undeniable’: The Akaniṣṭha Shrine Murals of Takden Phuntsokling Monastery,”
Archives of Asian Art (2017): 143–187.
Carmen Meinert
holds the chair for Central Asian Religions at the Center for Religious Studies
(CERES) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, and is the vice-director of
CERES. She is the PI of the ERC project BuddhistRoad, Dynamics in Buddhist
Networks in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th Centuries (2017–2022). This project
will also deal with one of her research interests, namely the transmission
of Buddhism in Central Asia, Tibet and China with particular emphasis on
early Tantric and Esoteric Buddhist traditions. Her publications include ed.,
Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries),
Brill: Leiden, 2016; “Assimilation and Transformation of Esoteric Buddhism
in Tibet and China. Case Study of the Adaptation Processes of Violence in a
Ritual Context,” in Tibet after Empire. Culture, Society and Religion between 850–
1000. Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Lumbini, Nepal, March 2010, edited
by Christoph Cüppers, Robert Mayer and Michael Walter, Lumbini: Lumbini
International Research Institute, 2013.
Tansen Sen
is Professor of history at NYU Shanghai, PRC. He is the author of Buddhism,
Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400
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Notes on Contributors
xvii
(University of Hawai’i Press, 2003), India, China, and the World: A Connected
History (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), and co-author (with Victor H. Mair) of
Traditional China in Asian and World History (Association for Asian Studies,
2012). He has edited Buddhism Across Asia: Networks of Material, Cultural and
Intellectual Exchange (Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2014). He is currently working on a book about Zheng He’s maritime expeditions.
Henrik H. Sørensen
is a senior researcher and project-coordinator at the BuddhistRoad Project
(ERC) at the Ruhr-Universität (RUB). He has formerly taught at the University
of Copenhagen and been a senior researcher at the National Museum in
Denmark. He is currently the director of an independent research centre,
the Seminar for Buddhist Studies, affiliated with the University of Edinburgh
through the publication of the electronic journal Journal for the Study of
East and Central Asian Religions (eJECAR). His research interests include
the relationship between religious practice and material culture in East
Asian Esoteric Buddhism and issues relating to the definition, textual history, and iconography of early Esoteric Buddhism in China. He was recently
a research fellow at the KHK Research Project at Ruhr-Universität, Germany
(2011–2012) where he worked on Buddhist and Daoist interactions in medieval China. Recent publications include “The Talismanic Seal Incorporated:
An Iconographic Note on Seal-Bearing Bodhisattvas in the Sculptural Art of
Sichuan and the Significance of Seals within the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist
Tradition” (co-authored with Tom Suchan), Artibus Asiae 73:2 (2013),
“Concerning the Role and Iconography of the Astral Deity Sudṛṣti (Miaojian
妙見) in Esoteric Buddhism,” in China and Beyond in the Mediaeval Period:
Cultural Crossings and Inter-Regional Connections, edited by Dorothy Wong
and Gustav Heldt, Singapore: Manohar 2014; and several articles in Esoteric
Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Brill, 2011, co-edited with Charles D.
Orzech).
Steven Trenson
obtained his Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 2007 and is Associate Professor at
Waseda University, where he is teaching Buddhism and Japanese religions. His
research focuses on medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhism and its relationship
to medieval Shinto. His most recent publications include “Shingon Divination
Board Rituals and Rainmaking” (Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 21, 2013), Kiu, hōshu,
ryū: Chūsei Shingon mikkyō no shinsō [Rainmaking, Jewels, and Dragons: The
Fundamental Basis of Medieval Shingon Esoteric Buddhism] (Kyoto: Kyoto
Daigaku Gakujutsu Shuppankai, 2016), and “Rice, Relics, and Jewels: The
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Notes on Contributors
Network and Agency of Rice Grains in Medieval Japanese Esoteric Buddhism,”
Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 45, no. 2 (2018; forthcoming).
Sem Vermeersch
obtained his Ph.D. in history at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(2001) and is now an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious
Studies, Seoul National University. He concurrently serves as editor of the Seoul
Journal of Korean Studies, published by the Kyujanggak Institute for Korean
Studies. His main field of interest is the history of Korean Buddhism in its East
Asian context, on which he has published numerous articles and book chapters. He has also published two monographs: The Power of the Buddhas: The
Politics of Buddhism During the Koryŏ Dynasty (Harvard University Asia Center,
2008), and A Chinese Traveler in Medieval Korea: Xu Jing’s Illustrated Account of
the Xuanhe Embassy to Koryŏ (University of Hawai‘i Press, 2016).
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the
Buddhist World
Tansen Sen
By the first and second centuries CE, when objects and teachings associated
with Buddhism started entering the ports and urban centres of Han China,
several regions of Asia were already connected through networks of crossregional commercial activity. People from diverse ethnic backgrounds operated
these networks that linked the overland roads and pathways, rivers channels,
and sea routes. The length and reach of these networks depended on various
factors, including the nature of the terrain, the mode of transportation, profitability, as well as the political relationship among the various regimes involved.
These networks facilitated the transmissions and circulations of commodities,
ritual objects and ideas as well as the movement of craftsmen, artisans, and
diplomats from one region of Asia to another. The long-distance spread of
Buddhism took place through such networks. As Buddhist images, texts, and
ideas spread across the Asian continent, they acquired new forms and interpretations, and subsequently entered re-circulation. For example, Indic texts
were rendered into Chinese; later, commentaries explaining the teachings contained in these translated texts were composed by Chinese Buddhists. These
translations and commentaries were then passed on to the clergy living in
Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet, and other places. Modifications took place with
each rendition and movement, creating diverse forms of Buddhist practices,
images, and philosophical traditions. Over time, these movements and modifications resulted in the emergence of distinct identities, often imposed by
others, among Buddhist communities that are important for understanding
the diversity and multiplicity of the Buddhist world that spanned from presentday Iran to Japan.
This collection of essays underscores the connections and the diversities
within the Buddhist world. It becomes apparent from these essays that the history of Buddhism in premodern Asia was also the history of connectivities, circulations, conversions, and transformations that took place within the Asian
continent prior to the colonial period. While the connectivities and circulations were intimately associated with the long-distance networks that linked
far-flung regions of Asia, the processes of conversions and transformations
highlight the diversity of the people and societies inhabiting the continent.
Thus, although the core teaching of karma and retribution may have been the
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004366152_002
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common thread that linked the vast Buddhist world, a detailed examination
of local practices suggests the existence of distinct identities rooted in unique
cultural practices, beliefs, and indigenous socio-political conditions. Before
proceeding to summarise the essays included in this volume and their contributions to comprehending the diverse Buddhist world, this Introduction outlines the issues of network and identity as can be discerned from the Buddhist
connections between India/South Asia and China.1
1
The Networks of Buddhist Exchanges
The evidence for the presence of Buddhism in China during the first three
centuries of the Common Era suggests a complicated and haphazard influx of
Buddhist images and ideas. These images and ideas arrived through multiple
routes, from different parts of South Asia, and were carried by people of diverse
ethnic background engaged in varied professions and long-distance activities.
A key factor facilitating the spread of Buddhist artefacts and ideas during this
period may have been the commercial linkages formed by trading communities and the transportation networks of caravan and ship operators. Indeed, by
the beginning of the first millennium CE, intra-Asian commerce and transportation, through both overland and maritime routes, had witnessed significant
growth. Itinerant traders were travelling across the Asian continent more frequently than in the previous periods. The spread of Buddhism to Han China
should be understood within this context of unprecedented connectivity and
interactions taking place within Asia.2 The linking of distant markets, ports,
and urban centres contributed not only to the circulations of commodities and
the movement of traders, but also triggered the flow of objects and people who
were not necessarily part of the commercial activities. Such objects ranged
from mundane personal items associated with food intake to those that were
connected to the faith of the itinerant individuals. Missionaries, technicians,
and diplomats travelled with their own agendas on ships or caravans. With
1 The terms “India” and “South Asia” are used to specify the region that includes the presentday states of Republic of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in case of the former; and the inclusion of Sri Lanka and Nepal for the latter.
2 See the classic work of Erik Zürcher, The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and
Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. 2 vols (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972). A work specifically on early India–China connections is Liu Xinru, Ancient India and Ancient China:
Trade and Religious Exchanges, AD 1–600 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1988).
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
3
sustained demands, improvements in modes of transportation and navigational skills, and the formation of regular supply chain for commodities, the
long-distance commercial ventures became a routine. Travel between sites
of export and import became frequent and continued until changes in economic, political, or climatic factors interrupted these connections. The sustained movement back and forth between markets, ports, and urban centres
formed the basis of networks that were operated by one or several groups of
people who, in turn, interacted/negotiated with different polities across these
networks. Given the interdependencies between traders, transport providers,
and suppliers at ports and overland halting places, the long-distance networks
were unlikely to have been exclusive to one group of people or monopolized by
one faith. A ‘Buddhist network’,3 if there were one, therefore, had to be a part
of or dependent upon other networks, with pilgrims and missionaries sharing
transportation space with members of other faiths. Indeed, insisting on the
existence of an exclusive Buddhist network, especially in the cross-regional
context, fails to convey the complexity of the long-distance connections across
Asia. Likewise, traders who supported the Buddhist cause did not solely deal
with objects that were in demand for Buddhist rituals and construction activities. In both cases, the Buddhist clergy and traders engaged with a variety of
people, faiths, and objects. Additionally, the contraction of a mercantile network or the decline of Buddhism in a region did not imply the corresponding
termination of the other. The decline of Buddhist sites in the Gangetic plains
of India in the thirteenth century did not, for example, result in the collapse
of long-distance commercial networks in the region.4 In other words, it is
important to separate the commercial networks that connected distant regions and the movement of Buddhist images and ideas that were facilitated by
the existence of these networks.
Scholars have already examined the relationship between merchant communities and the spread of Buddhist ideas and monastic institutions in
South Asia. James Heitzman, for example, has demonstrated the association
between mercantile activity, political power, and the spread of early Buddhist
3 For an example of how this term has been used, see Tilman Frasch, “A Buddhist Network in
the Bay of Bengal: Relations between Bodhgayā, Burma and Sri Lanka, c. 300–1300,” in From
the Mediterranean to the China Sea: Miscellaneous Notes, edited by Claude Gulliot, Denys
Lombard and Roderich Ptak (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998), 69–92.
4 On this issue, see Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of SinoIndian Relations. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
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institutions along the major trade routes in the hinterland regions of India.5
Similarly, Himanshu Prabha Ray has outlined the intimate bond between seafaring traders, Buddhist monasteries in the coastal regions of India, and the
maritime transmission of the doctrine.6 Liu Xinru, on the other hand, has
applied the conceptual framework of an intertwined relationship between
long-distance trade and the transmission of Buddhist ideas to examine the
early exchanges between South Asia and China.7 More recently, Jason Neelis
has studied the relationship between trade networks and the transmission of
Buddhism through the ‘northern routes’ in Gandhāra and Upper Indus regions
into Central Asia.8
Many aspects of the Buddhist networking, essentially the interactions
between Buddhist institutions, monks, and lay members frequently using the
mercantile networks between South Asia and China, are evident in the travelogues of Chinese Buddhist monks Faxian 法顯 (337?–422?), Xuanzang 玄奘
(600?–664), and Yijing 義淨 (635–713). These are the main textual sources that
reveal the association between Buddhism and the long-distance networks of
traders and sailors. Also evident in these travel records are the relationships
between Buddhist monks (as well as institutions) and rulers, officials, and various political elites. Individual monks and institutions formed their unique relationship with these members of the society, which often advanced personal
objectives, benefited specific monastic institutions, or served the Buddhist
cause in general. Additionally, the travel records demonstrate the existence of
several hubs that were sites of interactions along the networks that connected South Asia, China, and several other regions of the Buddhist world. These
hubs included Dunhuang (in present-day Gansu Province of China), Khotan
(in present-day Xinjiang Province of China), Nālandā (in the present-day state
of Bihar), Palembang (in the island of Sumatra in Indonesia), and Chang’an
(present-day Xian in China). These places were centres of knowledge production and circulation, as well sites for cross-regional trading activity. They
were vital for the spread of Buddhism across Asia.The circulations of goods,
5 James Heitzman, “Early Buddhism, Trade and Empire,” in Kenneth A. R. Kennedy and
Gregory L. Possehl eds., Studies in the Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology of South Asia
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984), 121–137.
6 See the following two books by Himanshu Prabha Ray: Monastery and Guild: Commerce under
the Satavahanas (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1986); and The Winds of Change: Buddhism
and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994).
7 Xinru Liu 1988.
8 Jason Neelis, Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange within
and beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2011).
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
5
donations, and information through the networks of traders, urban settlements, and monastic institutions are reported in Faxian’s work, entitled Foguo ji
佛國記 (Records of the Buddhist Polities, T. 875). Faxian was among the first
Chinese monks who travelled to South Asia.9 During his journey to South Asia,
embarking in 399 CE, Faxian does not mention any contact with merchant caravans or groups as he passed through the oasis towns of Dunhuang, Gaochang
(present-day Turfan), and Khotan. Rather, as discussed below, Faxian’s travels
through the overland routes of Central Asia seem to have been facilitated by
the networks of garrison towns, urban settlements, and monastic institutions.
It is only when the monk started his return trip from Tāmralipta in Eastern
India that he became depended on the network of seafaring traders. Indeed,
his writing indicates a highly connected world of itinerant traders, monks,
sailors, and circulating ritual and donative objects in the fifth century. One of
the first indications of the existence of networks connecting the urban centres
in the Gobi-Taklamakan desert region comes from Faxian’s passing reference
to a ‘messenger’ with whom the monk and his companions journeyed from
Dunhuang to the polity of Shanshan.10 Although no detail about this ‘messenger’ is given in the text, it is clear that such persons frequently moved between
the oasis towns of the Taklamakan desert. They were most likely part of the
communication network between the governors or rulers of these towns, who
either had their own modes of transportation or travelled with merchant caravans. Faxian, and later Xuanzang, suggests that information regularly circulated among the oasis towns through such messengers and their networks, in
addition to the networks belonging to traders and caravan operators. All these
networks facilitated the movement of Buddhist monks and objects across the
treacherous routes traversing the Gobi and Taklamakan deserts.
There were several other aspects to these, what appear to be, intertwined
or parallel networks of traders and itinerant officials/messengers. Elite monks,
such as Faxian and Xuanzang, may have attracted the attention of local
officials/rulers, who then supported their journeys and provided housing in
their homes or palaces. Other monks travelling through the oasis towns lived
9
10
A detailed study and translation of Faxian’s work (into German) is Max Deeg’s Das
Gaoseng-Faxian-Zhuan als religionsgeschichtliche Quelle. Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des
Textes. Studies in Oriental Religions, vol. 52 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag). A recent
English translation is Li Rongxi’s ‘The Journey of the Eminent Monk Faxian’, in Lives of
Great Monks and Nuns (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research,
2002), 155–214.
Foguo ji, T.51.2085: 857a14; Li 2002: 163.
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in Buddhist monasteries. These monasteries formed important resting places
not only for Buddhist monks, but also traders and perhaps the court messengers/diplomats. However, not all monasteries were receptive to travellers or
accepting of monks from different regions. Faxian, for example, mentions that
a monastery in Agni did not accept Chinese monks as members of the saṅgha.11
Faxian’s implication seems to be that the Buddhist tradition practiced in Agni
(‘Hinayāna’ according to him) and China were different and divisions existed
among various Buddhist groups in the spaces between South Asia and China.
This antagonistic, or at least complex, relationship between groups corroborates the likelihood that exclusive Buddhist networks, if they existed, may not
have been easy to establish or operate in reality. Crucial to the networks that
connected South Asia and China were roads, mountainous paths and stairways, bridges (including the rope suspension bridge that Faxian used to cross
the Indus River) and ports, as well as boats and ships. Buddhist monuments
and temples, sites embodying Buddhist legends, and places that held relics of
the Buddha in South Asia were important nodes on these networks for itinerant monks to—as in the abovementioned hubs—congregate, share information, and exchange goods. Many of these places housed objects that came from
faraway places, donated by monks and merchants. Faxian, for instance, reports
seeing a ‘Chinese white fan’ in Sri Lanka, which he says was offered by a merchant to the famous footprint of the Buddha at Adam’s Peak.12
Faxian’s narrative of the maritime connections, first from Tāmralipta to Sri
Lanka, then from Sri Lanka to Southeast Asia, and eventually to the coastal
region of China from Southeast Asia, is one of the earliest accounts of the sailing
networks that existed within and across the Bay of Bengal and the South China
Sea regions. The Chinese monk boarded a ‘large trade ship’ from Tāmralipta to
Sri Lanka, which took fourteen days to reach the island with favourable winds.
After staying in Sri Lanka for two years, Faxian took another ‘large merchant
ship’ to a place called Yavadvīpa (Java?) located in South China Sea. This journey needed ninety days of travel. From Yavadvīpa he sailed on a third ‘large
merchant ship’ going to China. During these latter two occasions, the ships
encountered rough weather and deviated significantly from their intended
course. When sailing from Yavadvīpa to China, fellow Brahmin travellers signalled out Faxian as the cause for the ‘unlucky’ encounter with treacherous
‘black cyclone’. ‘It is because we have a Buddhist monk on board our ship’,
one of them argued, ‘that we have been so unlucky and suffered such great
trouble. We should drop the monk on an island. We should not risk our lives
11
12
Ibid.: 164.
Ibid.: 204.
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
7
because of one man’.13 This proposition by the Brahmins is not only indicative
of the rivalries that existed among those travelling long-distance to proselytize their faiths, but also of the use of maritime networks by several different
groups of missionaries between South Asia and China. Other Chinese Buddhist
sources also mention instances when Brahmins and Buddhist monks journeyed together between South Asia and China.
By the time Xuanzang, in c. 629, embarked on his travel to India from
Tang China, the networks of travel, communication, and material exchanges
between the two regions had become significantly more vibrant. At the same
time, the spread of Buddhism to Southeast Asia, Korea, and Japan brought new
regions and groups of peoples into the networks of exchange and interactions.
The movement of Buddhist clergy, objects, and ideas peaked in the eighth and
ninth centuries. Within this context, the travels of Xuanzang, in addition to corroborating the existence of many of the networks alluded to in Faxian’s work,
contributed to the creation of what could be called the ‘network of imagination’ that bonded the Buddhist world. In their recent collection of essays, John
Kieschnick and Meir Shahar have noted the Indian impact on the Chinese creative imagination and the Chinese imagining of India.14 This impact extended
to other Buddhist communities in Asia. The Japanese, for example, imagined
the Buddhist holy land from the writings of Xuanzang, representing his travels
in drawings and mapping the Indian subcontinent. As Fabio Rambelli has demonstrated, the imagining of India, mediated through the Chinese texts, had a
profound impact on the Japanese views on their place in the larger Buddhist
world.15 It augmented the network of Buddhist exchanges between Japan and
China, which, similar to that between China and South Asia, was intertwined
with the networks of commercial specialists and official envoys.
Erik Zürcher has noted that the expansion of networks of monastic institutions was the ‘driving force behind the spread of Buddhism all over Asia’.16
Xuanzang’s writings provide important clues to the developing connections
13
14
15
16
Ibid.: 211.
John Kieschnick and Meir Shahar ed., India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion,
and Thought (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), 1.
Fabio Rambelli, “The Idea of India (Tenjiku) in Pre-Modern Japan: Issues of Signification
and Representation in the Buddhist Translation of Cultures,” in Buddhism Across Asia:
Networks of Material, Intellectual and Cultural Exchange, edited by Tansen Sen (Singapore:
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2014), 259–290.
Erik Zürcher, “The Spread of Buddhism and Christianity in Imperial China: Spontaneous
Diffusion versus Guided Propagation,” in China and the West: Proceedings of the
International Colloquium held in the Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen Letteren en
Schone Kunsten van België, Brussels, November 23–25, 1987, 9–18, 14 (Brussels: AWLSK, 1993).
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between Buddhist monks/institutions and the long-distance diplomatic networks. The Tang period witnessed frequent exchange of diplomatic missions
between polities in South Asia and the Tang court. Especially noteworthy
were the missions led by the Tang diplomat Wang Xuance to the court of the
South Asian ruler Harṣa. The Da Tang da Ci’ensi sanzang fashi zhuan 大唐大慈
恩寺三藏法師傳 (Biography of the Master of the Tripiṭaka of the Great Ci’en
Monastery) suggests an intimate relationship between the Chinese monk
and the ruler in Kanauj, Harṣa’s capital city.17 Additionally, the Xin Tang shu
新唐書 credits Xuanzang for initiating the diplomatic exchanges between the
Tang court and Harṣa.18 These records are no doubt exaggerations, intended
to underscore the importance of Xuanzang who had a close relationship
with the Tang rulers Taizong and Gaozong, during whose reigns these diplomatic
exchanges took place. Through either Wang Xuance or one of the other members of the diplomatic entourage, Xuanzang communicated and exchanged
gifts with his acquaintances at Nālandā. In one of the letters he wrote to the
monk named Prajñādeva, for instance, Xuanzang expressed his gratitude for
the gifts that he had received from India and requested copies of Buddhist
texts that he needed. These, he suggested, could be sent through a ‘returning
messenger’. In another letter Xuanzang notes that a Tang envoy returning from
India had informed him of the passing of his teacher at Nālandā.19
Similar connections between Tang diplomats and Buddhist monks are also
reported in the works of the monk Yijing (635–713), who embarked on his
trip to India in 671 and returned in 695. Yijing mentions the Chinese monk
Xuanzhao 玄照, who interacted with the Tang princess Wenchang in Tibet,
received help from the king of Nepal, and had audience with the Emperor
Gaozong. The Tang emperor asked him to return to India and bring to Tang China
a Brahmin named Lujiayiduo 盧迦溢多 (Lokāditya?) from Kashmir. On his way
Xuanzhao met a Tang envoy who requested the monk to instead go to Luocha
羅茶 (Lāṭa) to fetch medicinal plants for longevity for the Tang emperor. After
procuring the plants, however, Xuanzhao fell sick and died in Middle India.20
17
18
19
20
Da Tang da Ci’ensi sanzang fashi zhuan T.50.2053: 233b4–26. For a recent translation of this
work, see Li Rongxi’s A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci’en Monastery of
the Great Tang Dynasty (Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research,
1995).
Xin Tang shu 221a: 6237.
T.2053.261b21–262a27; Li 1995: 230–235.
Yijing, Da Tang Xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan 大唐西域求法高僧傳 (Biographies of the
Eminent Monks [who Travelled to the] Western Regions in Search of the Law, [Compiled
during the] Great Tang [Dynasty]), T.51.2066: 1b26–2a27.
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
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The writings of Xuanzang and Yijing indicate that the relationship between
itinerant monks and official envoys (and the courts), similar to that between
the traders and itinerant monks, was reciprocal and the networks they used to
travel between China and South Asia were intertwined.21
Yijing mentions that he met the monk Xuanzhao in Nālandā, where the former had gone to study the practice of vinaya (monastic rules). As a centre for
learning and missionary activity Nālandā played a key role in connecting several regions of the Buddhist world. From its founding in the middle of the fifth
century through to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the institution functioned as a repository of knowledge, a site of interactions, and a place which
accumulated and dispersed a variety of ritual objects and images. Indeed, from
Yijing’s writings (as well as that of Xuanzang before him) it becomes evident
that Nālandā was at the centre of the cosmopolitan world of Buddhism in the
seventh century. In his Da Tang Xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan, Yijing mentions several monks from Tang China as well as from the Korean peninsula who had
travelled to Nālandā to study Buddhist texts. Some of these monks lived at the
renowned monastic institution for couple of years; others, according to Yijing,
decided not to return to their homeland. Monks from Sri Lanka, Sumatra, and
Tibet are also reported to have studied at Nālandā by Yijing and other sources.
Yijing also alludes to connections between Nālandā and other similar learning centres across the Buddhist world. These centres included Chang’an, the
capital of Tang China, Palembang in Sumatra, and Tāmralipta in eastern India.
In fact, at one point Yijing recommends that Chinese monks planning to visit
South Asia should first learn Sanskrit in Palembang.22
In sum, the records of the above three Chinese monks who travelled to
South Asia reveal the existence of several intertwined networks that connected the Buddhist world in the first millennium CE. The networks of traders
and sailors were clearly the most crucial for those travelling long distances.
These networks not only facilitated missionary and pilgrimage activities, but
also sustained the circulation of ritual objects and other goods associated with
the practice of Buddhism. The networks of messengers and diplomats also
facilitated these movements of people and objects. These different types of
networks connected pilgrimage centres, sites housing important relics, and
learning centres. Even the imagination of the Buddhist heartland created networks of connections that extended from Japan to India. It must be noted that
the movements across these networks were not unidirectional. People and
21
22
Ibid.
Yijing tr. Genbenshuoyiqieyou bu baiyi jiemo 根本說一切有部 百一羯磨 [Mūlasarvāstivāda]ekaśatakarman?], T.1453: 477c26–28.
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objects moved in various directions, some limited to specific regions and others
across vast distances. These movements were often coordinated between the
members of the Buddhist communities and the operators of the networks. But
there were also instances when the connections took place in arbitrary and
unplanned fashion. In other words, the networks of connections across the
Buddhist world were neither neatly organized nor part of a coordinated effort
on part of the Buddhist communities or the operators of the networks. These
haphazard and muddled movements, as well as the lack of an emphasis on
universal ideology, seem to have defined the long-distance Buddhist networking. Indeed, the unsystematic spread of Buddhist ideas through the various
networks of traders and transporters gives credence to Erik Zürcher’s questioning of Central Asian oasis states as the staging ground for the initial transmission of Buddhism to Han China. Thus Zürcher contends that the spread of
Buddhism from southern Asia to China was through ‘long distance’ transmission rather than a result of ‘contact expansion’.23 However, it is possible that
during the course of such ‘long-distance’ transmissions some Buddhist artefacts and ideas entered the in-between halting places and relay centres. The
unsystematic spread of Buddhism may have also contributed to the development of localized forms of Buddhist practices, images, and teachings across
this Buddhist world. The awareness of sectarian differences, the cognizance
of the centre-periphery gap, and the distinctions made between the local and
foreign led to the formation of unique and multifaceted identities among the
advocates and followers of Buddhism.
2
Changing Connections, Changing Identities
Many of the abovementioned networks that facilitated Buddhist connections
persisted into the second millennium CE. Itinerant Buddhist monks continued to use the networks of traders and sailors, rulers and court officials offered
support to the members of the clergy embarking on long-distance travel, and
pilgrimage sites, old and new, drew Buddhist patrons from different regions
of Asia. The circulation of Buddhist paraphernalia also endured through
these networks. However, a noteworthy development during this period was
the fragmentation of the Buddhist world into smaller circuits of connections.
These circuits had their own doctrinal emphases, pilgrimage sites, linguistic
23
Erik Zürcher, ‘Han Buddhism and the Western Regions’, in Thought and Law in Qin and
Han China: Studies Presented to Anthony Hulsewé on the Occasion of his Eightieth Birthday,
edited by Wilt L. Idema and Erik Zürcher (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 158–182.
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
11
coherence, and exclusive commercial and diplomatic networking. Thus, the
East Asian circuit that linked the monastic institutions in China, Korea, Japan,
as well as those in the Khitan and Tangut territories; the Southeast Asia–Sri
Lanka circuit that was integrated through doctrinal, commercial, and diplomatic linkages; and the Tibet–South Asia circuit united through missionary and pilgrimage networks emerged as the three main subregions of the
Buddhist world by the twelfth century.
The origins of these distinct circuits lay in the earlier phases of Buddhist
connections, especially in the seventh and eighth centuries, when the monastic
communities, itinerant monks, and polities started encountering the notions
of the ‘self’ and the ‘other’. Distinct identities were either imposed or gradually
taken throughout the Buddhist world. In the case of the Buddhist tradition
labelled as ‘Theravāda’, Peter Skilling has pointed that the term did not exist
in pre-twentieth century European writings, nor did it appear in indigenous
sources of Southeast Asia.24 The category and the identity ‘Theravāda’ was
clearly imposed after the nineteenth century. However, the realization of distinctiveness, the recognition of sectarian differences, and the awareness of the
ways in which Buddhism could be used for political purposes existed among
the Buddhist clergy at an early date. Distinctions were made between the
‘Hinayāna’ and ‘Mahāyāna’ practitioners (as is evident in the works of the three
Chinese travellers mentioned above), between the sacred Buddhist heartland
in South Asia and the peripheral regions of China, between native monks and
foreign missionaries, and between Buddhists and non-Buddhists.
The chapter by Max Deeg in this volume explains the ways in which Chinese
monks visiting South Asia perceived themselves and were, in turn, seen by others in the broader context of the Buddhist world, in which China was situated
in the peripheral region. The feelings of belonging and not belonging, of being
present in a foreign land even though among fellow Buddhists, and the creation and propagation of unique forms of doctrine led to the formation of dual
and often times multiple identities. A Chinese monk, for example, was different from practitioners of other religious traditions; he was also unlike the foreign monks residing in China; his specific doctrinal pursuit gave him a distinct
identity, and his status within the monastic community also created a discrete
identification. The distinctiveness became more complex if the Chinese monk
travelled to foreign regions, including to the pilgrimage sites or learning centres in South Asia.
24
Peter Skilling, ‘Introduction’, in How Theravāda is Theravāda?: Exploring Buddhist
Identities, edited by Peter Skilling, Jason A. Carbine, Claudio Cicuzza, and Santi
Pakdeekham (Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2012), xiii–xxx.
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Sen
During the early phases of the spread of Buddhism the specific identities
of Buddhist groups, icons, and teachings were most likely undistinguishable.
Thus the early evidence of Buddhism in China, for example, indicates a mixture with local traditions, especially those related to funerary traditions.25 The
cross-regional interactions and exchanges of the first millennium CE, especially during the second half, were an important factor in the recognition of
distinctiveness and difference within the Buddhist world. This paralleled the
creation of new spaces of pilgrimage, new doctrinal explanations and preferences, and new practices stemming from local cultural and social needs. The
decline of Buddhism in several regions of India by the end of the millennium
contributed to the strengthening of localized identities and eventually the segmentation of the Buddhist world into the self-contained circuits. As a result,
the ‘borderland complex’ (see the chapter by Deeg), which was prevalent prior
to the eighth century, abated and each circuit assumed its own distinct identity.
The Buddhist connections between South Asia and China witnessed dramatic changes due to the abovementioned segmentation. Contacts between
the clergies of the two regions became limited, as those in China were content to pursue their own doctrinal interests. Arguments were even put forth by
some members of the Chinese Buddhist community, such as the famous Song
monk Zanning 贊寧 (919–1001), for the reverse transmission of doctrines to
India.26 This feeling of a need to re-transmit Buddhist doctrines to India was
apparent again in 1940, when the monk Taixu 太虛 (1890–1947) visited India as
part of a Goodwill Mission sent by the Guomindang regime in China.
Taixu was one of the many monk-intellectuals in the early twentieth century who were wrestling with the issues of colonialism and modernity. Already in
the late nineteenth century the Sri Lankan Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933)
had spearheaded a revival movement in India with his attempt to restore the
Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgayā as a key pilgrimage site for Buddhist followers. He established the Maha Bodhi Society in Colombo in 1891, which subsequently relocated to Calcutta (now Kolkata), to accomplish this goal.27 While
Dharmapala’s efforts to establish Buddhist control over the Temple site succeeded only after his death, eventually attracting a large number of pilgrims, it
was the Maha Bodhi Society in Calcutta which became the centre for discourse
25
26
27
On this mixture of Buddhist and local elements, see Wu Hung’s ‘Buddhist Elements in
Early Chinese Art (2nd and 3rd Centuries AD)’. Artibus Asiae 47.3–4 (1986): 363–352.
See Sen 2003.
On Anagarika Dharmapala and his activities, see Steven Kemper, Rescued from the
Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2015).
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
13
among Buddhist monks and lay followers from around the world in the early
twentieth century. These monks and lay followers tried to formulate a common
agenda for Buddhism in the context of European and, subsequently, Japanese
imperialisms. Several Chinese monks, officials, and scholars visited the Society,
donated funds, and served on the governing committees of the organization.
Taixu was one of the most prominent visitors to the Society, in both Calcutta
and Sarnath.
The aim of the Goodwill Mission led by Taixu was to seek the support of
the Indian Buddhist community and the political leaders in the war against
the Japanese. Taixu met with people such as the future Indian Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru, delivered lectures at Buddhist gatherings, and visited the
sacred pilgrimage sites in present-day Bihar state. During his public speeches,
Taixu was introduced as a modern-day Xuanzang making pilgrimage in India.
However, Taixu had his own agenda. From the moment Taixu disembarked
in Calcutta, he was struck by the decline of Buddhism in India. He stressed in
his writings and speeches, similar to the Song monk Zanning, albeit in a more
melancholy tone, the need to re-transmit Buddhist doctrines from China to
India. He even donated money to the Maha Bodhi Society to undertake this
task. Taixu’s feelings about his presence in India were clearly very different
from those of the Chinese monks in the first millennium CE. Instead of sensing a ‘borderland complex’, Taixu felt that China had emerged as a centre for
Buddhism with the responsibility to restore the doctrine in the Buddhist holy
land. The sacred Buddhist sites in India no longer generated a sense of peripheral existence among the Chinese monks. Rather, they had attained an identity
of their own as a central realm of Buddhism.28
Another aspect that also needs to be stressed here is the use of Buddhism
to create a distinctive identity for political regimes, communities, or groups.
Prior to the colonial period, several polities, such as the Sui dynasty, Srivijaya
in Southeast Asia, the Khitans and Tanguts in the northern steppe regions, and
the Mongols in Persia used Buddhism to establish a unique identity and distinguish themselves from contending regimes, rival polities, or unify the subjects
within a common ideology. The same was true for some of the Chinese migrant
groups settled in Southeast Asia and Calcutta. Among many of these migrant
groups, Guanyin was one of the most ubiquitous Buddhist deities. Other figures associated with popular practice of Buddhism, such as the monk Jigong
28
On Taixu’s Goodwill Mission to India, his meetings, lectures, and feeling about Buddhism
in India, see Tansen Sen, ‘Taixu’s Goodwill Mission to India: Reviving the Buddhist
Connections between India and China’, in Buddhism in Asia: Revival and Reinvention
edited by Nayanjot Lahiri and Upinder Singh (New Delhi: Manohar, 2016), 293–322.
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Sen
and the monkey god Sun Wukong, also appeared in the temples and shrines
belonging to the Chinese overseas. However, the Buddhist identities of many
of these deities are not always evident as they are often worshiped alongside
Taoist divinities, deified individuals from local regions, and Confucian figures. Within this context, the veneration of two so-called buddhas, Ruan Ziyu
阮子鬱 (1079–1102) and Liang Cineng 梁慈能 (1098–1116), by migrants from the
Sihui County in Guangdong province, is remarkable. Beyond the Sihui region,
temples dedicated to the two buddhas can be found in Singapore, Malaysia,
and Calcutta.
During the Song period, Ruan Ziyu and Liang Cineng, two commoners,
lived near Shaoguan, where the mummified body of the Sixth Chan Patriarch
Huineng 惠能 (638–713) was preserved. Ruan Ziyu is supposed to have one day
dreamt of Huineng and suddenly attained enlightenment. Liang, on the other
hand, had a dream about Ruan and also instantaneously became enlightened.
Two temples, Baolin 寶林 (built in 1271) and Baosheng 寶勝 (built in 1290),
dedicated to the two figures respectively, were erected in the Sihui region soon
after the deaths of the two individuals. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Cantonese-speaking people from the region started migrating to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Calcutta, they established temples and
shrines dedicated to these two buddhas. The two buddhas served as the protective deities of the Sihui community as they moved from one region to another.
More importantly, the Ruan and Liang buddhas and the temples dedicated to
them became important markers of Sihui identity as the migrant group tried
to differentiate themselves from other Chinese migrants living in Southeast
Asia and Calcutta. These days, the Sihui migrants often travel to the original
temples in Guangdong province. For those who are unable to do so, photographs of the original temples and the images of the idols of Ruan and Liang
from these temples are displayed at the temples in Southeast Asia and Calcutta.
These temples served a similar purpose as the earlier transplanted pilgrimage
sites in foreign regions, such as Mt. Wutai in China, giving a sense of belonging
and a common identity to people living in foreign regions.
3
Encounters and Identities
Translocal cultural encounters and the diversity of Buddhist identities are
the focus of the twelve chapters that appear in this volume. Connections
between several regions of the Buddhist world, from South Asia to Japan, are
examined to explain the intricacies of regional and cross-regional networks
and the complexities of identities. Subjects covered in these chapters range
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
15
from artistic connections and notions of belonging to the movement of ritual
objects. Together these essays illustrate the nature of the vibrant and multilayered Buddhist world prior to the colonial era. The chapters contribute to
the understanding of the networks that facilitated Buddhist connections, and
the transformations of Buddhist ideas and objects as they moved through these
networks. They also detail the unique identities of Buddhism as the teachings
of the Buddha were accepted, transformed, and re-transmitted within the
Buddhist world.
The first section of the book, ‘Translocal Cultural Encounters’, examines
the Buddhist connections that were fostered through the various commercial
and diplomatic networks. They focus on the transmission of ideas, objects,
texts, and people from one region of the Buddhist world to another. Claudine
Bautze-Picron explores the art-historical impact of Bagan’s connections to
Yuan China. Using unpublished aspects of the late thirteenth-century murals
found in several temples at Bagan, Bautze-Picron examines the ways in which
specific iconographic motifs, such as the representation of Mongols, the depiction of dreadful door-keepers, or the image of the short-necked Buddha from
Yuan China, entered Burma (now Myanmar).
Rob Linrothe’s essay focuses on a partial set of eight Ming dynasty textiles
still in use at a shrine in the Western Himalaya that was never in contact with
any Chinese state, and was in fact founded long after the Ming dynasty ended.
Yet the group of relatively well-preserved embroidered textiles, at least one
of which has a Chinese inscription on the back, are hung during the monastery’s annual masked dance festival (Tib. ’cham), treasures displayed on an
auspicious pair of days. How and when they were acquired by a monastery in
southeastern Ladakh on the far Western border of Tibet is not known, though
other objects in the same monastery can be shown to have been sent by the
nineteenth-century 14th Karmapa. These objects, Linrothe asserts, are potent,
physical reminders of the circulation and flow of people, ideas, practices,
texts, and objects within Buddhist networks crossing linguistic, state, ethnic
and cultural borders. Spectacular objects created at or by the Ming court were
prized at the major Tibetan Buddhist monasteries supported directly by the
Ming court—reminders of the monastery’s participation in wider networks of
Buddhist teachings and support, helping to define their identities.
Megan Bryson’s essay deals with the Nanzhao (649–903) and Dali (937–1253)
polities centred in the Dali region of what is now southwest China’s Yunnan
province. Bryson demonstrates that the ruling elites in the Nanzhao and Dali
polities relied more heavily on networks linking Dali to Chinese territory for
their Buddhist material, especially their texts, than to other Buddhist sites in
Tibet or South Asia with which the region also maintained close connections.
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Sen
Despite this, Bryson argues, the ruling elites emphasized their links to India
and downplayed the China connection. Employing texts and images related
to the “border-crossing” Bodhisattva Guanyin (Skt. Avalokiteśvara), the essay
shows how the documented and represented networks related to each other in
the Nanzhao and Dali polities.
The basic characteristics and historical formation of the combination of
Fudō 不動 and Aizen 愛染, two important esoteric Buddhist deities, in medieval Shingon 真言 esoteric Buddhism in Japan, are discussed in the essay
by Steven Trenson. Looking at the issue from the standpoint of two different
intersecting networks, a ‘translocal’ human network stretching between China
and Japan and a ‘local’ conceptual network of ideas and practices developed
in Shingon, Trenson highlights the belief that marked the identity of medieval
Shingon, in particular of the Ono 小野 branch of that school. It contends that
the Fudō-Aizen belief came to occupy a special place in the Ono branch as the
result of ideas passing from China to Japan through certain human networks
which were adopted at one time into the conceptual network of rainmaking.
Bryan Levman’s contribution studies the transmission of the Buddha’s
teachings from India to China through the lens of the dhāraṇīs of the Lotus
Sūtra. Kumārajīva was the first Chinese translator to undertake a transliteration of the dhāraṇīs that attempted to retain their ritual efficacy for Chinese
Buddhists. His source text was Prakritic in nature and shown to be centuries
earlier than the Sanskrit manuscripts that have survived. The transmission of
the buddhadharma from India to China, Levman argues, was a highly complex
process with dozens of human, temporal, spatial, dialectal, scribal, psychological and phonological variables, making it impossible to transmit the teachings
error free. Levman’s study of the dhāraṇīs opens a unique window on the networks of exchange of information between India and China in the early centuries of the Common Era and the interaction of two very different cultural and
linguistic environments.
In the final chapter of this section Kaiqi Hua scrutinises the life of the
last Song Emperor Zhao Xian 趙㬎 (1271–1323), who travelled extensively
across China and Tibet, and became a Tibetan Buddhist monk with the name
Lhatsün (Tib. Lha btsun). Using various sources in different languages and literary forms, Hua not only reconstructs Zhao’s travel routes, but also explains
the motives and processes of Buddhist exile for the royals during the Mongol
Yuan dynasty through physical migration in space and textual reproduction in
time. The essay demonstrates the role Buddhism played in cross-cultural and
cross-regional contacts in the lives of individual migrants.
The second section of the book, ‘Negotiating and Constructing Identities’,
consists of six chapters that explore the attempts by the clergy to find, create,
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Introduction: Networks and Identities in the Buddhist World
17
or assert their identities in different regions of the Buddhist world. Max Deeg’s
contribution draws on Antonino Forte’s notion of a borderland complex and
on the concept of the ‘double belonging’ of Chinese Buddhists in the medieval
period. This was caused by the fact that China, the so-called Middle Kingdom,
was not the centre of Buddhist cosmology. Indeed, it was not part of the
Buddhist sacred realm at all, as Deeg argues. Nowhere can one observe this
struggle better than in the records of Chinese pilgrims to South Asia, as noted
above. In this regard, Deeg contends, the protagonists are, quite often, negotiating a dual cultural identity; they are both part of greater Chinese culture and
express a sense of religious belonging to—and presence in—a Sacred Land
that lays claim to cosmological and soteriological superiority over all the other
regions in the world. The conflict that arose from this conflict of identities is
expressed in the texts in the form of poems and narratives reflecting either
homesickness or determination to stay in India (or both), as examined in the
essay. The essay also addresses the different forms of expression of these identities and analyses them in the wider context of Chinese and Indian Buddhism.
The essay by Sem Vermeersch studies the way Chinese Buddhist monks
looked at their Korean counterparts, and how this perception of a Buddhist
‘other’ changed over time from the beginning of the sixth to the late tenth centuries. This was the period when Buddhist exchanges between China and Korea
were the most intensive. Throughout this period, a vast number of monks from
peninsular kingdoms travelled to China and beyond; some eventually returned
to their home country, but many stayed, and some left their marks on Chinese
Buddhism. Given the lack of early Korean sources, much of our information
about the biographies of these intrepid monks stems from Chinese biographic
collections. So far, however, insufficient attention has been paid to the fact that
these biographies were shaped by the ideals and motivations of their authors.
Notably, Daoxuan, the author of a seminal collection of monastic biographies,
projected his own ideals of the observance of the vinaya and doctrinal learning upon the biographies of Wŏngwang and Chajang. The way he creatively
reimagined these biographies has been accepted in Korean scholarship and
continues to influence even present-day perceptions. While later biographies
do not show such a strong auctorial hand, they equally tend to ascribe Chinese
monastic ideals or other motivations to the Korean material.
Henrik H. Sørensen devotes his chapter to the study of a specific phenomenon in the history of East Asian Buddhism, namely the quest for the Buddhist
teaching (qiufa 求法) undertaken by Buddhist monks in regions other than
their own. Based primarily on the analysis of epigraphical writings, Sørensen
explains the experiences associated with Korean Sŏn 禪 (Ch. Chan) Buddhist
monks journeying to Tang China during the eighth and ninth centuries.
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Sen
The cult of Shōtoku Taishi 聖徳太子 (Prince Shōtoku, 573–621) was a farreaching movement across Japan throughout several centuries, and the belief
that he was Huisi’s 慧思 (515–577) reincarnation was an important element in
his extensive cult in the Buddhist world. Pei-Ying Lin in her essay examines the
connection between the Japanese prince and the legend cycles of the Chinese
patriarch Huisi from the eighth century onwards. In particular, the essay discusses the networks of authors of this reincarnation story, namely Du Fei
杜朏 (c. 710–720), Jianzhen 鑑真 (688–763), Situo 思託 (722–809), Saichō 最澄
(767–822) and Kōjō 光定 (779–858). This self-identification involved Buddhist
monks who located themselves in a broader context of East Asian Buddhism.
Lin argues that the reincarnation legend reveals the authors’ motives of rearranging the association between China and Japan. Their self-identification, Lin
contends, matured as the reincarnation story developed into complete form.
Bart Dessein’s chapter argues that one’s Buddhist identity is not a monolithic singularity, but a layered construct, consisting of the acceptance of the
Buddha-word (Buddhavacana) as one’s core Buddhist identity, then one’s particular monastic school and code as a first layer around this Buddhist ‘nucleus’,
and finally philosophical interpretations of the Buddha-word as the outer layer
of one’s Buddhist identity. These three layers, Dessein points out, are represented in the traditional three collections of Buddhist literature (tripiṭaka):
sūtra, vinaya, and abhidharma. The ‘canonical’ status of the abhidharma collection is the least stable of these three. The ‘Abhidharmic’ layer is, according
to Dessein, therefore, the layer that enables ‘networking’, as the acceptance of
the Buddha-word and one’s monastic affiliation are beyond negotiation. It is
this intricate connection between identity formation, canonization, and networking in the Indian and Chinese political spheres that form the core of this
chapter.
The final chapter of the volume by Ann Heirman examines the monastic
life as a major factor in the creation of Buddhist identity. In several types of
Buddhist texts, and particularly in disciplinary texts, monastic life received a
great deal of attention, with monks representing the Buddhist community as
well as the Dharma. This is also the case with respect to bodily care. Although
bodily care practices might seem trivial, they reveal what the community stood
for, at least normatively. Heirman explains how this normative ideal was transferred from India to China, taking into account the role of Buddhist monastics in the social networks to which they belonged. Heirman further explores
the ways in which the threshold for becoming a monk advanced over time,
with purity attaining an ever more central position in Buddhist discourse on
bodily care.
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Part 1
Translocal Networks
∵
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Chapter 1
Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
Claudine Bautze-Picron
1
Introduction
Located in the central plain of Burma on the left bank of the Irrawady, the
old city of Bagan was at the centre of an intensive commercial network with
some roads following the river from North to South, while others crossed the
hills on the Western bank of the river, either reaching Arakan and beyond
the Indian subcontinent or going toward Yunnan, China, Tibet and Central
Asia in the East and the North. These commercial contacts were backed by
political and diplomatic relations, which also linked the Kingdom of Bagan
(eleventh-thirteenth centuries) to those of Sri Lanka and Angkor.1
Being thus at one centre of this intricate network had profound repercussions for the art of the site, a phenomenon which has been only too rarely
noted, let alone studied in detail. Most authors considered the Indian, and in
particular Bengali, impact on the architecture of the site, or introduced remarks
about the similarities between specific images from Bagan and Eastern India.
Systematic study of these similarities, as indeed also of those noted between
the art of Bagan and China, is however still lacking. A study of the wall paintings from this standpoint is in fact richly rewarding: unlike the stone and cast
images found at Bagan, which show such strong similarities with the art of
Eastern India that one can at times surmise them to have been imported from
this region rather than produced locally, murals are immovable and were produced where they are still seen today. They thus reflect a local reality even if
penetrated by elements whose origin can be traced back to India or China.
As a matter of fact, the wall paintings which can be dated from the end of
the eleventh up to the early fourteenth century share various features with the
artistic productions of China and Eastern India. They have already drawn our
attention in recent years: those of the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries
1 Cotton was imported from India and silk from China (Frasch 1996: 281−282). Concerning the
relations with China: below note 36 and Frasch 1996: passim; Wade 2009: 19−24; Goh 2010 &
2015: 42−60. For those with India and Sri Lanka: Frasch 1998, and with Cambodia: BautzePicron 2003: 197. A short survey of the presence of Bagan in the international scene is made
by Bautze-Picron 2003: 3−5.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004366152_003
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Bautze-Picron
illustrate characters wearing garments adorned with motifs encountered
in Buddhist illuminated manuscripts from around 1100 CE produced in the
region of Comilla in Bangladesh;2 the style and the iconography of the paintings in a temple like the Loka-hteik-pan (beginning of twelfth century) go back
to the art of Bihar;3 and even if their iconography appears to relate to literary
sources traditionally considered to belong to Theravāda, the murals in temples
like Patho-hta-mya and Mye-bon-tha-hpaya share their style with eleventhtwelfth-century illuminated manuscripts from Eastern India.4
The iconography and style imported from Eastern India in the eleventh
century—most probably because painters of Indian origin had then been
invited to work at and founded ateliers in Bagan—rapidly underwent fundamental transformations when local painters succeeded their Indian masters. The
pictorial development of the twelfth century led to the emergence of a genuine
Burmese style which also radically modified iconographic topics inherited
from Eastern India, such as bodhisattvas as door protectors; this movement
persisted up to the early fourteenth century with the basic modification of
letting the iconography become subsidiary to decorative paintings. With the
Indian impact waning in the course of the twelfth century, new inspirations
were embraced by the painters, derived from the motifs of Chinese textiles and
ceramics from the Song 宋 (960–1279) and Yuan 元 (1271–1368) periods.5
Paintings were made not by monks but by trained craftsmen. And although
they were told what to represent by monks or donors, the source of inspiration
for the formulation which they gave to this iconography lay in their physical
environment. Thus, even if the iconography of the murals refers to texts known
in Sri Lanka, and iconographic models might also be imported from Eastern
India in the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, artists were open to foreign
aesthetics made accessible through the import of Indian cottons and Chinese
silk and ceramics. We recently had the opportunity to study some of these
aspects of the murals in various papers6 but many more questions and unknowns remain; here we will dwell on two of them in particular. As mentioned
above, the painters were acquainted with various decorative motifs through
Chinese garments and ceramics,7 but certain aspects of the iconography
2
3
4
5
6
7
Bautze-Picron 2014.
Bautze-Picron 2003: 8−9 and passim.
Bautze-Picron 2015: 113.
Ibid.
Bautze-Picron 2014 and Bautze-Picron 2015.
Bautze-Picron 2015: 115−117.
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
23
constitute evidence of the local presence of Chinese or Mongols in the thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries.
Not only did the Bagan artists integrate in their production stylistic, iconographic and ornamental features from the countries adjacent to Burma, but
their works were also able, albeit to a limited extent, to inspire their colleagues
from abroad. The Burmese impact, most probably originating from Bagan, is
in fact perceptible in various regions: around Bodhgayā in Bihar, in Bengal,
at Kharakhoto in Central Asia, or even in the artefacts of the Three Pagodas
of the Chongsheng Temple in the Dali Kingdom (937−1253). Although these
examples remain isolated and never deeply anchored in the local artistic production, they prove the existence of contacts between these regions and sites
and Bagan.8
The reader will find below a list of various types of motifs seen both in
Bagan and in different sites of the Sino-Tibetan world. These similarities are
epiphenomenal and are generally isolated: an image at Bagan can relate to
several examples noted elsewhere, or a picture seen abroad is correlated with
different examples observed at Bagan. Moreover, some particular iconographic
aspects of the murals do not enter into this category of ‘similarities’ but in fact
reflect the presence of Chinese or Mongols in Bagan.
2
The ‘Short-Necked’ Buddha
The cult images of the Bagan temples present a very particular depiction
of the Buddha image with round shoulders and deep-sunken head hiding the
(short) neck, which is also introduced in the wall-paintings in the course of
the twelfth century (Fig. 1.1). Outside Bagan, where it has in effect become a
generic motif, this type is occasionally observed among the cloth-paintings of
the Tangut period (1038−1227) collected at Kharakhoto, where different foreign
styles—Nepalese, Chinese, and Tibetan—are attested, reflecting the international culture of the Buddhist community there.
This type, variously labelled robust or short-necked,9 might not have
been originally created by the artists of Bagan, although it is encountered in
8 Reference here is to a unique small crystal rock carving of the Buddha found in the treasure
of the Three Pagodas and approximately dated to the twelfth century; see Lutz (ed.) 1991a:
173−174, Kat. 47; Lutz 1991b: 107, 110, Abb. 91. See also Leoshko 1990 for an introduction on the
Burmese impact in Bengal.
9 These terms were coined by by Hiram Woodward Jr and Ulrich von Schroeder (see BautzePicron 2010: 72, note 11).
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Figure 1.1
Bautze-Picron
Buddha, Thambula: Northern side of the central core.
All photos are courtesy of Joachim K. Bautze unless otherwise
mentioned.
practically all the local monuments. The very technique with which the cult
image was produced accounts for this ‘robust’ body built of bricks and stuccoed
before being painted. It is highly likely that the central image of the Bodhgayā
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25
temple was made this way10—and I would go as far as suggesting that the
wall behind the image there was painted with the programme of the Life of
Śākyamuni, as found in the Loka-hteik-pan.11 Cast and carved Indian images
of the Buddha from the eighth up to the late twelfth century do not, however,
show this thickset appearance, and in the few cases in which this appearance
is to be seen it is probably to be understood as reproducing the cult image of
the Bodhgayā temple.12
In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries the sculptors and bronze-casters
of Bagan reproduced the main stylistic trend observed in Bihar and Bengal.
Only towards the end of the twelfth century do we encounter carved images
of the Buddha with large head hiding his neck in the Kubyauk-nge (1198 CE).13
However, the cult image of the Bagan temples has always reflected a very different perception of the body of the Buddha, which is similar to the rare Indian
examples mentioned above. As said above, this image is built in brick, stuccoed and painted, and owes its very characteristic form to this technique of
production: the face is large and sunken, hiding the neck, whereas the body is
heavy, rather round, the shoulders rounded. The head does not rise free above
the body but is squeezed between the shoulders on a short neck, probably to
reduce its weight. The hairline generally follows an evenly curved line without
10
11
12
13
The Bodhgayā image located at the centre of the Buddhist world, where Śākyamuni
became Buddha, was and still is the model for any subsequent images. We should not
forget that the Burmese kings were closely involved in the restoration and upkeep of the
temple from the end of the eleventh century onwards. This method of producing images
in brick, stuccoed and painted, spread throughout the Ganga valley as far as Bengal and
Bagan and was definitely used when the cult image was of large dimensions. See BautzePicron 2010: 71, note 2; this is also suggested by Frederick M. Asher (2008: 29). Clay hair
scrolls discovered by Alexander Cunningham in Bodhgayā and today preserved in the
British Museum (inv. 1887.0817.144−145) support this hypothesis (my thanks go to Michael
Willis for drawing my attention to these objects).
That would also account for this iconography of the Eight Events in numerous cloth
paintings from the Himalaya. In India, too, this iconographic model was considered to be
fundamental, judging from the numerous carved depictions, in some cases of very large
dimensions, such as the Jagdishpur image located near Nalanda or the remains from a
similar stele discovered around Lakhi Sarai (Bautze-Picron 1995/96: 363−369).
This is also the opinion of Jinah Kim 2013: 66−70. See ibid.: figs. 2−7, 2−8, for two painted
depictions of this type. See also Bautze-Picron 2010: 71, note 2 for a further cast example
found in the region of Bodhgayā. It is highly likely that the lotus maṇḍala preserved in the
British Museum (Zwalf 1985: 115, cat. 153) also originates from the region (as also suggested by Wladimir Zwalf): the group of the Aṣṭamahābodhisattvas surrounding the Buddha
is a well-know iconography in the region (Bautze-Picron 1997).
Reference in Bautze-Picron 2013: 71 note 10.
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Bautze-Picron
the wave or the peak marking the middle of the line; the uṣṇīṣa is broad and
flat, at times showing a small hole which was probably meant to contain a
(semi-)precious stone; the forehead may be very broad. This physical appearance of the Buddha is also encountered in the thirteenth-century murals of
the site and in small carved images carved in Bihar and Burma before it
was transmitted all over the Buddhist world, many depictions being found in
Tibetan monasteries, others in Sri Lanka or Arakan, for instance.14
One cloth-painting from Kharakhoto holds our attention here more particularly (Fig. 1.4),15 being stylistically closely related to thirteenth-century murals
of Bagan, in particular those in the Thamuti-hpaya (monument 844, dated
1260 CE) (Fig. 1.3), the Thambula (monument 482, dated 1255 CE) (Fig. 1.2), the
Ajja-gona-hpaya (monument 588, dated 1237 CE) and the Tayok-pyi-hpaya-gyi
(monument 539, dated before 1248 CE).16
14
15
16
Bautze-Picron 1999: figs. 1, 6, 9−10, 12−13.
Piotrovsky 1993: 118−9, cat. 6. Two further paintings from Kharakhoto can be placed
in relation to the murals of Bagan as far as the depiction of the Buddha is concerned;
they show the face painted on the frame of an isosceles triangle, the base of which
coincides with the hairline, and have a broad and flat uṣṇīṣa (Piotrovsky 1993: 106−109,
cat. 2; Rhie and Thurman 1991: 341−2, cat. 135 or Menzies 2001: 88, cat. 59). All three paintings show the Buddha of the vajrāsana, flanked by the two Bodhisattvas Maitreya and
Avalokiteśvara, whose images used to stand at Bodhgayā on either side of the outer gate
to the main temple (Bautze-Picron 2010: 77; but with regard to the bodhisattvas seen on
the Kharakhoto paintings, see the remark made by Rhie and Thurman 1991: 341). The
iconography within which this image is set does not, however, show any relationship to
the visual language of Bagan. The thangka to which we refer more particularly shows the
event of the Bodhi surrounded by a series of caityas which are symbolic of seven other
sites related to the Buddha biography; this program does not, however, reproduce the
one generalised in India and Burma, since the two events involving the monkey and
the elephant are replaced by the evocation of the Vulture peak and the house of
Vimalakīrti (Piotrovsky 1993: 118). Similar observations could be made with regard to the
other two cloth paintings mentioned in this note (including, for instance, the depiction
of the five Tathāgatas, the Aṣṭamahābodhisattvas, various deities and krodhas belonging
to Esoteric Buddhism, and of Tibetan monks).
Bautze-Picron 2003: 194−195, 198−199, 206, and plate 90. See also Pichard 1993: 300−303
(Thambula), 376−383 (Tayok-pyi-hpaya-gyi); 1994a: 55−59 (Ajja-gona-hpaya); 1994b: 32−35
(Thamuti-hpaya). Regarding the dating (up to the early fourteenth century) of the material found at Kharakhoto, see Stoddard 2008: 16.
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Figure 1.2
27
Buddha, Thambula: murals in the Eastern hall, Western wall.
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Bautze-Picron
Figure 1.3
3
Buddha, Thamuti-hpaya.
The Buddha on the Cushion
Among the paintings of the Thambula mentioned above, one located in the
Eastern entrance hall (Fig. 1.5) includes a particular element not seen in other
monuments but well known through various examples in the Indo-Tibetan
world. As a matter of fact, the Buddha displaying the bhūmisparśamudrā, the
“gesture of touching the earth”, sits on a cushion adorned with intricate scrolls
which spread out of the mouth of a lion face depicted at the centre of the composition. This treatment of the cushion is encountered in a number of images
cast between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries in Eastern India and the
Himalaya, showing Śākyamuni seated on a cushion adorned with a lion face
in a central position. This probably alludes to the siṃhāsana, “lion throne”, of
Bodhgayā (Fig. 1.6),17 a conjecture which seems to find confirmation in the fact
that the motif is found beneath this Buddha only in the Thambula. All the
other images in the temple depict later episodes of the Buddha’s life, none in
17
The Amitāyus illustrated by Pal 1972: fig. 7, is an exception. For this iconographic motif,
see Pal 1972 and Weldon/Casey Singer 1999: 61−66. To the images published by these
authors are to be added: von Schroeder 2001, I: pl. 85E−F (also reproduced in von
Schroeder 2008: pl. 18A); and Sotheby’s New York 1999: cat. 60. Of all the known examples,
only one cast image was actually discovered in Bihar, more precisely at Jaipurgarh near
Fatehpur (Weldon/Casey Singer 1999: figs. 31−32; on this Buddha image and the other images recovered at Jaipurgarh, see Huntington 1979, Mitra 1987, Sahai 1977, Sharma 1979).
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Figure 1.4
29
Buddha in Vajrāsana and Eight Great Stūpas. China, Tangut State of Xixia,
Kharakhoto. 12th–13th century. Inv. no. XX-2326. The State Hermitage Museum,
St. Petersburg.
Photograph © The State Hermitage Museum. Photo by Leonard
Kheifets.
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Bautze-Picron
Figure 1.5
Cushion under the Buddha (detail of fig. 1.2).
fact showing this very peculiar cushion.18 The position of the monstrous face,
under the Buddha and not at the top of the image, departs totally from the
traditional composition of the image in India, hence I suppose that what is
initially depicted is a precious piece of cloth, perhaps a Tibetan or Chinese silk
brocade, offered to a Buddha image and laid before it.19
4
Foreigners in the Murals
Devotees constitute a feature included in all the murals of the site. They can
be considered to be contemporary to the Buddha when observed in scenes
from the Buddha’s life, but they can also be the donors to the monument. Their
situation in many cases remains ambivalent, however: for instance, those
depicted in large groups in the Kubyauk-gyi (Myinkaba), dated 1113 CE, can be
simultaneously perceived as direct disciples of the Buddha and as devotees
of the twelfth century. Such large groups of lay people are no longer present in
the later murals of the site, and their original position, underneath the panel,
is occupied by assemblies of monks, profiled standing or kneeling.
Because they are ordinary humans, the laypeople wear real garments, whereas the gods and goddesses or characters from the Buddha’s life story, such as
his mother, are dressed and bejewelled in very specific ways which contribute
to defining an iconography inherited from North Indian models. This convention is observed throughout the Bagan temples, and thus the depiction of male
characters wearing neither Indian nor Burmese dress might prove surprising.
18
19
To this observation, we should add the presence of the two gods Indra/Sakka and Brahmā
flanking the Buddha and replacing the two traditional Bodhisattvas Maitreya and
Avalokiteśvara whose images used to stand in front of the Bodhi Mandir (above note 15).
It is also possible, as suggested by D. Weldon and J. Casey, that these images refer to a
specific important image worshipped in Bihar (p. 65).
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
Figure 1.6
31
Buddha, Bihar, Potala Museum, Lhasa.
photo courtesy of Ulrich von Schroeder.
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Bautze-Picron
As Donors in the Thambula (monument 482)20—Within this general context
the presence of an important group of foreigners whom I would tentatively
identify as Mongols painted in the frame of the northern entrance to the
Thambula in Minnanthu appears unusual for two reasons: on account of
the appearance of these devotees, and their position within the monument
(Figs. 1.7−1.9). As a matter of fact, in the thirteenth century a door frame was
usually adorned with a covering pattern of scrolls over which flying divine
figures hover.21 However, the northern entrance is here framed by a series of
human male devotees, all kneeling with hands folded before the breast. Six
characters to our left and nine to our right are still preserved, the upper part of
the murals having disappeared. The construction of the Thambula-hpaya was
completed in 1255 CE, having been financed by Thambula, wife to the ruler
Sithu III (Uccana) (r. 1251−1256),22 but one may surmise that this group of men
might also have participated in the work on the painted ornamentation of the
monument and were rewarded by being portrayed at the northern entrance—
perhaps because they had come from the North. The presence of the nimbus
behind their heads attests further to their importance.23
Their physiognomy and dress depart from what we generally see in the site
murals, obviously indicating their foreign origin.24 They display bushy moustaches hiding their mouths and falling at either end; as depicted here, this style
of moustache illustrates a fashion unknown locally but noted in examples of
Chinese paintings.25 Their hair is knotted at the crown of the head, also recalling a Chinese or Yuan fashion,26 while the eyebrows are not depicted with a
continuous horizontal line but with tiny parallel strokes painted vertically. All
are heavily clad with garments in silk brocade adorned with various motifs
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Pichard 1993: 300−303.
Bautze-Picron 2003: fig. 93.
Frasch 1994: 138.
One could also speculate that they were part of the group which accompanied the monk
Disāprāmuk back from his diplomatic mission in Ta-tu (Beijing) in 1285; see below,
note 35.
Moustache and beard were not unknown at Bagan since all the male lay characters,
monks excluded, wore them, but they show specific cuts: the moustache is shaped as a
thin horizontal line (‘à la Salvador Dalí’) and the beard can be full, clipped, or shaped as
a long goatee. As to the long hair, it usually forms a thick bun on the nape, see BautzePicron 2003: figs. 21−27, 48, 73, 78 for instance.
For comparison, see: Watt 2010: 193, figs. 211−212 (two ink on paper works respectively
dated 1296 and ca. 1041−1106); Hearn and Smith 1996: 291, fig. 14.9.
Ibid.; Godley 1994: 55.
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Figure 1.7
33
Group of foreigners flanking the Northern entrance, Thambula.
such as scrolls or medallions,27 but also with parallel concentric lines probably
representing thick folds.
27
For a study of volutes and scrolls as seen here and their most probable Chinese origin, see
Bautze-Picron 2015.
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Bautze-Picron
Figure 1.8
Detail of the murals on the Northern entrance, Thambula.
As part of the iconographic programme in three monuments—Similar male figures appear in three other temples, e.g. in the Nandamanya and the Kathapa
East (monuments 577 & 505), two temples situated near the Thambula, and
in monument 1077, located further West near the river.28 Whereas the murals
28
Pichard 1993: 331−333 (monument 505); 1994a: 35−39 (monument 577) and 1994b: 319−321
(monument 1077).
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Figure 1.9
35
Detail of the murals on the Northern entrance, Thambula.
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Bautze-Picron
in the Nandamanya and monument 1077 are fairly well preserved, the large
panel of monument 505, which we dwell on here, is unfortunately much faded
and disfigured with graffiti. In all three cases, the characters are included in
iconographic panels: in the Kathapa East and in monument 1077, two heavily
clad characters worship a stūpa belonging to a sequence of four monuments,
all depicted in the upper part of the panel (Fig. 1.10). In both examples, they are
paired with a depiction of the caitya worshipped by nāgas at Rāmagrāma, both
panels being positioned at the same height, and thus the divine level, on the
wall as the Dussa-thūpa and the Cūlāmani which are respectively worshipped
by the Brahmās and the devas.29 While studying the painted programme of
monument 1077, I suggested identifying this caitya as the secret underground
caitya raised by Mahākāśyapa and King Ajātaśatru: this caitya contained ashes
collected by Mahākāśyapa from seven of the eight original stūpas, the only one
which remained intact being the one standing at Rāmagrāma.30
In the Nandamanya, the same characters dressed in heavy garments are
introduced in the depiction of the ‘war of relics’; as described in a previous
paper,31 this scene faces the veneration of the Rāmagrāma caitya by the nāgas,
thus sharing the positioning noted in monument 1077. Eight such characters
are distributed in two symmetric groups of four figures each (Figs. 1.11−1.13)
in the lower row; above it, eight similar figures—but defaced—are standing
around a central group showing two horse riders flanking Doṇa, shown standing with legs apart and hands raised to assuage the tensions between the eight
rulers. It would thus appear that these eight figures should be the eight kings
who carried the ashes of the Buddha back to their kingdoms. Their physical
appearance is identical to that of the devotees in the Thambula: wearing heavy
dress consisting of various layers of garments, adorned with foliated scrolls
showing the spiked lobed leaf;32 their hair is knotted at the top of the head,
and they wear moustaches. Here also, as in the donors’ group in the Thambula,
their importance is stressed by the presence of the nimbus behind their heads.
Eight similar characters are depicted around the bejewelled Buddha on the
South wall of monument 1077 (Figs. 1.14−1.16), a presence which I tentatively
tried to explain in a previous paper.33 They are depicted paying their respects
to the teaching Buddha, wearing heavy garments showing various kinds of
pleating and different types of headdresses: the hair may be tied at the top
of the head, as seen in the Thambula, but it may also be hidden under a hat,
29
30
31
32
33
Bautze-Picron 2011:11−12, figs. 15−18.
Bautze-Picron 2011: 12, notes 16−17.
Bautze-Picron 2011: 11.
On this very specific decorative Chinese motif, see Bautze-Picron 2015.
Bautze-Picron 2011: 17−20.
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
Figure 1.10
37
Two foreigners worshipping a stūpa, Temple 1077, Southern wall.
apparently inspired by the ornament noted in some Chinese paintings found
at Kharakhoto.34 Whoever they may be, identifiable or not with characters
34
Piotrovsky 1993: 208−213, cats. 50, 51; see in particular the attending figures as illustrated
on pp. 210−211.
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Figure 1.11
Group of eight foreign rulers, Southern wall, Nandamanya.
Figure 1.12
Left part of the group of eight foreign rulers, Nandamanya.
Figure 1.13
Right part of the group of eight foreign rulers, Nandamanya.
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Figure 1.14
39
Temple 1077, Southern wall.
belonging to Buddhist mythology, the major fact here is that such foreigners
are held in such high consideration that they are distributed around the
Buddha who is teaching, seated on his throne as a king (he is bejewelled) and
flanked by Mahāmoggallāna and Sariputta, all three depicted within a shrine
constructed in front of a tree whose foliage tops the composition.
The fact of having radically changed the looks of the eight Indian rulers who
had collected the Buddha’s ashes at Kuśīnagara probably reflects the historical
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Figure 1.15
Bautze-Picron
Detail of the mural in temple 1077, Southern wall, left
group.
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Figure 1.16
41
Detail of the mural in temple 1077, Southern wall, right
group.
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Bautze-Picron
reality: relations with India were then extinct, and the central position held up
to the thirteenth century by Bodhgayā—to which Buddhists had once flocked
from all over Asia—had waned, whereas Bagan began stressing its position as
protector of the dharma, having its own Bodhi Mandir constructed in around
the mid-thirteenth century.35 This situation occurred in a period characterised
not only by a shift of political interest towards China, but probably also by
more extensive relations between monks from Bagan and the Chinese world.36
5
Door-keepers at the Let-put-kan
We probably owe to this development the fearsome blue- or yellow-skinned
male characters holding weapons such as a short sword and a vajra who are
painted on the side walls of the entrances to the Let-put-kan (monument 711),
a monument constructed before 1241 CE (Figs. 1.17−1.18).37 Their facial features
are startling, and they stand in the so-called ālīḍhāsana, a position of victory
which also symbolises their power and strength. Such characters are evidently
related to the fearsome (krodha) figures that appeared in the last phase of
Buddhism in India and found their way to Tibet and Central Asia, but are clearly
not part of the Buddhism which finds expression in the murals covering the
inner walls of the monument where, as in all the other monuments, the main
character is Śākyamuni, and they also differ completely from the bodhisattvas
acting as door protectors placed at earlier monuments, such as the Abeyadana
and the Kubyauk-gyi.38 Although they are much damaged and have been
partly repainted,39 we can still recognise that they are heavily armed with vajra
and sword in the Western entrance, or with arrow (or aṅkuśa?) and an indistinct attribute or weapon in the Eastern entrance.
These grim door-protectors were clearly added at a later date, most probably towards the end of the thirteenth century, and were not part of the initial
35
36
37
38
39
Frasch 2000.
On his return from his diplomatic mission to Beijing in 1285, the monk Disāprāmuk was
accompanied by “monks from seventy monasteries […] who were to propagate Buddhism
at Pagan” (Than Tun 1978: 32−34). See also Brose 2006: 337−338; Sen 2006: 304−305; and
Goh 2010 for a detailed study of this complicated question of the relationship between
the Kingdom of Bagan and China.
Bautze-Picron 2003: 191−192: date after Pichard 1994a: 239−243.
Bautze-Picron 2003: 93−103 and pls. 103−106 for instance.
In particular, in the Eastern entrance, huge monstrous characters or bilus were painted
over them at a much later date; these are probably contemporary with similar figures
depicted at the Sulamani in 1778 CE (I owe this information to Alexandra Green).
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Figure 1.17
43
Doorkeeper, Western entrance, Let-put-kan.
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44
Figure 1.18
Bautze-Picron
Doorkeeper, Western entrance, Let-put-kan.
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
45
iconographic programme which depicts the life of the Buddha through a
series of panels distributed on the different walls of the shrine. Taking also
into consideration the fact that these are isolated depictions in Bagan, we
cannot consider them as evidence of the end of the Buddhist monasteries in
Eastern India, which occurred around 1200,40 but rather as a sign of connection with China: Tantric Buddhism was practiced by the Yuan rulers and in
the Dali Kingdom.41 The presence of such door-keepers at the entrances of
a Bagan monument probably corroborates the presence at Bagan of monks
of other than Theravāda persuasion, probably those who had accompanied
Disāprāmuk on his way back home.42
6
The Army of Māra
Throughout its history, the representation of Māra’s army attacking the Buddha
has been the favoured setting for depicting those perceived as enemies to the
Buddhist community.43 This is also apparently the case in thirteenth-century
murals where, among the demons of the army, we note the presence of human
soldiers (Fig. 1.19) fully protected by their lamellar armour, reminiscent of similar armour and coats worn by Chinese and Tibetan soldiers.44
7
Kyanzittha-Umin
This monument (number 65)45 is not a shrine; it is built as if it had been excavated within a mountain. Two concentric corridors overlapping at the back of the
40
41
42
43
44
45
As a matter of fact, the local testimonies of tantric Buddhism, as known in Eastern India,
are most rare and are limited to a few cast images imported from India (for instance
Luce 1969−1970, III: pls. 426−428, 445a, 446a−b, 447a−d). Some of the fantastic characters
seated or standing within a row of caves painted all along the corridor of the early
twelfth-century Abeyadana are also clearly related to this phase (ibid. pls. 231−237).
Howard 1997 or Bryson 2013, with further bibliographical references.
See above, note 36.
In Eastern India, for instance, Hindu gods and goddesses belong to this army from the
tenth century onward (Bautze-Picron 1996; 2010: 111−116). This iconography found its way
up to the region of Chittagong and Bagan where, in the tenth-eleventh century murals,
the demons of the army still show features inherited from the Hindu deities (BautzePicron 2003: 109−114).
Compare to LaRocca 2006: 55−64, cats. 1−6.
Duroiselle 1922; Luce 1969−1970, I: 256, 269; Pichard 1992: 134−136.
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Bautze-Picron
Figure 1.19
Foreign soldiers among Māra’s army, Kubyauk-gyi, Wetkyi-in.
monument give access to nine rooms totally lacking natural light, which might
have been used for meditation. Two larger rooms are built in the central space,
accessible from the inner corridor. The date of the monument is debated46 but
very clearly its murals are late (late thirteenth-fourteenth centuries?) and were
not produced by professional artists, lacking the colours, the volumes, and the
understanding of a logically constructed iconography distributed through
the entire monument, as seen in most of the temples of Bagan. The lines are
in fact rough, and the colours poor. The iconography mainly includes images
of the Buddha as a teacher, but four panels show topics not encountered anywhere else and which do not appear to be related to canonical Buddhist iconography as seen in Bagan: a group of hunters (Fig. 1.20) is depicted on the inner
wall of the back corridor, shooting arrows or holding a hawk. They were discovered and published by Charles Duroiselle, who identified them as Mongolian
46
Luce considers the monument to date from Kyanzittha’s reign (eleventh-twelfth centuries; hence its name) while Pichard dates it in the thirteenth century, a date which we
would tend to ascribe to the murals (see previous note).
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
Figure 1.20
47
Mongol hunters, Kyanzittha-umin, Southern corridor, Northern wall.
hunters.47 As a matter of fact, they can be compared with certain Mongolian
characters, such as those depicted in the Diez Albums: their hats show a rather
broad brim and flat crown48 with feathers attached on top;49 they are fully
dressed, wearing boots and trousers, and bearing their quiver on their hip and
a bird, probably a hawk, on their hand. The upper part of their dress is most
probably made of brocaded silk with roundels spread all over—an ornamentation which finds an echo in textiles of the Yuan period.50
In his description of the monument, Charles Duroiselle noted a panel painted above one of the four entrances—a square panel showing eight Christian
crosses, which he relates to the Nestorian Church which was present in China
(Fig. 1.21).51 A panel illustrating a different iconography is seen immediately
above this one, showing a seated monk. A similar painting is to be seen in a
47
48
49
50
51
See Duroiselle 1922: 17−18 and plate I reproducing the sketches of two of them; these
drawings were also (but poorly) reproduced by Than Tun 1976: figs. 3−4. Further pictures
are reproduced by Pichard 1992: 136, figs. 65j−k.
Compare to Watt 2010: 79, fig. 111.
See also Watt 1997: 96, fig. 38.
Watt 1997: 95, cat. 25; Watt 2010: 112−113, fig. 146. See further: Watt 2010: 76, fig. 106.
Duroiselle 1922: 18−21; see also Guy 2010: 173−175 on the situation of the Nestorian Church
in thirteenth-century China.
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48
Figure 1.21
Bautze-Picron
Upagupta, Kyanzittha-umin, mural above an entrance.
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Figure 1.22
49
Upagupta, Kyanzittha-umin, central room, Eastern wall.
niche on the Eastern wall of the Southern central room (Fig. 1.22). In both
cases, the monk sits with crossed legs, wearing shoes; he wears a heavy garment
which has folds clearly indicated in one case and a cape-like piece of clothing
covering his shoulders. He sits with closed eyes, smiling gently; slightly bowed,
he holds his bowl against his breast with both hands. The heavy dress and the
sandals seem to designate him as a foreigner.
Taking into consideration his attitude and attribute, he could most probably
be identified as the monk Upagupta or Upagutta: these two depictions introduce indeed an iconography which has survived to the present day, major differences being that the other images of this monk known to us show him with
open eyes, head looking up.52 Beside an inscribed panel in the Kubyauk-gyi,
dated 1113 CE,53 mention is made of Upagupta in a grammar written at Bagan
52
53
Strong 1992: figs. 1, 5, 6 and 10. He is in fact looking at the sun, which he tries to hide, so
that he can prolong the before-noon period when, as a monk, he is allowed to eat (Strong
1992: 156).
Thus in a Theravādin context, Upagupta is here represented in a scene involving Aśoka on
the side wall of a window (Luce/Ba Shin 1961: 385; Strong 1992: 12, 182).
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50
Bautze-Picron
in 1154,54 and he appears in the Lokapaññati, an ‘eleventh-to-twelfth-century
Pali cosmological text’,55 where he opposes Māra.
These two depictions include features which seem to refer to non-local
habits, like wearing sandals or heavy dress. The cape-like pleated ornament
seen in one case (Fig. 1.22) recalls a similar garment worn by bodhisattvas in
embroidered thangkas and kāṣāyas of the early Ming Dynasty 明 (1363−1424).56
These various elements might indicate that the Kyanzittha-umin was, at a certain time, inhabited by monks who had travelled to China or who originated
from there.
8
Conclusion
Most observations made here concern monuments located on the outskirts of the site: the Kyanzittha-Umin is located North, not far from the
Shwezigon; the Thambula, Let-put-kan, Nandamanya, and Kathapa East are
located in Minnanthu area situated in the Southeast of the Bagan archaeological site; monument 1077 was built near the Irrawady, South of the village
of Myinkaba, and the Thamuti-hpaya is situated midway between Minnanthu
and Myinkaba. All the monuments, apart, possibly, from the Kyanzittha-Umin,
were constructed in the thirteenth century, and all the murals can be dated
to the second half of this century, a period of intensive contacts between the
Kingdom of Bagan and the Yuan Empire.
However, considering the highly diverse nature of the aspects of the
Bagan murals’ iconography considered above, it might seem difficult to get a
coherent overall view. As a matter of fact, the similarity in the depiction of
the Buddha noted in Kharakhoto and Bagan does not imply that the painters of the Kharakhoto thangka found their inspiration at Bagan, since the
images in both sites might actually go back to the fundamental image standing
at Bodhgayā. On the other hand, the unique presence of the cushion adorned
with the lion face in the Thambula, the depiction of krodhas protecting the
entrances to the Let-put-kan, the row of heavily dressed devotees surrounding
the northern entrance to the Thambula and their presence in the iconography
of the Nandamanya, the Kathapa East and temple 1077 reflect the impact of
Buddhism as practiced in China while also suggesting the presence in Bagan
of Mongols or Chinese people, probably involved in trade or taking part in
54
55
56
Strong 1992: 12.
Strong 2004: 133; see also Strong 1992: 186−208.
Watt 1997: 207−212, cats. 63−64.
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Bagan Murals and the Sino-Tibetan World
51
a diplomatic embassy from the middle of the thirteenth century onwards.57
These observations are consistent with those made when considering the
decorative ornamentation of the murals of the thirteenth and early fourteenth
centuries, which include numerous motifs decorating Chinese porcelain and
garments.58
57
58
Aung-Thwin 1998: 66−69, also referring to a very badly preserved Chinese inscription
at Bagan.
See Bautze-Picron 2015 on this aspect of the relations between Bagan and China.
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Chapter 2
Noise along the Network: A Set of Chinese Ming
Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Rob Linrothe
A focus on objects can productively redirect attention away from states and
borders toward interlocking zones of contact and to networks within networks. An object transported along the networks inserts the recipient into a
wide circulation system, locating it vertically in a hierarchy of importance and
horizontally across multiple borders. Objects mediate and motivate such flows,
but they can also disrupt and complicate a linear understanding of agency. In
the case discussed in this paper, objects haunt the systems of exchange with
distorted echoes of long-forgotten agents, agencies, and intentions.
The networks linking the Ming 明 Chinese court (1368–1644) with Tibetan
Buddhist monasteries and lineages in Amdo, Kham, and Central Tibet are
well known and much studied.1 Some spectacular objects emblematise those
connections, such as the scroll now in the Lhasa Museum documenting
the ‘miracles’ observed when the Fifth Karmapa (1384–1415) visited Nanjing
in 1407 in order to perform rituals for the benefit of the afterlife of the Yongle
永樂 Emperor’s parents and for the well-being of the emperor himself (Fig. 2.1).2
The painted and inscribed scroll was produced in a few copies with its inscriptions written in multiple languages, including Chinese and Tibetan. For some
of the Ming emperors, and certainly for several of the Qing Manchu emperors,
their connections with Tibetan Buddhist teachers were part of their personal
and imperial identities. Buddhist objects created at or by the Ming court were
prized at the major Tibetan Buddhist monasteries supported by the Ming court
either directly—such as the Qutan monastery 瞿曇寺 (Drotsang Dorje Chang,
Tib. Gro tshang rdo rje ’chang) in Amdo (Qinghai)—or indirectly, namely at
Sera (Tib. Se ra) monastery near Lhasa. At the Qutan monastery, a set of nearly
1 Among the many sources dealing with this topic from religious, art, and architectural history are those of Sperling, Debreczeny, and Campbell, among others, including Sperling
2004: 229–244; Sperling 1987: 33–53; Sperling 1982: 105–108; Sperling 2001: 77–87; Debreczeny
2003: 49–107; Campbell, 2011. See also Ching 2008: 321–364; Toh 2004; Weidner, 2009: 311–332;
Weidner 2008: 92–99; Fong 1995: 47–60; Heller 2009: 293–302.
2 Berger 2001: 145–169.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doiAnn
10.1163/9789004366152_004
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.1
53
Detail of the silk handscroll entitled “Miracles of the Mass of Universal Salvation
Conducted by the Fifth Karmapa for the Yongle Emperor.” Lhasa Museum.
Photo 2005.
life-size gilt-metal standing bodhisattvas of exquisite quality were visible signs
of imperial interest and support (Fig. 2.2), as are the buildings themselves, the
products of architects from Beijing sent to emulate the capital’s building technologies in this frontier region (Fig. 2.3). As for Sera monastery, it was founded
by Shākya Yeshe (Tib. Shākya ye shes, 1355–1435) after his return from visits to
Beijing, where he was amply rewarded with two portrait textiles, including an
embroidery now in the Lhasa Museum and a portrait kesi (slit-weave tapestry)
made in the court style, probably in the Xuande 宣德 period (1425–1435), also
with a bilingual inscription, now in the Norbulingka.3 Still hanging in one of
the shrines at Sera, obscured behind a new Maitreya sculpture and cloth banners, are one or more sets of Chinese Arhat paintings from the fifteenth century (Fig. 2.4), which are known to have been sent to Tibet from the Ming court,
3 Ching 2008: figs. 7.8, 7.9.
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Figure 2.2
Linrothe
Gilt metal Yongle-period standing bodhisattva,
once in the Qutan monastery, now in the
Qinghai Provincial Museum, Xining (China).
Photo 2007.
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.3
55
Overview of Qutan monastery (Drotsang Dorjechang) Monastery in Amdo
(Qinghai, China).
Photo 2001.
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Figure 2.4
Linrothe
Arhat painting, part of a set of Chinese Ming Dynasty paintings in Sera
monastery, near Lhasa, Tibet.
Photo 2005.
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
57
some with Shākya Yeshe.4 They serve as visual reminders of the monastery’s
participation in wider networks of Buddhist teachings and support and help
to define its identity.
In all these examples (Figs. 2.1–2.4), the objects were produced or changed
hands as a result of personal relations between the court and the monastic
founders and successors, and they came to embody the memory of those
encounters. However, I recently noticed a partial set of eight Ming Dynasty
textiles still in use at a Western Himalayan shrine that was never in contact
with any Chinese state. Indeed, the monastery itself was not founded until
the middle of the nineteenth century, long after the Ming Dynasty ended. Yet
a partial set of relatively well-preserved embroidered textiles, at least one of
which has a Chinese inscription on the back (see Fig. 2.19), is hung during the
monastery’s annual masked dance festival (Tib. ’cham) as one of the treasures
to be displayed on that auspicious pair of days.
On July 14, 2010, on the 17th day of a 42-day hike through India’s Ladakh
and Zangskar regions, I happened to arrive at Korzok monastery (Tib. Kor
dzok, or dKor zog dgon pa) on the eve of its annual masked dance festival,
Korzok Gustor (Tib. Kor dzok dgu gtor). Korzok is in southeastern Ladakh,
near Lake Tsomori, not far from the current border of Chinese-occupied Tibet
(Figs. 2.5, 2.6). The monastery is built on the shores of the lake and was once a
major centre for nomadic people who travelled with herds of yaks and drimo
across the loosely defined border between Kashmir-controlled Ladakh and
the West Tibetan Ngari region. Now a road has been built up to the monastery (and no further), and it has become something of a tourist destination for
jeep safaris, although it is still a central site for the region’s dwindling nomad
population.
During the uncostumed run-through for the annual Cham (or masked
dance) festival, I entered the main shrine and was surprised to find that the
monks had displayed a number of their artistic and religious treasures, including a group of twelve thangkas that were in the Karma Gardri style (Tib. Karma
sgar bris), usually associated with Eastern Tibet. Three of the hanging paintings had Tibetan inscriptions on the backs, which were also uncovered. The
inscriptions and the painting were done by the Fourteenth Karmapa Thekchok
Dorje (Tib. Theg mchog rDo rje, 1798–1868), and in the mid-nineteenth century they were given by the Karmapa to the headman of Rupshu (Tib. Ru
shod), Tsering Tashi (Tib. Tshe ring bkra shis), who was the founder of Korzok
monastery. One of the paintings with inscriptions depicts Thekchok Dorje’s
4 Linrothe 2004: 9–44.
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Figure 2.5
Linrothe
Lake Tsomoriri, with Korzok monastery along Northwestern bank in
Southeastern Ladakh (India).
predecessor, the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje (Tib. dBang phyug rDo rje,
1556–1601/1603).5
I recently published these paintings, but I have not yet described what
I found the next day hanging in the courtyard for the dance festival. The courtyard was crowded with various spectators (mostly locals but also many visitors, including tourists) and a monastic orchestra. In one corner, away from
the main action, I was astounded to find eight finely embroidered textiles,
mounted in brocade in the Tibetan style, with an attached fringe dyed in rainbow colors (Fig. 2.7). The textiles were all sewn onto a shared horizontal strip
of the same mounting cloth, which was temporarily attached to the portico’s
rafters. In Tibetan hierarchical compositions, an even numbered grouping cannot be a full set of images, as such objects are typically arranged symmetrically
around a central image, which results in an uneven numbered set. In this case,
a blue Buddha was hung close to the centre (Fig. 2.8), surrounded by bodhisattvas at his sides (Figs. 2.9–2.13), and what appeared to be wealth deities at
5 Linrothe 2012: 180–211, 220–223.
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.6
59
Korzok monastery and village, Southeastern Ladakh (India).
the outer edges (Figs. 2.14, 2.15). Since there were three deities on the Buddha’s
proper right and four to the left, I immediately recognised the compilation as
an incomplete set. (All photographs are by the author in 2010 unless otherwise
indicated.)
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Figure 2.7
Linrothe
Eight fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroideries belonging to a partial set of
the Bhaiṣajyaguru maṇḍala now hanging in Korzok monastery courtyard during
masked dance (Tib. ’cham).
The workmanship of these objects is extraordinary, exhibiting a variety of
embroidered stitches and gold-wrapped silk thread couching. Generally the
thread is flossed silk, figured with an impressive range of stitching into tiny but
legible patterns.6 The iconographic details, such as Mañjuśrī’s book and sword
(Fig. 2.16), and the mongoose of what at first appears to be Yellow Jambhala
(Fig. 2.14), are generally recognisable.
The relatively large size of each member of this set is unprecedented, but
the iconography, materials and techniques, as well as the range of patterns,
are in line with those of other Ming textiles, many now in private or museum
collections. For example, the canopy is comparable to that of the Shākya Yeshe
kesi mentioned above.7 The throne, the pillars, and the flowers are similar to a
Ming embroidery of Mahācakra Vajrapāṇi now in the Rubin Museum of Art.8
6 On types of embroidery stiches, see Jones 1993: 64–68.
7 Ching 2008: fig. 7.9.
8 HAR item no. 65108. Accessed July 13, 2014.
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.8
61
Blue Buddha, probably Bhaiṣajyaguru, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
The closest correspondences, however, are with a group of embroideries, now
dispersed, that have the same set of deities and motifs, though done on a reduced scale, around 18 centimetres in width. Two are in the National Museum
in New Delhi, but they have become noticeably discolored (Figs. 2.17, 2.18). One
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Figure 2.9
Linrothe
Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in Korzok
monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.10
63
Sūryaprabha Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in
Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Figure 2.11
Linrothe
Maitreya (?) Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in
Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.12
65
Possibly Pratibhānakūta Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Figure 2.13
Linrothe
Meruśikhara Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in
Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.14
67
Mekhila (?) Yakṣa General, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in
Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Figure 2.15
Linrothe
Caundhara Yakṣa General, fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now in
Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
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Chinese Ming Embroidered Thangkas in the Indian Himalayas
Figure 2.16
69
Detail of Figure 2.9, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, fifteenth-century Ming dynasty
embroidery now in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India).
is in the Cleveland Museum,9 one in the Brooklyn Museum,10 and another in
the Rubin Museum.11 These last three are in much better condition than the
New Delhi pair, as are six in private collections in New York and Hong Kong12
and one each in the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County
Museum of Art.13 The emphasis on the canopies, the multicolored clouds,
scrolling flowers, treatment of the thrones, jewelry worn by the figures,
outlining of the nimbuses, scarves that have a life of their own, dark blue
background—all show that both groups, the one in Korzok and that dispersed
in various collections, were produced within a similar timeframe. Since textile
9
10
11
12
13
Wardwell 1994: 342–345; Watt and Wardwell 1997: cat. no. 63.
HAR item no. 86936. Accessed July 13, 2014.
HAR item no. 65272. Accessed July 13, 2014. This one is different in that the central section
is a painting in the Ming Tibeto-Chinese style, whereas the upper and lower sections are
embroidered.
Reynolds 1995: 50–57; Hong Kong Museum of Art 1995: nos. 22a–22h.
Weidener, 1994: cat. nos. 8, 9.
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Figure 2.17
Linrothe
Bhudevī (Pṛthivī), one of the 10 guardians of the directions in
charge of the West, riding a sow. National Museum, New Delhi,
acc. no. 51.223; 38 × 19.5 cm.
Photo 2012.
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Figure 2.18
71
Rakṣa, one of the 10 guardians of the directions in charge of the
Southwest, riding a reanimated corpse. National Museum, New
Delhi, acc. no. 51.222; 38 × 19.5 cm.
Photo, 2012.
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Figure 2.19
Linrothe
Detail of the back of one of the fifteenth-century Ming Dynasty embroidery now
in Korzok monastery (Ladakh, India), with Chinese inscription.
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73
specialists have tended to date these objects to the early fifteenth century, that
can be accepted as the date for the Korzok textiles as well.
As for the iconography, Jeff Watt of the Himalayan Art Resource website has
identified several of the small textiles as belonging to the 51-deity Medicine
Buddha maṇḍala, the Bhaiṣajyaguru maṇḍala, in which the Medicine Buddha
is surrounded by expanding circles of eight Buddhas, sixteen bodhisattvas,
ten directional deities, twelve Yaksha Generals, and the four Guardian Kings
(see Appendix).14 In fact, all eight of the Korzok set, as well as the smaller embroideries, can be identified as members of this maṇḍala and belonging to
three of the five groups. That is, among the eight Korzok embroideries, there is
one Buddha, five bodhisattvas and two Yakṣa Generals. No representatives of
the directional deities or the Lokapālas are among the eight.
Figure 2.8, intended as the central figure in the present arrangement,
depicts the blue Medicine Buddha, Bhaiṣajyaguru. None of the other seven
Buddhas in the maṇḍala is blue, so despite their slightly noncanonical
appearance from a Tibetan perspective, the identification is secure. Figure 2.9
depicts Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, the principal interlocutor of the Bhaiṣajyaguru
Sūtra in the various versions found from Gilgit to Japan.15 The bodhisattva in
Figure 2.10 is bright orange—probably intended to be red—and the small
gold disk in the lotus at his left shoulder identifies him as Sūryaprabha.
Sūryaprabha and Candraprabha (with a moon disk) generally attend the central
Buddha, seated or standing on either side of him. Sūryaprabha, with his solar
disk lodged within a lotus, stands to the proper left of the Medicine Buddha
in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century painting found at Kharakhoto.16
Interestingly, in the compilation of the partial set at Korzok, Sūryaprabha is
also adjacent to the Buddha’s left side, suggesting that whoever put the group
together understood the iconographic programme.
Maitreya Bodhisattva is the likely identity of Figure 2.11; he holds the stalk
of a nāgapuṣpa flower-leaf. Figure 2.12 possibly features Pratibhānakūta
Bodhisattva, with an incense burner emitting smoke, and Figure 2.13 shows
Meruśikhara Bodhisattva carrying an amṛta (nectar of immortality) vase. As
for the two Yakṣa Generals at Korzok, Figure 2.14 probably portrays the yellow
Mekhila with a mongoose and a club with a red vajra-finial, whereas Figure 2.15
depicts the blue Caundhura holding a daṇḍa (club) and the mongoose.
All the bodhisattvas sit on the same type of throne, which has a cloth
hanging over its front on which a lotus of a different color is stitched. This
14
15
16
HAR item no. 58141. Accessed July 13, 2014.
Schopen 1978; De Visser 1935: 2.533–2.540; Birnbaum 1979: 151–163.
Piotrovsky 1993: cat. no. 8.
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configuration is also found on the Buddha embroidery (Fig. 2.8); his lotus
appears to be a blue utpala. The baldachins are also identical in structure for
the Buddha and bodhisattvas; only the colors vary. On the Buddha image,
between the inner and outermost cusps of the body nimbus, are parallel
straight lines in different hues—mostly yellow, light blue, and purple against
the dark blue ground—as if the Buddha were radiating light. The bodhisattvas
also appear to radiate light in different shades, but in each case with slightly
wavy lines. Each bodhisattva is slightly different from all the others. To judge by
the two examples of Yakṣa Generals (Figs. 14, 15), their baldachins, thrones, and
nimbi were deliberately differentiated from those of the Buddha(s) and bodhisattvas. The canopies overhead include in both cases five-colored clouds that
are not seen in the others. Where the Buddha and bodhisattva emanate rays
of light, the Yakṣa Generals are surrounded by scrolling lotuses. The thrones
are basically similar but do not have the textile hanging over the front of the
throne. Similar structural differences distinguish the five classes of deities of
the Bhaiṣajyaguru maṇḍala in the more numerous extant examples of embroidered banners mentioned above, including the two in New Delhi.17
These embroideries were not necessarily made as gifts for Tibetan visitors,
although the iconographic and stylistic conventions suggest an amalgam of
Chinese and Tibeto-Chinese characteristics. In China, the tradition of depicting separate members of the Bhaiṣajyaguru set of deities goes back at least to
eighth-century Dunhuang, as evidenced by a beautiful inscribed Sūryaprabha
painted in yellow and silver pigment on a dark blue silk banner (89.6 ×
25.5 cm) now in the British Museum.18 In this sense, the embroidered banners
of Korzok would have been appropriate not only as donations for non-Han
Buddhists, but also to decorate the shrines created by the Ming imperial family, such as those in the imperial palaces at Nanjing and later Beijing, at the
Wuta monastery 五塔寺 in Beijing, at Mt. Wutai 五台山, or perhaps one of
the princely shrines created in the Ming appanages to which imperial relatives
were assigned.19
The Buddha image (Fig. 2.8) reveals almost as much a Chinese mode
of depiction as a Tibeto-Chinese mode with its root in the Yuan court style
17
18
19
For example, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas have precious objects in the lower section
while the Yakṣa Generals have lantsa-script dhāraṇī; the clouds float in front of the latters’
baldachins, but are only at the sides for the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Acc. no. 1919,0101,0.121; Ch.00303; on line at www.britishmuseum.org. Accessed July 15,
2014.
Clunas 2013; Linrothe 2015.
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attributed to Anige.20 Almost invariably, icons of Bhaiṣajyaguru Buddha in the
Tibetan sphere depict him with iconographic attributes different from those
of the Chinese mode. The left hand is in dhyāna-mudrā, as here (Fig. 2.8), but
it cups the alms bowl, which is missing in this embroidery. The right hand is
lowered into the gift-giving gesture, palm facing outward, and often clasps the
stem of a flowering branch of the myrobalan plant, a medicinal plant that is
depicted in various ways. In the embroidered version, the Buddha does grasp
the stem of the plant, but his hand is held up to the level of his chest and
the palm is turned inward. East Asian depictions of the Medicine Buddha are
much less consistent than Tibetan ones.21 In Chinese versions, including the
large mural in the Metropolitan Museum, datable to the early fourteenth century, from the lower Guangsheng monastery 廣胜寺 in Shanxi, the Buddha,
seated under a similar baldachin, holds neither alms bowl nor myrobalan, and
his right hand is lifted but turned outward.22 In a Ming painting dated to 1477
now in the University of Oregon Museum of Art, the hand is also raised but
appears to hold a small piece of fruit between thumb and forefinger while
making the gesture of articulation.23
The Buddha’s garments amplify the hybrid nature of the Tibeto-Chinese
mode of depicting the Buddha. In Chinese versions, both shoulders tend to be
covered but expose the main part of his chest. He also tends to wear a lower
robe tied with a belt. By contrast, in the Tibetan versions, the right shoulder is
exposed but—at least in early versions—the outer robe is pulled up so as not
to expose the midriff. (Later, under the impact of Chinese imports, one finds
the Buddha with both shoulder covered and the under-robe tied with a belt.)
In this case, the Buddha has one feature of both styles: the right shoulder is
exposed and the under-robe is belted.
The other figures, however, certainly do not reflect the Chinese mode of
depicting bodhisattvas, the guardians of the directions (the Lokapālas),
or the twelve Yaksa Generals. At Dunhuang, in the mural in Cave 112 of about
the eighth century, and in the lower Guangsheng monastery mural now in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the twelve Yakṣa Generals are shown in armour
20
21
22
23
Jing 1994: 49–86. That the Yuan Mongol rulers, starting with Qubilai, had Bhaiṣajyaguru
rituals conducted at their courts is demonstrated in van der Kuijp 2004: 4–8.
Lokesh Chandra provides more than a dozen variant types in China and Japan; Lokesh
Chandra 1999–2005: 2.525–2.539.
Jing 1991: 148; see also the Yakushi Nyorai in the Yakushi-ji Kondō which also lacks the
bowl; Morishima 2010: fig. 4.
Weidner 1994: pl. 3.
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much like the Lokapāla.24 Among the small embroideries dispersed to various collections and the eight larger ones now at Korzok, however, the Yakṣa
Generals all follow the Tibetan mode, being depicted as resembling the bigbellied wealth deity Jambhala, which is how they have generally been (mistakenly) identified. They are seated, big-bellied, naked above the waist, and
each has a mongoose in the proper left hand and a specific attribute in the
right hand. It might be possible to date the shift in Tibetan practice relatively
precisely, to the later thirteenth century, because two Bhaiṣajyaguru paintings
in the Tibetan style from Kharakhoto, of the late twelfth or early thirteenth
century, depict the twelve Yakṣa Generals as Yakṣas of different colors with
various attributes, but without the mongoose at the hip,25 whereas the murals
of the Khojar Dukhang (Tib. Kho char ’du khang) in Western Tibet, of about
the late thirteenth century, depict them with the mongoose. Murals at both the
Wanla Sumtsek (late 13th to early 14th century) and the Phyang Village Guru
Lhakhang in Ladakh (late fourteenth to early fifteenth century) also feature
the mongoose.26 Had this convention been in place in Tibet by the twelfth
century, one would expect it to have been transmitted to the Tangut Kingdom
along with the rest of the iconographic package.
That the Korzok embroideries were created in China, or at least by Chinese
craftpersons, is confirmed by a Chinese inscription on the back of one of the
eight. The backs of all the textiles at Korzok were covered by cotton cloth,
but the mounting on one of them was ripped, and I was able to move the
backing in this one instance to reveal a fragment of a Chinese inscription:
dha na gan zi luo 雅納幹資囉, followed by two partially obscured characters
(Fig. 2.19).27 Ganziluo is a standard equivalent to vajra, but for dha na or ya na
I can find no equivalents in various Chinese Buddhist dictionaries.28 They may
instead represent an attempt to transliterate the Tibetan name of one of the
depicted members of the Bhaiṣajyaguru maṇḍala. Unfortunately, at the time
of my unexpected encounter with these precious imported objects, I was selfconsciously aware that I was surrounded by a crowd of more than a hundred
people gathered to watch the masked dance with live music being played by a
monastic orchestra. I was on the margins of the ritual performance area with
24
25
26
27
28
ARTstor, filename hunt_0054395_post.fpx. Accessed June 14, 2014.
Piotrovsky 1993: cat. nos. 7, 8.
Neumann and Neumann 2010: 121–142; Jackson 2014: 44, 52, 102; Lo Bue 2007: 175–196.
I thank Max Deeg who, at the conference, was able to locate and transliterate the first two
characters. I would have expected the first two characters to have read yana.
Soothill 2003 [1937]; Meisig 2012; Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (http://www.buddhismdict.net/ddb/; accessed July 2014); Chen and Li 2005; and Heinemann 1985.
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my back to the main event, facing and photographing these wondrous textiles
to which no one was paying any attention, trying to be inconspicuous. In my
haste, I neglected to note which of these eight textiles had the open back (mea
maxima culpa). One possibility is that it represents the Tibetan ‘Nyi snang,’ a
shortened version of ‘Nyi ltar snang byed,’ a term for Sūryaprabha (Fig. 2.10).
Most scholars have assumed that such embroideries were made as gifts
for Tibetan hierarchs or monasteries. As indicated above, however, it is possible that the set was originally made for Chinese temples in the fifteenth century and then transferred to Tibet, eventually making its way to the Western
Himalayas. Another possibility is that they were commissioned by Tibetan
teachers and made to order in China. The Tibetan art scholar Yuko Tanaka
has compiled a list from Tibetan sources of such commissions of embroidered and appliqué thangkas dated between the thirteenth and seventeenth
centuries.29 If, in fact, they were made under Ming imperial sponsorship as
gifts for those invited to come to court, or to reward those who did so, there
are too many possible candidates for useful speculation, even for the Yongle
永樂 period (1402–1424).30 Given the established connection between Korzok
and the Fourteenth Karmapa, as mentioned above, one is tempted to look to
that lineage as the likely conduit. In that case, the visit of the Fifth Karmapa
to the court in Nanjing in 1407–1408 and subsequent follow-up missions, with
the “lavish presentation of gifts” to the Karmapa so extensive that “they could not
be adequately recorded,”31 provide nearly irresistible scenarios for the transfer
of these objects from China to Tibet. It is worth noting that the Bhaiṣajyaguru
maṇḍala was constructed at Nanjing at the order of the Karmapa, who then
initiated Ming Chengzu 明成祖 (r. 1402–1424) and Empress Renxiaowen
仁孝文皇后 (1362–1407) into it in late March 1408.32 Nevertheless, without
specific evidence linking the embroideries to a particular historical event, a
suggestion of potential scenarios is only a possibility. After all, Bhaiṣajyaguru
rituals were also performed when the Gelug teacher Shākya Yeshe was at court
in early 1415.33
Related mysteries include how, exactly, these objects arrived at this remote
location in the Indian Western Himalayas, and whether and where the
other members of the set of embroideries remain. Korzok has several sister
29
30
31
32
33
Tanaka 1994: 873–874.
For the many Tibetan religious leaders who received titles and invitations during the
period in question, see Sperling 1983: 136–170.
Sperling 1983: 81, 86; see also the discussion of the gifts pp. 86–88.
Sperling 1983: 82 and 115 n. 33.
Sperling 1983: 148.
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monasteries, notably the monastery of Hanle South of Tsomoriri, and at present it has a close connection also with the well-known Drukpa (Tib. ’Drug pa)
Hemis monastery near Leh. It may be that others from the set belong to one
or more of those monasteries. Like the paintings by the Fourteenth Karmapa
discussed above, these may have been founding gifts to Korzok monastery
made by someone, like the Fourteenth Karmapa, with deep resources of
Chinese gifts accumulating over the centuries. Alternatively, they may have
been brought out in 1951, when many monks from the Indian Himalayas who
had been studying in Tibet were required to leave Tibet after the Chinese takeover and were then deposited across the border at Korzok. It is also not impossible that they were brought from Tibet after 1959, when many Tibetans fled
the Chinese crackdown. These are among the most likely of the many conceivable scenarios.
What is relatively sure is that although these objects entered the Tibetan
Buddhist network of relations as a gift from one Ming court or another, the
Chinese gifting agency could not have foreseen—nor could it have benefited
from the possibility that—these objects would be regifted to the far Western
regions, where the exact provenance seems to have been unknown or forgotten, or where, frankly, it never really mattered. The objects are still recognised
as Buddhist treasures and brought out at least once a year during the monastery’s most important community festival, but they remain relatively mute
reminders of the far reaches of the Buddhist monastic network. At most they
produce static along the network lines.
As Arjun Appadurai and Richard Davis reminded us,34 objects have their
own biographies, their own afterlives that extend well beyond the moments
of their creation, at which point these particular objects were most likely
meant to crystallise a gift—as reward or inducement—for a Tibetan religious
teacher. To whom they were delivered, and how these objects were subsequently transferred to the Drukpa Korzok monastery in Southeastern Ladakh
on the far Western border of Tibet, is not known, although other objects in the
same monastery can be shown to have been sent by the nineteenth-century
Fourteenth Karmapa from either Eastern Tibet, where he mainly resided, or
Central Tibet, where he also had important centers. At any rate, these objects
are potent physical reminders of the circulation and flow of people, ideas,
practices, texts, and objects within Buddhist networks, crossing linguistic,
state, ethnic, and cultural borders.
Although we cannot identify the exact process of acquisition, this exceptional instance nevertheless demonstrates the distribution of objects along
34
Appadurai 1986; Davis 1997.
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the major trade roads, brought along with Buddhist ideas, relics, texts, and
practices. It hints at the momentum of the trajectory of goods that travelled
well beyond the spatial and temporal borders implied in their creation. The
identity of Buddhists was simultaneously local and leavened with a translocal sense of belonging to a larger Buddhist community. Such an identity could
accommodate and appreciate symbols of interchange and interconnectedness, however vague or underdetermined the precise parameters of the connections represented by the objects actually were.
Appendix
Identification of published examples of small fifteenth-century Ming embroideries belonging to
sets of the Bhaiṣajyaguru Maṇḍala
(HAR = Himalayan Art Resource, www.himalayanart.org)
Identity
Former ID
Publication
Collection
Shakyamuni
Buddha
Reynolds 1995: Fig. 2, Hong
Kong Museum 1995: 22h
Private
Maitreya
Amitaprabha
?
White
Mañjuśrī
Watt and Wardwell 1997:
cat. no. 63
Weidner 1994: cat no. 8
Cleveland
Museum of Art
Indianapolis
Museum of Art
Reynolds 1995: Fig. 5, Hong
Kong Museum 1995: 22C
Hong Kong Museum 1995: 22d
HAR no. 86936
Private
Buddhas
Abhijñarāja or
Dharmakīrtisāgaraghoṣa
Bodhisattvas
Dikpāla
Yama
Guardian deity
Vayu
Vayu
Crowned deity
Vayu
Private
Brooklyn
Museum of Art
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Identification of published examples of small fifteenth-century Ming embroideries (cont.)
Identity
Former ID
Publication
Collection
Rakṣa
Rakṣa
Hong Kong Museum 1995: 22e
(see fig. 2.18)
Agni
Agni
Crowned deity
Yama—The
God
of Death
Crowned deity
Agni
Bhudevī/
Pṛthivī
Lord Buddha
in meditation
(see fig. 2.17)
Private
National
Museum, New
Delhi
Private
Rubin Museum
of Art
National
Museum, New
Delhi
HAR no. 65272
Māhura
Vatadhara
(rlung ‘dzin)
Jambhala
Cidāla
Jambhala
Hong Kong Museum 1995: 22g
HAR no. 65270
Yakṣa Generals
Anila
Reynolds 1995: Fig. 7, Hong
Kong Museum 1995: 22b
Weidner 1994: cat. no. 9
Rubin Museum
of Art
Private
Los Angeles
County
Museum
of Art
Lokapāla
Vaiśravana
Vaishravana
Virūpākṣa
Virupaksa
Reynolds 1995: Fig. 3, Hong
Kong Museum 1995: 22f
Reynolds 1995: Fig. 4, Hong
Kong Museum 1995: 22a
Private
Private
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Chapter 3
Nation Founder and Universal Saviour:
Guanyin and Buddhist Networks in the Nanzhao
and Dali Kingdoms
Megan Bryson
From the seventh to the thirteenth century the Dali region of what is now
southwest China’s Yunnan province was the centre of two long-lasting independent regimes, Nanzhao 南詔 (649–903; see map 3.1) and Dali 大理 (937–1253;
see map 3.2). These two kingdoms governed large swaths of territory that
extended into parts of modern-day Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Tibet, and the provinces of Sichuan and Guizhou. The Dali region’s position made it a hub in transregional networks known as the southern or southwest silk road that linked
Dali to Tibet, India, Southeast Asia, and China. Buddhist texts, images, and
objects were among the goods that people carried along these routes, as they
offered points of continuity and familiarity among populations that spoke different languages and followed different cultural systems. Examining Buddhist
materials from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms reveals not only how transregional networks operated at this time, but also how Nanzhao and Dali elites
represented their Buddhist identities in relation to these networks.
In theory, people in the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms could have adopted
Buddhist materials entering their territory along any transregional network,
potentially creating a regional Buddhist tradition with elements from China,
Tibet, India, and Southeast Asia. However, traffic does not move along networks evenly, as some conduits are bigger than others due to geographical,
political, and historical conditions. These same conditions influence what
people adopt from different conduits or networks, which is not an arbitrary
process. Nanzhao and Dali elites did not encounter an equal flow of Buddhist
materials from all directions, nor did they equally adopt all that they did
encounter from different regions. Instead, earlier networks and geopolitical
factors informed the Buddhist tradition that developed in the Dali region, as
well as Nanzhao and Dali elites’ representations of regional identity.
Elites in the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms adopted texts primarily from Tang
(618–907) and Song (960–1279) China due to earlier networks going back to
the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE) that established an official Chinese presence in the region. Most Buddhist texts from Nanzhao and Dali are Chinese
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Bryson
translations or creations that entered the Dali region from Tang-Song territory. Even the seven manuscripts from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms that
have been found only here are written in Sinitic script and make allusions
to Chinese sources. Routes from Chinese territory also brought artisans and
Buddhist images, such that much of Nanzhao and Dali art drew on iconographies and stylistic conventions that were prominent in the Tang through
Song dynasties. Yet the Nanzhao and Dali Buddhist pantheon includes deities
that were not popular in Tang-Song China as well as deities with Indian or
Southeast Asian iconography.1 I argue that Nanzhao and Dali elites—rulers
and high officials—adopted most of their Buddhist materials from routes connecting them to Tang-Song China, but that they used images to claim India as
the main source of their Buddhist transmission.
Texts and images related to the Bodhisattva Guanyin 觀音 (Skt.
Avalokiteśvara) illustrate the juxtaposition of these two kinds of networks,
which I will call documented and represented. Guanyin, in his (or her) many
forms, is one of the most widely venerated figures in the Buddhist world, which
makes him valuable in tracing transregional Buddhist networks. He was arguably the most important deity for the Nanzhao and Dali courts in his regional and transregional forms, from the distinctive Acuoye 阿嵯耶 (Invincible;
Skt. ajaya) form that likely entered Dali from Southeast Asia to the familiar
saviour from suffering that appears in the Lotus Sūtra.2 Most sources related to
Guanyin from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms draw on networks linking the
Dali region to Chinese territory, but representations of those networks foreground India instead.
Network theories have gained traction in the study of religion (and beyond) because they allow scholars to address dynamic interactions rather than
static categories bound to political entities (Vásquez 2008: 153). Conduits link
different nodes, and nodes with many large conduits become hubs, or sites
where network traffic converges. Variations in conduit strength and volume
mean that nodes can be connected weakly or strongly, and the amount of
1 These deities include Mahākāla, who has seven distinctive forms in Dali, and whose iconography does not match images from Dunhuang or Japan. See Bryson 2012 [2013]: 24–30
and Li Yumin 1995: 28–35. Mahākāla’s consort Baijie Shengfei 白姐聖妃 (aka Fude Longnü
福德龍女) does not appear outside the Dali region and has a crown of serpent heads rarely
seen in China. See Bryson 2016. In addition, multiple forms of Guanyin in the Fanxiang juan
(see note 44) only appear in the Dali region. See Li Yumin 1987.
2 I further discuss the regional and transregional forms of Guanyin below. The Lotus Sūtra’s
Pumen pin 普門品 (Universal Salvation Chapter) can be seen as providing a scriptural basis
for the other forms by claiming that Guanyin can take many different forms to save his (or
her) worshipers from suffering.
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Guanyin and Buddhist Networks
83
traffic that reaches them can fluctuate. There are, of course, different kinds
of networks that do not necessarily overlap: Buddhist pilgrimage networks in
China connect to mountainous areas far from economic hubs, but elsewhere
irrigation networks and ritual networks might converge (Dean 1993: 342).
Focusing on religious networks around the Dali region allows us to go beyond
binaries of centre and periphery, or ‘Chinese’ and ‘non-Chinese,’ to consider
how people in Dali encountered and interacted with people, texts, and images
from elsewhere.
One of the challenges of reconstructing networks around the Nanzhao
and Dali kingdoms is that sources from these regions and periods are limited.
Objects and images rarely state when and where they were created, meaning
that their materials and other characteristics must be read for clues to their
origin. Even if one can determine the provenance of a particular ritual object
or iconographic form, this by itself does not prove how it entered Dali territory. Iconographies and objects are not tied to their place of origin, and given
the widespread sharing of Buddhist statues, texts, and other materials, just
because a scripture includes Sanskrit does not mean it entered a region
directly from India. Textual records can help by describing networks, but in
Dali’s case there is a marked asymmetry: written sources from Tang-Song China
far outweigh those from Tibetan, Indian, and Southeast Asian regions, giving a
potentially skewed image of routes going in and out of Dali.
Many of these challenges apply to premodern contexts in general. As Anna
Collar notes in her study of networks in ancient Rome, types such as innovators
and early adopters that appear in contemporary network theory may not be relevant in the absence of mass media or detailed sources on specific individuals
(2013: 25). However, she still sees networks as useful models for understanding and explaining the spread of new ideas. In the case of Dali, even without
detailed descriptions of interactions among individuals, it is still possible to
reconstruct major routes linking the region to the wider Buddhist world, as
well as the representations of those transregional networks in Nanzhao- and
Dali-kingdom sources.
1
Southern Silk Roads: Networking in the Dali Region
Networks are spatial metaphors, but they also have historical dimensions that
inform conduit size and strength, and the formation and disintegration of
hubs. Understanding Buddhist networks in the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms
requires understanding the networks that were established there before the
mid-seventh century. Archaeological and textual records suggest that people
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in Yunnan had trade contacts with Southeast Asia in the first millennium BCE,
as similar bronze drums have been found in both regions (Yang 2009: 27).
Yunnan, a mineral-rich region with copper and tin deposits, probably supplied
the raw materials for drums found in Southeast Asia (Li Xiaocen 1997: 56–83).
In addition to bronze drums, cowries from the Maldives have been found in
tombs from Yunnan dating back to the mid-first millennium BCE. They probably entered the region via either Burma or Bengal, suggesting that routes linked
Yunnan to the sea trade from a very early period (Yang 2009: 34).
It was also in the first millennium BCE that representatives of Chinese regimes began making their way to Yunnan on official expeditions. According to
Han-dynasty records, the Chu general Zhuang Qiao 莊蹻 (third century BCE)
led troops to Yunnan with plans to claim the territory for Chu, but ended up
remaining near Lake Dian when the Chu kingdom fell to Qin. Han sources
claim that the rulers of the Dian 滇 kingdom centred in modern-day Kunming
were descendants of Zhuang Qiao.3 The Han court sent its own expedition to
Yunnan for trade-related reasons. Official histories report that during the reign
of Han Wudi (r. 141–87 BCE) the general Zhang Qian 張騫 discovered goods
from Shu (modern-day Sichuan) in the Central Asian kingdom of Bactria, and
after further investigation determined that the best route linking Han territory
and Bactria would go through the Dian kingdom.4 Zhang Qian ultimately failed
to find this route, but his journey still led Han Wudi to establish Yizhou 益州
Commandery in the Dian kingdom in 109 BCE. Because the ruler of Dian offered his submission to the Han, he was granted the seal of office and invested
as the Dian King.5 The Han-dynasty presence in Yunnan further expanded
when Han Mingdi (r. 57–75) established Yongchang 永昌 Commandery to
the west of Yizhou in 69 CE, having secured the submission of the Ailao 哀牢
people.6
Surveys of tomb goods suggest that Han objects were a marker of high status in Yunnan during these periods: royal tombs contained the most Chinese
goods, followed by the tombs of noble warriors, and then the tombs of peasant
3 Han shu 95: 3838.
4 Shiji 123: 3166.
5 A golden seal bearing the inscription, ‘Seal of the Dian King’ (Dian wang zhi yin 滇王之印)
was found in a tomb at the Shizhai shan 石寨山 Dian archaeological site. Other findings
from this site provide information about Dian culture not found in Chinese sources, such
as the centrality of bronze drums and metal pillars in ritual, particularly human and animal
sacrifice. Some Chinese objects, such as crossbows, were found in royal tombs, but there is no
evidence of pervasive Chinese influence. See Huang Yilu 2004: 154–57; Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens
1974: 53–66.
6 Hou Han shu 2: 114.
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soldiers, which had no Chinese goods (Pirazzoli-t’Serstevens 1974: 27–36).7
Among the Han goods that appeared in Dian tombs were metal coins, which
signified the disruption of cowry currency in the region after the Han government took control.8 Cowries resumed their cash role in the wake of the Han
dynasty’s fall in 220 CE (Yang 2009: 198–99).
Han governance of Yunnan had noticeable effects on the region’s material
culture, particularly among the regional authorities with the closest ties to
imperial representatives. However, Han control of Yunnan relied heavily on
regional authorities who offered submission to the court. Han histories record
that there was a large-scale rebellion in Yunnan in 42 CE, and the Ailao rebelled
in 76 CE, fewer than ten years after Yongchang Commandery was established.9
This shows that there was considerable resistance to Han suzerainty over the
area. Moreover, the Han court seems to have had little interest in spreading
Chinese culture to the ‘southwestern barbarians’ (xinan yi 西南夷). Han
interest in Yunnan stemmed primarily from the region’s natural resources—
including the valuable commodity of salt—and its strategic location for trading with Southeast Asia, India, and beyond. No records from Han-dynasty
Yunnan attest to local leaders’ literacy in Sinitic script or adoption of Han
political organization.
After the fall of the Han dynasty, the political instability in the east meant
that regional powers in Yunnan could operate more independently, with a few
exceptions. Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮 (181–234) famously subjugated the area in the
third century CE but did not try to maintain central control, opting instead
for a system in which local leaders would offer tribute in order to enrich the
Shu-Han kingdom (221–263) without draining Shu-Han resources in keeping
the region under direct rule.10 Other regimes maintained outposts in Yunnan
but had little actual influence. Interest in the region resumed in the Sui
dynasty (581–618) when the new emperor, having conquered the Sichuan region, turned his attention farther south.
From the fall of the Han dynasty to the rise of the Sui, trade between Yunnan
and the outside world continued. The fourth-century gazetteer Huayang guozhi
華陽國志 reports that Yongchang linked Sichuan to Southeast Asia and India.
7
8
9
10
The tombs of royalty and noble warriors are from Shizhai shan, the Dian capital; the
tombs of peasant soldiers come from Taiji shan in Anning, just west of Shizhai shan and
the Kunming region.
Aside from metal coins, elite Dian tombs contained bronze mirrors, crossbows, and
jiaodou food or wine vessels, among other Chinese objects (Wang Ningsheng 1980: 60).
Hou Han shu 86: 2846, 2851.
Sanguo zhi 35: 918–920.
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Yongchang boasted a wide array of precious goods from the western regions
as well as a diverse population with people from Pyu and India along with
the native Ailao.11 As is well known, Buddhism also traveled along trade routes
linking India to China in the form of monks, merchants, and the things they
carried. The northern Silk Road and maritime passages have received more
scholarly attention for their roles in Buddhist networks than the ‘southern Silk
Road,’ but sources from the Tang dynasty suggest that some Buddhist monks
did use the southwestern route.12
By the Tang dynasty Yunnan’s geopolitical situation was changing. Trade
initially spurred Tang interest in Yunnan, as Tang Taizong wanted to control
the territory to secure another route with India (Backus 1981: 17–18). Tang campaigns in the 640s managed to take territory as far as Er Lake (Erhai 洱海) in
the Dali plain, the political centre of the future Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms.
The Dali area, located between Yizhou and Yongchang commanderies, had
not received much attention from earlier Chinese dynasties, but acquired
strategic importance for the Tang as the Tibetan empire expanded east. For
the Tang court, as for other Chinese dynasties looking to increase their influence in Yunnan, it was imperative to cooperate with regional leaders. In this
case, those leaders were the rulers of a small kingdom called Nanzhao, located
south of Er Lake.
Nanzhao Buddhism, and the Buddhism of the subsequent Dali kingdom, developed through networks that evolved from the first millennium BCE. Though
there is much missing from the extant historical record, several consistent
themes emerge. First, Yunnan has a long history of trade with the modernday regions of Burma, Bengal, and Sichuan, making it an important node in
ancient trade networks linking these three areas. Second, the only polities that
attempted to gain suzerainty over Yunnan were Chinese empires, starting with
the Han dynasty. These empires lacked the resources to directly govern the
remote and mountainous territory of Yunnan, so they had to appeal to local
authorities for support by conferring titles, gifts, and military assistance.
Finally, prior to the Tang dynasty there are no records of Buddhist people or
11
12
Chen Qian 1981: 170; Huayang guozhi 4: 21–22.
The monk Huirui 慧睿 was reportedly captured while traveling beyond Shu’s western
border and had to work as a shepherd before a merchant bought his freedom, whereupon
he journeyed through various countries before finally reaching southern India (Chen
Qian 1981: 170; Gaoseng zhuan, T.50.2059: 367a29–b5). Yijing also mentions over twenty
Tang monks who travelled from Sichuan and Zangke to the Mahābodhi Temple in Bodhgayā, which would have taken them through the Yizhou and Yongchang regions (Chen
Qian 1981: 170; Da Tang xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan, T.51.2066: 5b7–8).
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objects circulating in Yunnan. All of these factors help us make sense of new
developments in the Nanzhao kingdom that arises in the seventh and eighth
centuries.
2
Nanzhao Networks and Identities: Tang, Tibet, and Pyu
When Tang Taizong turned his attention to Yunnan in the 640s, six small
kingdoms called zhao 詔 controlled the Dali region.13 The name Nanzhao,
‘Southern Kingdom’, refers to its position to the south of the five other polities.
It was also known as Mengshe 蒙舍 in reference to its rulers, who hailed from
the Meng clan. Though scholars often describe the Meng in ethnic terms, the
sources do not support an understanding of Meng ethnic self-representation.
In the early- to mid-twentieth century scholars saw the Nanzhao rulers as Thai,
but this theory has been refuted (Blackmore 1967; Backus 1981: 49). Modern
scholarship frequently identifies the Meng as ancestors of the Yi 彝 minzu
(nationality) and accepts the Tang designation of the Meng as a kind of ‘Black
Barbarian’ (wuman 烏蠻) (Backus 1981; You Zhong 2006; Qiu Xuanchong 1991).
However, the ‘Black Barbarian’ label belongs to Tang ethno-cultural discourse
rooted in the binary of Chinese civilization and barbarism; it does not convey
Nanzhao self-representation. Tang sources about the southwest contrast Black
Barbarians with ‘White Barbarians’ (baiman 白蠻): though the distinction
ostensibly refers to different colours of women’s garments, it really reflects perceived proximity to Chinese culture, with the White Barbarians adhering more
closely to Chinese norms (Man shu: 14, 74; Fang Guoyu 1983: 45).
Even if the sources do not support a discussion of Meng ethnic selfrepresentation, they do help to locate the Meng within Dali culture. Meng rulers followed the patronymic linkage system in which the last part of the father’s
name becomes the first part of the son’s name: the first five Nanzhao rulers
are Xinuluo 細奴邏, Luosheng 邏盛, Shengluopi 盛邏皮, Piluoge 皮邏閣, and
Geluofeng 閣邏鳳.14 This naming system was also followed among the kings
of early Burma, the Mosuo people of northern Yunnan, and the Hani people of
southern Yunnan (Pelliot 1904: 166; Backus 1981: 66). However, people living
around Er Lake (near the Nanzhao capital) had adopted Chinese surnames
13
14
The term zhao, which refers to both the kingdom and its ruler, used to be cited as proof
that the Nanzhao rulers were Thai, as it resembles a Thai word with the same meaning.
However, fourth-century rulers in northern China also used it in the same way, suggesting
that it was not distinctively Thai. See Blackmore 1967: 65.
Jiu Tang shu 197: 5280.
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such as Yang 楊, Li 李, Zhao 趙, and Dong 董, and claimed to be the descendants of Han people.15 The close proximity of self-identified Chinese people
suggests that the Nanzhao rulers were familiar with Chinese culture (and the
discourse of Chineseness), but did not represent themselves as ‘Chinese’ by
claiming Han ancestry or adopting Chinese naming conventions. Instead,
they appear to have represented themselves as descendants of the Ailao from
Yongchang Commandery.16
In the late seventh and early eighth centuries Nanzhao was the largest and
most powerful of the six kingdoms surrounding Er Lake, so when the Tang
wanted regional allies to defend against the growing Tibetan threat, they
looked to the Meng. The Nanzhao ruler Piluoge (r. 728–748) took advantage of
the situation to enlist Tang support in conquering his regional rivals in the 730s
(Map 3.1). The Tang court also awarded various titles to Piluoge, such as ‘King
of Yunnan’ (Yunnan wang 雲南王), to encourage his cooperation.17 However,
the Tang-Nanzhao alliance began to weaken in the 740s, when Nanzhao
accused Tang officials of betrayal. Piluoge’s son Geluofeng (r. 748–779) transferred his allegiance to Tibet in 751, whereupon he received the Tibetan title
btsan po gcung (Chin zanpu zhong 贊普鐘), ‘younger brother of the emperor’.18
The Nanzhao-Tibet alliance officially lasted until 794, when the Nanzhao ruler
Yimouxun 異牟尋 (r. 780–808) restored relations with Tang.19
Despite these decades of alliance between Nanzhao and Tibet, there are few
examples of Nanzhao adoption of Tibetan practices, with the possible exception of sumptuary laws about wearing tiger skins.20 Even during the NanzhaoTibet alliance, the Chinese official Zheng Hui 鄭回 (kidnapped in a Nanzhao
raid on Suizhou) served as royal tutor to young Yimouxun, and continued in
his advisory role after Yimouxun rose to power.21 Nanzhao rulers modeled
their political structure on the six divisions of the Tang government and educated their sons in Chengdu.22 This familiarity with southern Sichuan probably
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Xi Erhe fengtu ji: 218.
Jiu Tang shu 197: 5280.
Ibid.
Dehua bei: 3–4.
Jiu Tang shu 197: 5282.
Backus 1981: 79. According to the Man shu, ‘Those with outstanding, exceptional achievements may wear tiger hide over their whole bodies. Those with lesser achievements may
wear [tiger hide] on their chest and back, but may not have sleeves. Those with still lesser
achievements may wear [tiger hide] on their chest, but not on their back.’ Man shu: 72. It
uses boluo 波羅 for tiger, which came from the local language.
Jiu Tang shu 197: 5281.
Man shu: 76; Xin Tang shu 215a: 6027; Zizhi tongjian 249: 40b.
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Map 3.1
89
Nanzhao Kingdom.
helped Nanzhao forces in their 829 raid of the city in which they took skilled
labourers along with material riches.23
In its relations with Tang and Tibet, Nanzhao had to assume the inferior
position, but in its expeditions to the south it took the dominant role. Nanzhao
23
Xin Tang shu 222b: 6282.
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expansion to the south and west had begun by the late eighth century, but it
was not until the early ninth century that it took over the Pyu kingdom, as
shown in Xungequan’s 尋閣勸 (r. 808–809) adoption of the title Piao xinju
驃信苴, ‘ruler of Pyu’.24 Later in the ninth century, after the fall of the Tibetan
empire, Nanzhao and Tang forces battled over control of Annam in modernday Vietnam. This conflict weakened both regimes, which collapsed around
the same time in the early tenth century.
Nanzhao’s foreign relations show that Dali was connected to Tang outposts
in Yunnan and Sichuan, to Tibetan forces north of the Dali region, and to the
Pyu and Annam regions to the south. However, the links between the Nanzhao
rulers and these places differed quantitatively and qualitatively. Ties between
Nanzhao and Sichuan were particularly strong, and though Nanzhao occupied
the subordinate role it could still act as an aggressor through surprise raids. Ties
between Nanzhao and Tibet were weaker, and seem to serve more militarily
strategic purposes. Finally, ties between Nanzhao and Pyu reversed the dynamic to put Nanzhao in the superior position.
3
Acuoye Guanyin and the Mahārāja: Buddhist Networks in the
Nanzhao Kingdom
Nanzhao relations with Tang, Tibet, and Pyu shape both the records and representations of Buddhist networks during this period. Buddhism became
a prominent part of Nanzhao elite culture by the mid-ninth century, when
Nanzhao rulers reportedly built Chongsheng si 崇聖寺 and its central pagoda
Qianxun ta 千尋塔 (Li Gong 2006: 153). An inscription dated to 850 records
a Nanzhao official’s sponsorship of Amitābha and Maitreya carvings at the
Buddhist grottoes of Shibao shan 石寶山 in Jianchuan, north of the Dali plain.25
In 863 a Tang official reportedly shot an arrow into the chest of a foreign monk
(huseng 胡僧) who was performing a ritual for Nanzhao forces in Annam.26
When in 876 Tang representatives sought to put an end to their conflict
24
25
26
Jiu Tang shu 197: 5284.
Hou Chong 2006b: 126; Zhang Banglong zaoxiang ji: 5–6. Zhang Banglong 張傍龍 was
probably an official under Nanzhao from the northwest part of Nanzhao territory.
Man shu: 80. The text recounts that a naked foreign monk holding a staff and wrapped in
white silk (perhaps wearing a dhoti?) was taking forward and backward steps south of the
city wall. The Tang official Cai Xi shot this ‘ritual performing foreign monk’ in the chest
with an arrow, whereupon the barbarians took him back to their camp and went into an
uproar.
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with Nanzhao over Annam, they sent a Buddhist monk to negotiate with the
Nanzhao ruler Shilong 世隆 (r. 859–877), knowing that ‘it was [Shilong’s] custom to revere the Buddhist dharma.’27 Conversely, the 766 Dehua bei 德化碑
(Stele of Transforming through Virtue), written to repair the Nanzhao court’s
relationship with the Tang after Nanzhao had allied with Tibet, makes no mention of Buddhism.
Despite the absence of Buddhist records in Nanzhao sources before the
ninth century, it is clear that Buddhism was known in the region. The earliest
dated source related to Buddhism in Dali is a 698 funerary stele for the
Tang (and Zhou) official Wang Renqiu 王仁求 with carvings of the buddhas
Śākyamuni and Prabhūtaratna from the ‘Appearance of the Treasure Pagoda’
section of the Lotus Sūtra.28 Though the stele was erected in Wang’s hometown
of Anning, near Kunming, Wang spent his career in the Dali region, suggesting that Buddhist ideas were known in the Dali plain as early as the seventh
century. A collection of Tang-style Buddhist statues found at Weishan 巍山
in 1990 might date to the early Nanzhao kingdom, which would suggest that
Nanzhao rulers adopted Buddhism earlier than the ninth century (Liu Xishu
2006). However, the difficulty of dating these statues reliably means that even
if Nanzhao rulers were familiar with Buddhism before the ninth century, there
is no solid proof that they had embraced Buddhism.
In addition to architecture and statues, sources for ninth-century Nanzhao
Buddhism include the 899 Nanzhao tuzhuan 南詔圖傳 (Illustrated History
of Nanzhao), which recounts in text and images how Acuoye Guanyin introduced Buddhism to the region for the edification of the final Nanzhao ruler
Shunhuazhen 舜化貞 (r. 897–902), who was still a boy (Li Lin-ts’an 1967:
147–48). Acuoye Guanyin takes the form of an Indian monk and helps the
first two Nanzhao kings, Xinuluo and Luosheng, establish their kingdom. The
Bodhisattva then attempts to spread the dharma around Yunnan, but finds
that the local population is not yet ready for Buddhism. He displays his true
form of Acuoye Guanyin, which an old man casts as a gold statue (Figure 3.1)
that is enshrined on a mountaintop. In the ninth century the Nanzhao ruler
Longshun 隆舜 (r. 878–897) hears of the statue and sends officials to retrieve
it. The Nanzhao tuzhuan’s last scene shows Longshun and other figures from
the narrative worshiping this image of Acuoye Guanyin. When considered in
27
28
Xin Tang shu 222b: 6290. Shilong had previously refused to bow to Tang officials because
he wanted to be acknowledged as an equal, but he made an exception for the monk. Tang
records refer to Shilong as Qiulong 酋龍 because the characters in his name violated Tang
taboos.
Da Zhou gu Hedong zhou cishi zhi bei: 68–70.
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Figure 3.1 Acuoye Guanyin, 1147–72 / San Diego Museum of Art, USA.
conjunction with other evidence for Nanzhao Buddhism and Nanzhao history,
the Nanzhao tuzhuan points to the networks through which Nanzhao elites
encountered Buddhism and reveals how the Nanzhao court represented those
networks.
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Routes linking the Dali region to Tang territory were important conduits
through which Buddhist texts and artisans entered Nanzhao. Qianxun ta, a
sixteen-story brick pagoda that stands fifty-eight meters tall, closely resembles
the Tang-dynasty Xiaoyan ta 小雁塔 in Xi’an (Fang Guoyu 1978: 51). Buddhist
statues at Shibao shan, including the 850 Amitābha and Maitreya images, show
familiarity with Tang styles in their robust physiques (Li Yumin 1991: 376). Given
that Nanzhao elites educated their sons and kidnapped artisans from Chengdu,
it would not be surprising for the sculptors and architects responsible for
Qianxun ta and the Shibao shan carvings to have learned their craft in Sichuan.
Textual sources from Nanzhao also show ties to Tang territory in that they
are all written in Sinitic script and several allude to classical Chinese texts.
The Dehua bei, which was composed by a Tang official or literatus, draws from
the Shijing, Shiji, and Shang shu.29 The Nanzhao tuzhuan quotes a line from the
Yijing when Acuoye Guanyin prophesies to the first two Nanzhao rulers’ wives
that ‘the dragon will fly when nine [i.e. pure yang] is in the fifth position.’30
It also claims that Acuoye Guanyin ‘set the zhaomu 昭穆 order in the ancestral temple’ and ‘follows the way of the Five Constants’; the former refers to
the organization of tablets based on generational divisions, and the latter
refers to the five cardinal virtues of Confucianism.31 Though it is impossible to
determine the specific conduit through which Nanzhao elites encountered
these texts and ideas, it is clear that they came from Tang territory or had been
introduced to the region from Chinese territory prior to the Tang.
If the text of the Nanzhao tuzhuan suggests routes linking the Dali region to
Chinese areas, its images show that Dali elites adopted Buddhist materials from
other routes, too. Acuoye Guanyin’s ‘true form’ probably entered the Nanzhao
kingdom from Southeast Asia as a single statue that served as a template for
all images of the Bodhisattva from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms (Lutz 1991:
186). Images of Acuoye Guanyin show complete consistency: the Bodhisattva
has a slim physique with a narrow waist and broad shoulders; his comparatively large head features an intricate, high hairstyle ( jaṭā-makuṭa in Sanskrit); and
he wears a dhoti with a sash as well as a jewelled collier and bracelets (Ibid.: 185).
Though art historians have disagreed about whether Acuoye Guanyin’s iconography comes from different regions of India or Southeast Asia, they agree that
29
30
31
Dehua bei: 4; Shijing: 541b; Shiji 55: 2042; Shang shu: 34b, 111b.
Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 148. The line from the Yijing reads, ‘Nine in the fifth [position]: the dragon
flies in the sky; it is advantageous to see a great man’. Zhou yi: 10.
Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 148–149. The term zhaomu appears throughout the Chinese classics,
such as the Shijing, Liji, and Zuozhuan.
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the image of Acuoye Guanyin entered Nanzhao territory from Southeast Asia.32
Given Nanzhao involvement in both Pyu and Annam, it is likely that Acuoye
Guanyin entered Nanzhao from one of those areas.
The Nanzhao tuzhuan and other Buddhist sources from the Nanzhao kingdom suggest a network with conduits extending into Tang territory, especially
Sichuan, and Southeast Asia, namely Annam and Pyu. However, the Nanzhao
tuzhuan’s central claim is that Acuoye Guanyin introduced Buddhism to the
region from India: the Bodhisattva appears in the form of an Indian monk, and
in 825 a monk from the ‘western regions’ (xiyu 西域) comes to the Nanzhao
capital and says, “Acuoye Guanyin, Worthy of the Lotus Family in our western regions came from a foreign kingdom [fanguo 蕃國] and carried out various transformations until arriving in your Great Feng People Kingdom [i.e.
Nanzhao]. Where is he now?”33 The Nanzhao tuzhuan thus depicts the conduit
linking the Dali region and India as the strongest part of the Nanzhao kingdom’s Buddhist network.
Emphasizing Nanzhao Buddhism’s Indian origins does not entail rejecting other channels of transmission, as seen in the Nanzhao tuzhuan’s statement that “if one traces the source of the Holy Teaching [shengjiao 聖教, i.e.
Buddhism] in the Great Feng People Kingdom, some came from hu 胡 [Central
Asia] and fan 梵 [India], while some came from bo 蕃 [Tibet] and han 漢
[China].”34 However, the Nanzhao tuzhuan generally downplays the Chinese
contribution. The text takes pains to refute a rumour that the famous Tang
monk-pilgrim Xuanzang was the one who bestowed the prophecy on Xinuluo
and Luosheng, noting that Xinuluo was born in 629, the same year in which
Xuanzang departed for India, making it impossible for Xuanzang to have
encountered both Xinuluo and his grown son.35
32
33
34
35
Helen Chapin and Marie-Thérèse de Mallmann each saw India as the ultimate source of
Acuoye Guanyin’s iconography, with Chapin tracing the figure to the northeastern Pala
dynasty and de Mallmann positing origins in the central-western region of Mahārāṣṭra
or the southern port region of Mahabalipuram. Both surmised that Indian statues went
through Southeast Asia—probably Śrīvijaya—before entering Nanzhao territory. Chapin
1944: 182; de Mallmann 1951: 572. Angela Howard follows Nandana Chutiwongs in locating
Acuoye Guanyin within the arts of Champa (in what is now southern Vietnam) instead.
Chutiwongs 1984: 477–483; Howard 1996: 233.
Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 145–46. The term ‘Great Feng People Kingdom’ (da fengmin guo
大封民國) only appears in the Nanzhao tuzhuan and Xin Tang shu, where Longshun is
said to have called himself ‘Great Feng Person’ (da feng ren 大封人). Xin Tang shu 222b:
6291. It is unfortunately unclear what the term means.
Ibid.: 147.
Ibid.: 145.
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Longshun’s titles, as depicted in the final image of the Nanzhao tuzhuan,
also deemphasize the Chinese connection to Nanzhao. In the final scene
Longshun and others worship the true form of Acuoye Guanyin. The penultimate Nanzhao ruler wears only a dhoti and earrings, with his hair pulled
back in a bun and his hands in the añjali mudrā. A cartouche identifies him
as ‘Mahārāja, Earth Wheel King, Bstan-pa’i rgyal-mtshan, He Who Invites the
Four Directions to Become One Family, the Piao xin Meng Longhao’.36 These
titles locate Longshun (here, Longhao) at the centre of a Buddhist network
that extends in every direction. ‘Mahārāja’ points to India, and in conjunction
with the title ‘Earth Wheel King’ refers to a Buddhist monarch. Though earth
is not one of the standard kinds of cakravartin, the term clearly relates to this
notion of Buddhist kingship. Bstan-pa’i rgyal-mtshan could be a Tibetan title
for ‘Victory Banner of the [Buddhist] Teachings,’ and Piao xin is an abbreviated
form of Piao xinju, ‘Lord of Pyu.’37 ‘He Who Invites the Four Directions to Become
One Family’ probably comes from Chinese classical tradition: the Lunyu
describes the gentleman ( junzi 君子) as one who takes all within the four seas
as his brothers, and Xunzi praises the ability to make all within the four seas as
one family.38
This image of Longshun and Acuoye Guanyin draws on an important part
of Nanzhao Buddhism, namely the centrality of esoteric Buddhism, which
uses the metaphor of the maṇḍala to position the ruler/practitioner as a
divine being at the centre of his (or in rare cases, her) realm. The Nanzhao
tuzhuan depicts Longshun performing the rite of consecration (Skt. abhiṣeka;
Chin guanding 灌頂) in which he identifies with Acuoye Guanyin. Two youths
standing behind Longshun hold vases with water that would be sprinkled on
the ruler’s head during the ritual. In addition, the text of the Nanzhao tuzhuan
states, “in the ninth year of Cuoye 嵯耶, dingsi annum [i.e. 897], the emperor
was sprinkled from the basin”.39
Another source from just after the fall of Nanzhao confirms the royal adoption of esoteric Buddhism: a 908 subcommentary on the Renwang huguo
boreboluomiduo jing 仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經 (Prajñāpāramitā Scripture
for Humane Kings to Protect Their Countries; hereafter Renwang jing) known
as the Huguo sinan chao 護國司南抄 (Compass for Protecting the Nation
Subcommentary) is among the Buddhist texts that have only been found in
36
37
38
39
Ibid.: 137. In Chinese: Moheluocuo tulun wang danbi qianjian sifang qing wei yijia piao
xin Meng Longhao 摩訶羅嵯土輪王擔畀謙賤四方請為一家驃信蒙隆昊.
I am grateful to Leonard van der Kuijp for explaining this Tibetan term.
Lunyu: 12; Xunzi jijie 4: 5b.
Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 146.
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Dali (Hou Chong 2006a: 73).40 Its existence suggests that Nanzhao rulers were
familiar with the tradition of esoteric governance that Amoghavajra (Chin
Bukong 不空; 705–774) promoted at the Tang court and in his ‘translation’
of the Renwang jing, as the Huguo sinan chao was based on Liang Bi’s commentary on Amoghavajra’s version of the text (Hou Chong 2006b: 70; Orzech 1998).
The Huguo sinan chao also supports the theory that Buddhist texts entered
Nanzhao mainly from Tang territory.
Longshun’s titles and image in the Nanzhao tuzhuan affirmed his role
as an esoteric Buddhist monarch at the centre of a circular maṇḍala that
extended to India, Tibet, China, and Pyu. By the ninth century Nanzhao rulers
had claimed the title emperor (huangdi 皇帝) and were distancing themselves
from the subordinate titles their predecessors received from Tang and Tibet,
such as King of Yunnan and btsan po gcung. This effectively raised Nanzhao’s
status from that of a border kingdom in the shadows of two great empires to
that of a Buddhist empire in its own right. It did so by strategically representing
Buddhist networks in a way that placed Nanzhao in the centre and minimized
the conduits tying the Dali region to Tang territory.
It is possible that the Nanzhao tuzhuan’s representation of Buddhist networks does accord with the networks by which Buddhist objects, ideas, and
people traveled to and from the Dali region. After all, trade routes linked
Nanzhao to Pyu and the Pala empire, so Indian monks could have made
their way into Nanzhao territory. Later sources for Dali history do claim that
Indian Buddhist monks—most famously the esoteric master Candragupta
(Zantuojueduo 贊陀崛多)—played important roles in spreading Buddhism
in Nanzhao.41 However, Hou Chong has convincingly shown that these tales
cannot be dated to earlier than the Ming dynasty (Hou Chong 2002: 264–265).
Moreover, no sources from the Nanzhao kingdom clearly came from India, nor
do any Tang or Tibetan records mention Indian monastics in the Dali region.
Juxtaposing records and representations of Buddhist networks from the
Nanzhao kingdom thus results in a disjuncture between the two. By the second half of the ninth century Nanzhao rulers had embraced Buddhism, drawing on textual traditions, architectural models, and artistic styles from Tang
China and adopting the ‘nation-founding’ Acuoye Guanyin from Southeast
Asia. Acknowledging the importance of Tang China as a main channel for the
transmission of Buddhism to Nanzhao would implicitly subordinate Nanzhao
40
41
The extant manuscript of the text dates to 1052, but its contents date to 908. Hou Chong
explains the calculation of the 908 date, as the date is recorded incorrectly in the text.
See the 1438 inscription Gu baoping zhanglao muzhiming: 43; and Bo gu tongji qianshu
jiaozhu: 62–63.
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Buddhism to that of the Tang. By emphasizing Nanzhao’s connection to India,
the Nanzhao court could claim superiority due to its closer proximity to
Buddhism’s source.
Regardless of how the Acuoye Guanyin statue came to the Dali region,
Nanzhao elites used it to signify their Buddhist tradition’s Indian origins:
the name Acuoye probably comes from Sanskrit, the text describes Acuoye
Guanyin as coming from the ‘Western Regions’, and he takes the form of an
Indian monk in attempting to spread the dharma. From the Nanzhao tuzhuan
it does not appear that Nanzhao elites had detailed understandings of India or
actually sent any delegations to the Western Regions. Instead, India seems to
have been an imagined place with symbolic resonance as Buddhism’s source.
Acuoye Guanyin shows both the documented networks linking the Dali region
to Pyu or Annam, and the represented network linking Dali to India.
3.1
Nation Founder: Acuoye Guanyin in the Dali Kingdom
Acuoye Guanyin, a regional form of an otherwise transregional bodhisattva, was the central figure in Nanzhao Buddhism in the late ninth century.
However, the completion of the Nanzhao tuzhuan, which told of the kingdom’s founding, preceded the kingdom’s downfall by only a few years. In 903
the Nanzhao official Zheng Maisi 鄭買嗣 (r. 903–910) killed the infant heir and
usurped the throne, establishing the short-lived Dachanghe 大長和 kingdom
(903–927). This was followed by the even shorter Datianxing 大天興 (928–929)
and Dayining 大義寧 (929–937) kingdoms, after which Duan Siping 段思平
founded the Dali kingdom (Map 3.2). Unlike the fractious relations between
Nanzhao and Tang, the Dali kingdom had little conflict with the Song dynasty.
This was intentional on the part of Song Taizu, who decreed that, in light of
Tang entrenchment in the southwest, everything south of the Dadu River
would belong to Dali.42 As a result, there are fewer surviving sources from the
Song about Dali than there were from the Tang about Nanzhao. However, far
more materials from the Dali kingdom survive, most of which are Buddhist
texts and art.
Despite these differences in extant sources and history, several threads
connect the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms. Members of the Duan family had
served as prime ministers (qingpingguan 清平官) under the Nanzhao kingdom, and the Dali court continued many of the traditions established by their
Meng predecessors, including the use of certain official titles, governmental
42
Song shi 353: 11149.
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structure, and the claim to the same Indian Buddhist transmission.43 Dali rulers
worshiped Acuoye Guanyin and included several scenes from the Nanzhao
tuzhuan in the Fanxiang juan 梵像卷 (Roll of Buddhist Images) from the 1170s.
The Fanxiang juan, a long painting sponsored by the Dali ruler Duan Zhixing
段智興 (r. 1172–1199), contains an eclectic pantheon of Buddhist figures, from
Chan patriarchs to wrathful dharma guardians.44 As shown by scenes of rulers
at the beginning and end of the painting, the Dali court used the Fanxiang
juan to claim Buddhist authority for their rule.45 This connection to statecraft
manifests in the painting’s inclusion of Acuoye Guanyin, but the painting also
depicts other forms of the Bodhisattva. The Fanxiang juan (and other sources)
thus shows that the Dali court worshiped transregional forms of Guanyin in
addition to the distinctive Acuoye form, shedding more light on the religious
networks that shaped Dali-kingdom Buddhism. Images and texts related to the
Bodhisattva Guanyin from the Dali kingdom show that Dali elites continued to
use images of Acuoye Guanyin to represent religious networks linking Yunnan
to India, but their textual sources for the Bodhisattva’s worship came primarily
from Song territory.
The Nanzhao tuzhuan is the only source reliably dating to the Nanzhao
kingdom that features Acuoye Guanyin, but several statues of the Bodhisattva
could date to either the Nanzhao or Dali kingdoms. Two of these are stone carvings from Shibao shan, where caves ten and seventeen depict Guanyin in the
guise of an Indian monk, complete with a pet dog mentioned in the Nanzhao
tuzhuan.46 Another image of Acuoye Guanyin at Shibao shan clearly dates to
43
44
45
46
The Nanzhao and Dali courts used titles not found elsewhere, such as buxie 布燮,
tanchuo 坦綽, jiuzan 久贊, and qiuwang 酋望. Xin Tang shu 222a: 6267–68; Man
shu: 76.
The Fanxiang juan was originally created in an accordion-fold format, and was later
remounted as a scroll. The painter Zhang Shengwen 張勝溫 supervised its creation,
though nothing else is known about him. Art historians agree that the painting’s overall
style follows conventions from Tang-Song China, though several figures’ iconographies
differ from those of the Tang through Song. The Fanxiang juan currently belongs to the
collection of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan. See Matsumoto 1976, Li Lin-ts’an
1967, and Li Yumin 1987.
The opening frames show Duan Zhixing himself at the head of a large retinue, and the
closing frames depict the “Kings of the Sixteen Great Countries” (shiliu daguo wangzhong
十六大圀王衆), a set that appears in the Prajñāpāramitā Scripture for Humane Kings
to Protect Their Countries (Renwang huguo boreboluomiduo jing), T.8.246: 834c25ff. See Li
Lin-ts’an 1967: 78–79, 122–123.
In Acuoye Guanyin’s fourth incarnation in the Nanzhao tuzhuan, he appears as an Indian
monk accompanied by a white dog. As they pass through a region west of the Lancang
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Map 3.2
99
Dali Kingdom.
the Dali kingdom: cave thirteen centres around a statue of Acuoye Guanyin
that closely resembles his ‘true form’ in the Nanzhao tuzhuan; he is flanked on
(aka Mekong) River, a village headman steals the dog and the villagers eat it. When the
monk calls for the dog, the dog barks from inside the villagers’ stomachs, whereupon the
villagers attack the monk, believing him to be an evil spirit. The monk lives up to Acuoye’s
“Invincible” title and escapes unscathed. Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 142–43.
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both sides by pagodas. An inscription identifies this image’s sponsors as Yaoshi
Xiang 藥師祥 and his wife Guanyin De 觀音得 of the Dali kingdom.47
Three small statues of Acuoye Guanyin also number among the many
Dali-era Buddhist objects found in Qianxun ta. One is gilt bronze, one is gold, and
one is wood. The gilt bronze statue is 48.9 cm tall and conforms to the Acuoye
Guanyin iconography described above. It bears an inscription that shows its
royal provenance: the Dali ‘Emperor and Piao xin Duan Zhengxing 段政興
[r. 1147–71]’ had it made for his two sons Duan Yizhang Sheng 段易長生 and
Duan Yizhang Xing 段易長興 (see fig. 3.1).48 Duan Zhengxing also used the
term Yizhang in his daughter’s name, and the term appears in frame 100 of
the Fanxiang juan, which depicts Yizhang Guanshiyin pusa 易長觀世音菩薩.49
It is probably not a coincidence that Duan Yizhang Xing is none other than
Duan Zhixing, the Dali ruler who sponsored the Fanxiang juan. The term
Yizhang can refer to easily increasing one’s lifespan or easily raising children
to adulthood; Yizhang Guanshiyin may be a regional form of the Bodhisattva
with a special connection to the Duan family.50
The image of Yizhang Guanyin in the Fanxiang juan is not identical to
Acuoye Guanyin, but the Fanxiang juan contains several frames that feature
Acuoye Guanyin in scenes from the Nanzhao tuzhuan. Frame 99 depicts ‘True
Form Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’ (Zhenshen Guanshiyin pusa 真身觀世音菩薩),
47
48
49
50
Hou 2006b: 127. The absence of surnames is surprising, but it was common for Dalikingdom Buddhists to have two-character Buddhist terms in their given names. Dali elites
also used terms such as Dari 大日 (Great Sun, Mahāvairocana), Prajñā, and Tianwang
天王 (Celestial King, devarāja) in this way. See a full list in Tian Huaiqing 2002. Inserting
Buddhist terms into personal names was also a feature of Liao Buddhism, though most
of the terms used there were different, such as Pusa 菩薩 (Bodhisattva) and Fobao 佛寶
(Buddha Treasure). Zhang Guoqing 2004: 71–72.
Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 73.
Dali guo gu Gao Ji mumingbei: 11.
I agree with Xu Jiarui’s theory that including Buddhist terms in personal names was a
form of protection and blessing. Xu 2005: 336. Based on Yizhang Guanshiyin’s dragon
throne and nāga devotees, Moritaka Matsumoto speculated that it was a regional form
of Dragon-Head (longtou 龍頭) Guanyin, one of the thirty-three forms of the Bodhisattva based on the Pumen pin chapter of the Lotus Sūtra (Matsumoto 1976: 246). Li Yumin
accepts Helen Chapin’s theory that Yizhang Guanshiyin’s name came from the Indian and
Southeast Asian practice of adding rulers’ names to deities’ names in signifying the ruler’s
divinity. Yizhang Guanshiyin would thus result from Duan Yizhang Xing’s name being
added to Guanyin (Li Yumin 1987: 234). While the shared name Yizhang may have identified Duan Zhixing with Yizhang Guanyin, the term’s use in his siblings’ names suggests
that it did have the meaning of ‘raising easily to adulthood’. Yizhang Guanshiyin could
have been worshiped for the protection and longevity of the Dali ruling family.
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in which Acuoye Guanyin appears in a white circle as the old man casts a
statue in the lower left corner and a villager beats a drum in the lower right
corner. The central figure in frame 58 is ‘Indian Monk Guanshiyin Bodhisattva’
(Fanseng Guanshiyin pusa 梵僧觀世音菩薩), who preaches to the two wives
of the first Nanzhao rulers. Frame 86, titled ‘Nation-Founding Guanshiyin
Bodhisattva’ (Jianguo Guanshiyin pusa 建國觀世音菩薩), shows the Indian
monk form of Guanyin projecting an image of Acuoye Guanyin above his head;
his dog and other figures mentioned in the Nanzhao tuzhuan accompany him.
These examples of Dali-kingdom Acuoye Guanyin images show that the
Duan rulers presented themselves as heirs to the Nanzhao court’s Buddhist
mandate. Acuoye Guanyin was not only the founder of the Nanzhao kingdom,
but also the symbolic founder of the Dali kingdom. Dali-kingdom rulers shared
the claim that Buddhism in Dali came from India and they continued to use
the image of Acuoye Guanyin to signify this authentic Indian origin. Acuoye
Guanyin linked Dali spatially to India and temporally to the Nanzhao kingdom. Moreover, it was the image of Acuoye Guanyin, rather than texts, that
signified the Indian link. The Fanxiang juan repeatedly reinforced his ties to
India and distinguished him from other images of Guanyin.
Dali-kingdom images of Acuoye Guanyin do not show an attempt by Dali
rulers to erase networks connecting them to their Song neighbours. The inclusion of a Chan lineage in the Fanxiang juan shows that Dali elites acknowledged Song China as a source of their Buddhist tradition.51 However, it remains
significant that only the Indian-looking Acuoye Guanyin, rather than one of
the Bodhisattva’s many other forms, is the nation founder. This reflects Dali
elites’ greater emphasis on conduits linking Dali and India, even though extant
materials suggest that the conduits linking Dali and Song China were more
active. This latter point is apparent in images and texts from the Dali kingdom
related to transregional forms of Guanyin.
51
This lineage connects Śākyamuni to the Mahārāja Longshun in frames 42–55. It has
attracted Chan scholars’ attention because it includes Shenhui as the seventh patriarch. Shenhui seems to be a double figure that signifies both the famous Heze Shenhui
菏澤神會 and Jingzhong Shenhui 淨眾神會 of Sichuan’s Bao Tang lineage. Shenhui
is followed by the Sichuanese monk Zhang Weizhong 張惟忠, who studied with
Jingzhong Shenhui and was a grand-disciple of Heze Shenhui. The figures following
Zhang Weizhong—Xianzhe Mai Chuncuo 賢者買純嵯, Chuntuo Dashi 純陁大師, and
Faguang Heshang 法光和尚—appear to be monks from the Dali region who would have
lived during the Nanzhao kingdom. Li Lin-ts’an 1967: 91–95; Yanagida 1988: 237–38.
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Universal Saviour: Guanyin and the Lotus Sūtra in Dali-Kingdom
Buddhism
Images and texts related to Guanyin’s transregional forms point in a different direction than do sources for Acuoye Guanyin. Most statues of Guanyin
from the Dali kingdom show close connections to Tang and Song artistic
styles and iconographies, which characterizes Nanzhao- and Dali-kingdom
Buddhist art more broadly (Matsumoto 1976; Li Yumin 1991). Carvings and
statues of Guanyin appear in multiple Dali-kingdom sites, including Shibao
shan and Qianxun ta. Several of these hold a willow branch in their right
hand, which is a form that developed in Tang China (Yü 2001: 78). For example,
among the objects from Qianxun ta is a small silver statue of a seated Guanyin
holding a willow branch in his right hand and a lotus-shaped bowl in his left
(Lutz 1991a: 181 fig. 55). Some additional Guanyin statues from Qianxun ta were
clearly modelled on Tang originals, showing that statues and artisans were
among the traffic on Buddhist networks linking Dali to Chinese territory (Ibid.:
180, 176 figs. 49–50).
Networks for visual and textual materials overlap, so it should not be surprising to find connections between the Dali kingdom’s Buddhist scriptures
and images in the Fanxiang juan. According to Li Yumin, twenty-one frames
of the Fanxiang juan are connected to Guanyin, which makes Guanyin easily
the most popular figure in the painting.52 In addition to Acuoye Guanyin, there
are several images of esoteric forms of Guanyin, as well as images of Guanyin
from the Lotus Sūtra. The clearest example of the latter is in frames 88 through
90, which are labelled ‘Guanshiyin Bodhisattva from the Chapter of Universal
Teaching’ (Pumen pin Guanshiyin pusa 普門品觀世音菩薩): Guanyin sits in
the posture of royal ease on a lotus in the middle of frame 89, while frames
88 and 90 show the Bodhisattva saving people from eight ills. These include
enmity, drowning, elephants, snakes, bandits, imprisonment, and wild beasts,
all of which appear in the Pumen pin as examples of disasters from which
Guanyin can offer salvation.53
Li identifies the Lotus Sūtra as the source of two other images of Guanyin in
the Fanxiang juan: frame 91 shows a feminine, longhaired bodhisattva standing on a leaf floating on water. The cartouche reads ‘Praise to Guanshiyin
Bodhisattva Who Seeks the Sound and Saves from Suffering’ (Namo Xunsheng
52
53
Li Yumin 1987: 228.
The cartouches for bandits and imprisonment are missing, so I follow Li’s interpretation
based on the images. Ibid.: 235.
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jiuku Guanshiyin pusa 南無尋聲救苦觀世音菩薩).54 Frame 101 features a
form of Guanyin with a similar title, ‘Guanshiyin Bodhisattva Who Saves from
Suffering’ (Jiuku Guanshiyin pusa 救苦觀世音菩薩). Inasmuch as the Pumen
pin provides a scriptural foundation for the idea that Guanyin saves people
from suffering, these forms of Guanyin could be seen as further evidence of the
Dali court’s adoption of the Lotus Sūtra. Their proximity to the Pumen pin form
of Guanyin also suggests a connection.
Given the connections between Guanyin and the Lotus Sūtra in the
Fanxiang juan, it is no surprise that two partial manuscripts of the Lotus Sūtra
(Kumārajīva’s translation) number among the Buddhist scriptures from the
Dali kingdom. One comes from Fotu ta 佛圖塔, while the other was written on
the reverse of an esoteric ritual manual from Fazang si 法藏寺, which I discuss
below. The Fotu ta manuscript covers part of chapter twenty-four through part
of chapter twenty-eight, which includes the Pumen pin.55 The text includes several explanations of pronunciation, such as when a character should be read
with a falling tone (qusheng 去聲); when the character bu 不 should be
read fou 否; and how certain uncommon characters should be pronounced.56
Such marks are fairly common in Chinese Buddhist texts, and their inclusion
in the Fotu ta Lotus Sūtra manuscript reinforces its Chinese provenance.
The other Lotus Sūtra manuscript appears on the reverse of an esoteric
ritual manual that has been split up in the modern manuscript reproduction,
but seems to be a single, untitled text that Hou Chong calls Jingang daguanding daochang yi 金剛大灌頂道場儀 (Ritual of the Bodhimaṇḍa of the Great
Vajra Consecration).57 The Pumen pin is the only section of the Lotus Sūtra that
appears here, and it lacks the pronunciation guides that appear in the other
version.58 Taken together, these two manuscripts of the Lotus Sūtra reinforce
the importance of Guanyin devotionalism in the Dali kingdom. Guanyin’s
centrality in the Fanxiang juan suggests that the Pumen pin’s survival in both
manuscripts was not an accident.
These two sections of the Lotus Sūtra represent Dali-kingdom Buddhist
texts as a whole. Most Buddhist texts from the Dali kingdom are Chinese
54
55
56
57
58
Ibid.: 236.
The section in the Fotu ta manuscript corresponds to T.9.262: 55c5–61b18.
These notes are more common toward the beginning of the extant manuscript. Miaofa
lianhua jing: 117–19.
Hou 2006a: 36–37.
The sections correspond to T.9.262: 56c2–58b7. They appear in Jingang saduo huoweng
tan shou guanding yishi: 540–47 and Daguanding yi: 570–79 (Hou Chong considers these
both to be the Jingang daguanding daochang yi).
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translations or creations, and the seven manuscripts that have only been
found in Dali are all composed in Sinitic script. Aside from the aforementioned
Huguo sinan chao, these are all ritual texts that appear to have been created
in Dali.59 A handful of Sanskrit texts also survive, namely a syllabary in Brāhmī
script and various dhāraṇī, including the Mahāpratisarā-vidyārājñī-dhāraṇī
and Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī. Walter Liebenthal noted that the latter came from
Dharmadeva’s (Fatian 法天 and Faxian 法賢) tenth-century version of the
text that was known in the Song dynasty (Liebenthal 1947: 38; 1955: 57–59). In
addition, texts similar to the Sanskrit syllabary and Mahāpratisarā-vidyārājñīdhāraṇī circulated in Japan, which suggests that they could have entered Dali
from China.60
The seven texts unique to Dali were stored at Fazang si, family temple of
the Dong 董 clan that served as national preceptors (guoshi 國師) under the
Dali kingdom. Fazang si was not sealed off when the Dali kingdom fell, so it is
possible that other texts written in Sanskrit, Tibetan, or other languages were
known in the Dali kingdom but did not survive the Mongol and Ming conquests. However, the various pagodas were relatively undisturbed after the fall
of the Dali kingdom, and their preponderance of texts in Sinitic script conforms to the makeup of the Fazang si corpus. It appears that Dali-kingdom
elites participated in textual networks linking them to Chinese territory, and
Song records confirm this.
When the Jin dynasty took over the north, the Song court lost access to the
northern horse trade and had to rely on the southwest instead. The Song court
59
60
In addition to the Jingang daguanding daochang yi, these ritual texts include the
Tongyong qiqing yigui 通用啟請儀軌 (Invitation Ritual Procedures for General Use),
Zhufo pusa jingang deng qiqing yigui 諸佛菩薩金剛等啟請儀軌 (Ritual Procedures
for Inviting Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Vajra Beings, Etc.), Dahei tianshen daochang yi
大黑天神道場儀 (Rituals for the Bodhimaṇḍa of the God Mahākāla), Guangshi wuzhe
daochang yi 廣施無遮道場儀 (Rituals for the Bodhimaṇḍa of Widespread Offerings
Without Restrictions), and the Dengshi wuzhe fahui yi 燈食無遮法會儀 (Rituals for the
Dharma Assembly of Unrestricted Lamps and Food).
Paul Harrison, personal communication. The Mahāpratisarā-vidyārājñī-dhāraṇī and
Uṣṇīṣavijayā dhāraṇī were also important in the Tangut Xixia dynasty (1038–1227), which
shared with the Dali kingdom a geopolitical position between Song China and Tibetan regions (Shi Jinbo 2014: 146). As such, Xixia and Dali belonged to some of the same networks
for the transmission of Buddhist materials, but I have found no evidence of direct contact
between them. Moreover, Tangut Buddhists drew far more on Tibetan textual and visual
sources, as is apparent in a comparison of the Dali-kingdom and Xixia Mahākāla cults
(Bryson 2017: 412–414).
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gave books to the Dali delegation that paid tribute in horses in 1136, though the
Song shi does not record the titles.61 Fan Chengda reported that in 1173 Dali representatives, led by Li Guanyin De 李觀音得, brought horses to the Hengshan
market (in modern-day Guizhou) to trade for an assortment of Chinese texts,
including Buddhist titles. Fan also describes the Dali representatives as ‘elevating and reciting the Buddhist books’.62 These examples show that Dali elites
actively sought out Chinese learning, from medical tracts to rhyme dictionaries, and that their Buddhist texts came primarily from these exchanges.
As with Acuoye Guanyin, it appears that these textual networks follow the
conduits that had been established in the Nanzhao kingdom and even earlier.
The early presence of Chinese officials in Yunnan made Sinitic script the language of authority. Despite Dali’s greater proximity to India, Sanskrit in Dali
seems to have operated similarly to Sanskrit in Tang-Song China: it was a religiously potent script used mainly for those dhāraṇī and mantras whose power
depended on the language in which they were written and uttered. There
would have been Buddhist ritual masters who could read and write Sanskrit,
but it was not the main language for Buddhist texts.
The two partial Lotus Sūtra manuscripts from the Dali kingdom probably
entered the region from Song territory or were copied in Dali. They show how
Dali elites acquired Buddhist texts from Song China, and further how these
texts informed other aspects of Dali-kingdom Buddhism. Familiarity with the
Pumen pin section of the Lotus Sūtra is evident in the Fanxiang juan, and
the Lotus Sūtra undoubtedly contributed to Guanyin’s popularity in the
Dali kingdom. Images of Guanyin modelled on Tang styles also show how Dali
elites were connected to Song territory (and temporally to the Nanzhao kingdom), given that objects and artisans traveled the same routes that brought
texts to the Dali region. How, then, do these documented networks linking
Dali-kingdom Guanyin worship to Song China, map onto the networks represented by Acuoye Guanyin and other regional forms of the Bodhisattva?
61
62
Song shi 186: 4565.
Guihai yuheng zhi Dali shi jilu: 232. I do not know whether there is a connection between
this Li Guanyin De and the female Guanyin De mentioned in the dedicatory inscription
in Shibao shan, cave thirteen. Tian Huaiqing notes that of all the Buddhist terms inserted
into personal names in the Dali region from the Dali kingdom through the Ming dynasty,
Guanyin is most common with 140 instances (Tian Huaiqing 2002: 59–60).
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Bryson
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5
Conclusions: Networks and Identity in Nanzhao- and Dali-Kingdom
Buddhism
Networks organize information by privileging certain links over others, which
means that all networks are in some sense imagined. Similarly, representations
of networks that lack documentary evidence can shape how people interact
with each other. The distinction between documented and represented or
imagined networks thus breaks down at a certain point: rather than being two
separate or even opposing kinds of networks, they are intertwined and mutually
constitutive. Nanzhao- and Dali-kingdom elites’ representations of Guanyin
in Buddhist networks can only be understood in connection to documented
networks showing how texts and images related to the Bodhisattva made their
way to the Dali region, and vice versa.
Texts and images related to Guanyin from the Nanzhao and Dali kingdoms
show that regional elites encountered the Bodhisattva through multiple channels. Acuoye Guanyin probably entered the region from Annam or Pyu, while
other visual and written materials came from Tang-Song territory. While it
is possible that other materials related to Guanyin came to Dali from India
or Tibet, there is no evidence for this. Instead, it appears that Nanzhao and
Dali elites downplayed their links to China and depicted their tutelary form of
Acuoye Guanyin as a sign of their close ties to India. Representing networks to
highlight ties to India is hardly unique in the Buddhist world, but in Dali’s case
it takes on additional significance in connection to the documented networks
that linked the Dali region to Chinese territory. Dali’s proximity to India lent
credence to claims that Buddhism entered Dali from the west rather than the
east, especially in Dali representatives’ encounters with their Tang and Song
counterparts. Starting in the Yuan dynasty, Chinese sources show the success
of this strategy, as they ascribe Buddhism’s popularity in Dali to its closeness to
India and report that Indian monks spread Buddhism in the region.63
Dali’s position as a transit hub linking China, Southeast Asia, India, and Tibet
also highlights how history and agency shape network creation. Based on location alone, Dali elites could have drawn from each of their neighbours to craft
a regional Buddhist tradition. However, geography alone does not determine
how networks develop. Historical power relations inform, and are informed by,
the way people in different regions encounter each other. Had the Han dynasty
not extended its reach to the Yizhou and Yongchang Commanderies, perhaps
Nanzhao- and Dali-kingdom elites would have eventually adopted a different
script or looked elsewhere for most of their Buddhist texts, images, and objects.
63
Ji gu Dian shuo ji: 662; Dali xingji: 136.
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Guanyin and Buddhist Networks
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Nanzhao and Dali elites located Acuoye Guanyin within a network tying
them to India because this supported their identity as Buddhist monarchs
whose right to rule did not depend on Chinese authorisation. Before the ninth
century Nanzhao rulers relied on alliances with Tang or Tibet and had little
choice but to accept titles that made them mere kings or younger brothers
of the emperor. Buddhism offered an alternative system in which Dali’s location was an asset rather than a liability. Nanzhao- and Dali-kingdom elites
never denied that Tang and Song China were parts of the Buddhist network to
which they belonged, but they could not acknowledge that Chinese territory
was in fact the source of most of their Buddhist material. To do so would have
been to continue to claim a subordinate position. Emphasizing the direct link
between Dali and India allowed Nanzhao and Dali rulers to be Buddhist
emperors whose authority came from the Buddha’s birthplace.
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Chapter 4
A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō
and Aizen in Medieval Shingon Esoteric Buddhism
Steven Trenson
1
Introduction
Regardless of how the term is understood, it is clear that any historical study
of an element of human culture cannot be adequately discussed without
employing the notion of structure. If one would replace the word ‘structure’
with ‘network,’ as in the meaning of ‘netlike interconnections,’ it is possible to
conceptualise two types of networks which construct the significance of that
element. One is a conceptual network, which contains various components
(thoughts and ideas related to practices, customs, beliefs, etc.) with which the
element of study has a close relationship in a certain time and space. The multiple relationships within that time and space need to be explicitly brought to
light and thoroughly analysed to allow a more complete and nuanced grasp
of the element’s meaning. However, the configuration of the components in
this network and their semantic values are not static but continuously evolve
or devolve due to the influence of forces tied to social practices and activities. Hence, the conceptual network always intersects with another type of
network, which is one of historical human activity marked by socio-political,
economic and cultural motivations, and which extends over a certain geographical area. Within this network, people, artefacts, texts, and other vehicles
of human thoughts and expressions move from one place to another, crossing geographical, political and cultural borders, and affecting modes of human
activity in other localities. Needless to say, they also impact on the configuration of the components in the conceptual net spun around the element of
human culture we want to examine for a given time and space.
To say it differently, any object of historical inquiry related to human culture can be viewed from the perspective of a ‘translocal’1 historical human network that extends ‘horizontally’ over certain geographical areas, and a ‘local’
conceptual network that widens ‘vertically’ within a limited time and space,
the content and internal configuration of which changes in accordance with
1 For a theoretical outline of the concept of translocality, see Greiner and Sakdapolrak 2013.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doiAnn
10.1163/9789004366152_006
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A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō and Aizen
109
the impetuses received from activities in the human network.2 Of course, it is
impossible to concretely show the interrelatedness between the two networks
for each time and space in intricate detail, however their historical existence
and/or relevance can theoretically be assumed, and this will be the working
guideline applied to the subject of inquiry in this chapter.
The subject that will be examined here is the combination of Fudō 不動
(Skt. Acala) and Aizen’ō 愛染王 (Skt. *Rāgarāja; often abbreviated as ‘Aizen’)
in medieval Shingon esoteric Buddhism (Shingon Mikkyō 真言密教).3 Fudō,
the ‘Immovable One,’ and Aizen, the ‘King of Lust,’—as his name is rendered
by Roger Goepper (1993), who made an extensive study of the deity—are two
important esoteric Buddhist divinities which are classified in the category of
myōō 明王, ‘Mantra Kings’ or ‘Wisdom Kings’; more will be said about them
later. Recent research, which will also be explained in more detail later in this
article, has shown that this particular belief functioned within specific Shingon
circles as one of the primary doctrinal and ritual characteristics of the school
in the medieval era. In other words, it constituted one of the fundamental components in the conceptual network that constructed the identity of a certain
branch of medieval Shingon. According to the general scholarly consensus, it
was a belief that was in all likelihood established in Japan somewhere during
the late Heian period (794–1185), as there is no Indian or Chinese scripture to
be found which mentions it. In fact, Shingon monks at the time were aware
that there was no authoritative Buddhist text that showed the combination of
2 This line of thought is derived from the following theory of Franz Boas, as quoted by LéviStrauss: “The detailed study of customs and of their place within the total culture of the tribe
which practices them, together with research bearing on the geographical distribution of
those customs among neighbouring tribes, enables us to determine, on the one hand, the
historical factors which led to their development and, on the other, the psychological processes which made them possible” (Lévi-Strauss 1963: 6–7). Hence, a distinction is made here
between a psychological or conceptual net of customs and practices (in which the custom
under investigation has a specific place and meaning) existing within a ‘local’ tribe and a
historical-geographical network stretching out ‘translocally’ over different tribes in which
the custom circulates. From this, the idea of a ‘horizontal’ (‘translocal’) and a ‘vertical’ (‘local’)
network can be derived.
3 In Western scholarship, Japanese Mikkyō is mostly referred to with the label ‘esoteric
Buddhism’ or ‘tantric Buddhism.’ In this article, I use the former label, not because I am
critical or sceptic of the latter, but because I find it more practical. Indeed, by using the label
‘esoteric Buddhism,’ I avoid defining in this article what I mean by the ‘tantric Buddhism’ that
has been transmitted from India to Japan, which is necessary when one employs the label (as
was pointed out also in Orzech 2011: 9–10), but which is a complicated matter that cannot be
resolved in only a few words.
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Trenson
the two deities, and were even proud to present it as one of the most important
features of their own school, as shown in the following quote from the Himitsu
kudenshō 秘密口伝抄 (Book of Secret Oral Instructions):4
馬陰蔵ト云事ハ人々ノ竪義不同ナレトモ、慥ニ大日経不動愛染王ニ
引合せテ辻ヲ云事ハ无也、此即自宗ノ真言宗ノ不具ノ法門一大事ノ
秘事也、5
People have different interpretations regarding the ‘horse penis
[concentration’].6 However, it is true that in the Dainichi-kyō (Ch. Dari
jing, Skt. Mahāvairocana sūtra) there is no line that combines Fudō with
Aizen’ō and explains their interconnection. Hence, this [combination of
Fudō and Aizen’ō] is the exclusive, ultimate secret teaching of our own
school, the Shingon School.
In this article I will attempt to shed more light on the processes that led to the
formation of that particular feature of Shingon identity. At the present time,
there are only a few explanations offered as to the possible reasons, causes,
or contexts that led to its appearance and initial development. These explanations, which will be discussed in detail later, have not affected the general
conclusion that the belief emerged at some point within Shingon circles in
the course of the eleventh/twelfth century as an exclusively Japanese Buddhist
invention.
4 ‘Himitsu kudenshō’ is the title of a late Kamakura (1185–1333) period copy of a work written
by Hōkyō 宝篋/Rendō 蓮道 (fl. early Kamakura period), which records teachings from two
Kōyasan Buddhist priests, Kakukai 覚海 (1142–1223) and Yūgen 融源 (dates unknown). The
alternative title given to the work is ‘Kakugen kudenshō’ 覚源口伝抄. This is the same work
as the Kakugenshō 覚源抄 reproduced in SZ 36. However, whereas the latter is a copy made
in the Edo period (1603–1868), the Himitsu kudenshō is a much older version. There are
various differences of content organisation between the two versions, and the contents
themselves sometimes vary as well.
5 Regarding citations from original sources, where the source cited is a manuscript, or where
deemed necessary to make the argument clear, the original text is provided in addition to
a translation; in other cases, it is omitted. The same lines quoted here can also be found in
the Kakugenshō (SZ 36: 343a), but it appears that in the latter text the character ‘kyō’
in ‘Dainichi-kyō’ is missing, which would make translation rather difficult.
6 The ‘horse penis concentration’ is one of the many interesting teachings explained in the
Yuqi jing 瑜祇経 (T.18.867), the scriptural basis for Aizen (cf. infra). The lines quoted here
seem to suggest that the concentration involved the union of Fudō and Aizen.
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However, a question one might ask is whether the belief was truly the product of local Japanese monks’ speculations, or if it was brought from China to
Japan. Even if the truth is that the feature was not directly transmitted from
the mainland to Japan but was instead created in the Japanese archipelago
by esoteric Buddhist priests, it would probably still not be accurate to view
the creation as standing totally independent from a human network—
possibly extending to China—in which various closely related thoughts and
beliefs circulated. The greater part of the ninth century, the late tenth century,
and the late eleventh century were periods in which numerous Buddhist
texts and iconographies were imported into Japan through the travels of
Japanese Buddhist monks to Tang or Song China,7 and it is possible that the
idea of the combination of Fudō and Aizen could have been derived from these
materials. But if that is so, what would these materials have been, and through
what network might this transfer have happened? Then there is the question
of why the combination developed specifically in Shingon and not in Tendai
天台 Buddhism. There must be some characteristic particular to Shingon doctrine and practice which stimulated this development.
These are the questions that will be considered in this study. In keeping with
what was said in the beginning of the chapter, these questions will be examined based upon the assumption that to understand the formation of the combination of Fudō and Aizen in Shingon better, one must see it as being set at
the intersection of a translocal historical human network and a local conceptual network of various thoughts related to doctrine and practice developed
in specific Shingon circles at a certain time. Thus, the working theory, the ‘net’
applied over the complex reality behind the creation processes of this particular belief, involves two hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that the combination
of our two deities was produced in Shingon as the result of esoteric Buddhist
concepts (e.g., in the form of texts, iconographies) circulating in a human
network which possibly extended across the borders of Japan. The second
hypothesis is that the combination gained a special status in a particular
Shingon group of monks because of a close relationship with other components in the conceptual network of doctrines and practices that characterised
that group.
7 Here the reference is of course to the various Japanese pilgrim monks who went to Tang in
the ninth century, and moreover to Chōnen 奝然 (?–1016) and Jōjin 成尋 (1011–1081), who
both travelled to Song China. Chōnen returned to Japan and brought back with him various
texts, among which were forty-one new scriptures, and Jōjin, although he stayed and died in
China, had several texts sent to Japan (see Fujiyoshi 2006; Kamikawa 2014).
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In this chapter, I will first explain the basic features of the Fudō-Aizen combination in medieval Shingon esoteric Buddhism. Then I will investigate the
possible processes, paths, and conditions through which the combination was
formed and elaborated. Finally, I will state my conclusions on the formation of
the Fudō-Aizen cult.
2
Description of the Fudō-Aizen Combination in Medieval Shingon
Fudō, the ‘Immovable,’ and Aizen’ō, the ‘King of Lust,’ are two esoteric Buddhist
deities which essentially embody a wisdom—an esoteric knowledge or concentration—that holds the power to shatter all obstructions to full Awakening.
In this sense, both are often referred to with the term ‘wisdom king’ (myōō).
If one wishes to describe them in more concrete and simple terms, one could
say Fudō represents the unshakable wisdom with which ultimate Awakening
can be achieved, and Aizen’ō the wisdom which allows one to understand that
human passions are identical with enlightenment. Of course, each deity is
endowed with many other inherent philosophical features of a complex
nature, which due to practical reasons cannot be provided here.
Fudō mostly appears as a wrathful deity with dark blue skin holding a noose
in the left and a double-edged sword in the right hand. He is surrounded by
flames and seated on a rock which expresses the deity’s ‘immobility’ towards
forces averse to enlightenment. His alternate physical form is a serpent known
as the dragon king Kurikara 倶利伽羅 (Skt. *Kulika) which coils around a
double-edged sword standing upside-down. Aizen’ō likewise assumes the
appearance of a wrathful divinity, with brilliant red skin, hair on end, three
fierce-looking eyes, and a lion crown on the head. He usually has six arms, each
holding a different object, i.e., a bow, an arrow, a five-pronged vajra, a vajrabell, a lotus, and ‘that’ (a secret object symbolising various esoteric notions).
The deity resides in a blazing circle (in most cases regarded as a sun disk in
medieval Japan) and is commonly seated on a red lotus, which in turn rests on
a precious vase spilling jewels.
Fudō has roots in Indian religion as the wrathful transmutation of Vajrapāṇi.
Insofar as Aizen’ō is concerned, however, although a possible precursor of the
deity might be found in the Indian god Ṭakki-rāja, its distinct features are
only fully explained in the Jingangfeng louge yiqie yujia yuqi jing 金剛峯樓閣
一切瑜伽瑜祇経 (J. Kongōbu rōkaku issai yuga yugikyō, Sūtra of all Yogas and
Yogīs of the Pavilion with the Vajra-Top, T 867), often abbreviated as Yuqi jing
(J. Yugikyō), a Chinese scripture said to be a translation made by Vajrabodhi
or Amoghavajra, though this attribution is highly questionable. Therefore,
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A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō and Aizen
113
since no direct prototype can be found in India, Goepper (1993: 87–88) believes that the figure of the wisdom king of lust might have been first created in
Tang China.8
The Yuqi jing was brought to Japan in the ninth century on different occasions by three Shingon priests (Kūkai 空海, Eun 恵運, and Shuei 宗叡), but it
also quite soon circulated in Tendai, as is evidenced by the fact that Annen
安然 (841?–915?), a prolific Tendai monk, was among the first Japanese monks
to write a commentary on the scripture (T 2228). However, although Aizen
was surely well known in both Shingon and Tendai, it seems that the wisdom king was considered most essential in Shingon, and especially at Daigoji
醍醐寺 (Asabashō, TZ 9: 299a28–b2), a temple closely related to the Ono 小野
lineage of the school. One reason for the development occurring in medieval
texts is the prayer made to Aizen by the Ono priest Seizon 成尊 (1012–1074)
with the purpose of ending the life of Emperor Goreizei 後冷泉 (1025–1068).
With this prayer, which was apparently effective, he helped prince Takahito
尊仁 (Emperor Gosanjō 後三条; 1034–1073), for whom he acted as protectormonk, obtain the imperial throne. It is said that from that time forward the
ritual of the King of Lust was mostly enacted by Shingon monks as a result of
the court’s favour toward Seizon and his lineage (ibid., TZ 9: 299b1–15).
It was also particularly in the Ono branch that Aizen was interconnected to
Fudō. One of the oldest Shingon texts in which they are described as forming
a union is the Kakuzenshō 覚禅鈔 (Book of Kakuzen), written at the end of the
twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century by the Ono priest Kakuzen 覚禅
(1143–ca. 1213). In this work, an image is given of a special variant of Aizen, the
‘double-headed Aizen’ (Ryōzu-Aizen 両頭愛染), which shows the deity with a
single body, two hands—the right hand grasping a five-pronged vajra and the
left hand a vajra-bell—and two heads, the one on the left (from the observer’s
view) wrathful-looking and the one on the right showing a compassionate
expression (Figure 4.1). An oral instruction is quoted, which is said to have
been passed on by Shōbō 聖宝 (832–909), founder of the Daigoji temple and
first patriarch of the Ono branch, which says that the face on the left is Fudō,
and the face on the right Aizen (TZ 5: 254a16–18). The reference to Shōbō could
be an anachronistic attribution, but there is no doubt that the two deities were
8 Recently, Ogawa Toyoo (2014: 62–65) has shown that a direct precursor to Aizen’ō can be
found in the figure of ‘Kongō Aizen Bosatsu’ 金剛愛染菩薩, a two-armed deity with red
skin, grasping an arrow in each hand, which appears in the Dale jingangsaduo xiuxing
chengjiu yigui 大楽金剛薩埵修行成就儀軌 (T 1119). As the latter scripture is unquestionably a translation made by Amoghavajra, Ogawa argues that the figure of Aizen’ō in the Yuqi
jing was probably formed in its wake.
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Trenson
Figure 4.1 Aizen with Two Heads. Kakuzenshō (Kakuzenshō Kenkyūkai edition; Kamakuraperiod manuscript preserved in the Kajūji 勧修寺).
interconnected in the Ono branch of Shingon, in particular at Daigoji, by at
least the end of the twelfth century.
How were Fudō and Aizen interpreted in this dual and yet non-dual state?
The Kakuzenshō does not provide a clear explanation of what esoteric principles they represent exactly, but it includes an elaborate discussion on the
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A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō and Aizen
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relationship between Aizen and Zen’ai 染愛—a deity which is also explained
in the Yuqi jing but in a chapter different from the one devoted to Aizen—from
which it may be learned that our King of Lust was seen in the light of the duality and non-duality of Concentration ( jō 定) and Wisdom (e 恵).9 These two
principles commonly refer respectively to the Womb maṇḍala (Taizō mandara
胎蔵曼荼羅) and the Vajra-realm maṇḍala (Kongōkai mandara 金剛界曼荼羅),
the twofold maṇḍalas of Shingon tradition. From this it may be assumed that
the single-bodied Fudō-Aizen was probably also seen by that time as an icon
expressing the duality and yet inseparability of Womb and Vajra realms.
In her study of the two-headed Aizen, Kagiwada (2012) provides some
medieval sources which associate Aizen with the Vajra realm and Fudō with the
Womb realm and further points out that in the Kamakura period (1185–1333)
the rite of Aizen was enacted according to the Vajra-realm liturgy, and Fudō
following the rules for the Womb maṇḍala ritual (p. 58). However, the association of the two deities with the two maṇḍalas was not that clear cut. There are
numerous Kamakura-period sources touching upon these two deities which
state different descriptions of their characters. Depending on the source taken,
Aizen can either represent the Vajra (Wisdom), the Womb (Concentration/
Principle), or non-duality. Likewise, Fudō can stand for one or the other, or for
the non-duality of both. There is no room here for exemplifying each of these
cases with concrete sources, but the variety of connections can be illustrated
with the contents of the following excerpt from the Bikisho 鼻帰書 (Book of the
Return to the Origin; 1324), which projects the combination of Fudō and Aizen
on the Inner and Outer shrine of Ise 伊勢 in two different ways (p. 506):
When applying the teaching of Fudō and Aizen [to the two shrines], on
a simple level it is said that Fudō is the Womb world, the Inner shrine
(Amaterasu 天照), and that Aizen is the Vajra realm, the Outer shrine
(Toyouke 豊受). On a more secret and profound level, when adding
the teaching of the sun and moon disks, the moon disk is [said to be]
Fudō, the Outer shrine. This is because the outer aspect (lit. ‘surface’)
of the moon expresses Wisdom (Vajra). The sword of Fudō [also]
expresses this [Wisdom]. The sun disk is Aizen, the Inner shrine. [This
is because] the outer aspect (lit. ‘body’) of the Womb maṇḍala expresses
Principle. The vase on which Aizen is seated [likewise] expresses this
[Principle]. These twin disks are taught as the ‘real-life embodiments’
(shōjin 生身) of Fudō and Aizen.
9 On the interpretations and significance of the double-headed Aizen, see Dolce 2010.
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As this example shows, it seems that whereas the basic view involved attributing Aizen to the Vajra and Fudō to the Womb realm, the configuration could be
reversed when certain elements or viewpoints were added, such as the duality of sun and moon disk, with the sun expressing ‘Principle’ (ri 理; or Womb
realm) and the moon ‘Wisdom’ (chi 智; or Vajra realm). From this perspective,
since the blazing circle seen in the iconography of Aizen was commonly interpreted as a sun disk, the deity was connected to the sun goddess Amaterasu
of the Inner shrine (Womb realm) instead of to the kami of the Outer shrine
(Vajra realm).10
It is difficult to affirm that Aizen, for example, is exclusively representative of either the Vajra or the Womb realm since the notion of non-duality by
definition means neither of the two wisdom kings can be separated from one
another, just as the twin maṇḍalas are in fact always one. What is important
to understand, however, is that there were different lenses through which each
wisdom king could be viewed, and that depending on the lens different explanations could be given.
Besides the ‘sun-moon’ distinction, another important lens was that which
differentiated between ‘body’ (shintai 身体) and ‘inner reality’ (naishō 内証).
On this topic, medieval sources talk for example of Fudō as having the ‘body’
of Wisdom (Vajra) which possesses the ‘inner reality’ of Principle and Wisdom
amalgamated.11 In contrast to this type of Fudō, then, Aizen would have to have
the ‘body’ of Principle (Womb) of which the ‘inner reality’ consists of both
Principle and Wisdom.
Although such an unambiguous statement of the definition of Aizen cannot
be found, the view can be supported by the case of the Fudō-Aizen arrangement
in the Goyuigō daiji 御遺告大事 (Essentials of the Testament [of Kūkai], 1328)
of the Daigoji priest Monkan 文観 (1278–1357). In this work, an explanation is
10
11
On the relationship between Aizen and Amaterasu, see Itō 2002.
Kakugenshō (381b): 不動ノ身ト者即チ智体ナリ、智体ト者理智不二ノ内証ナリ.
Similarly, it is explained in the Kanjō hiketsu: Sanbōin 須秘訣〈三宝院〉(Secrets on
the Consecration Ceremony: Sanbōin) that the Vajra realm is in itself a non-dual entity,
corresponding to the mind of a man: 金剛界印明、印台明金也、是金剛界不
二也、男子識身不二定恵一躰之義 “Concerning the mudrā and mantra of the Vajra
realm, the mudrā stands for the Womb and the mantra for the Vajra. That is because
the Vajra realm is in itself non-dual. [The Vajra realm] stands for the single, non-dual,
Concentration-Wisdom amalgamation mind-substance of a man.” The Womb realm, contrarily, is explained as the non-dual mind-substance of a woman. Hence, a distinction is
drawn here between a man and a woman and their associated ‘inner mind-substances,’
with a man linked to the Vajra and a woman to the Womb, and their respective mindsubstances in both cases being explained as the union of the two realms.
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given of the ‘Three Worthies’ (sanzon 三尊) Fudō, Aizen, and Nyoirin Kannon
如意輪観音, the latter represented by a five-wheel stūpa containing two ‘relicjewels’ (man-made jewels holding inside a number of Buddha relics). These
three icons were fashioned with sandalwood and placed inside a miniature
shrine, the interior space of which was associated with the three major peaks
of Mount Murō 室生山 in the ancient Yamato province, with Aizen set on the
left, Fudō on the right, and the stūpa on the middle peak. The ceiling inside the
miniature shrine was further painted with different esoteric Buddhist images.12
On the part of the ceiling above the statuette of Aizen the Vajra-realm maṇḍala
was drawn, and above Fudō the Womb maṇḍala. In the case of Aizen, an explanation in the Goyuigō daiji says the following about its connection to the
Vajra realm: “愛染王上天井図金剛界曼陀羅、此愛染能変本身内証所具諸尊也”.
As these Sino-Japanese remarks mention ‘Aizen’ in conjunction with ‘vajra’,
the common interpretation given in Mikkyō studies is that Aizen ‘represents’
the Vajra realm. However, properly read, the phrases state: “On the ceiling
above Aizen’ō is drawn the Vajra-realm maṇḍala. The [deities of this maṇḍala]
are the deities which Aizen holds as the inner reality (naishō) of its transformable (nōhen) bodily appearance (honshin).” According to this rendering, then,
Aizen is a deity of which the ‘inner reality’ corresponds to the Vajra realm and
not its ‘outer body.’13 The same can be said about Fudō but in a reverse way.
12
13
For images of the Three Worthies, see Naitō (2010: 247, 2011: 45), Dolce (2008: 62, 2010: 183),
and Faure (2016: 213). For the full text of the Goyuigō daiji, see Makino and Fujimaki 2002.
For a study of the ritual and iconography of the Three Worthies, see Uchida 2012, Faure
(2016: 209–219), and Rappo 2017.
The various manuscripts of the Goyuigō daiji offer different reading punctuations of this
phrase, which are not all necessarily correct. The most logical reading of the final part of
the phrase, I believe, is the following: “Kore ha Aizen (ga) nōhen honshin no naishō toshite
shogu suru shoson nari.” Hence, according to this reading, the subject is not Aizen but
kore, which refers to the term ‘Vajra-realm maṇḍala’ in the previous phrase. Also, the
distinction between ‘outer body’ (or surface, physical appearance) and ‘inner truth’ and
the attribution of these two aspects to one of the two maṇḍalas or to both, I believe, is one
of the primary but often overlooked principles of the theory of non-duality in medieval
Mikkyō. For example, it should be considered that a combination like ‘Fudō-Womb,’ as
in ‘the enactment of the rite of Fudō according to the Womb realm liturgy,’ does perhaps
not always express a relationship of equality (Fudō is Womb), but of complementarity
(Fudo as Vajra linked with the Womb). Also, an expression such as ‘a vajra-river flowing
down from the east side of a mountain’ (as in Ben’ichisan ki 宀一山記 [Account of Mount
Murō], 296b), with the east (normally expressing Womb) being seemingly wrongly equated with the Vajra, is perhaps not a mistake but an application of the idea that ‘east’ as
Womb is associated with a ‘vajra-river’ to express non-duality. Or further, when a female
principle which ought to appear as female yet manifests as a male entity, such as a ‘male
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Therefore, rather than simply concluding that Aizen here represents the Vajra
realm, a more subtle and precise interpretation would be to argue that Aizen
represents the vajra ‘with its inner reality.’ Its outer aspect, then, considering
the fact that the explanation uses the term ‘transformable,’ which implies that
the physical body has a different nature from the inner reality, in all likelihood
expresses nothing but the Womb.14
In other words, although Fudō and Aizen seem to emanate as it were from
the non-dual unit of the stūpa in the centre, each on a different side of it, and
give the impression that each divinity expresses only one aspect of that nondual unit, they each represent not one of the two maṇḍalas, but both, in a
manner which distinguishes between outer body (statuette) and inner reality
(maṇḍala drawn above on the ceiling of the miniature shrine). This illustrates
again that the connection of Fudō and Aizen to the twin maṇḍalas should not
be seen in a simple one-to-one relationship, which would hinder understanding the more complex nature of each wisdom king in this non-dual context.
Returning to the Kakuzenshō, from the contents of this work it cannot be
deduced that Fudō and Aizen were given a primary place within the totality
of medieval Shingon doctrines and practices. The belief is presented as merely
one among many others. However, it is a fact that from a certain time onward,
the combination had been given the status of highest secrecy, specifically at
Daigoji. This has now become well known through the studies of Abe Yasurō
(1989, 2011, 2013), Naitō Sakae (2010, 2011), Lucia Dolce (2008, 2010), Gaétan
Rappo (2010, 2017), and Bernard Faure (2016).
The way in which the combination was given its paramount importance
can be found in a number of texts produced by Monkan in the early fourteenth
14
Amaterasu’ for example, it might be argued that the same ‘body-inner mind’ lens is applied. Though confusing, perhaps, it is a basic philosophical feature of medieval Mikkyō.
I intend to explain this feature, which from a doctrinal point of view seems to have been
based on the Yuqi jing, in more detail on another occasion.
In fact, there are compelling arguments to support the notion that the Three Worthies
were imagined from a vantage point which looks out toward the south. The five-wheel
stūpa resting on the central peak of Mount Murō was associated with the ‘Iron Stupa of
Southern India’ (Ben’ichisan ki, 296b), a well-known trope in esoteric Buddhist doctrine.
Also, a prayer dedicated to the relic—a relic was put in the five-wheel stūpa—was often
performed while facing south (since that is the direction of the Buddha Hōshō 宝生, who
incarnates the relic-jewel). Hence, it is likely that Aizen was seen as occupying the eastern
mountain and Fudō the western mountain. If that is so, since east and west (or left and
right hand) are commonly associated in Mikkyō with respectively the Womb and Vajra
realms, it supports the assumption that the physical appearance of Aizen, for example,
represents the Womb, with the Vajra realm drawn above it expressing its inner reality.
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119
century. For example, the Goyuigō daiji, mentioned above, presents the combination of Fudō and Aizen as connected to the relic of the Buddha and the
wish-fulfilling jewel (nyoi hōju 如意宝珠) of the dragon, with which the relic
shared status of consubstantiality, and furthermore, importantly, places them
in the framework of the Goyuigō 御遺告, the so-called Last Testament of Kūkai
(774–835). The latter work, in all likelihood an apocryphal text produced in
the tenth century, emphasizes the supreme importance of the relic-jewel,
but it does not associate the relic or jewel to Fudō and Aizen. These are only
concretely connected to the contents of the Testament in Monkan’s writings,15
which emphasize that the combination of Fudō and Aizen constituted one of
the primary secrets of Shingon since the time of the founder Kūkai. Hence, by
being placed in the context of the Goyuigō, the combination was elevated to
one of the greatest secrets of Shingon, since in this context, it was Kūkai himself who stressed its importance.
Relics (jewels) were rather essential to Shingon practice as a relic was commonly used in most Shingon rituals, whether on a grand or small scale (Abe
1989: 126). As such, they can be defined as the currency of ritual exchange
(Ruppert 2000), since the ritual’s success and the expected reward and status
were believed to depend on them. They were also known to function as symbols of power, in particular of imperial authority, balancing out social relations
vis-à-vis power holders (Ruppert 2000, Faure 2004).
In medieval Shingon a variety of texts were produced that explain how to
perform a ‘relic rite,’ or dado-hō 駄都法 (‘dado’ being the Sino-Japanese rendering of the Sanskrit word ‘dhātu,’ which is taken to mean ‘relic’). It seems
that such a rite could not only be enacted independently but could also serve
as a template for other rituals relying on the relic. Among such rituals mentioned by the dado-hō texts are the Latter Seven-day ritual (Goshichinichi no
15
Opinions differ on whether the tripartite jewel belief was established only in the second half of the thirteenth century (Abe 2011, 2013) or already in the early twelfth century
(Naitō 2010: 119), as the texts themselves also claim. Abe’s point of view is credible as it
is supported by documents. Naitō, on the other hand, accepts the message of Monkan’s
texts, which says that the tripartite belief was upheld by the Daigoji abbot Shōkaku 勝覚
(1057–1129), but as he does not add any supportive argument, this conclusion can easily be
questioned. However, as I have pointed out in a different study, the combination of Fudō
and Aizen with the relic (jewel) functioned as the secret structure of the esoteric rain
ritual by at least the end of the Heian period, and presumably already by the early twelfth
century (Trenson 2013, 2016). This fact makes it thus possible not only to confirm that the
origin of the belief goes back to the Heian period, but also to re-examine the development
of that cult from the perspective of rainmaking.
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mishiho 後七日御修法) and the Rain Prayer Sūtra ritual (Shōugyōhō 請雨経法),
both large-scale state rituals, but there are also simpler practices such as the
Goya nenju 後夜念誦 rite, which was performed privately every day early in
the morning. The primary icon (honzon 本尊) of a dado rite, as mentioned
in the Dhatu-hō kudenshū
法口伝集 (Collection of Oral Instructions on the
Relic Rite; copied 1281–1282), could be many objects, such as the Buddha Hōshō
宝生 (Ratnasambhava), the Buddha-Mother Butsugen 仏眼 (Buddhalocanā),
or a grain of rice. But among the possible icons, the dual Fudō-Aizen was also
included and, according to the text, considered most secret.
Thus, in theory, although this point needs to be further examined, the combination of Fudō and Aizen could have functioned as the ultimate secret concentration in any form of Shingon practice that relied on the relic, both high
state rituals and daily rites.16 But how was this belief formed? Was it created
arbitrarily, or was it brought about due to the effect of more concrete reasons?
I will investigate this issue in the next sections.
3
Processes behind the Creation of the Fudō-Aizen Combination
The scholarly consensus is that Fudō and Aizen’ō were connected to one another in medieval Japan in the course of the eleventh to twelfth century. Goepper
(1993) indicated that there might possibly have been a connection between
Acala and a deity called Ṭakki-rāja, a plausible precursor of Aizen’ō in India,
but advances the possibility as merely a tempting speculation and follows the
common opinion that the belief started in Japan (Goepper 1993: 49, 52).
In a recently published study, Bernard Faure mentions that the coupling
of Fudō and Aizen may derive from that of Fudō and Gōzanze 降三世 (Skt.
Trailokyavijaya, ‘Conqueror of the Three Worlds’), as seen in the Sonshō 尊勝
maṇḍala and Miroku 弥勒 maṇḍala, and emphasises embryological symbolism
16
This theory can be supported by the following lines in the Gumon nikki 愚聞日記:
凡後夜念誦・十八日観音供・晦御念誦・後七日御修法・法花ハ〔本〕尊愛
染王仏眼等法也、即皆如意宝珠法也、又避虵法也、又奥砂子平法也、又請
雨経法也 “The daily Early Morning rite (Goya-nenju), the Offering to Kannon on the
eighteenth day of the month, the Last-Day-of-the-Month rite (Tsugomori-minenju), the
Latter Seven-Day ritual, and the Lotus Sūtra [ritual] are all rituals with Aizen’ō or Butsugen
as the primary icon. In other words, these are all wish-fulfilling jewel rituals. So too are the
Placation of Serpents rite (Byakujahō) and the Subjugation rite (Ōsashihyōhō). The Rain
Prayer Sūtra ritual is also such a ritual.” Although only Aizen is mentioned in this quote, it
might be that the combination with Fudō was understood.
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as one of the driving principles behind their combination (2016: 204–205).
These observations already point to the likelihood that a broader network
of thought and belief produced the Fudō-Aizen combination. However,
besides the abovementioned factors, I believe the following two clues are also
quite important when trying to unravel the intricate processes underlying the
formation of the Fudō-Aizen cult. The first clue is the composition of the Aizen
maṇḍala associated with the Tendai prelate Enchin 円珍 (814–891), and the
other clue is the world of Shingon esoteric rainmaking. Let us start first with a
discussion of the maṇḍala.
3.1
Enchin’s Aizen Maṇḍala
The Aizen maṇḍala (Figure 4.2) is a maṇḍala in which nine different esoteric divinities are evenly arranged within a square or slightly rectangular
frame. One of the oldest extant versions of the maṇḍala, a hanging scroll
made in 1107, which is today part of the Mary and Jackson Burke Collection
(New York),17 shows in the middle our King of Lust, appearing under his usual
wrathful form with one head, three eyes, and six arms. Above and underneath
Aizen are two bodhisattvas, respectively Miroku (Skt. Maitreya) and Kannon
観音 (Avalokiteśvara), both drawn within a circle, which suggests their interconnection. To the left of Aizen stands the dragon king Kurikara, and to the
right the shape of the Jewelled Banner (hōdō 宝幢). Their elongated form and
the fact that they are drawn inside the contours of a leaf-like shape suggest
that the latter two features were also regarded as forming a pair. Below Aizen,
in the two corners, are two wisdom kings, who were probably also regarded as
a pair, illustrated by the fact that both are surrounded by flames and seated on
a rock. The wisdom king in the left corner is Daiitoku 大威徳 (Yamāntaka) and
the one in the right corner Fudō. The final two divinities are the twelve-armed
Daishō Kongō 大勝金剛, considered a variant of Dainichi (Mahāvairocana) or
Kongōsatta 金剛薩埵 (Vajrasattva),18 drawn in a circle in the upper left corner,
and our Aizen with two heads, draped in flames, in the upper right corner.19
17
18
19
For an image of the scroll, see Goepper (1993: 72) and Yanagisawa (1979: 91). The scroll
itself is said to be a copy of a version possessed by the Tendai monk Ryōyū 良祐, who
obtained it from his master Chōen 長宴 (1016–1081). The latter was a disciple of Kōgei
皇慶, who affirmed that the maṇḍala was brought back from China by Enchin (cf. infra).
The twelve-armed Daishō Kongō is explained in the Yuqi jing (T.18.867: 258b03). It is said
that the divinity was taken at Miidera as the real aspect of Aizen, whereas at Daigoji it was
the two-headed Aizen (Asabashō, TZ 9: 303a15–16).
For a more detailed description and discussion of the maṇḍala, see Goepper 1993: 71–78.
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Figure 4.2 Composition of the Aizen maṇḍala as shown in the hanging scroll of the Burke
Collection (dated 1107).
There is some mystery regarding the provenance of this particular maṇḍala.
According to a certain tradition, it was brought to Japan from China by Enchin:
The present drawing of the [Aizen] maṇḍala can be found in the book
of the An’yōbō priest (Hōgen). Ajari Kōgei [says]: “The grandmaster of
the Sannō’in and the Mii[dera] temple (Enchin) brought [this] Aizen’ō
maṇḍala back with him [from China]. (…) (Marginal note: The maṇḍala
is included in the grandmaster’s list of items used for personal practice
(gojinen mokuroku 御持念目録), but no Buddhist title is given to it.)”
(Kakuzenshō, TZ 5: 257a6–14)
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Hence, according to the Tendai priest Kōgei 皇慶 (977–1049), Enchin had taken
the Aizen maṇḍala back to Japan with him from China. The passage above also
refers to An’yōbō Hōgen 安養房芳源, a Shingon monk of the Ninnaji 仁和寺
and Ishiyamadera 石山寺 temples active in the eleventh century,20 a fact which
shows that the maṇḍala also already circulated in Shingon by that time.
Enchin, as is well known, travelled to China in 853 and stayed there for five
years, studying Buddhism and collecting new Buddhist materials, mainly at
Mount Tiantai 天台 and Chang’an 長安 (Ono 1982: 5–9). After his return in 858,
he lived at the Sannō’in 山王院 hall on Mount Hiei 比叡山 and later became
the abbot of Enryakuji 延暦寺 and Miidera 三井寺. His connection to iconographies of Aizen is also a well-known fact. Besides the Aizen maṇḍala, he is also
reported to have brought back from China the iconography of Tenkyū Aizen
天弓愛染, or ‘Aizen with the Heavenly Bow,’ which is a variant of a six-armed
Aizen holding a bow above the head and pointing an arrow to the sky.21
However, there are conflicting opinions as to the origin of the nine-Buddha
Aizen maṇḍala. The thirteenth century Asabashō relates that Tendai priests
of Enryakuji 延暦寺 did not use the maṇḍala at the time as they saw it as a
forgery (Asabashō, TZ 9: 302b28), but at the same time also quotes a text implying that it was brought from Tang (ibid., 302c14). The same work also cites the
opinion of Shingon priests which affirms that the maṇḍala is of old origin and
that it had been brought back by Kūkai as well, but that the texts explaining
it are forgeries. The link to Kūkai was supported by the fact that in the Hakke
hiroku 八家秘録 of Annen (T. 55.2176: 1131b28) an ‘Aizen maṇḍala’ is included
20
21
The name of An’yōbō Hōgen often appears in the Kakuzenshō (Ogawa 2013: 177). The
fact that Hōgen was a Ninnaji priest is mentioned in the Denjushū 伝受集 (T.78.2482:
250b23–24). On his relationship with Ishiyamadera, see Uchida 2012: 239.
Enchin’s name is also tied to a peculiar iconography of Aizen with four heads and
four arms, seated on a four-headed lion of which each paw treads on a coiled serpent
(Kakuzenshō, TZ 5: 257a15–29 and fig. 288). As Ogawa (2013) explains, the iconography
follows the instructions for a complex three-layered Aizen maṇḍala (which also includes the two-headed Aizen) given by a work entitled Himitsu yōjutsuhō 秘密要術法,
which is said to be a translation made by a monk called Amogha 阿謨伽 (probably
referring to Amoghavajra), but which according to Ogawa was in all likelihood created in
Japan. Besides the belief that the iconography was brought back from China by Enchin
(Kakuzenshō), the explanation also circulated that it was first drawn by a priest of the
Kiyomizudera 清水寺 as the central icon in a nine-deity maṇḍala (different from the
nine-Buddha Aizen maṇḍala under investigation here) on behalf of the retired emperor
Shirakawa 白河院 (Asabashō, TZ 9: 303a18–29). Ogawa argues that although the latter
explanation should not be taken for granted, the icon of the lion-riding Aizen was probably made in Heian-period Japan. However, he does not make any statements about the
nine-Buddha Aizen maṇḍala under examination here.
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among the new items the founder of Shingon had taken to Japan from China
(Asabashō, TZ 9: 303a6–14). Then there is also the following Shingon opinion
mentioned in the Himitsu kudenshō:
一身両頭愛染王云事、是他門ヨリ出事也、所謂智証大師九佛愛染王
作給フ、其随一ナリ、説處分明ナル文ハ无シ、但シ随意愛染王ノ内
證作顕給也、経文全不見處也、
The image of Aizen with one body and two heads comes from a different
school. That is to say, master Chishō [Enchin] made an Aizen’ō [maṇḍala]
with nine Buddhas, among which this [Aizen with two heads] is a primary [Buddha]. There is no clear textual explanation [for the image].
However, the image was made [by Enchin] according to speculations
to express the inner reality of Aizen’ō. We cannot find it in the scriptures
at all.22
As is said in these oral instructions coming from Shingon priests active at
Kōyasan in the early Kamakura period, the maṇḍala was created by Enchin
himself on the basis of personal reflections on the inner reality of the King
of Lust.
All these conflicting opinions, together with the fact that a ‘nine-Buddha
Aizen maṇḍala’ is not specifically mentioned in the various catalogues listing
the items that Enchin or any other Japanese pilgrim monk brought back from
China, make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether the maṇḍala
was imported from Tang China or whether it was made in Japan. But despite
the uncertainty, I think that the following arguments can be defended. First, it
is fair to assume that if the maṇḍala was indeed created in Japan, it was done
so at an early time in the Heian period. This assumption can be supported
by the fact that the oldest extant version of the maṇḍala, the hanging scroll
of the Burke Collection, which can be traced back to a disciple of Kōgei (see
note 17), bears the style of early Heian-period paintings, which were mostly
based on Chinese models (Goepper 1993, quoting Yanagisawa 1979). Second,
if the maṇḍala was created in early Heian-period Japan, when pilgrimage to
China was thriving, there is the fair possibility it was done so on the basis of
instructions received in China. Third, despite the fact that the creation of texts
and iconographies was certainly quite active in medieval Japan, there is no
direct reason to seriously doubt the oldest oral tradition of our maṇḍala, that
of Kōgei, which says that the maṇḍala was brought to Japan from China by
22
See also Kakugenshō, fasc. 2: 340b.
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Enchin and that it was included among the items the latter Tendai prelate
used for personal practice. In fact, it might well be that the later assertions
of Enryakuji and Kōyasan monks saying that the maṇḍala was first created
by Enchin were simply based on a misunderstanding. Finally, the fact that an
‘Aizen maṇḍala’ is mentioned among the imported items in Annen’s Hakke
hiroku is quite intriguing and might actually prove that the nine-Buddha Aizen
maṇḍala was indeed brought from China.
The question of whether the maṇḍala was created by the sole genius of a
Japanese monk or whether it was based on a Chinese model (in iconographical form or in the form of instructions) is important, because the composition
of the maṇḍala may well be one of the primary sources of the combination of
Fudō and Aizen in Japan, as I will now try to explain.
As Goepper rightly pointed out, the maṇḍala was probably created by a
learned monk who put various deities together on the basis of certain speculative connections, not as the result of a sudden mystical experience (1993:
76–77). In other words, the composition was achieved by the effort of specific
intellectual religious musings regarding the various linkages between the deities. This fact can be supported by the iconographical resemblance of certain
pairs in the maṇḍala and by textual evidence. Indeed, the Kakuzenshō quotes
an instruction which establishes connections between the upper and lower
bodhisattvas, the serpent Kurikara and the Jewelled Banner, the two-headed
Aizen and Daiitoku, and Daishō Kongō and Fudō (TZ 5: 257a8–14).
Still other speculative linkages were envisioned. The Himitsu kudenshō, for
example, mentions the following additional association:
又九佛ノ愛染王ヲ畫共倶利加羅ヲ云也、其故ハ倶梨カラ即愛染ノ意
也、所謂ル不動尊ノ持物ハ剣索也、剣索ト申ハ即大日如来ノ智拳印ヲ
二ツニ引分ケタル也、索ハ理也、即无中〔明ヵ〕煩悩ヲ縛スル由、剣
智ナリ、故真言教意〔理〕智互ニ能證所證トナル由顕也、所謂倶梨加
羅ハ理也、剣ハ智也、剣ヲ呑ムハ即理カ智ヲ證スル意也、
Further, one draws the image of Aizen’ō in the nine-Buddha [Aizen’ō
maṇḍala] and calls it ‘Kurikara.’ One calls it so following the thought that
Kurikara is [none other than] Aizen. That is to say, the objects which the
Worthy Fudō holds in his hands are the sword and the noose. The sword
and the noose are the two objects obtained when the two hands forming
the Wisdom Fist mudrā of Dainichi Nyorai are pulled away from one another. The noose is Principle [the Womb realm], because it catches and
binds ignorance and passions. The sword is Wisdom [the Vajra realm].
[Both] appear because according to the teachings of Shingon, [Principle]
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and Wisdom interpenetrate and become the active and the passive
agents of Awakening.23 Hence, the serpent Kurikara is Principle and the
sword is Wisdom. The serpent swallowing the tip of the sword indicates
the thought that Principle possesses the inner reality of Wisdom.24
As this instruction shows, another important connection made in regard to
the Aizen maṇḍala is the identification of Aizen’ō in the middle and the serpent Kurikara to the left, to the extent that the former was even concretely
referred to by the appellation ‘Kurikara.’ This detail further suggests the high
probability that, generally, all deities surrounding Aizen’ō in the middle were
in some way or another connected to the King of Lust. Indeed, as the Himitsu
kudenshō remarks, “The Worthy in the middle is Aizen encompassing all [nine
divinities] (中尊ハ惣愛染ノ意也),” or “All nine Buddhas together complete the
meaning of Aizen [as the producer] of all phenomena (惣シテ九佛ニ万法愛染
ノ義ヲ盡也).”25 These lines clearly indicate that all divinities in the maṇḍala
were regarded as different forms, aspects, functions, inner realities or emanations from Aizen’ō in the middle. In other words, Kurikara, Daishō Kongō,
Fudō, the double-headed Aizen and the other divinities were drawn around
Aizen in the centre because they were all regarded as partisans intimately endowed by that wisdom king of lust.
From this perspective, then, it is fairly easy to argue that the composition
could readily have served as one of the sources behind the combination of
Fudō and Aizen. Indeed, since Kurikara, which basic teachings tell us is the
alternate form of Fudō, is drawn next to Aizen, the latter must surely be
intimately connected to Fudō. Another line of reasoning might have been that
Aizen represents the passions (bonnō 煩悩), which are compared in various
Mahāyāna scriptures to the venom of serpents. Next to Aizen in the maṇḍala
is the image of the serpent Kurikara, the symbolic form of Fudō. Hence, in this
context, Fudō cannot be but seen as a different manifestation of Aizen and vice
23
24
25
The terms nō 能 (active) and sho 所 (passive) form quite a complex but interesting aspect
of medieval Mikkyō. Basically, they indicate a principle or object which is ‘acting’ (nō)
and a principle or object which is ‘acted upon’ (sho). For example, a distinction can be
made between a moon disk resting on a lotus and a lotus drawn inside a moon disk. In the
former case, the moon disk fulfils an active aspect (it ‘sits’ on a lotus), in the later, a passive aspect (it functions as a ‘seat’). The idea is that the one cannot be without the other.
Hence, without Principle, there is no Wisdom and vice versa.
See also Kakugenshō, fasc. 1: 328a, for similar but slightly different information.
See also Kakugenshō, fasc. 2: 342a.
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versa. Furthermore, what image could better fit their interconnection than the
double-headed Aizen’ō which figures in the upper right corner?
This simple demonstration shows that anyone with a basic knowledge of
esoteric Buddhism could quite easily come to the conclusion that Fudō and
Aizen are interconnected when considering the arrangement of the nine
Buddhas in the Aizen maṇḍala. This is not to say that this conclusion was
always consciously drawn by anyone who saw it. But although medieval
Japanese texts do not mention the maṇḍala as the source of the combination, one should not overlook the obvious implications of its composition. A
quick glance at it suffices for one to see and understand that Fudō and Aizen
are interconnected, and thus it should be regarded as one of the primary
possible sources from which the idea of the combination was derived in
medieval Japan.
The following line of reasoning is also very crucial to the argument of this
chapter. If one agrees that the composition was not made at random (the
reverse is quite difficult to defend), then it must be recognised that the learned
monk who created the maṇḍala knew that Aizen, Kurikara, Fudō and the
double-headed Aizen are interconnected. Thus it follows logically that the
connection, which almost naturally flows from the maṇḍala, had to be explicitly known by its creator before the maṇḍala came about, and that it was not
a notion occurring later in the mind of an inquisitive monk. That is, the creator did not randomly draw the composition and later suddenly realise he had
brought Fudō and Aizen together. Instead, the creator knew beforehand that
Fudō/Kurikara is an inherent quality of Aizen, and therefore drew it next to
that wisdom king.
In other words, the combination of Fudō and Aizen was part of the conceptual network that lay behind the very appearance of the composition of the
maṇḍala. For that reason, it is important to determine whether the maṇḍala
was created by a Japanese monk exclusively on the basis of his own speculations or whether the composition was founded on beliefs produced in China.
There is no way to ascertain the truth, but as argued above, it is possible the
composition was first created in China. And thus, following the line of reasoning given above, it is necessary to consider the possibility that the combination
of Fudō/ Kurikara and Aizen was already known in Chinese esoteric Buddhist
circles before it was transmitted to Japan. At any rate, it is no longer appropriate to state in a matter-of-fact fashion that the idea of Fudō-Aizen was solely
the product of the genius of a Japanese monk. Rather, its emergence in Japan
could just as well have been the product of thoughts moving in a complex
human network that stretched between China and Japan.
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3.2
Rainmaking
The nine-Buddha Aizen maṇḍala circulated in both Tendai and Shingon from
at least the eleventh century. Following the arguments given above, it is thus
reasonable to assume that, theoretically, the combination of Fudō and Aizen
could have been comprehended in both Tendai and Shingon. However, as
mentioned before, the pair Fudō-Aizen would come to be highlighted especially in the Ono branch circles of Shingon, more specifically at Daigoji. Tendai
monks seem to have rejected the identification on the argument that it was
written up in doubtful Shingon texts which should not be followed (Goepper
1993: 53). As is well known, Aizen, especially Fudō-Aizen, was connected to
various heterodox speculations in certain religious groups associated in some
way with Shingon, and especially, again, with Daigoji (ibid.: 102–113).
The question remains thus why the combination was eventually held as
an important secret in the Ono branch of Shingon, particularly at the Daigoji
temple. Here one could think again of the significance of Seizon’s prayer to
Aizen and the subsequent success his lineage, which was passed on at Daigoji,
enjoyed with practices based on this deity on behalf of the court. However,
although it might explain the strong tie of the Ono branch to the cult of Aizen,
it does not tell us why monks of that particular branch used to combine the
wisdom king with Fudō. There has to be more to it than the effect of Seizon’s
prayer. In this regard, I believe it is important to have a better historical
understanding of what position exactly the combination of Fudō and Aizen
occupied in the larger conceptual network of doctrines and practices particular to the Ono branch and to Daigoji. Here it is necessary to refer to the other
clue I mentioned that ought to be considered when trying to unravel the mystery of Fudo-Aizen in medieval Japan: rainmaking.
Why rainmaking? First, it is an undeniable fact that the medieval Shingon
relic cult, with which our two wisdom kings were eventually connected, was
inseparably tied to dragon worship. The Testament of Kūkai specifically
describes the relic-jewel as an object of the dragon king and explains that it
produces rain clouds that make all things grow. It also speaks of the ‘avatar of the
jewel’ (nyoi hōju gongen 如意宝珠権現) that all Shingon grandmasters have to
revere, which according to some texts is a different appellation for the dragon
(Trenson 2013, 2016). In other words, Shingon priests, if they desired to follow
Kūkai’s footsteps, had to worship dragons.
Second, dragons can be worshipped wherever there is a drop of water, but
as far as Shingon is concerned, the most important cultic places of dragon
worship are the Shinsen’en 神泉苑 royal garden, Mount Murō, and Daigoji.
These three places are linked to one another essentially through the practice
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of rainmaking.26 Rainmaking is an all-round Buddhist affair, one of the basic
tasks of a Buddhist monk so to speak, but the fact is that Shingon for a fairly
long time, roughly between 950–1150, monopolised esoteric Buddhist rainmaking for the state.27 In that period, no other school was able to establish a stable
tradition of esoteric Buddhist rain prayers. Moreover, certain Shingon monks,
most of them trained at Daigoji, achieved a bright career due in large part to
their success with rain-producing, and the line of Daigoji rainmakers eventually developed into a veritable branch of the school, the Ono branch. Indeed,
it is essential to know that the Ono branch was originally established as the
lineage inheriting the secrets of Shingon’s oldest traditional esoteric rain ritual
(Shōugyōhō). Third, it is a fact that the latter ritual was a practice constructed
on the interconnection between Fudō, Aizen, and the relic/jewel (Trenson
2013, 2016). What is more, these principles do not just simply figure in the ritual as abstract notions brought to mind during meditation but with concrete,
physical representations (as a banner deity, a dragon, and a Buddha relic). In
fact, whereas the Fudō-Aizen combination might theoretically have been adopted during meditation procedure in every relic ritual (cf. supra), it was only
in the rain ritual that they appeared as real visible features.
There is no room here for an elaborate discussion of the rain ritual
(Shōugyōhō), of which I have already provided an explanation on different
occasions (Trenson 2013, 2016). I will therefore skip the details and instead
explain its basic structure.
The rain ritual took place regularly between 875 and 1273 in a wooden building built temporarily for the purpose at the Shinsen’en imperial garden. Inside
the building four or five separate platform rites were enacted, but the heart of
the ritual consisted of the Great Platform rite (Daidanpō 大壇法). The structure of this platform rite, as shown in Figure 4.3, was built on the vertical interconnection between Fudō (central dragon-banner planted on the roof), Aizen
(central dragon among the five dragons appearing in a maṇḍala spread out
on the platform), and the relic (set inside a box, or in a blue vessel resting on
a wooden lotus, in the middle of the same platform), which was visualised as
26
27
On rainmaking at the Shinsen’en and Daigoji, see Trenson (2003, 2010). The findings
communicated in these articles, however, have been largely updated and amended in
my recently published monograph on Shingon rainmaking and relic-jewel worship (see
Trenson 2016).
I want to make clear here that I am referring to ‘esoteric Buddhist rituals’ (shuhō 修法)
and not to all Buddhist rain prayers in general.
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Figure 4.3 Core structure of the Great Platform rite of the Shōugyōhō.
a jewel. In some cases, Ichiji Kinrin 一字金輪, the One-syllable Golden Wheelturning King, was substituted for Fudō.
The rationale for the interconnectedness between platform and roof is
based on an instruction related to one of the auxiliary platform rites of the
rain ritual, the Offering to the Twelve devas (Jūniten 十二天). According to this
instruction, the image of Kurikara had to be visualised in the centre of the
platform and imagined as being linked to the banner on the roof. This type of
meditation was most likely not restricted to this particular offering but also
applied in the great platform rite.
The identity of the dragon as Aizen is confirmed by an early Kamakura
colour painting of a Shōugyōhō maṇḍala kept at Daigoji that was spread out on
the platform (Trenson 2016). It shows in the middle a wrathful deity with three
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fierce-looking eyes, hair on end, red skin, round fleshy face, and a lion crown on
the head, which are all characteristics that collectively can only apply to Aizen.
Another clue that points to Aizen is the seed syllable of the dragon shown in
an early Kamakura text belonging to the Ono tradition. The syllable resembles
the shape of the so-called Denpu Aizen 田夫愛染, or ‘Peasant’s Aizen’, a special form of Aizen appearing as a (double) serpent with a jewel on top of the
head (for details, see Trenson 2013, 2016). In fact, the syllable’s shape closely
resembles that of hhūṃ, a double hūṃ, which is the seed syllable of the King of
Lust. Incidentally, the dragon of the Shinsen’en is explained in the Testament
as having appeared to the founder as a double serpent. It appears thus that this
double serpent was regarded as ‘Aizen’, at least within the Ono branch.28
It is important to realise that it is only in the context of the Shōugyōhō that
Fudō and Aizen appear as interconnected deities with concrete representations. This detail cannot be emphasised strongly enough. Moreover, the structure of the ritual explained above can be inferred from documents which
date to the late Heian, early Kamakura period, and can fairly be thought to
go back to at least the early twelfth century. This makes it the oldest Shingon
relic ritual adopting the Fudō-Aizen combination that can be pointed out.
What this seems to suggest is that the Shōugyōhō must have been the very
ritual context in which Shingon monks first implemented and elaborated the
combination of our two wisdom kings. It is therefore understandable that our
couple was especially valued in the Ono branch, which was after all originally
established as the branch of rainmakers, and specifically developed in Daigoji
circles, since that temple legitimately claimed the ritual as one of its primary
secrets.29 This fact may come as a surprise, for although medieval texts explain
28
29
The fact that Aizen appears as a dragon here might perhaps come as a surprise. However,
Aizen functions as a serpent in medieval Japanese religion and serpents and dragons were
readily interchangeable in Mikkyō. To remind us of that fact, the ‘dragon king’ of the rain
ritual appears as a serpent, the serpent divinity Suiten 水天 is mentioned among the
‘dragon kings’ listed in the Peahen Sūtra (T. 19.982: 417b06), and Aizen was sometimes considered a different form of the ‘dragon king’ Kurikara. Also, those familiar with the world
of medieval Shinto will probably immediately recognise the conceptual link between
Aizen and the dragon of the Shinsen’en as a logical idea. Indeed, medieval Shinto, in which
Aizen sometimes functions as the primary icon (such as in the ‘Reiki’ 麗気), is often said
to have been passed on by the dragon of the Shinsen’en (e.g., Jingūhō narabi ni shinbutsu
itchi shō 神宮方并神仏一致抄, quoted in Kōchū kaisetsu gendaigoyaku Reiki-ki).
The scholar Manabe Shunshō 真鍋俊照 apparently asked Kagiwada the question why
the cult of the two-headed Aizen (Fudō-Aizen) especially developed at Daigoji. This was a
question hard to answer (2012: 60). However, a possible solution is now available: the cult
developed at Daigoji because it served as the core structure of rainmaking, the practice
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that the combination of Fudō and Aizen was used for various purposes, such
as black sorcery, relational harmony through subjugation, prolongation of life,
and providential childbirth, they hardly ever mention rainmaking. However, a
careful study reveals that it was in the latter context that the combination had
been worked out in most grandiose fashion.
Let us now examine further the sources or teachings on which this tripartite structure of rainmaking could have been based. The answer to that
question can be found in the interchangeability of Fudō with Ichiji Kinrin as
the central banner deity on the roof. As already explained in a different article
(2013), this interchangeability was probably not an example of one of those
illogical playful liberties of Shingon priests, but founded on specific instructions in the Yuqi jing. Indeed, the Yuqi jing provides much pertinent esoterica,
but among them are two points which deserve special attention. One point is
the notion that the universal monarch Ichiji Kinrin is ‘born’ from the ‘Mother
of all the Buddhas’ (Issai Butsumo 一切仏母). More specifically, the scripture affirms that the One-syllable Supreme Wheel King arises from the mantra of the ‘Buddha-Mother’ Butsugen (Buddha-Eye; T.18.867: 260a6–12). The
other point is that the secret knowledge incarnated by Aizen also functions
as a ‘Buddha-Mother’ (ibid.: 257a19–b3). From these two points it can be
argued that Shingon rain masters took the liberty to put either Fudō or Ichiji
Kinrin on the roof because they saw the central dragon on the platform as
a ‘Buddha-Mother.’ In other words, if the accent was laid on the idea of the
Buddha-Mother producing Ichiji Kinrin, then the latter was installed, but if
the accent was put on the idea of the Buddha-Mother Aizen as a different form
of Kurikara,30 then Fudō was a more logical counterpart. In either case, the
interchangeability of Fudō and Ichiji Kinrin can only be logically explained if
one considers their mutual connection to the notion of the Buddha-Mother
(Butsugen and Aizen) explained in the Yuqi jing.31
30
31
of which for a long time constituted one of the primary components in the conceptual
network of secret doctrines and beliefs of that temple.
Daigoji rainmakers were probably well aware of the Kurikara-Aizen identity since they
visualised Kurikara in connection to Fudō on the roof during the Twelve-deva offering,
and in addition visualised Aizen in the centre of the Great Platform rite, also probably in
connection to Fudō on the roof. For this reason, it is highly likely that the identity of Aizen
as Kurikara was rather well known to them.
Of course, one might counter-argue that this is merely a conjecture, which it certainly is,
but another logical explanation for the interchangeability cannot be readily provided. At
any rate, I strongly doubt that the interchangeability was done arbitrarily or without any
doctrinal foundation.
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The argument above, which is also quite important to the discussion of FudōAizen in this article, is based on the fact that the Yuqi jing describes Aizen as
a Buddha-Mother. As this might not be a very well-known fact, I would like to
explain that aspect in more detail here. The explanation of Aizen as a mother
of Buddhas is given in the following passage of the fifth chapter of the Yuqi jing
(the passage has been abbreviated to enhance the clarity of the argument):
復説愛染王
一字心明曰、hhūṃ ṭakki hūṃ jjaḥ(梵字)〔中略〕
復説根本印〔中略〕、名羯磨印契、亦名三昧耶、若纔結一遍、及誦本
真言、能滅無量罪、能生無量福、扇底迦等法、四事速円満、三世三界
中、一切無能越、此名金剛王、頂中最勝名、金剛薩埵定、一切諸佛母
(T.18.867: 257a19–b3)
I will now further explain Aizen’ō. Its one-syllable heart-mantra is: hhūṃ
ṭakki hūṃ jjaḥ. Furthermore, I will explain its basic mudrā: […]. It is called
the ‘karma mudrā.’ It is also called the ‘samaya [mudrā].’ If you form this
mudrā once, and recite it together with its basic mantra, [the effects of]
all evil actions are skilfully obliterated, countless merits are produced,
and all four basic categories of rites, such as placation, are swiftly brought
to a successful end. In the past, present, and future and in the Three
Worlds there is nothing which exceeds [this mudrā and mantra]. These
[powerful mudrā and mantra] are [together] called the ‘vajra King’
(Kongō-ō), which within the [vajra] Peak Tradition is the highest name.
They are the Concentration of Kongōsatta (Vajrasattva) and the Mother
of all the Buddhas.
Some remarks have to be added first regarding the translation of the passage.
Goepper made an excellent English translation of the entire fifth chapter of
the Yuqi jing in which Aizen is explained, but his rendering of the passage
here can be called into question. Goepper translates the final four phrases
of the original Chinese text above as follows (1993: 16): “And this is called the
vajra King (Kongō-ō), which is among the highest things the utmost name.
The Meditation of Vajrasattva is the Mother of all the Buddhas.” This is not a
satisfactory translation as it lacks a proper understanding of the grammatical subject in these phrases. Indeed, this rendering overlooks the point that
the subject is the same in all the four phrases, namely, the mudrā and mantra
of Aizen. In other words, this translation misses one of the more important
messages of the Yuqi jing, namely that Aizen’ō is a ‘Buddha-Mother’ just like
Butsugen.
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In fact, the translation I presented here can be supported by a reading
of the same phrases in the Yugikyō kuketsu 瑜祇経口决 (Oral Instructions
on the Yuqi jing) by Dōhan 道範 (1178–1252). The text says: 此ヲ名金剛王ト、
〔金剛〕頂中最勝ノ名、金剛薩埵ノ定ナリ、一切諸佛母ナリ (SZ 5, fascicle 2: 63),
with the word ‘kongō’ (vajra) added by me before ‘chō’ (peak) since it appears
in a previous line in the same work. The translation of this passage would
then be: “These [mudrā and mantra of Aizen] are called the ‘vajra King,’
which within the [vajra] Peak [Tradition] is the highest name. [They] are the
Concentration of Kongōsatta. [They] are the Mother of all the Buddhas.” In
other words, ‘Concentration’ should not be taken as the grammatical subject
of the phrase which mentions the Buddha-Mother. It is not just the concentration of Kongōsatta that is the Mother of all the Buddhas. More exactly, it is
Aizen, the King (or Queen?) of Lust which functions as Kongōsatta’s concentration and, at the same time, as the Mother of all the Buddhas.32
Shingon monks were naturally well aware of the fact that Aizen is a BuddhaMother. Kakuzen, for example, defines Aizen as such in the first passages of his
discussion of the deity, quoting the lines of the Yuqi jing just mentioned to support this view (Kakuzenshō, TZ 5: 227c22–24). Daigoji monks also knew it since
they considered Butsugen and Aizen to be ‘one matter’, with the acceptance of
a couple of differences.33 Although the textual evidences are not numerous,
it should be considered that the identity of Aizen as a Buddha-Mother was in
all likelihood generally well known since the Yuqi jing, if carefully read, clearly
mentions it.
4
Concluding Statements
As was mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, the scholarly consensus is
that the combination of Fudō and Aizen was a purely Japanese invention, created somewhere in the course of the eleventh or twelfth centuries by Shingon
32
33
Goepper strongly asserts that Aizen is a male god (1993: 10). However, it seems to me that
the idea of Aizen as the representative of the Womb or the ‘Buddha-Mother’ was quite
common in medieval Japan, where, moreover, ‘Buddha-Mother’ was mostly understood
not only in abstract but also in biological terms. I intend to explain the notion of the
‘Buddha-Mother’ in more detail in a forthcoming article.
Zasshō 雑鈔:愛染王仏眼者一事也(割注:愚云、二・三相違可尋、鳥羽(範俊)
二ケ、権僧正(勝覚)ハ三ケ歟)“Aizen’ō and Butsugen are one matter (Inserted
note: I suggest that one should make further inquiries about the two or three differences
[between the two deities]. I believe the priest of Toba [Hanjun 範俊, 1138–1112] taught two
differences and the supernumerary archbishop [Shōkaku] three).”
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A Study on the Combination of the Deities Fudō and Aizen
135
esoteric Buddhist monks. Although some clues have been provided in previous scholarship to explain the origin of the Fudō-Aizen cult, they do not affect
the general assumption that the cult was created in Japan. This chapter is an
attempt to broaden our perspective on the subject by considering it from the
viewpoint of two intersecting networks, a translocal historical human network
stretching between China and Japan, in which various thoughts and beliefs
circulated, and a local conceptual network of esoteric ideas and practices developed in Shingon.
In regard to the translocal network, the importance of the nine-Buddha
Aizen maṇḍala was emphasized. As was argued in this chapter, it is rather
evident that the interconnection of Kurikara, Fudō and Aizen—three of the
nine deities depicted in the maṇḍala—was part of the very knowledge on
the basis of which the maṇḍala was made. A fairly early account included
in the Kakuzenshō mentions that the maṇḍala was brought to Japan from
China by the Tendai prelate Enchin. Therefore, as there is no apparent reason
to deny the veracity of the account, the probability should be considered that
the source of the Fudō-Aizen belief lies in Chinese Buddhism.
Another important factor transmitted from China which contributed to the
development of the Fudō-Aizen cult in Japan was the notion of the ‘BuddhaMother’ in the Yuqi jing. This Chinese scripture instructs that the ‘BuddhaMother’ Butsugen ‘gives birth’ to the Buddha Ichiji Kinrin, and defines Aizen as
being similarly a ‘Mother of Buddhas.’ It seems that Shingon rainmakers of the
Ono branch used this knowledge in combination with the Fudo-Aizen dragon
belief to ensure success in the Rain Prayer Sūtra ritual (Shōugyōhō). Indeed,
as illustrated in this chapter, they conceived of Aizen as a dragon and connected it to Fudō during meditations, but also, alternatively, to Ichiji Kinrin.
This procedure shows that Shingon rainmakers besides the Fudō-Aizen belief
also relied on the instruction of the Buddha-Mother in the Yuqi jing, replacing
Butsugen with Aizen as the progenitor of Ichiji Kinrin.
In this way, this chapter draws the attention to the fact that when investigating the origin of the Fudō-Aizen combination in medieval Shingon, one should
not ignore the influence of Chinese Buddhist ideas. In other words, it is important not to overlook translocal socio-historical networks in which esoteric
knowledge passed from China to Japan through scriptures, iconographies, or
other means.
At the same time, it is also essential not to disregard the significance of specific local developments. Hence, besides the ‘translocal’ one should not lose
sight of the ‘local.’ Indeed, although the source of the Fudō-Aizen cult might
ultimately lie in China, it was because of a special appropriation of the cult
by Shingon monks that the feature became one of the hallmarks of Shingon
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Trenson
and not of Tendai. Seizon’s reliance on Aizen to ‘protect’ the emperor and the
court’s subsequent favour bestowed on his lineage (Ono lineage) initiated the
strong connection of Shingon to the King of Lust. This connection was further
consolidated by integrating Aizen in combination with Fudō into the conceptual network centred around the Rain Prayer Sūtra ritual, the enactment of
which was the prerogative of Shingon monks of the Ono branch. This could
account for the fact that the Fudō-Aizen cult developed especially in Shingon
and more specifically in the Ono branch of that school. Although the truth is
certainly infinitely more complex than the assumptions offered here for further scholarly reflection, I trust that this chapter broadens our perspective on
the historical development of this intricate subject.
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Chapter 5
The Transmission of the Buddhadharma from
India to China: An Examination of Kumārajīva’s
Transliteration of the Dhāraṇīs of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
Bryan Levman
1
Introduction
It has long been understood that the earliest Chinese translations of the
Buddhavacana were made from Prakrit (Pkt.) sources transmitted along the
Silk Route caravan network from India (see references below). Indeed, the earliest translators were not indigenous Chinese but Indo-Aryan speaking missionaries and monks who brought the teachings to China and translated them,
often with the help of a translation ‘team’ of local Chinese scholars. Two of the
earliest translators were An Shigao (fl. 148–180) and An Xuan (fl. 168–189) who
spoke Parthian, a northwestern Iranian (Indo-European, IE) language, and
perhaps the most influential was Kumārajīva (344–413), from the Kingdom of
Kucha, an Indo-European oasis kingdom on the northern edge of the Tarim
Basin in what is presently Northwestern China. Kucha was one of the stops on
the Silk Route and the native language of the kingdom was West Tocharian, the
easternmost branch of the IE language families. The language of the source
transmission translated into Chinese has been a subject of scholarly investigation for over a century; this paper examines Kumārajīva’s transliteration of
the dhāraṇīs of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra (SDP) in an attempt to identify some aspects of the underlying transmission’s phonological structure.1
As Jan Nattier (2008: 3) has noted (referring to translations of the second and
third centuries CE), these early translations “offer a window into the Buddhist
1 The word dhāraṇī is a multi-faceted term with many meanings, common to all of which
is the notion of retention of the Buddha’s teachings. The dhāraṇī formulas were expected
to be memorized exactly in order to preserve their ritual efficacy; therefore they are particularly apt for the study of the transmission of the dharma, as special care was taken with
their memorization and transmission. For recent studies on the dhāraṇīs, see Braarvig 1985,
McBride 2005, Copp 2008, and Davidson 2009.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004366152_007
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138
heritage of both India and China at a pivotal period in history”. In the case of
the SDP, Kumārajīva’s translation is earlier than any of the Indic or Tibetan
witnesses by several centuries, and his was the first attempt to transliterate the
dhāraṇīs in order to retain their sonic efficacy for Chinese disciples. His translation practice provides a fascinating glimpse into the phonological structure
of the source SDP text which is the subject of this paper.
2
The Nature of the Source Dialect: Previous Work
The hypothesis that source documents for the Chinese (Ch.) āgamas were written in Middle Indic rather than Sanskrit (Skt.) is not a new one. Scholars have
been investigating this issue since the early twentieth century; their primary
tool has been to examine Chinese transliterations of Indic names and Buddhist
terms in order to reconstruct the original transmission. In 1914, for example,
Paul Pelliot (1878–1945) examined the Chinese translation of the Milindapañha,
and the transcriptions of the proper names therein. In his opinion the source
document was Prakrit; a name like Skt. Kubjottara (Pāli Khujjuttara) was
rendered in Chinese as Jiuchoudan 鳩讎單—according to Pulleyblank (PB):
kuw-dʑuw-tan2—confirming that the name in the source document did not
have the Sanskrit conjunct -bj- but the Prakrit form -jh- (Pelliot 1914: 412–413).
Pelliot also believed that the Chinese version preserved forms closer to the original Greek than those of the Pāli (P) text of the Milindapañha, possibly because
of a Parthian or Indo-Scythian influence. The name Menander (Μένανδρος),
for example, appears in Chinese as Milan 彌蘭 (PB: mji/mjiə-lan), which
Pelliot reconstructs as *Milandi, maintaining it is closer to the original Greek
word Menander than the P. Milinda; the change -n- > -l- is frequent in Central
Asia and in the Prakrits3 and conforms to general laws of dissimilation in IE
languages (ibid.: 384–385). Regardless of whether the change of two vowels
between the Chinese transcription and P. is that significant, it is clear that
2 PB = Pulleyblank 1991, which reconstructs the pronunciation of Early Middle Chinese (EMC).
The abbreviation PB will be used before all transcriptions (phonetic reconstructions) which
use this system. Transcriptions are given in regular type, with italic type reserved for Middle
Indic words and Chinese pinyin. When I consult Bernhard Karlgren’s transcriptions, I use
Ulving 1997, abbreviation KG. “Early Middle Chinese” is the Chinese codified in the Qieyun
rhyme dictionary (601 CE), representing the Chinese language of the fourth to seventh centuries CE, per Pulleyblank 1984: 3.
3 For example, see Geiger 1916 [2005]: §43.2, e.g. Skt. enas > P. ela (“fault”); hereinafter “Geiger.”
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
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Pelliot’s primary point—that the Chinese names indicate a Prakrit not a
Sanskrit. source document—is well made.
In 1915 Sylvain Lévi (1863–1935) examined the Sanskrit remnants and three
Chinese translations of the Mahāmāyūrīsūtra (“Great Peacock”), which contain stories and dhāraṇīs that protect practitioners from all sorts of harm
(snakebites in particular). He examines how the names of 106 yakṣas contained
in the sūtra are transliterated into Chinese in three systems of transcription:
1) in the early sixth century by Saṃghavarman, 2) late seventh century by Yijing
and 3) early eighth century by Amoghavajra. These show changing translation
practices over time and Prakritisms which are later Sanskritised. For example,
Saṃghavarman translated the proper name of yakṣa Pūrṇako as Fennake
分那柯 (PB pun-nah-ka),4 showing that in his source document, the -rṇ- conjunct had been assimilated to -ṇṇ-, as is typical of the Prakrits (Lévi 1915:
41; Woolner 1928 [1996]: §48). In his later transcription, Yijing Sanskritises
Pūṇnako by adding back in an epenthetic -r-: 脯律5拏, Pulüna (PB bɔ-lwit-nraɨ/
nε:). Lévi notes that the Chinese and Tibetan versions represent a state of the
text prior to the surviving Sanskrit manuscripts, since they contain Prakritisms
which are later Sanskritised.
In 1916 Heinrich Lüders (1869–1943) examined three fragments of Sanskrit
texts found at Khadalik in Central Asia (part of the Hoernle collection). After
comparing forms in the Central Asian MS like sraṃsitavān, sraṃsayati (“he did
[not] slacken”, “[she] does not slacken”) with corresponding forms saṃśritavān,
saṃprakāśayati in the Nepalese (“he did not cling”, “[she] does not reveal”, and
alternates janayati, saṃmayati, praśayati, all incorrect Sanskritisations per
Lüders), he concluded that an earlier Prakrit form saṃsitavā must have existed in
an underlying form to account for these anomalies. He therefore concluded that
both the Nepalese and the Central Asian MSS of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
must have a common source, maintaining that the original text was written in a language that had far more Prakritisms than either of the two versions. Lüders was inclined to believe that the original was written in a pure
Prakrit dialect which was afterwards gradually put into Sanskrit. This dialect
was a “mixed Sanskrit” based on Māgadhī, acccording to him (1916: 161–62).
While many today would disagree with Lüders about the possiblity of isolating an Urtext, his comparison of manuscripts well illustrates the complexity,
4 Lévi 1915: 41. Lévi notes that Saṃghavarman was a “demi-hindou, originaire de l’IndoChine” and Yijing was “un pur styliste chinois instruit par un long séjour dans l’Inde”
(ibid.: 122).
5 The character in Lévi shows a radical 卩 on the left which I cannot find in any dictionary.
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ambiguities and confusions inherent in the transmission process (within just
the Sanskrit texts, not to mention Chinese), especially when there is a Prakrit
source involved; due to the simplified nature of the language—where, for example, conjunct consonants are assimilated and intervocalic stops > -y-, -ẏ-,
(a weakly articulated glide) or > Ø—it contains many homonyms.
In 1930 Friedrich Weller (1889–1980) examined the transliteration of
Buddhist terms and proper names in the Chinese translation of the Pāṭikasutta
from the Dīgha Nikāya (DN 24). Here the name of a Licchavi general Ajita
(“Unconquered”) occurs (Ayoutuo 阿由陀 PB: ʔa-juw-da or KG â-i̭ḙu-da), where
-j- > -y-; -t- > -d-,6 along with names like Udena (Youyuan 憂園, PB: ʔuw- wuan)
where -d- > Ø or -d- > -y-, and Anupiyā (Anuyi 阿胬夷, PB: ʔa-nɔ-ji), where -p- > -y-,
which prove that the source document was not composed in Sanskrit, although
he did not specify which Prakrit the forms might represent (Weller 1930: 111).
At the end of his long career Ernst Waldschmidt (1897–1985) maintained:
“[…] that the original Dīrghāgama text translated into Chinese was written
in some kind of archaic Prakrit and not in Sanskrit will hardly be contested”.
He believed that it was probably translated from the Northwestern Prakrit of
Gāndhārī (G.), a hypothesis which Pulleyblank supported (Waldschmidt 1980:
137, 163; Pulleyblank 1983: 84–87; Karashima 1992). In 1932 Waldschmidt published a Central Asian Sanskrit manuscript of the Mahāsamājasūtra (DN 20 in
Pāli) together with a Chinese translation which pointed to an underlying, more
Prakritic version of the sūtra. In the Chinese transliterations he discovered
many Prakritic forms, the most common being the ending in -u for the nom.
and accus. masculine sing., which is also the case in the GDhp (Waldschmidt
1932: 230; Hiän-lin Dschi 1944: 121–44; Brough 1962 [1991]: §75). He also found
lots of examples of intervocalic stop lenition (in the underlying source text, as
transcribed in the Chinese), another feature of G: Vairocana (Bilouyena 鞞樓
耶那 PB: pji/pjiə-ləw-jia-na) = Vairoyana; tejo (tiyu 提豫 PB: dεj-jɨah) = *teyo;
vācā (poye 婆耶, PB: ba-jia)= vaya; -r- assimilation: Candra (Zhanda 栴大 PB:
6 See Pischel 1900 [1981] §236 (hereinafter Pischel); the change of an intervocalic stop to a glide
(-y-) or a weakly articulated glide (-ẏ-) or even its disappearance is quite common in the
Prakrits. For an example from one of the earliest Buddhist suttas, see Norman 1980: 175 (also
in Norman 1991, vol.2: 151), where, for example, the earlier word virayo can be confidently
derived from two MI reflexes: in the P. Sutta Nipāta, virato, and in the Mahāvastu, virajo. The
voicing of -t- > -d- is also a common Prakrit phenomenon, especially in Gāndhārī. See Brough
1962 [2001] §33 (hereinafter Brough 1962 = GDhp = Gāndhārī Dhammapada).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
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tɕian-da’/dajh) = Canda; etc., all of which are also features of Gāndhārī,7 and
many other Prakritic features.8
For some fifty years, not much work was done on this subject of Chinese
transliterations. The last thirty years, however, have witnessed something of
a “renaissance” in this arcane sub-field of philology with studies by several
important scholars: von Hinüber, Karashima and Boucher. Von Hinüber’s
research confirms that a Gāndhārī version of the Madhyamāgama existed
as one of the translation stages for the Chinese text. This is the only way to
account for such forms as are found in the P. Upālisutta like pabhinnakhilassa
(Majjhima Nikāya 1, 3863), “broken up the fallow spiritual wasteland”, which do
not correlate with parallel Sanskrit forms from the Central Asian manuscripts,
prahīṇakhilasya, “he who has abandoned the afflictions”. The Chinese text has
duan hui 斷穢 (“cut off impurity”) which is a translation of the Central Asian
text, but not the Pāli. This suggests that the source document (underlying both
the Pāli and Sanskrit) must have contained the word p(r)ahiṇa or p(r)ahina
(“abandoned”) in G., with -bh- > -h- and the -nn- > n/ṇ, and no vowel quantity shown (von Hinüber 1983: 28–29). Another example von Hinüber adduces
is the word pannadhaja (“whose flag is lowered”) from the same text, which
has a Central Asian Sanskrit reflex of parṇajaha, translated by Saṃghadeva as
慧生 huìshēng = *prajñā-jāta (“wisdom-born”); a number of strange changes
and misunderstandings have taken place that are probably due to the Sanskrit
and Chinese translators’ not recognizing the word panna (“fallen”) as the past
participle of √pad.9
In an important recent study, Karashima has gathered all the Prakritisms in
Kumārajīva’s and Dharmarakṣa’s translations, line by line, and has concluded
that the Chinese translations represent an earlier stage in the transmission
process when the source Indic texts were more Prakritic in nature than the
current surviving Sanskrit witnesses (Karashima 1992: 13, 274–275). I will be
7 Waldschmidt 1932: 231. For intervocalic stop lenition in Gāndhārī (G.), see GDhp 28. For
assimilation of -r- (which is sporadic per Waldschmidt, 232), see Burrow 1937 §37 and 38.
Note that candra occurs in the GDhp as cadra and usually. appears in P. as canda and in
AMg as caṃda. In G., -r- is usually assimilated after a stop (kodha < krodha in GDhp 280), but
sometimes it is kept (pridi < Skt. prīti in GDhp 56, 224). For discussion, see GDhp 51; vācā as
vaya occurs in several GDhp gāthās (53, 290, 291, etc.).
8 Waldschmidt 1932: 231–234. To name a few: change of aspirated stops to -h- (abhikrāntā >
transcribed in Ch. as ahikanta); same, plus assimilation of -r- before -ṣ- (abhivarṣa > transcribed in Ch. as ahivaṣa); change of -ṣṭ- > -ṭṭ- (śreṣṭha > transcribed in Ch. as śeṭha).
9 Ibid.: 29–32. Some of this confusion is understandable as panna = prajñā in AMg
(Pischel §226). See also Mylius 2003: 413, s.v. paṇṇa = prajñā. Brough 1962, GDhp, also discusses this confusion in §45.
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drawing on this work further in my study of dhāraṇīs below. Using data from
Karashima’s study, Daniel Boucher examined Dharmarakṣa’s translation at a
lexical level, pointing out various misunderstandings due to lack of expertise,
dialect (phonological) confusion, script confusion and unresolved ambiguities
(e.g. the practice of “double translation”, translating a word twice when it has
more than one meaning) and concludes that the source text was “a very mixed
and layered text […] already in a hybrid language” which had a very complex
transmission process. He does not try to identify the dialect, although features
of Gāndhārī clearly had an influence and the source document may well have
been written in Kharoṣṭhī script. He calls for more studies that “unpack the
philological clues contained in these mongrel documents” (Boucher 1998: 501–
503; Deeg 2008: 83–118).
3
The Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra
This work was originally composed in approximately the first century BCE in
Prakrit or Sanskritised Prakrit, and has a complicated textual history in MI and
Chinese. We possess three different MI recensions of the sūtra, all fairly recent;
two have been almost completely Sanskritised and the third and oldest, from
Central Asia, still retains some Prakritic elements. There are six Chinese translations (completed in 255, 286, 290, 335, 406 and 601 CE) of which only the
third, fifth and sixth survive. Of these, the fifth (the second of the surviving witnesses), by Kumārajīva, is considered the standard (Hurvitz 2009: xiii). So the
Chinese translations are much older than the MI manuscripts that we possess,
and indeed when one looks at the proper names, technical terms and dhāraṇīs
of the Chinese versions we find many Prakritic elements still preserved. As is
well known, the SDP is one of the most important texts in Chinese Buddhism.
A key enjoinder of the SDP is its admonishment to “receive and keep it [the
sūtra], to read and recite it, to preach it, to copy it and to make offerings to it”
(Hurvitz 2009: 263). This central message of the SDP, i.e., securing its transmission to present and future generations and the accuracy of that transmission,
is repeated so many times, one might argue it is the main theme of the sūtra.
The text starts and ends with the concept of “mastering the dhāraṇīs”, which
does not refer solely to “magic charms” as Hurvitz defines the term,10 but more
germanely to memorizing and retaining the dharma. As a result, the SDP was
10
Ibid.: 3. Compare: jie de tuoluoni 皆得陀羅尼 “All had attained the dhāraṇīs” (T.9.262:
2a3). See also Hurvitz 2009: 309: “incalculable, limitless bodhisattvas […] attained the
dhāraṇī […].”
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
143
copied thousands of times over the centuries (Stevenson 2009: 134, 145; Chünfang Yü 2001: 75) in a variety of Indic, Chinese, Tibetan and other languages,
and a rich manuscript tradition of over sixty copies have survived in Sanskrit
alone, which are available for study (Tsukamoto et al. 1986: 5). Given the importance of the text, one would expect an assiduous attention to detail in its
transmission, especially with regard to the dhāraṇīs whose accurate recitation was essential for ritual efficacy. In the Lotus samādhi ritual for example
(Fahua sanmei chanyi 法華三昧懺儀), a twenty-one day repentance ritual in
the Tiantai tradition involving recitation of the SDP, mistakes in the recitation were simply not permissable (bude miuwu 不得謬誤).11 But in fact, there is
no uniformity amongst the Indic versions themselves, nor between these and
the texts translated into Chinese. In fact, the differences are often more striking than the similiarities, especially when comparing the two earliest surviving Chinese translations—those of Dharmarakṣa in 286 CE and Kumārajīva in
406 CE—to the extant Sanskrit MSS. This lack of correspondence—and the
fact that the Sanskrit manuscripts are all fairly late—points to an earlier lost
manuscript tradition on which the Chinese translations relied.
3.1
Textcritical Background
Scholars recognize three major recensions for the Saddharma-puṇḍarīkasūtra
Indic text: Nepalese, Gilgit and Central Asian (Bechert in Chandra 1976: 3;
Karashima 1992: 12). The closest thing we have to a critical edition of any of
these is Kern and Nanjio’s edition (1908–1912, hereinafter K & N), which, however, was based on only eight manuscripts (seven Nepalese and one Central
Asian) and does not include all variants. None of the Nepalese texts are earlier
than the eleventh century (Tsukamoto et al. 1986: 9); the Gilgit manuscripts date
from the early sixth century and belong to a recension similar to the Nepalese
(Watanabe 1972–1975: xi); the earliest of the Central Asian manuscripts date
from the fifth or sixth century as well (Tsukamoto et al. 1986: 24; Dutt 1953:
viii). These manuscripts are linguistically earlier than the Nepalese and Gilgit
recensions—composed before major Sanskritisation had taken place—and
contain hundreds of Prakrit forms, some of which are detailed in K & N and
Dutt’s later edition (K & N 1972–1975: vi f.; Dutt 1953: xvii f.; Karashima 1998: 49–
68; Karashima 2001: 207–230). In his exhaustive study on Sanskritised Prakrit,
which he calls Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS), Edgerton has established a
time scale which confirms that the more Prakritisms a manuscript contains,
11
Bude miuwu (T.46.1941: 954a5), translated in Stevenson 1986: 69. See footnote 63.
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the earlier it is.12 As stated above, there are three extant Chinese translations
of the SDP: one by Dharmarakṣa in 286 CE, one by Kumārajīva in 406 and a
third by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta in 601. There is also a partial translation,
the Satanfentuolijing (T.9265), thought to predate Dharmarakṣa (Karashima
2003: 87). The earliest manuscript evidence we have of the Chinese translations is from Dunhuang (fifth–tenth centuries). Several Tibetan versions preserved in the various Kanjurs are presumed to date back to the early eighth
century (Karashima 1992: 13).
It has long been assumed that Kumārajīva’s translation was based on the
Nepalese/Gilgit recension, while Dharmarakṣa’s translation was based on the
earlier Central Asian manuscript (Bechert in Chandra 1976: 6; Baruch 1938:
41). However, recent studies by Karashima have problematised this view. He
has shown that not only Dharmarakṣa’s source text, but also Kumārajīva’s,
are based on manuscripts containing a lot of Prakrit material and that in
fact Kumārajīva’s translation agrees with the earlier Central Asian recensions
in 409 instances versus only 138 instances of agreement with the Nepalese/
Gilgit recensions. The corresponding numbers for Dharmarakṣa’s translation are 622 agreements with Central Asian MSS and 230 with the Nepalese/
Gilgit recensions (Karashima 1992: 256, 260). Therefore both Kumārajīva’s and
Dharmarakṣa’s source texts are assumed to predate the existing Sanskrit MSS,
dating from a time before full Sanskritisation had taken place. In this regard,
a very useful text for this study—and one that confirms Karashima’s findings
of the Prakrit nature of the source documents at this time—is Kumārajīva’s
12
Edgerton 1953 [1998], vol.1: xxv. Dutt (1953: xvii, citing Lüders, Hoernle and Mironov, with
no reference) agrees and gives the example of Central Asian MSS written in Upright Gupta
script in the early 5th or 6th centuries containing more Prakritisms than those written
in the calligraphic script of the 7th century. Hoernle (1916: xxxi) discusses the Northern
and Southern canon and maintains that they were originally written in the “vernacular
language of Magadha” which is of course the essence of Heinrich Lüders’ thesis as documented in his 1954 posthumous opus Beobachtungen über die Sprache des Buddhistischen
Urkanons. Another scholar to make this point, specifically about the SDP, is Hiän-lin Dschi
(1944: 139: “Ich glaube früher gezeigt zu haben, daß das Werk [Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra]
ursprünglich in der Alt-Ardhamāgadhī abgefasst worden war, daß die Kashgar-Rezension
[Central Asian] dem Original viel näher steht also die nepalesische, und schliesslich, daß
die Alt-Ardamāgadhī-Formen der Kashgar-Rezension in der nepalesischen Rezension mit
der Sanskritisierung nach und nach beseitigt wurden” (“I believe to have shown earlier
that the text was originally composed in Old Ardhamāgadhī, that the Kashgar recension was nearer to the original than the Nepalese and finally that the Old Ardhamāgadhī
forms of the Kashgar recensions were gradually removed in the Nepalese recension with
Sanskritisation”).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
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translation of the arapacana syllabary in the Dazhidu lun13 where we find
unique Prakritisms like a’noubotuo 阿耨波陀 (PB: ʔa-nəwh-pa-da) anuppāda <
Skt. anutpāda, “non-arising”, with simplification of conjunct -tp- > -pp-; zheliye
遮梨夜 (PB:tɕiaw-li-jiah) cariya < Skt. carita, “practice”, with lenition of intervocalic stop -t- > -y-; dusheta 荼闍他 (PB: dɔ-dʑia-tha) < ḍaj̄amaṇo14 (GDhp 75-d,
159-b) < Skt. dahyamāna, “burning”, with simplification of conjunct hy- > -j̄-; hebota 和波他 (PB: ɣwa-pa-tha) < vappatha < Skt. vākpatha, “fit for speech”, with
simplification of conjunct -kp- > -pp-, to name only a few (see also Appendix 1).
Given the rich and complex textual tradition, it is evident that there is no
such thing as a single, monolithic SDP. There has not even been an attempt
to create a critical edition (i.e. a reconstructed “original”—or as close as
possible to the original per Maas 1958: 1—a text based on elements from all
known sources); the complex tapestry of witnesses, multiple recensions and
Sanskritisations and contaminatio (combination of several exemplars per Maas
1958: 3) suggests that any attempt to re-construct an Urtext would be impossible. Yet, given the importance of the SDP in East Asian religious traditions, it
is a “sorry state of affairs” that we do not make use of “all available resources”
when studying the text (Pye 2003: 168). Recently, this lacuna in SDP studies
has been partially rectified by Karashima’s partial publication of a trilingual
edition of the SDP from all Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan sources (Karashima
2004: 33–104; 2006: 79–88).
From the Preface to Jñānagupta’s and Dharmagupta’s translation Michael
Pye hypothesizes that Kumārajīva worked from a Kuchean text which may
well have been older than Dharmarakṣa’s source text. Pye arrives at this conclusion based on three factors: 1) material that was left out of Kumārajīva’s
original translation and subsequently added, 2) the separate numbering of the
Devadatta chapter and 3) the arrangement of the last seven chapters (Pye 2003:
170). Dharmarakṣa’s translation represents a later stage of the textual tradition,
but at an earlier date. Other scholars have agreed with Pye on philological
13
14
This rendering was done between CE 404 and 406, just before Kumārajīva began the SDP
translation. Lamotte (1944) called it the Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra but it was known by
various names in medieval China. For a discussion on the name, see Benn 2009: 12–13,
fn. 1. For the arapacana syllabary, see Brough 1977: 86, who suggests that the list of headwords which the syllabary represents “might have been in origin a mnemonic device to
fix the order of the verses or paragraphs of some important text, by taking the first word
of each. Thereafter, the mnemonic would have been further reduced to initial syllables
where possible” (ibid: 94). For more information on the arapacana syllabary, see Salomon
1990: 255–273. Salomon argues (convincingly) that the arapacana syllabary was formulated in Gandhāra, in the Kharoṣṭhī script, based on epigraphical and internal evidence.
The letter -j̄- = -jh- per Brough 1962, GDhp 6a.
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grounds. Although it may be impossible to confirm the absolute chronology
of the underlying source documents, one fact seems certain: based on linguistic and text historico-critical analysis, both Dharmarakṣa’s and Kumārajīva’s
source documents are earlier than the surviving Indic witnesses.
4
Methodological Considerations
4.1
Purpose of this Study
Kumārajīva’s transcription of the SDP’s dhārāṇīs represents a “fresh effort at
transcription” of MI phonemes into EMC (Pulleyblank 1983: 87).15 It therefore
provides a unique opportunity to study the nature of Kumārajīva’s transliteration practice and to identify some of the characteristics of the underlying MI
source transmission dialect, while at the same time comparatively examining
the main textual traditions, their differences and ambiguities. Epitomizing a
central theme of the SDP—the injunction to memorize and repeat exactly the
content of the sūtra—the dhāraṇīs highlight the challenge of transmitting
the Buddhadharma accurately over time, especially between a phonographic
(MI) and logographic (Ch.) writing system. A tentative reconstruction of the
dhāraṇīs’ MI form is a further by-product of the study.
4.2
Methodology
This study involves the use of transcriptional data and reconstructions of the
phonetic structure of EMC, based on Karlgren’s and Pulleyblank’s work. Many
scholars have questioned the validity of this approach; Zürcher omits the use
of transcribed names and Buddhist technical terms from his study on “Late
Han Vernacular Elements in the Earliest Buddhist translations”, noting that
their value is greatly reduced by a whole range of “obscuring factors” including
1) our ignorance of the source language, 2) distortion due to pronunciation
by foreign missionaries, 3) the imperfect way the Chinese scribes may have
15
Kumārajīva was of course not the first translator to transcribe MI. The Kucha monk
Lokakṣema (latter part of the second century CE), for example, transcribed Buddhist
names and technical terms, while An Shigao transcribed personal and place names and
translated technical terms (Nattier 2008: 4). Kumārajīva preferred to transcribe technical
terms (or use existing transcriptions, like 菩薩 = bodhisattva, 涅槃 = nirvāṇa, 波羅蜜 =
pāramitā; 陀羅尼 = dhāraṇī), while he generally translated proper names (bhaiṣajyarāja
= Medicine King = Yaowang 藥王; akṣayamati = Inexhaustible Mind = Wujin yi 無盡意),
but sometimes used existing transcriptions (e.g. 文殊師利 for Mañjuśrī). He was the first
translator to attempt a transcription of the SDP’s dhāraṇīs.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
147
perceived the sounds, 4) the differences in Sanskrit and Chinese phonology
which make correlation of sounds problematic and 5) primitive early translation attempts which were later subsequently refined (Zürcher 1977: 179). This
last objection does not apply to Kumārajīva who had the benefit of two centuries of previous translators’ experience. He was also well aware of all the phonological issues involved, as his translation of the arapacana syllabary from
the Dazhidu lun shows (Appendix 1); although there is certainly no exact oneto-one correspondence between Indic and Chinese languages, Kumārajīva
was aware of the ambiguities and developed means of dealing with them, as
will be demonstrated below. As for the source language(s), in the last thirty
years there have been a lot of advances in our understanding or the underlying
Prakrits, as outlined above. This is not to fully answer Zürcher’s objections—
especially points 2) and 3), which are intractable; however, that we can and do
know quite a bit about EMC phonology is manifest in the works of Karlgren,
Pulleyblank and Coblin, and if we use the data judiciously, as Coblin recommends (1983: 7–8), using it to corroborate what we already do know from other
sources (as Zürcher recommends),—i.e. the phonological changes between
Prakrit and Sanskrit,—then the results can be very revealing.
4.2.1
Dhāraṇī Comparison
The main body of this chapter is a comparison and discussion of the linguistic form of all the SDP’s dhāraṇīs. In what follows I list the Sanskrit texts in
the three traditions, grouping the Nepalese and Tibetan together in column
#1 with all variants shown in brackets;16 here I also include the Tibetan as separate items (marked “Tib.”) when it differs from one of the Nepalese manuscripts, as is sometimes the case. Column #2 contains the Gilgit manuscripts
(from Watanabe 1972–1975). Column #3 is the Central Asian manuscripts, some
of which are shown in Kern & Nanjio and Dutt, and all of which are shown
in Tsukamoto 1978.17 Column #4 shows Kumārajīva’s Chinese translation
taken from the Taishō (Junjirō et al. 1924–1934 [1974]), with assistance from
CBETA and with variants shown in square brackets. The Chinese characters
are transcribed in modern pinyin, and further transcribed phonetically as they
16
17
Some of these variants are found in K & N; all are shown in Tsukamoko 1978: 1–35. The
various manuscripts in the Nepalese tradition are listed and described in Tsukamoto et al.
1986.
These are, except for the Lüshun Museum fragment, also available in Toda 1981. The
Central Asian facsimile manuscripts are available in Institute for the Comprehensive
Study of Lotus Sutra 1977: vol. 11, 12 and the Kashgar manuscript in a facsimile edition in
Chandra 1976, which contains Bechert’s Foreword.
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Levman
sounded in Middle Chinese using Pulleyblank or Karlgren. Column #5 is a reconstruction of the source document text which Kumārajīva used, based on
his transliteration. Column #6 is the meaning of the word, where known (or
conjectured), and column #7 is a note on whether the word from the source
document is Sanskrit or Prakritic in origin, together with any short notes that
might be applicable. Longer notes follow the relevant entries. Where an entry is
blank, it is missing in the appropriate document. While the dhāraṇīs of the SDP
have been transliterated four times, the earliest transliteration is Kumārajīva’s.
Dharmarakṣa translated the dhāraṇīs in his Zhengfahuajing 正法華經, (T.263,
286 CE), but this is not a transcription. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta also
transliterated them in their translation, Tiānpǐn Miàofǎ Liánhuájīng 添品
妙法蓮華經 (T.264, 601 CE); both of these are reviewed occasionally when
they might be helpful in clarifying Kumārajīva’s practice and/or intention. In
addition to these testimonies, there are three other transcriptions made by
Jñānagupta, Xuanzang and Amoghavajra (early seventh to eighth centuries)
which I have not referred to (but may be found in Karashima 2001: 380–392).
4.2.2
A Note on Vowel Notation
The transliterations are not consistent with respect to vowel notation.
Sometimes the EMC phonetic sound which PB transcribes as [i] is used to represent Sanskrit/Prakrit final -e and sometimes -i. The phonetic sound [ɛ]- is
used for Sanskrit/Prakrit -e-, -a- and -i-. I assume these variations reflect dialectical variations, idiosyncrasies, allophones, etc. prevalent at the time the translations were done, which I have not tried to unravel. For derivational purposes,
the consonants are much more important than the final vowel, which tends to
be very variable in the dialects.18 Also, since long vowels were not notated in
Gāndhārī and even Brāhmī (GDhp 20; Norman 1997 [2006]: 107), and Chinese
does not maintain the difference between long and short vowels, reconstruction of vowel length differences must be considered tentative at best. When I
transcribe with long vowels in the hypothetical source document, it is usually
based on Sanskrit parallels (e.g. Pkt. nāḷi < Skt. nādi) or accent/sandhi rules (e.g.
Pkt. kauśalyānugada < Skt. kauśalya-anugata or Skt. śamita-avi = śamitāvi).
18
See for example the different endings in the nom. sing. in G. which can be either -e, -a,
-o or -u, per GDhp: 75, 76. Aśoka’s Rock Edicts from Shābāzgaṛhī (Northwest MI) show
-a, -o and -e (Hultzsch 1925 [1969]: xc). In GDhp 21, Brough (1962) notes that in G., -e in
final position regularly appears as either -e, or -i. See also Fussman 1989: 459, which notes
“l’equivalence phonétique en finale de -e, -o et -a”.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
149
5
Dhāraṇīs
5.1
Dhāraṇī #1 Spoken by Bhaiṣajyarāja 藥王 (Yaowang)19
NepaleseTibetana
Gilgit
anye
(atye)
manye
(manne, maṇe)
anye
manye
Central Kumārajīva
Asian
安爾 aner
(PBː ʔan-ɲiə̆’/ɲi’)
曼爾 man er
(PBː muanh
ɲiə̆’/ɲi’)
Source
document
Meaning
Pkt. or Skt. &
notes
anye or
a(ñ)ñeb
manye or
ma(ñ)ñe
“other(s)”
Either
“I think”
either (GDhp
283-c, mañati,
“he thinks”).
a Tibetan is only noted when it is different than the Nepalese recension which it generally
mirrors.
b The brackets a(c)chaye simply indicate that the double consonants were often not notated
in G. or early Brāhmī. The double consonant represents the derivation from two consonants
(-ny- > -ññ-), which was, however, not noted in the early script.
In the Prakrits, a glide following a nasal is assimilated (-ny- > -ñ-).20 However,
the sound is virtually identical, so one cannot be sure what word was in the
source document. All forms ending in -e may be construed as an eastern Prakrit
nominative singular.21 It may also be northwestern as there are lots of examples in nom. sing -e in the Shāhbāzgaṛhī (Sh) and Mānsehrā (M) Aśokan rock
edicts22 and in the Niya dialect the original nom. ending was probably in -e,
19
20
21
22
The dhāraṇīs are found as follows: #1: K & N pp. 3961–3972; #2 3984–5; #3 3991–2; #4 3999–
4001; #5 4012–3; #6 4771–4. Dhāraṇīs 1–5 are in Chapter 21, dhāraṇī #6 in Chapter 26. Chinese
versions may be found at dhāraṇī #1 in T.9.262: 58b19 to T.9.262: 58c03; dhāraṇī #2 in
T.9.262: 58c14 to T.9.262: 59a03; dhāraṇī #3 in T.9.262: 59a10 to T.9.262: 59a11; dhāraṇī #4 in
T.9.262: 59a18 to T.9.262: 59a19; dhāraṇī #5 in T.9.262: 59b01 to T.9.262: 59b04; dhāraṇī #6
in T.9.262: 61b19 to T.9.262: 61b2.
Pischel §282; GDhp 260 aña < Skt. anya; P. añña < Skt. anya; AMg aṇṇa < Skt. anya.
Lüders 1954: 10 and §§1–11.
Hultzsch 1925 [1969]: xc. For instance, jane in Sh Rock Edict (RE) 10 A vivade in RE 6 F;
devanapriye in RE 10, A, etc. Capital letters refer to location reference used by Hultzsch.
See also Brough 1962, GDhp 76. See also Hiän-lin Dschi 1944: 143, quoting Konow, who associates the -e dialect with the Mānsehrā dialects and the Niya Prakrit.
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although it later changed to -o.23 The word anye could also be nom. plural in
Sanskrit, Pāli and other Prakrits. While the meaning and syntax (if any) of
these words and phrases is highly speculative, Tsukamoto (1978: 4f) seems to
interpret the -e forms as voc. sg. fem. which is possible for some words which
are feminine (anyā, “inexhaustible”; manyā, “nape of the neck”), but not for
nouns like citta (masc.) or kṣaya (masc.), nor for words like carita that appear
to modify them. These would have to be loc. sing. or nom. sing. if stemming
from an eastern Prakrit. The verb manye (“I think”, first person sing. of √man)
is a much more logical meaning than “Oh! nape of the neck”, voc. fem. sing
(< Skt. manyā, “nape of the neck”). In the translations that follow, I treat the
-e endings as nom. sing. unless otherwise stated.
arau
parau (marau)
mane (maṇe, mene,
ane, amane)
mamane (nemane)
citte (citta)
carite (calite;
Tib. cirate)
mane
mamane
摩禰 moni
(PBː ma- nεj’)
摩摩禰 momoni
(PBː ma-ma-nεj’)
旨隷 zhili
(PBː tṣi’/ tɕi’-lεjh)
遮[利]梨第
zhe[li]lidi
(PB: tɕia-[lih]li- dεj’)
mane
? “pride”a
either
mamane
?
either
cire (?)
“long”
either
caride
“behaviour”
Pkt. -t-> -d-
a Nom. sing. (eastern Pkt. nom. ending in -e); long -ā- not written in G. This could also be
derived from manas (P. mano, AMg maṇa, “mind”) or Skt. manā (“zeal, devotion”) in voc. sing.
as per Tsukamoto 1978: 4.
The change of -t- > -d- seems to be the first unequivocal evidence that we are
dealing with a source document which is (in part at least) in a Prakrit form.
Voicing of intervocalic consonants is a standard feature in Gāndhārī (GDhp
33), and Pulleyblank (1983: 86–88) notes that intervocalic -t- is “quite consistently” rendered by Ch. -d- in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra dhāraṇīs. We will
see several other examples of this feature below, where the source document
has Prakrit forms and the extant Indo-Aryan (IA) reflexes have Sanskrit words,
23
Burrow 1937: §53. The Niya documents represent the administrative language of ShanShan (Northwest China) in the third century CE (ibid.: v, Introduction).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
like idime for Skt. itime, mādaṅgī for mātaṅgī, daṇḍavadi for daṇḍapati, etc.
The word citte is a puzzle as it appears to be representing a source word *cile
(=cire, “long?”). The character 隷 is always used to represent an -l- sound or a
vocalic -ṛ- or consonantal -r- by Kumārajīva, but here it may be a translation
rather than a transliteration (旨隷 = lit. “control one’s intention”). Jñānagupta
and Dharmagupta have zhidi 質羝 (PB: tɕit-tɛj = citte).
same
śame
賒咩 shemie
(PB: ɕia-me)a
śame
samitāvi
(samayitāriśānte
samitāviśāṃte
samitāviśānte
samitāniśānte;
Tib. śamayitāvi,
śameyitāvi,
śameyitābhi)b
śānte (sante)
(śamayitāvi,
śameyitābhi)
賒履多瑋
shelüduowei
(PB: ɕia-li- tawuj’/jwe̯i)c
śamitāvi “pain that has
been pacified”
(śamita-āvi)
śante (śantai)
羶帝 shandi śānte
(PB: ɕian-tεjh)
“tranquility
calmness”
“peace”
either Skt. śama
“tranquility”; or
Skt. sama, “same,
equal”
Skt.
Skt.
a The character 咩 is not in Pulleyblank or Karlgren. It is also not in the Guangyun shengxi
廣韻聲系, Song rhyming dictionary: http://ctext.org/library.pl?if=en&res=77357&by_
title=%E5%BB%A3%E9%9F%BB. Accessed Nov. 2014.
b In all the Skt. texts (K & N, Wogihara & Tsuchida, Vaidya and Dutt) the word division is after
-tāː i.e., samitā viśāṃte; other variants in the Nepalese–Tibetan tradition include samitā
visāṃte; samite viśānte.
c A second interpretation of the 瑋 sound is in KG: page 201, entry 2213. Coblin 1994: 246, subentry 0405, transliterates this character as *ui in Old Northwest Chinese (ONWC).
Dharmarakṣa translates these three words (same śamitāvi śānte) as feng xiu
jiran 奉修寂然 (“Esteem & cultivate quiescence”); the word 奉 (“esteem, revere, respect”) is perhaps a translation for Skt. śālita (“praised”). This would
be the normal transliteration of shelüduo 賒履多 (PB: ɕia-li-ta), i.e. with 履
representing the sound -li- as per PB and KG. In Soothill & Hodous (1937;
S & H) we find words like tipilü 體毘履 (PB thεj’-bji-l(r)i), Skt. sthavira, “elder”,
or modalüjia 摩怛履迦 (PB: ma-tat-li-kɨa), Skt. mātṛkā “summary, condensed
statement of contents” where 履 = -r-/-ṛ- and bibeilüye 臂卑履也 (PB: pjiajk-pji/
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pjiə̌ -li-jia’), pipīlikā, “ant” where it represents an -l-. How 履 came to represent
the -m- sound is a mystery. Pulleyblank is also puzzled and suggests that it
represents an “old reading of the character that has gone unrecorded in the
dictionaries”.24 In Jñānagupta’s and Dharmagupta’s redo of the sūtra two centuries later they transliterate śamitāvi as 攝寐多鼻 (PBː ɕiap-mjih-ta-bjih),
where there is no mistaking that the second syllable begins with m-. Note also
for this section of the dhāraṇī that all four versions of the Sanskrit texts transliterate śamitā viśānte which is probably incorrect, as there is no such word as
visānte in Prakrit or Sanskrit, while there is such a compound as śamita-āvi.
mukte
mukte
目帝 mudi
(PB: muwk-tεjh)
mukte
“liberated”
muktatame
(muktataye)
same
muktatame
目多履 muduolü
(PB: muwk-ta-mi)
娑履 suolü
(PBː sa-mi)
阿瑋娑履
awei-suolü
(PBː ʔa-wuj’-sa-mi)
桑履娑履
sanglü-suolü
(PBː saŋ-mi-sa-mi)
Missing
叉裔 chayi
(PBː tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː-jiajh)
阿叉裔 achayi
(PBː ʔa- tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː-jiajh)
muktame
same
“most
liberated”
“constant”
S (GDhp 92,
122 = muto
for mukta)
P. = mutta
? but probably
Skt.
either
avisame
“equal”
either
samasame
“completely
unequalled”a
either
kṣaye or
chayeb
“loss”
Pkt.
akṣaye or
a(c)chaye
“undecaying” Pkt.
same
aviṣame
(asaṣame, Tib.
aviśame)
samasame
(asamasame)
aviṣame
(asamasame)
samasame
jaye (jaya, trāye)
kṣaye (kṣaya,
kṣeye, yakṣe)
jaye
kṣaye
akṣaye (akṣaya,
kṣaye)
akṣaye
24
Pulleyblank 1983: 100, footnote 13. The character is used for Skt. syllables mi, me and vi as
well as the usual ri and ḍi. See also Coblin 1983: 155, # 43 where 履 is transcribed as lji from
the Baihu tongyi 白虎通義 paranomastic glosses (first century CE).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
akṣiṇe (akṣiṇa,
akṣiṇe
Tib. akṣiṇi, akṣiṇo)
阿耆膩 aqini
(PBː ʔa-gji-nrih)
153
a(g)ghiṇe “undestroyed” Pkt.
or a(j)jhiṇe
a Alternately, instead of sam-asame, this may be parsed as a distributive repetition (samasame) with a meaning of “equal in every way”.
b It would be noted -kṣ- in G. and -ch- in other Prakrits. See the discussion.
The word akṣaye occurs later in the dhāraṇī where Kumārajīva transliterates
it as echaluo 惡叉邏 (PBː ʔak-tʂhaɨ /tʂhεː-la= akṣara), i.e., he captures the -kṣconjunct perfectly, as -k- is an allowed final in EMC. Why did he not do it here?
With kṣaye and akṣaye he transcribes with a retroflex affricate sound tʂhaɨ- and
with akṣiṇe he uses a velar stop with a glide -gji-. Gāndhārī used the symbol 𐨐𐨿𐨮
to represent Skt. -kṣ- and it had the value of a retroflex unaspirated fricative (ṭṣ
or aspirate ṭṣ‘),25 which is how Kumārajīva transcribed it, i.e. with a sound usually represented by -(c)ch- in MI (as in chudaṃ Gir, Rock Edict 9 < Skt. kṣudra,
“small, trifling;” Pāli has both khaṇa and chaṇa as derived forms of Skt. kṣaṇa
“moment”). This is also the sound (叉 = tʂhaɨ/tʂhεː) which Kumārajīva uses in
his arapacana syllabary to represent Skt. -kṣ-.26 This suggests that his source
document was in Gāndhārī. The Sanskrit word akṣine was not transcribed as
a retroflex fricative but as a voiced aspirated stop, pronounced and/or written
aghiṇe in the source document—we have examples of this in Pāli where -kṣ- >
-(c)ch-, -(j)jh- as well as -(g)gh-; for example, Skt. kṣāyati > P. jhāyati and ghāyati
(“it is consumed”). Khīṇa is the normal Pāli reflex of Skt. kṣīṇa, but jhīṇa also
existed as a form, and possibly ghīṇa which is the same sound with [-back] >
[+back].27 It appears that the conjunct kṣ- could be pronounced several ways
25
26
27
For a full discussion see H. W. Bailey 1946: 770–775. See also GDhp §16. Most Prakrits used
the notation -(c)ch- or -(k)kh- to represent Skt. -kṣ- (brackets indicate that the doubled
consonants were often not shown in Pkt.). See also Hiän-lin Dschi 1944: 143, who makes
the same point that Skt. kṣa changed in the west and northwest to cha and was represented in Ch. by tscha. See footnote 66 for further references. In G., -(c)ch- could also apparently be mistaken for a palatal fricative, as in GDhp 12-b which has śotria (“learned in
the Veda”) paralleling Dhp 294-b and P. Dhp 47-b khattiye (“warrior caste” < Skt. kṣatriya);
here the western ch- sound (< kṣ-) has apparently been heard or interpreted as a ś- sound.
T.25.1509: 408c17 (Dazhi du lun 大智度論). Here he uses the same word as an example:
chaye 叉耶 (PB: tʂhaɨ/tʂhε:-jia) < Skt. kṣaya. See also Appendix 1.
Norman 1995: 283. See also Sheth 1963: 308, where Pkt. ghitta for Skt. kṣipta is found, so
presumably ghīṇa < Skt. kṣīṇa is possible, if not attested.
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154
in Kumārajīva’s time, according to its dialectical origin. As the language of
Buddhism became more and more Sanskritised—by Xuanzang’s time, for
example, in the seventh century—the conjunct was always captured by a twocharacter sound; but the fact that Kumārajīva sometimes transcribes it with
a retroflex fricative alone, and sometimes with a stop followed by a fricative
suggests that he was making a deliberate distinction according to his understanding of the word and its pronunciation.28
śānte (sānte,
śānte
sānta)
samite (śamite, śame
śamiti, samite,
śami, sami, sanī;
Tib. śamito)
dhāraṇī
dhāraṇī
(dhāraṇī)
ālokabhāṣe
(ālokābhase,
ālokābhāṣe,
ālokabhāṣa,
ālokāvabhāṣe)
28
aloka-bhāsi
(ālokabhāse)
羶帝 shandi
(PB: ɕian-tεjh)
賒履 shelü
(PBː ɕia-mi)
āloka-bhaṣa
陀羅尼
tuoluoni
(PBː da-la-nri)
阿盧伽婆娑
aluqieposuo
(PBː ʔa-lɔ-gɨaba-sa)
śānte
“peace”
either
śami
“effort”
either
dhāraṇī
“dhāraṇī”
either
ālogabhāsa “light of
splendour”
or “light and
splendour”a
Pkt. -k- > -g-.
See Aśokan
edicts,
Jaugaḍa
Separate
Edict 2 H,
hidalogaṃ
ca palalogaṃ
(“this world
and the
other world”)
where loka >
loga.b
For transliteration of -kṣ by Xuanzang, see Shu-Fen Chen 2004: 123 (cakṣuḥ), 144 (lakṣaṇa),
and 146 (kṣayo). The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB) and PB (p. 47) give the character cha 刹 (PB: tʂha ɨt/tʂhε:t) as the transcription character for Skt. kṣa(t) and ashaluo
阿刹羅 (PB: ʔa-tʂhaɨt/tʂhε:t-la) is an additional transcription possibility for akṣara (S &
H), but one which Kumārajīva did not use, as there was evidently no standard for him to
follow. DDB is found at http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/accessed Nov. 2014.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
pratyavekṣaṇi,
(apratyavekṣaṇiprat
yavekṣaṇe; Tib.
pratyavekṣaṇī)
apratyavekṣaṇi
(pratyavekṣaṇi )
nidhiru (nipibhi, viviruniviṣṭe
nivita, nipiru,
(viviru)
niviḍa, viviru,
nidhiruciciru,
nidhiruviniru,
niniru,
niniruviciru,
ninirupiciru,
nidhibhi)
pratyavekṣaye
niviṣṭe
**rdiṣṭe
**=missing.
簸蔗毘叉膩
bozhepicha-ni
(PBː pa’-tɕiahbji-tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː-ni)
禰毘剃
niqie ti (PBː
nεj’-bji-thεjh)
155
pac(c)avekṣaṇi or
pac(c)ave(c)chaṇi
“inspecting,
looking at”
nivi(ṭ)ṭhe
“penetrated” Pkt.
Pkt.
a Dharmarakṣa translates this as guancha guangyao 觀察光耀 “observe the splendour”.
b Hultzsch 1925 [1969]: 117; Bloch 1950: 141. Jaugaḍa is located in Eastern India in Kalinga.
Another instance of -k- > -g- occurs in a Ch. translation of the Dhp 97 compound akataññū
(“knowing the uncreated”) which is translated in the Ch. version of the Abhidharma-jñānaprasthāna-śāstra as 不往知 (bù wǎng zhī, “not knowing what is gone” or perhaps “knowing
the not-yet frequented,” i.e. the dominion of death), indicating that the Ch. redactor had the
Pkt. form agata- in front of him/her, rather than akata-. See Minoru Hara 1992: 185.
5.1.1
pratyavekṣaṇi
The -kṣ- conjunct in pratyavekṣaṇi is treated the same as in akṣaya above,
using a retroflex sibilant to express the sound. The -ty- had become palatalized
and changed to -cc- as also occurred in Pāli (pa(c)cavekkhana) and Gāndhāri
and other Prakrits.29 Although Pāli and all the other Prakrits lost the -r- in pr-,
Gāndhāri kept it (e.g. Skt. pratyaya > G. prace’a in GDhp 88-b), and in the NW
Aśokan edicts of Sh and M it was sometimes retained and sometimes assimilated. Two and a half centuries later, when Sanskritisation was much more
prevalent, this conjunct was regularly represented by two characters, e.g. in
Xuanzang’s transliterated version of the Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra, where
29
See Pischel §280 and Coblin 1983: 35ː “It therefore seems safe to conclude that earlier
dentals followed by y had become palatalized in the underlying language(s) of the BTD
texts” (BTD = Buddhist Transcription Dialect).
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156
Levman
the pr- in prajñā is represented by two characters, one for p- and one for -r-:
boluoe’rang 鉢 囉誐 攘 (PB: pat-la-ŋa/nga-ɲɨaŋ).30
5.1.2
nidhiru
Prakrit (attested in Mylius 2005: 332) has ṇiviṭṭhe; the Central Asian MS has
niviṣṭe. Final EMC -s had disappeared by this time in the north of China
(Pulleyblank 1983: 87), so it is unclear whether Kumārajīva could have captured it with the tools at his disposal, although presumably he could have inserted a character starting with an s- to capture the sibilant sound. It does,
however, appear that Kumārajīva had a Prakritic source document based on
other evidence. The large number of variant forms of the Sanskrit word nidhiru
shows that there was a lot of confusion concerning this form, which may be
attributable in part to the alteration of -dh- >< -v- which is not uncommon in
Prakrit. Norman lists several example of this in one of Buddhism’s oldest texts,
the Sutta Nipāta and it is also present in the Mahāyāna texts.31 The Sanskrit letter -r- cannot be pronounced by the Chinese and is automatically changed to
an -l- sound which also might further mutate to a retroflex ṭ or ḍ in the Prakrits,
although the change from -ṭ- >-ḍ- > -l- is far more common.32 The sounds -ḍaand -la- are very similar and apparently were confused, judging by the many
variants: nivita, niviḍa, etc.
Pkt.
abhyantaraniviṣṭe abhyantaraniviṣṭe abhyantara 阿便哆邏禰履剃 abhyantara- ‘inside,
penetrated’
abianduoluonilü- ti nivi(ṭ)ṭhe
(abhyantaraniviṭhe abhyantaraniviṣṭhe
(PBː ʔa-bjianh-taabhyantaraniviṣṭhe
lah-nεj’-li’- thεjh)a
abhyantaraniviṣṭa
amyantaraniviṣṭe
abhyantaranirviṣṭa
30
31
32
Shu-Fen Chen 2004: 115. The character 誐 is neither in Pulleylank or Karlgren, so nga represents the author’s (Chen’s) transliteration, which is taken from William H. Baxter, “An
Etymological Dictionary of Common Chinese Characters” (manuscript, 2000). Coblin
(1994: 123, entry 0011) gives it the same Qieyun value (ngâ, based on the fanqie spellings in
the Guangyun).
K. R. Norman 2006: 157. vīra/dhīra, vaṃkaṃ/dhaṃkaṃ, avibhū/adhibhū, etc. This also occurs in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, where in Chapter 9, 56a1, page 92, the manuscript reads
avodigbhāga, and it has been changed in critical edition to adhodigbhāga. See Study
Group on Buddhist Sanskrit Literature 2006.
Pischel §§238, 240. In the Aśokan edicts, for example, we find Skt. ḍuli written as duḍī
(“turtle”) in Pillar Edict 5 B (Allāhābād-Kosam) and Skt. mahilā written as mahiḍā
(“woman”) in Gir RE 9 C. For other examples see Levman 2010: 66.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
157
abhyantaravisiṣṭa
abhyantaraviciṣṭa
abhyantarapiviṣṭe
abhyantarapravisṭe
abhyantaravivaṣṭe)
a The character 哆 is not found in PB or KG. The 反切 spelling given in the Taishō is 多可
or 都餓, which I transliterate as “ta”, as both 多 and 都 have the EMC phonetic value of “ta” or
“tɔ”. However, Coblin identifies this character as a retroflex -ḍ- reconstructing EMC phonetic
value “ḍje” (1983: 164, #210), based on Xu Shen’s work (2nd century CE) in the Shuowen jiezi
說文解字, an early Han Dynasty Chinese dictionary. If indeed the sound is voiced, this
would be further evidence of a Prakritic influence (which tends to voice voiceless intervocalic consonants). In his later “Compendium,” Coblin (1994: 119, sub entry 0001) gives 哆 as
Qieyun tâ.
Hurvitz transcribes the second word in this compound as niviṣṭe, same as the
immediately preceding niviṣṭe, but it is not clear why Kumārajīva spells it differently this time, using 履 (usually signifying the sound li, but also used for
vi and others)33 for the second syllable where before he used 毘 (-bji-; i.e. nεj’vi’-thεjh vs. nεj’-bji-thεjh). It certainly suggests a difference in the source text
spelling, which is not immediately apparent. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta
transcribe 儞鼻瑟 (nεj’-bjih-ʂit)34 which seems to be an attempt at transcribing niviṣṭe.
abhyantarapāriśuddhi
(abhyaṇtarapariśuddhi
-pariśuddho, -pariśuddhi
-pariśuddhī, -visuddhī,
-pāraśuddhe, -pariśuddhe;
Tib. atyantapāriśuddhi,
atyantabheriśuddhi)
33
34
abhyantarapāriśuddhi
(anyantapāriśuddhī)
阿亶哆波隷輸地
adanduobolishu di
(PB: ʔa-tan’-ta-palεjh-ɕuə̆ -dih)
at(t)anta-pāri- “perfect
Pkt.
śu(d)dhi
purification” -ty- >
-(t)t-
See footnote 30.
The character 儞 is neither in PB or KG; Coblin 1994: 219, entry 0307a, gives it a Qieyun
value of nï and an ONWC value of *nii.
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158
There are two traditions here, abhyantarapāriśuddhi (“complete purification
inside”) and atyantapāriśuddhi (“perfect purification”). Kumārajīva has followed the second one. Coblin’s comment (see footnote 29 above) that dentals
followed by a -y- were palatalized is not true in this instance, where the -y- has
simply dropped off. It is clear that Kumārajīva could have represented the -tyconjunct if he wished as -t- was a permitted final and he had characters like 閼
and 延 (PB: ʔat, jian-), but did not use them. In Gāndhārī -ty- usually changes
to a -c- (kṛtya > kica in GDhp 48-b), but also sometimes the -y- is just dropped
as in this instance (e.g. GDhp 263-a maṇuśa < Skt. mānuṣya). Alternatively, the
future tense in Gāndhārī regularly changes the -sy- > -ṣ-, as in GDhp 301-d
payeṣidi, “he will collect”). This also happens in other Prakrits, for example, in
AMg, where Skt. pratyeka > patteẏa (Pischel §80), and is seen in the Aśokan
edicts, e.g. Rock Edict 5 B in Girnār (Gir) and Shāhbāzgaṛhī (Sh) where Skt.
kalyāna > Gir kalāṇassa and Sh kalaṇasa.
mutkule (utkūle,
utkule, ukkule, ukūle,
kule, ulūke, kukkula
mukkule; Tib. utkulo,
udkulo, mutkulo )
mutkule (mutkūle,
mutkule, mukkule,
mukkula, mukūle,
akule)
ukkule
mukkule
漚究隷
u(k)kule
oujiuli
(PB: ʔəwkuwh- lεjh)
Skt. utkūla?
mu(k)kule
牟究隷
moujiuli
(PBː muwkuwh- lεjh < Skt.
utkula, Pkt.
ukkula (“outcast“)
“outcast”?
“high”
Pkt. -tk- >
-(k)k-
Pkt. tk- >
-(k)k-
If the m- in the Anlaut of the first mutkule is taken as the accusative singular of
the previous word pāriśuddhim, then the utkule mutkule phrase would agree
with the Chinese and the Tibetan (which has mutkule mutkule). The Chinese
version accords with the Gilgit manuscript (and some of the Nepalese manuscripts) which preserve the older non-Sanskritised form (Pkt. -kk-), which was
later Sanskritised to -tk-. The final -ut was permitted in EMC and Kumārajīva
had access to logographs like 芴 (PB: mut-) which suggests that he did not have
this reading in his source document. The meaning is not clear; utkula means
“an outcaste” whereas utkūla means “sloping up, high”. Long syllables were not
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
159
marked in Gāndhārī’s Kharoṣṭhi script and mukkule could simply be a euphonic -m-, often introduced in the Prakrits as a substitute for Sanskrit sandhi (euphonic junction between words); that is ukkule ukkule > ukkula ukkule (where
the final -e in ukkule > -a because of the following vowel u-) would exemplify
the normal connection between two nouns, one of which ended in -e and the
second beginning in another vowel (u-); however, with the loss of sandhi rules
this could also become ukkule-m-ukkule (Geiger §73.2).
araḍe (arate, asaḍe;
Tib. araṭe)
paraḍe (parate; Tib.
paraṭe, maraṭe)
vavatisaṃbhave
araḍe
阿羅隷 aluoli
(PB: ʔa-la-lεjh)
波羅隷 boluoli
(PB: pa-la-lεjh)
paraḍe
araḷe
?
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷ-
paraḷe
?
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷ-
A common change from Sanskrit to Pkt. is -ḍ- > -ḷ- and we may be fairly certain
that this is what has happened here as Kumārajīva had specified the character
荼 as the transliteration for ḍa in his translation of the arapacana syllabary,
which character he could have used if his source document had araḍe or
paraḍe, as in the Sanskrit. But he uses li 隷 instead, which he only uses to represent the vocalic liquids or consonants. Change of ḍ- > -ḷ- is very common
in P. (Geiger §35) and also occurs in the Aśokan edicts.35 In the language of
the Niya Documents (G), the letter -ḍ- was either pronounced as a voiced retroflex fricative (= ʑ), as an -ṛ-, or as an -l-, in the case of loan-words incorporated into Khotanese Saka (Burrow 1937: §18) which may have been one of the
languages Kumārajīva (a Kuchean) spoke, Kucha being on the north side of
the Taklamakan Desert and Khotan on the south, presumably with constant
interchange between the two caravan destinations. The meaning of araḷe/
paraḷe is uncertain. Dharmarakṣa seems to associate it with turning: wuyou
huixuan, suo zhouxian chu 無有迴旋,所周旋處, but it is not clear where he
gets this derivation. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta’s transliteration is similar
to Kumārajīva: anluodi boluodi 頞邏第 鉢邏第 (PB: ʔat-lah-dɛj’, pat-lah-dɛj’),
preserving the -l- sound.
35
Skt. eḍaka > eḷakā (“ram”) in Pillar Edict 5 C.
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160
sukāṅkṣi
(sukākṣi,
śukākṣi,
sukākṣe,
śru-kākṣī)
śukākṣi
**kākṣi
首迦差
shoujiacha
(PBː ɕuw-kɨatʂhaɨh/tʂεː h)
śukā/ăkṣi or
śukā/ă(c)chia
“swift wish” < Skt.
śu, “quickly” and
kāṅkṣā, “wish”
Pkt.
a Before a double consonant the vowel in Prakrit would always be short (Geiger §5) although
it had the value of two morae. This probably means that the form Kumārajīva had in front
of him was śukāchi, or śukacchi, but not śukācchi with both double -cch- and long -ā-. In
AMg this word appears as -kaṃkhā (P. -kankhā, both with short -a-) which shows the eastern
change -kṣ- > -(k)kh-; however other words like AMg kaccha (“forest” < Skt. kakṣa) show the
western form -kṣ- > -(c)ch-.
Here again Kumārajīva uses a single sound (the character 差, a retroflex fricative) to represent the conjunct -kṣ-. It is not clear why he did not use the character 叉 as in akṣaya above, but both appear to be almost identical phonetically
(叉 = PB: tʂhaɨ/tʂhεː, 差 = PB: tʂhaɨh-tʂhεːh). The compound śukā/ăkṣi (śukā/ă(c)
chi) could also come from śuka-akṣi (“eye of a parrot”) which makes no sense in
this context. It is much more likely that it derives from śu-kāṅkṣā (“swift wish”),
where the -ṅ- was omitted in the source document, as a long, open syllable
was automatically nasalized in Gāndhārī and the nasalization was often omitted in the written script (Fussman 1989: 478). Dharmarakṣa translates as qi mu
qingjing 其目清淨 (“their eyes are pure”) taking the compound as derived from
Skt. śukra-akṣi which is not supported by any of the versions (which would
have been spelt sukkākṣi, with a double -kk- to account for the conjunct), although Tibetan (and Kern’s “K” MS) has śrukākṣī, which might point to śukraakṣi (“pure eye”) by metathesis (śruka-akṣi).
asamasame
yogakṣeme
asamasame
buddhavilokite buddhavilokite
阿三[摩]磨三履
a-san[mo]mosanlü (PB:
ʔa-sam[ma]ma-sam-mi)
buddhavilo** 佛[陀]馱毘吉利袠
帝 fo[tuo]tuopi jilizhidi (PB: but-[da]
da-bji-kjit-lih-?-tɛjh)
asamasame
“equal to the Pkt. or
unequalled”a Skt.
buddha- “Buddha
vikliṣṭe destroyed”
Pkt. or
Skt.
a So translated by Dharmarakṣa as deng wu suo deng 等無所等.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
161
The character zhi 袠 is not found in PB or KG. Hurvitz transliterates as
buddhavikliṣṭe, and analagous characters with the same radical (製) suggest
a tɕiajh pronunciation which would almost fit (although a palatal sibilant
instead of a retroflex one); however, the meaning does not seem apt for a
dhāraṇī, unless we are to take this in a Chan sense, i.e. positively (but of course
this would be an anachronism). The clear Sanskrit meaning (buddhavilokite,
“Buddha seen”) is more appropriate. Dharmarakṣa renders jue yi yuedu
覺已越度, “awakening to transcendence” so it is not clear what he was translating, but certainly not vikliṣṭe. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta have bodibiluji (?)
勃地鼻盧吉,36 (PB: bət-dih-bjih-lɔ-kjit-[?]) transcribing bodhi-vilokite (“enlightenment seen”). The compound buddhavikliṣṭe is an example of Kumārajīva
using two characters to capture the -kl- conjunct (吉利) which suggests that
the word being transcribed is either Sanskrit or Prakrit, where it would have
been written with an epenthetic -i-, viz., -vikiliṭhe (G.) or vikiliṣṭe (GDhp 60,
with -ṭha- = -ṣṭa-) and -vikiliṭṭhe in Pāli and the Prakrits.
dharmaparīkṣite
(dharmaparikṣite)
dharmaparīkṣite
達[摩]磨波利差帝
da [mo]mobo-lichadi
(PBː dat- mɔ/ma-palih-tʂhaɨh/tʂhεːh-tεjh).
Note P. dhamma vs.
Skt. dharma.a
saṃghanir- **ghanir- 僧伽涅瞿沙禰
ghoṣaṇi
ghātani sengjianiequshani
(PBːsəŋ-gɨanεt-guə- ʂaɨ/
ʂεː-nεj’)
saṃghanirghoṣaṇi
(saṅghanirghosaṇi
saṃghanighasani
saṃghanighaṣaṇi
saṃghanisaṃghani
saṃghaniḥsaṃghasani)
nirghoṇi (nirghoṇi,
nirghoṣaṇi
nirghonti, nirghoṣaṇī,
nirghoṣaṇi)
dhammaparikṣite “the
or dhammapari- dharma
(c)chite
investigated”
Pkt.
saṃghanirghoṣaṇi “The sound Skt.
of the
assembly”
“the silence
of the
assembly”b
saṃghani
a Per Coblin 1983: 248, no. 173, tanmo 曇摩 (PBː dam/dəm-ma) was the eastern Han transcription of dharma, which Kumārajīva inherited.
b Translated by Dharmarakṣa as [Ling]hezhong wuyin [令]合眾無音 “the silence of the Saṅgha”.
36
This is the closest character I could find to what is shown in the Taishō, notated as
[羊*(句-口+瓦)]. However this character is missing the 句-口, and I don’t know what the
phonetic value might be (or the pinyin).
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162
The kṣ- conjunct in Skt. dharmaparīkṣite is rendered as a single retroflex
fricative (差) as in the previous compound śukā/ă(c)chi. It appears that
saṃghanirghoṣaṇi was in the source document, as Kumārajīva has taken pains
to translate the actual -rgha- conjunct, using an EMC character with final -t.
This is a standard method of indicating an -r- with sarva (as he does below)
and other common words (e.g. 薩婆, PB sat-ba < Skt. sarva), so presumably he
had a source text with the conjunct -rgh- which indicates a Skt. or Sanskritised
text. The word nirghoṣaṇi can either mean “noisy” or “without noise” (< Skt.
nirghoṣa, “noisy” or “silent”). However as the consonant -r- > Ø in most Prakrits
(but not always in Gāndhārī),37 this compound could also have a Prakrit
source. Note that the word saṃgha occurs without change in some Prakrits
(e.g. P. saṅgha, AMg saṃgha, Aśokan Minor Rock Edict I, D, saṃghe), and in
GDhp as saǵā , where, per Brough, the letter -ǵ-̄ represents the sound of -ng(GDhp 8, verse 102-d).
bhayābhayaviśodhani
(bhayābhayaviśodhanī
bhayābhayadhanī,
bhayaśodhani, Tib.
bhayābhayaśodhani)
Skt.
bhayābhaya- bhāṣyābhāṣya 婆舍婆舍輸地 bhāṣyā-bhāṣya- “pure
speaking”?
posheposheshudi śodhia
śoddhī;
viśodhani
-śodhani
(PBː pa-ɕia’-paɕia’- ɕuə-dih)
a Karashima (1992: 360) transliterates as EMC bwâ-śja-bwâ-śja-śju di.
The Chinese spells out a word closest to the Central Asian manuscript; however the character 舍 is usually used by Kumārajīva to represent the palatal
ś, not the retroflex ṣ as Karashima suggests (e.g. in the mantra of chapter 28
where 舍 represents the palatal -ś- in daṇḍakuśale). This would give us
*bhaśyābhaśyaśodhi which doesn’t make sense; it is probably just an alternate form as we find both bhaśadi, bhaṣati and bhaṣadi used in Gāndhārī.38
Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta transliterate bayebayeshudani 跋耶跋夜
輸達泥 (PB: bat-jia-bat-jiah-ɕuə-dat-nεjh; KG: puâ-i̭a-puâ-i̭a) which seems
37
38
See discussion below in dhāraṇī #6, s.v. saṃghanirghātani, p. 179.
See Dictionary of Gāndhāri s.v. bhaśadi (British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 18 available
at gandhari.org/a_manuscript.php?catid=CKM0020, accessed Nov. 2014), bhaṣati (Bhajur
Fragment 2 available at gandhari.org/a_manuscript.php?catid =CKM0265, accessed Nov.
2014) and bhaṣadi (GDhp 114-b, 201-d, 202-d).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
163
to transliterate bhaya. Dharmarakṣa has “What one states is very clear; be
contented”.39 The -ṣy- or -śy- conjunct suggests that this part of the source
document was written in Sanskrit, as all the Prakrits would show -ṣy- >
-ś/ṣ/s- assimilation.
mantre
(mantra)
mantre
mantra; maṃtre
曼哆邏
manduo-luo
(PBː muanh-talah) P. manta <
Skt. mantra
mantra
“mystical verse,
sacred formula”
Skt.
In this word Kumārajīva again makes use of what Xuanzang was later to name
erhe yin 二合音, or “two combined sounds” to represent a conjunct consonant.
This might also be the addition of an epenthetic vowel (i.e. *mantara) which is
quite common in the eastern Prakrits (e.g. Pkt. ariya < Skt. ārya, “noble”; Pkt.
radaṇa < Skt. ratna, “jewel”), however the MI word *mantara or *mandara
(= German Mandarin)40 is not attested. Since there is a Prakrit form of this
word (Pāli manta), we can assume that Kumārajīva was at pains to capture the
full three-consonant conjunct which presumably he had before him.
mantrākṣayate mantrākṣaye maṃtrākṣayate
mantrakṣayā
(maṃtrākṣaye,
mantrākṣaye,
mantrākṣare;
Tib.
mantrakṣayate)
曼哆邏叉夜多 mantrākṣayata or “mantras! Skt.
mantrā(c)chayata rule!”
(mantra)
manduoPkt.
luochayeduo
(-kṣa-yata)
(PBː muanh-talah- tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː-jiah-ta)
The Chinese compound clearly ends in -ta, not -te like most of the Sanskrit versions and is “correct Sanskrit” for “mantras” (voc. pl.) “rule!” (2nd pers. pl. imperative). Dharmarakṣa has jin chu jie xian 盡除節限, which Karashima
39
40
T.9.263: 130a18–19: suoshuo [xian] jieming er huai zhi zu 所說[鮮]解明而懷止足.
Mayrhofer 1963: vol. 3, 578. The word Indara for Indra appears in the Mitanni-Hittite treaty, c. 1350 BCE, in Norman 1995: 1, but this is probably due to the cuneiform writing system.
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164
correlates with this section and translates as “one clears away segments and
limits completely”. He suggests that Dharmarakṣa’s source document read
matra or mātra (“measure, size”) and -nt- > -t- in the Prakritic form that
Dharmarakṣa had before him (1992: 236–37). This seems unlikely as nasals before stops are usually retained in Prakrit (Pischel §272), and the word matra
occurs in the GDhp 17-b, 164-c, representing both its masculine (mātra) and
feminine (mātrā) forms. The Prakrit for mantra would be closer to the P. manta.
Dharmarakṣa seems to be saying that the use of mantras “eliminates limitations”, paraphrasing mantrākṣayata in terms of the result, which is typical of
his translation approach to this dhāraṇī. The second word in the compound
(-kṣayata) is treated by Kumārajīva the same as kṣaye above, using the retroflex
fricative for the Sanskrit conjunct which is the sound it has in Gāndhārī and
other Prakrits. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta translate mandaluoqiye 曼怛邏
憩夜, (PB: muanh-tat-la-khiajh-jiah) which sounds like an alternate Prakrit form
(-kkhaya or -khyaya) for -kṣaya, found in Pāli and AMg, where kṣ- > (k)kh-.
rute (uta, ta)
rute
rute
rutekauśalye
(rutakauśalya,
krutakauśilye;
Tib.
rutakauśale)
rutekauśalye
rudakauśalyā
(mahārutakauśalye)
[卸]郵樓哆 [xie]
youlouduo (PBː [ziah]
wuw-ləw-ta)
[卸]郵樓[多]哆憍舍
略 [xie]youlou [duo]
duojiaoshelüe
(PBː [ziah]wuw-ləwta-kiaw-ɕia’- lɨak)
uruta
?
either
urutakauśalya
?
Skt.
While rute and rute kauśalya have a clear meaning (“sound” and “sound and
well-being”), the addition of the prefix u- is a puzzle, not present in any of the
non-Chinese reflexes. It might be a Prakrit form of ava-,41 but avaruta is not
attested either. Notice that the Central Asian reflex has a voiced intervocalic
-d-, while all the other forms, including the Chinese have a voiceless dental (if
indeed duo 哆 represents such, which is not clear; see page 157, note a).
41
See von Hinüber 2001 §139. The character 卸 may simply represent a strong initial r-, per
Prof. Max Deeg (private communication).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
akṣaye
(akṣaṣe, akṣaya)
akṣaya
akṣaye
惡叉邏 echaluo
(PBː ʔak- tʂhaɨ/tʂhεː-la)a
165
akṣara
“imperishable” or
“syllable”
Skt.
a Karashima (1992: 360) transliterates as EMC ʔâk tṣha lâ (akṣara).
Again Kumārajīva’s transliteration stands apart from the Sanskrit reflexes, all of
which have a different word, which has the same sense (“undecaying”) as one
of the meanings of akṣara. We have seen above that Kumārajīva transcribed
akṣaye as achayi 阿叉裔, (PBː ʔa- tʂhaɨ/tʂhεː-jiajh), omitting the -k- in the conjunct and treating it as one retroflex fricative sound; yet here he chooses to
treat it as a conjunct, so it seems self-evident that he is trying to spell out the
Sanskrit word akṣara. The Prakrit form of this word is akkhara (P. and AMg),
and there was probably a form *acchara, although not attested (as AMg accha
< Skt. akṣa, “eye” is attested).
akṣayavanatāye
(akṣayavanatāya,
akṣayavanatāyā,
akṣayevatāyaiva;
Tib. akṣavartāyā,
akṣavartānatāya,
akṣavarhāyā)
akṣayavanatāya
(akṣavanatāya)
**tāya
惡叉冶多冶
echayeduoye
(PBː ʔak- tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː-jia’-ta-jia’)
akṣayatāya
?
Skt.
All the Sanskrit reflexes repeat the first word (akṣaye-) in the next compound
(i.e. akṣaye akṣayavanatāye); however Kumārajīva changes akṣara to akṣaya
(akṣayataya or akṣayatāya), while still preserving the dual consonants in the
Skt. -kṣ- conjunct. Hurvitz omits this word in his transliteration (2009: 296).
The compound may be an oblique form of the Prakrit akṣaya-tā ending (“condition of, state of imperishability”).
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166
vakkule (vakule, vakkula,
vatkule, vaktula, vakkusa,
valoḍa valoka, valota valoka;
Tib valorā)
valoḍa (valoka, vale, valot,
valota)
amanyanatāye
(amanyanatāya,
amanyanatāyā,
amanyanatāyai,
amanyatāye, amanyatāya,
amanyavanatāye,
amanyavanatāyai)
svāha
a
b
balo
abale
amanyanatāya
amanyanatāya
阿婆盧 apolu
(PB: ʔa -ba-lɔ)a
阿摩若([任]荏
蔗反)那多夜
amaruonaduoye
(PBː ʔa-ma-ɲɨakna’-ta- jiah)
avala
“weak”
amanyanatāya
?
Pkt. -b- >
-v-b
either
Karashima (1992: 360) transliterates as EMC ʔâ bwâ lwo (abalo).
For -p-/-b- > -v- see Pischel §§199, 201; GDhp 34. See note on character 婆 below, under
dhāraṇī # 6.
Hurvitz transcribed 阿婆盧 as avaru with a footnote saying that the Sanskrit
has nothing to correspond to this (296, 364), but he was unaware of the Central
Asian version, which the Chinese matches, with the usual Prakrit change of
-b- > -v-. Dharmarakṣa has something similar: Yong wuli shi 永無力勢, “one forever lacks strength” (Karashima 1992: 237). The last compound amanyanatāya
recapitulates the beginning (anye manye) in terms of sonic echo, if not in
meaning. The member of the compound -nata, appears to be the past participle of √nam (“to bow”), i.e. nata, in the dative case, which is often used
as an infinitive form; if one takes manya- as Sanskrit “appearing as, thinking
oneself to be” then one may construe the meaning of the compond a-manyanatāya, as “homage to the non-appearance [of an I]”, but this is fanciful at best,
although Dharmarakṣa has something similar: Wu suo sinian 無所思念, “lack
of thought”. Better to take it as a recapitulatory sonic echo of the dhāraṇī
beginning (anye manye).
In this first dhāraṇī we have sixteen forms that could derive from either a
Prakrit or Sanskrit source document, sixteen that derive from Prakrit and eleven
from Sanskrit.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
167
Dharāṇi #2, Spoken by Pradānaśūra Yongshi 勇施
5.2
jvale (jvāle)
jvale
jvale
mahājvale
(mahājvāle)
mahājvale
ma**l**
[座]痤隷
[zuo]cuoli
(PB: [dzwah]-dzwa-lɛjh)
摩訶痤隷
mohecuoli
(PB: ma-xa-dzwa- lɛjh)
jale or jvale
“flame”
Pkt.
mahājale or
mahājvale
“great
flame”
Pkt.
The difficulty here is determining what sound the character 痤 represents, a
single letter j- or a conjunct jv-. The fanqie (shi luo 誓螺, PB: dʑiajh-lwa) suggests a single letter pronounced “dʑa” which is similar to Kumārajīva’s transliteration of ja in the arapacana alphabet, i.e. 闍 (= PB: dʑia).42 KG transliterates
痤 as dz’uâ. Tsukamoto suggests Kumārajīva’s transliteration = jale which is the
Prakrit form of this word (e.g. AMg jala; Tsukamoto 1978: 19; Mylius 2003: 286).
The character 痤 (PB: dzwa) does suggest a slight labialization of the affricate
dz-; however, since Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta transliterate as shepoli 涉
皤犁 (PB dʑip-ba-li), i.e. using two characters to capture the jv- in Sanskrit,
it appears that they thought Kumārajīva’s transliteration was Prakrit and
Sanskritised it.
ukke
(utke, ukte; Tib. ugge)
tukke
(bhukke, tukte, gukke)
mukke
(mukaye)
42
ukke
mukke
u**k**
郁枳 yuzhi (PB: ʔuwktɕiă/tɕi’; KG: i̭uk-tśiḙ)
ukśe
?
?
目枳 muzhi (PB:
muwk-tɕiă/tɕi’)
mukśe
?mukta
“liberated”
?
T.25.1509: 408c10 (Dazhi du lun 大智度論).
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168
This is a puzzle. As Brough points out, “the regular correspondence of the three
Indian [i.e. Gāndhārī] sibilants with the Chinese is striking”, yet here we have a
palatal -ś- with a velar k- which never happens in Sanskrit or any of the Prakrits
that I am aware (although in the Aśokan edicts, the Kālsī rock edicts use the
sibilants ṣ and ś where they are “phonetically and etymologically impossible”).43
This of course might be a simple interchange of -ś- for -ṣ-, but Kumārajīva has
not shown any “sloppiness” in transliterating before. If he was trying to capture
a kṣ sound in the source dialect, why didn’t he use the character 叉 (PBː tʂhaɨ/
tʂhεː), which he used in kṣaye and akṣaye above? Karashima (1992: 237) suggests a derivation of ukke from Sanskrit ulkā (“a meteor, fire-brand, torch”). The
rendition by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta is clearly Pkt. 郁雞目雞, yujimuji
(PB: ʔuwk-kɛj muwk-kɛj) with a possible derivation < Skt. mukta/mukti. A possible explanation for Kumārajīva is that he was transcribing from a Prakrit
where (m)ukta was pronounced (m)ukδa or (m)ukza (i.e. as a fricative, as is the
case in Gāndhārī, per GDhp 43a), the sound of which he tried to capture with
this character (枳).
aḍe (atrā, ata, aḍā)
aḍāvati (Tib: aḍavati,
aṭāvati)
aḍe
aḍāvati
aṭe
aṭāvatī
阿隷 ali (PB: ʔa-lεjh)a
阿羅婆第 aluopo dì
(PB: ʔa-la-ba-dεj’)b
aḷe
aḷavade
?
?
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷPkt. d- > -ḷ- -t- > -d-
a Karashima 1992: 360, transliterates as EMC ʔa-liei which he suggests represents *aḷe or
*ale < aḍe.
b Karashima 1992: 360 transliterates as EMC ʔâ-lâ -bwâ-diei, representing *aḷāvadi or *alāvadi.
See discussion under araḍe parade above. The meaning is not clear. Tsukamoto
suggests three possible derivations from ada (“eating”), ādi (“beginning”) and
from the root √aṭ (“wander about”), but none of these are convincing, because
of lack of context (1978: 20). Dharmarakṣa’s “translation” of this section appears to be shunlai [dang] fuzhang 順來[當]富章 meaning of which is unclear
to me (“Follow, come and accept the chapter”)? Karashima (1992: 237) correlates 順來 (“one comes obediently”) with aḍe < Skt. √aṭ (“to wander about”)
and 富章 (“a piece of writing about wealth”) with aḍāvati < Skt. āḍhya-pāda,
but the derivation of the latter is questionable).
43
Hultzsch 1925 [1969]: lxxii. Could mukśe represent a Tocharian influence (i.e. from
Kumārajīva’s native language), where velars > palatals before i or e (Adams 1988: 40–43)?
Here muk-ke > muk-śe? I thank Prof. Alexei Kochetov for this suggestion.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
nṛtye (nṛṭye, nṛtya,
nṛṭṭe
nṛte
nṛtyo, nṛdye, nṛtyati;
Tib tṛtye)
nṛtyāvati (nṛtyavati, nṛṭṭāvati nṛṭāva**
nityāvati, niṭyāvati,
niṭyavati, nṛdyāvati,
tiṭāvati;
Tib tṛṭyavati)
169
涅隷[剃]第
nṛde
nieli[ti]di
(PBː nεt-lεjh-[thεjh]-dεjh)
涅隷多婆第
nṛtavade
nieliduopodi
(PBː nεt- lεjh-ta-po-dεjh)
“dance”
mixture
“characterized mixture
by dancing”
While the preservation of the vocalic -ṛ- indicates a Sanskrit derivation (as
none of the Prakrits kept the vocalic -ṛ-), the voicing of the voiceless dental,
-t- > -d- in -vade, is a definite Prakrit feature. Dharmarakṣa translates as yuexi
xinran 悅喜欣然 (“happy, joyful”), which seems like a gloss on nṛde in its meaning “dance” (< Skt. nṛtta).
iṭṭini (iṭini)
iṭṭini
viṭṭini (viṭini; Tib. viṭṭi)
viṭṭini
ciṭṭini (ciṭini, niṭṭini)
ciṭṭini
(bhiṭṭini,
vittāni)
ciṭini
伊緻[抳]柅
yizhi[ni]ni
(PB: ʔji-drih-ni)a
韋緻[抳]柅
weizhi[ni]ni
(PB: wuj-drih-ni)
旨緻[抳]柅
zhizhi[ni]ni
(PB: tɕi’-drih-no)
i(ṭ)ṭini
?
probably Pkt.
vi(ṭ)ṭini
?
probably Pkt.
ci(ṭ)ṭini
?
probably Pkt.
a Neither of the characters 抳 or 柅 are in PB or KG so I have used the fanqie (女氏反) for the
transliteration. According to the Guangyun, its sound is ni.
The double retroflex -ṭṭ(h)- is a common Prakrit form derived from Skt. -ṣṭ(h)which is how Karashima derives it;44 there are, however lots of native Sanskrit
words with the double retroflex consonants (e.g. paṭṭa = “cloth”; kuṭṭa = “breaking, bruising”, etc.), so the evidence is not conclusive as to the source dialect.
The meaning, as interpreted by Dharmarakṣa, is zhu ci li zhi yong [zhu]zuo
44
See Pischel §§303–304. Karashima 1992: 237 derives -ṣṭh- > -ṭṭh- > -ṭṭ-
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住此立制永[住]作 (“remains here, establishes, rules, and always acts”); he also
takes the words as derived from Skt. √sthā (Karashima 1992: 237).
nṛtyani (nṛtyini, nṛṭṭini,
nṛṭṭini nṛtye, nṛṭini, nṛṭṭi,
nṛṭinṛ, tṛṭinṛ, nṛṭitṛ tṛṣṭitṛ,
kuṭṭini)
nṛtyāvati (nṛtyavati,
vṛtyaviti, tṛṭyāvati,
kuṭṭini)
nṛṭṭini
nṛṭini
涅隷墀[抳]柅
nielichi[ni]ni
(PBː nεt-lεjh-dri-ni)
nṛ(ṭ)ṭini
?
Pkt. -ty->
-t- or -(ṭ)ṭ-
nṛṭṭāvati
nṛṭyāvati
涅[隷]犁墀婆底
nie[li]lichipodi
(PB: nεt-[lεjh]
lεj- dri-ba-tɛj’)
nṛ(ṭ)ṭivate
?
Pkt. ty->
-t- or -(ṭ)ṭ-
Svāha
The “dri” sound is used by Kumārajīva for the retroflex -ṭ-,45 as was the case
with the previous entry (伊緻柅 = iṭṭini). The last word 涅[隷]犁墀婆底
(nṛṭṭivate) differs from the previous treatment 涅隷多婆第 (nṛtavade) by only
two characters, 多 = ta and 第 = dεjh, suggesting that Kumārajīva’s source had a
change here, as we have noted, although Hurvitz (2009: 296) transcribes them
the same. The vocalic -ṛ-, as mentioned above, points to a Sanskrit original,
but von Hinüber suggests this is a Sanskritisation.46 The meaning seems to be
related to Skt. √nṛt (“to dance”), however Dharmarakṣa translates wuhewuji
無合無集 (“no joining, no gathering”).
In Dhāraṇī #2 most of the words have a Prakritic source. Ten are Prakritic
in origin (including three “probably”), two are questionable and two show elements of both Prakrit and Sanskrit.
45
46
The character 緻 may also designate a retroflex -ḍ-, but I have been unable to find another
example where Kumārajīva uses it as such; in his arapacana syllabary he uses 荼 (PB: dɔ)
for retroflex -ḍ- and 吒 (PB: traɨh/trɛ:h) for retroflex -ṭQuoted in Pulleyblank (1983: 101): “[…] they should be derived from an original text having
naṭ-, the -ṛ- being due to a part-Sanskritisation […].”
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
5.3
171
Dhāraṇī #3 by Vaiśravaṇa 毘沙門 (Pishamen)
aṭṭe (aṭṭa, aṭṭo)
aṭṭe
阿[利 or 犁]梨 a[li]li
(PBː ʔa-li/lih)
aḷe
?
Pkt. -ṭ- > -ḷ-
taṭṭe (bhaṭṭe,
bhaṭṭa, taṭṭe)
naṭṭe (naṭṭa, naṭṭo)
vaṭṭe
naḷe
?
Pkt. -ṭ- > -ḷ-
nunaṭṭe
(kunaṭṭe)
那[利 or 犁]梨 na[li]li
(PBː na’-li/lih)
[㝹]那 [利 or 犁]梨?a [nou]
na[li]li (PBː nəu -na’-li/lih)
vanaṭṭe (nanaṭṭe,
tunaṭṭe, tunaṭṭo,
vanaṭṭe, vanatta,
naṭṭe; Tib. tanaṭṭe)
anaḍe (Tib. anate,
anaṭo)
nāḍi (nāḍini Tib.
nāti, nāṭi)
kunaḍi (kunāḍi,
kuṭani; Tib. kunaṭi)
svāha
nunaḷe
?
Pkt. -ṭ- > -ḷ-
anaḍo
阿那盧 a’nalu (PBː ʔa-na’-lɔ)b
anaḷo
?
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷ-
nāḍi
那履 nalü (PBː na’-li’)
nāḷi
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷ-
kunāḍi
拘那履 ju’nalü (PBːkuə-na’-li’)c kunaḷi
“vein, reed”
(AMg, ṇala)
?
naṭṭe
Pkt. -ḍ- > -ḷ-
a The first character is not in PB or KG, but it is found in Coblin (1994: 264), sub-entry 0472, and
he transliterates it as “probable Qieyun nəu,” and ONWC *nou. He notes that it is fairly common in ONWC texts.
b Karashima 1992: 238: < *anaḷo or *analo, EMC ʔâ-nâ-lwo = Dharmarakṣa wuliang 無量
(“measureless”).
c Karashima (1992: 360) transliterates as ʔâ lji … nâ ljiː kju nâ lji; he also reconstructs an original
-ḷ- sound: *aḷe … naḷi kunaḷi or *ale … nali kunali.
All the above words show a change from retroflex dental to a retroflex -ḷ- which
is typical of the Prakrits (Pischel §§238, 240; Geiger §35), so one may assume the
Sanskrit forms have been Sanskritised at a later date and Kumārajīva’s source
document represents an earlier iteration with the Prakrit -ḷ-. This change also
occurs in Gāndhārī where, in the language of the Kharoṣṭhi documents, -ṭ- and
-ḍ- become -ḍ̍- (aspirant or fricative).47 Brough represents this sound as [δ] or
[z] or as -r- which the Chinese translators would have heard as -l- (GDhp 42,
47
Burrow 1937 §18. At present in the Northwest intervocalic ḍ is represented by ṛ which
may have been the ancient pronunciation (which the Ch. would have heard as ḷ ). Also, in
loanwords from Khotan, the ṭ or ḍ usually appear with l.
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42a, 42b). This dhāraṇī is translated cryptically by Dharmarakṣa as “wealth is
tamed, game is without game, without measure (is) without wealth—how
(can there be) wealth?”48 All six words in dhāraṇī #3 point to a Prakrit source
document.
5.4
agaṇe (Tib
agaṇo)
gaṇe (gaṇa;
Tib. gaṇo)
gauri (gori)
gandhāri
(gandhāli,
kālaci; Tib.
gandhari)
Dhāraṇī #4 by Virūḍhaka 持國天王 (Chiguo tianwang)
agaṇe
agaṇe
gaṇe
gaṇe
ghori
gori (ghori)
gāndhāri
gāndhāri;
gandhāri
阿伽禰 ajiami
(PBː ʔa-gɨa-nεj’)
伽禰 jiami
(PB: gɨa-nεj’)
瞿利 quli
(PB: guə̆ -lih)
乾陀利 gantuoli
(PBː kan-da-lih)
agaṇe
gaṇe
gori
kan-dhāri
“without a
multitude”
“flock, troop,
multitude”
“shining,
brilliant”
(< Skt. gaura) or
“frightful, awful”
(< Skt. ghora)
name of a people
< Skt. Gāndhāri
either
either
either;
Pkt.
-au- >
-oPkt.
-g- >
-k-
Both PB and KG transliterate 乾 with a voiceless velar stop k-, suggesting
kandhāri in the source document, or at least an interpretation of the initial g- as voiceless. This may be due to the fact that the Kuchean language
(Kumārajīva’s native language) “ignored the difference between voiced and
voiceless consonants”,49 but this fact is inconsistent with the fairly consistent
practice of changing voiceless stops > voiced stops as noted above. Although
Brough mentions that the -nd- conjunct usually changes to -nn- (written -n-,
as in Skt. vindati > G. vinadi), in the Aśokan inscriptions we also find -ndh- >
48
49
T.9.263: 130b09: 富有調戲無戲,無量無富何富; Karashima (1992: 238) translates: “One
richly has (Ridicule. No ridicule) […] No riches. What is richness?” However, this does not
seem to be a sentence, but simply a group of words mirroring the dhāraṇī. I thank Prof.
Max Deeg for the suggested translation above.
Pelliot 1914: 402, footnote 1, and Burrow (1937: viii), who says the same thing about the language of the Niya Documents (which he terms “Krorainic”, named after the capital of the
kingdom; “it was devoid of voiced stops”). Shan Shan was on the south side of the Karim
basin in NW China and Kucha on the north side (within 200 kms of each other).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
173
-dh- and also retained, as in the Northwestern Rock Edicts: RE 5 J Mānsehrā
has gadharana and Shāhbāzgaṛhī has gaṃdha-ranaṃ for the name of the
Gandhāran peoples. In the Prakrits in general a nasal before a stop is usually retained (Pischel §272), but in the language of the Kharoṣṭhi documents, loss or
assimilation of the nasal before a stop is sporadic, as in the case of the Aśokan
edicts.50
caṇḍāli (caṇdāri; Tib.
caṇdali)
caṇḍāli
caṇḍāli
mātaṅgi (mātagi; Tib.
mātiṅga)
mātaṅgi
mātaṅgi
pukkasi (pukkaśi, pokkasi,
pākkasi, puśkasi)
saṃkule (jaṅguli; Tib. kule)
pukkasi
pukkase
Omitted
saṃkule
jā(ṃ)gu(li)b
常求利 changqiuli jaṅguli
(PBːdʑɨaŋ-guw-lih)c
vrūsuni
浮樓莎[抳]柅
fulousuo[ni]ni (PBː
buw-ləw-swa-ni)
vrūsali (vrūsala, vrūsasi,
vrūsasili, vrūṇasi, vrūhi,
vrūla, kuśali vrūhi, dula;
Tib. vrusale, vrūṣalī)
bhrūsali
(vrūsali)
(栴)旃陀利
(zhan)zhantuoli
(PB: tɕian-da-lih)
摩蹬耆 madengqi
(PBː ma-dəŋ-gji)a
caṇḍāli
proper
name
either
mādaṅgi
proper
name
Pkt.
-t- >
-deither
“indigo
plant”
“snake
either
charmer”
?
either
a Pulleyblank gives the phonetics of 蹬 as deŋh in 1983: 88. The character is not in PB.
b Reconstructed by Karashima 1992: 238.
c Karashima (ibid.: 360): EMCː zjang gjəu lji-.
Although -r- is usually assimlated in the Prakrits (e.g. Skt. vrajati > P. vajati), it is
not always assimilated in the Northwestern Prakrit Gāndhārī, nor the language
of the Niya Documents,51 so the dialect of the source document for vrusūni
could be either Prakrit or Sanskrit.
sisi
svāhā
50
51
agasti
svāhā
頞底 è dǐ (PB: ʔat-tɛj’)
atte
either
Burrow 1937 §45. In P. as well this phenomenon occurs as in abaddho (“unbound”) with
variant abandho (idem) in Sn v. 39-a.
Burrow 1937 §36. See also GDhp words like bramaṇa, praṇa, etc.
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174
Dharmarakṣa translates dhāraṇī #4 as Wushu youshu, yao hei chi xiang, xiong
zhou dati, yu qi shun shu, bao yan zhi you 無數有數,曜黑持香,凶呪大體,
于器順述,暴言至有 (“Innumerable are the numbers. Sunshine and darkness
hold perfume. A terrible curse is the main thing. By one’s abilities, arrange and
tell. Cruel words. Supreme existence”). Beyond the obvious meaning correlations (無數 = agaṇe, 有數 = gaṇe, 曜 = gori), the rest is obscure. Of the ten
words in this dhāraṇī, all except two could be from either a Prakrit or Sanskrit
source.
5.5
Dhāraṇī #5 by the rākṣasyaḥ Luocha nü 羅剎女
itime 5x
itime
itime
nime 5x
nime
nime
ruhe 5x
tṛruhe
stuhe
(haste) 5x
stahe (tṛstahe
tṝstasahe)
stahe
伊提履 yitilü
(PB: ʔji-dɛj-li’)
泥履 nilü
(PB: nɛj-li’)
樓醯 louxi
(PBː ləw-xεj)
多醯 duoxi
(PBː ta-xεj) 3x
兜醯 douxi
(PBː təw-xεj)
㝹醯 nouxi
(PBː nəu -xεj)a
idime x5
Pkt. -t- > -d-
nime x5
either
ruhe x4
either
tahe x3
Pkt. s- > Ø
tuhe x1
Pkt. s- > Ø
thuhe x1
Pkt. s- > Ø
a See note a on page 171. The character 㝹 (“hare”) is only found in Coblin who gives the possible phonetic value ONWC *nou, which is no more explanatory than the aspirated stop value
for its principal component 免 (thɔh), “hare”.
Dharmarakṣa gives various fanciful renditions of the above words which do not
correlate very well with any Sanskrit or Prakrit words: The itime sequence corresponds to yushi yusi yu er yu shi 於是於斯於爾於氏 (“In this, in this place, in
you, in the family”); the nime sequence to jishen wuwo wuwu wushen wu suo ju
tong 極甚無我無吾無身無所俱同 (“no I, no self, no body, no object together”);52
52
Karashima (1992: 239) derives this from nir me (“without me”).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
175
yi xing yi sheng yi cheng 已興已生已成, (“already rising, already growing,
already accomplished”) perhaps correlates with ruhe (< Skt. √ruh, “to grow”);
the remainder er zhu er li, yi zhu jietan, yi fei xiao tou, da ji wu de jiahai 而住
而立,亦住嗟歎,亦非消頭,大疾無得加害 (“both reside and stand, also to
reside and sigh, also not to extinguish remnants (?), in the case of a severe illness, one should not increase it”) presumably correlates with stuhe or haste
(< √sthā, “to stand” or √tuh, “to pain” or √stu, “to praise”?) but exactly how
is not clear. The voiced -d- in idime (when all the other witnesses have the
voiceless -t-) suggests a Prakrit source for this word and the s- > Ø in the last
three forms also confirm a Prakrit source, although the consonant is aspirated
only in the last word.53 Nevertheless, in the Northwest Prakrits the initial st- is
generally preserved,54 so a form like tahe (when all the other witnesses have
stahe) may suggest derivation from a different Prakrit. In this last dhāraṇī of
Chapter 26 (Chapter 21 in the Sanskrit), all but two of the sequences appear to
have a Prakrit source document.
In total, for this chapter we have the following:
Dhāraṇī
Pkt.
S
Either
1
2
3
4
5
16
11
6
2
4
11
1
16
Total
39
12
53
54
?
2
8
2
26
2
The general rule in the Prakrits is that when a sibilant occurs before a stop, the sibilant
is assimilated and the stop is aspirated (e.g. Skt. stana > P. thana). See Woolner 1928
[1996] §38.
Burrow 1937 §49, except in cases of words having the root √sthā, of which tahe may be an
example. See GDhp 209-f stuka-stoka.
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176
5.6
adaṇḍe
(adaṃdo,
ādaṇde; Tib.
sudaṇde)
daṇḍapati
(daṇḍāpatira,
adaṇḍapatira, Tib.
daṇḍāpati)
daṇḍāvartani
(daṇḍāvarttani
daṃḍāvartāni,
daṇḍavarttani,
daṇḍavarttanī; Tib.
daṇḍāvartani)
Dhāraṇī #6 by Samantabhadra Puxian 普賢
adaṇḍe
阿檀地 atandi
(PB: ʔa -dan-dih)
daṇḍāpati-vate
daṇḍāvarte
daṇḍāvartani
檀陀婆帝
tantuopodi
(PB: dan-da-ba-tɛjh)
adaṇḍe
“without a
staff”
either
檀陀婆地
daṇḍavadi
tantuopodi
(PBː dan-da-ba-dih)a
“lord of the
staff”
daṇḍavate
“lord of the
staff”, or
“turning
the staff” <
Skt. √āvṛt,
“to turn”
Pkt.
-p-, -b> -v-b,
-t- > -dPkt.
a Karashima (1992: 363) transliterates as EMC ʔa-dân-di-dân-dâ-bwâ-di < *adaṇḍe daṇḍavadi <
adaṇḍe daṇḍapati.
b See Kumārajīva’s arapacana syllabary (Appendix 1) where 婆 = ba becomes -v- intervocalically. For -p-/-b- > -v-, see Pischel §§199, 201; GDhp 34 (“regular development -p-, -b- > v”).
Per his syllabary (Appendix 1) Kumārajīva regularly uses the character 婆 for
ba- and bha- initially and -va- intervocalically (e.g. Sà pó, PB: sat-ba < Skt. sarva,
“all”; huopoye 火婆夜 PB: xwa’-ba-jiah < Skt. hvaya < √hve, “to call”), and this
has been his practice in the dhāraṇīs, e.g. aluopodi 阿羅婆 (PB: ʔa-la-ba-dεj’),
representing aḷāvati above. For this group of words Dharmarakṣa has wuwo chu
wo 無我除我 (“no I (anatta), eliminate the I”), which Karashima is suggesting
be corrected > wu zhang chu zhang 無杖除杖 (“no staffs, removes the staffs”).
For daṇḍāvartani he suggests another correction: yin wo 因我 > hui zhang 回
杖 (“swings around a staff”; 1992: 246). Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta have the
same as Kumārajīva through this dhāraṇī and appear to have copied it from
the latter.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
daṇḍakuśale
(daṇḍakuśala,
daṇḍakuśalini)
daṇḍakuśale
daṇḍasudhāri
daṇḍasudhāri daṇḍasudhare
sudhāri
sudhāri
sudhārapati
sudhārapati
(sudhārapate,
sudhāripati
sudhārimati)
buddhapaśbuddhapaśyane
yane
(-paśyani,
-paśyana,
-paśyati,
paribuddhapaśyane)
sudāre
sudārapati
buddhapaśyane
檀陀鳩舍隷
tantuojiusheli
(PB: dan-da-kuwɕiah-lɛjh)
檀陀修陀隷
tantuoxiutuoli
(PBː dan-da-suwda-lεjh)
修陀隷 xiutuoli
(PB: suw-da- lεjh)
修陀羅婆底
xiutuoluopodi
(PB: suw-da-lεjhba-tɛj’̑)
佛[陀]馱波羶禰
fo[tuo]tuoboshanni (PBːbut[da]
da-pa-ɕian-nεjh)
177
daṇḍakuśale
“clever
with a
staff”
either
daṇḍasudhare
“holding
the staff
well”
either
sudhāre
“well
holding”
“well
holding
lord”
either
sudhāravate
Buddhapaśane “seeing
the
Buddha”
Pkt.
-p> -vPkt.
The conjunct -śy- is usually assimilated to -ś- in Gāndhārī and all the Prakrits.55
It is not clear whether the -i- in the ɕian transliteration is meant to represent
a glide or simply a diphthong. In the examples above (śānte = PB: ɕian-tεjh), it
certainly does not represent a glide and KG represents it phonetically as śi̭än,
where -i̭- is defined as “the subordinate vowel in a diphthong”.56 It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that Kumārajīva’s source document had -paśane, not
-paśyane. Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta copy Kumārajīva. Dharmarakṣa has
jian zhufo 見諸佛 “seeing all Buddhas”.
55
56
See GDhp 5-b, 106-b, 108-b, etc., paśadi < Skt. paśyati; see also Burrow 1937 §41 and Woolner
1928 [1996] §49.
Ulving 1997: 340, entry #6688 and p. 13 for the definition of -i̭-.
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178
dhāraṇī
āvartani
(sarvadhāraṇī
āvartani,
dhāraṇī
āvarttani,
dhāriṇaṃ
āvarttani,
dhāriṇī
āvarttani)
dhāraṇī
āvartani
sarvadhāraṇī
āvartane
薩婆陀羅尼阿 sarvadhāraṇī “turning both for
sarvadhāraṇī,
of all
婆多尼 sapotuo- āvatani
dhārāṇīs” Pkt. for āvatani
luoni’apoduoni
(PBː sat-ba- da-lanri-ʔa-ba-ta-ni)
Kumārajīva and previous translators use the character 薩 to represent the
sound sat- in bodhisattva (i.e. 菩薩), but Kumārajīva also seems to use it for the
sounds sar- as in sarva (sapo 薩婆, PB: sat-ba; see arapacana syllabary Appendix
1, s.v. sa). Since the normal Gāndhārī reflex of this word is indeed sarva (with
sava also used), this is probably the word in the source document and of course
-r is not a permitted final in EMC, so he represented it this way. Later translators used three characters to capture the conjunct -rv- sound (e.g. Xuanzang’s
saluofu 薩囉縛 (PB. sat-la-buak, sarva; Shu-Fen Chen 2004: 129). The use of
薩 for the sound sar- suggests that the last word in the compound āvatani did
not have the -rt- conjunct shown in the Indic versions, as Kumārajīva does not
use a character ending in -t (a permitted EMC final) but the character 婆
(PB: ba = MI va).
sarvabhāṣyāvartane
薩婆婆沙阿婆多尼
sapopo- sha’apoduoni
(PBː sat-ba-ba- ʂaɨ/
ʂεː-ʔa-ba-ta-ni)
sarvabhāṣāvatani
“turning of all
language”
Pkt.
-ṣy- > -ṣ-;
-rt- > -t-
There are a few cases where Kumārajīva’s source document agrees with the
Central Asian manuscripts and not the Sanskrit (e.g. bhaṣyabhaṣya- in dhāraṇī
#1). This is one such case, where there is also no Sanskrit reflex. Unfortunately
many of the dhāraṇīs in the Central Asian Manuscripts are missing.
Dharmarakṣa has xing zhong zhu shuo 行眾諸說 (“put these many teachings
into practice”; Karashima 1992: 247).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
āvartani
saṃvartani
(saṃvarttani,
āvarttani; Tib.
māvartani)
saṃghasaṃghaparīkṣite
parīkṣite
su-āvartanea 修阿婆多尼
xiu’apoduoni
(PBː suwː-ʔaba-ta-ni)
僧伽婆履
saṃgha叉尼 seng
parīkṣaṇi
jiapo-lüchaní
(PBː səŋ-gɨaba-li’-tʂhaɨh/
tʂεːh-ni)b
su-āvatani
“rolling up,
destruction”
< Skt.
saṃvarta
“weakening
saṃghaof the
varikṣani
or saṃgha- saṃgha”
vari(c)chani
179
Pkt. -rt- >
-t-
Pkt. -p- >
-v-; -kṣ- >
-(c)ch-
a See von Hinüber 2001 §§297 and 113 indicating a variation between -u- and -aṃ- in Prakrit.
This is a feature of MI nasalisation.
b Karashima 1992: 247ː saṃghaparīkṣaṇi or *saṃghavarīkṣaṇi; EMC səng-gja-bwâ-lji tṣha-ṇi.
This is another example of the character 婆 = Pkt. -va- intervocalically. The
character 叉 represents a retroflex fricative sound, not the Sanskrit conjunct
-k- and -ṣ- sound (-kṣ-), as discussed above in dhāraṇī #1 (s.v. akṣaye).
saṃgha-nirghātani
(saṃghanirghoṣaṇe; Tib.
saṅgha-nirghasate)
saṃghanirghātane
saṃghanirghātani
僧伽涅伽陀尼
saṃgha“destruction of Pkt.
sengjianieqienirghādani the saṃgha”
-t- >
-dtuoni (PBː səŋgɨa-nεt-gɨa-da-ni)
Dharmarakṣa seems to translate these last two as “bring the assembly to an
end”, if we allow Karashima’s (1992:247) proposed emendation of 蓋迴轉 to
善迴轉. The character 涅 (PB: nεt) is used by Kumārajīva to represent a nir- or
nṛ- sound (see saṃghanirghoṣani in dhāraṇī #1 or nṛtye above in dhāraṇī #2),
as the character 薩 (PB: sat) is used to represent a sar- sound, which probably
indicates a Sanskrit or Sanskrtised source document. Most Prakrits assimilate the -r- before a stop, but in Gāndhāri, it is more often the case that the -rremains, so this case is ambiguous;57 the lenition of -t- > -d-, however, occurs
only in Prakrit.
57
Burrow, 1937 §37. See also GDhp 24-c, 254-c, 255-a, artha = Skt. artha where other Prakrits
(e.g. P., AMg) have attha < Skt. artha.
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180
dharma-parīkṣite
(saddharmaparīkṣite;
Tib dharmaparīkṣita,
dharma-parikṣiti)
dharmaparīkṣite
saddharmasuparikṣite
asaṃge
阿僧祇 asengqi
asaṃgha or
(PBː ʔa- səŋ-gjiə/gji) asaṃghya
“without
calculation”
Pkt.
What does the character 祇 represent? KG transcribes it as g’jiḙ which suggests
a -ghyi(a)- sound in Middle Indic (Ulving 1997: 213, entry 2607). In Gāndhārī
saṃkhy- appears as sagh- with the voicing of the stop, dropping of the anusvāra
and of the glide (GDhp 68-c sagha’i = Skt. saṃkhyāya = P. saṅkhāya “having
examined” < Skt. saṃ+√khyā, “to reckon, calculate”, nominal form saṃkhyā,
“calculation, reckoning”). So the source document word is asaṃghya, which
shows the Prakrit change of -kh- > -gh-, but appears to preserve the glide -yafter the stop which is not a feature of the Prakrits. Dharmarakṣa renders wuyang shu, ji zhu ju sanshi shu deng 無央數,計諸句三世數 等 (“infinite numbers;
calculates phrases; is equal to the number of the three times”).58
saṃgāpagate
tṛ-adhvasaṃgatulyaprāpte
58
僧伽[婆]波伽地,
sengjia[po]boqiedì
(PBː səŋ-gɨa-[ba]pa-gɨa-dih)
帝隷阿惰僧伽兜略
dili’aduosengjiadou- lüe
(PBː tεjh-lεjh-ʔa-dwa’/
dwah-səŋ-gɨa- təw-lɨak)
saṃghāvagadi
“leaving the
saṃgha”
tṛadhvasaṃghatulya
“equal to the
saṃgha’s path
to the stars”
Pkt.
-p- > -v-;
-t- > -dSkt.
Karashima 1992: 247. His notes: saṃga, *saṃghā < Pkt. saṃkhā < saṃkhyā (“numeration”); -ṃg- /-ṃgh- < -ṃkh- < -ṃkhy-.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
181
In the word tṛadhvasaṃghatulya, Kumārajīva deliberately preserves the vocalic -ṛ- which drops out in all Prakrits, including Gāndhārī. Hurvitz transcribes
this word as tiryādhasaṃghātulya (2009: 307), but a consonant + 隷 combination has been used above in dhāraṇī #2 to represent the sound nṛ- sound
(nielidi 涅隷第, for nṛde), so it is more likely he was representing the Sanskrit
word tṛ- in the Central Asian document.
阿羅帝[波]婆羅帝
aluodi[bo]poluodi
(PB: ʔa-la-tεjh--[ba]
pa-la-tεjh)
arate paratea
“dull” (arata); parata
“absoluteness” =
paratā
either
a Karashima 1992: 391 leaves out 阿羅帝 and transcribes 婆羅帝 as part of the the last compound (-prāpte); however, the character 羅 is always used as a separate syllable, not as part of
a conjunct in all the transcriptions above. Tsukamoto (1978: 34) transcribes -pratte and has a
question mark for 阿羅帝.
This seems to be an echo of the pair from dhāraṇī #1 (araḷe paraḷe), but the
last character in each is different, representing a -t- sound in every other transcription (e.g. 羶帝 = śānte). Hurvitz transcribes with a retroflex araḍe paraḍe
(2009: 307), but Kumārajīva specified the character 荼 for -ḍ- in the syllabary
(Appendix 1).
sarvasaṃgha
samatikrānte
薩婆僧[+地]伽
sarvasaṃgha
saposeng-[+di]qie
(PBː sat-ba [+dih]
səŋ-gɨa)
samadigrande
三摩地伽蘭地
sān mó dì qié lán dì
(PBː sam-ma-dih- gɨalan-dih)
“the whole
saṃgha”
either
“surpass”
Pkt. -k->
-g-; -t- >
-d-
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182
(cont.)
sarvadharmasuparīkṣite
sarvasatvarutakauśalyānugate
(-rutakaśalye,
sarvasarva-,
sarvarutakauśalya-)
siṃhavikrīḍite
(siṃhavikrīḍita,
sihavikrīḍite)
薩婆達[摩]磨修波利 sarvadharma剎帝 sapoda[mo]mo suparīkṣite or
-supari(c)chite
xiubolishadi
(PBː sat-ba-dat-[ma]/
mah-suw-pa-lih- tʂhaɨttʂεːt -tεjh)
sarvasatvarudasarvasatvaruta- 薩婆薩埵樓馱憍
kauśalyānugada
kauśalyānugate; 舍略阿[㝹]伽[陀]
-kośalyānugate. 地 saposaduoloutuojiaoshelüeā[shao/
tu]qie [tuo]di
(PBː sat-ba-sa-twa’ləw-da-kiaw- ɕia’lɨak-ʔa- nəu -a
gɨa-dih)
siṃhavikrīḍite 辛阿毘吉利地帝
siṃhavikrīḍite
xinapijili-didi
(PBː sin-ʔa-bji-kjit-lihdih- tεjh)
Pkt. 剎 =
retroflex
fricative like
叉 (see
akṣaye
above;
-kṣ- >
-(c)ch-)
Pkt. -t- >
“follower of
the well-being -dand sounds of
all creatures”
Dharmarakṣa:
曉眾生音,
“Know the
sounds of all
creatures”
“sport of the
Either
lion”
a See note 1 on page 171.
The -kr- conjuct is usually dropped in Prakrit (including Gāndhārī), but it also
sometimes remains as in Sh atikrataṃ (RE 8 A).
anuvarte (anuvartta)
vartini (varttani)
vartāli (varttāli, varttāni;
Tib. vartali)
svāhā
anu-varti
varttini
vartāri
svāhā
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
183
In dhāraṇī #6, there are eighteen items with a Prakrit source, seven with either
and one with a Sanskritic source. The grand total59 for all the dhāraṇīs is:
Dhāraṇī
Pkt.
S
Either
?
1–5
6
39
18
12
1
26
7
2
Grand Total
57
13
33
2
5.7
Reconstruction
We may now with some confidence reconstruct the source document dhāraṇīs
which Kumārajīva had in front of him when he transliterated into Chinese:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
59
a(ñ)ñe ma(ñ)ñe mane mamane cire caride śame śamitāvi śānte, mukte
muktame same avisame samasame chaye a(c)chaye a(g)ghiṇe śānte śami
dhāraṇī ālogabhāsa pac(c)ave(c)chaṇi nivi(ṭ)ṭhe abhyantaranivi(ṭ)ṭhe
a(t)tantapāriśu(d)dhi u(k)kule mu(k)kule araḷe paraḷe śuka(c)chi
asamasame buddhavikliṣṭe dhammapari(c)chite saṃghanirghoṣaṇi
bhāṣyābhāṣyaśodhi mantra mantrā(c)chāyata uruta urutakauśalya
akṣara akṣayatāya avala amanyanatāya
jale mahājale ukśe mukśe aḷe aḷavade nṛde nṛtavade i(ṭ)ṭini vi(ṭ)ṭini ci(ṭ)
ṭini nṛ(ṭ)ṭini nṛ(ṭ)ṭivate
aḷe naḷe nunaḷe anaḷo nāḷi kunaḷi
agaṇe gaṇe gori kandhāri caṇḍāli mādaṅgi jaṅguli vrūsuni atte
idime idime idime idime idime, nime nime nime nime nime, ruhe ruhe ruhe
ruhe, tahe tahe tahe tuhe thuhe
adaṇḍe daṇḍavati daṇḍavate daṇḍakuśale daṇḍasudhāre sudhāre
sudhāravate buddhapaśane sarvadhāraṇī-āvatani sarvabhāṣāvatani suāvatani saṃghavari(c)chani saṃghanirghādani asaṃghya saṃghāvagadi
tṛadhvasaṃghatulya arate parate sarvasaṃgha samadigrandi sarvadharmasupari(c)chite sarvasatvarudakauśalyānu-gada siṃhavikrīḍite.
These numbers count chart entries, not words, except in cases where one word of a
compound can be demonstrated to show a different derivation than another as in
sarvadhāraṇī āvatani where the first karmadhāraya (descriptive compound) could derive
from either Skt. or Pkt., but the second derives from a Pkt. source.
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184
6
Discussion
The numbers show that among the 105 items (words and compounds) analyzed, the dhāraṇīs had a Prakrit item in the source document in about
53% of the cases with a Sanskrit one in 12% of the cases (with the remainder being either or indeterminable). The Prakrit:Sanskrit ratio is approximately 4.38:1 (57:13), which is higher than the ratios Karashima found in his
study of agreement/disagreement with Central Asian manuscripts (2.2:1 for
Dharmarakṣa and 2.7:1 for Kumārajīva; 1992: 254, 257). While these ratios are
comparing different things, they do show that Kumārajīva’s source document
had much more in common with a Prakrit source document, than a Sanskrit
one and Karashima’s conclusions—that Kumārajīva’s translation is closer to
the Central Asian manuscripts which are known to be more Prakritic in nature60—point in the same direction. The high Prakrit:Sanskrit ratio may also
indicate that the dhāraṇīs received special attention in their transmission, in an
attempt to guarantee their accuracy and efficacy. Since we know that the more
Prakritisms a manuscript contains, the earlier it is, we may safely conclude
that Kumārajīva’s source document was earlier than the manuscripts of the
Nepalese and Gilgit traditions, which are almost wholly Sanskritised. Heinrich
Lüders (1916: 161), as mentioned above, believed that the “original” text of the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra was written in a pure Prakrit dialect which was
afterwards gradually put into Sanskrit. We have argued that an original text of
the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra is unrecoverable, because of the complexity of
the transmission; however, that Kumārajīva had an earlier, more Prakritic text
in front of him than the surviving Sanskrit witnesses is certain.
In addition to the large number of Prakritisms discernible in Kumārajīva’s
transliteration, the most striking phenomenon is the number of divergences from the existing manuscript traditions. There are several instances
in which there are noticeable disagreements with the Nepalese/Gilgit recensions: in dhāraṇī #6, for example, there are several words which only
correspond to the Central Asian recension and are lacking in the Nepalese/
Gilgit, i.e. sarvabhāṣāvatani, asaṃgha, saṃghāvagadi, tṛadhvasaṃghatulya,
sarvasaṃgha, sarvadharma-suparīkṣate. There are also a number of words
which correspond more closely with the Central Asian recension than the
Sanskrit one:61
60
61
For a partial list of Prakritisms in the Central Asian manuscripts, see K & N, vi f.; Dutt,
xix f.
In the following groups of three words, the first word is the transliterated Ch., the second
the Central Asian manuscript, and the third the Skt. from K & N.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
185
su-āvatani su-āvartane ≠ saṃvartane
sarvadhāraṇi sarvadhārani ≠ dhāraṇi (dhāraṇī #6)
atte agasti ≠ sisi
jaṅgali jāṃguli ≠ saṃkule (dhāraṇī #4)
avala abale ≠ valoḍa
bhāṣyābhāṣyasodhi/bhāṣyabhāṣyasoddhī ≠ bhayābhayāviśodhani
niviṣṭe niviṣṭe ≠ nidhiru (dhāraṇī #1)
However, since parts of the dhāraṇīs are missing in the Central Asian manuscripts, it is impossible to arrive at any general conclusions on the matter,
except as already stated by Karashima, that the correspondence between
Kumārajīva’s translation and the Central Asian MSS is significantly higher than
the correspondence with the Sanskrit versions.
Divergences are manifold in almost every entry. Sometimes these are minor,
with a change in only one syllable or vowel (e.g. Skt. śame or same = Kumārajīva
śami) and sometimes the words are barely recognizable (Skt. buddha-vilokite
≠ Kumārajīva buddha-vikliṣṭe) and clearly point to different manuscript traditions. Often within the two Sanskrit recensions (Nepalese and Gilgit) there
are multiple versions of a word or compound (e.g. the second member of the
compound abhyantara-niviṣṭe in dhāraṇī #1 where we find the variants -niviṭhe,
-niviṣṭhe, -niviṣṭa, -nirviṣṭa, -visiṣṭa, -viciṣṭa, -piviṣṭe, -praviṣte, -vivaṣṭe). Many of
the differences between Kumārajīva and the Sanskrit versions are because
Kumārajīva was working with an earlier, more Prakritic version of the text, as
the discussion above has tried to show.
Dharmarakṣa’s translation (vs. Kumārajīva’s transliteration) of the dhāraṇīs
allows a fascinating glimpse into the Indian nirukti mind at work attempting
to find meaning in the dhāraṇī sonic formulae.62 Sometimes this is a simple
one-to-one tracking: ālogabhāsa = 觀察光耀 “observe the splendour” = Skt.
āloka bhāsam, or; 等無所等 “equal to the unequalled” for asamasame, idem;
sometimes it seems to be a “mistranslation” based on phonologically similar
62
For an excellent introduction to the Indian love of etymologizing and finding multiple
meanings in words, see M. Deeg 1995: 33–73. For an example of “Die sprachwissenschaftliche Etymologie,” practised by vaidikas and also by the Buddhist commentators,
see Paramatthajotikā 2, 20812–13, where Buddhaghosa tries to explain why the Buddha
is called nāga, “snake,” evidently an embarrassing epithet: nāgan ti punabbhavaṃ n’ eva
gantāraṃ, atha vā āgun na karotī ti pi nāgo, balavā ti pi nāgo, taṃ nāgaṃ, “he is called
‘nāga’ since he does not go to a new birth [taking the ga- in nāga as derived from the MI
verb gam, ‘to go’ with na- as the negative adverb], or he does not commit a fault [na- -āgu,
‘no, fault’] and also since he is strong.”
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186
Levman
words: like 其目清淨 “their eyes are pure”, taking the compound as derived
from Skt. śukra-akṣi, while the Sanskrit suggests it is from śukāṅkṣi, “swift wish”.
Sometimes multiple nuances are expressed for a repeated word, as in 極甚無
我無吾無身無所俱同 “no I, no self, no body, no object together” for the nime,
nime, nime, nime, nime sequence of dhāraṇī #5, perhaps related to Skt. nir me;
and sometimes the explanation seems to be invented to explain what on the
surface appears to unexplainable, as in most of the explanations related to
dhāraṇī #4 above. In Zhiyi’s commentary on the dhāraṇī chapter he says that it
is not necessary to understand the meaning of a dhāraṇī in order for it to work;
but since it is the “secret word of the Buddhas” (是諸佛密語),63 exegetes must
have felt compelled to delve into the significance of the sonic formulae, and
indeed most of them do have an OI/MI phonotactical structure which suggests
a meaningful derivation. Nevertheless, without the contextual “semantic walking stick” a translation of the dhāraṇīs does not appear to be very tenable.64
6.1
An Urtext?
If it were possible to establish an Urtext, we would have to fully account for all
the variants in the existing witnesses by understanding:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
63
64
The very complex transmission process involving multiple recensions,
each with perhaps hundreds or even thousands of manuscripts.
The scribal errors that have entered into the text because of the “normal”
copying process of omission, incorrect word division, parablepsis (omission of words caused by repetition of one or more words in the same
context), interchange of letters (metathesis), etc.
Errors that have entered into the text because of epigraphical considerations (misreading of scripts), due to unfamiliarty, similarity of letters,
etc.
Errors that have entered into the text because of inaccurate translation
practices, either between Prakrit and Sanskrit or Prakrit and Chinese. In
the latter case especially, there are many phonetic forms in MI which can
not be easily represented in EMC, as we have seen above.
The impact of the native dialect of the translators. Kumārajīva was a
Kuchean who spoke a Tocharian language; how did this impact his perception and understanding of MI and EMC?
T.34.1718: 146c21; for Zhi Yi’s commentary, see 釋陀羅尼品 in 妙法蓮華經文句, T.34.1718:
146b29–146c26.
I thank Prof. Max Deeg for this useful expression (private communication).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
187
This complex transmission tapestry becomes even more intractable when one
adds in the component of time. The SDP is one of the oldest of the Mahāyana
sūtras, possibly dating from the first century BCE (Nakamura 1980: 186–87;
Keown 2005: 158), which means that as much as four or five centuries had
elapsed between its composition and its translation by Kumārajīva in 406 CE,
probably with numerous other (now lost) copies and translations being made
in between. If indeed the original version was composed in Prakrit, as Lüders
has suggested, the source document that Kumārajīva had in front of him was
at least in part already Sanskritised. But the process and timescale in which
this took place is impossible to reconstruct. The complexity of this transmission scenario suggests that the establishment of an Urtext for the SDP is not a
valid endeavour. However, we can learn quite a bit about the nature of the text
that Kumārajīva and his translation team had in front of him in the early fifth
century, namely, the dhāraṇīs reveal a lot about the underlying transmission
dialect of the source document which Kumārajīva used. Here is a list of the
principal Prakritisms found in Kumārajīva’s source document, as reflected in
his Chinese transliterations:
1)
2)
65
The -e ending to most of the nouns and adjectives in the dhāraṇīs is most
likely a Prakritism. As is well known, it is the nom. sing. ending for the
eastern Aśokan Prakrits (REs of Jaugaḍa and Kālsī) and Māgadhī. It also
appears in the northwest edicts of Sh and M and historically in the Niya
Documents of the Northwest China kingdom of Shan Shan. It can be interpreted as the fem. sing. vocative (where there are fem. nouns) or loc.
sing. of masc. nouns, but this does not harmonize with the context or the
meanings, nor is it consistent with the sūtra’s Prakrit heritage.
Intervocalic lenition. I have isolated all the instances where this has taken
place (usually -t- > -d-, but also -k- > -g- and -khy- > -ghy-). This occurs
quite a lot throughout the dhāraṇīs, but not universally, as in the case of
Kumārajīva su-āvatani. Although intervocalic lenition is a standard feature in Gāndhārī and most Prakrits, it is not a consistent occurrence in all
the dialects. In P., for example, voiceless intervocalics often remain, and
sometimes voiced stops are subject to fortition (voiced > voiceless),
which also happens in the case of the word gāndhāri which Kumārajīva
represents as kandhāri; this, however, may simply be due to orthography
in G.65
For intervocalic lenition, see Pischel §186f. For P., see Geiger §§35, 38, 39. For the use of
-k- for -g- in G., see GDhp 30.
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Levman
In all but two cases (akṣara, akṣayatāya), Kumārajīva transliterates Skt.
-kṣ- as a single retroflex fricative sound [ʂ], not as a conjunct. We know
that this is close to how it was pronounced in G. In most other Prakrits
the sound was notated by -(c)cha- or -(k)kha-.66
4) The -ty- conjunct is palatalized and changed to -c(c)- (as in pac(c)ave(c)
chaṇi) or assimilated to -t(t)- (as in at(t)antapāriśuddhi ).
5) Conjunct assimilations: The -ṣṭ- conjunct is assimilated to -(ṭ)ṭ-.
6) The conjunct -jv- has changed to -j-.
7) Conjunct -śy- > -ś-; -ṣy- > -ṣ-.
8) Conjunct -rt- is assimilated to > -t-.
9) Retroflex -ṭ- and -ḍ- have changed to -ḷ-.
10) Labials -p- and -b- changes to -v- intervocalically.
11) The letter s- > Ø when before a consonant and the following consonant is
usually aspirated.
3)
None of these phonological changes are inconsistent with a Gāndhārī source
document. But since they are also not inconsistent with many other Prakrits
(except for the retention of the distinction between the sibilants: dental -s-,
retroflex -ṣ-, and palatal -ś-, which is only preserved in Gāndhārī), we cannot
make any final conclusions about the provenance of the source dialect, only
noting the “probability” of Gāndhārī as the transmission dialect, along with
Waldschmidt, Pulleyblank and other researchers.67 However, recent discoveries
66
67
See Pischel §317f. Generally -ccha- was used in the west and -kkha- in the east per Woolner
1924 [1996] §40; also Geiger §56. Pāli shows both notations. The sound -(k)kha- represents a voiceless velar stop + a velar aspirated stop; the sound -(c)cha- represents a voiceless palatal stop + an aspirated palatal stop. Also, -kṣa- can become -(j)jha- in Prakrit
(Pischel §326). An interesting example of this occurs at DN 2, 16121–22, where jhāpenti
(< Skt. √kṣai, to “burn”) is used: “they burn the body of the universal monarch” (rañño
cakkavattissa sarīraṃ jhāpenti); in the corresponding MPS version (Waldschmidt 1950–
1951 §46.7, p. 410 we find dhyāpyate (“it was burnt”), which is a hyperform, as Edgerton
points out (BHSD, 288 s.v. *dhyāyati)—the translator misunderstood P. jhāpenti as being
dervied from dhyāpenti (< Skt. √dhyai, “to meditate,” caus. dhyāpayati), when it was
actually derived from Skt. √kṣai, “to burn,” caus. kṣāpayati. He/she therefore wrongly
Sanskritised the jh- > dhy-.
For example, Bernhard (1970: 57) argues that G. was the “medium in which Buddhism was
first propagated in Central Asia, the medium through which Indian culture was transmitted from the northwest across Central Asia to China.” See also Hiän-lin Dschi (1944:
141–142), who establishes the translation sequence from Alt-Ardhamāgadhī > northwestern dialects > Sanskritisation, a sequence he says applies not only to the Lalitavistara
and the SDP but for all old Buddhist writings where the ending -u appears for -aṃ (in the
nominative and accusative singular, which is also prevalent in the SDP Skt. recensions).
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
189
in Pakistan of Gāndhārī MSS of a Prajñāpāramitā and an Akṣobhyavyūha type
text (in Kharoṣṭhī script) dated to the first or second centuries CE certainly
make the “Gāndhārī hypothesis” even more plausible. It is quite possible that
a Gāndhārī version of the Lotus Sūtra—or fragments thereof—will eventually
be uncovered in the monastic ruins of ancient Gandhāra.68
7
Conclusions
From the above data, we can draw the following conclusions about the dhāraṇīs
in Kumārajīva’s source:
1)
2)
3)
4)
68
69
The source document was a Prakrit one with limited Sanskritisations:
only 12% of the items (words and compounds) in the dhāraṇīs can be
shown to have had a Sanskrit source.
Kumārajīva’s source document cannot be said to match any of the three
recensions, although it appears to be closest to the Central Asian recension in the examples shown above. Due to the absence of data, this is not
fully conclusive.
Kumārajīva’s Prakrit source document pre-dates the Nepalese and Gilgit
recensions, probably by centuries, based on Edgerton’s Sanskritisation ∝
(varies as) time rule (footnote 12). Whether it goes back to an “original”
source is impossible to tell, but considering the vagaries of the transmission process, probably not.
The abundant variant forms in the different recensions point to divergent
source texts. In addition, there appear to be numerous intra- and interrecensional scribal errors or confusions, taking the form of incorrect
word division (e.g. Skt. samitā-viśānte versus Kumārajīva samitāvi-śānte)
and confusion of -i and -e endings throughout;69 misspellings (e.g.
Skt. nāḍi vs. Tib. nāṭi); metathesis (e.g. Skt. kunaḍi/kuṭani); intervocalic
“Magadha was the homeland and Gandhāra, ‘the second holy land of Buddhism’ [here
Waldschmidt 1925: 12 is quoted]. Numerous old Buddhist texts wandered through both
lands and carried the traces of them” (author’s translation, pp. 141–142). Norman (1976:
117–127) suggests that certain anomalous forms in P. (nom. sing. ending in -e and the gen.
pl. ending in -uno) were taken over from a Northwestern Pkt., i.e. G. (pp. 125–126).
For the Akṣobhya-type text, see Strauch 2008: 47–60. For the Prajñāpāramitā, see Falk &
Karashima 2012: 19–62, and Falk & Karashima 2013: 97–169.
This may simply reflect the fact that in G. an -e at the end of a word can be writtten either
as -e or -i, as per Brough, GDhp 21.
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190
5)
6)
7)
Levman
consonantal confusion (Skt./Kumārajīva citte/cire; akṣaya/akṣara;
vrūsali/ vrūsuni); omissions and additions of whole words (as in dhāraṇī
#6 for the Central Asian recension above) or syllables (e.g. Skt./Kumārajīva
akṣayavanatāye/akṣayatāya or bhayābha-yāśviśodhani/bhāṣyābhāṣyaśodhī); different words (Skt. buddha-vilokite vs. Kumārajīva buddhavikliṣṭe
or Skt. -nirghoṣani vs. Skt. -nisaṃghani); etc. This may also be due to oral/
aural problems in the transmission process.
Many of the MSS show a scribal misunderstanding or confusion re:
Prakrit dialects: e.g. -dh- >< -v-, Skt. nidhiru > Kumārajīva nivi(ṭ)ṭe; interchange of -ś- and -s- in words like Kumārajīva śame ≠ Skt. same; interchange of -ṛ- and -i- (in Skt.: nṛtyāvati vs. nityāvati), omission of anusvāra
(Kumārajīva śuka(c)chi vs. Skt. sukāṅksi), confusion on voicing (Skt.
gandhāri vs. Kumārajīva kandhāri), etc.
Sanskritisation of the Nepalese & Gilgit MSS is almost one hundred per
cent. Very few Prakrit forms survive (e.g. iṭṭini, nityāvati are two surviving
Prakrit forms.)
Dharma transmission from MI to EMC is a highly complex process, with
dozens of human, temporal, spatial, dialectal, scribal, perceptual, accentual, psychological, etc. variables, making it impossible to transmit something accurately and error free. The complicated dharma transmission
process has several imporant cultural and religious ramifications, not the
least of which is the impossibility of establishing an “original” text when
the transmission takes place over centuries between phonologically disparate languages.
The reason why Kumārajīva’s dhāraṇī transcriptions are so different from the
Sanskrit versions should now be clear: Kumārajīva’s source document was
quite unlike the surviving Sanskrit exemplars, and based on an earlier MS
tradition which was much more Prakritic. In addition, there are numerous
transmission errors and confusions present, both within the MI recensions
themselves and between the MI and Kumārajīva’s Chinese transliteration.
Given the long, almost two-millenium timescale involved, it is impossible to
unravel the complex transmission tapestry. All the MI versions have undergone
significant Sanskritisation (Gilgit & Nepalese the most), and while the Central
Asian recension preserves many more Prakritisms and correlates better with
Kumārajīva’s translation overall, much of the dhāraṇī material is missing.
As well as uncovering the nature of Kumārajīva’s underlying source, this
study has also tried to demonstrate the complexity of the transmission and
translation process, whether Indic to Indic, that is Prakrit > Sanskrit, or Indic to
Chinese, and the many different temporal strata, linguistic and human factors
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
191
involved. It also provides a unique perspective on the interaction and exchange
of Buddhist teachings in the early centuries of the common era. These teachings were all mediated by Indo-Aryan translators working from Prakrit sources,
which like Pāli were themselves translations of an earlier, underlying transmission variously styled une langue précanonique (Lévi 1912), a lingua franca
(Geiger 1916: 3–4), a koine gangétique (Smith 1952), a Kanzleisprache (the administrative language of the ruling government in Pāṭaliputra; Lüders 1954: 8),
or Buddhist Middle Indic (von Hinüber 1983: 192–193). I have discussed this
“language of early Buddhism” elsewhere (Levman 2014; Levman 2016) and it
goes well beyond the scope of this article, except insofar as it illuminates the
framework within which the Indian and Chinese cultures interacted, a framework which was at least in part determined by an ambiguous linguistic environment where various Prakritic homynyms could result in two meanings
(Boucher 1998: 489–493). While the dhāraṇī meanings are not always clear,
Kumārajīva’s transliterations provide a clear snapshot of the phonological
state of the Prakrit in the early fourth century CE.
Appendix 1: Kumārajīva’s Syllabary
From Dazhidu lun, Taishō Volume 25, Sūtra 1509 (大智度論), p.408b15 and
following.
These correspondences are phrased in the following form: 若聞羅字,即
隨義知一切法離垢相。羅闍,秦言垢 Ruo wen luo zi, ji sui yi zhi yiqie fa li gou
xiang. Luo she, Qin yan gou; “If one hears the character 羅, the meaning immediately follows that all dharma are apart from the characteristic of filth, rajas
[the Sanskrit word], which is ‘filth 垢’ in the language of the Qin dynasty”.
Arapacana syllabary
Headword
Comments
阿a
阿提, 阿耨波陀 (PB: ʔa-nəwh-
初 = beginning;
不生 = unborn
垢 = filth
第一義 = ultimate truth
羅 la (ra)
波 pa
遮 ca
那 na
pa-da) (anuppāda)
羅闍 (PB: la-dʑia) raja
波羅[末]木陀 (PB: pa-la-[mat]
məwk-da (paramatā)
遮梨夜 (PB:tɕiaw-li-jiah) cariya
< Skt. caryā
那 = “not” (PB: nah)
行 = to practice
不 = not
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192
(cont.)
Arapacana syllabary
Headword
Comments
[還]邏 la
[還]邏求
(PB: [ɣwain/ɣwε:n] lah-guw) <
laghu
陀摩 (PB: da-ma) < dama
(“taming”)
婆陀 (PB: ba-da) < baddha
荼闍[陀]他 PB: dɔ- dʑia [da]/
tha) < ḍaj̄amaṇoa (GDhp 75-d,
159-b) < Skt. dahyamāna
(“burning”)
沙 (PB: ʂaɨ/ʂε:) < P. cha, Skt.
ṣaṣ/ṣad
和(于波[切]反)波他 (PB:ɣwapa-tha) < vappatha < Skt.
vākpatha
多他 (PB: ta-tha) < Skt. tathā
夜他跋 (PB: jiah-tha-bat) <
yathāvat
吒婆 (PB: traɨh/trε:h-ba) <
ṭa(ṃ)bha, Prakritic version of
Skt. stambha?b
迦[邏]羅迦 (PB: kɨa-la-kɨa) <
kāraka
[婆]薩婆 (PB: [ba] sat-ba <
sabba or Skt. sarva
[磨磨]魔迦羅 (PB: [ma-ma]
ma-kɨa-la) < mamakāra
伽陀 (PB: gɨa-da) < gada
多[他何]陀阿伽陀 (PB: ta-[thaɣa] da-ʔa-gɨa-da) < tathāgata
闍提闍羅 (PB: dʑia-dɛj- dʑiala) < Pkt. jādi-jarā < Skt.
jāti-jarā
濕波 (PB: ɕip-pa)
馱[魔]摩 (PB: da-ma) <
dhamma/dharma
輕 = light
陀 da
婆 ba
荼 ḍa
沙 ṣa
和 va
多 ta
夜 ya
[咤]吒 (PB: [traɨh/trε:h])
= ṣṭa?
迦 ka
薩(婆)c sa
魔 ma
伽 ga
[他]陀 tha
闍 ja
濕波 sva
馱 dha
善 = good
縛 = tie up, bind
不熱 = not hot
六 = six
語言 = language, speech
如 = thus
實 = true, real
障礙 = obstacle
作者 = doer
一切 = all
我所 = mine
底 = bottom
如去 = thus gone
生老 = birth and age
無義 = has no meaning
法 = dharma
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
193
Arapacana syllabary
Headword
Comments
賒 śa
賒多(都餓[切]反) PB: ɕia-ta <
寂滅 = extinction
呿 kha
叉 kṣa
哆d sta
若 ña
他 rtha
[波]婆 bha
車 cha
濕[麼]尛 sma
火 hva
[嗟]蹉 tsa
伽 gha
[咃]他 ṭha
拏 ṇa
頗 pha
歌 ska
śa(n)ta
呿伽 (PB: khɨə̆’-gɨa) > kha = air,
space sky; khaga = bird
叉耶 (PB: tʂhaɨ/tʂhε:-jia) <
kṣaya
[何]阿利迦哆度求那 (PB: [ɣa]
ʔa-lih-kɨa-ta-dɔh-guw-nah) <
alakṣita-guṇa? (“qualities with
no characteristics”)
若那 (PB:ɲɨak-nah)= ñāna <
Skt. jñāna
[阿利他] 阿他 (PB: [ʔa-lih-tha]
ʔa-tha < attha < Skt. arthae
婆伽 (PB: ba-gɨa) < bha(ṅ)ga
伽車提 (PB: gɨa-tɕhia-dɛj) <
gacchadi (GDhp gachadi) <
Skt. gacchati
阿濕尛 (PB: ʔa-ɕip-ma) < aśma
[火婆夜]火夜 (PB: [xwa’-bajiah] xwa’-jiah ) hvaya < Skt.
√hve, hvayati
末[嗟]蹉羅 (PB: mat [tsia]tshala) < matsara “selfish”
伽那 (PB: gɨa-nah) < ghana,
“thick”
南天竺[咃]他那 (PB: nam/
nɘm-thɛn-truwk-[tha]f-tha-nah)
“south India (tianzhu =
India)g thāna”
南天竺拏 (PB: south India
nraɨ/nɛ)
頗羅 (PB: pha’-la) < phala
歌大 (PB: ka-da’/dajh) <kha(n)
dha, skandhah < GDhp 56-b
kanaṇa
虛空 = void
盡 = use up, exhaust
是事邊得何利 = what
benefit in grasping the
limit of these matters?
智 = wisdom
義 = meaning
破 = broken
去 = go
石 = stone
喚來 = call to come
慳 = stingy
厚 = thick
處 = place
不 = not
果 = fruit
眾 = many
(五眾 = 5 skandhas)
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194
(cont.)
Arapacana syllabary
Headword
Comments
醝 ysa?
醝 cuó (not in PB or Karlgren)
即知醝字空,諸法亦爾
“one knows it (醝) is
dza or tsha?
遮 śca
遮羅地 (PB: tɕia- la-dih) (per
[多]吒 ṭa
Brough) < caladi < cal/car,
to move GDhp 68-c, 256-b;
caradi = Skt. carati, but śārathi
(“charioteer”) seems closer
[多]吒i羅 (PB: [ta]traɨh/trɛ:hla) < Pkt. (AMg) taḍa < Skt.
taṭa (“river bank”)
波[荼]茶 (PB: pa-[dɔ]- draɨ/
drɛ:) < bāḍham per Broughj
[荼]茶 ḍha
an empty character; all
phenomena are also
thus”
動 = move
即知一切法不動相 =
all dharmas have the
characteristic of motionlessnesss) = niścala
岸 = shore
必 = must (certainly,
positively, necessarily,
etc.)
a Letter -j̄- has a macron over it indicating -jh- per Brough GDHp §6.
b Brough 1977: 89.
c There seems to be some confusion about the headword. Here 婆 is given, not 薩, but since
婆 = ba above, it must be a mistake.
d 哆 is not in Pulleyblank or Karlgren; here 多 is the closest parallel. See page 157, note a, where
Coblin gives it the value tȃ.
e Here both Prakrit forms of Skt. artha are given: aritha with epenthetic vowel and attha with
conjuncts assimilated.
f 咃 is not in Pulleyblank; here 他 is the closest parallel.
g Per PB 414, 天竺 = a transcription of Iranian Hinduka with 天 = 祆 [xiān] = xɛn.
h Why does Kumārajīva leave out the -n- in khanda? Available to him were characters like 根
(gen = PB kɘn) if he wanted to capture this -n- + consonant sound. See Brough 1962 §48:
“sporadic weakening or loss of the nasal before voiced consonants” in G. Also see Geiger §6.3
where short nasalized vowels are not infrequently replaced by a pure long vowel (so khadha
= khādha above) and Fussman 1989 §33.5 where an open long syllable was automatically
nasalized in G. Of course sometimes the anusvāra was simply omitted.
i 咤 alternate form.
j Brough 1977: 94.
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KUMĀRAJĪVA ’ S TRANSLITERATION OF THE DHĀRAṆĪS
195
Appendix 2: Phonetic Abbreviations
‘ (apostrophe)
h (superscript h)
[δ]
e̯ i̯ ə̯, etc.
level tone
entering tone
ɲ
ŋ
ə
ə̆
ɔ
ɤ
ɕ
ʂ
ɛ
j
ɨ
ː
[]
v̭
ɣ
ʔ
ʑ
rising tone
sign of aspiration, including aspiration in the departing tone
a dental voiced fricative
subordinate vowels in diphthong per Karlgren (in Ulving 1997, 13)
unmarked
syllables ending in -p, -t, -k
palatal nasal
velar nasal
schwa
a schwa like off-glide found in combinations like iə̆ ; see
Pulleyblank 1991, 5
lower mid back rounded vowel like “long” in English
closed mid back unrounded vowel
a voiceless palatal fricative, ś in Sanskrit. Also found as tɕ which is
an affricate form
a voiceless retroflex fricative, ṣ in Sanskrit. Also found as tʂ which
is an affrciate form
lower mid-front vowel
high front glide like the consonant y in English
high, central unrounded vowel
long vowel
alternate reading in the different Taisho editions or alternate
phonetic spelling (depending on context)
(vowel with subordinate marker in a diphthong, e.g. diphthong
-i̭ä-)
voiced velar fricative
glottal stop
voiced retroflex fricative
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Chapter 6
The Journey of Zhao Xian and the Exile of Royal
Descendants in the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368)1
Kaiqi Hua
The Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China was known for its cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as for the ruler’s policy of religious tolerance. Tibetan Buddhism
was especially valued and favoured by the Mongol emperors. Qubilai Qan
(1215–1294) had personally established the institutions of the dishi 帝師
(Imperial Preceptor) and guoshi 國師 (State Preceptor), and elevated the status of Tibetan Buddhism as the most powerful religious tradition in the Yuan
Dynasty. The Sakya School (Tib. Sa skya) was the leading branch of Tibetan
Buddhism throughout that period. A great wave of Tibetan Buddhist monks,
many of them from the Sakya School, sojourned in politically significant Chinese
and Mongolian cities for the sake of giving Buddhist teachings and governmental advice, including Dadu 大都 (today Beijing), Shangdu 上都 (Xanadu),
and Qara Qorum. Besides these political centres, Hangzhou 杭州, the former
Southern Song 南宋 (1127–1276) capital and a populous metropolis with spectacular views, attracted many Tibetan and Tangut monks. These Buddhist migrations were attracted by the city’s cultural environment of Buddhism. They
were appointed by the Mongol government at newly established Buddhist
clergy offices. Through the Jiangnan shijiao zongtongsuo 江南釋教總統所
(Supervision Office for Buddhist Teachings in Jiangnan, later: Jianghuai shijiao
zongtong suo 江淮釋教總統所, Supervision Office for Buddhist Teachings in
Jianghuai) established in 1277, Tibetan and Tangut monks who held high official positions in the clergy offices had direct influence in both religious and
1 Special thanks to the Research Group “Chinese and Tibetan Tantric Buddhism” led by Profs.
Yael Bentor, Dan Martin and Meir Shahar at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies in
Jerusalem, in which I participated from 2013 to 2014 and presented the preliminary draft of this
paper, and the ERC Research Group “Mobility, Empire and Cross Cultural Contacts in Mongol
Eurasia” led by Prof. Michal Biran at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for both their warm
intellectual communities and many inspirational seminars. The paper has been presented
as “The Journey of Zhao Xian (1271–1323): From Chinese Emperor to Tibetan Monk under
the Mongols” at the international conference “Network and Identity: Exchange Relations between China and the World”, in the Center for Buddhist Studies, Ghent University, Belgium,
on December 20, 2013.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doiAnn
10.1163/9789004366152_008
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197
The Journey of Zhao Xian
local affairs in Hangzhou as well as in the Jiangnan region as a whole. The most
notable figure at the time was the Tangut monk and head of the Supervision
Office, Yang Lianzhenjia 楊璉真伽 (Tib. Yang Rin chen skyabs, fl. 1277–1288),
who had transformed Hangzhou’s landscape through the destruction of the
Song imperial palace and the construction of Buddhist temples, pagodas and
sculptures. Thus, the Mongol regime and its Tibetan and Tangut religious employees had soon made Hangzhou a focal point for the flourishing of Tibetanstyle Buddhism, which had never appeared in the city and the region before
the Mongols’ arrival in 1276.
Tibet, on the other hand, had fallen under Mongol control with regard to its
political and religious systems. The Mongols had contacts with Tibetan monks
as early as the Činggizid period in the early 13th century, when Tibetan monks
went to attend the court of Činggiz Qan (1162–1227). In 1253, Qubilai Qan had
confessed his personal belief and support for the Sakya School, when he met
with the Pakpa Lama (Tib. Phags pa, 1235–1280) for the first time at Liupan
Mountain 六盤山 in present-day Ningxia (the Hexi 河西 region) on his way
to the campaign against the Dali 大理 Kingdom (937–1253).2 In 1260, Pakpa
was appointed the State Preceptor of the Yuan. He became the Minister of the
zongzhiyuan 總制院 (Supreme Control Commission) in 1264. The department
later turned into the xuanzhengyuan 宣政院 (Commission for Buddhist and
Tibetan Affairs). Tibetan monks soon became the most powerful religious figures in the Yuan Empire. Though the Mongols had not occupied the Tibetan
territory by military force, they held the power to bestow officials in charge of
Tibetans’ political and religious affairs in both Tibet and China. Many Sakya
School leaders were appointed as Imperial and State Preceptors of the Yuan,
and were required to reside in the capital.3 Thus, the Sakya School was the
most powerful Buddhist sect in both Tibet and China. In addition, the Mongols
had controlled the Hexi region, which was a crucial region for Sino-Tibetan
Buddhist contacts, including the territory of the former Tangut Kingdom
(1038–1227), known in Chinese sources as Xixia 西夏. It was the most Eastern
part of the Silk Road, and also the most common route that travellers used between Tibet and China, as well as between Central and East Asia.
The Mongols were sophisticated in mobilising not only themselves on
horseback, but also in ruling their subjects. Therefore, sometimes they were
called the “herders of human beings.”4 Thomas Allsen has recently studied the
large-scale population movements in Eurasia during the Mongols’ military
2 Chen Dezhi 2004.
3 The Sakya School leader was also called the Sakya throne holder—Sakya Trizin.
4 Allsen 2015: 143.
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expansion period (the early and mid 13th century), including different forms in
“military deployment, retreat of defeated armies, migration of refugees, resettlement programs, political defections and trafficking in slaves.”5 Due to their
military and agricultural needs, the Mongols were able to move huge groups
of laborers across a wide range of geographically remote and disconnected regions. For example, the Mongols moved Central Asian men with skills from
Bukhara and Samarkand to China and Qipchaq armies from North Caucasus to
Mongolia. High quality military including infantry, artillery and cavalry; skilled
men including craftsmen, artisans and engineers; religious clergy and educated personnel were all groups targeted in the Mongols’ favoured migrations. In
addition, slaves, hostages, refugees and surrounded armies were the objects
of the Mongols’ ruthless relocation. Allsen has interpreted the “demographic,
cultural, military-political and ethno-religious consequences” of these population movements.6
Whereas Allsen’s study mainly focuses on population movement by a group,
community or large unit due to the Mongols’ collective imperial policies, this
paper focuses on individuals from royal houses, including Mongolian, Chinese,
Korean and Tibetan royalty, that were sent to exile by the Mongol emperors
directly, and the role Buddhism played throughout their lives in exile. Did the
Mongol rulers recognise Buddhism as a means of self-cultivation and spiritual
transformation, rather than simply a solution for individual relocation in exchange of loyalty and political stability? To what degree did Buddhism influence the Mongols’ decision to displace, replace and relocate subjects? What
was the pattern of exile punishment when it was done in the name of the
Buddhist teachings? What were the ethnic, cultural, and religious indentity
transformations of the exile subjects?
1
The Journey of the ‘Royal Monk’ Zhao Xian (1271–1323)
Zhao Xian 趙㬎 (1271–1323), the last emperor of the Chinese Song Dynasty
(960–1276), travelled widely in China and Tibet during his life in exile after
the Mongols’ conquest of his capital city, Hangzhou, in 1276. Under Qubilai’s
approval, Zhao became a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist order, then becoming
known as Master Lhatsün (Tib. Lha btsun, Ch. Hezun 合尊/Hazun 哈尊 which
means ‘Royal Monk’, wangseng 王僧), or as Lhatsün Chökyi Rinchen (Tib. Lha
btsun chos kyi rin chen, which means the ‘Royal Monk of the Precious Dharma,’
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
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Ch. hezun fabao 合尊法寶).7 He lived in the region of Sakya Monastery and
the formerly Tangut Hexi region during his exile until his murder in the latter region in 1323, which was ordered by the Mongol Emperor, Shidebala
碩德八剌, also known as Gegeen Qan or Emperor Ying Zong 英宗 (1302–1323,
r. 1320–1323).8 He had translated important Buddhist scriptures, earned a high
reputation as a Buddhist monk in Tibet, and left legendary stories in the writings of Chinese literati.
When the Mongol forces conquered Hangzhou, Zhao Xian was only five
years old.9 The Song state was under the regency of Grand Empress Dowager
Xie Daoqing 謝道清 (1210–1280). There were some Song loyalists and remaining descendants of the imperial Zhao family, who were resisting along China’s
Southeast coast against the Mongols until 1279. But most Song imperial family members who remained in the Song palace in Hangzhou were escorted to
the Yuan capital Dadu in the North. Instead, Zhao Xian arrived in the summer
capital Shangdu (Xanadu) in 1276, along with his mother Empress Dowager
Quan taihou 全太后, other members of the royal family, palace servants, court
attendants and Song officials.10 At that time, Qubilai was enjoying his summer
time in Shangdu, which was approximately three hundred and fifty kilometers
North of Dadu. He awarded Zhao Xian a series of honorary titles including
7
8
9
10
Wang Yao 1981: 68. Zhao Xian (r. 1274–1276, in Hangzhou) was further known under the following names: Emperor Deyou (Deyoudi 德祐帝), Emperor Gong (Gongdi 恭帝), Young
Emperor (Shaodi 少帝), Child Monarch (Youzhu 幼主), Monarch of the Song (Songzhu
宋主) and Duke of the Ying State (Yingguogong 瀛國公). In the official chronicle of
the Song Dynasty, Songshi 宋史 (History of the Song Dynasty), edited by the Mongolsponsored court historians, there were very limited accounts on the whereabouts of the
emperor after 1276; also his biography in the History of the Song Dynasty did not mention
anything after 1276 about his life in exile. For the biography, see Songshi 47.
Martin, Dan. “Tibetan Proper Name Index 1983–2012.” Accessed December 12, 2014.
https://sites.google.com/site/tiblical. “Lha btsun CHOS KYI RIN CHEN—The name of
the deposed Emperor Gongdi of Song 宋恭帝 (1271–1323) of the Southern Song Dynasty.
He lived in vicinity of Sa skya Monastery from the 1280’s until his recall and execution in
Hexi.”
Zhao Xian was the second son of Emperor Du Zong 宋度宗 (1240–1274, r. 1264–1274), and
his mother was Empress Quan 全太后 (dates unknown).
En route, they also encountered Song loyalists and rebels who tried to rescue them
from Mongol soldiers and reestablish the monarchy. See Yuanshi 451: 13267–13269 in the
Biography of Jiang Cai 薑才. It says that Jiang Cai (?–1276) and Li Tingzhi 李庭芝 (1219–
1276) led a force of 40,000 soldiers in Guazhou 瓜洲 (near Yangzhou 揚州) in the Hexi
region, and tried to capture Zhao Xian when the Mongol troops and the Song imperial
family travelled by there.
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Yingguogong 瀛國公 (Duke of the Ying State).11 The Song royal family was
treated by Qubilai and his wife Chabi with honor and respect.12
Between 1276 to 1283, Zhao Xian and his relatives most likely dwelled in
Dadu. They were invited to many feasts with the Mongol rulers, and enjoyed
an abundance of food and clothing supplies from Qubilai.13 He grew up in a
granted residence. By the age of ten he had met with Chinese intellectuals and
scholars as his teachers. Some of them were Song loyalists and cultural elites,
including the court zither player Wang Yuanliang 汪元量 (circa 1241–1317).
Zhao also had interaction with an exceptional Song loyalist, the former Grand
Councillor Wen Tianxiang 文天祥 (1236–1283), who was in prison in Dadu. For
years he refused to serve office for the Mongols, but was not sentenced to death
until his sudden execution in 1283. Overall, Qubilai exerted a rather lenient
policy on Song hostages in Dadu, including those of the Song royal house.
From 1282, there were several incidents which made Qubilai suspicious
of any activities that would challenge his rule.14 The court was quite nervous
11
12
13
14
For honorary titles, see Yuanshi 9: 182, Yuanwenlei 11: 4; also in Wang Yuanliang’s 汪元量
poems, he called Zhao Xian as Duke of the Ying State, see Zengding hushan leigao 1984:
54, 69, 109. However, a state named Ying did not exist. Another prince who had the same
title Duke of the Ying State 瀛國公 was Zhao Yue 趙樾 (1115–1131), the twenty-fourth son
of Emperor Hui Zong 宋徽宗 Zhao Ji 趙佶 (1082–1135). Zhao Yue was awarded the title
by his father in 1115 soon after his birth. See Songshi 21: 395. Zhao Yue had a similar life
story to Zhao Xian. When Zhao Yue was thirteen, he was captured along with his father
and brothers (altogether twenty-three Song princes) by the Jurchens, and was taken to the
North in 1127 at the fall of the Northern Song. In 1131, Zhao Yue committed suicide while
a hostage of the Jurchens in Wuguo City (today Yilan county 依蘭縣, Heilongjiang),
aged seventeen. See Song fu ji 宋俘記 (Records of the Song Hostages) in Que’an 確庵 and
Nai’an 耐庵, Jingkang baishi jianzheng 靖康稗史箋證 (The Accounts of Jingkang), 2010.
Yuanshi (hereafter see: Song 1976) 114: 2871–2872.
Wang Yuanliang recorded ten great feasts, and tremendous awards of food and clothes
see Zengding hushan leigao 52–57, 66; Huang Liyue 2000: 106–108. For example, the Song
imperial family members were allowed to interact with each other. Wang Yuanliang had
written a poem in 1279, Pingyuan jungong yeyan yuexia dai Yingguo gong gui yufu 平原郡
公夜宴月下待瀛國公歸寓府 (The Evening Banquet of Duke Pingyuan [Zhao Yurui 趙與
芮 1207–1287], Waiting For The Duke of Ying State [Zhao Xian] to Return to His Residence);
see Zengding hushan leigao 1984: 69.
Songshi 418 (hereafter see Tuotuo 1977), Biography of Wen Tianxiang, Huang Liyue 2000:
110. The incidents include: (1) a court Buddhist monk made the astrological observation
that Saturn was approaching the emperor’s constellation; (2) someone called himself the
‘Lord of the Song’ in Zhongshan 中山 (Zhong Mountain), and claimed to conduct a rescue mission for Wen Tianxiang with his thousand soldiers; (3) there was a letter circulating in Dadu which said that there would be two wings of troops that would burn the
thatch laid on the capital’s city wall and save Wen Tianxiang; (4) the Left Grand Councilor
Ahmad Fanākatī (Ahema 阿合馬, 1242–1282) was assassinated, and Qubilai ordered an
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201
about any changes or signs of unrest. So Qubilai soon ordered the execution
of Wen Tianxiang, and at the same time Zhao Xian was sent to Shangdu in
the beginning of 1283.15 Zhao Xian was only twelve years old, and some of the
companions who were sent with him to Shangdu were Zhao Yupiao 趙與𤍟
(1242–1303), his mother Empress Quan, Wang Zhaoyi 王昭儀 (dates unknown)
and Wang Yuanliang.16 His grandfather Zhao Yurui 趙與芮 (1207–1287) was a senior, so he was allowed to stay in Dadu. Grand Empress Dowager Xie had already passed away in 1280.17 A year after all of them moved to Shangdu, in the
second month of the Zhiyuan 至元 year 21 (1284), the group along with some
former Song officials were relocated to the further West, the area called Neidi
內地 (‘Inner Land’ or the ‘Interior Area of Mongolia’).18 This might refer to the
motherland of the Mongols, thus the steppe of Mongolia. From the poems
written by Wang Yuanliang about their journey from 1283 to 1285, we are able
to trace their travel route from Dadu to Shangdu in 1283, from Shangdu to the
Inner Land in 1284, and back to Dadu in 1285. Current scholarship has not yet
studied this first trip of Zhao Xian.
From Wang Yuanliang’s thirteen poems which contain location names of
the journey, we are able to trace the exile group’s travel route.19 These location
15
16
17
18
19
investigation into his corruption, which caused a series of political purges in the court
later on.
Yuanshi 12. In the nineteenth year of the Zhiyuan period, zhiyuan shijiu nian 至元十九
年, on the ninth day of the twelfth month, shier yue chujiu 十二月初九 (1283.1.9) Wen
Tianxiang was executed; on the yiwei day of the twelfth month, shier yue yiwei 十二月乙
未 (1283.1), Zhao Xian was relocated to Shangdu. For Wen Tianxiang’s execution, also see
Wang Yuanliang’s two poems: Shengwan Wenchengxiang 生挽文丞相 (“Funeral Ode to
Grand Councilor Wen”), and Fuqiu daoren zhaohunge 浮丘道人招魂歌 (“Song of Fuqiu
Daoren Conjuring Spirit”).
Wang Zhaoyi, or Wang Qinghui 王清惠, was a concubine of Emperor Duzong. She had the
title Longguo furen 隆國夫人 (Madam of Longguo); later she converted to Daoism and
became a Daoist nun in Dadu, with the Daoist name Chonghua 沖華. Wang Yuanliang
had some poems recording Wang Zhaoyi’s singing and music performance with him. Some
scholars believe that Wang Zhaoyi was Zhao Xian’s birth mother. see Cheng Yijun 1984.
Huang Liyue 2000: 113.
Yuanshi 13; Xu zizhitongjian 186.
These thirteen poems are: (1) Chu Juyongguan 出居庸關 (“Exit from the Juyong Pass”)
(location today: outskirts of Beijing); (2) Changcheng wai 長城外 (“Outside of the Great
Wall”) (location today: North of the Great Wall); (3) Huanzhou dao zhong 寰州道中 (“On
the Way through Huanzhou”) (location today: Shuozhou 朔州, Shanxi); (4) Liling tai
李陵台 (“Platform of Li Ling”) (location today: Heichengzi 黑城子, Zhenglan Banner
正藍旗, Inner Mongolia); (5) Zhaojun mu 昭君墓 (“Zhaojun’s Tomb”) (location today:
South of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia); (6) Kaiping xueji 開平雪霽 (“After Snow in Kaiping
(Shangdu)”) (location today: Dolonnor 多倫淖爾, Inner Mongolia); (7) Kaiping 開平
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names are Chinese ones, which indicate that Wang was not informed of the
location names in Mongolian or other foreign languages. The poems describe
various activities, such as reading, eating, chatting or just traveling on road.
No poem mentions the presence of Mongol escort forces or soldiers. The common themes of these poems are the depiction of harsh climate along the way,
old legends, references to historical figures who had a similar fate of exile and
passed through the same place, and Wang’s yearning for his past prosperous
life in the Song motherland in South China. These works are Wang Yuanliang’s
catharsis of the difficult exile experience in addition to the trauma of the fall
of the Song Dynasty. Some poems complain about the hard treatment and terrible living situation of the royal family. Such an experience was distinct from
the beginning of their hostage lives, when the Mongol rulers treated them to
feasts and showed great hospitality in the capital. For example,
母子鼻酸辛,依依自相守。20
Mother and son had bitterness in nose [means almost cry out], and relied
on each other, lonely.
窮荒六月天,地有一尺雪。孤兒可憐人,哀哀淚流血。
[…] 萬里不同天,江南正炎熱。21
One day of aridity in June, the snow is over one chi high on the ground.
Orphans and miserable people were sadly crying and bleeding.
[…] Ten thousand li distance [between Jiangnan and their whereabouts]
the day is different; in Jiangnan now it is still hot.
20
21
(“Kaiping”) (Kaiping is the aforementioned Shangdu); (8) Caodi 草地 (“The Grassland”)
(location today: Inner Mongolia steppe); (9) Caodi hanshen zhanzhang zhong du Du shi
草地寒甚 氈帳中讀杜詩 (“Reading Du Fu’s Poem ‘Inside a Yurt on the Grassland in
Extreme Cold’”) (location today: Inner Mongolia steppe); (10) Yinshan guanlie he Zhao daizhi huiwen 陰山觀獵和趙待制回文 (“Watching Hunting on the Yin Mountain: A Letter
Reply to Zhao Daizhi”) (location today: Yin Mountain, Mongolian name Dalan Qara
達蘭喀喇, in Bayannor 巴彥淖爾, Inner Mongolia); Zhao daizhi here refers to Zhao
Yupiao who had the appointment as daizhi 待制 (Academician Awaiting Instructions);
(11) Suwu zhou zhanfang yezuo 蘇武洲氈房夜坐 (“Night Sitting in A Yurt in the Land
of Suwu”) (location today: Mongolia steppe); (12) Juyan 居延 (“Juyan”) (location today:
Juyan ze 居延澤 (Juyan Swamp) or 居延海 (Juyan Sea), a lake near Ejin 額濟納, Inner
Mongolia); (13) Tianshan guanxue Wang Zhaoyi xiangyao ge tuorou 天山觀雪王昭儀相
邀割駝肉 (“Snow View in Tian Mountain, and Invited to A Camel Feast by Wang Zhaoyi”)
(location today: Qilian 祁連 Mountain, border between Gansu and Qinghai).
Kaiping 開平 (“Kaiping”), Zengding hushan leigao (Wang 1984: 85).
Huanzhou dao zhong 寰州道中 (“On the Way Through Huanzhou”), Zengding hushan
leigao (Wang 1984: 82).
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
龌龊復龌龊,昔聞今始見。一月不梳頭,一月不洗面。
饑則嚼乾糧,渴則啖雪片。[…]22
Dirty and dirty again, I have heard of this but finally experienced it today.
One month no grooming the hair, one month no washing the face.
Eating dried food when hungry, and eating a piece of ice when thirsty.
[…]
In 1285, Wang Yuanliang returned to Dadu along with the Song royal family
members. He commemorated the end of this trip, as he wrote in a poem while
in Dadu:
十年旅食在天涯,到處身安只是家。23
Ten years sojourn till the end of the world, wherever I stay is my home.
From Wang’s three later poems, we know that by 1287, three key figures of the
Song royal family had all passed away, including Grand Empress Dowager Xie,
Wang Zhaoyi and Zhao Yurui.24 Therefore, only Zhao Xian and his mother,
Empress Dowager Quan, were the remaining significant figures from the former Song palace. In the winter tenth month of the year 1288, Zhao Xian and
Empress Dowager Quan were both ordered to study Buddhism, the former to
Tibet and the latter to become a nun in Dadu. Zhao Xian was awarded one hundred ding 錠 in cash. He departed for Tibet (Tubo 土番) and never came back.25
Empress Dowager Quan became a Buddhist nun at Zhengzhi Monastery 正
智寺 in Dadu and lived there for the rest of her life.26 Their awarded land
and properties remained in Dadu.27 Wang Yuanliang composed two farewell
poems to them, including Quantaihou weini 全太后為尼 (“Empress Dowager
22
23
24
25
26
27
Caodi 草地 (“The Grassland”), Zengding hushan leigao (Wang 1984: 85).
Youzhou chuye 幽州除夜 (“New Year Eve in Youzhou (Dadu)”), Zengding hushan leigao
(Wang 1984: 88).
Taihuang Xietaihou wanzhang 太皇謝太后挽章 (“Condolence Message for Grand
Empress Dowager Xie”), Zengding hushanleigao 106; Nudaoshi Wang Zhaoyi xianyou ci
女道士王昭儀仙遊詞 (“Words for the Daoist Nun Wang Zhaoyi’s Immortal Travel”),
Zengding hushanleigao 108; Pingyuan jungong Zhao Fuwang wanzhang 平原郡公趙福王
挽章 (“Condolence Message for Duke of Pingyuanjun Zhao Fuwang”), Zengding hushanleigao (Wang 1984: 108–109).
Yuanshi 15.
Songshi 243: 8661.
At least, the land was still under their name in 1291. See Yuanshi 16: 至元二十八年 1291
十二月 己巳,宣政院臣言:「宋全太后、瀛國公母子以為僧、尼,有地三百
六十頃,乞如例免徵其租。」從之。 “Officials of the Commission for Buddhist and
Tibetan Affairs appealed to the court for tax exemption to be granted to the 360 qin of
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Quan Became a Nun”), and Yingguogong ru xiyu weiseng hao Mubo jiangshi
瀛國公入西域為僧號木波講師 (“Duke of the Ying State Went to the Western
Territory and Became a Monk Called Teacher Mubo”).28 The latter poem for
Zhao Xian reads as follows:
木老西天去,袈裟說梵文。生前從此別,去後不相聞。
忍聽北方雁,愁看西域雲。永懷心未已,梁月白紛紛。
Master Mu left for the Western world, [wearing] kāṣāya and speaking
Sanskrit. In this life it is the farewell, there was no news since this separation. Bear to listen to geese in the North, and sadly watch clouds in the
Western territory. Always remember that the heart is not fulfilled, the
moon is white and bright.
Zhao Xian was seventeen years old at the time of departure. It is not clear
whether the imperial order of the exile was based on Zhao’s own request to
pursue the study of the Buddhist teachings in Tibet. The official chronicle of
the Yuan Dynasty, Yuanshi 元史 (History of the Yuan Dynasty), does not give the
precise reason for this order, whether it was the decision made by Qubilai himself, or based on the petition of the recipient. According to a contemporaneous
Buddhist chronicle (1341), Fozu lidai tongzai 佛祖歷代通載 (A Comprehensive
Record of the Generations of Buddhist Patriarchs), it was Zhao Xian who had
started studying Buddhism, and inspired Qubilai to make the decision to send
him to Tibet.
宋主以王位來歸。學佛修行。帝大悅。命削髮為僧寶焉。[…]
宋主毳衣圓頂。帝命往西土討究大乘明即佛理。29
The monarch of the Song surrendered his throne. He studied Buddhism
and practised [meditation]. The emperor was pleased by this. So he ordered (Zhao Xian) to become a Buddhist monk. […]
28
29
land owned by Duke of the Ying State and Empress Dowager Quan who were a monk and
a nun. Approved.”
Wang Yuanliang 1984 110: Quantaihou weini 全太后為尼, 109: Yingguogong ru Xiyu
weiseng hao Mubo jiangshi 瀛國公入西域為僧號木波講師. In 1288, extinction of hope
for a better life in Dadu and nostalgia for Hangzhou drove Wang Yuanliang to seek his
release for Hangzhou. He pleaded with Qubilai three times and finally got permission to
return home in the South.
Shi Nianchang, 1983: 22.
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The monarch of the Song wore a fur robe with a round collar. The emperor ordered him to pursue Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy in the
Western Land.
Throughout Zhao Xian’s first exile from 1283 to 1285, he and his mother had
been immersed in Buddhist culture and the surroundings of the regions they
travelled to: the Inner Land of Mongolia, including the Hexi region, which was
the homeland of the former Tangut Kingdom, known for the popularity of
Buddhism there.
As for his second exile trip starting in 1288, Chinese sources do not indicate
that the destination was Sakya Monastery. In the above mentioned entries the
locations Tubo 土番 (‘Tibet’), Xiyu 西域 (the ‘Western Territory’) and Xitu 西土
(the ‘Western Land’) occur.30 In another entry in A Comprehensive Record of the
Generations of Buddhist Patriarchs, a more precise destination is given:
敕令瀛國公往脫思麻路習學梵書西番字經。31
The Duke was sent to the Do me [Tib. mDo smad] route to study Sanskrit
sūtras written in Tibetan script.
According to the geographic division of offices during the Yuan Dynasty, Do
me route could mean a Pacification Commission which controlled a broader
region, or a Myriarchy Office which controlled a smaller region in Amdo only.32
After Ögedei Qan’s conquest of the Jurchen Jin 金 Dynasty (1115–1234), most
of Tibet and the Hexi region were under the jurisdiction of prince Köden (Ch.
Kuoduan 闊端, 1206–1251). The Yuan had established a du yuanshuai fu 都元帥
府 (Chief Military Command) combined with a xuanwei si 宣慰司 (Pacification
Commission) named Do me (Tib. mDo smad), and placed it under the direct
rule of the Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs. So the broad scope
of the Do me route includes the Northeast region of Amdo and a large portion of the Hexi region. The area covers today Northeast Qinghai, South Gansu,
30
31
32
Yuanshi 15; Wang Yuanliang, 1984 109: Yingguogong ru Xiyu weiseng hao Mubo jiangshi
瀛國公入西域為僧號木波講師 (“The Duke of the Ying State Went to the West Territory
to Become a Monk named Master Mubo”); Fozu lidai tongzai 22.
Fozu lidai tongzai (Shi 1983) 21; note: The fourteenth year of the Zhiyuan period, zhiyuan
shisi nian 至元十四年 (1277), should be the twenty-fifth year of the Zhiyuan period, zhiyuan ershiwu nian 至元二十五年 (1288).
Tuosima 脫思麻, or other characters for the same name, Duosima 朵思麻, Tuosima
脫思馬, and Tusima 禿思馬. See Franke 1981: 296–297.
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206
Hua
and Northwest Sichuan.33 Under the Pacification Commission, there was also
a special junmin wanhu fu 軍民萬戶府 (Do me Myriarchy Office) ruling the
Northeastern part of Amdo. This was the Do me route in the narrow sense. We
do not know exactly which Do me route was referred to in the text quoted from
the edict in A Comprehensive Record of the Generations of Buddhist Patriarchs.
But it is certain that Zhao Xian had lived in the region of the Sino-Tibetan borderland (modern day Qinghai and Gansu) during his second period of exile.
In the abovementioned poem of Wang Yuanliang, Zhao Xian’s name as a
Tibetan Buddhist teacher was Mubo 木波.34 It was the name of a Tibetan tribe
that resided in the Do me route. The approximate area includes today the parts
south of the Yellow River in Eastern Qinghai and South Gansu.35 So here Mubo
refers to the area where the named tribe resided. The title Master Mubo or
Teacher Mubo corresponded to a Chinese Buddhist tradition in the Song–Yuan
period, according to which a place or monastery name was used as the first
part of a Buddhist monk’s name. The localization of Zhao Xian’s Buddhist title,
at least in Wang’s poem, has a symbolic meaning related to his transformation
from an exile subject to a Buddhist monk bound to his new home place. Mubo
is used instead of the name of the Southern Song capital (Lin’an). It became
Zhao Xian’s new identity.
Due to the limited Chinese sources on Zhao Xian, there is no record mentioning Zhao’s travel to Sakya in Tibet. The Tibetologist Wang Yao had discovered six available Tibetan sources that recorded Zhao Xian’s life briefly.36 As
33
34
35
36
Sometimes the name Do me (Tib. mDo smad) is used for the entire Amdo region, since
that time, Tibet was divided by three regions traditionally: Do Kham (Tib. mDo khams,
Ch. Duogansi 朵甘思), Do me (Tib. mDo smad (or Amdo), Ch. Tusima 脫思麻), and
Ü-Tsang (Tib. dBus gtsang, Ch. Usizang 烏斯藏).
Wang Yuanliang, 1984: 109: Yingguogong ru Xiyu weiseng hao Mubo jiangshi 瀛國公入西
域為僧號木波講師.
Zhou Feng 周峰, “Luelun Jinchao dui Tubo Mubobu de jinglue”. Primary sources mention
the name of the Mubo tribe; see Jinshi 12, 84 and 91; Yuanwenlei 41. There are two other
different arguments on the name of Mubo: Wang Yao, Chinese 1981: 76; Mubo 木波 in
Chinese was a misspelling of Benbo 本波, which was from Tibetan name dbon po, which
means chief or abbot of a monastery. According to Li Qingpu 1999: 38–40, Mubo 木波 is
from the Tibetan word dbon po and means nephew. In the surrender letter of the Song to
the Yuan in 1275, Zhao Xian offered to be the nephew of the Yuan emperor. See Yuanshi 8.
But this claim contradicts Li’s quite different argument that Zhao was also the son-in-law
of Qubilai due to his marriage with one of Qubilai’s daughters.
See Wang 1981. These Tibetan primary sources include:
Deb ther dmar po (gsar ma) (Ch. Hongshi 紅史, The Red Annals), dated 1346; Deb ther
sngon po (Ch. Qingshi 青史, The Blue Annals), 1476–78; Deb dmar gsar ma (Ch. Xinhongshi
新紅史, The New Red Annals), 1538; mKhas pa’i dga’ ston (Ch. Jianzhe xiyan 賢者喜宴,
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
207
mentioned above, Zhao Xian appears in Tibetan sources as Lhatsün (Tib.
Lha btsun) or Lhatsün Chökyi rinchen (Tib. Lha btsun chos kyi rin chen).
Interestingly, none of the sources Wang Yao cited mentioned Do me, and only
half of them mentioned Sakya Monastery.37 Sakya Monastery was a popular
destination for exiling high-level political figures with Buddhist interests, due
to its remote destination, Buddhist prestige, and the direct connection with
the Mongol rulers. Compared to other Tibetan Buddhist schools and tribes, the
Mongol ruler had more influence in the area of Sakya Monastery. Also, Sakya
Monastery was both regarded as the holiest site and as the political centre in
Tibet at that time, so its reputation made the exile seem not like a punishment,
but a reward from the sage emperor. This will become clearer when we discuss
further below the case of King Chungseon 충선왕 (Ch. Zhongxuan wang 忠宣
王, Mong. Iǰirbuqa, 1275–1325, r. 1298 and 1308–1313) of Korea, who was exiled
there in 1320. As for Do me, Zhao Xian probably had visited the region during
his first trip to the West, and travelled there in his second exile period before
reaching Sakya. Do me was indeed the key area that exiled people had to pass
through en route to Tibet. In a late Yuan case, in 1362, Chief Counsellor Taiping
太平 (Mongolian name Tuoba Taiping 拓跋太平; Chinese name He Weiyi 贺
惟一, 1301–1363), and his son Esen Qutug 也先忽都 (He Jun 贺均, style name
Gongbing 公秉, 1319–1363), were both exiled to Sakya and ordered to take the
route through Do me.
也先忽都當貶撒思嘉之地,道由朵思麻。38
Esen Qutug should be banished to the land of Sakya, and take the route
of Do me.
Zhao Xian spent time in the region of Sakya Monastery, and had connection
with the monastery. According to an entry in The New Red Annals it is said:
Phyis sman rtse’i yul du rgyal rabs brgyad byung ste sman rtse lha btsun
pa’i bar du’o (’dis sa skyar spyi ’dzin mdzad).
37
38
Happy Banquet of Scholars), 1564; Chos ‘byung dpag bsam ljon bzang (Ch. Ruyi baoshushi
如意寶樹史, A Good Luck Tree of History), 1748; Tshad ma rigs par ‘jug pa’i sgo (Ch.
Yinming ruzheng lilun 因明入正理論, On Mastering Logic).
They are The Red Annals, The New Red Annals, and On Mastering Logic.
Yuanshi 140: Biography of Taiping 太平. The reason for their banishment was their alleged
involvement in the court conflict with Cösgem 搠思监; see his biography in Yuanshi 250.
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208
Hua
後,於蠻子地方,王統八傳,即至蠻子合尊之中間也(此人曾任薩斯
迦總持)
。39
Later, in the South, the dynasty passed to the eighth generation and was
overthrown in the year of lhatsün (by a person who later became the
chief of the Sakya Monastery).
Wang Yao claimed that Zhao served as the zongchi 總持 (head abbot) of the
monastery, as the Tibetan word spyi ’dzin here means.40 But Leonard van der
Kujip had disagreed with this, and understood that this key term was actually
spelled spyil. It is an abbreviation of Tibetan spyil po or spyil bu (Skt. tṛṇakuṭi), a
thatched or grass hut used by a hermit. So according to van der Kuijp’s translation, Zhao Xian had taken up residence in a thatched hut in the area of Sakya
Monastery.41 In other words, Zhao was attached to the monastery, but not affiliated with it directly, nor did he physically stay inside it. I accept van der
Kujip’s perspective, since there was no other record in Tibetan sources stating that Zhao Xian was the chief abbot of the Sakya Monastery. Also, in various chronicles and lineage books of the Sakya School there is no mention of
Zhao Xian.42
Zhao Xian’s second exile in Tibet lasted thirty-five years, between 1288 and
1323, about which we have very limited information. What we surely know
is that he lived in both areas, the Sakya and Do me. In 1323, Zhao Xian was
ordered to be executed in the Hexi region by Emperor Ying Zong Shidebala.
Among Chinese primary sources, there is no record in the official chronicle
History of the Yuan Dynasty; the only contemporaneous one (also the earliest
Chinese record) is in the Buddhist chronicle A Comprehensive Record of the
Generations of Buddhist Patriarchs:
至治三年,是年四月賜瀛國公合尊死於河西,詔僧儒金書藏經。八月
四日上崩。43
39
40
41
42
43
The New Red Annals: Tibetan Deb ther dmar po gsar ma 1989: 45–46; Chinese Xin hongshi
新紅史 1984: 47; English translation according to Wang (English) 1981: 437.
Wang (Chinese) 1981: 69.
Van der Kuijp 1993: 533.
On Sakya lineage history, see Ngag dbang kun dgaʼ bsod nams (2002) and Kun dga’ blo gros
(1992).
Fozu lidai tongzai (Shi 1983) 22. Ci […] si […] 賜[…]死[…] (‘granted death’) can be interpreted either as ‘ordered to be executed’ or ‘allowed to commit suicide’. In any case, there
was an edict direct from the emperor to take Zhao Xian’s life.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
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In the fourth month of the third year of the Zhizhi period (1323), the Duke
of the Ying State was granted death in Hexi, and Buddhists and Confucians
were ordered to produce handwritten gilded-script sūtras.44 On the
fourth day of the eighth month the emperor passed away.
As for the reason for this imperial edict, the traditional explanation given since
the late fourteenth century is that Zhao Xian was executed due to a poem he
wrote to Wang Yuanliang while they were together in Dadu before 1288. The
short poem was to memorise by the famous Song intellectual Lin Bu 林逋
(967–1028) in Hangzhou.45 It demonstrated the author’s lamenting of the past
Song dynasty and yearning to return to the South, which was understood by the
Mongol emperor as a sign of political revival and loss of loyalty to his Mongol
lord. Since there is no historical record of this poem near the time of execution,
and most sources containing this poem are Chinese literati writings, scholars
have remained suspicious of the incident’s authenticity.46 According to The
Red Annals, Master Lhatsun was executed during Gegeen Qan’s (Shidebala)
reign, and that his blood turned into milk (or white blood), a sign of innocence
in traditional Tibetan folklore.47 But this source does not give the reason for
the execution. According to another Tibetan source, rGya Bod yig tshang chen
mo (Historical Records of China and Tibet, Ch. Hanzang shiji 漢藏史集), the
missing part of the entire story may be added:
De’ang snga sor/ pho brang shang do/ sog pos me la sregs dus/ sman tshe’i
rgyal bus/ hor rgyal po la/ gus btud byas par ma lo bar/ yul nas phud/ sa
skyar yong/ chos byas pas/ mi’i ’du sa chen po byung ’dug de’i skabs su/
hor rgyal gyi rtsis pa na re/ nub phyogs kyi ban de ngo log nas/ rgyal sa
44
45
46
47
Wang Yao’s translation; see Wang (English) 1981: 433–434: “In April of the year of Zhizhi
3 (1323), on an order from imperial court, the Duke of the Ying State was executed in the
Hosi area, and later a number of distinguished monks and scholars were summoned together and asked to record this incident in the Tibetan Buddhist scripts by writing something in gold.”
Lin Bu, posthumous title Mr. Hejing 和靖先生, was a Northern Song poet and native of
Hangzhou. He was born to a Confucian family and trained as a scholar for the civil exam.
But he refused civil service and stayed celibate all his life. He lived by himself on the
Solitary Hill Island in the West Lake of Hangzhou. The legend of him says he called ‘plum
blossom trees his wife and cranes his sons’, as he planted plum trees and raised cranes on
the island alone.
For more information on the poem and its link to the execution order, see Wang (Chinese)
1981: 66–67, Wang (English) 1981: 434–435.
See Wang (Chinese) 1981: 67–68; Wang (English) 1981: 435–436.
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210
Hua
’phrog pa ’dug zer ba byung nas/ ltar btang pas/ sman rtse’i lha btsun/
’khor mang pos bskor ba mthong/ de hor rgyal po zhus pas/ gsod zer ba’i
byungs nas/ gsod du phyin pas/ kho na re/ nga ngo log byed rtsis man pa
la/ gsod na/ skye ba phyi ma la/ hor gyi rgyal sa ’phrog par shog/ zer ba’i
smod pa bor bas/ rgya ta’i ming rgyal pos skyes nas hor gyi rgyal sa ’phrogs
pa yin zer ro/ sman rtse lha btsun de bsad dus/ khrag yang ’o mar byung
ces grags so/
先前,當杭州宮殿被蒙古人火燒之時,蠻子之皇子向蒙古皇帝歸順
了,但不得信任,被放逐他鄉,到了薩迦地方,修習佛法,人群集聚
在他周圍。此時,蒙古皇帝的卜算師們說:將有西方僧人反叛,奪取
皇位。皇帝派人去看,見許多隨從簇擁此蠻子合尊,將此情向皇帝奏
報,皇帝命將其斬首。赴殺場時,他發願說:我並未想反叛,竟然被
殺,願我下一世奪此蒙古皇位。由此願力,他轉生爲漢人大明皇帝,
奪取蒙古之皇位。又據說蠻子合尊被殺時,流出的不是血,而是奶
汁。48
At first, when the palace in Hangzhou was burned down by the Mongols,
the child emperor of Manzi surrendered to the Mongol emperor. But he
was not trusted, so he was banished to exile in other places. He arrived in
Sakya and studied Buddhist dharma; people gathered around him. At
that time, the diviners of the Mongol emperor said: ‘There will be
Buddhist monk rebels in the West who wish to take your throne.’ The emperor dispatched people to investigate this. The investigators saw many
people were following the Manzi Lhatsün. So it was reported to the emperor. The emperor thus ordered the execution of Lhatsün. When on his
way to the execution venue, [Lhatsün] vowed: ‘I did not want to rebel, but
now I am to be executed. I wish that my next generation will take over the
imperial throne of the Mongols.’ Because of the power of this wish, he
had reincarnated as the emperor of the Great Ming, and took over the
Mongol imperial throne. It is also said that when Manzi Lhatsun was
killed, his body bled not blood, but milk.
48
rGya bod kyi yid tshang mkhas pa dga’ byed chen mo ‘dzam gling gsal ba’i me long 1985:
259–260; Hanzang shiji 漢藏史集 1986: 158. The term sman rtse (Ch. Manzi 蠻子) refers to the Southern Song, South China or sometimes the Jiangnan region in Mongolian,
Tibetan and Persian sources. See Boyle 1971: 287. Also, Marco Polo used the term Manzi
with the same referent; see Pelliot 1959. Manzi in Tibetan spelling is sman rtse, sman rtsi,
sman tse, or dman tshe.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
211
This source gives information about the rumor of a rebellion, and the divination of the Mongol court astronomers. Since this is a solitary record, we cannot
rely on it completely. However, we must see that Emperor Yingzong Shidebala’s
short reign (1320–1323) was the dramatic turning point from the mid to the late
Yuan Dynasty, when the state became weak along with the emperor’s power
declining at the expense of highly influential officials rising at the court, and
the fierce domestic conflict between Mongol princes for the imperial throne.
Shidebala was assassinated in a coup, just four months after he had ordered the
execution of Zhao Xian. He was known for his energetic and creative ways to
push several new policies during his reign, which affected the interests of many
powerful officials and even imperial family members. This so-called zhizhi
gaige 至治改革 (‘reform of the Zhizhi Period’) included an anti-corruption
campaign which soon provoked resistance. Rumors and accusations filled
the court. So the emperor had to make harsh punishments for reports of any
suspicious activities, in order to quickly pacify his people and reestablish his
authority. On the other hand, although Confucian education and intellectuals had influenced the emperor, he had tremendous support for Buddhism.
For instance, he ordered many big temple construction projects all over the
empire during his reign and maintained close relations with the leaders of the
Sakya School. As will be discussed later, the Korean King Chungseon was also
ordered into exile in the Sakya region for the sake of studying Buddhist teachings, likewise during Shidebala’s reign.
Zhao Xian died at the age of fifty-two, having been a hostage of the Mongols
for forty-seven years under the reigns of five different Mongol emperors. His
two exiles into the Inner Land, Do me and the region of Sakya Monastery,
took thirty-seven years of his life. So he had only spent a total of ten years
of his hostage life in Dadu and Shangdu without travelling. There were not
many official records after his death, but we can still spot some clues in the
official History of the Yuan Dynasty. There are three entries in it concerning
(1) Buddhist monasteries performing large-scale Buddhist rituals, and (2) the
government taking over the land properties of Zhao Xian and his mother Quan
through confiscation:
1)
Soon after the execution of Zhao Xian in 1323, still in the same month (the
fourth summer month of the third year of the Zhizhi period), the emperor ordered all bureaucratic offices to organise Buddhist monks to recite 100,000 volumes of sūtras, and he commanded six major monasteries
in the empire to conduct the Buddhist ‘Ritual of Water and Land’ (shuilu
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212
2)
Hua
foshi 水陸佛事) for seven days and nights.49 This might be a sign that the
emperor regretted his decision and tried to redeem the soul (chaodu
超度) of Zhao Xian.
Six years later, during Tugh Temür’s reign in 1329, an entry says that the
farmland owned by the deceased Song Empress Dowager Quan was sold
to Grand Chengtian Husheng Monastery (Da Chengtian hushengsi 大承
天護聖寺) in Dadu as its permanent property.50 In 1330, the farmland
owned by the deceased Duke of the Ying State was sold to Grand
Longxiang Jiqing Monastery (Da Longxiang jiqing si 大龍翔集慶寺) in
Nanjing as its permanent property. Regarding the land transfer, Emperor
Tugh Temür insisted that the government should pay for the land purchase over some officials’ objection, instead of the monasteries.51
There is also a Korean record showing that Zhao Xian’s residence in Dadu
was still under his property during his exile time. In the Yanyou 延祐 period
(1314–1320), the Korean official Kwon Han-gong 권한공 (權漢功 ?–1349) visited Zhao Xian’s residence in Dadu when he went to the capital with the Korean
King Chungseon. He wrote a poem at Zhao Xian’s residence: Yingguogongdi
pengmei 瀛國公第盆梅 (The Pot of Plum Blossom at the Residence of the Duke
of the Ying State).52
Zhao Xian was survived by a son Zhao Wanpu 趙完普 (dates unknown),
who was also a Buddhist monk.53 Zhao Xian’s real wife was probably a princess,
one of Qubilai’s daughters. According to the Persian historian Rashid al-Din
(1247–1318),
As for the sons-in-law of the Qan, those whose names are known are as
follows. […] Another is the son of the ruler of Manzi, who in former times
49
50
51
52
53
Yuanshi 28: 630.
Yuanshi 33: 740. Grand Chengtian Husheng Monastery, also called Merit Monastery
(Gonge si 功德寺), was built under Tugh Temür’s order in 1329. It was a monastery of
the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism. Its site was in the Northwest of the Qing Summer
Palace. Most likely the land was paid off by the emperor or government, and then donated
to the monastery, likewise in the case of Zhao Xian’s land.
Yuanshi 34: 753. Grand Longxiang Jiqing Monastery was built under Tugh Temür’s order
in 1329. In 1368, the first year of the Ming Dynasty, its name changed to Tianjie Monastery
(Tianjie si 天界寺). The Ming government established a publisher—the editorial bureau
for the official History of the Yuan Dynasty—here. In 1388, the monastery was burned
down, and later was relocated to the South side of the city.
Seo and Shin 1914: juan 21.
Nansong shu 6 (Qian 1997); Shuanghuai suichao (Huang 1999) 1.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
213
was their ruler but [who] has now been deposed and resides with the
Qan in the capacities of son-in-law and emir.54
As we have seen in the cases of Koryŏ Korean kings, marriage to a Mongol
princess was a strategic way that the Mongols used to tie the ruler of the Yuan’s
subordinate states to the Mongol royal lineage. Probably due to Zhao Wanpu’s
half-Mongolian blood, he was not executed but exiled during a crisis in the unstable late Yuan period. In 1352, an Imperial Censor submitted a court proposal
saying that Zhao Wanpu should be relocated, due to a new rebellion in Henan
河南 to resume the Song Dynasty. We do not know where Zhao Wanpu was at
that moment. The Yuan court was deeply concerned about the risk of exposing
him to any Chinese rebels. Thus the emperor approved this proposal by banishing Zhao Wanpu and his relatives to the remote frontier town Shazhou 沙州
(today Dunhuang), and by banning his contacts with outsiders.55 One year after
Zhao’s relocation, in 1353, Chief Counselor Toqtoq 脫脫 (1314–1355) suggested
transferring Zhao Wanpu’s family property and farmland to the Administrator
of the Bureau of Military Affairs, Sengge Siri 桑哥失里 (dates unknown).56 We
do not know whether Zhao Wanpu died or was still in Shazhou by then.
Zhao Xian was also a prominent translator of Sino-Tibetan Buddhist texts.
Zhao Xian’s translation accomplishment has not yet been well studied. His
two primary translation works were Yinming ruzheng lilun 因明入正理論
(Treatise on Mastering Logic) and Baifa mingmen lun 百法明門論 (Treatise on
the Understanding of Buddhism).57 The Treatise on Mastering Logic (Skr. Nyāya
praveśatāka śāstra, Tib. Tshad ma rigs par ’jug pa’i sgo, or Tshad ma’i bstan bcos
rigs pa la ’jug pa) was a book written by Śaṅkarasvamin 商羯羅主 (dates unknown) in Sanskrit. It talks about the ‘science of logic’ (Skr. hetuvidyā), one
of the five knowledges (Skr. pañcavidyā) of ancient India. It was translated
54
55
56
57
Al-Din 1971: 287: “Of The Princes and Great Emirs in Attendance on the Qa’an and
Dependent on Him”. Boyle’s footnote (p. 303) asserts that this is Zhao Xian. There was
another entry in the book mentioning Zhao Xian as Suju (Songzhu 宋主, the Monarch of
the Song), in the lineage of the Song rulers. According to Pelliot, Suju is a spelling mistake
of Sonju (Chinese: Songzhu), see Pelliot 1959: 661, “Facfur.”
Yuanshi 42: 900.
Yuanshi 43: 912.
Wang Yao (Chinese) 1981: 70. On the Treatise on Mastering Logic, also see Martin 2011:817:
“Nyāyapraveśa-nāma- pramāṇaśāstra (Tshad ma’i bstan bcos rigs pa la ‘jug pa). Tôh. no.
4208. Dergé Tanjur, vol. CE, folios 88v.5 93r.1. Tr. (from Chinese) by Sin gyang ju and Son
gzhon. Revised by Chos kyi rin chen. Note the entry in Yisun Chang dictionary: […] phyis
rgya nag lha btsun chos kyi rin cheng yis bsgyur zhus byas pa’o.”
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214
Hua
into Chinese by Xuanzang 玄奘 (602–664) in 647.58 Zhao Xian translated the
text into Tibetan, probably from Chinese. The Treatise on the Understanding
of Buddhism (Skr. Mahāyāna-śatadharma- prakāśamukha-śāstra) was a book
written by Vasubandhu 世親 (fl. 4th c.). It talks about the five groups of the
hundred dharmas (wuwei baifa 五位百法) of the Yogācāra school.59 It was
translated into Chinese by Xuanzang in 648. Zhao Xian translated this text
into Tibetan, too. There is another work in Tibetan translated and revised by
Lhatsün chökyi rinchen (probably Zhao Xian), dGe ba dang mi dge ba’i las kyi
rnam par smin pa bstan pa’i mdo (Ch. Jing yu bujing ye guobao lun 淨與不凈業
果報論, Treatise on Karma and Vipāka of Purity and Impurity).60
2
The Korean Royals Exiled to Tibet and China
Members of the Koryŏ Korean royal family were also exiled in the name of
Buddhism, according to the Mongol ruler’s will. The Mongol rulers controlled
Korean government affairs and the Korean kingly lineage. Korean princes and
kings were often hostages at the Yuan court in Dadu. They grew up in the Yuan
capital, and some of them were married to Mongol princesses.61 Among them,
Ch’ungsŏn of Koryŏ was the Korean king that stayed in China the longest time.
He was half Mongolian, and his maternal grandfather was Qubilai. Throughout
his fifty-one year lifespan, he spent more time in China than in Korea. He spent
part of his childhood in Dadu, and sojourned there since he was fourteen years
58
59
60
61
The Treatise on Mastering Logic, Ch. Yinming ruzheng lilun 因明入正理論; the original
Sanskrit title in Chinese translation is Ruzheng lilun 入正理論, Xuanzang added Yinming
因明 into the title. The Treatise on the Understanding of Buddhism (Ch. Baifa mingmenlun
百法明門論) is also called Dacheng baifa mingmenlun 大乘百法明門論.
The five groups of hundred dharmas are citta-dharma (xinfa 心法), caitasika-dharma
(xinsuofa 心所法), rūpa-dharma (sefa 色法), citta-viprayukta- saṃskāra-dharma (xin
buxiang yingxingfa 心不相應行法), and asaṃskṛta-dharma (wuweifa 無為法).
Martin, “Tibskrit Philology”, 2011: 95, quotes: “Dge ba dang mi dge ba’i las kyi rnam par
smin pa bstan pa’i mdo. Tôh. no. 355. Dergé Kanjur, vol. AḤ, folios 209r.1 216r.4. Eimer in:
Paul Harrison and G. Schopen, eds., Sūryacandrāya: Essays in Honour of Akira Yuyama
(Swisttal Odendorf 1998), p. 25. Here it says that it was translated into Chinese by Thang
sam, then into Tibetan by Lha btsun Chos kyi rin chen at Sa skya. Eimer says, on p. 26,
that there is nothing to correspond to this text in the Dergé and Cone, but in the case of
the Dergé, this appears to be inaccurate. The Peking Kanjur, no. 1004, has the title Las kyi
rnam par smin pa’i ‘bras bu’i mdo. Here the translators are named as Lha btsun Chos kyi
rin chen & Thang sam tsang.”
Fan Yongcong 2009: 75–76.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
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old in 1289. He was reluctant to return to Korea, even during his five-year
reign from 1308 to 1313.62 He married the Mongolian princess Buddhašri 寶
塔實憐 (?–1315) as his queen, and was favoured and protected by the Mongol
rulers.63 Chungseon was a zealous patron of Buddhism and Chinese culture.
He built the Wanjuan tang 萬卷堂 (Hall of Thousand Scrolls) in his residence
in Dadu, and invited famous Chinese literati friends to gather there to socialise.
He had broadly travelled around China, especially the Jiangnan region, and
made friends with renowned Chinese Buddhist masters such as Zhongfeng
Mingben 中峰明本 (1263–1323).64 In 1313, he abdicated his throne to his son
and returned to China. After Shidebala (Gegeen Qan 1303–1323, r. 1320–1323)
acceded to the Yuan throne in 1320, Chungseon lost favour. In a court conflict
between Emperor Shidebala and the Empress Dowager Taji 答己 (?–1322), the
former suspected that Chungseon was a member of Taji’s faction after listening
to Chungseon’s Korean rival Wang Go’s 왕고 (Ch. 王暠, ?–1345) advice. Thus,
Shidebala ordered the exile of Chungseon to the region of Sakya Monastery in
Tibet.
十二月戊申,帝以學佛經為名,流上王於吐蕃撒思結之地,去京師萬
五十里。65
On the wushen day of the twelfth month, the emperor exiled the retired
king (Chungseon) to the land of Sakya in Tibet, 10,050 li distance from the
capital, in the name of studying Buddhist sūtras.
He spent at least two years in the region of Sakya Monastery from 1320 to 1322,
along with eighteen Korean government officials.66 In 1323, before Emperor
Shidebala was assassinated, Chungseon was ordered to be relocated to Do me
(Tib. mDo smad, Ch. Duosima 朵思麻). He was called back to Dadu from exile
in the ninth month of 1323, when his brother-in-law Yesün Temür 也孙铁木儿
(1293–1328) became the new Yuan emperor.
Another example of a Koryŏ Korean king exiled to South China was King
Chunghye 충혜왕 (Ch. Zhonghui wang 忠惠王, 1315–1344, r. 1330–1331 and
62
63
64
65
66
Koryŏsa (Chŏng 1955) 31: 489.
Buddhašri卜答失里 or 寶塔實憐 (?–1315), Princess of Jiguo 蓟国公主, was married
to Chungseon in 1296. She was the daughter of Gammala, granddaughter of Jingim, and
great granddaughter of Qubilai. Her brother was Yesün Temür (Taidingdi 泰定帝, 1293–
1328, r.1323–1328).
Qu 2004.
Koryŏsa (Chŏng 1955) 35: 538.
Karsten 1996: 14–15.
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Hua
Table 6.1
Korean royals exiled to Tibet and China
Name
Years of exile
Age
Location
Chungseon of Koryŏ
(1275– 1325)
Chunghye of Koryŏ
(1315–1344)
1320–1323
1323–1324
1343–1344
45–48
48–49
28–29
Do me,
Sakya
Jieyang county, died
in Yueyang county
1340–1344), though his exile was not related to Buddhism. In 1343, he was dismissed from the throne and abducted to Dadu by the Mongol soldiers. At the
Yuan court, Chunghye was charged for his misdeed of abusing Korean people
and disordering the society. He had a notorious reputation for adultery, cruelty and ignorance of Korean state affairs. Thus he was ordered by the Mongol
emperor to be banished to Jieyang county 揭陽縣 in Guangdong in the twelfth
month of that year. In the following month of the new year, he died en route in
Yueyang county 岳陽縣.67
3
The Tibetan Royals Exiled to China
As for exile from Tibet to China, Qubilai frequently used the punishment of
exiling Tibetan Buddhist leaders to South China, the former Southern Song
territory known in Tibetan sources as sman rtse (Ch. manzi 蠻子).68 The
Khon family in Tibet was the central lineage of Sakya Monastery abbots and
throne holders. Many of them held the position of Imperial Preceptor of the
Yuan Dynasty. The Sakya prince Zangpo Pel (Tib. bDag nyid chen po bZang
po dpal, 1262–1324) was the nephew of Pakpa Lama. He studied under Pakpa
when he was sixteen years old. After Pakpa’s death, another of his nephews,
Dharmapālaraksṣita (1268–1287, Imperial Preceptor 1282–1286), acceded to the
throne of the Sakya Monastery abbot and the leadership of the Sakya School.
Due to his different father, Zangpo Pel could not take the throne though he
67
68
Koryŏsa (Chŏng 1955) 36: 563. Jieyang county was over 20,000 li from Dadu.
sMan rtse (Manzi) sometimes refers to South China, or the former Southern Song’s
territory.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
217
was older than Dharmapālarakṣita.69 In 1281, upon being invited to the court,
he made a trip to the capital but did not earn Qubilai’s trust. He was accused
of poisoning Dharmapālarakṣita and not respecting the mourning period for
Pakpa’s death. Therefore, he was banished to sman rtse for sixteen years, such
that he spent most of his 20s and 30s in the Jiangnan region.70 He was first
sent to Suzhou, which was a distance of over twenty coastal relay stations from
Dadu, and then to Hangzhou, which was seven coastal relay stations from
Suzhou. Eventually he ended up on Putuo 普陀 Island in the East China Sea,
which was ten coastal relay stations from Hangzhou.71 He practiced Yogācāra
meditation there, married a Chinese woman, and had a son. He only had one
Tibetan servant who was from Kham, Eastern Tibet. Due to the lack of a direct descendant of the Khon lineage in Tibet, no one could succeed the Sakya
throne after Dharmapālarakṣita’s death in 1287. Zangpo Pel was found again
and recalled by the Yuan Emperor Temür to go back to Sakya from Jiangnan
in 1297. He travelled back to Tibet through Dadu, Jingzhao prefecture 京兆府
(today Xi’an), and Chengdu prefecture 成都府. After he returned to Sakya
Monastery in 1298, he was ordered by the Mongol emperor to marry six women
in order to have more children to continue the Khon lineage. One of his wives
was the Mongol emperor’s sister.72 He had many children, and later their
households were divided to four branches (Tib. la drang, Ch. lazhang 拉章) by
his son Künga Lödro Gyeltsen (Tib. Kun dga’ blo gros rgyal mtshan, 1299–1327,
Imperial Preceptor 1315–1327). Thus he maintained the prosperity of the royal
Khon family for future generations.73 Zangpo Pel was enthroned as the head of
the Sakya School and oversaw the Sakya Monastery from 1305 until his death
in 1324.
69
70
71
72
73
Dharmapālarakṣita’s father was Pakpa’s brother with the same parents, and Zangpo Pel’s
father was Pakpa’s brother with same father but different mother.
For the studies related to Zangpo Pal, see Petech 1983: 1, 73–203; Petech 1990: 71–72;
Dhongthog Rinpoche 1968: 94. Bod kyi lo rgyus deb ther khag lnga 1990: 113; Vitali 2001: 41
n. 58; Yan, Jiang, and Zheng 2000: vol. III, 35: “Bzang po dpal ‘bar”; bSod nams rgya mtsho
2009; Historical Records of China and Tibet 1986: 208; Ngag dbang kun dgaʼ bsod nams
2002: 164–169.
Putuo Island is one of the four sacred mountains in Chinese Buddhism, considered to be
the bodhimaṇḍa of Avalokiteśvara. Its name came from the Sanskrit term ‘Potalaka’, a sacred place in South India. It was famous among Buddhist pilgrims and attracted Buddhist
intellectuals in the Song-Yuan period. The island received not only Chinese visitors, but
also those from Korea and Japan. For more on Putuo Island, see Bingenheimer 2016.
Müdegen (Chinese: Mengdagan 門達干 or Budagan 布達干), younger sister of Emperor
Chengzong Temür 元成宗 (Temür Öljeytü Khan 1265–1307, r. 1294–1307).
The Red Annals (Kun dgaʼ rdo rje, tr. Chen 1988: 44–45).
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Hua
A second banishing of significant Tibetan lamas to China also took place in
Qubilai’s reign, and they were from the Sakya School as well. The disciples of
Sakya Paṇḍita (1182–1251) and Pakpa were divided into three sections, the East,
the West, and the Upper. The West Section had the brothers Kunmön (Tib.
Kun smon, dates unknown) and Künga (Tib. Kun dga’, dates unknown), who
supported the steward or viceroy (Tib. dpon chen, Ch. benqin 本勤/本欽) of
the Sakya Monastery, named Künga Zangpo (Tib. Kun dga’ bzang po, ?–1280).74
The latter had an uneasy relation with the Sakya leader Pakpa, and he was executed according to Qubilai Qan’s order. So in 1280, Qubilai also ordered the
exile of the brothers to sman rtse, South China, and the older brother Kunmön
died there.75
The third incident of lamas banished to China, however, happened to those
of the Kagyü School, in the beginning of Qubilai’s reign. Karma Pakshi (Tib.
Kar ma Pak shi), the second Karmapa (1204–1283), had met with Qubilai in 1255
when the latter was a Mongol prince. But Karma Pakshi had closer connection
with Möngke Qan (1209–1259), and received his generous patronage. Moreover,
in 1253, Karma Pakshi declined an offer from Qubilai to move to his fief and
serve as his advisor. So Qubilai had a negative impression of Karma Pakshi and
the Kagyü School, relative to his favoured Pakpa and the Sakya School. In 1260,
when Qubilai proclaimed himself the Great Qan, he dispatched thirty thousand Mongol soldiers to arrest Karma Pakshi. According to Tibetan legend,
Karma Pakshi used his magic power to be unharmed from all kinds of tortures.
So instead of trying to kill him, Qubilai banished Karma Pakshi to Chaozhou
潮州 (today in Guangdong). Karma Pakshi kept studying and teaching
Buddhism there. Thus he maintained his high reputation as a Buddhist master during his exile years, which made Qubilai feel regret for sending him into
exile. In 1264, he set Karma Pakshi free and accepted his teaching as well. The
Kagyu master was then permitted to return back to Tibet.76
74
75
76
The viceroy was established in 1267; the officer of this position was appointed by Qubilai
and awarded the seal Weizang sanlu junmin wanhu 衛藏三路軍民萬戶 (‘Myriarch of
Military and Civilian in Three Routes of Ü-Tsang’). He was assigned to take charge of administrative affairs in Tibet under the supervision of the State Preceptor.
The Red Annals (Kun dgaʼ rdo rje, tr. Chen 1988: 46–47); Historical Records of China and
Tibet (Dpal ʼbyor bzang po et al, tr. Chen 1986: 221–222).
The Red Annals (Kun dgaʼ rdo rje, tr. Chen 1988: 81–82).
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
Table 6.2
Tibetan royals exiled to China
Name
Years of exile
Age
Location
Zangpo Pel
(1262–1324)
Brothers Kunmön
and Künga
Karma Pakshi
(1204–1283)
1281–1297
19–35
1280
N/A
sman rtse (Suzhou, Hangzhou,
and Putuo Island)
sman rtse
1260–1264
56–60
Chaozhou
4
The Mongol Royals Exiled to China
During the Yuan Dynasty exile (liu 流) was still part of the Chinese traditional
five punishments (wuxing 五刑). It was ranked the fourth most severe punishment, right after the death penalty (si 死). This severe punishment of longdistance banishment usually applied to felons and political dissidents. The period of exile could range from one to five years, and exile had three options
of distance: 2000, 2500, and 3000 li 里.77 The destinations for exile traditionally were that people from the South were sent to the North, and people from
the North were sent to the South. The most common regions of exile were
Manchuria and Siberia in the North, and Guangdong and Hainan in the South.
流則南人遷于遼陽迤北之地,北人遷于南方湖廣之鄉。78
As for exile, people in the South to be relocated to the land of Liaoyang
and its far North, people in the North to be relocated to the area of
Huguang in the South.
77
78
Yuandianzhang 元典章 (ed. Chen 2011) 39, Xingbu 刑部 1, Xingfa 刑法; there was also
exile, liupei 流配, for bandits and robbers. See Yuandianzhang 元典章 (ed. Chen 2011),
Xingbu 刑部 11, Zhudao 諸盜.
Yuanshi 103: 2634; exile destinations in Liaoyang province (Liaoyang Branch Secretariat)
Liaoyang dengchu xing Zhongshusheng 遼陽等處行中書省, were usually beyond (?)
the Amur River; exile destinations in Huguang province (Huguang Branch Secretariat)
Huguang dengchu xing Zhongshusheng 湖廣等處行中書省, were usually the
Guangdong (Canton) area and Hainan Island. See Yuanshi 30: 681: “Guanghai is the traditional exile destination, (we) plea to send corrupted officials (in this way), as the punishment.” 廣海古流放之地,請以職官贓污者處之,以示懲戒。
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Hua
諸流遠囚徒,惟女直、高麗二族流湖廣,餘并流奴兒干及取海青之
地。79
All prisoners are to be exiled in far places; only Jurchens and Koreans are
to be exiled in the Huguang region, the others all together to be exiled in
Nurgan and the land of gyrfalcon hunting.
When it came to political purge, though it was not considered as an exile punishment according to the law code, the Yuan emperors often banished their
disfavoured relatives to these remote regions. For example, four Yuan emperors were in exile before they became the heir apparent or succeeded the
throne. Most of them were in their teen years. This kind of exile was only a
political consideration, and no religious elements were considered. From 1305
to 1307, Ayurbarwada, also known as Buyantu Qan or Emperor Ren Zong 仁宗
(1285–1320, r. 1311–1320) was banished to Huaizhou 懷州 (today Qinyang 沁陽),
until he mounted a collaborative coup with his brother Khayishan, also known
as Külüg Qan or Emperor Wu Zong 武宗 (1281–1311, r. 1307–1311) to regain imperial power in the capital in 1307. Tugh Temür, also known as Jayaatu Qan or
Emperor Wen Zong 文宗 (1304–1332, r. 1328–1332), was banished to Qiongzhou
瓊州 (today Hainan Island) in 1320, and later relocated to Jiankang 建康 (today
Nanjing) and Jiangling 江陵 (today Jingzhou 荊州), until he became emperor
in 1328.80 His brother Kuśala, also known as Khutughtu Qan or Emperor Ming
Zong 明宗 (1300–1329, r. 1329), was banished to Yunnan 雲南 in 1316. He fomented an unsuccessful revolt in Shaanxi, and later escaped to Central Asia
under the protection of the Chagatay Khanate. He stayed there until his return
to the capital in 1328. From 1330 to 1332, Toghon Temür, also known as Emperor
Hui Zong 惠宗 (1320–1370, r. 1333–1370) was in exile after his mother was killed
in the court conflict. He was first sent to Daecheong Island 大青島 in Koryŏ,
and then relocated to Jingjiang 靜江 (today Guilin 桂林).
79
80
Nurgan 奴兒干 is the region near the estuary of the Amur River. Haiqing 海青 or haidongqing 海東青 refers to the gyrfalcon, a special falcon native to the area in Amur River
and Ussuri River. The typical place to hunt haiqing was in the Jurchen city Wuguocheng
五國城 (today Yilan county 依蘭縣, Heilongjiang). See Qidan guozhi 12.
Yuanshi 35: 387; Qiongzhou fuzhi 瓊州府志; Zhengde qiongtai zhi 正德瓊臺志 24 and 27.
During his time in Jiankang, he had traveled in the city broadly and extended his social
network with Chinese literati and Buddhist monks; see Chen Dezhi 2012.
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
Table 6.3
Mongol royals exiled to China
Name
Years of Exile
Age
Location
Ayurbarwada
(1285–1320)
Tugh Temür
(1304–1332)
Kuśala
(1300–1329)
Toghon Temür
(1320–1370)
1305–1307
20–22
Huaizhou (Qinyang)
1320–1328
16–24
1316–1328
16–28
1330–1331 in
Koryŏ
1331–1332 in
Jingjiang
10–12
Hainan Island;
Jiankang; Jiangling
Was banished to Yunnan, but
fled to the Chagatay Khanate
Daecheong Island, Koryŏ;
Jingjiang (Guilin)
5
Conclusion
These inland travels to remote exile destinations were only made possible in
the Mongol Empire thanks to the newly established road system and extended
transportation networks with densely located relay stations. The distance of
exile was measured by the number of relay stations from the capital to the
destination, in the case of Zangpo Pel. In most cases, the relay stations were
contacted in advance, so without permission the exile recipient could not
change the route passing different stations. Also, the more accessible travel
routes between Tibet and China through Qinghai and Gansu opened up after
the large-scale military and civil migrations in the Mongol Empire period.
Previously the land was split by different coexisting states, which blocked the
flow of population and travellers. In Yuan China, there was an unprecedented
presence of Tibetan and Tangut Buddhist monks who held strong political
and religious power. Conversely, there was no equivalent amount of Chinese
and Korean Buddhist immigrants in Tibet. Before the Mongols came, there
were no Tibetan Buddhist monks in South China, including the coastal regions.
Tibetan and Tangut monks developed a wide religious and political network
through clergy official posts all over China during the Mongol period. The omnipresent network of Tibetan and Tangut monks provided religious support
for the exile recipients and yet monitored their travel routes and sojourning
places.
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222
Hua
The exile orders of the royal descendants issued directly by the Mongol emperors were not criminal charges according to the Yuan law, but political persecutions. The usual sentences of exile under the Yuan law were accompanied
with extra punishments including conscription into a border army (chujun
出軍), labor at a military colony farm (duntian 屯田), or simply slave labour
(kuyi 苦役). Criminals were commonly tattooed (cizi 刺字). However, we do
not see these extra punishments in our discussed cases of banished royal descendents. Mongol emperors sent them to remote lands in Tibet and China,
but did not follow the legal punishment. The main goals were to cut off the
royal descendents’ political power and support bases in their homeland, and
to remove their personal influence from the capital Dadu.
In terms of the Buddhist studies of these exiles, for example, in the cases
of the Sakya Prince Zangpo Pal and the Koryŏ King Chungseon, the emperors
had interests in reeducating the exile recipient through Buddhist teachings.
Throughout the Yuan Dynasty, Tibetan Buddhism, especially the teachings of
the Sakya School, received state support. The emperors, especially Qubilai Qan,
viewed exile as an award for the recipient to study Tibetan Buddhism. In the
cases of Chungseon and Zhao Xian, the emperors did not kill or torture them,
but sent them off for a study opportunity. This deed of ‘kindness’ supposedly
would benefit the emperor’s karma. Most Tibetans, Koreans and Chinese royal
exile recipients were expected to study Buddhism, which was the least harmful
but most focused activity. The devoted lifestyle and hard study of theories and
practices would naturally distract them from politics. The Yuan court was more
zealous about sending Tibetan monks to South China than sending Chinese and
Koreans to Tibet, because the Mongols intended to spread Tibetan Buddhism
to South China, but not to introduce Chinese Buddhism to Tibet.
In the case of Zhao Xian, he was the only royal descendant who gave up hisroyal status and became a Buddhist monk. He experienced the identity transformation from a royality to a monastic, from a ruler to a subject of foreign
sovereignty, and from an insider to an outsider of the capital Dadu, both spatially and politically. The Mongols placed Zhao into the network of Buddhist
monastics in Tibet. In turn, Zhao as Master Lhatsün, facilitated the intellectual
and textual exchanges of Chinese and Tibetan Buddhism. As for his image in
literature, there are discrepancies between Chinese and Tibetan records. In
Chinese sources, especially Chinese literati writings, they depicted his dramatic life change but missed the records of his religious accomplishments in Tibet.
His Chinese royal identity is the key metaphor of all Chinese literature on him.
Literary imagination is always bound up with the author’s assumption of Zhao
Xian’s yearning for the homeland in South China. In Tibetan sources, however,
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The Journey of Zhao Xian
223
Zhao as Master Lhatsün, was a renowned Buddhist monk and sūtra translator.
His royal background still remained, but it contributed to his Buddhist merit
and dharmic reputation. Textual reproduction in different literary traditions and
languages offers us a more comprehensive picture of Zhao Xian’s exile life,
and political arena involved with Buddhist exile of royal descedents in Tibet and
China under Mongol rule.
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Part 2
Negotiating and Constructing Identities
∵
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Chapter 7
Wailing for Identity: Topical and Poetic Expressions
of Cultural Belonging in Chinese Buddhist
Literature
Max Deeg
1
Introduction
A lot of ink has been spilt over the question of Sinicisation/Sinification versus
Indianization of Chinese Buddhism—and one could add of Chinese culture in
general—and the broader question of the identity of Chinese Buddhism, which
was first formulated in a well-known exchange of arguments between Daisetz
Teitarō Suzuki 鈴木大拙貞太郎 (1870–1966) and Hu Shi 胡適 (1881–1962). The
discourse clearly is not only an academic one, but reflects a dilemma in which
Chinese Buddhists were at times presented as ‘foreign’ on the basis of the
foreign-ness of their religion. This was from a traditionalist, i.e. mainly
Confucian/Ruist standpoint, that is paradigmatically represented by the example of the Tang scholar Han Yu 韓愈 (768–824).1 Such perspectives on Chinese
Buddhism had an impact on the position, self-awareness, identity, and the level
of acceptance of Chinese Buddhists in wider Chinese society. Robert Sharf 2
and, more recently, Chen Jinhua3 have criticised the Sinicisation/Indianisiation
dichotomy as too simplistic; I would agree and would furthermore claim that
Chinese Buddhism, at least for the early period of approximately half a millennium, exhibited a ‘double identity,’ or a state of being ‘between cultures,’ i.e.
between India and China. One could also render this, of course, in a negative way:
Chinese Buddhists were “neither Chinese, nor Indian.” As adherents of a religion
originating in India and, indeed, perceived as an Indian or barbarian religion
by Chinese conservatives,4 Chinese Buddhists, at times, existed uneasily in a
1 See the translation of Han Yu’s famous “Memorial on the Bone of the Buddha” (Jian ying fogu
biao 諫迎佛骨表) in de Bary, Chan and Watson 1960: 372ff. On Han Yu see Hartman 1986, on
his relation with Buddhism especially pp. 84ff.
2 Sharf 2001.
3 Chen 2012.
4 These were not only Confucian literati but also Daoists trying to brand Buddhists as foreign,
such as (and slightly counter-intuitively) in the notorious discourse of Laozi huahu 老子化
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double context: their cultural identity was Chinese, but their religious selfunderstanding was shaped not only by Indian religious ideas and practices, but
also by their encounters with India, either in the shape of the ideas and concepts contained in Buddhist texts, of Indian monks in China, or—in the case of
my examples—the Chinese Buddhist traveller monks, usually but not always
correctly called “pilgrims,”5 who were directly in situ, in India.6
The double identity of Chinese Buddhists finds expression in the Chinese
Buddhist travellers’ experience of what has been called “borderland complex.”
This involves a basic tension between the driving impulse to undertake their
journey and the homesickness that they feel when they are in India.7 The
term “borderland complex” was coined by the Italian Sinologist Antonino
Forte.8 What Forte and, after him, other scholars, such as Timothy Barrett,9
Wang Bangwei,10 Tansen Sen,11 Chen Jinhua,12 mean by this term is the notion amongst Chinese Buddhists that China, according to the Buddhist texts,
was not the centre (“Middle Kingdom,” Zhongguo 中國 or Zhonghua 中華) of
the world, but rather was on the periphery. This fact made China, in her own
terms, a barbarian country, a borderland or biandi 邊地13 as opposed to zhongguo, which in translated Buddhist Chinese texts meant the lower and Eastern
Gangetic plain, madhyadeśa, the ancient region of Magadha and adjacent areas
and not the regions meant in the ancient Chinese classics. This idea of the cosmological and actual centrality of India and, as a consequence, of a changed
position for “Middle Kingdom” China, was supported and highlighted by the
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
胡, “Laozi converting the barbarians (identified as Indian Buddhists)”: see Deeg 2003 and,
particularly for the early period, Raz 2014 (I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer for
drawing my attention at Raz’s paper).
See my discussion in Deeg 2014.
I have discussed this recently from a slightly different angle in Deeg 2016.
A similar concept is that of the “cross-border commuter” (“Grenzgänger”) used by Hu-von
Hinüber 2010. It should be noted that the English translation of the German term does
not (necessarily) contain and reflect the idea of someone who has a double belonging
or a “neither-nor” belonging which the German definitely has.
Forte 1985.
Barrett 1990. It should be clear to the attentive reader that the basic tenet of my title draws
to some extent on the approach of Barrett’s article and could be taken as a complementation of some of its aspects.
Wang 2010.
Sen 2003.
Chen 2012.
On how this double reference of Zhongguo in relation to other geographical terms can
create much complexity in one text see Hu-von Hinüber 2010: 429ff. & 2011: 231ff. (on
Faxian).
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EXPRESSIONS OF CULTURAL BELONGING IN BUDDHIST LITERATURE
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fact that these regions of the Buddhist homeland claimed a higher degree of
sacredness because they were linked with the life of the Buddha Śākyamuni.14
The feeling of living on the periphery or even outside of the sacred realm
stimulated an inferiority complex, exacerbated and enforced by the notion
of a distant past or antiquity, in this case of the Buddha’s lifetime, in which
Chinese Buddhists could not take part directly.15 It also instilled in some of the
more audacious Chinese monks the wish not only to visit this very homeland
of their religion, but to stay in the religious centre of the world permanently.
Yijing’s collection of biographies of monks that went to search for the dharma
contains biographical sketches more than sixty monks, and more than three
quarters of them did not return to China.16
This inferiority complex, which did not go unchallenged by Chinese
Buddhists, is, in the case of the Chinese traveller-monks, counteracted by the
longing to go back to their homeland once they were in India. Quite often this
wish is combined with a religious agenda, the vow of the Buddhist monk to
bring back the dharma to his homeland, China. In other cases this is, however,
expressed more emotionally in the feeling of homesickness, as a longing for
one’s own cultural root. This wish to go back to China is, in some cases, combined with a disappointment about the present, debased, state of Buddhism in
India, which is linked to the more general idea that one was living in the age of
the decline of the dharma.
To be quite clear here: I am not claiming that all Chinese Buddhists and
all monks travelling to India suffered the consequences of ‘double identity’,
perceived inferiority and homesickness. One has to be very careful, in the light
of topical formula (partly addressed and analyzed in this article) and genre
patterns (in some cases not fully known to us because of the restricted number
of texts), to draw conclusions about the psychological state and mindset of
the travellers.17 One can, however, identify the recurring themes, which can
then be analyzed. These may reflect, if not the individual, then the general
self-consciousness of Chinese Buddhists. It can also be shown that there were
14
15
16
17
On different aspects of the Chinese projection of India see Kieschnick and Shahar 2014.
See Barrett 1990.
Interestingly enough Yijing does not directly use the borderland trope but rather emphasizes death through illness or the tasks the monks were still pursuing in India or Southeast
Asia.
Attempts like Meisig’s 2005 to read the “mind” (on p. 139 even the German term
“Gefühlswelt” is used) of a traveller—in her case that of Faxian—and call him a “romantic” (p. 134) is to be called naïve at best and overestimates the interpretability and accessibility of the sources.
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strategies to reclaim centrality and authority18 amongst Chinese Buddhists.
Even these claims could not, however, deny the existence of the Sacred Centre
in India nor conciliate the two cultural ‘spheres’ in which Chinese Buddhists
conceived themselves to be living, i.e. China and India.
In my opinion, this conflict of identity or belonging is nowhere better
looked for than in the so-called Chinese pilgrim records written by Chinese
monks who went to India in search of the dharma between the early fifth and
the ninth century. The most famous of these “pilgrims” are Faxian 法顯 in the
early 5th century, Xuanzang 玄奘 and Yijing 義經 in the early Tang 唐 period,
the 7th century, but there are others such as the Sino-Korean Huichao 慧超,
Wukong 武空, and also monks and laypeople that have not left their records,
or whose records have, unfortunately, been lost.
I have, in another place, dealt with the question of how Chinese Buddhists,
especially those that travelled, who were, often for a long time, in contact with
Indian culture, came to terms with the tension between the ‘borderland complex’ and the consciousness of cultural superiority of their fellow Chinese (and
sometimes their own sense of this).19 In this paper, I would like to concentrate on the few poems left to us in the so-called pilgrim’s records. They are not
many but, in my opinion, interesting since they, on the one hand, are typical
expressions of their authors’ Chinese-ness, using Chinese poetic form, expressions and style.20 They do, at the same time however, contain motifs which
go beyond the “classical” or traditional pattern and tropes of Chinese poetry
of previous or contemporary times. These poems, despite their stereotypical
form and tropes, also are, to a certain extent, the expressions of the emotions
of their authors especially when compared with the descriptive and prosaic
passages. They represent and reflect the tensions in their identity: the borderland complex expressed as a longing for the centre, India, and for their homes
in poems that were composed in India.21 One more general observation: while
the homesickness is expressed quite directly, the borderland complex as the
push-factor for going to India is usually not directly mentioned, but only the
pull-factor to go to the Buddhist heartland.
18
19
20
21
Chen 2012; Deeg 2016.
Deeg 2016.
On Chinese Buddhist poems see e.g. Cartelli 2013.
This has been pointed out already by Meisig 2005: 134, in the context of Faxian’s record,
although the tension between “wanderlust” (“Fernweh”) and homesickness (“Heimweh”)
certainly was not the main motif (“Triebfeder”) for the journey, and I cannot follow her
conclusion that the traveller was “undisputedly a romantic” (“Unbestreitbar war [Faxian]
ein Romantiker.”)
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231
Poems in Chinese Buddhist Travelogues and Related Literature
No poems of the “pilgrims” themselves are preserved in the earlier travellers’
accounts. In the earliest text of this kind, Faxian’s travelogue Foguo ji 佛國記,
Record of Buddhist Kingdoms (or Gaoseng Faxian zhuan 高僧法顯傳, Biography
of the Eminent Monk Faxian), the motivation for the journey is clearly a search
for authoritative text representing the dharma, in his case in the form of the
vinaya. There are, however, some sentimental episodes which reflect the tension between both the pull of the monk’s native land and the sacred lands of
his religion. Such a feeling is expressed by Faxian in the context of his stay in
Sri Lanka when he sees a Chinese fan in a Buddhist temple:
[At that time] Faxian had been away from the land of the Han (i.e. China)
for a number of years, [and all the people he] had communicated with
were foreigners,22 and the mountains, rivers, grasses and trees [he] had
looked at were not [the ones he had beheld] before. Furthermore all his
companions were already spread [in all directions], some had stayed
[somewhere else], some had died. [He] pitied himself [because of his]
loneliness, [and his] mind was always [full] of grief and sadness. [When
he] then saw a merchant beside the jade statue who donated a white silk
fan from the country of Jin23 [he] suddenly became sad without noticing
and tears ran down from [his] overflowing eyes.24
In the most extensive and detailed travel record, the rather prosaic Da Tang Xiyu
ji 大唐西域記, Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang [Dynasty], by
Xuanzang himself, no such poems are included. And even in his Biography, the
Da Tang Daciensi sanzang fashi zhuan 大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳, Biography
of the Tripiṭaka Dharma-Master of the Great Cien Monastery of the Great Tang
[Dynasty], written by Huili 慧立 (fl.629–665) and extended and revised by
Yancong 彥悰 (fl. 662–688) no poem is ascribed directly to the protagonist,
to Xuanzang. There is, however, a zan 贊 (eulogy) by Yancong, the biographer
who extended and revised Huili’s previous and shorter version of Xuanzang’s
biography, written in the slightly antiquated form of four-syllable verses. While
it maintains the original motivation to go to India in search of the dharma, it
22
23
24
yiyu ren 異域人.
Jin-di 晉地, i.e.: China; deest in the Korean edition of the canon (T.).
T.51.2085: 864c.27ff. 法顯去漢地積年,所與交接悉異域人,山川草木,舉目無
舊,又同行分披,或流或亡,顧影唯己,心常懷悲。忽於此玉像邊見商人以
晉地一白絹扇供養,不覺悽然淚下滿目。
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expresses a clear shift of authority from India to China in describing the person
of Xuanzang as the paragon of Buddhism:
The feelings of sentient beings are exhausted,
[since] the Great Saint [Buddha] moved [his] spirit—
the one able to succeed [him]
only [can] be a sage!
Aśvaghoṣa first praised [him],
[Ārya]deva then expounded [about him],
like when the sun has set
the bright moon appears.
Solemn indeed [was] the master [Xuanzang]!
Honest as a man of integrity,
[he] very much excelled gods and men,
did not dwell in [wordly] dust.
Having penetrated the profound mystery,
having studied the principle of the scholars,25
pure as a bright pearl,
fragrant as an orchid,
[he] wailed over the deficiencies of the sūtras,
suspected mistakes in meaning,
devoted himself to look for [the true dharma],
crossed dangerous mountains, walked through deep ravines.
Magnanimous, with a powerful determination,
spread [his] fame to the region of Xizhou,26
brought back merit to the Eastern Pavilion,27
At that time the Dao28 was there,
because our emperor
25
26
27
28
I.e. the Confucian scholars.
Xizhou 西州 was established in 640 in the Turfan area after the king of Gaochang 高唱
had been defeated, but was still independent when Xuanzang left Tang territory in 629.
The Xiyu ji starts in Gaochang (Turfan) and ends in Khotan, which was located at the
extreme southwestern border of the Tang empire at the time when Xuanzang came back
from India in 645.
Dongge 東閣 refers to the place where the state minister welcomed the visitors and
embassies coming to the capital. This very probably refers to the welcome Xuanzang received when he came back to Chang’an.
道: the “Way”, the most comprehensive Chinese metaphysical term, which in the Buddhist
context could more specifically mean the dharma or enlightenment (bodhi).
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EXPRESSIONS OF CULTURAL BELONGING IN BUDDHIST LITERATURE
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had again suspended the mirror of jade29
[and] regulated the bag of pearls.30
Having elucidated the Three Vehicles,
[he] at the same time promoted the “[Treatise] of the Ten [Bodhisattva]
Stages,”
so that the Sun of Wisdom
may shine even brighter in the darkness.
Oh, I am just a simple man,
happy to follow in [his traces] of dust,
[I] grew up in a poor house,
withered and without [any] pedigree.
[I] looked up to [him like] a high mountain,
longed for [him] like for a clear stream,
wished [I] could climb up and rely on [him]
like a vine.31
The first poems expressing a tension of identity with a direct reference to
India and China are found in Yijing’s collection of monk biographies, the
Da Tang qiufa gaoseng zhuan 大唐求法高僧傳, Biographies of Eminent Monks
of the Great Tang [Dynasty] Searching for the Dharma (subsequently abbreviated as “Biographies”).32 Yijing used these poems on a regular basis to express
29
30
31
32
yujing 玉鏡: metaphorically for the pure Dao. By this Yancong implies that the transcendent Dao, indirectly identified with Buddhism, had been reestablished by Taizong.
zhu’nang 珠囊. See the similar imagery in Zhang Yue’s (667–730) 張說 poem Fenghe
shengzhi–qianqiu jieyan yingzhi 奉和聖制千秋節宴應制, Poem written on imperial
order and presented [on occasion of] the festive banquet on behalf of His Majesty’s birthday: 珠囊含瑞露,金鏡抱仙輪 (“The bag of pearls contains auspicious dew, the golden
mirror comprises the disks of the immortals”). Both metaphors, the bag of pearls and the
golden mirror, stand for the just rule of the emperor, in this case the second Tang Emperor
Taizong 太宗 (598–649, r. 626–649).
T.50.2053: 279c5ff.: 生靈感絕,大聖遷神,其能繼紹,唯乎哲人。馬鳴先唱,提
婆後申,如日斯隱,朗月方陳。穆矣法師,諒為貞士,逈秀天人,不羈塵
滓。窮玄之奧,究儒之理,潔若明珠,芬同蕙芷。悼經之闕,疑義之錯,委
命詢求,綣危踐壑。恢恢器宇,赳赳誠恪,振美西州,歸功東閣。屬逢有
道,時唯我 皇,重懸玉鏡,再理珠囊。三乘既闡,《十地》兼揚,俾夫慧
日,幽而更光。粵余庸眇,幸參塵末,長自蓬門,靡彫靡括。高山斯仰,清
流是渴,願得攀依,比之藤葛。
All translations of the poems are my own. I have, of course, consulted the earlier translations by Chavannes 1894 (French) and Lahiri 1986 (English) where in most cases the old
French rendering is much better than the English one. As can be seen through my notes,
my own translations owe a lot to Wang’s (2009) notes to the text.
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the monks’ longing both for India and, when they had arrived there, for their
homeland China.
A clear reference of longing to go to the Buddhist heartland, to visit the sacred sites, is found in a poem, in the form of standard five-syllabic verses, ascribed to the otherwise unknown vinaya-master Xuankui 玄逵 who must have
had a close relationship with Yijing and who, due to illness, had to abandon the
idea of going to India:
[I] expressed my wish [to go] to the Buddhist monasteries [in India],33
directed [my] thought towards entering the Land of the Saints,34
[but] the chronic disease of [my] childhood prevented [me from going]
with the ones that had the intention [to go];
[my] deepest feelings were blocked as if [they] had been eradicated;
as soon as leaves have fallen it is difficult to bring [them] together again,
[and thus when] feelings are gone [they] cannot be retrieved again.
What day [will I] enter the wooden vessel35 [and] arrive [in India],
view the flow of the dharma progressing [to the East]?36
The poems are written in the classical form of Chinese poems and are full of
traditional images and metaphors, and as such they already convey the Chinese
cultural background of their writers. A direct allusion to a classical model is
made in the context of two poems inserted into Yijing’s autobiographical passage in the Biographies, in which Yijing describes his determination to go to the
Sacred Land. They follow just after Xuankui’s poem:
[Thus Yijing’s] old friends in Shenzhou (“Divine Land”, i.e. China) were
scattered in all directions just like that, [and his] new friends in India
were still obscured and not yet met. At that time [he] loitered around,
33
34
35
36
fanyu 梵宇: normally refers to Buddhist monasteries in general, but here clearly to India;
for a similar use see in Xuanzang’s Biography (T.50.2053: 264c.29).
xianzhou 仙洲: in classical Chinese this is normally the Isles of the Immortals, but here
means India and seems to be used in contrast to Shenzhou 神州, “Divine Land” (see
below).
cheng bei 乘杯: the term is used quite often in Buddhist literature and in poetry, e.g. Li
Bo’s 李白 (701–762) poem Zeng seng Yagong 贈僧崖公 (Quan Tangshi 169.17, p.2425),
“For the Monk Yagong”. Yagong was an eccentric music and dance performer of the
8th century.
T.51.2066: 7b.29ff. 標心之梵宇,運想入仙洲。嬰痼乖同好,沈情阻若抽。葉落乍
難聚,情離不可收。何日乘杯至,詳觀演法流。 See Chavannes 1894: 113f.; Lahiri
1986: 74; Wang 2009: 146ff.
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[and he had] difficulties to express [his] feelings; [therefore he] drafted
[a poem] based on the topic of the [ancient poem] Four Sorrows, omitting just two [characters of the original seven resulting in] five characters
[pro stanza]:
“The ten thousand miles of my journey
[will be full] of hundreds of gloomy thoughts.
How [can I] order this shadow [of a body] of six feet
to pace off to the borders of the five Indias?”
[And more verses of] five words (to dissolve his sorrow even more):
A great general can maltreat a division [of soldiers],
but it is difficult to shake the will of a simple soldier.
If [one] discusses the sadness of [one’s] short life—
how can one achieve a full period [of life]?37
What is interesting here is that Yijing refers to and draws on a “classical”
model for his poem, although he completely changes the poetic form: the Four
Sorrows, Sichou 四愁, refers to a poem ascribed to the influential Han poet and
polymath Zhang Heng 張衡 (78–139 AD) as the classical example of a sevensyllable melancholic poem.38 The poem is preserved in the famous and influential anthology Wenxuan 文選, compiled and commented on by Xiao Tong
蕭統 (501–531), a prince of the Liang 梁 dynasty (502–557). The poem goes:
The first thought is:
Oh, my longings are at Taishan, [I] want to go, but father Liang (i.e.
Taishan) is [too] arduous to follow [my beloved one]. [I] twist my body to
look eastward, [and] the wetness of [my] nose moistens [my] writing.
The beautiful woman gave [me] a golden jade polishing knife—how
can [I] repay [her] with a piece of exquisite jade? The way is too long to
deliver [it] strolling leisurely. Why am [I] worried, [and my] heart is
troubled?
37
38
T.51.2066: 7c.8ff. 神州故友,索爾分飛,印度新知,冥焉未會。此時躑躅,難以
為懷,戲擬《四愁》,聊題兩絕而已。五言﹕“我行之數萬,愁緒百重思。那
教六尺影,獨步五天陲?”五言(重自解憂曰)﹕“上將可凌師,疋士志難移。如
論惜短命,何得滿長祇!” See Chavannes 1894: 115; Lahiri 1986: 75f.; Wang 2009: 157f.,
note 8.
Chavannes 1894: 115, note 2. On Zhang Heng, see now Lien 2011.
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The second thought is:
Oh, my longings are in Guilin, [I] want to go, [but] the river Xiang is [too
deep] to follow [her]. [I] twist [my] body to look southward, [and] the
wetness of [my] nose moistens [my] sleeves. The beautiful woman gave
[me] a golden pearl-stone—how can [I] repay [her] with a pair of jade
plates? The way is too long to deliver [it] in such melancholy. Why am [I]
worried, [and my] heart is troubled?
The third thought is:
Oh, my longings are in [Luo]yang of the Han, [I] want to go, [but] the
slopes of Long (Gansu) are [too] stretched to follow [her]. [I] twist [my]
body westward, [and] the wetness of [my] nose moistens [my] skirt. The
beautiful woman gave [me] a shirt with sleeves [embellished] with marten fur—how can [I] repay [her] with a moon-pearl? The way is too long
to deliver [it] stumbling. Why am [I] worried, [and my] heart is
troubled?
The fourth thought is:
Oh, my longings are in Yanmen (Shanxi), [I] want to go, [but] the snow is
falling too heavenly. [I] twist [my] body northward, [and] the wetness of
[my] nose moistens [the] cloth [on my head]. The beautiful woman gave
[me] brocade—how can [I] repay [her] with a plate of nephrite? The way
is too long to deliver [it] with more and more sighs. Why am [I] worried,
[and my] heart is troubled?39
What is surprising is that despite the explicit mentioning of his “model” Yijing’s
reference to it is a very loose one. Neither the form—seven syllables versus five,
eight verses versus four—nor structure—four couplets versus two—nor the
content or metaphoric language—strict metaphorical parallelism versus no
parallelism, stringency in metaphors versus no association—of the two poems
have anything in common. So what is Yijing referring to then when he claims
39
Xiao and Li 1991: 151f.: 其辭曰:一思曰:我所思兮在太山,欲往從之梁父艱,
側身東望涕霑翰。美人贈我金錯刀,何以報之英瓊瑤?路遠莫致倚逍遙,何
為懷憂心煩勞?二思曰:我所思兮在桂林,欲往從之湘水深。側身南望涕沾
襟。美人贈我金琅玕,何以報之雙玉盤?路遠莫致倚惆悵,何為懷憂心煩
傷?三思曰﹕我所思兮在漢陽,欲往從之隴阪長。側身西望涕沾裳。美人贈
我貂襜褕,何以報之明月珠?路遠莫致倚踟躕,何為懷憂心煩紆?四思曰:
我所思兮在雁門,欲往從之雪紛紛。側身北望涕沾巾。美人贈我錦繡緞,何
以報之青玉案?路遠莫致倚增歎,何為懷憂心煩惋?
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to have taken the Four Sorrows as his literary model? The prose preface (xu 序)
to the poem in the Wenxuan helps to clarify the connection;40 it states that
Zhang Heng’s poem is based on—that is, it takes over some of the atmosphere
and imagery from—Qu Yuan’s 屈遠 (343–278 BC) poem Lisao 離騷, Departing
in Sorrow, in the anthology Chuci 楚辭.41 The sorrows there address the poet’s
longing for a beautiful girl whom he cannot reach because of the hindrances of
nature, and they represent an allegory of Zhang’s sorrow at his separation from
his feudal lord. And this is probably the point of comparison for Yijing, who
is longing to go to India, but is still being hindered at the time when he composed the poem. In contrast to the resigned tone of its model, however, Yijing
is clearly encouraging himself and displaying his firm will to reach his goal.
In another, quite unusual poem of mixed metre (zayan shi 雜言詩) consisting of couplets with increasing odd syllable numbers from one to seven42
40
41
42
Xiao and Li 1991: 751 (without Li’s commentary): 張衡不樂久處機密,陽嘉中出為
河間相。時國王驕奢,不遵法度,又多豪右并兼之家。衡下車,治威嚴,能
內察屬縣,姦猾行巧劫,皆密知名,下吏收捕,盡服擒。諸豪俠遊客,悉惶
懼逃出境。郡中大治,爭訟息,獄無繫囚。時天下漸弊,鬱鬱不得志,為四
愁詩。依屈原以美人為君子,以珍寶為仁義,以水深雪雰為小人,思以道術
相報,貽於時君,而懼讒邪不得以通。(“[Preface:] Zhang Heng found no pleasure
in living in seclusion for a long time, [and in the period] Yangjia (132–135) [he] went to
Hejian on a ministerial [mission]. At that time the king was indulging in extravagance
and did not follow the law, and there were also many aristocratic clans involved [in corruption]. [When Zhang] Heng took office, [he] regulated [everything] severely, was able
to scrutinize closely the affairs of the counties; [those] engaged in adultery and cunning,
deceivingly stealing [from the state] were all known by name, the lower officials were
arrested, [and the other] submitted [to the rules]. [He] caught all the [corrupt] nobles,
[and] the ones roaming around were afraid and fled outside the region. The prefecture
was in great order, quarrels had stopped, and there were no inmates in the prisons. At
that time the realm gradually declined, [and Zhang Heng] became sad that [he] could not
fulfil [his] ambitions, [and thus] composed the poem Four Sorrows based on Qu Yuan who
represented the ruler by a beautiful woman, humanity and righteousness by precious jewels, the inferior humans by the depth of the water and the whirling snow; [he] thought
of conveying a report about [correct] statesmanship to the present ruler, [but since he]
feared that [he] was [too] treacherous [he] was not able to get through [to him].”)
Knechtges 1984: 482.
In the collection Sui quanshi 隋全詩 10.12 (not the Quan Tangshi 全唐詩, as He 1991 indicates) this poem is attributed to the Sui monk Shi Huiying 釋慧英. It became traditionally known as a Baota shi 寶塔詩, Poem of the Bejewelled Stūpa, the model for the poetic
form of increasing syllable poems like the san-wu-qi-yan shi 三五七言詩, ‘poems threefive-seven syllables’, etc.: He 1991: 205f. In the light of the reference to the fulfilled vow to
visit Gṛdhrakūṭa and the term Long-he for the Nairañjana river, which is not found before
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Yijing expresses his longing for his homeland after having fulfilled his vow to
visit the sacred Indian sites:
[A poem] in [verses] of one, three, five, seven [and] nine syllables:
(made while yearning for the past in the city of Rājagṛha in the Western
Kingdoms):
Travel [is] worry.
The “Red Country”43 is far away,
the longing for the South44 has shrunk.
The cold wind of the Vulture Peak floats [away],
the dashing water of the Nāga River45 flows [off].
As [I] am happy to perceive [each] morning sun after sun,
[I] do not feel the decline of years harvest after harvest.
[Since I] have already sincerely but with difficulties fulfilled [my] vow
[to visit] Mount Gṛdhra[kūṭa]
[I] finally will take up the sūtras and set [my] monk’s staff in motion
towards the Divine Land.46, 47
The allusions in this poem, which suggest a feeling of temporal distance from
the Buddha and of decay of the sacred sites, obviously reflect the topical idea
of the decline of the dharma. It is also expressed in the first part of another
long poem (verses of 5, 7, 3 syllables), which Yijing composed on Mount
43
44
45
46
47
Yijing’s work (Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan, Qiufa gaoseng zhuan), it
is rather unlikely that this attribution to Huiying is correct.
chixian 赤縣: in the Tang period this either meant China in general (chixian-shenzhou
赤縣) or the capital area.
dan 丹, literally: “cinnabar,” but here is traditionally referring to the South which in this
context clearly means India.
Longhe 龍河, the Nairañjana river near Bodhgayā, also mentioned in the Nanhai jigui
neifa zhuan (T.54.2125: 205a.1, 220b.18, 229c.23). According to Buddhist legend (see
Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya, T.24.1450: 122c.2ff.) the nāga Kaliṅga / Jialingjia 伽陵伽 resided
in the river, hence its name (Wang 2009: 205, note 36).
Shenzhou 神州 = China.
T.51.2066: 10a.10ff. 一三五七九言﹕(在西國王舍城懷舊之作。)遊,愁;赤縣遠,
丹思抽。鷲嶺寒風駛,龍河激水流。既喜朝聞日復日,不覺頹年秋更秋。已
畢耆[emm. T. 祇]山本願誠難遇,終望持經振錫往神州。) [T. and other editions invert 一三五七九言 and 在西國王舍城懷舊之作: Wang 2009: 195, note 31] Wang 2009:
193f. My translation differs considerably from Chavannes 1984: 156f.; Lahiri 1986: 101 is full
of mistakes and does not grasp the structure of the poem.
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EXPRESSIONS OF CULTURAL BELONGING IN BUDDHIST LITERATURE
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Gṛdhrakūṭa on the occasion of a visit together with the monk Wuxing 無行
(Skt. name Prajñādeva/ Boretipo 般若提婆, translated also as Huitian 慧天),
during which both are overwhelmed by homesickness when trying to spot
their homeland in the distance:48
Then [Yi]jing just expressed his feeling in a poem of irregular [numbers]
of characters in the following way:
[I] observe the changes on the summit of the Gṛ[dhrakūṭa]49 mountain,
look askance at the old Royal City;50
the ponds of ten thousand years are still clear,
the parks of thousand years are still pure;51
[what I see] looks like the traces of the road [constructed by king]
Bimbisāra,52
[but] widely destroyed on the flank of the [mountain] “Broad Side.”53
The Sacred Platform of the Seven Treasures is without ancient traces,
the four-coloured heavenly flowers have stopped [their] sound of raining down.54
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
T.51.2066: 9c.12f. […] 瞻奉既訖,遐眺鄉關,無任殷憂, […] (“[…] when the view
presented itself to [them they tried] to look as far as [their eyes] could reach [to see] their
homeland [and they] became full of sorrow; […]”).
Qishanding 祇山頂, the “Vulture Peak” near Rājagṛha.
The old city of Rājagṛha, according to Buddhist tradition built by king Bimbisāra, was
close to the Gṛdhrakūṭa mountain and south of New Rājagṛha; it was abandoned when
the new city had been built north of it.
This very likely refers to the Kālandaveṇuvana / Jialantuo zhuyuan 迦蘭陀竹苑; see
Wang 2009: 197, note 4.
Jinggu 影堅 is a “translation” for Bimbisāra. The road refers to the famous road which
Bimbisāra had constructed to be able to visit the Buddha easily by chariot when he was
dwelling on Gṛdhrakūṭa.
Guangxie 廣脇 Skt. Vipārśvagiri, called Vipulagiri / Pibuluoshan 毘布羅山 in Xuanzang’s
description of the area (Xiyu ji 9); see Wang 2009: 41, note 3.
As Wang 2009: 197f., note 6, has shown, this refers to the famous episode in the Lotus Sūtra /
Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 where, when the Buddha was preaching on Mount
Gṛdhrakūṭa, a giant stūpa made of the seven treasures (qibao ta 七寶塔) appeared in
the air in which the Buddha Prabhūtaratna was sitting and announced the Buddha’s
greatness—therefore in Yijing’s poem a double connotation is implied by the word sheng
聲, “sound, voice”—and heaven rained mandārava, mahāmandārava, mañjūṣa and
mahāmañjūṣa flowers.
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The flowers and [their] sounds are distant—55
I regret so much that [I was] born that late!
But alas, now [I] am being damaged in the burning house [and am]
dizzily [looking for] the Middle Gate,56
am still sighing for the treasure island57 [and] am lost on the long slope.
[My] feet climb the flat suburbs in order to watch down [for signs],58
[my] mind floats on the seven oceans to go up,59
In trouble, the Three Worlds drown in the Ford of Evil,60
in the mud the ten thousand things have lost the Artisan of Truth.61
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
The version preserved in the Quan Tangshi has shenghua ri yi yuan 聲華日以遠 (“the
days of the sound and the flowers are so distant [that I …]”; Wang 2009: 194, critical apparatus 13) which mends the irregularity of the rhythm (3 : 5 vs. 5 : 5) of this stanza and may
be preferable although not found in any other edition.
zhongmen 中門: this is one of the three “gates,” i.e. Buddhist methods of striving for the
final goal. Huiyuan 慧遠 (523–592) in his Dasheng yizhang 大乘義章, “Essay on the
Meaning of the Mahāyāna”, for instance, discerns the following three “gates of wisdom”
(zhihui men 智慧門): the small one, consisting of the teaching of the Prajñāpāramitā
Sūtra (bore jing 般若經), the middle one referring to the eighteen categories of emptiness (shiba kong 十八空), and the great door which is the realization of the emptiness of
wisdom (bore-kong 般若空) (T.44.1851: 555a.23ff.). In connection with the parable
of the burning house from the respective chapter of the Lotus Sūtra this is also an allusion to the one door of the house through which one can escape the world of suffering
and circle of rebirth, which is exactly the subject of a discussion of Xuanzang’s famous
student Kuiji 窺基 (632–682) in his commentary on the Lotus Sūtra, the Miaofa lianhua
jing xuanzan 妙法蓮華經玄贊 (T.34.1723: 745c.5ff.).
baozhu 寶渚: Wang 2009: 198, note 7, correctly points out that this corresponds to the
term baochu 寶處, “place of treasures,” where the band of merchants in the chapter on
the magic city in the Lotus Sūtra want to go.
Pingxiao wang 平郊望: xiao wang is the expression for the ancient royal custom to go
out to the suburbs of the capital and watch for ominous signs (see Hanyu da cidian,
s.v.). When Yijing here adds ping 平, “flat, even,” to xiao and states the effort of climbing
(zhi 陟) he seems to express the Sisyphean aspect of his task of looking for signs that cannot be seen. This is taken up in the following phrase where the mind is said to float over
the seven inner ring oceans.
qihai 七海: these are the seven inner ring oceans around Mount Meru. According to the
tradition they are vast and impenetrable. The structural parallelism of the two phrases
suggests that shang 上 here is more than a purely locative postposition; it is used to echo
wang 望. Both activities—the bodily, of climbing on a flat surface, and the mental, of
going upwards from a similarly flat ocean—seem to indicate the frustrating vanity of the
task.
xiejin 邪津.
zhenjiang 真匠.
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Only Śākyamuni62 is fully enlightened
[and as] a Still Wave63 in the extended dust [of the world] has opened
up the Mysterious [Bodhisattva] Path.64
From a Chinese standpoint it was generally expected that the “dharma-seekers”
would return to China to spread the dharma. This is expressed in a eulogy to
Yijing by an unknown author.65 The eulogy is found at the end of Yijing’s own
autobiographical section, and follows the syllabic scheme 4-4, 6-6, 4-4, 6-6:
Eulogy:
Excellent! When you were young
[you] devoted [yourself] to the dharma, [and this] inclination was firm;
[you] were already pious [when you were] in the Eastern Xia (i.e.
China),
[and] again [you] were looking for benefit in Western India.
Once more [you] directed [yourself] to the Divine Land (i.e. China)
having remained [in India] for the sake of the [living] beings;
[you] have spread the Great Dharma of the ten dharmas,66
have finished a thousand falls without withering.67, 68
The same “call of duty” is expressed in a quadrasyllabic shang 傷 (death poem)
which Yijing wrote in honour of the monk Xuanzhao 玄照 (Sanskrit name
Prakāśamati/Banjiashemodi 般伽舍末底/Ch. Zhaohui 昭慧). Xuanzhao had
gone to India after having studied with Xuanzang and was called back by the
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
Nengren 能仁: a “translation” of Śākyamuni.
jinglang 靜浪.
T.51.2066: 9c.13ff. 淨乃聊述所懷云爾。雜言詩曰[last two characters missing in T.]:
“觀化祇山頂,流睇古王城。萬載池猶潔,千年苑尚清;髣髴影堅路,摧殘
廣脇滅[emm. T. 盈]。七寶仙臺亡舊迹,四彩天華絕雨聲。聲華遠,自恨生何
晚!既傷火宅眩中門,還嗟寶渚迷長坂。步陟平郊望,心遊七海上。擾擾三
界溺邪津,渾渾萬品亡真匠;唯有能仁獨圓悟,廓塵靜浪開玄路。…
This cannot have been written by Yijing himself since 1. one does not write eulogies for
oneself, and 2. the personal pronoun 2nd person singular (er 爾) is used.
shifa 十法, the ten perfect rules (chengjiu 成就) of Mahāyāna Buddhism.
The last two verses are playing stylistically on the double meaning of dharma / fa 法 (ten
perfect rules—Great Dharma) and qiu 秋 (“fall, harvest, year”—“to wither, to decay”).
T.51.2066: 10b.10ff. 讚曰﹕“嘉爾幼年,慕法情堅;既虔誠於東夏,復請益於西
天。重指神州,為物淹流;傳十法之弘法,竟千秋而不秋!” Wang 2009: 208;
Lahiri 1986: 104; Chavannes 1894: 160.
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emperor Gaozong 高宗 (628–683, r. from 649), to whom the Chinese envoy to
India, Wang Xuance 王玄策, had recommended the monk.69 He died during
his second stay in India in the Linde era (664–666) before he could return to
China:
[Xuanzhao’s] death poem:
Outstanding, indeed, was [his] ambition!
[He was] an intelligent and excellent [man] in the field of living
[beings].70
[He] frequently passed the Delicate Willows,
[and] walked the Qi-Range a few times.71
The Auspicious River flows purely,
[and] the Bamboo Park shakes [its] foliage.72
[For them he] longed with all [his] mind,
[for them he] yearned deeply.
[He] particularly hoped to spread the dharma,
[and] was devoted to guiding the [living] beings.
Alas, [he] was not successful!
Sadly [he] did not accomplish [what he wanted to do]!
[His] bones float in the two rivers,
[but] the eight streams spread [his] fame.73
69
70
71
72
73
See Sen 2001: 22 and 2003: 48.
The term shengtian 生田 is not fully clear. I have tentatively taken it as an abbreviated
form of the frequent zhongsheng tian 眾生田, ‘the field of living beings’. The syntax does
not fully support this, but it seems to be preferable to Chavannes’s interpretation: “[la
fleur de l’épi] poussa dans le champs.” (Lahiri does not translate this at all.) Yijing uses this
expression in the Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan where Li 2000: 69 translates (obviously following Takakusu 1896: 72) “field of rebirth”.
The “Delicate Willows” (xiliu 細柳) are referring to the region west of Chang’an
(Chavannes 1894: 26, note 4), thus indicating, as it were, the Chinese part of the journey
to the Western Regions. The Qi range (Qilian 祁連) is, as Chavannes 1894: 26, note 5, had
already observed, a reference to the Tianshan 天山 range or the regions west of the Gansu
corridor (see Hanyu da cidian, s.v. Qilianshan 祁連山). According to Yan Shigu’s 顏師古
(581–645) commentary to the Qian Hanshu 前漢書, History of the Former Han, qilian is
the Xiongnu 匈奴 word for “Heaven” (tian 天); the use of the term is therefore probably
supposed to indicate the barbarian regions between China and India.
The “Auspicious River”, Xianghe 祥河, is the river Nairañjana near Bodhgayā; see Wang
2009: 35, note 63. The Bamboo Grove, Zhuyuan 竹苑, is the Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha.
lianghe 兩河, “two rivers”, here refers to the Nairañjanā-river near Bodhgayā and the
Hiraṇyavatī-river near Kuśinagara, as Wang 2009: 35, note 64, states correctly (against
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How perfectly [he] went on until death,
the sage, in harmony and truth!
(The two rivers are in the Western Kingdoms, and the eight streams belong to the [Chinese] capital.)74
Shortly after, Yijing, the Sino-Korean monk Hye-cho/Ch. Huichao 惠(慧)超
(ca. 700–780) expresses his feelings in several poems, included in his incomplete record, which was discovered by Paul Pelliot in the famous cave library in
the Mogao caves near Dunhuang.
Huichao’s sense of satisfaction, indeed almost triumph, at finally having reached the Holy Land is expressed on the occasion of a visit paid to the
Mahābodhi monastery (Moheputi si 摩訶菩提寺) in Bodhgayā in the following
poem:
[I] briefly expressed my humble thoughts in [a poem] of five characters:
[I] did not care about the [far] distance to the Bodhi [Tree],
[but] how did [I] go to the Deer Park,75 [so] far away?
[I] just worried about the dangers of the Hanging Passages,76
[but] did not care about the whirling of the winds of karma.
It is difficult to really see the eight stūpas,
[but I] stumbled through the fire of the kalpa.77
74
75
76
77
Chavannes interpretation as Gaṅgā and Yamunā). This is even more likely if one takes
Huizhao’s place of death, Amoluoba 菴摩羅跋, as an abbreviated form of Āmravana or
similar (Āmravat) in Vaiśālī, which lies between Bodhgayā and Kuśinagara (on the different attempts at identifying Amouluoba, see Wang 2009: 23f., note 33).
T.51.2066: 2a.23ff. 傷曰﹕“卓矣壯志,頴秀生田。頻經細柳,幾步祁連。祥河濯
流,竹苑搖芊。翹心念念,渴想玄玄。專希演法,志託提生。嗚呼不遂,愴
矣無成。兩河沈骨,八水揚名。善乎守死,哲人利貞。” (兩河即在西國[emm.
T. 河],八水乃屬京都)。 Wang 2009: 11f.; Chavannes 1894: 26f.; Lahiri 1986: 16.
Luyuan 鹿苑: Skt. Mṛgadāva, the park in Sārnāth near Vārāṇasī where the Buddha
preached his first sermon.
xuanlu 懸路: a term for the passage across the Karakorum range, particularly the upper
Indus valley.
參差經劫燒: this is a difficult sentence, and I am not sure if I understood it correctly. Fuchs 1939: 10, translates: “Und die drei (Klassen der) Heiligen Schriften sind in den
Katastrophenzeiten verbrannt.” I also cannot understand the first part of the translation
in Kuwayama 1992: 30: こちらは賊に襲われてあちらは火事で燒け野原 (“Here
being attacked by bandits, there the hell of fire.”)
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How can this man (i.e. Huichao) fulfill [his] vow?
[But I] have seen [the places] with [my own] eyes today.78
In other poems, however, Huichao clearly expresses his homesickness. In one of
them, which reminds us of Kālidāsa’s poem Cloud Messenger, the Meghadūta,
the homesick traveller wants to send a letter back home with the storm-driven
clouds:
In a moon-lit night [I] saw the way home;
The clouds drifted homewards inmidst of the wuthering of the wind.
An occasion to seal a letter and ask [the wind] to take [it] with it!
[But] the wind is hurrying, does not hear [me] and does [not] return.
My home [lies] north of the rim of the sky,
Other countries [lie] to the west of the border [Jambudvīpa].
There are no wild geese in the sun[-burnt Indian] south!
Who will fly to [my home] forest [with my letter]?79
In Northwest India, Huichao writes a poem in memory of an anonymous
Chinese monk who had died of illness on his way back to China, in which he
expresses, taking up the same motif of the clouds as in the poem before, his
longing for his home country:
When [Huichao] heard [about the fate of the monk he] composed four
couplets in five characters [to express his] grief about the way to the
nether world:
The lamp at home has no owner any more,
the precious tree80 has broken in a foreign land.
Where has [his] spirit gone?
[His] jade[-like] appearance has already become dust.
78
79
80
T.51.2089: 975b.19ff. 略題述其愚志,五言﹕“不慮菩提遠,焉將鹿苑遙。只愁懸
路險,非意業風飄。八塔難誠見,參差經劫燒。何其人願滿,目覩在今朝?”
Kuwayama 1992: 16, line 18ff.; Fuchs 1939: 10; Yang et al. 1984: 40.
T.51.2089: 976a.24ff. 月夜瞻鄉路,浮雲颯々歸。緘書忝去便,風急不聽迴。我國
天岸北,他邦地角西,日南無有雁;誰為向林飛? (edition Kuwayama 1992: 18,
line 57f.); see also the German translation by Fuchs 1939: 438, and English by Yang, et al.
1984: 43; Japanese: Kuwayama 1992: 33. For a discussion of this and other poems, see also
Deeg 1998.
baoshu 寶樹.
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[The] sorrow of remembering [him] is deep,
[and I] am grieving that the gentleman’s vow [to return home could] not
be accomplished.
Who knows the way home?
In vain [I] am watching the white clouds returning home.81
When he is on his way back to China, however, Huichao seems to express
the opposite longing—to go back to India—when he meets a Han shi 漢使
(Chinese delegation) in the Pamir mountains between Tokharestan (Tuhuoluo
吐火羅) and Wakhan (Humi 胡蜜),82 who are on their way to the Western barbarians (Fan 蕃):
On the occasion [of this meeting Huichao] wrote a short [poem] in four
couplets [each] consisting of five characters:
You gentlemen dislike the long distance to the Western barbarians,
I sigh about the long way to the East.
The way is deserted, [and] the snow[-clad] mountain ridges [are] high;
in the perilous ravines robbers threaten [travellers] on [their] way.
Birds [fly] up from the high cliffs alarmed
[when] men struggle to get away from the wooden plank crossings.83
Normally [I] am not struck by tears,
[but] today [they] run down [my cheeks] in thousand lines.84
81
82
83
84
T.51.2089: 976c.10ff. 于時聞說,莫不傷心,便題四韻,以悲冥路,五言﹕“故里燈
無主,他方寶樹摧。神靈去何處?玉貌已成灰。憶想哀情切,悲君願不隨。
孰知鄉國路,空見白雲歸。” See also Fuchs 1939: 441; Yang, et al. 1984: 46.
On the route Huichao took through the Hindukush/Pamir range area, see Kuwayama
1992: 177, note 185.
This is a tentative translation of the text as given by Kuwayama. The Japanese translation has (44): 飛ぶ鳥でさえけわしい山に驚き,人が行くにはよじ登るのも難
しいほど。 “Even flying birds are afraid of the steep mountain, men when they travel,
also have difficulties to climb them.” T. has an impossible 人去偏樑。雖 instead of
Kuwayama’s reading 人去偏[手+梁]難 with the special character (yitizi) 手+梁 which I
could not find in any font publicly available. I therefore still read T. 偏樑 which, according
to an entry in the seventh century dictionary Yiqie jing yinyi 一切經音義, Phonetic and
Semantic Dictionary for all Buddhist Sūtras (T.54.2128: 839a.24), s.v. 棧道, means a wooden
passway across dangerous places.
T.51.2089: 978c.22ff. 略題四韻,取辭五言﹕“君恨西蕃遠,余嗟東路長。道荒宏
雪嶺,險澗賊途倡。鳥飛驚峭嶷,人去偏[手+梁]難。平生不捫淚,今日灑
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3
Deeg
Change of the Concepts of Centre and Double Belonging
The double identity or the double belonging of Chinese Buddhists and the tension created by it is found expressed in many other passages and discourses as
well, for instance in Buddhist apologetic literature. But it is probably in the poetic form that the personal feeling of double belonging could be best expressed
because of the topical requirements and possibilities of the genre, which include the capacity to express individual feelings.
Although we only have preserved the poems from a relatively narrow time
window between Yijing and Huichao, it may be assumed that more of these
poems existed, maybe even from earlier periods. Perhaps some of them were
in situ inscriptions, but they are lost to us now.85 We know, for example, that
the Chinese envoy Wang Xuance erected stone tablets with inscriptions86 at
Bodhgayā and on the Gṛdhrakūṭa in the year 645.87 They are both preserved
in the early Tang Buddhist encyclopaedia Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林, Grove of
Pearls from the Garden of the Dharma, and consist of standard verses of four
syllables.88 The poems reflect the strong Chinese self-consciousness of an
official envoy, in which the dynastic influence of the Tang is even expanded
to the sacred sites.89 There is, and this is similar to the later inscriptions from
Bodhgayā, no expression of borderland complex or double belonging but, in
one instance, the concept of universality linked to Buddhism is esteemed more
highly than the idea of China as centre in religious terms.90
85
86
87
88
89
90
千行。” (text according to Kuwayama 1992: 25, lines 194f.); also Fuchs 1939: 453f.; Yang,
et al. 1984: 55.
See Chavannes 1896: 30.
On the function and style of Chinese Buddhist steles, see Wong 2004.
Lévi 1900: 319, 321.
T.53.2122: 504b.12ff. and 503b.11ff.; translation Lévi 1900: 333ff.
See the first half of the Bodhgayā poem, T.53.2122: 503b.12ff.: 大唐撫運,膺圖壽昌,化
行六合,威稜八荒。身毒稽顙,道俗來王,爰發明使,瞻使道場。 (“The Great
Tang reacted to [the change of] fortune, received the ominous chart and will prosper
forever, [it] transformed and cultivated the six cardinal directions, awed the eight distant
barbarian [regions]. India (Shendu) kowtowed, religious and laypeople came [to recognise their] rulership, whereupon illustrious envoys were sent to view the bodhimaṇḍa
(place of awakening).”)
T.53.2122: 504b.14f. 道法自然,儒宗隨世,安上作禮,移風樂制,發於中土,不
同葉裔。釋教降此,運於無際。 (“The law of the Dao [is about] nature, the teaching
of the Ru (Confucianists) is following [the matters of] the world; [their adherents] reside
quietly in a high position [or] administer the rites, modify the [situation] of nature [or]
rejoice in rules, [and although they] originated in the Middle Land [they] are not willing
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It seems to be clear that from the time of Yijing, the custom of expressing
one’s feeling as a Chinese Buddhist traveller in poems had been established
as a genre and probably persisted. The tone and content, however, seems to
have changed, and the feeling of tension or double belonging was no longer
so much of an issue. This was an indication of Chinese Buddhists managing,
more and more, to come to terms with their borderland complex.91 This is
already reflected in a long poem (in couplets of 4 and 6 syllables) which Yijing
dedicated to his collaborator Zhengu 貞固, who had accompanied and collaborated with him when he returned to Śrīvijaya after a brief return to China:
Eulogy is [as follows]:
The wise one planted [his] karma
to receive [what he is now] from former causes.
At a young age [he already] had pure thoughts
[and] was only fond of [collecting] merit.
[His] heart strove for excellence
[and his] intentions were based on understanding and benevolence.
[For him] fragrance was not in the benefit of [worldly] affairs,
[but he] was firmly92 devoted to the treasure of sainthood (first stanza).
[He] received and upheld the true scriptures,93
faithfully understood [their] determined meaning.
For great goodness [strove his] sincere heart,
[but even] from small flaws did [he] shy away.
[He had] the feeling [to give up the world like] taking off an [old] shoe,
did not hope for glory and position.
[His condition] was like not losing hair and tail of a yak in the stable,
[and] equal to not wasting colour and fragrance [of the flower] through
the roaming bee94 (second stanza).
91
92
93
94
to spread out [their] leaves. The teaching of the Śākya[muni] came down to this [realm]
and moved without boundaries.”)
See Deeg 2016.
gu 固 is here and later alluding to Zhengu’s name.
miaoce 妙冊 in Wang’s edition is a hapax legomenon in the canon; I therefore translate
the T. version miaodian 妙典, in the sense of Mahāyāna sūtras, which has, for instance, an
almost identical parallel in Dharmarakṣa’s translation of the Lotus Sūtra (T.9.263: 124a.8).
These two similes are explained by Wang 2009: 237, notes 68 and 69. The yak metaphor refers to keeping a healthy and handsome body condition without taking pride
in it, the example of the bee collecting honey without being impressed by the beauty
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Deeg
Alone [he] left the marshes of Ying,95
[he] solitarily marched on the south bank of the Han [river].
The wise man devoted himself to the most basic [teaching],
the teaching of the vinaya was what he searched for.
Since [he] understood the essential of the net [or Buddhist doctrine
he] had even more access to [its] secret and deep [meaning].
Focusing on the distant [places he] thought of the Tree of Awakening,
then took [his] staff [and] went96 to Guilin (third stanza).
[His] spirit was pleased by the gorge of Xia,
[and] shaped people at the river [of] Guang[zhou].97
Later [he] pursued the old tradition in Eastern Xia (i.e. China)
[and] then also wanted to seek for the New Teaching on the swift
[road]98 to the South.
[He] hoped to spread [the dharma] where it had not yet spread
[and] longed for transmitting [it] where [it] had not been transmitted
to yet.
[I] celebrate the outstanding ambition of this man
[who] was able to give up himself for the sake of the [living] beings
(stanza four).
95
96
97
98
and fragrance of the flower expresses Zhengu’s determination to achieve his goal
without clinging to it. For the bee metaphor Wang points out a place of origin in the
Mūlasarvāstivādavinayasaṃgraha (T.24.1458: 616a.9f.) where the behavior of the bee is
compared to the monks going on a begging tour into a village. But I think that there is
more meaning here: the idea that the bee is not captured by the beauty of the flower,
but always returns to its original place (an idea already found in a lot of texts translated
before Yijing, such as T.11.310: 617a.3f. and T.12.347: 185c.13), is paralleled with Zhengu’s determination to go back to China and spread the dharma. So these two phrases emphasize
the homeland China (zhu 住) and the journey to India (you 遊) from which Zhengu does
return despite the attraction India has as a sacred Buddhist land.
Yingze 滎澤, Zhengu’s home region.
仗藜 (zhang 仗: “weapon”) in the sense of 杖藜 (zhang 杖: “staff”); see the meaning of
the term in Hanyu da cidian, s.v.
Yijing here plays with the appellative meaning of the terms xiagu 峽谷, “gorge,” and
guangchuan 廣川, “wide (or broad) river” which, at the same time, refer to concrete
places in the Guangzhou region, the “gorges of Xia,” and the “river of Guang[zhou],” the
Pearl River, Zhujiang 珠江, in Zhengu’s biography.
I take chuan 遄 here for an abbreviation of a term like chuantu 遄途 in the sense of “quick
road” (see Hanyu da cidian, s.v.) which, as other binoms with chuan show, can refer to the
swift way by sea.
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[He] was an excellent companion for me
[when] together we went to the Golden Island.99
[We] were able to firmly practice pure conduct (brahmacarya)
because [we] were good friends [for each other] (kalyāṇamitra).
[We] successively crossed by boat or chariot,
helped each other’s hands and feet.
If there is one chance to achieve [our] agreement to transmit the lamp
then there is no shame to live a hundred autumns (stanza five).
Then [we] came to Bhoja100
[and his] long-cherished ambition was fulfilled.
[He] could hear the dharma that [he] had not yet heard,
[and] also saw examples that [he] had not seen before.
[He] translated as much as [he] got hold of [new texts],
carefully checked [what was] coherent [and what was] difficult to
understand.
[He] saw new things [and] knew new things,
[he] was intelligent [and] upheld the rules.
[He] was erudite [and] had much wisdom
[and] always fostered a mind of hearing [the dharma] in the morning,
[was full] of respectful modesty, [had] a diligent mind
[and] was not worried of the thought of dying in the evening.101
Even if only one flame follows the wind [of the dharma]
many thousands of lamps will not be blown out (stanza six).102
99
100
101
102
Jinzhou 金洲: Suvarṇadvīpa, which must have been located on the way from Guangzhou
to Śrīvijaya, and has been identified with a kingdom based in Sumatra with holdings on
the Malayan peninsula: Coedès 1968: 92. It may be identical with Śrīvijaya; see Pelliot 1904:
322 and 338.
Fozhe 佛逝 or Shili fozhe 室利佛逝, referring to the kingdom of Śrīvijaya in the area of
modern Palembang in Southeast Sumatra; Pelliot 1904: 321ff.
Wang 2009: 238, note 74, points out that two sections of this part are modelled after
Confucius’ Lunyu 論語 4.7.8 (Liren 里仁): 子曰﹕“朝聞道,夕死可矣。” (“The master
said: ‘[If one] listens to the Way in the morning [one] may well die in the evening.’ ”).
T.51.2066: 11b.23ff.) 讚曰﹕“智者植業,稟自先因。童年潔想,唯福是親。情求
勝己,意仗明仁。非馨香於事利,固寶愛於賢珍。(其一。)受持妙冊[emm. T.
典],貞明固意。大善敦心,小瑕興畏。有懷脫屣,無望榮貴。若住噐之毛尾
弗虧,等遊蜂之色香靡費。(其二。)孤辭滎澤,隻步漢陰。哲人務本,律教
是尋。既知網領,更進幽深。致遠懷於覺樹,遂仗藜於桂林。(其三。)怡神
峽谷,匠物廣川。既而追舊聞於東夏,復欲請新教以南遄。希揚布於未布,
冀流傳於未傳。慶斯人之壯志,能為物而身捐。(其四。)為我良伴,共[emm.
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Deeg
In a way, this is a counterexample of the double identity complex: here we have
a monk who learned and studied in China and whose wish to hear the authentic dharma led him not to India, but to a new centre of Buddhist learning in
Southeast Asia, in the kingdom of Śrīvijaya. The poem signifies a shift of paradigm while retaining a continuity of ideas: the longing for the sacred places
is still expressed in the poem, which suggests that Zhengu originally wanted
to go to India to see, for instance, the bodhi tree (jueshu 覺樹), while the preceding biography does not reflect such an intention at all. The juxtaposition
of the two cultural spheres (“old tradition in Eastern Xia”, jiuwen yu Dongxia
舊聞於東夏; “the New Teaching on the swift [road] to the South”, xinjiao yi
nanchuan 新教以南遄) is maintained, but there is no tension since the “South”
here represents learning without any other religious goal, such as pilgrimage
or veneration.
The longest of the five preserved Chinese inscriptions from the early Song
dynasty (960–1279) which were found towards the end of the 19th century at
Bodhgayā finally reflects this shift of worldview and centre, but also shows the
continuity of the veneration of the sacred sites in India through pilgrimage and
poems. Its author, a monk called Yunshu 蘊述, composed—one is tempted to
say: in a classical style—the following eulogy (zan 讚) to the Buddha, his three
bodies (trikāya/sanshen 三身) and the corresponding thrones (of enlightenment) (zuo 座):103
The four [times] eight sights104 do not vanish;
The mass of the head is delicately [adorned] by [his] minor marks;105
The coil of the mountain of [his head’s] top is [like] green jade;
The beauty of [his] eyes’ ocean is [like] a blue lotus;
103
104
105
T. 其]屆金洲。能堅梵行,善友之由。船車遞濟,手足相求。儻得契傳燈之一
望,亦是不慚生於百秋。(其五。)既至佛逝,宿心是契。得聽未聞之法,還觀
不覩之例。隨譯隨受,詳檢通滯。新見新知,巧明開制。博識多智,每勵朝
聞之心;恭儉勤懷,無憂夕死之計。恐眾多而事撓,且逐靜而兼濟。縱一焰
之隨風,庶千燈[emm. T. 十登]而罔翳。(其六。) Wang 2009: 215f.; Lahiri 1986: 116f.,
clearly misses the fact that this is a poem (zan yue 讚曰); cf. Chavannes 1894: 180ff.
Chavannes 1896: 8ff.
These are the thirty-two main marks (lakṣaṇa, normally xiang 相 but here translated as
guan 觀, from Skt. lakṣ-, “to see, to view”) of a Buddha.
I take hao 好 here as the minor marks (anulakṣaṇa), following quite naturally on the
primary marks (lakṣaṇa) mentioned in the first verse.
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The breast [adorned with] the ominous character106 is [like] a heap of
gold;
The twist of hair [between his] two eyebrows are like a twined cloud;
Marvellous indeed are [his] unusual divine hands;
[His] delicate body is void of the vapour of dust.107, 108
In a way, the Buddha is described here in a divine form that is not limited to any
locality. This is followed by a eulogy of the three bodies (nirmāṇakāya/huashen
化身, saṃbhogakāya/baoshen 報身, and dharmakāya/fashen 法身) and then,
more interestingly in the present context, by eulogies of the three corresponding diamond thrones (vajrāsana or bodhyāsana/juezuo 覺座). Although in the
first of these eulogies, on the phenomenal body (nirmāṇakāya), the centrality
of India and the importance of the sacred sites is recognised, it is, at the same
time, by what could be called a process of ‘cosmologization,’ shifted to a new
perspective that is without any concrete locality:
The Five [regions of] India have the miraculous traces [of the Buddha],
[the throne]109 originated in the centre of the six directions.
[It] penetrates deeply to the bottom of the golden wheel
[and] rises high above the flat surface of the earth.
[Wordly] dust and hardship do not affect [it] at all,
How could water and fire change [it]?
Once the armed forces of Māra were destroyed,
the Lion’s Roar (Skt. siṃhanāda) was calmed [as well].110
106
107
108
109
110
wanzi 萬字: this is, as Chavannes translates correctly, the svastika sign on the breast of the
Buddha.
This may refer to the fourteenth mark which is a soft skin which repels dirt and dust (see
e.g. Dīrghāgama / Chang ahan jing 長阿含經, Mahāvadāna-sūtra, T.1.1: 5b.8).
四八觀無盡。威顏眾好詳。頂山盤碧玉。目海秀青蓮。萬字匈金聚。雙眉毫
雲纏。奇哉神異手。 I am following Chavannes’ text (1896: 8); the original Bodhgayā
stones with the inscriptions are stored in the Indian Museum in Calcutta and unfortunately not accessible. It would be worthwhile to study these inscriptions again after more
than one hundred years after Chavannes. The missing character in the last verse, although
Chavannes translates “(tes vêtements?)”, may have been miao 妙.
The subject is unspecified and is, as given in the title of the eulogy, supposed to be the
throne but then again rather the Buddha.
Chavannes 1896: 8: 五天有異跡。六合內中生。深透金輪底。高昇地面平。塵勞
終不雜。水火豈能更。時殄魔軍力。安然獅子鳴。
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Deeg
From these inscriptions it becomes evident that Chinese Buddhists, although
they recognized the centrality of the cosmologically perceived “diamond
throne”, did not necessarily consider themselves as living in a borderland, but
were self-confident enough to go to the sacred places in India as a means of
attaining merit for themselves or others.
4
Concluding Remarks
The change or expansion of Buddhist sacred geography, with places like
Mt. Wutai 五臺山 as the home of the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī/ Wenshushili
文殊室利 in China herself,111 which marks the shift of centres and of Chinese
Buddhist geographical and cultural self-consciousness from India to China
(which, in turn, became sites of pilgrimage for Indian Buddhists), is probably
best expressed in a poem from the Tang period, positioned as the first of five
in a collection from Dunhuang, in which the Chinese site is praised for being
visited by Indian pilgrims. This development brings us full circle and I will let
it stand as the final word on the matter of the mutability of both borderlands
and homelands:
…
The true monks of the Western lands,
Come from afar to pay reverence.
Below the cliffs, auspicious colours often rise,
[There is] good fortune and happiness in the land of Tang,
Lasting ten thousand years and thousands of autumns.112
111
112
See Lin 2006 and Cartelli 2013. On the broader context of this shift in relation to the “emergence of China as a Central Buddhist Realm” visited by Indian monks, see Sen 2003: 76ff.
and Cartelli 2013: 63ff.
… 西國真僧,遠遠來瞻禮。瑞彩時時巖下起。福祚唐川,萬古千秋歲。
(according to Cartelli 2013: 59); translation Cartelli 2004: 741 and 2013: 59.
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Chapter 8
How the Dharma Ended Up in the “Eastern
Country”: Korean Monks in the Chinese Buddhist
Imaginaire during the Tang and Early Song
Sem Vermeersch
1
Introduction
Although the Korean peninsula and China have maintained close diplomatic,
trade, and cultural contacts for the past two millennia, there has been surprisingly little concrete study on how those contacts were developed or what they
constituted in reality. For a long time, the dominant perception was that the
relationship was unequal: Korea was a vassal to China, and relations were conducted along the unequal tribute-investiture model. Post-liberation Korean
scholarship has sought to challenge that model, pointing out that the reality was often very different from the tribute-investiture ideal. Many Western
scholars are also very critical of the tribute-investiture model; some even claim
that it has nothing to do with how relations were actually conducted. Yet in
spite of this, detailed studies of cultural, trade, or religious exchanges, and how
these affected each side in the exchange, are still hard to find.
The written records on exchanges indeed make it difficult to move beyond
this model, because most sources focus on the ‘ought to’ aspect of relations
rather than the ‘as it is’ aspect. The study of Buddhist exchanges may offer a
way out of this Sinocentric paradigm. Although Buddhist exchanges often took
place as part of official tribute missions, Buddhists framed these exchanges
according to their own criteria. For example, the record of the Japanese monk
Ennin (794–864) of his pilgrimage to China bears testimony to an alternative
space, in which monks used their own channels of exchange (using temple
networks for travelling).1 Also, we know that Buddhism lent both Korea and
Japan a very different vision, one not of inferiority in a Sinitic world order, but
rather one in which they were centres of a (Buddhist) universe.2 Moreover,
1 See Sørensen 1986 for Ennin’s contacts with Korean monks during his travels, and how he
made use of their networks.
2 See Rhi 1988 for the case of Silla as a Buddha land, and Dolce 2007 on how the so-called Gyōki
maps identified Japan as a Buddhist country.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004366152_010
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Vermeersch
recent research on Korean Buddhism has suggested that the cultural flow was
not unilateral, but that there were also counterflows, i.e. examples of the periphery (Korea) impacting the centre (China).3
All this suffices to warrant a new perspective on the process of Buddhist
contacts. In particular, by taking a global view over the long term, we should try
to establish whether Buddhism indeed provided an alternative “worldview of
exchange” that was more equitable, or whether the examples cited above are
mere “exceptions”. As is well known, the data is very thin in the case of Korea,
so it is really a question of finding new approaches rather than unexplored
sources. In this perspective, the theory of “interface” can be useful: in the sense
of a contact zone, this concept is much broader than merely “exchange”. It allows for example the consideration of “virtual interfaces”—in other words,
imagined contacts, or representations of the other. Such virtual contacts with
the other are by no means unimportant in terms of identity formation and
hence constitute a legitimate area of research (Gelézeau et al. 2013). Also, the
concept of interface allows us to study Buddhist interaction as a sphere in its
own right rather than something part of distinct (proto-) national traditions.
The period under consideration stretches from just before the Sui unification of China (589; late Three Kingdoms period for Korea) to the early Song,
right after its foundation (960; early Koryŏ). The reason for that is quite simple:
Before the second half of the sixth century we only have the sketchiest outline
of a few disparate facts concerning the transmission of Buddhism to Korea, but
from then onwards we have the beginnings of biographies and other sources
that at least allow us to reconstruct a few key characteristics of the exchanges,
their impact and intensity. After the founding of the Song dynasty in 960, relations seem to have entered a new paradigm, in which the free flow of Korean
monks into China quickly was reduced to a trickle. This sea-change forms a
convenient watershed to end the narrative.
While a detailed study of the actual exchanges that took place over a longer period of time would be a very worthwhile project, it is beyond the scope
of the present study.4 Thus, rather than studying the actual channels of exchange or the quality and nature of the exchanges in detail, this chapter will
instead study how the exchanges were represented in the Chinese Buddhist
3 See Buswell 2005. There is also more awareness of the need to distinguish between lofty rhetoric and reality in the balance of power in these relations, but as yet there are few convincing
studies that really move beyond this rhetoric.
4 The only studies that seem to take general stock of Buddhist exchanges between Korea and
China have been undertaken by Chinese scholars; see notably Huang and Chen 1993. For a
good attempt at summarizing the main flow of events in English, see Jorgensen 2005a: 73–91.
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imaginaire.5 I will argue that before we can actually understand the meaning of
these exchanges, we have to understand first of all how these exchanges were
represented in the sources. Since the overwhelming majority of sources are
biographical materials compiled in China, we therefore have to question how
the Chinese biographers looked at the Korean “other,” and what function they
assigned them in these compilations. Although the biographic compilations
by Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667) and Zanning 贊寧 (919–1001), and the Patriarch’s
Hall Record, contain often substantial biographies of Korean monks, full of fascinating details, we have to question why the Korean monks were included
here as the only “foreign” monks deemed worthy of inclusion.6 All too often
this has been taken simply as evidence of the high esteem Korean Buddhism
enjoyed in China, yet as we will see, there were undoubtedly other motivations
at play. Rather than a direct and accurate representation of a Korean Buddhist
identity, it is better to treat this material as the result of the needs and projections of Chinese monks; until we deconstruct this imaginary representation, it is impossible to talk about the formation of distinct Buddhist identities
through the intensive exchanges that took place between Korea and China in
the second half of the first millennium.
2
Buddhist Relations between China and Korea: An Overview
Before looking at the compilations of monastic biographies that form the main
source material of this study, it is useful to take a step back and try to sketch
the general background against which Buddhist exchanges between China and
Korea took place. First of all, it is necessary to bracket the use of the names of
modern countries: in the sixth century these names were utterly meaningless.
The Korean peninsula was divided into the Three Kingdoms known as Silla
新羅, Koguryǒ 高句麗 and Paekche 百濟. Silla conquered the other states between 660–668, thus establishing what has been called in scholarship Unified
Silla, which lasted until 935. As the predecessor in terms of culture, language,
5 I use this term here very much in the same sense as Kieschnick’s “monastic ideals,” “representations of the image of the monk, of what monks were supposed to be” (Kieschnick
1997: 1). Thus, I will look especially at how Chinese biographers imagined and represented
their Korean counterparts.
6 Of course, there are many non-Han monks appearing in Chinese monastic biographies, but
they are almost exclusively of foreign monks who had settled in China. To my knowledge, the
biographies of Korean monks are the only ones that include monks who returned to their
home country or even never travelled to China.
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and ethnicity of the modern Korean states, it is certainly justifiable to refer
to Silla or Unified Silla as Korea. For the other two kingdoms, however, although I will put them under the same rubric, it should be understood that
they may have been quite different societies from Silla. Similarly, what we refer
to as China was until the Sui unification in 589 in fact a patchwork of different
states, generally divided into northern “barbarian” and southern “Chinese” dynasties, yet the actual situation was infinitely more complicated.
The complexity of using modern state labels projected back in time can be
made clear through the example of the monk Senglang 僧郞 (Kor. Sǔngnang; fl.
476–512). Since he is identified as being from Koguryǒ in the sources, he is usually claimed as a Korean, and hence Korean influence on the early Sanlun 三論
school is claimed. Yet it is important to understand that Koguryǒ was a multiethnic state, which moreover comprised vast territories in what is now called
Manchuria. Since he moreover seems to have been active in central China
(Mt. She, near Nanjing) (Plassen 2005: 169), there really is no way of knowing
whether he was Koguryǒ, Han Chinese, or belonging to one of the other ethnicities absorbed into Koguryǒ, such as Ye 濊, Maek 貊, Xianbei 鮮卑 or Puyǒ
夫餘 (Jorgensen 2012: 60).
What is certain, however, is that there existed a Sinitic culture, exemplified
by the Chinese script and a number of classics, that acted as a common reference point for East Asia. Not only was classical Chinese adopted as the canonical language for Buddhist texts, some of the Sinitic cultural models also
imposed themselves on the East Asian Buddhist networks. The first transmission of Buddhism to the Korean peninsula serves to illustrate this point. In
the cases of both Koguryǒ and Paekche, which are thought to have received
Buddhism in 372 and 384 respectively, embassy ships delivered the monks.
Moreover, in the case of Koguryǒ, it is clear that Buddhism was something
that was granted by a state claiming the authority of a suzerain, Later Qin
(384–417). Many scholars have argued that the Emperor of Later Qin bestowed
Buddhism as a favour. Thus the “tribute state” model was adopted as a universal scheme to justify the transmission of culture. Buddhism was part of a
“superior culture” and the recipient culture was supposed to accept it lock,
stock and barrel. What brings home just how strong this sense of Buddhism as
an instrument of rule was—efficacious and powerful—can be seen when the
ruler of Paekche advised his colleague on the Japanese archipelago to adopt it
too. The Nihon shoki (Chronicles of Japan, ca. 720) preserves this missive dated
552: “This doctrine is the most excellent of all doctrines, but it is hard to explain and hard to comprehend … but it can create limitless religious merit and
retribution … every prayer [to the Buddha] will be fulfilled without fail” (Nihon
shoki 19.34–35, adapted from Aston 1972: II, 66). Buddhism was thus seen as a
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civilising mission: granted from a higher to a lower state in emulation of the
tribute model, it became part and parcel of the civilising and state building
process in both the peninsula and the archipelago, transmitting both Chinese
ideas about civilization and Buddhist ones.7
Although in the case of Paekche it was a monk with an Indian name
(Mālānanda 摩羅難陀) who is thought to have first delivered Buddhism, he
too was part of a diplomatic mission, in this case sent from the southern state
of Eastern Jin (317–420) in 384. Even though he may have indeed come from
India and thus transmitted Indian forms of Buddhism, it is clear that the Sinitic
texts and schools of Buddhism were the primary forms transmitted to Korea.
We know very little of what kind of Buddhist knowledge or practice was transmitted in the fourth century, but whenever this kind of data is available, it is
clear that Sinicized forms of Buddhism were passed on. Whatever texts were
created, schools or doctrines formed, or new art produced, almost immediately these productions were relayed from China to the peninsula. A remarkable
fact, and something that remains valid throughout this period, is that virtually
all new Chinese translations ended up in Korea sometimes in less than a year
after their creation. Even though we cannot of course verify this immediacy
for all cases, the evidence very clearly points to an almost unbroken flow of
Buddhist information (Huang and Chen 1993: 47–49). Of course this does not
necessarily mean that Korea actually followed Chinese Buddhism to the letter, only that it was in very close touch with what happened in the states to
its west.
Although monks would use tribute ships to travel throughout this period
(and beyond), it should be noted that as Buddhism matured in Korea, it dissociated itself more and more from the tribute model, the ships becoming
mere modes of transport rather than symbols of an unequal relationship. This
maturation seems to have taken place after 500; in the first century or so after
the transmission of Buddhism to Koguryǒ and Paekche, there is virtually no information about how it developed. Jonathan Best, through a thorough analysis
of textual and archeological materials, shows that even though Buddhism may
have been accepted by Paekche in 384, it hardly made an impact. His research
reveals that it is only after 500 that we see a gradual expansion in temple building and in the spread of Buddhist art forms (Best 2002; Best 1987: 480). Similarly,
for Silla we have only unreliable mentions of underground proselytizing before
7 Since the story of how Buddhism was introduced to Korea has been well studied, I do
not provide primary source references. For good general introductions, see Best 2003 and
Vermeersch 2014.
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the fifth century, the official recognition taking place in 527. Before that date,
there was almost certainly no sophisticated knowledge about Buddhism.8
Another clear sign of maturation in the sixth century is the growing evidence of Korean monks travelling abroad. Notable in particular is the fact that
Paekche monks were very active in proselytising to Japan in the second half
of the sixth century (Best 1991: 144), suggesting that there was already a sound
basis for the dharma in their own country. Indeed, for the first half of the sixth
century, we see firm evidence of Paekche and Silla monks travelling to China
for study. When the first Korean monks travelled to China is actually difficult to
establish. As we have seen for the case of Senglang/Sǔngnang, in Koguryǒ’s case
in particular it is almost impossible to establish whether “Korean” monks travelled to “China”. This is compounded by the lack of authoritative early sources.
The oldest Korean source to document the earliest centuries of Buddhist activity, Iryŏn’s Samguk yusa 三國遺事 (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), was
composed in the 13th century. Although Iryŏn in many respects is an exemplary historian, reproducing now lost sources and comparing them to establish
the most reliable facts, for events predating the sixth century he often admits
that it is impossible to establish the truth of the matter; he quotes for example
a source claiming that a monk called Ado 阿道 was active in the third century,
but rejects this because it antedates the official introduction of Buddhism.9
Thus the first reliable record of a Silla monk travelling to China is surely that
of Kaktŏk 覺德; according to the Samguk sagi 三國史記 (Historian’s Records
of the Three Kingdoms, submitted to the throne by Kim Pusik 金富軾 in 1145)
he returned from Liang China in 549.10 Furthermore, on the basis of Jonathan
Best’s analysis of available sources on Paekche, it appears that the monk
Palchŏng 發正 is the first from that country who can be ascertained to have
studied in Liang China during the Tianjian era (502–520) (Best 1991: 148, 152).
In other words, the Chinese Liang dynasty (502–554), during which these first
contacts took place, was something of a watershed, as its emphatic support
of Buddhism not only inspired states on the Korean peninsula, it also proved
something of a magnet for ambitious monks who wanted to deepen their
8
9
10
For Koguryŏ, as mentioned above, the situation is complicated by the difficulty of assigning ethnic labels to monks active in Koguryŏ. Also, there is a case to be made that Koguryŏ
Buddhism never took off: see Jorgensen 2012: 101.
See Samguk yusa, T.49.2039: 986c17–26, for some of Iryŏn’s personal reflections on the
stories about Ado. For a good introduction of the Samguk yusa as a historical source, see
McBride 2006.
See Kim Pusik 1983 vol. 1: 81. For an analysis of some problems in the sources concerning
Kaktŏk, see Best 1987: 486, n. 36.
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knowledge or training. From then on the kubŏpsŭng 求法僧, literally “monks in
search of the dharma”, became a common phenomenon: arguably a majority
of the most talented Korean monks sought to visit China, and some even travelled all the way to India. It is impossible to calculate just how many Koguryŏ,
Paekche or Silla monks travelled to Chinese states. As can be seen in the tables
included in the works of Huang Youfu and Huang Xinchuan, which present
a digest of the names of monks known to have travelled to Korea between
ca. 500 and 1000, the number is impressive; most likely it is just a fraction of the
actual number (Huang Youfu and Chen Jingfu 1993: 436–475; Huang Xinchuan
1991: 108–139).11
What exactly these monks learned in China, and how they were perceived
in their home countries, is difficult to assess. The oldest remaining writings
by Korean monks date to the seventh century, and show a mastery of practically the whole range of Sinitic Buddhism of the time. We may therefore surmise that the roots for advanced study of Buddhism were already present in
the sixth century. However, there does not seem to have been a wide societal
acceptance of sophisticated Buddhist learning: the evidence from arguably
the first full biography of a Korean monk, Wŏngwang, suggests that monks
were employed as royal advisors. At one point Wŏngwang was even forced to
write correspondence requesting military assistance (Vermeersch 2008: 208).
Arguably this lack of differentiation between the political and religious realms
was due to the lingering effects of the so-called northern Buddhism, i.e. the
Buddhist model as it had developed in northern dynasties such as the Northern
Wei (386–534). We know that this was introduced to Silla via Koguryŏ in 551,
when the northern system of Buddhist officials was implemented (Vermeersch
2008: 205–206). With the unification of China in 589, the influence of this system most likely waned, and after that date Silla Buddhism must have gradually
asserted its independence from the state.
As for the Chinese material, as we will see in the next section, knowledge
about Korean monks increased commensurate with the increase in Korean
monks travelling to China. The Southern Chen dynasty (557–589) seems to be
the first for which clear memories about Korean monks remained; after that,
during the Sui and particularly the Tang, these would multiply considerably.
11
Huang and Chen have counted about 200 instances of Korean monks travelling to China,
although in many cases we do not know the monks’ names. Jonathan Best points to an
entry in the Nihon shoki about a Paekche ship that on the way to China had drifted off
course and landed in Japan; on board were ten monks, all otherwise unknown to history.
Therefore the monks we know of are probably only the tip of the iceberg. See Best 1991:
146–147.
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While it is impossible to speak of a clear prototype of the “Korean monk,” as
will be shown they played distinct roles in the creation of monastic identity
in China.
3
The Place of Korean Monks in Chinese Buddhist Biographies
Given the lack of sophisticated development of Buddhism on the peninsula
before the sixth century, it is hardly surprising that the first major biographic
compilation, Huijiao’s 慧皎 (497–554) Liang gaoseng zhuan (Biographies of
Eminent Monks, Compiled in the Liang Dynasty), compiled around 530,12 contains no biographies of Korean monks. It does however make reference to
Koguryŏ twice: once in the biography of Zhi Dun 支遁 (314–366), who is said to
have corresponded with a Koguryŏ monk, and once in the biography of Tanshi
曇始 (fl. 396–450), who is said to have been the first to proselytize in Koguryŏ.13
It is especially in the two successors to this work, Daoxuan’s Xu gaoseng zhuan
續高僧傳 (Continued Lives of Eminent Monks, ca. 667) and Zanning’s Song
gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks, Compiled in the
Song Dynasty, ca. 988) that we see the emergence of biographies dedicated to
Korean monks. However, in between them a new genre of monastic biography
emerged among Chan monks. These so-called transmission records emerged
in the eighth century (Welter 2006: 45–50), and also contain frequent reference
to Korean monks. The early transmission records, most having a strong sectarian bent, culminate in the earliest collection to embrace all Chan lineages—
including Korean branches: the Zutang ji (Patriarch’s Hall Collection).
3.1
The Continued Lives of Eminent Monks
Daoxuan first completed his masterpiece in 645, but continued to expand on
it probably until the last years of his life. It contains 485 main biographies,
as well as 219 supplementary biographies (Wagner 1995: 78–79). Among these,
there are only three full biographies of Korean monks, together with another
six Korean monks whose life is described briefly as a supplement to another
biography. This is of course a very tiny amount,14 yet two of the biographies are
12
13
14
See Wright 1990: 89 for the dating of this work; Wright infers it was compiled sometime
between 519 and 533, but probably finalized closer to the last date.
See Liang Gaoseng zhuan, T.50.2059: 348a12, 392b5. For Tanshi, see also the translations
provided in McBride 2006: 167–169.
Given that the names of 705 monks can be found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan (Welter 2006:
42), this is slightly more than 1 per cent of the total.
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very detailed, and there is evidence that Daoxuan attached great importance
to them. In the discussion below, I will focus mainly on these two biographies,
those of the Silla monks Wŏngwang 圓光 and Chajang 慈藏. The third biography is of the Paekche monk Hyehyŏn 慧顯 (570–627), but it falls far short in
length and substance compared to the other two. In fact, it is little more than
a stub, included merely to illustrate the miraculous power of the Lotus Sūtra.
Hyehyŏn is said to have been so adept at reciting this sūtra that his tongue
continued to look in perfect state up to three weeks after his death. In fact,
Hyehyŏn’s biography is even shorter than the one of the Koguryŏ monk P’ayak
波若 (562–613).15 Formally, P’ayak’s biography is not an independent entry but
is attached as a supplementary biography to that of the Tiantai monk Zhiyue
智越. It emphasizes his sixteen years of solitary dhūta practice as the main
theme.16
Regarding the two main biographies of Korean monks, it is perhaps best to
look first at the one of Chajang (fl. ca. 600–650). It is slightly longer than the
one of Wŏngwang, but is important especially because it shows most clearly
Daoxuan’s personal interest. As is well known, Daoxuan attached great importance to the study of vinaya, and is therefore remembered as the founder of the
Vinaya (Lüzong 律宗) or Nanshan 南山 school; as we will see in the biography
of Wŏngwang, there is more to Daoxuan than vinaya, but it is nevertheless very
important to him. Daoxuan describes how Chajang belonged to a prominent
family of Silla, and takes pains to explain the rank of his family in the political system of his time. He also describes how he became a monk, and how he
practiced arduously in solitude.17 However, at one point he was summoned
by the court, and was threatened with execution if he ignored the summons.
Chajang, however, refused adamantly, and when the king of Silla threatened to
kill him, he is said to have exclaimed “I would rather observe the precepts for
15
16
17
Xu gaoseng zhuan, T.50.2060: 570c21–571a20. Although P’ayak’s biography is slightly longer
than that of Hyehyŏn, it is also not a real biography, but merely a short anecdote about
P’ayak’s exemplary practice of Tiantai asceticism.
Xu gaoseng zhuan, T.50.2060: 687c9–c19. The Korean material from the Xu gaoseng zhuan
has been conveniently excerpted by the Korean scholar Kim Yŏngt’ae in the journal
Pulgyo hakpo 13 (1976). Citations are however taken from the Taishō canon. As far as I can
tell, all Korean monks mentioned in this work have been tracked down by Kim Yŏngt’ae.
The remaining supplementary biographies are those of Wŏn’an 圓安 (T.50.2060: 524a, attached to the biography of Wŏngwang), Sil pŏpsa 實法師 (ibid.: 537c), In pŏpsa 印法師
(ibid.: 539c), Chihwang 智晃 (ibid.: 572a), and Wŏnsŭng 圓勝 (ibid.: 640a; attached to the
biography of Chajang).
For the original biography, see T.50.2060: 639a8–640a8. For an English translation, see
Mohan 2005 and Vermeersch 1996.
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one day and die, than live a full life having broken them”.18 Although the passage is very famous and oft repeated in scholarship on Chajang, it most likely
has to be taken with a pinch of salt. Since the reign of King Pŏphŭng 法興王
(514–540), Silla kings are known to have been devout Buddhists, so it is not very
likely that they would have been so antagonistic to someone who preferred to
practice Buddhism in solitude.
Regardless of whether this episode actually took place or not, the fact remains that it served Daoxuan well in setting an exemplar of how vinaya ought
to be practiced as a matter of life and death. As Chen Huaiyu has argued, one
of the key motivations in Daoxuan’s interest in vinaya was the perceived shortcomings in the ritual and ascetic practices of the Chinese saṅgha of his day; in
other words, he was keen to strengthen observance of monastic decorum and
morality (Chen 2007: 2; McRae 2005: 78). If we read the biography in this light,
it becomes clear that the monk from a distant country outside the reach of
civilization is held up as a mirror for Chinese monks. This is made explicit by
Daoxuan himself, who concludes the biography by saying that in this case the
“center (China) is turbid but the periphery (Korea) is clear”.19
In other words, Chajang is represented as a successful case of the civilising
influence of Buddhism, and an exemplar of vinaya practice. Upon receiving
the king’s permission to practice as a monk, he continued his arduous practice
in the hope of receiving a personal sign as confirmation of his vocation. This
he finally got in the form of two deities from the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven who
bestowed upon him the five precepts. He in turn successfully bestowed the
precepts on the rest of the populace of his country, yet felt frustrated by the
lack of development of Buddhism in his country so decided to travel to China
in 638.20 According to Daoxuan, following his return to his country in 643, he
not only managed to bring Buddhism to a higher level, he also persuaded his
countrymen to follow the Chinese calendar and manner of clothing.
A few problems need to be discussed in greater detail to make the hypothesis that Daoxuan uses Chajang as an exemplar convincing. First, there
is the direct transmission of the precepts from gods. Even though Chajang
is said to have visited Zhongnan-shan during his sojourn in China, the very
place where Daoxuan resided, no mention is made of his study of vinaya or
18
19
20
T.50.2060: 639a29.
T.50.2060: 640a8.
According to Samguk yusa, he left in 636 (T.49.2039: 1005a29). Nam Tongsin has shown
however that this is a mistake, and that 638 is the correct date (Nam 1992: 10). This article
remains a good introduction to the biography of Chajang. In English, one can also consult
Kim 1995.
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precepts tradition, or of his meeting with Daoxuan. Instead, in China too he
is said to have lived as a hermit for three years, during which he conferred
the precepts on spirits and people.21 Since “precepts” here clearly refers to the
five precepts for laypeople, one cannot help but wonder why no mention is
made of Chajang’s full ordination; in other words, one would expect that for
a monk of such exemplary conduct, mention would be made of his receiving the full precepts at ordination. In contrast, in Wŏngwang’s biography, it is
mentioned that Wŏngwang “petitioned the ruler of Chen, asking to seek refuge
in the dharma … he took the tonsure, and was fully ordained,”22 Daoxuan thus
perhaps felt he could leave out this information for Chajang; Wŏngwang had
received, according to him, full ordination in China almost 50 years before,
so it could be assumed that the tradition had been passed on to Silla or that
Chajang had received proper ordination in China. More likely, in my view, is
the following explanation: Although proper ordination was of central concern
to Daoxuan, he only finalized his work on the construction of the ideal ordination platform in the last year of his life; thus, he may not have wanted to discuss
the ordination problem in the case of Chajang. Since Daoxuan’s ideal ordination platform had not yet been constructed, Chajang could not have received
ordination on it, even though there is strong indication that Chajang may have
learned of Daoxuan’s plans during his sojourn in China.23
Second, there is the marked emphasis on the strict observance of vinaya
that Chajang implemented. It is worth quoting the relevant passage in toto:
21
22
23
See Wagner 1995: 204–205 for other conversions of spirits in Xu gaoseng zhuan.
T.50.2060: 523c.
The problem of whether Daoxuan knew Chajang has long intrigued scholars; we know
that Daoxuan was active in the area of Zhongnan-shan between 638 and 643, so it is certainly a possibility. The fact that he inserts so many of the themes that are close to his
heart in the biography is also a strong indication; leaving his own input out of the story
does not diminish this possibility, since it would have been considered immodest to mention his own role. Interestingly, the Samguk yusa contains a story about how Ŭisang, while
studying with the Huayan master Zhiyan at Zhixiang Temple on Mt. Zhongnan, went to
visit Daoxuan, who lived nearby (Samguk yusa, T.49.2039: 993c1–6). One can also point
to the fact that the titles of commentaries written by Chajang strongly resemble those by
Daoxuan (Nam 1992: 36–37) and that Chajang is credited by the Samguk yusa as having
established the first ordination platform (T.49.2039.1005c5–7), most likely in imitation of
Daoxuan’s famous ordination platform. Korean scholars have pointed out that Chajang’s
foundation of an ordination platform seems to have preceded that of Daoxuan. However,
since the 13th century Samguk yusa is the only source for this, it is not certain whether
this is a later interpolation by Iryŏn or something that actually goes back to Chajang. For
another possible interpretation of this problem, see Kim 2008: 149–150.
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[…] Chajang made all the monks and nuns practice the ancient tradition of each of the Five [Hīnayāna] vinayas. He improved oversight
by inspecting whether or not [vinaya] was adhered to. Every fortnight
the saṅgha had to recite the precepts, in accordance with vinaya they
had to repent and expel [sin]. In spring and winter general examinations were permitted to determine those who complied and those who
did not. Moreover, he appointed inspectors who toured all temples to
admonish and adjust the preaching of the dharma, the adornment of
Buddha statues, the management of saṅgha affairs etc. Never did he let
his guard drop. Therefore it is said that he is really a dharma-protecting
bodhisattva!24
We know from Korean sources that Chajang was indeed given extensive power
as a kind of national Buddhist prelate, so that he indeed had the power to reform. Yet, the picture somehow seems to be too perfect; when Daoxuan moreover adds that “he donated all his robes and possessions; the only things that
served him were some garments of cast-off rags,” one cannot but get suspicious. We have here very much an ideal type of a monk according to Daoxuan’s
vision, conforming in virtually every respect to the ideals and themes he outlines throughout his work.25
A third problem concerns his assessment of the state of Buddhism in Silla,
which gives somewhat contradictory impressions. On the one hand, Daoxuan
makes Chajang exclaim that “in this frontier region [Silla], the Buddhadharma
is underdeveloped,” yet further on writes that “it was exactly a hundred years
since the Buddhadharma had spread to the east,”26 indicating that it had already had quite some time to develop. Also, there are many signs in the biography that Buddhism was well entrenched in society: for example, Chajang’s
parents prayed devotedly to Avalokiteśvara to obtain a son, who was finally
born on the eighth day of the fourth month, the Buddha’s birthday. Most
likely, the motifs that suggest the backwardness of the dharma in Silla serve
24
25
26
T.50.2060: 639.c19–22. Chajang’s biography is found in fasc. 24, the second on “protectors
of the dharma”.
In particular, the need for putting vinaya into practice was a recurrent topic in his work.
See Chen 2007: 33.
It is not certain what, if any, event Daoxuan regarded as the beginning of Buddhism in
Silla. This is usually taken to be the martyrdom of Ich’adon in 527 (following his beheading for disregarding the ban on constructing Buddhist structures, white blood spouted
from his neck; the nobility, convinced of the power of Buddhism, henceforth allowed
its practice). This indeed happened somewhat more than a century before the events
described.
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to contrast with the brilliant effect obtained by Chajang’s implementation
of the vinaya—the first strict implementation of the correct vinaya tradition
in a foreign country. Simultaneously, Chinese culture—in terms of dress and
customs—was adopted, which led to Silla’s increased standing at the Tang
court. Thus, Daoxuan links the “correct tradition” of vinaya (in fact his own
interpretation of it) to highbrow Chinese culture, suggesting they are part and
parcel of a single culture.
In the concluding part of the biography, Daoxuan harkens back to
Wŏngwang, introduced earlier in fascicle 13, the ninth to deal with exegetes
(yijie 義解): “Wŏngwang had initiated [Buddhism]; long ago he had come from
the east to study in the west. Although he was famous for his proficiency in the
sūtras, he did not implement the precepts nor their inspection…. But now the
Three Learnings [of morality, wisdom, and meditation] are established there,
thanks to those who know how to communicate and protect the dharma”. By
linking back to the earlier biography of another Korean monk, we can see that
their inclusion here is not random, but aimed at proving a point.
In the case of Wŏngwang, however, there are no such clear signposts about
Daoxuan’s intentions in including it. Yet recent research by Chen Huaiyu on
Daoxuan’s life and work may offer a clue. Daoxuan’s parents as well as his
Buddhist teachers hailed from the southern state of Chen (Chen 2007: 40), and
the reconciling of northern and southern Buddhism was one of his life’s chief
concerns. Now the biography of Wŏngwang describes in detail some events in
the life of Wŏngwang after he arrived in China. According to Daoxuan he arrived during the Chen period (557–589),27 and after a period of studying there
found himself in trouble as the Sui troops, in their conquest of Chen, attacked
and burned the temple where he was staying. However, he was miraculously
untouched by the fire even though tied to a burning stūpa, impressing the Sui
general who set him free.28 On the one hand, this may be seen as simply one of
the many stories of miracles that clearly fascinated Daoxuan. But on the other
hand, knowing that he believed in the superiority of the southern tradition of
Buddhism (Chen 2007: 34–39, 43), one can also read it as an illustration of the
failure of northern invaders to harm a monk—albeit a Korean one—who is
steeped in the superior southern tradition.
27
28
This is a moot point; according to Korean sources, he travelled to China in 589, the very
year the Chen dynasty ended, yet Daoxuan’s biography makes it clear that he must have
spent several years of study in Chen. As Ch’oe Yŏnsik points out, Wŏngwang almost certainly travelled to China well before 589. He proposes that Wŏngwang was born ca. 550,
went to China in 575, and died between 630 and 640 (Ch’oe 1995: 16).
T. 50.2060: 523c25–28.
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Besides this miracle, the narrative is fairly conventional, emphasizing
Wŏngwang’s erudition and study of various texts. There are parallels with
Chajang’s story in so far as Wŏngwang also left because he felt learning in his
country was inadequate, and returned to a hero’s welcome; the Korean king is
said to have taken personal care of the monk, granting him the rare privilege of
entering the palace in a carriage. Perhaps Daoxuan, who seems to have never
received such privilege, again included this as a kind of wishful representation of an idealized country. What is interesting, however, is that his vision of
Wŏngwang has been taken over in Korean scholarship. When Iryŏn composed
his Samguk yusa, he made good use of Daoxuan’s biographies. He reproduced
Wŏngwang’s verbatim together with other sources from Silla, and reworked
the material from Chajang’s biography together with native sources into a new
biography. He entitled the former “Wŏngwang studies in the west” and the
latter “Chajang establishes vinaya”.29 Thus, his assessment of these two Silla
monks was substantially influenced by Daoxuan.
There are many studies that critically compare the Chinese and Korean
sources, but most focus on factual discrepancies such as differences in the
monks’ recorded ages or dates of travel. What seems to have been ignored so far
is the fact that Daoxuan shaped the biographies to conform to his own vision,
and that this vision has in turn been refracted on the Korean material. Thus
Wŏngwang and Chajang are still unquestionably regarded as the founders of
doctrinal studies and vinaya, respectively. But was this really the case? Can we
really be sure—without any of his works having survived—that Wŏngwang
was a better scholar than, say Kaktŏk or Chimyŏng 智明?30 And while we may
be certain that Chajang was a specialist in vinaya and did much to boost its
importance, was he really as successful as Daoxuan claims? Did the ordination
platform he is said to have founded really change the Silla saṅgha into a model
of vinaya observance?
Of course, unless some new sources come to light, it is impossible to answer
most of these questions. The important thing is to point out that our understanding of early Silla Buddhism is to a large extent shaped by Chinese elite
monastic predilections. In other words, not only has Silla Buddhism developed in close interaction with Chinese Buddhism, and arisen from intellectual
29
30
圓光西學, 慈藏定律.
As seen above, Kaktŏk returned to Silla in 549. Chimyŏng is known to have returned to
Silla in 602, two years after Wŏngwang. See Kim Pusik 1983 vol. 1: 84. We have no biographies of either of these monks, but since the author of the Samguk sagi, Kim Pusik,
thought that their names merited inclusion, they obviously were highly regarded in their
time.
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exchanges with Chinese monks; our knowledge of these exchanges themselves
is also heavily coloured by elite Chinese monastic concerns. It is only after
we have recognised these that we can try to deconstruct them, and then pose
again the question of what early Silla monastic identity was like. For example, returning to the question of Silla vinaya, once we recognize that Daoxuan
is painting an idealized picture, it becomes easier to discern other possible
interpretations. One of the differences between Chajang’s biography in the
Xu gaoseng zhuan and its derivative in the Samguk yusa is that the latter
weaves in many additional narrative threads. In particular, Iryŏn gives a much
more detailed account of Chajang’s travels in China, claiming that he went to
Mt. Wutai where he encountered the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī in a vision.
The crux of the story is of course, as is well known, Mañjuśrī’s conferral of
a magical formula upon Chajang. While this is usually interpreted in stateprotection terms (Kim 1995: 25), it is important to note that the figure of Mañjuśrī
or some other bodhisattva often appears to monks seeking a sign that they had
sufficiently purified themselves to be ready to receive the precepts. Nobuyoshi
Yamabe points out that “visionary repentance”—in other words, penitential
practices carried out to induce a vision of a bodhisattva, a sign that sins have
been expiated and the practitioner is ready to accept ordination—became
prevalent in China in the fifth century (Yamabe 2005:17–18). We also clearly see
its influence in Korea after Chajang; for example, the biography of Chinp’yo
眞表 features prominently his ascetic practices to obtain a vision of Maitreya.31
Interestingly, though Daoxuan made use of visions to obtain information
about his ordination platform, and also argued that the Buddhas were present at ordination, he makes no mention of the need to induce a vision prior
to ordination. The reason for this is most likely that visionary repentance also
led to the practice of self-ordination; if your practice has been validated by a
bodhisattva, then what need is there for a formal ordination by the saṅgha?
I would speculate that Daoxuan preferred the orderly conferral of precepts
through a procedure validated by tradition rather than ecstatic experiences
that were more difficult to control. Which practice ultimately prevailed is difficult to ascertain, but it seems that many Korean monks during Unified Silla
practiced the visionary repentance to obtain the ordination precepts. Perhaps
this may even explain the odd ending to Iryŏn’s biography of Chajang: towards
the end of his life, he fails to recognize that a beggar coming to his door is
Mañjuśrī. Only after chasing him away does he realize his mistake, but when
31
See Samguk yusa, T.49.2039: 1007b18–1008a22. According to one source his visionary
repentance took place in 740 at age 23, but according to another in 760 at age 27. See
Vermeersch 2012: 550.
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running after the apparition—now Mañjuśrī on a lion rather than a beggar
with a puppy—he stumbles and dies.32 Perhaps this constitutes Iryŏn’s critique of Chajang; arguably he is implying that as Chajang preferred the nonvisionary ordination tradition, he was “backsliding” later in life and hence
unable to perceive truth presenting itself at his doorstep.33 It shows, in short,
that Daoxuan’s vision of Silla as a country where an orderly ordination tradition was supervised by the saṅgha does not correspond to historical reality.
3.2
Culmination: Zutang ji
Ironically, the Xu gaoseng zhuan seems to have been finalized about the
time that Silla Buddhism entered its heyday: its three greatest philosophers,
Wŏnch’ŭk, Ŭisang and Wŏnhyo, were all still alive in 667, the year Daoxuan
died, and although they already had written some of their most famous works,
their careers were still far from over. However, their lives would only be written
down in the Song gaoseng zhuan, which appeared about three centuries after
they died. As we will see in the next section, in many ways this work offers but
a pale reflection of their achievements. Thus it is more fruitful to look first at
what is arguably the Chinese work with the richest vein of Korean material, the
Zutang ji or Patriarch’s Hall collection. It seems to have been published before
the Song gaoseng zhuan, and in this light it makes sense to treat it first. But
more importantly, like the Xu gaoseng zhuan, it seems to include Korean material for a purpose, and this is what we will focus on in this section.
As pointed out above, Korean monks frequently travelled to China on extended study trips, sometimes lasting ten years or more. Many monks also
settled in China, never to return to their homeland. Wŏnch’ŭk 圓測 (613–696)
is a famous example of this. Some even travelled to India; the travel diary of
Hyech’o 慧超, discovered by Paul Pelliot in Dunhuang in 1908, shows us that
a Silla monk travelled to China, and from there all the way to India in 723.
After his visit to India he returned to China in 728 and remained there for the
rest of his life, studying with famous esoteric masters such as Vajrabodhi and
Amoghavajra (Yang et al. 1984: 14–15). While most of them travelled to study
with famous Buddhist masters, it is perhaps too one-sided to see this as a mere
passive learning process. Not only did someone like Wŏnch’ŭk become one of
32
33
Samguk yusa, T.49.2039: 1005c19–c27.
Of course this is speculative; for Iryŏn’s own use of Mañjuśrī in a vision, see his stele
inscription, Yi Chigwan 1993–1997, Volume 5: 191. See also Kim 1995: 32, who argues that
Iryŏn simply inserted stories about Mañjuśrī into the biography of Chajang because of his
own “special veneration” of this bodhisattva.
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Xuanzang’s foremost disciples, assisting in the translation of the new texts he
had brought with him, he took an active part in formulating the doctrine so as
to answer vexing questions in the Yogacāra school (see Cho 2005). And some
monks even seem to have become the focus of a following, such as Monk Kim
金和尙 at Jiuhua-shan 九華山, or to have started their own school, such as
Musang 無相. They were therefore active shapers of the Sinitic Buddhist tradition rather than passive recipients.
Musang in particular seems to have played an important role in the nascent
Chan school. Although we have scant information about his background or
when he came to China, Musang (684–762) is generally regarded as the founder of the Jingzhong 淨衆 school, based in Chengdu, Sichuan province (Adamek
2007: 6). One of his disciples, Wuzhu 無住 (714–774), founded another school,
known as the Bao Tang 保唐 school; it is in the context of this school that one
of the earliest “transmission records,” the Lidai fabao ji 曆代法寶記 (Record of
the Dharma Jewel Through the Generations), emerged. Transmission records
aim to show the unbroken lineage of patriarchs stretching all the way back
to the Buddha, and thus contain a lot of biographic materials on monks in
the lineage. The earliest such transmission records emerged in the early eighth
century, each presenting somewhat different versions of the “orthodox lineage” to favour their own interpretation of the correct transmission of the
dharma. Thus the Lidai fabao ji, composed between 774 and 780, presents as
the correct lineage one going from Hongren 弘忍 as the fifth Chinese patriarch
to Zhishen 智詵 (sixth), Chuji 處寂 (seventh), Musang (eighth), and Wuzhu
(ninth) (Welter 2006: 53).
This is rather different from the “orthodox” view that was firmly established
in the Song dynasty, in which Huineng 慧能 is the undisputed sixth patriarch
and the Zhishen branch no longer features. Instrumental in shaping an ecumenical image of all Zen lineages as branches on a single tree is the Zutang
ji (Kor. Chodang chip) 祖堂集, or Patriarch’s Hall Collection, compiled in the
southern Chinese state of Min 閩 (907–947) ca. 952.34 This work also contains
ample information on Korean monks. Before we can treat the characteristics
of these biographies, however, it is necessary to understand the structure of
this work. Since the preface of the Zutang ji contains a lucid explanation of its
structure, it is useful to quote it directly:
34
Although the Min state had largely been absorbed by Later Tang by 945, after 947 Wu-Yue
repelled Later Tang forces and allowed a few prefectures of Min to exist as a kind of buffer
state.
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In these [20 chapters], we first describe the seven Buddhas, next the
twenty-seven Indian patriarchs, and finally the six generations in China.
Each generation has branch and direct patriarch places and their succeeding disciples. All the above are recorded according to their lineage
(lit. ‘blood-veins’), in relationships of first and later, and according to the
zhaomu 佋穆 procedures [ranking] grandsons and spouses. This compilation [principle] allows for a host of long and scattered stories to be perused at a glance, so that all the exquisite words can be easily referenced
in these chapters. Now, what the śramana Sŏk Kwangjun 釋匡儁35 hopes
is that what was compiled by the Chinese will never be jealously guarded
by just a few.36
Thus the first chapter treats the seven Buddhas of the past and the first sixteen
Indian patriarchs; the second chapter starts with the seventeenth Indian patriarch and concludes with the thirty-third patriarch of Chan, Huineng, who
is also the sixth Chinese patriarch. The third chapter deals with the collateral
branches of the fourth patriarch Daoxin 道信 (starting with Farong 法融) and
the fifth patriarch Hongren (starting with Shenxiu 神秀), and with the main
heirs to Huineng, including Xingsi 行思, Shenhui 神會 (Heze 荷澤), and finally
Huairang 懷讓. Chapters four to thirteen deal with the influential lineage created by Qingyuan Xingsi (Shitou 石頭 school) as well as lesser lineages such as
the Heze (including Zongmi 宗密) branch.37 The introduction, which gives an
overview of the contents of all the chapters, clearly sets these chapters apart,
with an interlineary comment after chapter 13 stating “the above 96 people are
the dharma heirs of Shitou; now follows the discussion of the Jiangxi [school]”.38
The remaining chapters 14 to 20, which are thus set apart, deal with the disciples of Nanyue Huairang, what is known as the Hongzhou 洪州 (or Jiangxi
江西) line, with Mazu 馬祖 (709–788) as its main exponent. It is in this part of
35
36
37
38
Not identified.
Zutang ji xu.1. The edition I used is the reproduction of the original text that can be accessed at http://kb.sutra.re.kr/ritk/index.do, Koryŏ taejanggyŏng classification no. K. 1503.
The main branches after Huineng were traced to his disciples Nanyue Huairang and
Qingyuan Xingsi, who gave their names to these two branches, although the latter was
also known by the name of its most famous exponent, Shitou Xiqian 石頭希遷 (710–790).
The Heze school, initiated by the ‘seventh patriarch’ Shenhui, was much less influential.
This dominant paradigm, with a bifurcation in two main branches, is set out here for the
first time.
According to the preface, there are 253 biographies in the Zutang ji; in fact, 259 names are
listed, although ten of those give no further details besides name and title. See Demiéville
1970: 270.
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the Zutang ji39 that we find most of the biographies of Korean monks, who are
thus mainly part of the Hongzhou school.
Thus a very neat structure emerges, a deceptively simple genealogy, in which
the generations are clearly differentiated; each of the two main parts discussed
above is further subdivided according to generations: e.g. chapter 3 covers the
forty-first generation (excluding the Northern and Dongshan schools), chapter 4 the forty-second generation, chapter 5 the forty-third and so on. In the
second part, chapter 14 picks up again at the forty-first generation and then
works its way up to the forty-seventh.40 The problems with this genealogical
mode have been adequately described elsewhere; in sum, the transmission
from one ‘patriarch’ to the next was never so neat and exclusive, and moreover such schemes are basically anachronistic, in that among the earlier Chan
practitioners, especially, there was probably not yet the notion of an exclusive transmission (McRae 2003). It is noteworthy that the Zutang ji is the first
work to outline this system so comprehensively; and though it appears to foreground the Xingsi school (Welter 2006: 110–112), it is done more implicitly, as all
the lineages of the family are included. Thus although this is the first work to
exploit the well-known Chan verse of ‘separate transmission’ this has not been
taken to extreme polemical levels yet.41
Altogether, the names of twelve Korean monks can be found here; two
appear in chapter 11, Yŏngjo 靈照 and Hyŏnnul 玄訥, as they belong to the
Shitou branch, although they never returned to their home country. Yŏngjo
became an abbot in Hangzhou (Wu-Yue kingdom)42 while Hyŏnnul remained
39
40
41
42
Despite the later prominence of the Hongzhou school, the Zutang ji does not seem to
privilege the Huairang branch. Most of the chapters (ten) deal with the Xingsi school, and
these are ranked, moreover, before the chapters on the Huairang school (seven). Also,
the abbot who wrote the initial preface to the Zutang ji, Wendeng 文僜, belonged to the
Xingsi branch (see his biography in fasc. 13.11–15, where he is identified as Shengdeng
省澄). He was a generation below the Korean monks Yŏngjo and Hyŏnnul (see below),
both of whom he may have known. He became a monk at Longhuasi, maybe the same
Longhuasi in Hangzhou were Yŏngjo was abbot, while he originated from and later settled
in Quanzhou, where Hyŏnnul also lived. Albert Welter makes a convincing case for the
Zutang ji as the product of Wendeng and his circle, which aimed to prioritize the Xingsi
branch, and more specifically Xuefeng Yicun (822–908), to whose lineage Wendeng belonged (Welter 2006, chapter 4).
On this structure of lineages and “generations” and how they interact with the fascicle
division, see Anderl 2004, vol. 1: 53–63.
Foulk 1999: 240. For an early Korean expression of the supposedly anti-scriptural bias of
Chan, see Ssanggye-sa Chingam sŏnsa pi (887), Yi Chigwan 1993–1997, Volume 1: 133.
Zutang ji 11.10–13. Most of the biographies focus on the patriarch’s dialogues rather than
biographic details, as is also the case here. Yŏngjo is said to have settled in Zhejiang, after
receiving transmission from Xuefeng. He was patronized by the king of Wu-Yue, who
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in Quanzhou, probably at the time of the Min kingdom.43 The other monks
all returned to their home countries after studying with a Chan master,
all of them in the Huairang lineage, which has Mazu as its main exponent.
Most biographies of Korean monks are placed in chapter 17, devoted to the
forty-forth generation (Mazu being the 42nd). These are Toŭi 道義 (d. 825),
Hyech’ŏl 慧徹 (785–861), and Hongch’ŏk 洪陟 (fl. 826),44 disciples of Xitang
Zhizang 西堂智藏 (735–814); Hyŏnuk 玄昱 (787–869), a disciple of Zhangjing
Huaihui 章敬懷暉 (754–815); Pŏmil 梵日 (810–889), a disciple of Yanguan Qi’an
鹽官齊安 (750?–842); Muyŏm 無染 (799–888), a disciple of Magu Baoche
麻谷寶徹 (b. 720?); and Toyun 道允 (797–868), disciple of Nanquan Puyuan
南泉普願 (748–835). Though technically ‘grandsons’ of Mazu, they all studied
with illustrious masters, most of whom are famous as they feature prominently
in some of the most well-known gong’an, meditation cases, of the Chan/Zen/
Sŏn tradition. The Korean monks themselves are also famous as the patriarchs
of the so-called Nine Mountain schools (Kusan sŏnmun 九山禪門): no less
than seven of these schools are represented here.45 Finally, chapter 18 contains a short story about the Silla monk Kim Taebi 金大悲, who tried to steal
the head of sixth patriarch Huineng’s mummy,46 and mentions the Silla monk
Chŏngyuk 亭育.47 The bulk of chapter twenty is taken up by the biography of
Sunji 順之 (fl. 858–893), a disciple of Yangshan Huiji 仰山慧寂 (807–883), and
who is thus considered part of the Guiyang 潙仰 school, which takes its name
from the combination of the names of Yangshan Huiji and Guishan Lingyou
潙山靈祐 (771–853). This is not just a biography, but also a lengthy treatise
using circles as symbols illustrating the teachings (Buswell 1993).
Although the entries for two Korean monks consist of nothing more than
their name, lineage, and title, most of the others get very detailed biographies;
actually, some are more extensive than most biographies of Chinese monks.
This was first of all due to the fact that from the mid-ninth century onwards,
43
44
45
46
47
granted him a purple robe, and served as abbot of Jingqing, Baoci, and Longhua temples.
According to Jingde chuandeng lu (T.51.2076: 252 a–c), he died in 947, aged 78.
Zutang ji 11.13–14. Also a disciple of Xuefeng (see notes 39 and 42), he was sponsored by
a “commander Wang” (王太尉) in Quanzhou. This most likely refers to Wang Shenzhi
(862–925), who ruled over the Min (Fujian) region from 897 to 925, and who was known
as an ardent sponsor of Chan monks, notably Xuefeng. See Welter 2006: 94–101.
Identified in Zutang ji as Hongjik 洪直; for the Korean source see Pongam-sa Chijŭng
taesa pimyŏng, Yi Chigwan 1993–1997, Volume 1: 282–283.
For more biographic details on these masters see chapter 1 of Vermeersch 2008.
See Faure 1991: 163–164 for more on this interesting episode.
Chŏngyuk does not get a separate entry, but is mentioned in a dialogue with Yangshan
Huiji. Zutang ji 18.21.
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elaborate stele inscriptions had been erected for these monks in their native
country, Silla. While most biographies of Chinese monks were based on epitaphs written by local scholar-officials sympathetic to Buddhism, the inscriptions for Silla monks were carved on large, elaborate stone monuments, and
are thus more detailed and more formal, as large steles were invariably erected
by royal decree and constructed under royal supervision. In fact, two of these
steles have been preserved, so it is possible to ascertain that they were indeed
the main source for the biographies of Korean monks in the Zutang ji. This is
the case for Muyŏm, whose stele was erected in 890,48 and for Sunji, whose
stele dates to 937.49 In fact, only small parts of the stele inscriptions have been
copied by the compilers of the Zutang ji, mainly dealing with the biographic
details. In the case of Sunji’s biography, the main details have been copied
nearly verbatim, but for Muyŏm the wording has been changed considerably;
undoubtedly this is because the original, by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn 崔致遠 (858–after
900), was written in a highly idiosyncratic, parallel prose (pianwen 駢文) style.
What does the relationship between the stele inscriptions and the Zutang ji
tell us? First of all, it would seem to confirm a steady exchange of information
between Silla and later Koryŏ on the one hand and various Chinese states on
the other—if the Zutang ji was indeed compiled wholly in China, a problem to
be discussed below. In this case either rubbings or hand-written copies had
to be made of the inscriptions. Yet although the Korean inscriptions served as
an important source, other material was added: in the case of Muyŏm’s biography, the addition is a short encounter dialogue with a questioner, who asks
about the purpose of patriarchs in a ‘tongueless realm’. Although the inscription contains a segment where Muyŏm expounds his final teaching, this was
eschewed in favor of this dialogue which is typical of recorded Chan instructions through dialogue of the time.50 In the case of Sunji’s biography, an extensive treatise is added, which is not relevant for the present discussion. The
other biographies, however, do not seem to contain such additional material
illustrating their teaching strategies, so they are presumably based on Silla inscriptions, now lost.51
48
49
50
51
Sŏngjusa Nanghye hwasang pi, Yi Chigwan 1993–1997, Volume 1: 154–166.
Sŏun-sa Yo’o hwasang pi, Han’guk yŏksa yŏn’guhoe 1996, vol. 1: 41–46.
See McRae 2003: 80 ff. for a description of the dialogue style in the Zutang ji as a preliminary step in the development of ‘Chan encounter dialogue’. It would be interesting
to compare the dialogue material found in the Late Silla inscriptions more systematically
with the developing encounter dialogue.
Most biographies end by giving the name of the deceased master’s pagoda, except Toŭi’s,
which simply notes “the rest is as the stele inscription”. This suggests that the contents of
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Vermeersch
Besides the information on how Korean monks travelled to China to study
with eminent Chan monks, and returned to their homeland to found “mountain schools,” a few narrative themes clearly emerge. One of the most striking
is that in the key encounters between Chinese patriarchs and Korean students,
the Chinese patriarchs often praise their student by saying “the dharma will
be secure in the Eastern Country [Korea]”. For example, after Toŭi received
transmission from Xitang Zhizang (“If I cannot transmit to this person then to
whom?”) he practiced austerities and went to see Baizhang Huaihai 百丈懷海
(749–814); Baizhang is said to have exclaimed “now the Jiangxi (Mazu) lineage
is completely controlled by Korean monks!”52 Similarly, after making Toyun
his disciple, Nanquan Puyuan is said to have sighed “now the dharma seal of
my lineage ends up in the eastern country!”53 These statements seem to have
been borrowed from the Korean inscriptions. Thus the inscription for Muyŏm,
written by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn, claims that Muyŏm first went to a certain Man 滿,54
a disciple of Mazu, who told him, somewhat crestfallen, “I have inspected
many people, yet few were like this son of Silla. If some day Chan disappears
from China, we can ask for it to the Eastern Barbarians”.55 Then he went to
Magu Baoche, who urged him to transmit the dharma further in Silla, invoking
Mazu’s prophecy that the dharma would flow east: “Once I was an elder son
of Jiangxi [Mazu], and later I may become the father of [disciples in] Korea”.56
These exchanges have been incorporated, albeit in a somewhat edited version,
in the Zutang ji version of this biography.
52
53
54
55
56
the inscription were severely edited, and also that the text of the inscription must have
circulated, otherwise it would not make sense to refer to it.
Zutang ji 17: 5.
Zutang ji 17: 17–18.
A monk named Man also appears in the Song gaoseng zhuan, where he is identified as a
“Bao Tang Chan Master” (T.50.2061: 785b8). While “Bao Tang” here may refer to the school
founded by Wuzhu, it is also a common temple name in late Tang. See Adamek 2007:
284–285.
Sŏngju-sa Nanghye Hwasang pi, Yi Chigwan 1993–1997: 158.
Ibid., pp. 158–9. Yi Chigwan links this passage on the eastward spread of Chan to a prophecy in Huineng’s biography in Jingde chuandeng lu, predicting first the theft of his skull
and later the spread of his lineage to the east. Yi Chigwan 1993–1997, Volume 1: 185, note
165. Interestingly, the person entrusted with this theft is one Zhang Jingman 張淨滿, perhaps the same ‘Man’ Muyŏm encountered? However, the theft is said to have occurred in
722, nearly a century before Muyŏm’s visit. Since Toŭi first came to study in the late eighth
century, it is unlikely that there was such an early interest in Huineng on the part of the
Sillans. Perhaps there is a core to the story, but dating from a century later. According
to the Zutang ji biography of Kim Taebi, who ordered the skull to be stolen, it was later
placed in Ssanggye-sa. According to the stele for Hyeso, who settled in Ssanggye-sa, there
was indeed a shrine to Huineng there, though no mention is made of a skull.
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This material has been studied extensively by John Jorgensen, who places
it in the tradition of a “regeneration” narrative. He points to a passage in the
Analects, in which Confucius threatens that if (his) Way is not put into practice, he will take a raft to cross the sea. From at least the Han dynasty this has
been interpreted as “crossing the sea to Korea,” and hence Korea has been seen
as a place to retrieve the way should it get lost in China; in other words, a place
from which to regenerate the way and reintroduce it to China (Jorgensen 2005a:
91). Clearly, this theme was also taken up by Korean intellectuals, who took
pride in this Chinese recognition of their country as a source of cultural regeneration. Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn in particular is known to have taken up this theme in
his writings, likening the east to the virtue of humanity (ren 仁), and by extension also to Buddhism: in Buddhist apologetics, the five Confucian virtues are
linked to the five precepts of Buddhism. Humanity in particular is linked to
“non-killing” as the most representative Buddhist virtue (Jorgensen 2005a: 92).
Thus one could argue that Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn, the author of most stele inscriptions for Korean Sŏn monks, had embellished narratives of encounters between Mazu’s heirs and Korean monks to suit his own agenda, which had then
found its way back into the Chinese Zutang ji, in a kind of reversal of what
we have seen in the previous section, when the work by Daoxuan influenced
the Korean Samguk yusa. Unfortunately, however, the situation is a good deal
more complex than this. A careful reading of the preface to the Zutang ji clearly
reveals that it consists of two parts: The first part, consisting of a mere 11 lines,
was written by the abbot Wendeng (or Shengdeng; see note 39) of Zhaoqing
招慶 monastery in Quanzhou (Fujian), and notes that the work was compiled
in one fascicle by his disciples, identified only as Jing 靜 and Yun 筠, in 952.57
Immediately following this preface, and clearly set apart from it through a line
break, follows the second preface, which is anonymous and starts as follows:
The above preface and one-fascicle Zutang ji first circulated in this world,
and later ten fascicles were added. Sincerely, based on the extant fascicles
we wanted to make a new printing; so as to spread it far and wide, [the
book] was divided into twenty fascicles.58
57
58
Neither the preface nor the work carries any explicit date of completion; the year 952 was
determined by Yanagida Seizan on the basis of an entry in the Zutang ji that refers to the
year 952 as the “present” (Welter 2006: 63). Wendeng not only wrote the preface but also
added verses to the sections of the patriarchs and some Chinese masters. See Anderl 2004,
vol. 1: 14.
The part cited above follows immediately after this segment. There has been a good deal
of controversy regarding this preface, since until recently most editions of the text seem
to have “one fascicle” rather than “ten fascicles”. This is probably due to the fact that in
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This second preface was clearly drafted in Korea, since at the end, right before
the start of the first fascicle, it says explicitly that this new edition was printed
in Korea (Haedong 海東). This has led some scholars to argue that at the time
of printing, a lot of material was added by the Koreans, notably the material
in praise of their own tradition. It is impossible here to deal with all the arguments for or against such an argumentation; one can find very good overviews
in the research by John Jorgensen, Albert Welter, and Christoph Anderl.59
What I would like to point out, though, is that it should not be automatically
assumed that sections that praise Korea must have been inserted in Korea.60
They were not even necessarily inserted at the instigation of the many Korean
monks who were active in the Fujian and Zhejiang regions in the late Tang
and Five Dynasties period. Although they must have played the role of transmitters in relaying the Korean material, the editorial decision to insert them
should not be seen in chauvinistic terms only. There are many reasons why a
Han Chinese editor may have approved of them. First of all, as with Daoxuan,
depicting an idealized other may be seen as a spur for greater diligence to his
own audience. Already in the Lidai fabao ji we see the Korean monk Musang
held up as an example, who is allowed to scold his Chinese brethren in the
dharma for their lack of diligence (Adamek 2007: 350). Second, given the importance of the transmission narrative, in which the dharma is passed on from
India to China, it is only logical to take the next step, i.e. passing on the dharma
to Korea. And a third possible motive is a genuine fear over the disappearance
of the dharma: the background to the compilation of the Zutang ji is one of political chaos, with many polities changing rapidly, and a Buddhist persecution
about to take place in the Northern Zhou dynasty, which eventually happened
during the reign of Emperor Shizong in 955. Until we find more conclusive evidence as to where the final redaction of the Zutang ji took place, and what kind
of material was added at each stage and where, these are factors that should
not be ignored.
59
60
prints from the Haein-sa woodblocks, the character for 十 (ten) was somehow misprinted, showing up as 一 (one). See Welter 2006: 64 for the ongoing confusion. The version
put online by the Koryŏ Taejanggyŏng Yŏn’guso clearly has 十. See http://kb.sutra.re.kr/
ritk/index.do (accessed Feb. 20, 2015). See also Anderl 2004, vol. 1: 35, note 207, for more
evidence and references to other research on this problem.
See Welter 2006: 63–70; Jorgensen 2005a: 101–109; Anderl 2004, Vol. 1: 31, 36. I concur with
these authors that the last word about this problem has not yet been said. A key element
in determining where most of the material was redacted will likely be the language. The
way in which the texts by Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn have been edited may provide valuable clues as
to where this happened.
For evidence that the Korean biographies are different from the rest of the Zutang ji, and
hence probably inserted in Korea, see Anderl 2004, Vol. 1: 31.
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3.3
Song China’s Reassertion of the Center: Song Gaoseng zhuan
Shortly after the first draft of the Zutang ji was completed, the Song dynasty was
founded in 960. The quest for reunification and a new vision for Chinese culture left its distinct traces in the Song gaoseng zhuan, the last major biographic
compilation, finalized in 988. Later Buddhist critics have taken it to task for
omitting major Chan figures and other perceived defects.61 The fact is that its
author, Zanning, had to tread a very careful line in trying to sell Buddhism to
his new overlords, the Song dynasty. Born and raised in the southern Wu-Yue
kingdom, he played a role in the negotiations to annex this kingdom, which
was very Buddhist in outlook, to Song, which finally happened in 978. Honored
by the Song court for his erudition, he also tried very hard to tailor Buddhism
to their desire for a new cultural order, which was decidedly more Sinocentric.
He tried very hard to present Buddhism as an integral part of Chinese wen 文,
but the mere fact that he had to do so implies that there were strong voices to
exclude it.62
This new vision of culture comes clearly to the fore in the treatment of
Korean Buddhist monks. While the Song gaoseng zhuan contains in fact more
such biographies than the Xu gaoseng zhuan, the tenor is decidedly different.
First of all, while the material is often substantial, there does not seem to be
any particular editorial role assigned to Silla monks, as in the previous works.
Second, the biographies vary considerably in their approach; but although
some are rather substantial, we do not see the same attention to detail. While
Daoxuan took great pains in sketching the family background of Chajang,
explaining in the process something about Silla culture, Zanning does not
bother to inquire about his subjects’ background a lot. In the case of Sungyŏng
順璟, for example, he merely states “since his family belongs to the Eastern
Barbarians, it is difficult to unravel [his family background]”63 and leaves it
at that. Third, in most cases the biographies hinge on a particular story; thus,
rather than attempting a full biography of a monk’s career, in many cases it is
but an excuse to tell a particular story. And finally, the biographies do not shy
away from painting their subject in a not so favourable light.
This can best be illustrated with the biography of Wŏnch’ŭk. In fact, it is
not really a biography; Zanning does not even discuss his origin, simply saying
“there are no details about his family”; he does not even indicate that Wŏnch’ŭk
originally came from Silla. The short text merely narrates the famous story
about how Wŏnch’ŭk listened secretly to a private lecture on the Cheng weishi
lun 成唯識論 (Treatise on the Perfection of Consciousness Only) that the famous
61
62
63
See Huihong’s comments in the Linjian lu, cited in Kieschnick 1997: 13.
See Welter 1999 and Dalia 1987.
T.50.2061: 728a.
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monk Xuanzang 玄奘 (602?–664) gave to his disciple and eventual successor,
Kuiji 窺基 (632–682). Thus Wŏnch’ŭk could actually expound its teachings before Kuiji.64 This act of deceit is not condoned nor condemned, but simply
recounted matter-of-factly. Following this story Zanning simply recounts how
Wŏnch’ŭk also became a member of the translation bureau of Buddhist texts.
In the same fascicle (4, on exegetes), a few biographies after Wŏnch’ŭk’s,
Zanning includes the biography of another Silla monk, Sungyŏng. Having obtained some of Xuanzang’s essays, Sungyŏng wrote his own commentaries on
them and entrusted them with an envoy to China, hoping that Xuanzang himself would give his opinion on them; he himself never seems to have travelled
to China. Since this took place in the Qianfeng era (666–667), Xuanzang had
already died, so his disciple Kuiji took it upon himself to comment on the texts.
He praises them, expressing admiration that someone from the border region
reaches this level of knowledge; yet at the same time Zanning writes how Kuiji
“perceived [from the texts] what Sungyŏng did not know”. The biography concludes with the story that Sungyŏng, after slandering the Avataṃsaka-sūtra for
saying that one could become Buddha from the initial dedication of the mind
toward Buddhahood, sank into hell! Although Zanning defends his action in an
added commentary, saying it is the act of a bodhisattva, he does not deny that
the ground opened up to swallow Sungyŏng, landing him in hell.65
Thus the stories barely rise above the anecdotal, and (probably unintentionally) relegate Korean Buddhism to a marginal position rather than one of
potential regeneration. A final example to make this clear is the famous biography of Wŏnhyo that is also contained here. As Robert Buswell has pointed
out in his analysis of the biography, “so little of Wŏnhyo himself emerges from
this hagiography that Zanning clearly appears to have used Wŏnhyo primarily as a stratagem for discussing the legend about the recovery of the Book of
Adamantine Absorption” (Buswell 1995: 554). Indeed, the bulk of the biography is taken up by explaining how the Jingang sanmei jing 金剛三昧經 was
discovered in the palace of the Dragon King and brought to Korea, where
Wŏnhyo wrote his commentary on the text. Despite mentioning stories about
Wŏnhyo’s unconventional behaviour, this actually puts him in the category of
“unfathomable” monks who have access to antinomian strategies; it is clearly
64
65
See Cho 2005: 173–179 for a good overview of this controversy; see also Jorgensen 2002:
89, who argues that this is a liezhuan 列傳 or “connected biography,” in other words, it is
part of all the people connected to Xuanzang. Yet, liezhuan is not necessarily so narrowly
defined. Jorgensen also gives a translation of the biography on p. 91.
T.50.2061: 728a28. Also, Zanning describes the monk Kim Chijang 金地藏 (aka Monk Kim
金和尙) as being very tall and ugly; T.50.2061: 738c17.
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not condemned by Zanning. Also, he reserves considerable praise for Wŏnhyo,
writing that his commentary is “elegant, elucidated disputed points, and could
serve as an exemplar [for commentarial writings]” (Buswell 1995: 558).
At the same time, one of the most interesting stories about Wŏnhyo is actually found in the biography of his friend and colleague, Ŭisang. Although
he set out on a journey together with Ŭisang, Wŏnhyo never reached the intended destination, China. The generally accepted reason for this is that on the
road, he had an enlightenment experience that made him realize there was no
more reason for him to go to China. This is the paradigmatic story of Korean
Buddhism “coming of age,” so it is usually taken as a declaration of Korea’s
maturity as a Buddhist country, in that it had no longer anything to learn from
China and could now go its own way; in other words, that it had become selfsufficient (Buswell 1998: 80). Wŏnhyo for all we know indeed did not make it
to China and became one of the greatest Buddhist philosophers of all time.
Interestingly, however, in the oldest recorded version of this story, by Zanning’s
older contemporary and fellow Wu-Yue native Yongming Yanshou (904–975),
we find a somewhat different version of the same story: according to Yongming
“The two [Ŭisang and Wŏnhyo] came to Tang together in search of a master”.66
Thus the story was most likely common knowledge in Wu-Yue; perhaps both
authors had picked it up from the community of Korean monks that was residing in the country.67 So perhaps they simply embellished an existing story. For
Yongming, the point he wanted to make was about the nature of the mind, as the
66
67
Zongjing lu 宗鏡錄; see T. 48.2016: 477a22–28: “… Formerly there were the dharma masters
Wŏnhyo and Ŭisang from the Eastern Country. The two came to Tang together in search of
a master. Surprised by nightfall they had to spend the night in the wild, and stayed inside
a tomb. Wŏnhyo, feeling thirsty, wanted to scoop some water; next to the place where he
was sitting he saw some water, and ladled to drink it; it tasted delicious. The next day
he saw that it was pus from a dead corpse; immediately he was deeply revulsed, and threw
up. Suddenly he had a great realization, and said ‘I heard the Buddhas words to the effect
that the three worlds are only mind, the myriad dharmas only consciousness. Therefore
I know that good and bad reside in me, but not in the water!’ Then he returned to his
home country and widely spread the supreme teaching.”
As I pointed out in a previous study, the monk Chijong studied with both Zanning and
Yongming. Chijong came to Wu-Yue in 959 and returned to his home country in 971
(Vermeersch 2007: 136). In 969, perhaps at the instigation of Chijong or other monks, King
Kwangjong of Koryŏ sent 36 monks to study the dharma; as a result the Fayan (Dharma
eye) school flourished overseas (Fozu tongji, T.49.2035: 396b). According to Yanshou’s
biography (Song gaoseng zhuan, T.50.2061: 887b), the king was impressed after reading
Yanshou’s Zongjing lu, and sent envoys to present him with a gold brocade kāṣāya, crystal
pearls and golden washing basins. For a brief overview of some of the most salient features of the exchanges between Wu-Yue and Koryŏ, see Jorgensen 2005a: 86–87.
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story appears in a discussion on this topic, so he was probably not interested in
where the story happened. For Zanning, the story is woven into the biography
of Ŭisang. One of the main motifs in this biography, besides the story concerning Wŏnhyo, is Ŭisang’s encounter with the Chinese girl Shanmiao 善妙, who
falls in love with him. Ŭisang refuses to break his precepts, so Shanmiao finally
turns into a protective deity, who helps him in his quest to establish Huayan
Buddhism in Korea, for example by ridding his temple of bandits.68 Thus the
story is about how Huayan was transferred from China to Korea, where a firm
basis was established thanks to the intervention of Shanmiao. In a story about
the nativization of a Chinese tradition, it is perhaps fitting that Wŏnhyo is seen
as the other side of the coin: someone who had already grasped the Sinitic tradition of Buddhism and thus stayed in his country, while Ŭisang—being, one
can imagine, less perspicacious—had to travel for personal instruction.
Interestingly, in terms of personal instruction, the Song gaoseng zhuan
seems to minimize the contact with Chinese masters: Wŏnch’ŭk was prevented
from hearing the key teaching of Xuanzang, Sungyŏng sought contact via letter,
Ŭisang’s meeting with and study under Zhiyan is barely mentioned,69 Wŏnhyo
turned back before reaching China, etc. The only monk in this collection who
had substantial contact with his master is Hyŏngwang 玄光, but that was still
under the sixth-century Chen dynasty.70 Perhaps this reflects the situation at
the time: despite the intensity of contacts up until the Five Dynasties period
(907–960), following the founding of the Song dynasty, the regular flow of
monks from Korea simply dries up. Since we know that the Koryŏ dynasty after
its founding in 918 kept up very intensive Buddhist exchanges with the WuYue kingdom and other states in southern China, the reason must have surely
lain with the Song, which tried to reassert its cultural superiority.71 Following
the return of the monk Yŏngjun 英俊 (932–1014) to Koryŏ in 972 (Vermeersch
2008: 388), we have no more information about any Korean monks travelling
to China until Ŭich’ŏn 義天 (1055–1101), who visited briefly in 1085–1086. It is
only during the Yuan period, following the subjugation of Koryŏ, that we see a
gradual flow of Korean monks resuming ca. 1275.
This very different state of affairs is again reflected in monastic biographies. The Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 (Record of the Transmission of the
Lamp from the Jingde Era), finalized in 1009, contains the names of about forty
68
69
70
71
See T.50.2061: 729a3–c3 for the biography; for a translation see Durt 1969.
Ŭisang studied Huayan Buddhism with the school’s second patriarch, Zhiyan, before returning to his native country in 671. He maintained cordial relations with his fellow student and third patriarch, Fazang.
T.50.2061: 820.c13–821a26.
See Jorgensen 2005a: 107, and especially Welter 2006: 13.
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Korean monks, the most of any Chinese biographic collection; yet in almost
all cases, it completely eschews biographic information. The majority, 24, are
simply listed by name, while for 16, only a very brief Zen dialogue is recorded.
In only one case, the monk Yŏngjo, is the dialogue more than a few lines long
and a modicum of biographic information offered.72 Of course this lack of
biographic information is partly caused by a different emphasis: as the title
“transmission of the lamp” implies, it foregrounds stories of mind transmission and lineage connections over biographic details. It perhaps symbolizes
the shift in Song cultural perceptions in general rather than a particular shift in
attitudes towards Korean monks. The Buddhist world had been shrunk to a few
very narrowly defined areas acceptable to mainstream literati. In such a world,
any Buddhist claims to agency, including the shaping of their own tradition
through exchanges and contacts with the outside world, had no place.
4
Conclusion
The sources analyzed in this chapter have in fact been extensively studied, yet
almost exclusively in order to cull information about Korean Buddhism; thus,
the texts have been taken out of context. What I have tried to achieve here is
simply to put them back in the context of the works they appear in, and ask how
they functioned for the author. In other words, while the biographies of Korean
monks in Chinese works have always been analyzed for their information on
Korean Buddhist identity, I hope to have made clear that they also helped to
shape Chinese Buddhist identity. Identity is always shaped with reference to a
real or imagined other; thus the image of Korean monks in Chinese biographic
compilations often served to make a point about Chinese Buddhism. By using
the term imaginaire I am not suggesting that Daoxuan made up stories out of
whole cloth. Undoubtedly he did in some cases, but he also based himself on
solid information obtained from Silla monks—we have enough information
from Korean sources such as the Samguk sagi to know that the basic outline of
facts is true. Thus in a certain sense it is correct to say that he was impressed
by them, and aware of their achievements back home. Yet at the same time,
he chose to represent these facts in a certain light and embellished them to
further his own views and impress his own desired version upon his audience. Thus Wŏngwang and Chajang become ideal types that reflect his own
desires for the implementation of vinaya and the superiority of the Southern
72
Here I rely on the edition of the Korean material from the Jingde chuandeng lu in Kim
Yŏngt’ae 1977: 283–289.
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tradition of Buddhism; in the process he most likely exaggerated Silla’s adherence to vinaya and perhaps also Wŏngwang’s importance as an exegete.
While a lot of this is peculiar to Daoxuan, undoubtedly it is also part of a
wider trend of perceiving Korean monks in China. Given the sheer number
of monks who travelled there, the “Silla monk” must have been a familiar figure. It is therefore hardly surprising that Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn, who travelled to China
in the late Tang dynasty to take the state examination, took this theme even
further. After returning to his home country following a brief career in the service of a Tang governor, he wrote several stele inscriptions for Sŏn monks, and
notes in them how their Chinese masters were full of praise, assuring them
that Silla would become a bastion of Chan/Sŏn Buddhism, from where one day
the Chinese could come to retrieve it. Since we know that Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn was
addressing not just a Korean but also a Chinese audience, he probably took
an existing trope of Korea as an ideal Buddhist country to a new level of sophistication. And it is quite possible that this was positively received in China,
notably in a small southern state such as Wu-Yue or Min, whose people were
very Buddhist in outlook and at the same time threatened in their existence by
the “legitimate” northern dynasties that were much cooler towards Buddhism.
Thus it is entirely likely that the Zutang ji, composed in the remnants of the
Min state, would welcome this theme of retrieval of Chan Buddhism from Silla.
In terms of the Buddhist exchanges that took place between the early sixth
and late tenth centuries, this chapter has confirmed that not only did Korean
monks play a role in Chinese Buddhism, they also played a role in the Chinese
Buddhist imaginaire. This suggests that in Buddhist terms, international
relations could be perceived as a two-way street, with different centers able
to communicate on (more or less) equal terms—at least, the contribution
of a barbarian “other” could be acknowledged. In the Song dynasty, however,
this was no longer the case. While the Song gaoseng zhuan still contains clear
traces of the influence of Korean monks, this seems to be more a legacy of
the past; Zanning is clearly no longer interested in any concrete contribution
of Korea to the Buddhist world. In such a climate, it is hardly surprising that
Korean monks stopped travelling to China: they seem to have considered they
had learned all there was to learn (Vermeersch 2008: 126), and probably were
not willing to be relegated to the role of mere pilgrims. Buddhist contacts were
certainly not forbidden, as is evident in the cases of Japanese monks travelling
to China, such as Jōjin 成尋, who travelled in 1072–1073. While he may have, as
Robert Borgen argues, imagined himself “as a participant in a two-way intellectual exchange” (Borgen 2009: 44), this was certainly no longer the way the
Chinese perceived it.
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Chapter 9
Buddhist Pilgrimage and Spiritual Identity: Korean
Sŏn Monks Journeying to Tang China in Search of
the Dharma
Henrik H. Sørensen
1
Introduction
This essay is devoted to a specific phenomenon in the history of East Asian
Buddhism, namely the quest for the Buddhist teaching (qiufa 求法) conducted
by Buddhist monks in countries other than their own—in other words, journeys abroad undertaken by religious professionals for primarily religious
reasons.1 In what follows I shall focus on experiences associated with Korean
Sŏn 禪 (Ch. Chan) Buddhist monks journeying to Tang China during the latter
part of that dynasty, i.e. during the 8–9th centuries, and chiefly base my findings on contemporary records, most of which are in the form of epigraphical
writings.
What sets the cases of Sŏn monks from the Unified Silla 新羅 kingdom (668–
935) somewhat apart from other pilgrim-monks from Korea and Japan, including luminaries such as Ŭisang 義湘 (625–702) and Hyech’o 慧超 (fl. 8th cent.)
from Silla, and Kūkai 空海 (774–835), Saichō 最澄 (767–822), and Ennin 圓仁
(794–864) from Heian Japan, has partly to do with soteriological issues and
partly with the significance played by religious geography within the Chan/
Sŏn Buddhist traditions themselves. In other words, it has to do with fundamental doctrines and concepts of religious transmission within this particular
1 For an interesting and useful survey of the various issues and agendas relating to Buddhist
pilgrimage in late medieval China, see Huang Yangxing, “Lüelun Tang Song shidai de ‘Suiqiu’
xinyang, 1 (An Abbreviated Discussion of Belief in ‘Pilgrimage’ during the Tang and Song
Periods (1),” Pumen xuebao (Research Journal of the Vast Gate) 34 (2006), pp. 125–154, (2),
Pumen xuebao 35 (2006), pp. 1–15. The material used by Huang represents both Chinese and
especially Japanese records, but none from Korea. Of course the primary source on Buddhist
pilgrimage to Tang China is Ennin’s 圓仁 (794–864), Nittō guhō junrei kōki 入唐求法巡禮
行記 (Record of a Pilgrimage to Tang China in Search for the Dharma); cf. Nittō guhō junrei
gyōki-xiaozhu (An Annotated Translation of the Nittō guhō junrei gyōki), trans. Li Dingxia
et. al. on the basis of Ōno Katsutoshi, Shijiazhuang (Hebei): Huashan wenyi chubanshe, 1992.
See also Edwin O. Reischauer, Ennin’s Travels, 2 vols., New York: Ronald Press, 1955.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004366152_011
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East Asian Buddhist tradition. While the need for spiritual recognition from
a famous master and the acquisition of new teachings are common agendas
of most of the East Asian pilgrim-monks, it so happens that a special spiritual
transmission from master to disciple, the so-called ‘mind to mind transmission’ (chuanxin 傳心) conceived of as a concrete and distinct spiritual event,
played and still plays a primary, if not all-dominant role in Sŏn/Chan Buddhist
identity and power structure. This is so because its very foundation is conceptualized as a ‘separate transmission outside the established teaching’ (waijiao
biechuan 外教別傳).2 In practical terms this necessitated the undertaking of
a spiritual journey to China, the motherland of the tradition, for all aspiring
Sŏn adepts, not only as part of the process towards the obligatory attainment
of enlightenment, but in order to achieve formal, spiritual recognition and authorization from a living master within a respected and time-honored lineage
of orthodox Chan transmission.
The so-called ‘transmission’ of the Buddhist teaching from Chinese Chan
masters to Korean Sŏn monks was conceptualized by the Chan/Sŏn tradition
in accordance with the above outlined belief that spiritual authorization took
place in accordance with what can be termed ‘a meeting of minds.’ This event
has been formulated, and indeed canonized in the relevant literature as a precise and delineated point in time where the two sides of the exchange, master
and disciple/requesting monk, meet through an exchange of words steeped
in Chan rhetoric, the so-called ‘encounter dialogue’ (Ch. wenda, Kor. mundap
問答). Although not always resulting in the sought-after experience of sudden
enlightenment (dunwu 頓悟), many of the cases we find in the relevant literature actually claim to have done so—something which is especially pronounced in the cases involving Korean Sŏn monks. Said encounters, which
usually take on a somewhat formalistic, if not artificial character, have been
used to cement not only the historical relationship between the two persons
involved, but more importantly, have also served as proof that a given monk
had become a master in his own right, and was thereby capable of initiating
his own lineage of transmission—in a sense establishing his own sub-branch
on the proverbial ancestral tree of Chan/Sŏn Buddhism.3 This made the meeting with a recognized master, subsequent experience of enlightenment and
2 For a discussion of this central, doctrinal issue in Chan, see Foulk 1999: 220–294. Although
the focus of this article primarily concerns developments during the Song, the beliefs and
concerns involved were already in vogue during the Tang and Silla as documented in numerous primary sources from the 8th to early 10th centuries.
3 The Chan Buddhist mimicking of Confucian ancestral thinking and social structure has been
explored in Jorgensen 1987.
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formal recognition absolutely central features in establishing spiritual identity.
Moreover, they were central in the transmission of Tang Chan Buddhism to the
Korean Peninsula.
Since this essay to a large extent deals with the issue of Buddhist practice
and beliefs across cultural boundaries, i.e. cultural crossings in the real sense
of the word, in the following I shall present an analysis of the salient features
involved in this process. This involves a discussion of the Chan/Sŏn transmission as it was conceptualized in the primary literature, i.e. as a literary topic
and structural element, in a number of formal accounts of Korean Sŏn monks
going to China for spiritual experiences and confirmation. Since most of the
relevant material is in the form of commemorative stele inscriptions, which
represent a highly formalized and rigid form of literature, an analysis of what
this particular category of Buddhist writing entails will also be presented in
the following. Before doing so, let us first take a look at the ideas, beliefs and
special character of the pilgrimages undertaken by Korean Sŏn monks going to
China during the second half of the Tang.
2
On the Background and Sources for Korean Sŏn Pilgrimages to Tang
China
Before discussing the experiences of the Korean Sŏn monks in Tang China, it is
necessary to point out some of the specific conditions that made the undertaking of a spiritual trip abroad both necessary as well as mandatory. Sŏn Buddhism
in Silla rose during the first half of the eighth century and gradually grew into
one of the most important Buddhist traditions in the Korean kingdom.4 At
the time it began to assert itself as a distinct tradition with a specific history
and concepts of lineage, something which eventually caused the formation of
proper schools. Institutionally speaking, Korean Buddhism was dominated by
a combination of doctrinal schools, each of which focused on scriptural studies combined with pious beliefs. These formations of doctrinal Buddhism were
predominantly represented by the Hwaŏm 華嚴 and Pŏpsŏng 法性 schools5
as well as by various cults devoted to Maitreya, Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara and
4 For a brief and easy-to access introduction to early Korean Sŏn Buddhism, see Sørensen 2011:
192–219. An important compilation of various articles on early Sŏn is Chŏng 1995.
5 In Korea of the Silla period the Hwaŏm and Pŏpsŏng represent two different traditions. One
is mainly associated with Ŭisang, and the other with the celebrated Wŏnhyŏ 元曉 (617–686).
Cf. Yi Chi-kuan 1994: 71–89.
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Bhaiṣajyaguru.6 In this active religious climate the followers of nascent Sŏn
Buddhism, a tradition which primarily focused its spiritual endeavors on the
practice of meditation and immediate spiritual apprehension, were in need
of concrete religious props, i.e. markers and symbols of authority other than
scriptures, as means to distinguish themselves and their rising tradition from
mainstream Buddhism. One obvious way of achieving this was to journey to
China, the birthplace of Chan Buddhism, in order to ‘drink directly from the
source’ and then to return with the proper, spiritual credentials.
By the time Korean Sŏn monks began in earnest to arrive in China in search
of spiritual authorities, the Chan Buddhist tradition had existed as an independent form of Chinese Buddhism for close to two centuries. It had even
branched out into two competing, main traditions, so-called Northern and
Southern Chan (beichan 北禪, nanchan 南禪), following the teachings of
two alleged disciples of the Fifth Patriarch Hongren 宏仁 (601–674), namely Shenxiu 神秀 (606?–706) and Huineng 慧能 (638–713), the latter primarily bolstered by his successor Shenhui 神會 (684–758).7 In the course of the
eighth century the lineages of Northern Chan gradually died out in Silla, leaving the scene to a number of vital representatives of Southern Chan, most
notably the sub-schools and/or transmission-lineages associated with the
monks Mazu 馬祖 (709–788)8 and Shitou 石頭 (700–790).9 In the first phase
of Sŏn monks coming to China on spiritual quests, it was primarily to these
Chan masters and their immediate followers that they flocked (cf. Table 9.1).
The standard Chan histories and ‘recorded sayings’ (yulu 語錄) literature
contain a number of accounts of interviews between masters and disciples
involving Korean monks.10 However, very few of these reveal anything specific
to Korean culture. In fact, beyond the standard encounter dialogues, the master-disciple interviews rarely go beyond the immediacy of a given encounter
6
7
8
9
10
For an overview of doctrinal Buddhism in Silla, see Ko 1989: 138–381. For a study of the devotional Buddhist cults under the Silla, see O 1987: 61–99; Ch’ae 1985: 51–116; and Cheong
2011: 93–104.
For important studies on Northern and Southern Chan, see McRae 1986 and 1987. For a
recent overview of these developments, see also Sørensen 2012: 53–76.
Cf. ZGDJ: 907ab.
Cf. ZGDJ: 201b.
See for instance those found in the Zutang ji 祖堂集 (Collection of the Patriarchs’ Halls;
hereafter ZTJ). For the reprint of the original Korean version from the 13th century, see
Yanagida Seizan 1974; and the Jingde chuandeng lu 景得傳燈錄 (The Transmission of the
Lamp from the Jingde Period). Cf. T.2076.
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situation. Even so, there are a few cases, such as the one we shall see below,
where the Korean monk’s cultural identity plays into the dialogue.
Only when we turn to the epigraphical material, mainly constituted by
memorial steles raised over important Sŏn masters, as well as a few proper
narratives from other sources, do we find sufficient data with which we may
begin to reconstruct and understand the importance and significance of a
given Chinese Chan transmission to Korea and the further establishment of
orthodoxy once a given Korean Sŏn monk had returned to his native country. In other words, we may identify formal attempts at establishing spiritual
history and hegemonic context through applied discourse analysis. As far as
literature goes the stele inscriptions are with few exceptions generic and adhere to a more or less rigid compositional template. They are meant to glorify
a given master, in particular his lineage, and are therefore filled with hyperbolic
statements and flowery language. As such they are strictly panegyric in nature,
even if they for the most part also feature bona fide historical data. Moreover,
these inscriptions are formulaic and are constituted of a more or less fixed
structure and formalized type of narration.11 One may therefore speak of them
as following a prefabricated textual template. Such a template usually consists
of the following parts:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
11
Opening section of praise.
Birth of the master under miraculous circumstances.
Ordination and training.
Journey to Tang China and meeting with a Chinese master of Chan.
Pilgrimage inside China and return to Silla.
Rise to fame and connection with local authorities in some cases including
the royalty of Silla.
Establishment of religious centre and formal recognition of the lineage.
Death and cremation.
Bestowal of posthumous name and erection of funerary stūpa.
List of important monastic and lay disciples—especially if the latter are
members of the Silla nobility.
There are several collections of Korean epigraphical material available to the specialist,
but for the present purpose I shall be referring to texts found in the classic Japanese collection, Chōsen kinseki soran 朝鮮金石總覽 (A Comprehensive View of Korean Epigraphies
on Metal and Stone; hereafter CKS).
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From this list of themes in the memorial epigraphs we are able to understand
that the political aspects they carry are indeed as important as the more directly religious ones. Moreover, it is obvious that spiritual pedigree was essential
for official recognition by the government of Silla and for thereby providing the
possibility and right to set up a temple of one’s own on the part of the involved
monks. Without such recognition, no one could hope to set up the framework
for a lineage of successors. In other words, establishing a new ancestral lineage
required both religious as well as official recognition, and of course powerful,
local sponsors. Interestingly, among the vast majority of those Sŏn monks who
rose to prominence, less than one in ten did not journey to China in search
for a master and formal recognition. This tells us something about the importance of the travel to China and subsequent sojourn there for the medieval Sŏn
monks of Silla.
As far as the trip to China itself goes—as recorded in the formal accounts—
we may break it down into the following components:
•
•
•
•
•
•
3
The Korean monk yearns to go to China to further his studies of Buddhism.
The journey—usually by sea—on a diplomatic or merchant vessel (in some
cases the journey is only realized after certain obstacles—such as parents’
objections or problems with authorities—have been overcome).
Meeting with a Chinese master of Chan (in some cases presaged by visits to
holy sites).
Receiving the seal of approval (sometimes on the spot, sometimes after
years of training, which could also involve full ordination as a monk).
Visits to other masters of Chan and pilgrimage to holy places (in some cases
including extended periods in seclusion).
Return to Korea and embarking on a local career as a master of Sŏn.
Meeting the Master and Associated Cultural Issues
It is not the place here to enter into a lengthy presentation or discussion of
the various surviving encounter dialogues between Chinese Chan masters and
their Korean followers. What I will do, however, is to focus on a few representative cases which highlight cultural issues, i.e. those which play directly on
perceived differences between Chinese and Korean culture, how they manifest in the accounts and dialogues, and how they were utilized in the formal
Korean accounts of said encounters. The reason for this is that the manner in
which they were conceptualized and applied to local discourses of power and
self-presentation reveals something interesting about the parameters in the
cultural transmission of Chan/Sŏn.
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When it comes to eliciting praise from his Chinese peers, Toŭi 道義
(d. 825),12 the founder of the Mt. Kaiji School 迦智山門13 of early Sŏn, stands
out among the many Korean Sŏn monks who studied in China. The account
we find in the ZTJ14 is especially noteworthy for its penchant for underscoring the master’s high spiritual standard, and the degree of respect he commanded from his Chinese Chan teachers. The account reads:
He left home and received the dharma-name Myŏngjŏk together with
the Buddhist commandments.15 In 784 CE he went with the envoys Han
Ch’an (n.d.) and Kim Yanggong (n.d.) across the sea to Tang.16 He forthwith proceeded to [Mt. Wu]tai17 to pray to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva. [On the
mountain] he heard the sound of a holy bell ringing in the air and saw
divine birds sport in the air. In Baotan Temple 寶壇寺18 in Guangfu 廣府19
he received the complete ordination. Following this he went to Caoqi.20
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
In many ways the image of this monk as conveyed by the Korean Sŏn tradition makes
him into the exemplary pilgrim-monk and trailblazer connecting Korean Buddhism with
Southern Chan. For his position as the founder of the Hŭiyang School see CKS I, pp. 62–63.
Early Korean Sŏn Buddhism has traditionally been presented as having been constituted by the so-called ‘Nine Mountain Schools’ (Kusan Sŏnmun 九山禪門), a designation which, as far as we can tell, did not come about until well into the Koryŏ dynasty
(918–1392). In reality there were at least twelve separate lineages during the Unified Silla
(668–935), of which some were relatively small, being little more than a single string lineage of transmission, while others were schools (chong 宗) in the proper, institutional
sense of the word. For a study of this tradition, see Sørensen 1987.
ZTJ: 317b–318a. There are strong indications that the version of the ZTJ that has come
down to us today was either compiled in Korea or at the very least was re-edited there. For
a discussion of the issues surrounding the ZTJ’s history, see the lengthy, second appendix
in Jorgensen 2005: 729–752.
This indicates his novice or śrāmaṇera ordination, not the taking of the full vows of a
bhikṣu.
During the Silla period it was a common practice for monks to accompany diplomatic
missions going to Tang. According to Ennin’s diary the same held true for the monks from
Heian Japan. Sinhaeng is the first Sŏn monk, whom we know went to China together with
a diplomatic mission. See CKS I, p. 114.
The text only reads tai 臺 (i.e. platform); however, in light of the fact that Toŭi’s purpose
to go there was to pray to the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, we must conclude that the mountain
in question is Mt. Wutai in northern Shanxi province.
This is the same temple that Huineng was ordained in according to the tradition. It still
stands within the center of modern Guangzhou, but is now called Guangxiao Temple. See
Duan 1997: 506–512.
I.e. modern Guangzhou in Guangdong province.
Caoqi here means Baolin Temple in Caoqi, the monastery of Huineng, Sixth Patriarch of
Southern Chan.
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When he went to pay his respects, the doors of the Patriarch’s hall opened
of themselves, and when he had prostrated three times and gone out of
the doors, they closed after him.
Later he went to Kaiyuan Temple 開元寺 in Hongzhou 洪州 and immediately completed (?) [his training] with Xitang Zhizang, the great
master. Toŭi greatly moved the Master with his visit. Elucidating the
doubts and untying the knots, the Great Master likened him to finding a
piece of beautiful jade among pebbles, or finding in a clam a true pearl.
Speaking about him, he said: “To whom but this man should I transmit the dharma?” He then gave him the name Daoyi 道義 (i.e. Toŭi).
Following this he became a wandering monk and went to Mt. Baizhang
百丈山 to follow master Huaihai, who like Master Xitang expressed his
admiration of him saying: “All the Jiangxi Chan lines [of transmission]
go with this Korean monk!” [The above] tallies with the text of the stele
inscription.21
This account has virtually all the primary elements concerning the transference of spiritual authority and formal recognition of the spiritual zeal of the
Korean Sŏn adherents journeying to Tang China. It is hardly a coincidence that
we find this sort of praise and appreciation extended to one of the founding fathers of Korean Sŏn Buddhism. After all, the section on Toŭi in the ZTJ openly
states that the text was largely based on his (now lost) memorial stele, which
we must assume consisted of one long praise in which his Korean background
was particularly stressed.
There are also cases in which a Korean monk was already part of an established Sŏn lineage in Silla, but still felt the need to go to China to seek further instructions in the practice of Chan. One such case concerns Ch’amyu
Togwang 璨幽道光 (869–958),22 a leading disciple of Simhǔi 審希 (855–923),
a second generation master of the Pongnim School 福林山門.23 Evidently,
Togwang was not satisfied with the training he had received under his
teacher, and cherished the desire to go to China to further his Chan studies.
In 892 he set sail for Tang, and once he had arrived there, immediately set
out on a pilgrimage which was to take him to several of the important Chan
21
22
23
ZTJ: 317b–328a.
Stele inscription in CKS, Vol. I: 207–215.
Stele inscription in CKS, Vol. I: 97–101.
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centers of the time. Finally arriving in Tongcheng county in Shuzhou 舒州,24 he
met the Chan master Touzi Datong 投子大同 (845–914),25 who was to become
his new master. Master Touzi was a disciple of Wuxue (n.d.),26 a second generation follower of Shitou in the Qingyuan lineage of Southern Chan. The text of
Ch’amyu’s memorial stele records the dialogues which took place between the
two at their first and last meetings:
When he (i.e. Touzi) saw the great master (i.e. Ch’amyu) he said: “Among
those who have come from Korea and who seek to study what is taught
here in China, it is only with you that one can talk about the Way!” When
hearing this, the great master was enlightened to the true Buddha in the
body. Why should it only be that the true teaching consists of receiving the secret transmission from one’s kalyāṇamitra through the silent
answer of pure names and nothing else?27
According to this passage, Ch’amyu was instantly enlightened just by meeting
with Touzi and hearing his praise. Although cases like this are not unknown in
the history of Chan, it is nevertheless unusual in the traditional accounts that a
monk is awakened in this way. Possibly a mundap took place between the two,
but all the text of the stele mentions is the above exchange. As in many other
cases, the intent of the stele inscription was evidently to show that Ch’amyu
already was a master of Sŏn before arriving at Touzi’s place. This is further
borne out in the following:
When the great master was about to leave, he came to say goodbye [to
Touzi]. The master then addressed him saying: “There is neither departing nor arriving!” The Great Master answered: “Although it may well be
that neither leaving nor arrival are necessary,28 there should not be any
24
25
26
27
28
This is present-day Shucheng, some fifty kilometres southwest of Lake Chao in the province of Anhui.
Cf. ZGDJ: 201b. Biography in ZTJ: 111a–112b; and T.51.2076: 319a–320b. This work does not
mention any Korean disciples of this Chan master.
Biography in ZTJ: 96b–97a; and T.51.2076; 313c.
CKS I: 209.
The meaning is that in the realm of the Absolute, i.e. in the Way, there is no coming or
going. Everything is from the very beginning in the state of suchness (Kor. chinnyo 真如).
Touzi’s statement is an expression of absolute truth or essence (Kor. ch’e 體).
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delay!”29 The Master (i.e. Touzi) said: “Since I have already verified the
Mind Transmission, why should we bother about words!”30
Staying in China for altogether thirty years, Ch’amyu returned to Silla in 921 CE
after having visited the temples of many Chan masters. However, no details are
given in the epitaph on his subsequent experiences in China after joining the
community of Touzi. Clearly the the Touzi connection was considered most
important.
4
The Importance of Holy Sites in Establishing Identity
The significances of pilgrimage and by extension religious geography are also
important to address in relation to the activities of the Korean Sŏn monks
journeying to Tang (see table 9.2.). Having received confirmation of spiritual
attainment and thereby been recognized as a worthy vessel for transmission
by the Chinese master(s), the Sŏn monk would then leave his master’s temple,
sometimes after an extended stay. The subsequent journey would take him on
a combined spiritual journey to interview other masters as well to visit important sites associated with Buddhism as such and some specifically related
to the history of Chan/Sŏn. Primary goals were temples such as Shaolin 少
林, associated with Bodhidharma (d. ca. 530), and Caoqi 曹溪, the monastery
where Huineng lived and died.31 Other holy sites associated with the history
of Chan Buddhism, even entire areas or regions, could be desired destinations
for the Korean Sŏn monks such as the area around Hongzhou in modern Jiangxi,
the home of Mazu’s Kaiyuan Temple, or the region to the north of Chengdu
(Yizhou 益州), where the Korean monk Musang 無相, also known as Ven. Kim
金和尚 (684–762),32 as well as his Chinese successor Wuzhu 無住 (714–774),
had their bases.33 However, the average Sŏn pilgrim was in many cases not
29
30
31
32
33
That is, although everything is already in the state of suchness, things still operate on
the relative level. Hence the activity of the Bodhisattva, who is—despite having already
transcended relativity—nevertheless forced to operate in the world of cause and effect.
Ch’amyu’s statement may therefore be understood as an expression of the relative truth
or function (Kor. yong 用).
CKS I: 209.
For a thorough study of Huineng and the complex of myths surrounding him, see
Jorgensen 2005.
Biographical entry in the Lidai fabao ji 歷代法寶記 (Record of the Historical Transmission
of the Dharma Treasure); cf. T.51.2075: 184c–85b. See also Adamek 2007: 204–213, 335–339.
The life and times of Wuzhu are eloquently covered in Adamek 2007: 204–213, 343–352.
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satisfied with visiting sites connected with the history of Chan Buddhism
alone. The sources indicate that the lure of holy places common to Buddhism
beyond sectarian concerns, such as Mt. Wutai 五臺山, the abode of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, appears to have been equally captivating to the Korean pilgrim
monks, as it was also to Ennin, and there are several accounts of Korean monks
visiting that mountain.34 Like other pilgrims to this famous site, the visit appears to have been undertaken in the hope of having a vision of Mañjuśrī on
one of the five summits of the mountain. From the account of Toŭi, whom we
have already encountered, it is recorded that he also visited Mt. Wutai prior to
seeking out his teacher. Although not recorded as having met the Bodhisattva
in person, Toŭi is nevertheless credited with having experienced the manifestation of auspicious signs while on the mountain—all testimony to his saintly
qualities as well as the numinous power of the place.
A visit to Mt. Wutai is also recorded in the memorial stele of the monk
Haengjŏk 行寂 (832–915),35 a second generation Sŏn master of the Mt. Sagul
闍崛山 lineage. In the account of his pilgrimage to holy sites China we read the
following:
[…] Later he reached Mt. Wutai where he lodged at Huayan Temple
花嚴寺. Seeking a response from the Great Holy One Mañjuśrī, he first
ascended the Central Peak 中臺. Suddenly he encountered a divine person (shenren 神人), whose hair and eyebrows were all white. Accordingly
he (i.e. Haengjŏk) bowed his head, prostrating in worship while beseeching him for his grace. Addressing the Great Master (i.e. Haengjŏk)
the other said: “It is not easy to come [here] from afar. Very good, son
of the Buddha! Do not dwell in this place, but make haste to go south.”
Realizing [that he had met Mañjuśrī in disguise] from the five-coloured
frost [on the ground], he then knew that he had certainly been showered by Dharma Rain.36
34
35
36
Accounts of famous monks meeting Mañjuśrī manifesting as a boy or an old man abound
in Chinese Buddhist literature, and may be considered an enduring stereotype in the narrative tradition of this Bodhisattva, the most important undoubtedly being that of Indian
pilgrim-monk Buddhapālita, who encounters the Bodhisattva in the form of an old man.
A developed version of this story can be found in the Liao compilation, Sanbao ganying
yaolü lu 三寶感應要略錄 (Abbreviated Record of the Three Jewels Moved to Response).
Cf. T.51.2084: 826a–856c. For a presentation of later accounts of Buddhist miracles at
Mt. Wutai (and elsewhere), see Berger 2001: 145–169.
For the text of his stele inscription, see CKS, vol. 1, pp. 181–186.
CKS: 183.
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The ‘divine person’ in the account is of course meant to indicate that it was
a manifestation of Mañjuśrī whom Haengjŏk had met. Moreover, the bodhisattva also graced him with a prediction, urging him to journey south in order
to fulfill his spiritual destiny.
These accounts of divine or miraculous apparitions at celebrated pilgrim
sites, as we have seen above, constitute further signs, both symbolic as well
as concretely, that the monks in question were spiritually worthy as well as
extraordinary themselves. The conveyance of these markers of distinction, despite their function as salient literary tropes, actually serves as an important
element in the process of building up the spiritual pedigree of the Korean Sŏn
monks under discussion. Together with the other fantastic occurrences in the
formal accounts of their lives, including miraculous birth, extraordinary intelligence, etc. they underline the divine numinosity associated with prodigious
persons.
5
The Case of Pŏmil
In order for this account not to descend into pure descriptive narration, let
us stop for a short while to reflect on an illustrative case concerning the Sŏn
master Pŏmil 梵日 (810–889), also known as Ven. T’onghyo 通曉, the founder
of the Mt. Sagul Line, which makes him a leading figure in the nascent Korean
Sŏn Buddhist tradition.37 The account of this master is particularly important
from the point of view of the journey to Tang he undertook, as it is both highly
detailed and informative. As Pŏmil’s stele inscription is no longer extant, the
main source on his life and teaching is the lengthy biographical entry found in
the Zutang ji,38 together with an additional note in the celebrated Chan history
from the early Northern Song, the Jingde chuandeng lu.39 Because of the ZTJ’s
special importance for our understanding of what the spiritual journey and
37
38
39
For a study of the early Korean Sŏn tradition of the Silla, see Sørensen 1987.
For the reprint of the original Korean version from the 13th century, see Zutang ji
(Sodōshu), ed. Yanagida 1974. There are strong indications that the version of the ZTJ that
has come down to us today was either compiled in Korea or at the very least was re-edited
there. For a discussion of the issues surrounding the ZTJ’s history, see the lengthy, second
appendix in Jorgensen 2005: 729–752.
T.51.2076: 273b. His name is here given as ‘P’ŭmil 品日.’ Although this source does not
provide any information on Pŏmil’s life per se, it does corroborate the information on his
lineage as found in the fifty years earlier ZTJ.
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religious identify meant to the early Sŏn monks, this account merits our attention. Below follows a full translation of the section in question:
In the middle of the Taihe 太和 era (i.e. 827–835 CE) he (i.e. Pŏmil)
wished to travel to China, and [accordingly] wrote to the royal prince
Kim Ŭich’ong 金義宗 (n.d.), making his wish known. The prince approved
of his intentions and allowed him to accompany him on his ship bound
for Tang. Because of previous karmic relations he set out on a journey
throughout the realm [as soon as he had arrived] in search of a spiritual
advisor. [Eventually] he met Yan’guan Ji’an 鹽官齊安 (750?–842).40
The first encounter between master and disciple has been transmitted in the
typical fashion of a wenda/mundap encounter of the type encountered previously. It reads as follows:
The Great Master (i.e. Ji’an) said: “Where do you come from?” He (i.e.
Pŏmil) answered saying: “I come from Korea (lit. Haedong 海東).” The
great master pressed him further saying: “Did you come by sea or over
land (lit. by road)?” He answered: “I did not come either way!” [Ji’an said:]
“If you did not come either way, then how did you manage to arrive here?”
[Pŏmil] answered: “The sun and the moon go from east to west. What
could possibly stand in their way?” The great master said: “You surely
are a bodhisattva from Silla!” [Then] Pŏmil asked: “How does one attain
Buddhahood?” The great master laughingly said: “The Way can not be
attained through cultivation! Only in this manner will one avoid defiling
it! One should not entertain ideas about buddhas or bodhisattvas, for the
ordinary mind is the Way!” When Pŏmil heard these words, he had a great
enlightenment. [Subsequently] he waited upon Ji’an for six years.41
In this exchange Pŏmil’s status as a Korean is at the heart of the dialogue between master and disciple, in effect the ‘theme’ or pivot around which the entire exchange evolves. Whether a true recording of a wenda that took place or
one constructed for sect-political purposes is irrelevant. No one can misunderstand the significance or importance placed on the issue of ethnicity in regard
to the image presented by the Korean Sŏn of its illustrious sons, and one cannot accuse the Korean monks of suffering from complexes of inferiority.
40
41
Cf. ZGDJ, p. 108cd. Biographical entry in ZTJ: 283b–284a. See also T.50.2061: 776c.
ZTJ: 319b–320a.
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Having attained enlightenment and repaid his teacher’s kindness, Pŏmil
set out on the customary spiritual journey to visit other masters of Chan in
order to deepen his own experience. This phase in Pŏmil’s life is represented
by an encounter with Yaoshan Weiyan 藥山惟儼 (745–828),42 a direct dharma
descendant of the famous master Shitou 石頭 (700–790), considered to be a
second-generation descendant of Huineng. In other words Pŏmil went directly
to another important master in a mainline transmission of Southern Chan.
The passage reads:
Yaoshan asked: “Where do you come from?” The Master (i.e. Pŏmil) answered: “I come from Jiangxi!” Yaoshan said: “For what reason have you
come?” The master said: “I have come to meet you!” Yaoshan said: “There
is no road leading to this house, so how did the Venerable Sir manage to
come here?” The Master said: “If you go one step further, then I shall not
be able to see you!” Yaoshan said: “Wonderful, wonderful! The cold wind
outside freezes the man to death.43 Wanting to visit from distant places
you have come here to the Emperor’s land.”44
Apart from serving as yet another praise of Pŏmil’s outstanding qualities, and
thereby underscoring the Korean need for recognition and approval vis-á-vis
an inheritor of mainstream Chinese Chan Buddhism, this interview—despite
its profound nature—is otherwise a classical example of standard Chan
Buddhist rhetoric found in similar encounter dialogues. The last sentence of
the exchange serves of course to underline Pŏmil’s Korean origin.
Having met Yaoshan and received his approval, Pŏmil’s travels in China
were roughly interrupted by the outbreak of the Huichang Suppression of
Buddhism which began in earnest in 844 CE.45 Due to the precarious situation he was forced to hide in the mountains of Shaanxi for almost two years,
where he endured deprivations and hunger. Finally the worst effects of the
persecution eased in 846 CE and accordingly Pŏmil was able to resume his
travels, this time with the Sixth Patriarch Huineng’s temple in Southern
China as his goal:
42
43
44
45
Cf. ZGDJ: 22d–23a. Biographical entry in the ZTJ: 84b–92b. This entry features another
short exchange between Yaoshan and an unidentified Korean monk; perhaps Pŏmil?
A phrase indicating Yaoshan’s formal admission of defeat.
ZTJ: 320a.
Pŏmil’s experiences during this time are described in the ZTJ: 320b.
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[Next] he vowed to proceed [on a pilgrimage] to Shaozhou 韶州 to worship the [Sixth] Patriarch’s stūpa. Not being more than one thousand
li distant, he eventually reached Caoqi. [When he arrived] a fragrant
cloud suddenly rose, curling around the stūpa, and in front of the temple a wonderful crane suddenly settled on the top of it and crowed. The
crowd in the temple was surprised and said to each other: “A good omen
such as this has certainly not occurred [here] before. It must be a sign
indicating that a master of Chan has arrived.”
After this, Pŏmil decided to return to his home country to spread the
Buddha-dharma. On the eight month of the 6th year of Huichang (i.e.
846 CE) he returned across the sea back to Silla.46
Here in this last section of the account of Pŏmil’s sojourn in Tang China, we may
notice two significant features, both of which pertain to the issues of spiritual
legitimation and identity. The visit to Caoqi with its burial stūpa of Huineng
is in itself an event which cements the Korean monk’s formal connection to
Southern Chan as it effectively reads as a visit to the tomb of one’s mainline
ancestor. In other words it establishes his formal association with orthodoxy
as transmitted by the mainstream Southern Chan Buddhist tradition. Secondly,
the miracles said to take place in connection with his arrival at Caoqi underscore Pŏmil’s status as an enlightened master within that tradition.
6
Conclusion
As I have hoped to show here, the spiritual quests or pilgrimages to Tang China
undertaken by Korean Sŏn monks during the eighth to ninth centuries (and
later) were not just displays of Buddhist piety and the wish to learn new forms
of Buddhism. Clearly these journeys had very calculated purposes and took the
form of scheduled travel programs for very specific reasons. Certainly much
was at stake for the monks who undertook these travels. Spiritual sanction
involving official recognition from a master of an important lineage of transmission, establishing oneself as a member of such lineage—in other words,
becoming a ‘lineage-holder’ with the vested authority to transmit the inherited teaching. While these qualities were significant for all monks of relevance
within Chan Buddhism, they were especially important for the Korean Sŏn
monks, because many of them aspired to transplant Chinese Chan to Korean
46
ZTJ, fasc.17: 320b.
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soil, undoubtedly with the underlying hope of receiving formal approval from
the Silla court.
In addition to achieving the goals just outlined, these journeys also inform
us of the importance of spiritual identity, something which was of course
important to all formations of Buddhism, as well as to followers of other religions, but which nevertheless held special significance for foreign monks
seeking to inherit a special form of Buddhism in China and to subsequently
transmit it to and establish it in their own countries. When seen from this
perspective, the religious identity of a given pilgrim monk may therefore be
understood as having three primary features, all equally important: a) first of
all his identity as a Buddhist (‘trans-cultural identity’), b) as a follower and inheritor of a special form of Buddhism (sectarian identity), and c) as a person
with special cultural roots (cultural identity). In regard to the latter point, it
is interesting that there are number of cases where Korean Sŏn monks on pilgrimage in China never returned to Silla, but instead chose to stay for various
reasons. In some cases they are known to have become masters of their own
Chinese communities, thereby completely transcending the cultural boundaries between China and Korea.
Lastly, and perhaps most significantly, the evident closeness, the existence
of ‘family bonds’ which can be seen to have persisted between the Korean pilgrim monks and their Chinese masters, indicate something very interesting
about East Asian Buddhism during the medieval period—something which
may not have been particular to Chan/Sŏn Buddhism, although it certainly
found a very clear-cut expression there: that is, the presence of an evident
sense of trans-cultural communality and identity as Buddhists that persisted
over an extended period of time. As far as the sources allow us to see, the fact
that both Chinese and Korean monks shared the same spiritual tradition(s),
which would also have included Buddhist monks from Heian Japan, meant
that cultural and political boundaries in the majority of cases were of little
or no significance to the religious exchanges that took place. Of course, the
fact that written Chinese was a common language to all greatly facilitated
communication and the transfer of teachings. However, as we have seen here,
entire institutions including their histories, modes of teaching, scriptures—
in short all their formal structures—were being transferred, meaning that a
given Buddhist teaching and its actualization were being transplanted to a new
culture with all its distinct parameters. All this was achieved through extended travels between points of common interest, loci invested with power and
significance recognized and revered by all members of a given movement or
school of thought.
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7
Appendix
Table 9.1
Sŏn monk’s name
Period of travel
Teacher(s)
Chinese
Hyeso 慧昭
(774–850)
Toŭi 道義
(d. 825)
Hyech’ŏl 慧徹
(785–861)
Hyŏnuk 玄昱
(787–)
Toyŭn 道允
(797–868)
Muyŏm 無粱
(799–888)
804–830
Shenjian 神鑒
(d. 844)
Mazu 馬祖 Mt. Chiri
Ch’ejing 體澄
(804–880)
Pŏmil 梵日
(810–889)
Haengjŏk 行寂
(832–915)
Yŏŏm 麗嚴
(862–930)
Kyŏngbo 慶甫
(868–948)
Ch’amyu 璨幽
(869–958)
Kŭngyang 兢讓
(878–956)
Hyŏnyŏng 玄影
(879–941)
837–c. 841
784–c. 810
Mountain
school 山門
智異山
Mazu
Mt. Kaiji
迦智山
814–839
824–839
825–847
?–845
c. 830–846
870–885
c. 890–902
891–921
892–921
900–c. 925
903–924
Xitang 西堂
(735–814)
Huaiyun 懷惲
(754–815)
Puyuan 普願
(748–835)
Ruman 如滿 (n.d.)
and Baoche 寶徹
(n.d.)
Fatang 法堂
(752–839)
Ji’an 齊安
(750–842)
Shishuang 石霜
(807–888)
Daoying 道膺
(835–902)
Guangren 光仁
(837–909)
Datong 大同
(845–914)
Ven. Toyon 道緣和
尚 (n.d.)
Daoqian 道虔
(n.d.)
Mazu
Mt. Tongni
桐裡山
Mazu
Mt. Pongnim
鳳林寺
Mazu
Mt. Saja
Mazu
Mt. Sŏngju
獅子山
聖住山
Mazu
Mazu
Mt. Kaiji
Mt. Sagul
闍崛山
Shitou 石頭 Mt. Sagul
Caodong
Mt. Sŏngju
曹洞
Caodong
Mt. Tongni
Shitou
Mt. Pongnim
Shitou
Mt. Hŭiyang
曦陽山
Shitou
Mt. Sŏngju
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Table 9.2
Sŏn monk’s name
Period of travel
Sites for pilgrimage
Hyeso (774–850)
804–830
Shaolin Temple 少林寺, Mt. Zhongnan 終
Toŭi (d. 825)
784–c. 810
Hyech’ŏl (785–861)
814–839
Pŏmil (810–889)
Haengjŏk (832–)
c. 830–846
870–885
Kŭngyang (878–956)
900–c. 925
南山
Kaiyuan Temple 開元寺 in Hongzhou 洪州,
Caoqi 曹溪.
Fuxia Temple 浮沙寺 (where a copy of the
tripiṭaka was kept), Mt. Tiantai 天台山,
Guoqing Temple 國情寺.
Mt. Wutai 五臺山, Caoqi 曹溪
Mt. Wutai, Jingzhong Temple in Yizhou 益州
(Musang’s old temple), Caoqi.
Mt. Wutai, Chan historical sites
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Chapter 10
The Rebirth Legend of Prince Shōtoku: Buddhist
Networks in Ninth Century China and Japan
Pei-ying Lin
1
Introduction: Lineage and Authority
Shōtoku Taishi’s 聖徳太子 reputation as the earliest major figure associated
with Buddhism in Japan makes him a starting point for historical discussions
on Japanese Buddhism, as well as on Sino-Japanese cultural interaction.1 His
reincarnation story is just one element in the extensive cult centred on this
figure. In particular, the current paper focuses on the belief that he was the
reincarnation of Nanyue Huisi (J. Nangaku Eshi) 南岳慧思 (515–577), who was
the master of Tiantai Zhiyi 智顗 (538–597), the alleged founder of the Tiantai
School. Hence, we will be shedding light, without regard to later sectarian
boundaries, on the connections between the Japanese Prince and the legend
cycles of the Chinese Tiantai patriarch Huisi.2 This reincarnation story has
been conspicuously put to use by Tendai followers in Japan from the eighth
1 Discussions on this figure, especially in Japanese scholarship, have mainly centred on his historicity. For instance, Ōyama Seiichi大山誠一 has argued that the very existence of Shōtoku
Taishi as a historical figure was fabricated (Ōyama 2003). More recent discussions on the
historicity and his “mirror-image” (kyōzō 鏡像) can be found in the special volume of Bukkyō
shigaku kenkyū 仏教史学研究 50.1 (2007) resulting from a symposium; see in particular
Ishii’s article (Ishii 2007: 77–91). Ishii later published another paper on the state of the art
of studies on Shōtoku Taishi based on his talk in Osaka, 2011 (translated by Jamie Hubbard,
2015). Discussions about other Japanese Buddhist schools may also begin from Shōtoku Taishi
(see for example Rhodes 2006: 1–22, especially the literature review in pp. 1–8). Furthermore,
for updated studies on Buddhism under the patronage of Shōtoku Taishi, see Sone 2007,
Bowring 2005: 20–22, Oom 2009, McCallum 2009, Kamstra 1967 and Piggot 1997; regarding
the story of the prince’s encounter with a beggar in Kataoka, see Nishimura 1985. For a study
of the complicated process of the construction of the Shōtoku Taishi legend in relation to
Korean immigrants, see Como 2008. For the continuing development of the cult during the
13th century, see Quinter 2014; for its extended development in the context of the women’s
circles, see Meeks 2007.
2 According to Huisi’s biography in Daoxuan’s 道宣 (596–667) Xu Gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳
(Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks), he was at first inspired by the Zuimiao shengding
jing 最妙勝定經 (Sūtra of the Most Wonderful Meditation), and then joined the group led by
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Lin
century onwards, and yet it illuminates the understated connection between
this prince and Chan/Zen Buddhism.
Amongst the texts that have come down to us, it is rather interesting that the
authors of these texts, including both Japanese and Chinese ones, had subtle
but sturdy connections between each other. These connections, when aligned
with the historical context, can be seen to manifest a continuing and developing agenda on the part of Buddhist monks, especially in connection with
lineage invention. In the reincarnation legend, since a trans-historical connection is made between two major figures, the reincarnation connection is in a
way equivalent to a lineage. The purpose of the construction of the reincarnation is to provide legitimacy and authority in Buddhist transmission, which is
otherwise difficult to receive. For this reason, we will first look into the narratives to find out their underlying logic and the mechanism of lineage invention. The mechanism of lineage making includes various methods; the most
straightforward one is the master–disciple transmission narrated in Buddhist
hagiographies. With such texts as a basis, the reincarnation stories centred on
Shōtoku Taishi were incorporated into a lineage making process. The lineage
was centred on the Chinese patriarch Huisi more than the Japanese Prince, because the figure of Huisi could be presented as a foreign patriarch. A patriarch
from across the sea in China was necessary in this process because of the concept of the movement of the Dharma, shifting from west to east. What I argue
in this paper is that it illustrates a logic similar to the need for the promotion
of the Indian Patriarch Bodhidharma (c. 530) in China. In this aspect alone, the
invention of this legend shared much ground with lineage invention in eighth
century China, in which the importance of Bodhidharma increased within the
centre–periphery framework of the Buddhist worldview.
The motif of the foreignness of patriarchs has at least one root in SinoIndian relations. Chinese Buddhists suffered from a “borderland complex” towards India in the context of the centre–periphery framework.3 For instance,
Daoxuan (596–667), as a leading Chinese monk of his time, was puzzling about
whether the Buddhist centre should be China or India.4 However, Chinese clergy seem to have overcome their feeling of uneasiness and their state of dilemma during the seventh to eighth centuries (Sen 2003: 11–12). The Tang period
saw a straightforward declaration of China as the centre of the Buddhist world.
Huiwen 慧文 in Northern Qi (T.50. 2060: 563c). For a study of Huisi’s life, see Magnin 1979. On
Huisi’s image and works, see Stevenson and Kanno 2006: 1–44.
3 The concept of a “borderland complex” was proposed by Antonino Forte in the 1980s and
received much attention by Jinhua Chen (2010).
4 Cf. Sen 2003: 9.
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In examining the ways in which the prophecies of the demise of Buddhist doctrines went through modifications in China and were employed to legitimise
the usurpation of Empress Wu Zetian, Tansen Sen (2003: 87) concludes:
While the demise of Buddhism in India seemed apparent, in China the
doctrine had gained a strong foothold and thrived under rulers such as
Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty, Emperor Wen of the Sui dynasty, and
Wu Zetian in the seventh century. […] Within the context of the blossoming of Buddhism in China, the prophecies of the imminent decline of the
doctrine were also a concern for the Chinese clergy. At the same time,
however, they found an opportunity to link the prophecies to the declining state of the doctrine in India and argue for its renaissance in China.
This process of appropriation and reinvention of theories of the Buddhist centre developed first in China and then in Japan, and is a continuous theme in
the reincarnation story. During this period, characterised by large-scale cultural exchange, the sense of legitimacy of Japanese Buddhists was intensified by
the cultural and diplomatic interactions between China and Japan. According
to Bruce Batten, a sense of Japanese cultural identity emerged among the central and regional elites around 700 AD.5 Thus the general political environment at the international level dominated the underlying logic of the legend
of Shōtoku Taishi and Huisi, just as it had done, with a similar rationale,
in the case of the stories of Bodhidharma in China during the seventh to
eighth centuries. In this respect, the reincarnation story displays the intrigue
of Sino-Japanese relations within the Buddhist tradition. In the early eighth
century, Japanese monks were preoccupied with their own position in relation to the Buddhist “motherland” of either China or India, which were to
some extent competing foci of prestige.
The construction of lineage and authority in the creation of tradition relied on the textuality of Buddhist tradition in general.6 I argue here that the
mechanism for the invention of this particular reincarnation story has its origin in the early Chan tradition. Shōtoku Taishi’s image as a culture hero served
to redefine Japanese Buddhist traditions, and as a result, prominent monks
such as Dōji 道慈 (?–774), Jianzhen 鑑真 (688–763) and Saichō 最澄 (767–822)
5 Batten 2003: 91. Como (2008: 9) basically follows Batten’s argument. In another article, Batten
argues that the external threat from Tang China in the seventh century was a direct cause of
the emergence of the Ritsuryō state. See Batten 1986: 93–112.
6 Even the narrative of Nihon shoki drew on Buddhist sources. See Como 2008: 17.
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all had to claim a connection with Shōtoku Taishi.7 Since precisely analogous
things happened to the images of both Huisi and Shōtoku Taishi in China and
Japan, we are talking about a process which functioned over a wide geographical and chronological range. The relations between transformation and continuity during the process of acculturation of Buddhism led to a more balanced
view.8 The legends associated with Shōtoku Taishi had a stronger potency in
Japan than in China, but it is argued here that their conception of lineage
was very definitely in accordance with the early Chan traditions.9 Japanese
writers adopted innovative ways to supersede or even overthrow the central
position of China, but they took up the Chinese conception of lineage and
authority in Buddhist transmission. Continuity may be seen in the motif of
the domestication or acculturation of Buddhism during the eighth and ninth
centuries across East Asia. Politics within Buddhism dominated the process
of legend invention, whereas, at the same time, the new discourse may have
altered or reshaped the self-definition of the Tendai sect from Saichō onwards.
Japanese monks’ self-definition relates to how they located themselves within
the broader context of East Asian Buddhism; their claims in the reincarnation
legend reveal the authors’ motives to have been to rearrange Sino-Japanese
relationships through the incorporation of Tiantai and Chan patriarchs—a
progress which began in China itself.
Finally, it should be clearly understood that the presentation provided here
is based on a cross-sectarian approach to Buddhist history. The intention is to
bring out a particular genealogy which transcends spatial limits and sectarian
boundaries. It is widely accepted that the Buddhist sectarian history of China
and Japan, largely boosted by hagiographical writing and lineage making,
began from around the seventh century.10 Yet the sectarian identity of medieval
Buddhists, such as the authors of the stories of Shōtoku Taishi, demands better definition.11 The ideological use of the reincarnation story is an important
7
8
9
10
11
For Dōji’s connection with the legend, with a brief mention of Saichō, see Como 2008,
Chapter 7.
Even though in most cases it is helpful to be familiar with the sectarian roots in China
for understanding the transplantation of Buddhism to Japan, it is not always appropriate
to regard Japanese Buddhists as mere imitators and receivers of their Chinese fellows.
Jinhua Chen’s (2008) study on the Japanese Tendai sect argues that the Japanese Tendai
Esoteric literature could be the origin of some Tiantai scriptures on the Chinese side.
For an exquisite study on the formation of transmission legacy in early Chan Buddhism,
see Adamek 2007, Chapter Two. See also Morrison 2010, Introductory Chapter.
See Chen 1999.
James Robson’s (2009) approach overcomes sectarian limitations in his research on the
mountain where Huisi dwelled.
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source for disclosing the agendas of medieval Buddhist monks in China and
Japan, and these agendas went beyond any sectarian framework. After a brief
account of the plot of the reincarnation story of Shōtoku Taishi itself, the main
part of the paper below turns to an analysis of the authors and their mutual
relationships. The conclusion will bring out the connections between the authors taking part in the development of the legend, and the continuing agendas
of the Chinese and Japanese authors selected will thereby become intelligible.
2
The Reincarnation Story
Shōtoku Taishi, also known as Prince Umayado 厩戸皇子, was the earliest Japanese ruler who provided major patronage for Buddhism introduced
from China. The official introduction of Buddhism started during the rule of
his father, Emperor Yōmei 用明 (r. 585–587), but the substantial introduction
of Buddhism, together with Confucianism and Chinese culture, was put forward by Shōtoku Taishi. According to the Nihon shoki 日本書紀 (Chronicles of
Japan), the introduction of Buddhism to Japan occurred first in the significant
year 552. However, the Nihon shoki account is now generally regarded to be a
later fabrication by someone writing during the early eighth century, possibly
by a Japanese monk in 720 (Hayami 1986: 18–19). According to several texts
written prior to the Nihon shoki, such as the Jōgū Shōtoku Taishi hōō teisetsu
上宮聖徳太子法王帝説 (Exposition of Dharma King Shōtoku of the Upper
Palace) and the Gangō-ji garan engi 元興寺伽藍縁起 (Origins of the Gangō-ji
Temple), it is now generally accepted that Buddhism was formally transmitted
to Japan in 538, or the seventh year of Kimmei. Even this, however, is a formal
date, and it is quite possible that continental immigrants to Japan had been
worshipping Buddhism privately before this year.12 The year 552 chosen by the
compiler of the Nihon shoki was ideologically significant because this year was
considered to mark the first year of the Latter Dharma (mappō) (Tamura 1959:
277–308). By locating the introduction of Buddhism in this year, the author
was in effect attempting to show the superiority of Japan over China.13 Japan
could provide the location for the continued transmission of Dharma even at
the time of mappō when its original light might be thought to be fading. It
paved the way for the beginning of the rhetoric of the ‘theory of eastward flow
[of Dharma]’ (tōryū setsu 東流說). This mobility of Dharma paved the way for
the possibility of the authority of Buddhism shifting. It built up the sense of
12
13
Tamura 1972: 53–86, especially p. 53.
Tamura 1963: 2–8, especially p. 6.
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legitimacy of Japanese Buddhists, drawing their model for legitimation from
China. Specifically, the legend of Shōtoku Taishi incorporated the main characteristics of lineage narratives that were current in China.
It is said that Shōtoku Taishi wrote commentaries to three important
Buddhist sūtras, namely the Śrīmālā-sūtra 勝鬘經, the Lotus Sūtra 法華經, and
the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra 維摩經. These commentaries are collectively
known in Japan as the Sangyō gisho 三経義疏. Taken as a group, the Śrīmālāsūtra (about Queen Śrīmālā) focuses on political monarchy, the Lotus Sūtra
is the foundation of the Tendai School and the Vimalakīrti represents the importance of lay Buddhists. Thus the combination of these three sūtras seems
to represent an attempt to solidify political authority in governing Buddhism.
However, beginning with Tsuda Sōkichi 津田左右吉 (1873–1961), scholars
have questioned the traditional authorship of the Sangyō gisho (Tsuda 1963:
134–137). Ogura Toyofumi argued that, with the growing Shōtoku cult in the
mid-700’s, these commentaries were attributed to Shōtoku Taishi by monks
such as Gyōshin 行信 (fl. 738) in order to increase the popularity of their own
temple, the Hōryū-ji (Ogura 1985: 144–167). Since he was such an important
figure in Buddhism, more and more mythical components were added to the
biographies of Shōtoku Taishi from the early eighth century onwards, and the
reincarnation story studied here is just a small part of this complex cult. In the
relevant accounts (to be listed in the next section), Huisi is described as being
reborn as Shōtoku Taishi, and admired for having the compassion to spread
Buddhism to a non-Buddhist land.
In the biography of Nanyue Huisi written by Daoxuan, Huisi is presented
as having knowledge of his former lives spent at Mount Nanyue (T.50. 2060:
562c21). It is noteworthy that in this regard, Huisi’s influence was regarded as
reaching non-Buddhists as well. Thus, Huisi’s past lives are mentioned in nonBuddhist texts. For example, in the Nanyue zongsheng ji 南嶽總勝集 (Record
of the Collected Highlights of Nanyue) by Chen Tianfu 陳田夫 (fl. mid-twelfth
century; T 2097), there is a mention of the “three-life stone” (sansheng shi
三生石) that is proof of Huisi’s previous lives.14 The narrative was meant to emphasise the power of meditation practice. Huisi’s supernatural power is further
emphasised by the author of Huisi’s Vows, in which it is stated that Huisi will
replace Maitreya as a future saviour of the world (T.46: 767c–788b). Hence the
image of Huisi is a very important theme in the Chinese notion of meditation
patriarchs. As Como (2008: 149–150) puts it:
14
For a survey of relevant documents concerning Huisi, see Wang Yong (1994: 144–115). See
Robson (2009).
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The legend of Shōtoku as the reincarnation of Hui-ssu [= Huisi] was far
more than a similar illustration of Shōtoku’s supernatural powers. Rather,
the legend built upon a long tradition of hagiography concerning Hui-ssu
in order to create an image of Shōtoku as a millennial savior. […] The
result was a legend in which Shōtoku the World Savior was shown in possession of Hui-ssu’s sūtra, ready to assist all sentient beings in search of
salvation.
The legend that Shōtoku Taishi was the reincarnation of Huisi seemed to be
widely accepted by Chinese and Japanese Buddhists, and it took effect in the
Sino-Japanese Buddhist transmission.15 However, there was obvious counterevidence to this legend, namely in the years of birth and death of these two
figures. Shōtoku Taishi was born in 573, three years earlier than Huisi’s death
in 577, as recorded in Daoxuan’s Xu Gaoseng zhuan. Considering the existence
of such contradictory evidence, it might seem curious that this story was still
widely accepted by medieval Buddhists; there must have been a strong motivation in making up and continuing to maintain the story. The use of this legend
is therefore extremely pertinent for understanding the propaganda positions
of the authors. Moreover, various additions were gradually made to the legend
as a result of these positions.
As to sources, the relevant texts may be listed as follows:
A
B
15
16
Nanyue Si chanshi famen zhuan 南岳思禪師法門傳 (Account of the
Dharma-Gate of Meditation Master Nanyue Huisi) by Du Fei 杜朏, probably written during 716–732. Now lost.16
Shichidaiki (Ch. Qidai ji) 七代記 (Story of Seven Lives) (Also known as the
Hiroshima Daihon Taishi den 廣島大本太子傳), compiled in 771. At
the end of this text, there are quotations from the lost Da Tang guo
Hengzhou Hengshan daochang Shi Huisi chanshi qidai ji 大唐國衡州衡
It is possible that this is partly due to the spread of this story from the eighth century
onwards, that Chinese monks were generally willing to transmit teachings to Japanese
monks (Groner 1984: 291). One example is Chinese Tiantai monks’ zealous welcome of the
visit of Enshū 圓修, a Tendai zazu (BZ 65: 207–208).
This title appears in Ennin’s catalogue, Jikaku Daishi zaitō sōshinroku (Ch. Cijue Dashi zai
Tang songjin lu) 慈覚大師在唐送進録, T.55. 2166: 1075b; 1077c. Some quotations survived in Saichō’s writings and in other texts listed below, eg. the Jōgū Taishi shūi ki 上宮太
子拾遺記, BZ 112: 249, 361.
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山道場釋慧思禪師七代記 (Story of the Seven Lives of Dhyāna Master Shi
C
D
E
F
G
17
18
19
20
21
22
Huisi of Mount Heng, Hengzhou, Great Tang).17
Dai Tō denkai shisō myōki daioshō Ganjin den 大唐伝戒師僧名記大和
上鑑真伝 (Biography of Great Master Jianzhen in a Collection of Names
for Vinaya Masters from the Great Tang; hereafter: Ganjin den) by Situo
(Jp. Shitaku) 思託 (722–809) and Fajin (Jp. Hōshin) 法進 (709–778).18
Tō daioshō tōseiden 唐大和上東征伝 (The Account of the Great Tang Master’s Eastward Conquest; hereafter: Tōseiden) by Aomi-no-Mabito Genkai
真人元開 (722–785) in 779.19
Jōgū Kōtaishi bosatsu den 上宮皇太子菩薩伝 (The Biography of the Prince
Bodhisattva; hereafter: Bosatsu den) by Situo during 786–794.20
Kenkairon 顕戒論 and the prefatory poem to the Nyu Sitennōji Shōtoku
Taishibyō Guden Hokkeshū 入四天王寺聖徳太子廟求伝法華宗 by
Saichō.21
Denjutsu isshin kaimon 伝述一心戒文 (Concerning the Essay on the One
Mind Precepts) by Kōjō 光定 (779–858) in 834.22
The Hiroshima University manuscript can be found conveniently in the Nara ibun
寧樂遺文, vol. 3: 893a10–894a5, along with other fragments in Shintei zōho kokusho
itsubun 新訂増補国書逸文 24: 497–498, 502–509. For various theories regarding whether it was originally a single text or three distinct texts copied together, see Oguchi 1979. For
English translation and a basic study on its textual history, see Borgen 2006. For research
on this text in relation to the Zen school, see Sueki 1997: 77–108, especially pp. 98–103. On
its authorship, see Barrett 2009. Based on two odd phrases, “below his epitaph” (beixia ti
碑下題) and “Emperor Li the Third Gentleman” (Li Sanlang di 李三郎帝), appearing in
the colophon, Barrett suggests that the Shichidaiki was fabricated by a Japanese author,
instead of being of Chinese origin as widely accepted. Taking Como’s (2008) study on the
role of Monk Dōji (?–744) into consideration, Barrett furthers his proposition that the
author is very likely to be Dōji or his Japanese fellows.
It is collected in the Shōtoku Taishi heishiden zōkanmon 聖徳太子平氏伝雜勘文 (hereafter: Zōkanmon), in BZ 112 (the volume of Shōtoku Taishi den sōsho): 227–228. Zōkanmon
is a collection of writings about the life of Shōtoku Taishi.
T.51. 2089: 988a. For French and English translations of this text, see Takakusu 1928, 1929;
Bingenheimer 2003 & 2004. For some analysis of the appearance of this biography, see
Andō 1960: 113–114.
See BZ 112: 1.
For the Kenkairon, see DZ 1, Eizan daishiden 叡山大師伝, the end of the seventh section
in Kenkairon fascicle 1; also see annotations in Andō and Sonoda 1991: 46. For the poem,
see DZ 3: 447.
For the story of Shōtoku Taishi and his encounter with Bodhidharma, see T.74. 2379:
653a–654c. See especially the mention of the quotation from the Datang guo Hengzhou
Hengshan daochang Shi Huisi chanshi qidai ji, ibid.: 653b23.
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H
I
309
Shōtoku Taishi denryaku 聖徳太子伝曆 (written during the tenth century); as the original text indicates “written by someone whose surname is
Hei” (Heishi sen 平氏撰), the authorship cannot be known.23
Jōgū Taishi shūi ki 上宮太子拾遺記 (A Record of Gleanings of Jōgū Shōtoku)
by Hōkū 法空 (c. 1314).24
According to Sueki Fumihiko (1997: 98–99), the origin of the legend probably
came from an indication that “Huisi was reborn in a place where there were
no Buddhist teachings yet”, as quoted from the lost text by Du Fei, which is
the earliest source for the legend. Judging from the dates of all the texts, Sueki
deduced that it is very likely that the story of Huisi’s seven lives had already
been widely known in Tang China before it was written down. Even so, some
Buddhists advocated Huisi’s story more than the others, so the question is as
to who would benefit from it.25 After Du Fei, there are different agendas on
the part of the various authors. The political implications of the story are discernible in an expanded version in a biography of Jianzhen, the Ganjin den
(C). The authors of the Ganjin den, namely Situo and Fajin, were Jianzhen’s
most influential disciples in Japan. In the Tōseiden, a relatively later edition
of Jianzhen’s biography, the reincarnation story also plays an important part.
Later on in Japan, it occurs in Tendai literature by Saichō and his disciples,
being mentioned in Saichō’s Kenkairon (F) and Kōjō’s Denjutsu isshin kaimon
(G). From Du Fei to Kōjō, the author names listed above represent a variety of
Buddhist sects, including Zen, Tendai and vinaya monks. As the network of the
authors shows, a strong, cross-sectarian connection between them is rather
obvious. Tracing the network of these authors, we now seek to illustrate their
mechanism of lineage invention and idolisation of patriarchs.
3
Du Fei 杜朏 (c.710–720) and Huisi
Du Fei, who composed the earliest text of the reincarnation story, was also
the author of the Chuan fabao ji 傳法寶記 (Record of the Transmission of the
23
24
25
BZ 112.
BZ 112: 2, 6, 8, 115, 225.
In the biographies of Zhiyi written by the Chinese literatus Yan Zhenqing 顏真卿 (written in 784), the monk Guanding 灌頂 (561–632) and others, the story is not mentioned.
See DZ 4: 175–178, 206–207. It is possible that Chinese writers were not in favour of this
story themselves.
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Dharma-Jewel, ca. 713), a Chan lineage account discovered at Dunhuang.26 Du
Fei was a disciple of Faru 法如 (638–689). The Chuan fabao ji claims that the
monk Faru received the orthodox lineage coming down from Bodhidharma: it
shows that Du Fei had a keen sense of what a lineage stood for. Hence, his biography for Huisi provides an interesting contrast with his ideas of Meditator
patriarchs.
Another work by Du Fei, Nanyue Si chanshi famen zhuan (A), is lost, but
fortunately quotations from it can be found in the Shichidaiki (B) and Kōjō’s
Denjutsu isshin kaimon. Du Fei’s text, as quoted, is important because it appears to be the earliest occurrence of the rebirth stories of Huisi. Its mention
of a ‘non-Buddhist country’ brings forward the possibility of a Japanese connection. Huisi’s sympathy for the non-Buddhist land is along the lines of the
compassion of a bodhisattva. It also hints at the supernatural power of knowing one’s destination in the next life, which was much valued by meditation
practitioners.
The fact that Du Fei was the author of both Huisi’s story and a Chan lineage
account indicates a shared readership in Chan and Tiantai circles. Historical
evidence also shows the connection between Du Fei and Chan groups. Du Fei
once gave lectures to Puji 普寂 (651–739) at the Dafuxiansi 大福先寺 in the
capital Luoyang 洛陽 (Yanagida 1967: 48). Puji was Shenxiu’s 神秀 (606?–706)
disciple and later became the mentor of Dōsen (Ch. Daoxuan) 道璿 (702–760),
who transmitted Chan teachings to Gyōhyō 行表 (722–797). Gyōhyō then became the direct supervisor of Saichō. This transmission line facilitated the
passage of Du Fei’s perception of Bodhidharma and Huisi to Saichō and his
disciples. A common feature of Puji, Dōsen and Gyōhyō is that they all learnt
Tiantai, Chan and vinaya and that they all transmitted the meditation associated with the Bodhidharma strand of tradition.27
Furthermore, the images of Huisi and Bodhidharma are very similar in
Du Fei’s Chuan fabao ji and Daoxuan’s Xu gaoseng zhuan in terms of their
response to the suppression by contemporary monks (Sueki 1997: 102–3). The
similarity between the images of these two figures may be part of the reason
for the confusion between the Bodhidharma Edition and Huisi Edition of the
Bodhisattva Precepts Conferral Manual, which are probably not two separate
editions at all (Sueki 1997: 102). It shows that Du Fei regarded the two masters
26
27
According to this text, the transmission line runs as follows: Bodhidharma, Daoyu 道育,
Huike 慧可 (487?–593), Sengcan 僧璨 (d.606), Daoxin 道信 (580–651), Hongren 弘忍
(601–674), Faru 法如 (638–689) and Shenxiu 神秀 (606?–706). For Du Fei and the Chuan
fabao ji, see Yanagida 1967: 47–50.
For Saichō’s teachings of the Bodhidharma system, see Sueki 1997: 83, 96.
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as a similar type of meditation practitioner. It is very likely that the similarity between Huisi and Bodhidharma’s images was also widely perceived in the
eighth century. The direct link between Huisi and Bodhidharma developed
continuously in the story of Huisi’s rebirth. The encounter of these two figures
in the Nanyue Si chanshi famen zhuan quoted in the Shichidaiki intensifies the
similar elements of these two patriarchs: meditation practitioner, supernatural
powers of awareness of past lives, and rebirth in a different country. According
to the Shichidaiki, Huisi was said to have met Bodhidharma, who encouraged
Huisi to be reborn in Japan for his next life. Other versions even go so far as to
proclaim that Shōtoku Taishi himself met Bodhidharma on a mountain, when
Bodhidharma pretended to be a poor and hungry old man. It is quite clear
that the authors of these stories tried to build a connection between Huisi,
Bodhidharma and Shōtoku Taishi. The meeting between Bodhidharma and
Shōtoku Taishi was strongly promoted by Kōjō in the Denjutsu isshinkaimon,
where both the Shichidaiki and the lost Nanyue Si chanshi famen zhuan are
quoted. Kōjō asserted this connection to demonstrate that Bodhidharma
was close to the Tendai School. The close relationship between the Chan and
Tiantai traditions can be seen in the borrowing, combining and inventing between these two patriarchs.
4
Jianzhen 鑑真 (688–763) and Huisi
The link between Huisi and Jianzhen is evident both in their doctrinal consistency and in the geographical facts. First of all, Jianzhen and Huisi were
both active in southern China. The Yangzhou Longxingsi 揚州龍興寺, where
Jianzhen was ordained and spent all his teenage years, was a famous temple
in that region (Andō 1958: 22–25). According to the description of Yangzhou
Longxingsi in Ennin’s diary, there was a portrait of Huisi inside the Lotus Hall
of this temple, while inside its Eastern Tower Hall, there was a statue of and
a biographical inscription concerning Jianzhen.28 It is said that after making
the decision to depart for Japan, in order to physically demonstrate his reverence to Huisi, Jianzhen then took a pilgrimage to Mount Heng (Nanyue) where
Huisi resided.29 It seems Jianzhen had realised the importance of closer SinoJapanese ties and so began to build up his connection with Huisi as a role model
28
29
Ennin’s Nittō guhō junrei gyōki (Ch. Ru Tang qiufa xunli xingji) 入唐求法巡礼行記, vol. 1
(BZ 113: 183b).
Jianzhen also went to Zhiyi’s monastery in Mount Tiantai and the Sixth Chan Patriarch
Huineng’s Faquansi in Shaozhou as a pilgrim. (Andō 1958: 130).
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before departing for Japan. He could then claim himself to be Huisi’s successor in promoting meditation and precepts in Japan. Furthermore, as cited in
sources including the Shichidaiki and a stele found near River Qiantangjiang
錢塘江, Huisi had six lives before being reborn in Japan in his seventh life.
It is said that the stele was erected in the year 718, which is 30 years before
Jianzhen’s departure for Japan.30
Jianzhen’s education indicates a syncretic approach in that he learnt
Tiantai, Chan, and precepts. According to the Tōseiden (D) (T.51. 2089: 988b),
Jianzhen first learnt precepts and Chan (Chanmen 禪門) from Master Zhiman
智滿 at Yangzhou Dayunsi 揚州大雲寺. Later he studied precepts from the
fourth Tiantai Patriarch Hongjing 弘景 (634–712) at the Yuquansi 玉泉寺. The
Yuquansi was a monastery famous for syncretic teachings, including Tiantai,
Chan, vinaya and Esoteric Buddhism. For example, Esoteric Master Yixing
一行 (683–727), Hongjing’s student, and Shenxiu resided at Yuquansi for some
time. Moreover, Puji, who was Shenxiu’s disciple and once studied under Du
Fei, also came to the Yuquansi to learn from Hongjing. Hence, it is obvious
that Jianzhen had an adequate connection with the Chan circle. This fact
corresponds to a long-lasting trend in southern China—a cross-transmission
between Chan and vinaya (Chan Lü hu chuan 禪律互傳).31
Judging from an extant list of the texts he brought to Japan with him, the
large number of Tiantai scriptures indicates his preference for the teachings
of that tradition.32 Meanwhile, the Tang aristocrats during his time were fairly
well aware of his study of the Tiantai teachings. This hypothesis is supported
by the occurrence of the Guohai heshang taming 過海和尚塔銘 (Inscription
for the Tower of the Monk who Crossed the Seas) written by Liang Su 梁肅
(753–793).33 Liang Su was an outstanding writer in the Tang and has been
known for his close relationship with some famous Tiantai monks.34 Thus the
fact that Liang Su wrote an inscription for Jianzhen implies that the Tiantai
circle was quite familiar with Jianzhen as well. One may therefore draw the
30
31
32
33
34
See Wang Yong 2007: 118–119. In Wang Yong’s opinion, when Jianzhen replied to the
Japanese envoys that “I have heard before that […]” he perhaps refers to his having seen
this stele.
For instance, it was said that vinaya master Dao’an 道岸 (654–712) dreamed of
Mahākāśyapa 摩訶迦葉 giving instructions (Yanagida 1967: 198).
For a list of the items and scriptures Jianzhen brought to Japan, see Tōseiden, T.51. 2089:
993a.
The original has been lost. A relevant citation can be found in the Quan Tang wen 480. The
“Monk who Crossed the Seas” refers to Jianzhen.
For Liang Su’s thought in relation to Buddhism, see Guo Zhonghan 1998.
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conclusion that it was quite common for Buddhist followers during that time
to train themselves in both vinaya and Tiantai teachings.
5
Situo 思託 (722–809) and Jianzhen
Among the texts listed in this paper, Situo is the author of two biographies,
the Ganjin den and the Bosatsu den (E), concerned with Jianzhen and Shōtoku
Taishi respectively. Situo mentions the reincarnation legend in both of them,
and the way he depicts Jianzhen, Huisi and Shōtoku Taishi reveals his own
agenda. Accompanying Jianzhen, Situo came to Japan in 753 and from that
time on became Jianzhen’s most reliable disciple.35 While dwelling first in the
Tōdaiji 東大寺 and later Tōshōdaiji 唐招提寺 in order to establish an ordination
platform, Jianzhen encountered criticism and oppression from other Japanese
Buddhists.36 Tsuji Zennosuke argues that Situo invented the reincarnation
story as a political strategy to compete with other Buddhist groups (Tsuji 1929).
Nevertheless, Wang Yong takes issue with Tsuji’s view and argued that this reincarnation story had been widely known by the time when the stele was erected
in Hangzhou in 718 (Wang Yong 2007: 120). Although it is unlikely that Situo
fully invented the reincarnation story, it is reasonable to assume that Situo promoted this legend in order to assure the legitimacy of his master.
According to Situo’s Bosatsu den, firstly, Huisi was depicted as mastering
four kinds of meditation and practising asceticism (Chin. toutuo xing 頭陀行)
on Mount Nanyue. Huisi once said that both he and Zhiyi were in attendance
at Śākyamuni Buddha’s preaching of the Lotus Sūtra on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa.37
Then it goes on to state that Huisi erected a “three-life stone” on the mountain,
which served to prove that he knew his past lives clearly and had ability to
decide his location of rebirth. By comparison, Daoxuan’s Xu Gaoseng zhuan
has no mention of Huisi’s rebirth. According to what Situo laid out, the image
of Shōtoku Taishi and Huisi highlights their supernatural ability in the knowledge of former lives, and at the same time their persistence in meditation
35
36
37
Situo and Fajin were the most important disciples of Jianzhen. For their roles and works,
see Wang Yong 1994: 156–166.
For further details about Jianzhen’s ordination platform, see Bowring 2005: 86–87.
Huisi’s biography in Daoxuan’s Xu Gaoseng zhuan mentions that Huisi told Zhiyi that he
himself and Zhiyi were both on Mount Gṛdhrakuta when Śākyamuni was preaching the
Lotus Sūtra. Presumably Situo did not take this literally, but is emphasising that, since
Huisi was saying that he had such a past life, this “recollection” was a proof of Huisi’s
supernatural abilities.
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practice. In the same text, it says that Shōtoku Taishi often lent a hand to common people with expedient methods, just as a bodhisattva would do. Through
the prince, the Lotus Sūtra was propagated for the first time. More interestingly, Situo emphasised that Shōtoku Taishi practised meditation regularly
and achieved a fairly advanced stage in meditation, because he often entered
samādhi (ruding 入定) for one, three or even five days. The people of the time
did not understand what meditation (chan ding 禪定) was and simply thought
of him as having “entered the hall of dreams”.38 It is also emphasised that
Shōtoku Taishi did not lose the memory of his past life as a Chinese patriarch,
and he therefore asked his younger sister to visit the Tang in order to bring back
a sūtra and other items left over from his previous life.
Situo’s depiction of both Huisi and Shōtoku Taishi is often quoted in later
editions of stories of Shōtoku Taishi. His narrative was accepted and then expanded into other versions of the story. The writings on Shōtoku Taishi seem
to develop so freely that connections were built up between Shōtoku Taishi,
Huisi, Bodhidharma, Lady Śrīmālā and even Kōbō Daishi in the Zōkanmon and
the Taishi den kokon mokuroku shō. Thus, in the Zōkanmon (BZ 112: 229) and the
Taishi den kokon mokuroku shō 太子傳古今目錄鈔 (BZ 112: 71), the story is elaborated in the assertions that Shōtoku Taishi (and Huisi) was the reincarnation
of the Lady Śrīmālā in an earlier time and reincarnated as Kōbō Daishi 弘法大
師 (Kūkai 空海, 774–835) at a later time. The reincarnation story comprised of
these big names has provided convenient approaches for Buddhist followers to
convince others of a distinct origin for their lineage. The fact that the story was
so well absorbed and expanded by later Buddhists is proof that the connection between Shōtoku Taishi and Huisi corresponded to the needs of medieval
Buddhists. To understand Situo’s strategy in combining the Chinese patriarch
and Japanese prince in order to honour his own master Jianzhen, it is instructive to compare the Bosatsu den to Jianzhen’s biography by Situo.
As quoted in Jianzhen’s biography, the reincarnation story appears in the
section with Jianzhen’s speech about his decision to depart for Japan. The conversation occurred during the time when sea transportation was fairly dangerous and only a few Chinese masters dared to travel to Japan at the risk of their
own lives.39 When Japanese monks, namely Eiei 榮叡 and Fushō 普照, invited
38
39
“Entering the hall of dreams”: ru mengdian 入夢殿. The ‘hall of dreams’ (Jp. yumedono 夢
殿), incorporated in the architecture of Hōryūji, can be visited to this day.
Master Jianzhen from the Yangzhou region was regarded as the earliest monk who bravely
travelled across the dangerous sea to Japan, so his contemporaries called him “The monk
who crossed the sea” (Guohai heshang 過海和尚). See the section “Fofa guo haidong” 佛
法過海東 in Li Zhao’s 李肇 (fl. 806–20) Tang guoshi bu 唐國史補, vol. 1: 23.
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Jianzhen to go to Japan with them in 742, Eiei and Fushō began their petition
by saying that
The teachings of the Buddha have flowed east and reached Japan. But
although these teachings are there, nobody has [properly] transmitted
them. In Japan there was once Shōtoku Taishi, who said that after 200
years, the holy teachings would prosper in Japan. Now the hour has come.
We beseech the Great Master to venture to the East and take charge of
the advancement [of Buddhism].40
On hearing that, meeting the expectation of all the other people in attendance,
Jianzhen gave a positive reply to the invitation. He said that
A long time ago I heard that the Meditation Master Huisi from Nanyue
after his demise was reincarnated as a prince in Japan to promulgate
Buddhism and enlighten the people [there]. I have also heard that
in Japan there was Nagayaō 長屋王 (684–729) who deeply revered
Buddhism. I understand this to imply that [Japan] is a good country in
which to propagate Buddhism.41
It is significant that Jianzhen mentioned Huisi on this special occasion.
In this way, Jianzhen claimed an inheritance from Huisi, who was himself
equivalent to the respected Japanese prince. To make the Chinese patriarch
a more subatantial role model, Situo went on to refer to the anecdote about
Huisi’s first meeting with his successor, Zhiyi. Huisi recognised Zhiyi’s past
life and told Zhiyi that they had received Śākyamuni Buddha’s preaching of
the Lotus Sūtra on Mount Gṛdhrakūṭa. At that moment, Zhiyi immediately
attained the one-vehicle sudden enlightenment.42 Following this anecdote,
Situo concludes that,
Hence, we know that Dhyāna Master [Hui]Si, in terms of his earlier practice, recited the Lotus Sūtra as well as contemplating deeply in dhyāna.
[One day, ] all of a sudden, his views instantly cleared up and he achieved
enlightenment by attaining the Lotus samādhi. […] Zhiyi relentlessly
40
41
42
Tōseiden, T.51. 2089: 988b. The translation is from Bingenheimer 2003: 171.
T.51. 2089: 988b. The translation is adapted from Bingenheimer 2003: 171–172. Compare
with the Ganjin den, BZ 112: 228.
This may be identified with the Lotus samādhi (Hokke zanmai 法華三昧), which is mentioned later in the same passage.
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devoted himself to his Buddhist career in the Tang country; and likewise
Dhyāna Master [Hui]Si cultivated and transformed sentient beings to the
east of the sea.
BZ 112: 228b
Situo brings out Huisi and Zhiyi as a pair of Buddhist sages who devoted
themselves to helping sentient beings in the spirit of Mahāyāna bodhisattvas.
By claiming that one of them remained in China and the other was reborn
in Japan, China and Japan become ‘twin’ countries in terms of Buddhist
transmission. It also implied that Japan was an important place that urgently
needed Chinese masters to transmit Buddhism. It is not difficult to see that it
was necessary for Jianzhen’s disciple to provide a strong reason for travelling
overseas from China to Japan. By pairing the two sages Huisi and Zhiyi, Japan
and China become a pair, too. Then, by admiring Huisi’s decision to be reborn
in Japan, Situo meant to imply that his master Jianzhen, in choosing to travel
to Japan, was as great as Huisi. In this regard, it is understandable that Situo
spent more than half of the biography dedicated to his master, the Ganjin
den, on Huisi. The fact that Huisi was singled out for particular respect in this
way indicates that Situo valued the Tiantai tradition, even if Situo and his
associates referred to themselves as vinaya masters who had the intention of
transmitting proper monastic codes to Japan. Situo’s respect for Tiantai is in
accordance with Jianzhen’s connection with the Chinese Tiantai circle, which
will be discussed below.
6
Saichō and Huisi
Saichō was not an author of any versions of the reincarnation story, but his
mention of this story illustrates his view of Huisi. After Saichō, the appropriation of the legend by his disciples is ultimately related to the reshaping
of Tendai’s self-definition in Japan.43 It is interesting to note Saichō’s reverent
attitude to Huisi in medieval times, because compared with modern Tendai/
Tiantai scholars, the emphasis on Zhiyi is out of balance—Saichō refers to
Huisi’s teachings more than modern scholars do.
43
Como also notices that Japanese Buddhist apologists up to Saichō have put Shōtoku
Taishi at the centre in building up the Tendai tradition and its self-definition. Through
a survey of the efforts done by several Japanese monks, namely Dōji, Ganjin (Jianzhen),
Huisi and Saichō, he argues that the Shōtoku cult eventually brought about the NaraHeian Buddhist transition (Como 2008: 133–153).
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Since Saichō quoted and emphasised this story many times in his writings,
writers on Prince Shōtoku like to quote Saichō as well. For example, it is written in the Shōtoku Taishi den kokon mokuroku shō 聖徳太子伝古今目錄抄 that
Saichō eulogised Huisi’s seven lives in China before his eighth life as Shōtoku
Taishi.44 This is also mentioned in Saichō’s Kenkairon and the prefatory poem
to the Nyū Shitennōji Shōtoku Taishibyō Guden Hokkeshū.45 Later on, Saichō’s
disciple Kōjō spent a remarkable amount of space in the Denjutsu isshin kaimon on expounding this legend in detail. In this regard, the reincarnation story
quite definitely expedited the promotion of the Tendai School by Saichō and
his followers. It is not difficult to fathom because the story vindicates the argument that Tendai should occupy the central place in Japanese Buddhism.
Saichō and his followers adopted this strategy out of political considerations
due to the ferocious competition between Buddhist groups in the Heian Period
(794–1185).
The competition between the Sanron 三論 and the Hossō 法相 groups was
fierce during early Heian, and Emperor Kammu 桓武 (737–806, r. 782–806)
attempted to balance the two sects by encouraging Buddhist monks to learn
Sanron teachings. With an apparent view to resolving the competition between the Nara sects, Saichō mounted a criticism of all six sects in his proposal
to study in Tang China, the Shōnittō shōyakuhyō 請入唐請益表.46 Saichō first
denigrated the śāstra-centred Sanron and Hossō, and then praised the value of
the Lotus Sūtra and the Tendai School. By asserting the higher status of sūtras
over śāstras, the Tendai School was elevated over both Sanron and Hossō.47
Saichō probably realised that Huisi was in a similar situation in China, in that
they both faced opponents from exegetical traditions. As to Huisi’s need to resist the dominance of exegetical Buddhism, his strategy of overcoming it by
championing meditation may also have influenced Saichō in reflecting on the
Japanese Buddhist environment.
Saichō began to be interested in the Chinese Tiantai School while in Japan,
but among the Tiantai masters, Saichō seemed to find Huisi particularly appealing. Some other schools were also based on sūtras instead of śāstras in
China, so the Lotus Sūtra’s attractiveness cannot have been the only factor
44
45
46
47
BZ 112: 50, also DZ 4: 747. The original text reads: 傳教大師讚云, 剋七生於大唐, 現一生
於日本, 位登初信, 妙解圓融 云云.
For an analysis of these writings of Saichō, see Sonoda 1991: 462–470.
DZ 1, Eizan daishiden 叡山大師伝: 11–12. For an analysis of this text in relation to state
Buddhism, see Sone 2000: 171–184.
Jinhua Chen also shows convincingly that the Ehyō Tendai shū 依憑天臺集 was a product of Saichō’s attempt to fight with Hossō (Chen 1999: 121–126).
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in Saichō’s interest in the Tiantai. In addition, given that Huisi was one of
the earliest masters advocating meditation practice against the one-sided exegetical tradition, one finds many parallels between Huisi’s background and
Saichō’s circumstances. Since Saichō had first been attracted to the meditation component of the Tiantai teachings brought by Jianzhen, it is safe to conclude that Huisi’s teachings and stories greatly inspired Saichō and became
part of his motivation to learn Tiantai from China.
Through the scriptures brought by Jianzhen, Saichō had a chance to read
the texts of the Chinese Tiantai School. As discussed above, among the Tiantai
teachers, Jianzhen was particularly interested in Huisi. Saichō learnt about
Huisi through the media of Jianzhen’s collection of Tiantai books, perhaps
together with the latter’s comments and references to Huisi. Taken together,
Jianzhen and Saichō seem to have inherited the same transmission, almost a
‘lineage’, centred on Huisi.
It is noteworthy that the reincarnation legend brings Sino-Japanese Buddhist
relations closer together. Saichō’s reinterpretation of the legend presents a
new apprehension of Japan’s position within the Buddhist world. As Como
and Barrett have both suggested, narratives of an “otherworldly communion
of saints” (in Barrett’s words) are not uncommon during this period; they serve
to create a direct link to the Buddhist origin of India (Como 2008: 151; Barrett
2009). By stating that Japan’s Tendai originated from Master Huisi, who was
even earlier than the celebrated Master Zhiyi, the Tendai School could assert
its own interest in maintaining that Japan was not inferior to China.48
7
Concluding Remarks
The current paper provides a cross-sectarian account of the connections
between the legend cycles of the Chinese patriarch Huisi and the Japanese
prince Shōtoku. The reincarnation story arose at a time when issues concerning sectarian lineages were increasing in significance. Reincarnation represents doctrinal continuation as well as transmission of authority. In this
way reincarnation fulfils the same function as the construction of a lineage,
and has equal significance at a time when a tradition is being created. In the
meantime, images of patriarchs were being fabricated in order to solidify
48
It should be noted that some scholars have different views about the position of Japan in
Saichō’s mind. Como notices Saichō’s concern to place Tendai at the centre of Japanese
Buddhism by linking it to India. In Jinhua Chen’s study on the Ehyō Tendai shū, he argues
that Saichō attempted to argue that China had superseded India in terms of Buddhist
development (Chen 1999: 137, 140).
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The Rebirth Legend of Prince Shōtoku
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the lineages. As a source for the ideal meditation practitioner, the image of
Huisi conveys the notion of a patriarch in both Chan and Tiantai circles in
China and Japan. Huisi’s image was idolised by Du Fei, who also wrote one of
the earliest accounts of Bodhidharma’s lineage. Likewise, the story of Prince
Shōtoku, closely connected to the authors of the Nihon shoki, was composed
to explain the introduction of Buddhism. It is therefore apparent that in both
China and Japan, the founder of a new tradition must be a foreign patriarch.
As a result, Bodhidharma, Huisi and Shōtoku Taishi were shaped as patriarchs coming from a Buddhist motherland. This narrative implies the logic
of a centre–periphery framework, and the corresponding ‘Dharma moving
East’ belief in the Latter Dharma period. Read in this light, these narratives
of the eighth and ninth centuries shed light on the formation of Chinese and
Japanese monks’ religious identity. Japanese monks’ self-definition matured
as the reincarnation story developed into a completed form. Their self-definition involves location in a broader context of East Asian Buddhism. Hence
it is argued that the Huisi reincarnation legend reveals its authors’ intent to
rearrange the association between China and Japan.
The authors, and their inventions, all represent a network in the form of an
invented lineage. The mechanism of patriarch creation in this reincarnation
story was interwoven in China and Japan through masters and disciples. The
Chinese writer Du Fei had an important role in conveying similar images of
Huisi and Bodhidharma, and he showed an inclination to bring these two figures closer by means of an encounter. Besides representing the image of a meditation practitioner, Huisi was also a key figure in the transmission of Chinese
Buddhism across the ocean. Jianzhen and Situo shared the same motivation of
a closer Sino-Japanese tie, as is seen through their connecting of themselves
to Shōtoku Taishi through Huisi. Jianzhen seems to have been building up his
connection with the role model Huisi before departing for Japan. He could
then claim himself as Huisi’s successor in promoting meditation and precepts
in Japan. This story was particularly valued by the Tendai School in the ninth
century. To Saichō and his followers, it brings China–Japan Buddhist relations
into closer contact, and, meanwhile, through stating that Japan had acquired
the personality of Master Huisi, who was even earlier than the celebrated patriarch Zhiyi, it was implied that Japan was not inferior to China. This was the
underlying logic of a sustainable ideology which was able to locate Japan in
general, and Tendai in particular, at the centre of the Buddhist world, so as to
prevail in the fierce competition between various Buddhist groups within the
country. Taking all these authors together, the reincarnation story illustrates a
mechanism of patriarch invention which links Chinese and Japanese authors.
At the same time their creativity contributes to the richness of imagination in
the storyline and to a multiplex scheme for promoting Buddhism.
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Chapter 11
Because They Entrusted to Them a Part of Their
Buddhist Selves—Imagined Communities, Layered
Identities, and Networking
Bart Dessein
1
Buddhist History and the Development of Layered Identities
Legend has it that after Prince Siddhārtha had lived out his joyful youth within
the seclusion of his father’s palace, divine interaction brought him into contact with an old man, a diseased man, and a corpse. When he, on a fourth tour
through the country, saw a mendicant holy man, the contrast of this sight with
the three previous encounters is then said to have made him realize that only
renunciation of worldly life could lead to spiritual enlightenment. Legend goes
on that he summoned his charioteer Channa to saddle his horse Kaṇṭhaka and
to secretly flee from the palace. Having reached the bank of a river, he is then
said to have cut off his hair, changed his marvellous outfit for monk’s robes,
and, having sent his charioteer and horse back to the palace, set forth to start
his life as a seeker of truth. It is here that the life story of Prince Siddhārtha
is likely to cross from legend into history, as from this point on his life is connected to figures whom we may regard as historical persons.1
The historical Buddha is recorded to have first studied meditative techniques
under the yoga masters Āḷāra Kāḷāma (Arāḍa Kāḷāma) and Udraka Rāmaputra
and, dissatisfied with what he had learned, to have set out to seek enlightenment on his own. Having practiced severe self-mortification and starvation
for some six years, he realized that this did not bring him to the desired goal
of enlightenment. He hereupon left the five followers who had accompanied
him in his practices, and started his life as a mendicant. According to tradition,
he reached spiritual enlightenment at the age of thirty-five and preached his
doctrine for the next forty-five years. A growing group of Buddhist adherents
soon followed him in his teaching practice. They spread the Buddha’s teachings through sermons and by example.2
1 On the latter, see Ross Reat 1996: 12.
2 For scriptural references with respect to the life of the Buddha, see Harvey 2013: 14–25. For an
overview of works devoted to the biography of the historical Buddha, see Lamotte 1958: 16,
note 14.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doiAnn
10.1163/9789004366152_013
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Imagined Communities, Layered Identities, and Networking
321
The importance of the partially legendary Buddha story is that it connects—
as is the case for all religious traditions in the world—the origins of the
Buddhist doctrine with divine intervention, and portrays the Buddhist adepts
as inheritors and, therefore, as protectors of this divine tradition. The identity
of the Buddhist adepts as inheritors of the doctrine and members of a divine
tradition preached by the Buddha is alluded to in some vinaya texts that state
that the Buddha-word (Buddhavacana) was also spoken by, among others,
gods (deva) and—on an equal footing—his disciples (śrāvaka).3 Also, the persisting tradition of the disappearance of the Buddhist doctrine at the end of
time reminds the Buddhist adepts of their divine function as protectors of the
doctrine. The Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣāśāstra (Apidamo da piposha lun) concludes the description of the disappearance of the doctrine as follows:
When seven days and nights will have passed, heaven and earth will grow
dark, but the world will still not know that the good doctrine (saddharma)
has disappeared. […] When seven days will have passed, the earth will
quake and a rain of meteors will scorch all regions and sub-regions. In
the air, the drums of the gods will beat their extremely frightening sound.
The god Māra and his retinue will be very joyful. A great white veil will be
spread in the air, and the sound of chanting will again fill the air: ‘As from
today, the good doctrine of the great Ṛṣi of the Śākyas will have disappeared forever.’4
After the Buddhist doctrine will have disappeared from the surface of the
earth, a new Buddha will have to be awaited. In the same way that the origin
of the Buddhist doctrine is connected to the realm of the divine, its disappearance (and re-emergence) is thus also accompanied by divine intervention.5
That legend and the divine are interwoven in the life story of the Buddha
and the history of the Buddhist faith is important in the sense that legend and
the divine—as is religion an sich—are important identity markers and dynamic elements in the creation of ‘imagined communities,’ i.e., identity groups
3 According to the Pāli Vinaya (Pācittiya IV) and to the Sifen lü (Dharmaguptakavinaya),
T.22.1428: 639a16–17, the word of the Buddha was also spoken, apart from by the Buddha himself, by gods, by disciples, and by ṛṣis. For the Pāli Vinaya, see Oldenberg 1964a: 15. According
to the Shisong lü (Sarvāstivādavinaya), T.23.1435: 71b1–2, it was also spoken, apart from by the
Buddha, by gods, and by disciples, by ṛṣis and by apparitional beings (upapāduka). See also
Davidson 1990: 300.
4 T.27.1545: 918c14–21.
5 See Lamotte 1958: 218–220.
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Dessein
that share overall subjective feelings of belonging.6 For the creation of such
identity groups, myths, memories, heritage and symbols are important instruments, as these have the ability to trace an identity group back to an imagined
or unimagined, albeit specific, place, time, and ancestor. Such an ideological
lineage also is the premise on which future actions and events—such as the
disappearance of the ‘good doctrine’ just mentioned—are justified.7
Group identities take shape in interaction with other groups. Likewise
Buddhist self-identification, the result of a dynamic process, was from the outset determined by the relationship of the early Buddhist followers with members of the society of the time of the historical Buddha in general, and with
members of other religious groups in particular. In the region of Magadha, i.e.
the region where the first Buddhist community was active, both the Jainas and
Ājīvakas, especially, were present.8 As the Jaina and Ājīvaka traditions were,
just as the Buddhist tradition was, primarily concerned with release from rebirth, the Jainas and, to a lesser extent, the Ājīvakas, were important religious
competitors of the Buddhists, and the Buddhists had to, from the outset, convince their opponents of their truth.9
The time of the Buddha was a time of important religious developments in
India. The absence of yogic doctrines in the Ṛg Veda suggests that the Jaina,
Ājīvaka, and Buddhist yogic traditions must originally have been independent
from the Vedic tradition.10 This is important with respect to the following: as
group identities take shape in interaction with other groups, they are subject
to changes brought about by changing relations with such other groups. When
during the Aśokan reign Brahmans could freely travel through the countries
ruled by the latter ruler, the early Buddhists must have “participated in a
critical and creative movement to synthesize ancient, traditional worldviews
6
7
8
9
10
See Kinnvall 2004: 747–748.
Kinnvall 2004: 756.
Ross Reat 1996: 7.
For some reflections on the Buddhist-Jain encounter, see Bronkhorst 2011: 130–142. For
the different religious groups who were active contemporaneous with the Buddha, see
Hirakawa 1990: 16–18.
According to Ross Reat (1996: 6), the fact that “[h]istory records two apparently indigenous religious traditions in India which claim to predate and to be independent of the
Ṛg Veda, namely the Jainas and the Ājīvakas,” implies that most of classical Hinduism
has to be the result of a gradual merging of Vedic and yogic elements that started in the
first millennium BCE and was assembled in the Upaniṣads, composed between 800 and
300 BCE. For reflections on a Brahmanical influence in the Buddhists’ self-identification
as belonging to a yogic tradition, see Bronkhorst 2011: 165–167.
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which vied for the collective heart of India”.11 It therefore must have been in
the Aśokan period that Brahmans began to be the major opponents of the
Buddhists,12 and that the perception of an unchanging (Buddhist) identity—
the result of a constructed (hi)story, a ‘narrative about the self’—must have
started to take shape.13
The importance of the relation between Buddhists, Jainas, and Brahmans
definitely involves the issues of philosophical, religious, and ritual borrowings,
but of undoubtedly equal importance, however, is the issue of transmittance
of the doctrine and the impact that the way the doctrine was transmitted
has had on the creation of a Buddhist ‘canon’ as identity-marker. When some
vinayas state that not only did the Buddha proclaim the doctrine, but also
his disciples, this relates to the originally overall oral/aural literary tradition
that characterizes the period of major cultural and religious developments in
which Buddhism originated.14 In this context of oral transmission, the correctness of the transmitted Buddha-word was secured by large meetings of
monks—the so-called Buddhist synods (saṃgīti). As these meetings were
intra-Buddhist meetings, the oral recitation of Buddhist texts within the context of these synods must have served a self-identifying function. In contrast to
the oral transmission of the Vedic texts that was primarily aimed at delivering
a message to the realm of the gods, and of the Brāhmaṇa prose texts and the
Upaniṣads that were aimed at people of equal religious belief, preaching
the Buddha-word was, in a wider context, also aimed at convincing opponents
of the Buddhist truth—one is, after all, not born a Buddhist. That is to say,
contrary to the Vedic texts and to the Brāhmaṇa prose texts and the Upaniṣads
that render revealed truth, Buddhist texts also have the purpose of revealing
the (Buddhist) truth.15 Both with respect to their function of self-identification
and with respect to their function of converting others, it is important that
texts can be claimed to be of undisputable origin. This explains why the first
recitation of Buddhist texts is projected back in time to the moment just
after the demise of the Master, and is connected to two direct disciples of
11
12
13
14
15
Quoted from Ross Reat (1996: 7), who refers to the activities of the historical Buddha in
this respect.
See Bronkhorst 2011: 2–4 and 8–11.
For the process of such an identity construction, see Hall 1992: 227.
Writing was most probably used starting from the 4th century BCE. This first use of script
was limited to secular purposes (see Salomon 1995: 278). The use of script in a religious
context most probably started in the 3rd century BCE (see von Hinüber 1989: 54).
See von Simson 1965: 139–141 and Dessein 2012: 121–122. This trait is reflected in the explanatory character of the Buddhist texts.
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Dessein
the Buddha—Ānanda and Upāli—who could thus be credited with having
heard the Buddhist doctrine and monastic code from the Buddha himself.16
Here, we can also refer the redactional rules that are evident from a section
of the Kṣudrakavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition and that, according
to Gregory Schopen (1997a: 573–579) may be as late as the 4th or 5th century
CE. These rules prescribe that place and person names that may have become
blurred or forgotten over time were to be restored to place and person names
that are connected to the historical Buddha.17 Also the formula ‘Thus have I
heard’ that abounds in sūtra texts is a testimony of this ‘claim to authenticity,’
as is the following claim that can be read in the Sarvāstivādavinayavibhāṣā
(Sapoduo pini piposha) that alludes to the divine character of the sūtra literature, its audience and purpose, and its legitimisation as instrument to convert
non-Buddhists:
The sermons which were delivered according to occasions for the sake
of gods and people were compiled in the Ekottarāgama. This is what
preachers esteem. For intelligent persons profound doctrines were set
forth. They were compiled in the Madhyamāgama. This is what scholars
esteem. Various kinds of meditation were set forth. They were compiled
in the Saṃyuktāgama. This is what meditation-practitioners esteem. To
refute various heterodoxies is the purpose of the Dīrghāgama.18
It is with the tradition of the first synod, supposedly held in Rājagṛha (contemporary Rajgir), ancient capital of Magadha, and with Ānanda and Upāli,
that we touch upon the issue of the adept’s ‘multi-layered Buddhist identity.’
As mentioned, during the first synod Ānanda is said to have recited the sūtra
texts and Upāli is said to have recited the vinaya texts as they had heard them
from the Buddha himself. Even a cursory reading of the extant vinaya texts
shows, however, that at the time of the Buddha no vinaya of the complexity, casuistic variety, and preciseness of which the extant vinayas witness can
have existed. The extant vinaya texts also reveal that they are part of a more
16
17
18
On the historicity of the first synod, see Bareau 1955: 4 and Prebish 1974a: 245–246. For
accounts of the first synod, see de La Vallée Poussin 1908: 2–6; Przyluski 1926: 133–235;
Lamotte 1958: 136–138. For a study of the first synod, see Nattier and Prebish 1976/1977.
Schopen 1997c: 579 further remarks that “The shape of all our collections would, moreover, seem to suggest that redactional rules very similar to those in the Ksudrakavastu
operated in all traditions or monastic groups, even if the Mulasarvastivadin version is the
only one so far discovered.”
T.23.1440: 503c22–504a1.
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advanced social organisation than can have existed at the time of the historical
Buddha.19 In-depth research into the canonization process of the vinayas thus
shows that these texts must be the result of a longer developmental period,
and their finalisation has, to all probability, to be dated in the first centuries of
the Common Era.20 Also the extant sūtra collections—the Pāli Nikāyas and the
Chinese Āgamas—are the result of a longer editorial process that is, moreover,
connected to later school formation.21 It is therefore unclear what the precise
content of the ‘original’ sūtra and vinaya texts may have been,22 and the first
synod most probably has to be assigned to the realm of legend. It is very likely
that the synod of Rājagṛha was invented to legitimate the occurrence of the
second Buddhist synod that took place in Vaiśālī (contemporary Besarh) under
the reign of the already mentioned king Aśoka, 100/110 years after the demise
of the historical Buddha. When the legend of the first synod became established around the time of the synod of Vaiśālī, the “ritual exclamation of
authenticity by which a teacher or local Saṃgha declared a certain body
of material to be valid: ‘This is the Dharma, this is the Vinaya, this is the teaching of the teacher ‘eṣa dharma eṣa vinaya idaṃ śāstuḥ śāsanam’,” must also
have become codified.23
Descriptions of the synod of Vaiśāli narrate the events that have led to the
first schism in the Buddhist community. Two Buddhist groups—the later
Sthaviravādins and Mahāsāṃghikas—are said to have argued over matters of
19
20
21
22
23
See Schopen 1994: 74 and 2000: 1–2. See also Clarke 2014: 20–21.
See Clarke 2014: 21, who also suggests that the Dharmaguptaka, Mahīśāsaka, Mahāsāṃghika,
and Sarvāstivāda vinayas may have been composed shortly before their translation into
Chinese in the early 5th century. For the specific case of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, see
Heirman 1999 and Schopen 2004b: 20.
The four Āgamas are not all from the same Buddhist school: the Dīrghāgama, Chang ahan
jing (T.1.1) is of the Dharmaguptaka school; the Madhyamāgama, Zhong ahan jing (T.1.26)
and the Saṃyuktāgama, Za ahan jing (T.2.99) are of the (Mūla)sarvāstivāda school;
and the Ekottarāgama, Zengyi ahan jing (T.2.125) is of the Mahāsāṃghika school. See
Waldschmidt 1980: 136; Mayeda 1985: 97–103.
According to Schopen (1997b: 30), nothing definite can be known about the actual
doctrinal content of the Nikāya/Āgama literature much before the fourth century
CE. Frauwallner (1956: 52–53) claims that the precepts or rules of the vinaya were compiled into a list called the prātimokṣa, the nucleus around which the other parts of the
vinaya have grown, early in Buddhist history.
Davidson 1990: 299. De La Vallée Poussin 1908: 18: “The account of the First Synod has a
double historical value: as containing an ancient nucleus of authentic tradition, that is,
discussions on points of discipline; and as resuming, under the symbolical aspect of a
‘synod,’ the compilation and arrangement of the canon, work which much have occupied
the first centuries of Buddhist history and of which Rajagrha forms the starting point”.
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religious conduct.24 As the two groups tenaciously held to their respective sets
of monastic rules, king Aśoka is said to have been asked to settle the matter.
He decided in favour of the majority—whence the name Mahāsāṃghika
(‘large saṃgha’)—after which the two groups continued to exist as separate
Buddhist communities. As noticed by Heinz Bechert (1982: 67), king Aśoka’s
decision was not meant to unite the community on dogmatic questions, but
only concerned monastic matters. This shows that, as the Buddhist communities shared their identity as followers of the Buddha-word, it indeed were
practical, i.e., vinaya matters, that could lead to a schism.25 The vinaya forms a
normative identity within the divine Buddhist faith, and following a different
vinaya cannot and does not infringe on the adept’s identity as a Buddhist, i.e.,
one who believes in the divine word of the Buddha. Étienne Lamotte (1958:
179) phrased this as follows: while the vinaya section of what was to become
the Buddhist tripiṭaka is only a convention (saṃvṛti) adopted as a code of conduct, the Dharma as propounded in the sūtras is the absolute truth. A remarkable textual passage that corroborates the preeminence of the Buddha-word
over monastic rules is the following: In the Mahāyāna Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra
(Dafangdeng daji jing), a text translated between 414 and 421, we read the following prediction by the Buddha:
After I will have reached Nirvāṇa, all my disciples will receive and retain
the Tathāgata’s scriptures in twelve categories.26 They will recite and copy
them. They will interpret them completely and extensively, into five collections of scriptures. […] Although these five collections will differ, none
of them will hinder the world of the Buddhist doctrine (dharmadhātu) or
the great Nirvāṇa.27
In their commentaries on this passage, Sengyou 僧祐 (445–518), Huijiao 慧皎
(497–554), and Fayun 法雲 (1088–1158) claim that the leaders of these five
groups are vinaya masters who thus formed the Dharmaguptaka, Sarvāstivāda,
Kāśyapīya, Mahīśāsaka, Vātsīputrīya, and Mahāsāṃghika schools.28
24
25
26
27
28
Cullavagga of the Pāli Vinaya: Oldenberg 1964a: 294–308; T.22.1421: 192a27–194b20;
T.22.1428: 968c19971c2; T.23.1435: 450a28–456b8; T.24.1451: 411c4–412a12.
See also Bechert 1982: 65.
The twelve parts are sūtra, geya, vyākaraṇa, gāthā, udāna, itivṛtaka, jātaka, vaipulya,
adbhūtadharma, nidāna, avadāna, and upadeśa. For the development of the formalisation of the teachings of the Buddha in nine and, later, in twelve categories, see Nakamura
1980: 28.
T.13.397: 159a29–b3.
Sengyou: T.55.2145: 20c23–21a10; Huijiao: T.50.2059: 403a3–b1; Fayun: T.54.2131: 1113a22–c6.
See also Lamotte 1958: 193.
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The accepting of the Buddha-word over adhering to a particular vinaya reveals two layers of Buddhist identity. But this is not the end of the story. After
the initial schisms had occurred on grounds of vinaya difference, different interpretations of the doctrine developed within these vinaya schools,29 whereby
monks and nuns who were ordained according to a peculiar vinaya could easily disagree on specific interpretations of the doctrine with some of their fellow
vinaya monastics. Also, these scholastic abhidharma discussions did not infringe
on the Buddha-word as such.30 Some abhidharma texts even claim that they
merely expound what was not clearly explained in the sūtras. This can be illustrated with the following passage of the Sanlun xuanyi jianyou ji, Paramārtha’s
(499–569) commentary on Vasumitra’s Samayabhedoparacanacakra (Yibuzong
lun lun) that explains how different scholastic groups developed within the
earlier mentioned Mahāsāṃghika monastic community:
In the course of the second two hundred years [after the parinirvāṇa
of the Buddha], three schools issued from within the Mahāsāṃghikas […]
The [Mahāsāṃghika] school recited […] Mahāyāna sūtras. In this school,
there were some who believed these sūtras and some who did not. Those
who did not believe them said that such sūtras are made by man and are
not proclaimed by the Buddha […] that the disciples of the Lesser Vehicle
only believe in the tripiṭaka, because they did not personally hear the
Buddha proclaim the Greater Vehicle. Among those who believed these
sūtras, there were some who did so because they had personally heard
the Buddha proclaim the Greater Vehicle and therefore believed these
sūtras; others believed them because it can be known through logical
analysis that there is this principle [of the Greater Vehicle]; and some
believed them because they believed their masters. Those who did not
believe [them] did so because these sūtras were self-made and because
they were not included in the five Āgamas […].31
29
30
31
See Bechert 1961.
The Majjhimanikāya contains an interesting passage in this respect. In Chalmers (1960,
vol. III: 9–12) we read that when Vassakāra asked Ānanda to explain the cause for continued unity (samaggiyā) among the members of the Order, the latter replied that the basis
for this unity is the fact that all take refuge in Dhamma (dhammappaṭisaraṇa). Asked
to elaborate, Ānanda then identified this as the maintenance of the rules or order, the
Prātimokṣa.
T.70.2300: 459b9–22. See also Dessein 2009: 30–31; Davidson 1990: 300; de La Vallée Poussin
1938; Lamotte 1947: 218–222.
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This passage not only refers to the fact of “having heard the scriptures from
the mouth of the Buddha himself”—which further corroborates what was
claimed above—but also shows that it is the possibility to differ on scholastic matters that is at the basis of the development of the Mahāyāna movement from within Śrāvakayāna schools. The primacy of the acceptance of the
Buddha-word and the adherence to a particular monastic code over scholastic
issues also explains the possible coexistence of Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna
monks in one and the same monastery, a matter witnessed by, among others,
Xuanzang 玄奘 in his account of his travels in the ‘Western regions.’32 These
so-called abhidharma—including Mahāyāna—developments can therefore
be regarded as a third layer of Buddhist identity: where a Buddhist adherent’s core identity is his acceptance of the Buddha-word, the precise vinaya
according to which he is ordained and that is the guideline for his daily life as
a Buddhist forms a first layer around this core identity, and the abhidharmic
interpretation is the outer layer of his Buddhist identity. It is also this layer—
as we will show further—that contains the possibility for ‘networking.’ This is
also corroborated by the following: Above, I have mentioned the issue of the
decline of the doctrine. The passage of the Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣāśāstra
(Apidamo da piposha lun) on this topic, quoted above, is preceded by the story
of how a certain tripiṭaka master, Śiṣyaka, is invited by the karmadāna of the
same assembly to recite the prātimokṣa in public. Śiṣyaka accepts, but when
he declares that he will only recite it in brief, the following happens:
At that moment, the arhat Surata rose from his seat. He threw his
cloak over one shoulder, prostrated himself before the tripiṭaka master [Śiṣyaka], brought the palms of his hands together, and said: “I only
32
In the Da Tang xiyu ji 大唐西域記, the co-habitation of monastics who adhere to the
Śrāvakayāna with monks who adhere to the Mahāyāna is mentioned with respect to
Udyāna (T.51.2087: 882b18–21), Jālaṅdhara (T.889c17, 890a3), Kulūta (T.51.2087: 890b4),
Mathurā (T.51.2087: 890b17), Kanyākubja (T.51.2087: 893c17), Ayodhyā (T.51.287: 896b7),
Vṛji (T.51.2087: 910a5), Nepāl (T.51.2087: 910b19), Magadha (T.51.2087: 910c13, 913b25),
Puṇḍravarddhana (T.51.2087: 927a22), Koṅkanāpura (T.51.2087: 934c15), Mahārāṣṭra
(T.51.2087: 935a28–29), Kaccha (T.51.2087: 936b13), Ujjayanī (T.51.2087: 937a4), Parvata
(T.51.2087: 937c8), Laṅgala (T.51.2087: 938a6), and Kunduz (T.51.2087: 940a16–17). See also
Beal 1884, vol.1: 120–121, 176, 177, 180–181, 207, 225; vol.2: 78, 81, 82, 103, 195, 254, 257, 266,
270, 275, 277, 288, resp. Xuanzang also mentions Sthavira monks who study the Mahāyāna
in Magadha (T.51.2087: 918b14–15), Kalinga (T.51.2087: 929a4), Siṃhala (T51.2087: 934a15),
Bharukachha (T.51.2087: 935c2), and Suraṣṭra (T.51.2087: 936c16). See also Beal 1884, vol.2:
133, 208, 247, 260, 269 resp. When mentioning Sthavira monks who study the Mahāyāna
in Magadha, Xuanzang even mentions that they observe the vinaya carefully (T.51.2087:
918b15).
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wish that the elder (sthavira) would explain the tripiṭaka in full for
the community.” [The tripiṭaka master Śiṣyaka] replied: “I invite that
[monk] in this assembly who is capable of observing all the precepts
of the prātimokṣa to request me to explain it in full.” The arhat said:
“I am able to observe the fine details (prāntakoṭi) of the rules (śīkṣāpada)
observed by all bhikṣus when the Buddha was in the world. If this is what
you mean by ‘observing [the prātimokṣa] completely,’ then [I am the one
who] wants [you] to explain [the tripiṭaka] completely.” When he had
thus spoken, the disciples of the trepiṭaka were angry, and thereupon
they reviled him, saying: “Who is the bhikṣu who opposes our master in
front of the assembly and who does not accept his teaching?” Hereupon
they beat the arhat to death. From that moment on, the good doctrine in
the absolute sense (paramārthasaddharma) had disappeared. Then, the
gods (deva), nāgas and yakṣas who respected the arhat got angry, and
they killed that trepiṭaka. […] From that moment on, the good doctrine
in the conventional sense (saṃvṛtisaddharma) had disappeared.33
This passage not only corroborates that the prātimokṣa is the nucleus around
which the vinayas gradually developed,34 but also testifies the preeminence of
vinaya over scholasticism: the death of the Arhat Surata is the end of the Good
Doctrine in absolute sense, the death of the tripiṭaka master Śiṣyaka is the end
of the Good Doctrine in conventional sense. This order is also confirmed in the
fact that Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667) advocated that a restoration of the Buddha’s
doctrine could only be achieved through rigorous practice of monastic discipline, i.e., the establishment of the Disciplinary School (Lüzong).35
2
Layered Identities and the Development of a Buddhist Canon
Above, I have mentioned the uncertainty of the precise content and format of
the earliest Buddhist texts used for oral recitation and preaching. Elsewhere,
I have argued that also the use of numerical lists—called mātikā in Pāli and
mātṛkā in Sanskrit—must have started as a mnemotechnic aid in oral transmission, and that these lists “have served to structure and expound the doctrine”
and “have become the vehicle of doctrinal development and the matrix for the
33
34
35
T.27.1545: 918b27–c13. See also Lamotte 1958: 218–220.
See Prebish 1974b: 170 and note # 22.
See Takao 1937: 12–16; Lewis 1990: 211–212.
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Dessein
textual format in which the doctrine is outlined.”36 The oral origin of what was
to become the third section of the tripiṭaka, the abhidharma, is referred to in
the Mahāsāṃghikavinaya, more precisely in a passage that mentions the ‘recitation’ of the sūtra, the vinaya and the mātṛkā.37 The importance of this is that
a separate authoritative collection of mātṛkās—a Mātṛkāpiṭaka—must have
existed prior to the moment when orally transmitted texts were submitted to
writing. The ‘recitation’ of the sūtra, the vinaya and the mātṛkā as authoritative
collections of texts brings us to the issue of the development of the Buddhist
canon. Although, as remarked by Oliver Freiberger (2000: 20), only very little is
known about the composition of texts into a canon before the (Pāli) Aluvihāra
redaction of the 1st century BCE—he therefore suggests that the early canon
should be considered as of anonymous authorship38—we do know that the
abhidharma texts developed from the earlier mātṛkās as they were contained
in the sūtra and the vinaya texts.39 This naturally makes the canonisation of
abhidharma texts posterior to the canonization of the sūtra and the vinaya
texts. Since, further, abhidharma texts are developments of the mātṛkās that
preceded them, abhidharma texts can easily be seen as an example of what
Oliver Freiberger has called ‘Sinnpflege’ (treatment of meaning) as opposed to
‘Textpflege’ (textual treatment), i.e. literary orthopraxis in transmission of the
Buddha-word.40
Discussing the relation between sūtra and vinaya, Charles Prebish (1974b:
170) has drawn our attention to it that in usages that seem to be very old, the
prātimokṣa rules—the nucleus around which the other parts of the vinaya
have grown—were called sūtras, and that the explanation of these rules was
called sūtravibhaṅga. In the sense that sūtras are rules of behaviour,41 they
36
37
38
39
40
41
Dessein 2013: 29–30; see also Gombrich 1990: 21–24; von Hinüber 1989: 68; Freiberger
2000: 20.
T.22.1425: 334c20–22. Other references to this oral origin are in Saṅgitisutta 3, Dīghanikāya
33 (Estlin Carpenter 1970: 207 ff.) = T.1.1, no.1: 49b27 ff. See also Hoernle [1916] 1970: 16–24
and Waldschmidt [1955] 1967: 258–278.
See also Schopen 1997b: 23–30.
See Dessein 2013.
See Freiberger 2000: 24. For the Pāli canon, this would refer to the word pāli as opposed to
aṭṭhakathā (see Collins 1990: 91–94). It is illustrative for this that, according to later texts,
one is to have recourse (1) to dharma but not to the individual, (2) to the meaning but not
to the letter, (3) to the sūtras of definitive meaning (nītārtha) but not to those of provisional meaning (neyārtha), and (4) to gnosis ( jñāna) but not to perceptual consciousness
(vijñāna). See Lamotte 1949; Davidson 1990: 301–302.
Sūtra, as explained by Sir Monier Monier-Williams (1956: 1241) is “a short sentence or aphoristic rule, and any work or manual consisting of strings of such rules hanging together
like threads” (Emphasis mine BD).
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serve to differentiate the Buddhist community from other religious communities, but also to differentiate one Buddhist community from another. Vinayas
thus have a ‘canonizing’ function,42 or, as suggested by Oliver Freiberger (2000:
24), a canon attains authority through censorship, that is, isolation from what
is alien, unreal or false. From this, it is an easy step to also apply the term sūtra
to the true word of the Buddha. This also conforms to what Aleida and Jan
Assmann (1987: 26) called “censorship in order to profile the canon against
what is apocryphal.”43 When the sūtras and the vinayas were, at some point in
time, finalized, the abhidharma literature and with that, the Mahāyāna literature, kept on developing. ‘Canonisation’ as defined by Aleida and Jan Assmann
thus primarily applies to the vinaya and the sūtra collections of the tripiṭaka,
not to the abhidharma section.44 Although, as remarked by Étienne Lamotte
(1947: 303–304), the Sarvāstivādins sought to legitimize the seven works of
their Abhidharmapiṭaka as Śākyamuni’s own statements and in order to do so
claimed that these texts had been recited at the first Buddhist council, it is,
given the very nature of the abhidharma, highly improbable that these texts
could be ‘canonised’ in the true sense of the word.45 The above, again, implies
that the Buddhist identity is a layered one, and that it is precisely because of its
layered structure that Buddhist ‘networking’ becomes possible.
Literature, it has to be remarked, is an important identity marker, and the
value of canonisation therefore must have increased tremendously when
texts were committed to writing. It therefore appears to be very plausible
that the motive to commit oral texts to writing may have been the rise of the
Mahāyāna,46 and that it was when Buddhist texts were committed to writing
42
43
44
45
46
It may here be remarked that the English word ‘canon’ is derived from the Latin adjective
‘canonicus’: living according to the rules of a religious order.
See also Aleida and Jan Assmann 1987: 26, note 11, in which censorship in order to preserve
power against what is subversive and censorship in order to preserve what is meaningful
against what is heretical are also differentiated.
Noting the overwhelming preponderance of Śrāvastī as the setting of the Buddha’s sermons, Rhys Davids (1925, vol. IV: vi) suggests that rather than referring to the actual place
the Buddha delivered his sermons, Śrāvastī may well be the place of the earliest emporium for the collection and preservation of them (see also note # 17).
Canonisation of the abhidharma, with sets of texts that are recognized by one group of
Buddhist followers as against another group thus rather conforms to what Aleida and Jan
Assmann defined as “censorship in order to preserve what is meaningful against what is
heretical”. See note # 43.
Collins (1990: 98) attributes the beginning of a written tradition of Buddhism to the rivalry between the Abhayagirivihārins and the Mahāvihārins and the attempt of the
Mahāvihārins to dissociate themselves from the Abhayagirivihārins, who would have
accepted Mahāyāna texts. Norman (1993: 280) suggests the 2nd century BCE for the
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that the idea of a closed canon was established. Heinz Bechert (1992: 52) in this
respect indicated that writing down texts may not have had the purpose of preserving old texts and can even have raised opposition by conservative monks.
This also explains why the Mahāyāna was from the outset a written tradition.47
That the rise of the Mahāyāna may have provided the motive to commit oral
texts to writing further corroborates the fact that it is especially in times of perceived insecurity that “going back to an imagined past by using reconstructed
symbols and cultural reference points” gains extra value.48 With the gradual
decrease of the importance of orality, the value of a closed written corpus of
texts may have further come to the fore.49 It is thus no surprise that the extant
abhidharma texts appear to be the product of an increasingly written tradition.
Canonical texts are normative and are seen as authoritative in the sense that
they depict the idealized image of an ‘imagined community’.50 Canonization
forms one’s self-identity, and informs one’s relations with other individuals
and groups. Also seen from this angle, we can discern a layered Buddhist
identity, with the sūtra collection of the tripiṭaka as the most authoritative
word of the Buddha, followed by the vinaya collection that identifies oneself
as a Buddhist vis-à-vis the outside world and as a member of one particular
Buddhist group vis-à-vis other Buddhist groups, and the abhidharma collection that is the most recent and most volatile part of one’s Buddhist identity.
3
Layered Identities and Networking
History not only knows Buddhist kings allegedly modelled after king Aśoka
and the creation of state monasteries, but also, and more significantly, scholarmonks who worked in the service of government.51 It is to this phenomenon
47
48
49
50
51
beginning of the use of script in a Buddhist context. See also Takakusu 1956: 49; Falk 1993:
200; Norman 1993: 279; Allon 1997: 1. On writing down canonical texts as a process rather
than as an event, see Bechert 1992: 45–53. The value attributed to ‘canonical books’ also
explains the ‘cult of the book’ that became peculiar for the Mahāyāna (for the latter, see
Buswell 1990: 17). Lamotte (1947: 217) remarks that no Buddhist sect, as long as it remained
vital and alive with the inspiration of the teaching, completely closed its canon, and that
(1947: 303) for the duration of a sect’s appearance in Buddhist India, it continued to include later material in its canon as the “teaching of the teacher”.
See McMahan 1998: 251.
Kinnvall 2004: 744.
Freiberger 2000: 25–26.
Kieffer-Pülz 2000: 283.
For the creation and significance of state monasteries, see Forte 1983.
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of political networking that we turn our attention in the last section of this
contribution.
Given the layered nature of one’s Buddhist identity, ‘networking’—an act
in which part of one’s identity is entrusted to another individual or group in
order to make relations possible—is particularly restricted to the ‘scholastic
layer,’ i.e., the layer of philosophical Buddhist debate which is also the least
‘canonised’ part of one’s Buddhist identity. It is the scholastic and philosophical layer that is, by its very nature, also the layer that is most adaptable for political discussion and networking. In the Indian case, this makes an approach
of Buddhists to Brahmans possible, and in the Chinese case a connection of
Buddhists with Confucian officialdom.
As much as the time of the Buddha may, as mentioned above, have been a
time of important religious developments in India, in the few centuries postdating the demise of the Buddha, India also knew major political developments. Concomitant with the installation of the Aśokan Empire, the Brahmans
installed their caste-class system as social structure, and they attributed to
each of these caste-classes their own function. This development was of major
importance for upholding state order.52 The Aśokan period has thus been of
unprecedented importance for the organization of Indian society and for the
position of Brahmanism on the subcontinent. When, during the Aśokan period, the Brahmans began to be the major opponents of the Buddhists, the
Buddhists appear to have left state matters to the Brahmans. This attitude
was most likely given in by their conviction that there was not only no class
difference between human beings, but also that being a true ‘Dharma-king’
(dharmarāja) who ruled without using violence—the ahiṃsā concept that
can be found in Buddhist texts—was thought to be impossible.53
With the development of the Śrāvakayāna attitude regarding life—that implied that one had to withdraw from society—towards the Mahāyāna, major
changes in the possibility for Buddhists to engage in worldly affairs were
brought along. This opened the way for Buddhists to move away from their
previous attitude of adjusting themselves to the Brahmanical social order, and
to start to also take up a role as political advisors. They saw themselves legitimized in this new undertaking through the birth stories ( jātaka) of the Buddha
according to which also the Buddha, before being reborn as Śākyamuni, went
52
53
Kinnvall (2004: 759) noted that: “Noninstitutionalized religion may be a matter of personal faith, piety, and inner experience, but once institutionalized it becomes interested
in maintaining its hold on the populace and social institutions.”
Such a concept of ‘Dharma-king’ is referred to in, e.g., Nāgārjuna’s Precious Garland
(Ratnāvalī); see Hopkins 1998: 118. See also Bronkhorst 2011: 99–104, 230, 236.
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Dessein
through different ‘ordinary’ lives. The conviction thus grew that also ordinary
beings can earn merit while living profane lives and, in the end, become a
Buddha in their own turn.54
This attitude gained particular importance in the Chinese cultural sphere.
Confucians could not only, in the same way as some Brahmans had become
Buddhists, become Buddhist converts,55 but, more importantly, while it may
have been impossible for Buddhists to become Brahmans, they could become
Confucians in the sense and to the degree that their Buddhist scholastic identity was and could be merged with Confucian state orthodoxy. This process that
pertains to what can be identified as a fourth layer of Buddhist identity, did
not require them to cast off the fundaments of their Buddhist identity as it was
formulated in the threefold refuge (triśaraṇa) in Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha
(expressed in sūtra and vinaya literature). This development became especially
important after the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 CE. In this way, the period following the Han Dynasty saw a gradual sinicisation of Buddhism, to the extent
that Buddhist scriptures also were, as stated by Mark Edward Lewis (1990: 209),
“drawn into the political realm through the received idea that the definition
and defence of ‘scripture’ was a fundamental role of the state.” In China, the
Buddhist scriptural tradition became linked to political authority and the secular government tried to create an ‘official’ Buddhism.56 The use of the Chinese
word ‘jing’ 經, the term that was also used to denote texts of the Confucian
canon, is more than telling in this respect.57 That secular governments—
be they imperial or local—were instrumental in the canonisation of particular
Buddhist texts in the same way Confucian texts were canonized, and that these
texts were thought to be instruments that could uphold society, led to the peculiar situation, as described by Hubert Seiwert (1994: 532), that:
Chinese history […] is full of examples of attempts to ideologically control society, to eliminate ‘false’ (heterodox) doctrines and scriptures, and
to bestow universal value to the correct interpretation of the world. The
54
55
56
57
See Bronkhorst 2011: 155. See also Joshi 1977: 21; Sanderson 2009: 115 f.
It should, for the Indian case, be remarked that while Buddhists could never become
Brahmins, the reverse was perfectly possible: being a Brahmin was considered compatible with being a Buddhist. For some examples of Brahmins who became Buddhists, see
Bronkhorst 2011: 174.
See Zürcher 1982: 163–164; Lewis 1990: 207.
Note that the word jing 經, which has ‘silk’ as radical, stands close to the original meaning
of the word sūtra (see note # 41). For some reflections on the ramifications of the word
jing, see Lewis 1990: 208. See also note # 43.
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elite culture did not only comprise Confucians, but also Buddhists and
Daoists. Orthodoxy […] did not exclusively pertain to one of these three
traditions, but was shared by all of them—in any case, in so far as they
were integrated in elite culture.58
When the country was reunified under the Sui dynasty in 581/589 CE, Buddhism
had become an integral part of Chinese political culture. After, in the Sui dynasty Tiantai 天臺 Buddhism had gained importance and the Sui emperors
had been devoted to Buddhism, Taizong 太宗 (r.627–650) and Gaozong 高宗
(r.650–684), the second and third emperors of the Tang dynasty (618–907), favoured Faxiang 法相 Buddhism.59 Empress Wu Zetian 武則天, who took over
the Tang throne in 690, associated herself with Huayan 華嚴Buddhism.60 Two
famous examples of scholar-monks in the service of Wu Zetian were Bodhiruci
and Fazang. The latter especially lived in close contact with the imperial
court and became one of the leading ideologists of Tang China.61 When Wu
Zetian died in 705, her son restored the Tang dynasty as the Zhongzong 中宗
Emperor (r.705–710). Also he supported Huayan Buddhism, besides Esoteric
Buddhism. The degree of connection of Buddhism to Confucian officialdom
was such that when the so-called Three Stages Sect (Sanjie jiao 三階教) proclaimed the end of the Buddha-dharma, this was interpreted as a menace to
the imperial government.62
In the Chinese cultural context in which the literary tradition had such a
prominent place, the early geyi 格義 technique to ‘translate’ Buddhist texts
attained a new function in this Buddho-Confucian encounter. After a period
in which the earliest Central Asian and Chinese translators of Buddhist texts
into Chinese had equated Buddhist with traditional Chinese concepts—the
technique that is usually referred to as ‘geyi’ and is translated as ‘matching meanings’ or ‘matching concepts’ by modern scholarship63—in the 4th
and 5th centuries, this technique must have developed as a peculiar type of
abhidharma exegesis practiced in circles of learned monks who had enjoyed a
58
59
60
61
62
63
My translation from the German. See also Buswell 1990: 7; Forte 1990: 239–240.
See Wright 1973: 241–242.
See Weinstein 1973: 302.
See Forte 2000: 9–10, 51. For the role of Bodhiruci at the court of Wu Zetian, see Forte 1990.
See Lewis 1990: 207, 210. This also explains why a new imperial canon which appeared in
730 CE excluded the works of this sect (see Lewis 1990: 231). Also see note # 56.
Other translators such as the Yuezhi Lokakṣema (2nd century CE) and Zhi Qian (3rd century CE), and the Sogdian Kang Senghui (end of the 2nd century CE) preferred to transliterate Indian technical terms instead of translating them. See Zürcher, 1991: 279–283;
Harrison, 1993: 140, note # 5; Nattier, 2008: 75; Mair, 2012: 55.
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Dessein
traditional Confucian schooling and were well-versed in the Chinese classics.
The technique more precisely served to explain the shishu 事數 (numerical
categories) that abound in such texts.64 As I have discussed elsewhere, when
the technique became criticized in Buddhist circles as not being appropriate
to explain the Buddhist doctrine, it is likely to have been adopted by those
few ‘conservative’ Confucian literati who wanted to redefine Chinese culture
in a context of growing influence of Daoism and Buddhism.65 Geyi literature
may thus be seen as an instrument to reaffirm the traditional inner-Confucian
network.
The Indian Buddhists must also have textually redefined themselves when
the road to political participation became open to them with the rise of the
Mahāyāna. This may explain why they adopted Sanskrit as ‘sacred’ language,
the language that had up to that moment been used by the Brahmins in their
state affairs, and that also they had used to plead their cause (disagreements
concerning proprietorship of monasteries, hermitages and temples) at the
royal court—occasions where their own disciplinary tradition and/or philosophical position may have been called into question.66 When the Brahmins
and Buddhists started to use the same instrument in their political endeavours,
the Brahmins continued to have one major skill that was their prerogative: the
use of magic formulas and incantations, derived from the Vedic tradition.67 It
was therefore only logical that once the Buddhists had gained a position as
political advisor similar to the one performed by the Brahmans, the Buddhists,
too, enhanced their skills in this respect. They could, for this purpose, build
on the existence of the practice in the Mahāyāna.68 It is especially with the
rise of tantric Buddhism starting from the 7th century that the use of rites and
spells became prominent and that also Indian Buddhists developed a fourth
identity layer of political practice.69 Such practice was also of major importance in Chinese esoteric Buddhism from the 8th century onwards, when
such major figures as Amoghavajra (705–774) were active. His address to the
64
65
66
67
68
69
Mair, 2012: 37 remarks that shishu may be equated with fashu “which is linked to the
Sanskrit dharmaparyāya: ‘discourse on dharma’; or with mingshu: ‘numerical groups of
related items.” He thus suggests (2012: 40) that the term ‘shishu’ designates “enumerative
categories (or categorized enumeration) of things/items, i.e., (technical) terms.”
See Dessein 2016.
See Bronkhorst 2011: 122–128.
See Bronkhorst 2011: 108, 182, 237. For an example from Kumāralāta’s Kalpanāmaṇḍitikā
Dṛṣṭāntapaṅkti, see Huber 1908: 6f.
See Bronkhorst 2011: 238 with reference to von Hinüber 1981 and Schopen 2009 for the
early dhāraṇīs.
See Bronkhorst 2011: 239, 242–243.
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Imagined Communities, Layered Identities, and Networking
337
Tang Emperor Zhongzong that “Your Majesty has received the mandate of the
Buddha to serve as King of the Dharma; it is Your Majesty who satisfies the aspirations of the people and holds the secret seal of Samantabhadra,”70 at once
shows the presence of the Dharma-king concept in China and the activities of
scholar-monks in the political realm. Judging the activities of Amoghavajra,
Raoul Birnbaum (1983: 30) states that “[…] it seems clear that a major goal
of the public teachings and activities of the last decades of Amoghavajra’s
life was the vigorous propagation of the cult of Mañjuśrī […] Amoghavajra
sought to establish Mañjuśrī as the national deity of T’ang China.” Taking into
account that Mañjuśrī and Samantabhadra had since early times been closely
connected, the identification of Samantabhadra with Mañjuśrī becomes even
more meaningful.71 In 741, Amoghavajra is reported to have presided over the
first mass esoteric ordinations in China, and in 746 he is said to have erected
an altar for esoteric rites upon which the Xuanzong Emperor 玄宗 (r.713–756)
was consecrated (abhiṣeka).72 Xuanzong became deeply interested in the
use of the magical techniques of esoteric Buddhism to secure and expand
his power and that of his state.73 After the death of Xuanzong, Amoghavajra
also stayed in official service under Emperors Suzong 肅宗 (r.756–762) and
Daizong 代宗 (r.763–779). Moreover, Emperor Suzong was consecrated as
Universal Monarch.74 In 756, on the occasion of the An Lushan 安祿山 rebellion, Emperor Suzong even asked Amoghavajra to pray for victory of the
imperial army.75 Amoghavajra ended his career as ‘Lord Specially Advanced’
(Tejin 特進), and ‘Official of Probationary Director of the State Ceremonial’
(Shi hongluqing 史鴻臚卿).76 Not long before his death in 774 CE, he was granted
the title ‘Commander Unequalled in Honor’ (Kaifu yitong sansi 開府儀同三司)77
and ‘Duke of Su’ (Suguo gong 肅國公).78
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
T.52.2120: 840b26. See also Weinstein 1987: 82.
For the importance of this identification in its relation to the *Samantabhadrācāryapraṇidhānarāja (Puxian Pusa xing yuan zan) (T.10.297), see Dessein 2003:
330–332.
T.50.2061: 712c12–13. See also Weinstein 1987: 57.
See Lewis 1990: 231.
T.50.2061: 713a2–3. See also Weinstein 1987: 57–58.
See Birnbaum 1983: 37. Bronkhorst 2011: 242 remarks that “Buddhist monks in China were
exempted from military service, but were expected to execute tantric Buddhist rites that
would provide protection against natural and other disasters.”
T.50.2061: 713a10–11.
T.50.2061: 713b21.
T.50.2061.713b21–22.
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4
Dessein
Conclusion
An investigation into the monastic and philosophical development of the
Indian and Chinese Buddhist communities shows that all Buddhist monastics
accepted the mythical/historical figure of the Buddha as founder of the doctrine, and, from the outset, portrayed themselves as inheritors and as protectors of a divine tradition. The figure of the Buddha that is an unalienable part
of their core identity was, later, textually, laid down in the sūtra literature.
A second layer of monastics’ Buddhist identity regards their ordination
lineage. Adherence to a specific monastic code defined one’s Buddhist identity vis-à-vis other monastic schools and the surrounding non-Buddhist world.
The latter especially gained importance as Buddhists had, from the outset,
to define themselves as distinct from other religious groups—the Jainas and
Ājīvakas. This perceived difference must have informed the creation of (a) peculiar monastic code(s) that, at some point in time, became canonized in different vinayas.
While adhering to a certain monastic code, Buddhist adherents may, however, have disagreed on doctrinal interpretations. This explains why their ‘abhidharmic’ identity was the most volatile, why the abhidharma collection of the
tripiṭaka kept on developing and expanding, and why different abhidharmic
sub-groups—albeit adhering to the same monastic code—selected a different
set of abhidharma texts as ‘canonical.’ It is also from within the abhidharma that
the Mahāyāna philosophy developed. The importance of the Buddhists’ identification with the mythical/ historical Buddha figure—their core identity—
explains why even abhidharma and Mahāyāna texts were laid in the mouth of
the historical Buddha.
The ascent of the Brahmans in the Aśokan period had major ramifications
for the position of the Buddhists in Indian society. After an initial period in
which the Buddhists had left state matters to the Brahmins, the development of the Mahāyāna opened new perspectives for Buddhists to engage in
secular—including political—activities. A similar development also occurred
in China. Buddhist adherents saw themselves legitimized in their new roles as
political advisors—a role which they could take up through, among others,
their knowledge of Sanskrit, the language that was used by the Brahmins in
state affairs—through the birth stories ( jātaka) of the Buddha according to
which also the Buddha, before being reborn as Śākyamuni, went through different ‘ordinary’ lives. It was from within the ‘philosophical’ abhidharmic layer,
i.e., the layer that is, by its very nature, the layer that is most adaptable for
political discussion and networking, that the ability to, in the Indian case, take
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Imagined Communities, Layered Identities, and Networking
339
over Brahmanic concepts and political instruments, and, in the Chinese case,
to connect with the Confucians, developed. Once the Buddhists had gained
a political advisor position similar to the one performed by the Brahmans,
they—as the Brahmins had done before them—also took over the use of
magic formulas and incantations, derived from the Vedic tradition. This practice is evident from the activities of esoteric masters in political networks.
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Chapter 12
Bodily Care Identity in Buddhist Monastic Life
of Ancient India and China: An Advancing Purity
Threshold
Ann Heirman
1
Introduction
Monastic life is usually studied in the context of philosophical debates, monastic treatises, artistic productions, or political events. Daily life is more difficult to pin down, due to a shortage of obvious sources or even a complete
lack of sources. Still, through its objects and practices, it can tell us a great deal
about the values of the monastic community and how these values develop
over time and from region to region. In this paper, I focus on one particular aspect of daily life—bodily practices—and more specifically on the daily issues
of bodily care that a monastic community has to face. Bodily care practices are
intimately linked to the ideal image to which the monastic community aspires,
and thus to the way in which it wants to be perceived. This self-representation
gives the community a sense of continuity across time and space. In this paper,
I concentrate on one of the most far-reaching geographical and cultural transmissions: Buddhist monastic life from India to China.
The significance of a new setting, in this case along the paths leading from
India to China, should not be underestimated. What is involved when practices and concepts are transferred from one society to another? According
to Pierre Bourdieu, practices are generated as a result of ‘systems of durable,
transposable dispositions’, which he defines as habitus: ‘structured structures
predisposed to function as structuring structures’.1 When they move through
space and time, practices generated in specific conditions are reconsidered
in new historical, geographical and social situations. In this sense, the past
is always present in contemporary as well as in future conditions. Or, as
Bourdieu puts it, ‘a present past that tends to perpetuate itself into the future
by reactivation in similarly structured practices […] is the principle of […]
continuity and regularity’.2 Although practices are constantly adapted to suit
new conditions, it is this sense of their continuity and regularity that has the
1 Bourdieu 1980: 88 (transl. 1990: 53).
2 Ibid. 1980: 91 (transl. 1990: 54).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doiAnn
10.1163/9789004366152_014
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Bodily Care Identity in Buddhist Monastic Life
341
potential to provide communities with a long-lasting identity, even when they
are separated by wide cultural borders.3 Indeed, as we will see, the notion of
‘permanence in change’,4 which is linked to a Buddhist identity, remains a
prominent feature of bodily practices adopted by the Buddhist communities
of both India and China.
In this constant process, the body plays a most visible role. It is thus not
surprising that monastic institutes tend to attach major importance to bodily
behaviour. Moreover, monastics are expected to externalize what the community represents. At each moment, they should evoke the community to
which they belong, if not spontaneously then at least through their monastic
training. Monastic members will ideally represent Buddhist values in even
their most seemingly trivial bodily practices—values that, as we will see, their
masters endeavour to pass down from generation to generation. As Bourdieu
says, ‘the cunning of pedagogic reason lies precisely in the fact that it manages to extort what is essential while seeming to demand the insignificant’.5 Still,
the body is not a stand-alone artefact. It moves in context, within an external, physical world, and is thus inevitably forced to deviate from the ideal. It
gets dirty; it needs to go to the toilet; its hair and nails continue to grow; and
it falls asleep. Moreover, it often needs to communicate with other bodies in
a social network.
When Buddhist monastic institutes started to develop in China as well as
India, commentaries and manuals unsurprisingly established guidelines for
bodily care practices. In addition to these texts, each member of the monastic
community was sure to be exposed to social control as the Buddhist community struggled to establish itself as a role model in Chinese society. This is reminiscent of what Norbert Elias, in his fascinating work on changing manners in
sixteenth–eighteenth-century Europe, describes as follows:
People, forced to live with one another in a new way, become more
sensitive to the impulses of others. Not abruptly, but very gradually the
code of behaviour becomes stricter and the degree of consideration expected of others becomes greater. The sense of what to do in order not
to offend or shock others becomes subtler, and in conjunction with the
new power relations the social imperative not to offend others becomes
more binding, as compared to the preceding phase.6
3
4
5
6
On adaptation and identity, see also Pinxten 2000: 241−246.
Bourdieu 1980: 94 (transl. 1990: 56).
Ibid. 1980: 117 (transl. 1990: 69).
Elias 1939: 103−104 (transl. 1978: 80).
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Individual members of the monastic community are constantly confronted by
this social aspect of their monastic life, and their behaviour is inevitably influenced by ‘a continuous interplay of relationships to other people’.7 This process
becomes very visible whenever the issue of bodily care arises. This is underscored by Elias, who concludes that bodily care practices—where the ‘scope
for individual variation within the social standard is relatively small’—reveal a
gradual transformation of behaviour and emotions that is characterized by an
‘expanding threshold of aversion’.8
Although the European context is far removed from the one described in
the present article (and one should be cautious about employing concepts that
have resulted from research in a specific historical and regional framework),
there was certainly an ‘expanding threshold of aversion’ in the Chinese monastic community as the major monasteries became more institutionalized.
As we will see, though, in China, this process was strongly linked to a growing
focus on purity. Hence, in the Chinese context, I prefer to adapt Elias’s concept
slightly to an ‘advancing threshold of purity’. In Chinese monastic institutions,
bodily care practices—which were closely associated with concepts such as
cleanliness, decency, decorum and respect, as well as to karmic return—became ever more defined as aspects of purity, representing the identity of the
monastic community.9 Simultaneously, ritual practices gradually became an
essential part of daily bodily care.
2
Sources
Monastic guidelines are major sources on standard bodily practices for members of the monastic community. These sources extend from Indian vinayas,
mostly known in Chinese translation, to Chinese commentaries, manuals,
and new monastic codes, such as the so-called qing gui 清規, ‘rules of purity’. Four full vinayas were translated into Chinese in the early fifth century
CE.10 Only much later, at the beginning of the eighth century, did the monk
7
8
9
10
Elias 2003 [1987]: 47 (trans. 2001: 26).
Elias 1939: 108 (transl. 1978: 83).
In this sense, bodily practices belong to a ‘social habitus’, defined by Roger Chartier as that
which each individual—no matter how different he is—shares with the other members
of his society (Chartier 1991: 12).
In chronological order, these vinayas were: Shisong lü 十誦律 (T.1435), Sarvāstivādavinaya;
Sifen lü 四分律 (T.1428), Dharmaguptakavinaya; Mohesengqi lü 摩訶僧祇律 (T.1425),
Mahāsāṃghikavinaya; and Mishasai bu hexi wufen lü 彌沙塞部和醯五分律 (T.1421),
Mahīśāsakavinaya.
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Yijing 義 淨 (635–713) translate large parts of the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya
(Genbenshuoyiqieyou bu pinaiye 根本說一切有部毘奈耶, T.1442–T.1451),11, as
well as other vinaya texts belonging to the same school. In the interim, however, the Dharmaguptakavinaya (Sifen lü 四分律) had been strongly encouraged
by influential Buddhist masters, and from the eighth century CE on, it became
the principal reference point for monastic discipline in China.12 Although vinaya texts might not always express what monastics actually did or even what
they believed (so one must be careful not to interpret them as direct reflections
of historical reality), ‘they provide us with rich insights into how the canonical authors/redactors, the monastic lawmakers, envisaged the Indian Buddhist
experience’.13
In China, numerous Buddhist masters made great efforts to illuminate vinaya regulations in the hope of using them in their monasteries. Again, their
writings outline the ideal way in which they wanted practitioners to behave,
so they shed light on the normative ideal imposed on members of the Chinese
monastic community. The so-called ‘rules of purity’, qing gui, were developed
from the eighth century CE onwards, and they proved particularly popular
among Chan monks. While still relying on the earlier vinaya texts,14 these new
rules focus on the practical organization of the large public monasteries that
emerged in the Song dynasty (960−1279).15 The Buddhist tradition attributes
11
12
13
14
15
The Chinese titles of the vinaya texts show considerable variety in the way they are
composed. Some traditions have a specific Chinese title. This is the case of Shisong lü
十誦律, Ten-Recitation Vinaya (vinaya of the Sarvāstivāda school) and Sifen lü 四分律,
Four-Part Vinaya (vinaya of the Dharmaguptaka School). The title Mohesengqi lü
摩訶僧祇律 is based on a transliteration of the name Mahāsāṃghika followed by lü 律,
vinaya. Mishasai bu hexi wufen lü 彌沙塞部和醯五分律 (the vinaya of the Mahīśāsaka
school) is composed of Mishasai (in all probability, a transliteration of Mahīśāsaka), bu
(school), hexi (exact meaning unclear), wufen (‘in five parts’, a Chinese reference to the
vinaya of the Mahīśāsakas), and lü, vinaya. Finally, the title Genbenshuoyiqieyou bu pinaiye
根本說一切有部毘奈耶 is a translation of the title Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya. For the
sake of clarity and consistency, I have chosen to follow the convention to refer to the
vinayas by the name of their tradition. It remains important though to note that these
titles cannot be seen as reconstructions of original Indic titles. For details, see Yuyama
1979; Clarke 2015.
A Tibetan translation, as well as large sections written in Sanskrit, of the
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya are extant. For details, see Yuyama 1979: 12−33; Clarke 2015: 73−81.
See, among others, Heirman 2007: 192−195.
Clarke 2009: 36.
See, in particular, Yifa 2002: 3−98.
Public monasteries are monasteries in which the abbacy is not passed down in a tonsure
family. The tonsure disciples of the abbot were not even allowed to succeed him to the abbacy, so that a hereditary transmission was excluded. This kind of public monastery was
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the start of qing gui to the monk Baizhang Huaihai 百丈懷海 (749−814), although none of the rules that were later ascribed to him was in fact unique.
The rules of purity—of which the oldest extant code dates from the twelfth
century CE—eventually acquired a central position in Chinese Buddhism
and set a benchmark for large, active monasteries.16 Consequently, in much
the same way as the earlier Chinese commentaries and manuals, they provide
insights into practices and attitudes that aspired to meet a normative ideal in
medieval and early modern China.17
3
Development of Bodily Care
3.1
Cleanliness, Decency, Respect and Decorum
In vinaya texts that discuss bodily care practices, the focus is on cleanliness,
decency, respect and decorum. Healthcare is mentioned, too, although it is
usually not linked to removing dirt, but rather to the beneficial side-effects of
washing and cleaning. The construction of bathing places, for instance, is said
to have been allowed by the Buddha to help monks with digestion problems
(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 958b26−c9). Similarly, in the Sarvāstivādavinaya, when bhikṣus fall ill, the famous doctor Jīvaka says that only bathing
will cure them:18
諸比丘以是事白佛。佛言。聽入浴室洗。洗有五功德。一者除垢。二
者身清淨。三者除去身中寒冷病。四者除風。五者得安隱。(T.23.1435:
270b12−15)
The bhikṣus told the Buddha about this matter. The Buddha said: ‘I allow
you to enter a bathhouse. There are five virtues with respect to washing:
one, it removes dirt; two, it makes the body clean/pure; three, it removes
the disease of cold; four, it removes “wind”; five, it allows one to attain
peace of mind.’19
16
17
18
19
favoured by the Song government in its policy towards monastic Buddhism. As a result,
the abbacies operated under quite strict supervision of the state. Many of these monasteries belong to the Chan tradition. See, among others, Schlütter 2005.
See, for instance, Yifa 2002: 108−110.
See Kieschnick 2010: 545−549, 573−574.
For details, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 28−35.
‘Diseases of cold’ are linked to cold weather or to ‘cold’ in the body. Diseases linked to
‘wind’ can generally be defined as problems relating to anything that circulates in the
body. See Heirman and Torck 2012: 57−58, notes 44 and 46.
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The eminent vinaya master Daoxuan 道宣 (596−667) also refers to this focus
on cleanliness and beneficial health effects in his most renowned commentary, the Sifen lü shanfan buque xingshi chao 四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔, A
Transcription of Abridged Revisions in the Dharmaguptakavinaya (T.1804). As
usual, he expresses his opinion through a selection of passages from other
Buddhist texts. With respect to the first passage quoted below, he underlines
that bathing helps to combat disease. At the same time, dirt is washed away
and one obtains a good-looking body. When commenting on the second passage, however, Daoxuan cautions that vanity is not permitted. Moreover, he
states that one should not become too attached to one’s own body, to the
extent that cleanliness should not even be considered a priority, an opinion
which in disciplinary texts is rather unusual:
增一云。告諸四眾。造浴室五功德。除風。差病。去塵垢。身輕便。
得肥白。
The Ekottarāgama says: ‘[The Buddha] told the four assemblies (monks,
nuns, laymen and laywomen): “Five virtues accrue from making bathhouses: it extirpates ‘wind’; it cures illness; it removes dust and dirt; it
makes the body feel light and easy; and it makes one soft and white.”’
(T.40.1804: 126c21–23)20
毘尼母浴室中上座應為浴僧說淨因緣。不為嚴身淨潔故。但令除身中
風冷得安隱行道。當為厭患身法調伏心法。應生慈心。為令得少欲知
足故。
The Pinimu [ jing] says that, on bathing houses, seniors should explain
to the bathing monks the reasons of cleaning ( jing 淨). Cleaning is not
for the sake of making the body beautiful or clean. But it is to free the
body from ‘wind’ and cold’, and to obtain the path of calm and peace.
They should preach the doctrines that teach that the body is to be detested, and convey the doctrines on how to calm the mind. They should
have compassion. They should make sure that the monks reduce their
desires and are happy with little. (T.40.1804: 126c25–28) 21
20
21
Based on the Zengyi ahan jing 增壹阿含經 (Ekottarāgama), T.2.125: 703a3−5. For a detailed discussion of this passage, see Kieschnick 2013: 105−107.
Based on a commentary on the prātimokṣasūtra by an unknown school (Pinimu jing 毘尼
母經, Skt. Vinayamātṛkā?, T.24.1463: 835b5−11). On this passage, see also Kieschnick 2013:
114−115.
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In addition to being beneficial to the body, bathing is linked to decency, respect and decorum in both the vinaya texts and the Chinese manuals and commentaries. The Mahīśāsakavinaya, for instance, warns monks against letting
laywomen learn about their physical features (via laymen who might bathe
alongside the monks). This would arouse desire, and as a result some monks
might even leave the monastic order because they allowed contact to become
too intimate. Similarly, the Dharmaguptakavinaya explicitly bans bathing
alongside laypeople, and cautions that it is particularly embarrassing when
laypeople see the genitalia of male members of the monastic community.
Allowing this to happen reveals their sexuality, and might damage the image
of the saṅgha. The Sarvāstivādavinaya is somewhat more flexible, but it still
warns strongly against potential loss of decorum and fame.
時諸比丘共白衣浴室中浴。白衣取其形相語諸女人。又身相觸生染著
心。遂致反俗作外道者。諸比丘以是白佛。佛言。不應爾。若共白衣
浴室中浴偷羅遮。(Mahīśāsakavinaya, T.22.1421: 182b23–27)
At that time bhikṣus bathed together with laypeople in the bathing house.
The laypeople told several women of their bodily features. And these
bodily features gave rise to feelings of attachment. As a result, it happened that [monks] returned to lay life or became non-Buddhist ascetics.
The bhikṣus told the Buddha of this and the Buddha said: ‘It should not be
like this. If one bathes together with laypeople in the bathing house, one
commits a sthūlātyaya [lit. “grave offence”].’22
彼共白衣浴。更相看尾。某甲長某甲麤。諸比丘白佛。佛言。不應共
白衣浴。若稱歎佛法僧者聽浴。 (Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428:
942a16–18)
They bathed together with laypeople. They saw each other’s male organ.
For some, it was long; for others, thick. The bhikṣus told the Buddha. The
Buddha said: ‘You should not bathe with laypeople. Only those who recite “Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha” are allowed to bathe.’
有比丘。共白衣浴室中洗。有下座比丘沙彌揩上座。是白衣共相謂
言。但揩是耶。更作如是如是事。諸比丘聞已心不喜。以是事白佛。
佛言。從今不得共白衣浴室中洗。犯者得突吉羅罪。有優婆塞病。欲
入浴室中洗。佛言。應白比丘已入洗。時白比丘。比丘不聽。佛言。
諸比丘若知是優婆塞善好無口過者聽入。有比丘浴室中揩白衣。佛
言。浴室中不得揩白衣。犯者得突吉羅。(Sarvāstivādavinaya, T.23.1435:
350b8–17)
22
On the interpretation of sthūlātyaya, see, among others, Heirman 2002: part I, 158−160.
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Some bhikṣus bathed together with laypeople in the bathhouse. Bhikṣus
of lower seniority and śrāmaṇeras [novices] massaged bhikṣus of higher
seniority. The laypeople said to each other: ‘What is this massage?
Moreover, they do such and such things.’ When the bhikṣus heard this,
they were not happy. They told the Buddha. The Buddha said: ‘From now
on, one cannot bathe together with laypeople in a bathhouse. If one goes
against this, one commits a duṣkṛta [lit. “bad deed”].’ Then an upāsaka
[householder] was taken ill. He wanted to enter the bathhouse to bathe.
The Buddha said: ‘Once you have told the bhikṣus, you can enter and
bathe.’ The bhikṣus did not allow him. The Buddha said: ‘If the bhikṣus
know that this upāsaka is a good man, without any slips of the tongue,
then he is allowed to enter.’ Some bhikṣus massaged laypersons in the
bathhouse. The Buddha said: ‘One should not give a massage to laypersons in the bathhouse. If one goes against this, one commits a duṣkṛta.’
Bathing could be embarrassing inside the monastic community, too, especially when this involved nakedness. Therefore, monks are advised that nudity
should be kept to a minimum. It is presented as an undesirable, even shameful, state as it can lead to a loss of respect or self-respect. Hence, the Buddha
stipulates that a naked man should never greet anyone or receive a greeting:
彼露形者禮露形者。佛言不應爾。彼露形者禮不露形者。佛言不應
爾。彼不露形者禮露形者。佛言不應爾。 (Dharmaguptakavinaya,
T.22.1428: 942b1–3)
[A monk] who was naked greeted [a monk] who was naked. The Buddha
said: ‘It should not be like this.’ [A monk] who was naked greeted [a
monk] who was not naked. The Buddha said: ‘It should not be like this.’
[A monk] who was not naked greeted [a monk] who was naked. The
Buddha said: ‘It should not be like this.’
Clearly, similar issues arise when bathing with either laypersons or fellow
monks. Decency, decorum, respect and self-respect all go hand in hand, and
shameful desire is never far away, as is indicated in a fragment of the Sapoduo
pini piposha 薩 婆 多 毘 尼 毘 婆 沙, a commentary on the Sarvāstivādavinaya,
which offers guidance on bathing clothes:
云今凡比丘浴。若露覆室。要不共白衣。及覆上身。要當著竭支。一
當有羞媿。二喜生他欲想故。(T.23.1440: 561a4–6)
Now, when bhikṣus bathe, whether in an open or a covered building, it
should not be together with laypeople. And one should cover the body
with a saṃkakṣikā. This is because, on the one hand, one should have a
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feeling of shame, and, on the other hand, [nakedness] might arouse desire in another person.
The short story that follows this guideline tells of a bhikṣu becoming excited
when he sees another bhikṣu. So it seems likely that monks were forbidden
from bathing with laypeople, and that they always had to wear a saṃkakṣikā
when bathing with fellow monks.23 In addition to the issues of shame and
(self-)respect, the potential danger of sexual attraction is highlighted.
Similar warnings appear in the Chinese commentaries, where once again
the ban on bathing with laypeople in order to avoid embarrassing situations
is emphasized. Master Daoxuan (T.1804, p.85c28–86a04), for instance, refers
explicitly to the three vinaya passages quoted above. In addition, he comments
on bathing in his manual entitled Jiaojie xinxue biqiu xinghu lüyi 教誡新學比丘
行護律儀, To Explain to Young Monks How to Protect the Vinaya Rules (T.45.1897:
p.873a20–b3). The whole bathing process must be conducted in a dignified
manner. Young monks should always bathe after the elders, and never with
anyone who is more than five years their senior. Bathing should be conducted
in silence, with dignity and respect. This attention to decency, decorum, respect and shame can also be found in one of the most influential Chinese disciplinary guidelines, the Da biqiu sanqian weiyi 大比丘三千威儀, Great (Sūtra) of
Three Thousand Dignified Observances of a Monk (T.1470), which was probably
compiled in China in the fifth century CE.24 Correct bathing behaviour is outlined in twenty-five stipulations (T.24.1470: 918c15–29). The very first rule is telling, and shows that bathing was considered a humble activity: when entering
the bathhouse, one should look down. Respect and decorum are maintained
by always paying attention to hierarchy, and by never bathing with a teacher
or with any elder who is responsible for conducting the ordination ceremony.
Instead, one should wait outside the bathhouse until they have finished.25 This
ensures that exposing oneself to masters and catching a glimpse of them bathing will both be avoided. This is important as exposure of the body might result
in a loss of respect or self-respect. The monk Yijing reiterates this in his travel
23
24
25
A saṃkakṣikā mostly refers to a cloth worn by bhikṣuṇīs to cover the breasts. In addition,
vinayas refer to a saṃkakṣikā used by men, also used to cover the chest (see Ciyi ed. 1988:
vol. 6, 5737–5738; Heirman 2008: 147–151).
Although the colophon to the text presents it as a Han translation by An Shigao (安世高,
second century), the Da biqiu sanqian weiyi was probably compiled in China during the
fifth century (cf. Hirakawa 1960: 193−196).
For details, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 35−37.
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account, the Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan 南海寄歸內法傳, Account of Buddhism
Sent from the South Seas:
應用四幅洗裙。遮身可愛。非直奉遵聖教。亦乃不愧人神。(T.54.2125:
221a4−5)
One should use a bathing skirt four times as long as it is wide, big enough
to cover the body in a decent manner. This is not only compatible with
the holy teachings, but also causes no shame in the presence of men and
deities.26
3.1.1
Toilet, Teeth Care, Shaving the Hair and Trimming the Nails
The issues of decency, decorum, respect, self-respect, shame and (when applicable) sexuality feature prominently in all discussions of bodily care—whether
these relate to going to the toilet, cleaning one’s teeth, cutting hair or trimming
nails—as well as in guidance on taking care of the robe, sleeping and speaking.
The vinaya rules on relieving oneself are based primarily on a determination to avoid embarrassment and to preserve a clean image of the saṅgha. Of
course, human waste has considerable potential to damage this image,27 so
care is essential both outside and inside the monastery. Any improper behaviour, even an embarrassing noise, should be avoided.
時六群比丘。大小便涕唾生草菜上。時有居士見已嫌言。沙門釋子無
有慚愧。外自稱言。我知正法。如是何有正法。大小便及涕唾生草菜
上。如豬狗駱駝牛驢。(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 709a27−b2)
At that time, the bhikṣus of the group of six relieved themselves and spat
on green grass. When householders saw them, they criticized them and
said: ‘These śramaṇas, son of the Śākyas, do not know shame. To the outside, they praise themselves: “We know the right doctrine.” How can this
be the right doctrine? They relieve themselves and spit on green grass.
They resemble pigs, dogs, camels, cows and donkeys.’28
26
27
28
Translation according to Li 2000: 104.
For a detailed discussion, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 67−74. See also Schopen (2008),
who has conducted a detailed study into what the disposal of human waste can tell us
about the location of nunneries in the cities of early India.
The rule that prohibits relieving oneself on green grass appears in all vinaya traditions. It
has been studied in detail by Lambert Schmithausen (1991: 31−33).
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彼高聲大鳴。餘比丘聞惡之。佛言不應爾。彼大便時不覺卒鳴有疑。
佛言不犯。(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 932a26−28)
One [bhikṣu] was groaning loud. The other bhikṣus hated this. The Buddha
said: ‘It should not be like this.’ The one [bhikṣu], while relieving himself,
unconsciously groaned and he was unsure [about this being an offence].
The Buddha said: ‘It is no offence.’
The Great (Sūtra) of Three Thousand Dignified Observances of a Monk equally
urges the monastic community to behave in a decent way when visiting the
toilet (T.24.1470: 925b25–c11). Once again, decency, respect, decorum and
shame are prioritized in a list of twenty-five guidelines. For instance, the first
stipulations decree that a monk should not greet the abbot en route to the toilet, nor receive others’ greetings; and when entering the toilet, he should lower
his head and face the ground. Daoxuan delivers an even more explicit message
in his manual for new monks (To Explain to Young Monks How to Protect the
Vinaya Rules) when he stresses that it is essential to maintain decorum (yize
儀則, lit. ‘model of conduct’) at all times:
一、覺欲出入須早去,不得臨時失儀則。(T.45.1897: 872c27)
[On toilet etiquette] One: when waking up, if one needs to go, one should
go early, and one should not lose one’s decorum.
Often related to going to the toilet is the practice of cleaning the mouth. This
should be done with similar discretion and respect: ‘There are three things one
needs to do in a secluded place: relieve oneself, urinate and chew tooth wood (to
clean the teeth)’ (有三事應在屏處。大小便嚼楊枝; Dharmaguptakavinaya,
T.22.1428: 960c29).29 Teeth-cleaning was probably not as common in early
China as it was in India. Nevertheless, Chinese masters still stressed that it
must be practised with decency, respect and decorum. For instance, in his
aforementioned manual, Daoxuan says:
三、洗漱用灰及楊枝,當向屏處,不得對上座,當與手遮。(T.45.1897:
872b17−18)
Three, when cleaning the mouth, one should use ashes and tooth wood.
One should do so in a secluded place, never in front of a senior, and [the
mouth] should be covered with the hand.
29
For details, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 109−120.
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There are prescriptions against shameful practices involving the loss of
(self-)respect and decorum in other daily practices, too. For instance, the
Dharmaguptakavinaya cautions that a monk must not soil his robes when
shaving his hair, in order to protect his reputation (T.22.1428: 945b10−11).
Trimming the nails might be damaging, too, so the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya
(T.24.1451: 275a14−15) warns: ‘Make sure that laypeople do not hold you in derision.’ Therefore, shaving and trimming should always be done in private, discreetly. Similar instructions were given in China, where shaving and trimming
was seen as a very humble business: Daoxuan states that a monk should not
stand up for a master, nor even greet him, when the latter is in the process of
shaving (T.45.1897: 875b4–11).
Monastic robes are mentioned frequently whenever the topic is bodily
care because they can be viewed as an outward extension of the human body.
Therefore, they should be kept similarly clean, and decorum is a prime concern. The Mahāsāṃghikavinaya (T.22.1425: p.509c20–21) makes explicit reference to the link between robes and body: ‘If [the robes] are filthy, one has
to wash, dye and stitch them repeatedly. One should see one’s robes as one’s
own skin. The rules on robes are as such.’ This washing should be done in a
way that minimizes the possibility of embarrassment.30 This is strongly emphasized in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, which warns monks about washing
their robes at communal washing-places, where they might find themselves
in an awkward position, such as with the robes tangled around their heads
(T.24.1451, p.271a13–16). Once again, this focus on cleanliness, respect and decorum is equally strong in the Chinese monastic guidelines. Right at the beginning of the chapter on clothing in A Transcription of Abridged Revisions in the
Dharmaguptakavinaya, for instance, Daoxuan says:
夫形居世累。必假威儀。障蔽塵染。勿過衣服。(T.40.1804: 104c21)
As our body abides amidst the entanglements of the world, we must attend to comportment, and for shielding oneself from dust and stain,
nothing surpasses clothing.31
Here, Daoxuan highlights one of the most important functions of the robes:
they shield the body and safeguard its comportment. In a later reference to
the Sarvāstivādavinaya (T.23.1435: 419b12–18), Daoxuan adds that robes must
30
31
See Heirman 2014. On the issue of pāṃśukūlika robes—‘robes from the dust heap’ worn
by ascetic monks—see the intriguing article by Nicholas Witkowski (2017).
Translation: Kieschnick 1999: 10. For a detailed discussion on the symbolism of the monastic robe in China, see, in particular, Kieschnick 1999, and 2003: 87−107.
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always be clean and that they should be protected just as a monk would protect his own skin (T.40.1804: 107b22–23).
3.1.2
Sleep and Speech
Decorum and respect are paramount not only in the guidelines relating to
bodily care but also when the focus shifts to other daily activities, such as sleep
and speech. While the first of these is unavoidable, the second could potentially be banned. However, the vinayas do not encourage silence. Instead, the
Buddha says that communication can lead to enlightenment through teaching. The communicative function of speech clearly has a prominent role to
play. In this context, the Dharmaguptakavinaya refers to the Buddha’s reaction
to a group of monks who chose not to communicate in order to avoid conflict:
佛告諸比丘。汝曹癡人。自以為樂。其實是苦。汝曹癡人。自以無
患。其實是患。汝曹癡人。共住如似怨家。猶如白羊。何以故。我
無數方便教諸比丘。彼此相教共相受語展轉覺悟。汝曹癡人。同於
外道。共受啞法。不應如是行啞法。若行啞法突吉羅。 (T.22.1428:
836a12–17)
The Buddha said to the bhikṣus: ‘You are stupid people. You think you are
happy, but this is truly hardship. You are stupid people. You think you
are without suffering, but this is truly suffering. You are stupid people.
You live together like a family full of anger. You resemble white goats.
Why so? Innumerable times I have told the bhikṣus: “You should learn
from each other; you should receive each other’s words; you should mutually come to understanding.” You are stupid people. You are just like
non-Buddhist practitioners.32 You have all accepted the law of silence.
You should not follow such a law of silence. If you follow the law of silence, you commit a duṣkṛta.’
Nevertheless, although speech is allowed—and even encouraged—respect
and decorum must be observed at all times and any inappropriate comments
should be avoided.33 Moreover, the decorum of the monastic community
needs to be protected, and every member of the saṅgha should be respectful
and set an example when talking. Shouting loudly at mealtimes, for instance,
32
33
It is rather vague who is referred to by the term wai dao 外道, ‘non-Buddhist practitioners’. In vinaya texts, the term generally refers to people who have left home, and who can
be identified by practices that differ from those seen as Buddhist. On the different ways to
label ‘non-Buddhist practitioners’ in the Pāli vinaya, see Maes 2015: 139–172.
For a detailed discussion of speech in monasteries, see Heirman 2009.
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signifies an undignified attitude. This caution is particularly directed at nuns.
For instance, rules 128–132 of the pācittika rules for nuns of the Dharmaguptakavinaya (T.22.1428: 760a8–762a14) declare that those who were unworthy or did not receive training for a period of two years after their ordination
displayed improper behaviour and shouted loudly during meals.34 Correct behaviour during mealtimes is a recurring theme. For instance, one should not
talk with food in one’s mouth or make any noise when chewing:
時六群比丘。受食食含飯語。居士見已譏嫌言。此沙門釋
子。不知慚愧受取無厭。云何含飯語。似如豬狗駱駝烏鳥
食。(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 706b18–21, śaikṣa rule 38)35
The bhikṣus of the group of six accepted food and discussed with the food
in their mouths. The householders saw this and criticized them: ‘The
śramaṇas, sons of the Śākyas, they do not know any shame. They take
[food] without any limit. Why do they speak with their mouths full of
food? They eat like swine, camels and crows.’
六群比丘嚼飯作聲食。居士見已嫌言。此沙門釋子無有慚愧。 […]
食如似豬狗駱駝牛驢烏鳥。(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 707c1–4,
śaikṣa rule 42)
The bhikṣus of the group of six made noise while chewing their food. The
householders saw this and criticized them: ‘The śramaṇas, sons of
the Śākyas, they have no shame […] They eat like swine, camels, cows,
donkeys and crows.’
The fact that householders’ criticisms are quoted here indicates that monastic
law-makers were deeply concerned with the maintenance of exemplary behaviour during interactions with the lay community. Early Chinese guidelines
place similar emphasis on exemplary behaviour, but also stress the value of
periods of silence—a tendency that, as we will see, will continue to develop.
The Great (Sūtra) of Three Thousand Dignified Observances of a Monk, for instance, cautions against speaking on certain occasions and stipulates that a
monk should not make any noise, laugh or talk when entering a hall (T.24.1470:
p.919a16–18); and, of course, noise during meals is prohibited (ibid.: 922b9–10,
17–19, 25–27).
34
35
A pācittika (or variants) is an offence that must be expiated (see Heirman 2002: part I,
148–149).
A śaikṣa rule relates to good behavior (see Heirman 2002: part I, 141–147).
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While speech can be avoided, sleep is inevitable, and this lack of control
during sleep has the potential to harm the image of the saṅgha or its individual
members. The compilers of the vinayas were well aware of this danger: they
knew that it is impossible to control one’s actions while sleeping, so shameful
situations might arise. For instance, a naked body could provoke laughter and
undermine the status of a monk:
六群比丘與諸長者共在講堂止住。時六群中有一人。散亂心睡眠無所
覺知。小轉側形體發露。時有比丘以衣覆已。復更轉側露形。一比
丘復以衣覆之。尋復轉側而形起。時諸長者見已。便生譏嫌大笑調
弄。時眠比丘心懷慚愧無顏。諸比丘亦慚愧。(Dharmaguptakavinaya,
T.22.1428, p.638a28–b5)
The bhikṣus of the group of six stayed with elders in one hall. Among this
group there was one who had a disturbed mind and when he was asleep
he was not aware [of what he was doing]. He turned around a bit and
uncovered his body. After another bhikṣu had put a cloth on him to cover
him, he again turned around and uncovered his body. And then another
bhikṣu again covered him with a cloth. But, subsequently, he again turned
around and his body [presumably his penis] stood up. When the elders
saw it, they criticized him, they laughed out loud, and they made fun of
him. The monk who had been asleep was ashamed and lost face. The
other bhikṣus were equally ashamed.
To avoid such embarrassing situations, the vinayas forbid monastic members
from spending the night with non-ordained people, at least for more than two
or three nights.
Moreover, sleep can be seen as a sign of laziness or at least of non-activity.
And, importantly, it is also often linked to sexual practices. In this context, the
vinayas contain several rules that are designed to minimize any accusations of
improper behaviour. The Chinese disciplinary texts, such as the Great (Sūtra)
of Three Thousand Dignified Observances of a Monk (T.24.1470: 915a24–28,
915c11–17 and c24–27) and the manual To Explain to Young Monks How to
Protect the Vinaya Rules (T.1897, p.871a5–b2) continue in the same vein, and
present sleep itself in a rather negative way. Unsurprisingly, nudity while sleeping is strictly banned.36
36
For details, see Heirman 2012: 430–440.
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3.1.3
Safeguarding the Saṅgha
The quest for external cleanliness and decorum could be seen as contradictory
when compared with Buddhist body-meditation, which tends to focus on repulsiveness.37 However, as Steven Collins explains, while the inner meditative
reflection of a monk or a nun emphasizes the impurity and impermanence
of the body, his or her social position demands ‘a spotless’ performance.38
Dirt and filth—as well as nakedness and improper noise—compromise this
exemplary image of the saṅgha, so every member of the monastic community should take steps to avoid them. Any dirt that is accumulated should be
washed away, and naked bodies should remain hidden from the eyes of juniors
and lay followers. If these guidelines are followed, the saṅgha and thus the
Buddhist doctrine are safeguarded.
This goal of protecting the community is apparent in both Indian and early
Chinese disciplinary texts. In that sense, the saṅgha continued to develop
along similar ideas in both places. But the challenges in China were different
from those in India. Buddhism and even monasticism were new to the Chinese
public of the early centuries of the Common Era, and the country’s Buddhist
communities faced major criticism. For instance, they were accused of promoting a way of life that contradicted the praised value of filial piety, even
though Chinese masters were at pains to stress the importance of this principle in the Buddhist tradition. As Gregory Schopen has shown, it is important
not to interpret Chinese Buddhists’ focus on filial piety as a sign of the religion’s ‘sinicization’.39 However, the concept of filial piety developed into a particularly important issue for Chinese masters and laypeople alike, and Chinese
Buddhist authors went to considerable lengths to emphasize that pursuing a
monastic life did not in any way undermine the respect that was due to one’s
parents.40 Several of these masters were rather apologetic, as Tanya Storch has
highlighted in her work on Chinese Buddhist bibliographies. Her discussion
of master Sengyou’s 僧祐 (445–518) catalogue (the Chu sanzang jiji 出三藏記
37
38
39
40
On body-meditation, see, among others, Dessein (2014), who discusses meditation techniques that focus on the decay of dead bodies.
Collins 1997: 194−203.
See, for instance, Schopen 1997a and 2007.
On filial piety in Chinese Buddhism, see the pioneering article by Ch’en (1968), who underlines its importance in Chinese society. Often in response to Ch’en, many others have
analysed filial piety in a Buddhist context, highlighting its specific status in the Confucian
environment of China. For an overview, see Guang (2005), who identifies several similarities between Indian and Chinese Buddhist ideas on filial piety. See also Cole (1998: 41−55),
who explores how Indian aspects were made relevant to Chinese concerns; and Heirman
(2015: 44−49) who discusses Daoxuan’s concerns about women leaving family life.
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集, Compilation of Notices on the Translation of the Tripiṭaka, T.2145), the earliest extant catalogue of Buddhist texts, is especially interesting. Storch shows
that Sengyou explicitly tries to cast Buddhism as ‘a part of Chinese history and
culture since its earliest days rather than underscoring Buddhism’s innovative ideas’.41 In this way, he attempts to legitimize Buddhism and fight against
the accusation that it has a deficient morality. Therefore, moral values needed
to be highlighted, and displayed prominently to the Chinese lay community.
Obviously, the body is one of the prime markers of this endeavour, so it should
come as no surprise that Chinese disciplinary masters turned their focus increasingly to proper bodily behaviour, as shall be discussed below.
3.2
Karmic Return
Decency, respect and decorum enhance the image of the saṅgha and facilitate contact with lay communities. This is important for the economic development of the Buddhist community, as donors are more likely to offer gifts
to a more respectful saṅgha. Moreover, when doing so, they also expect to
accrue more merit: the better the saṅgha, the higher the karmic return will
be. Buddhist monasteries, in both India and China, were certainly not averse
to such win–win exchanges, since maintaining their domains was a major
responsibility.42
A good example of the mutual benefit of the Buddhist community receiving
and maintaining buildings and donors obtaining karmic return can be found in
the Wenshi xiyu zhongseng jing 溫室洗浴眾僧經, Sūtra on Bathing Monks in the
Bathhouse (T.701). Although several early Chinese catalogues assert that this
text is a translation, commonly attributed to An Shigao 安世高 (mid-second
century CE), the Chinese text probably dates from a few centuries later.43 It
links external cleanliness to internal purity, an issue that will be discussed
further below, and repeatedly states that cleanliness is crucial for obtaining
41
42
43
Storch 2014: 59.
Gregory Schopen (2004b: 26–37) reveals that donors and monastic managers frequently
discussed the ownership of monasteries. It was important for monasteries to remain aesthetically beautiful, or to be constructed in beautiful settings, in order to attract donations. In China, the monastic community usually owned its monasteries, and the larger
institutes, especially, accumulated land and expanded their buildings to secure their positions in society. In this context, donors were crucial to the survival and maintenance of
the saṅgha. Michael Walsh, in his study on Buddhist monasticism and territoriality in
medieval China (2010: 3), explains the situation eloquently: ‘On a material level in the
Chinese monastic context, land was the source of food and sustenance of monks. On a
more ideological level it was part of a discourse on Buddhist practice: to donate land was
to be a good Buddhist.’
For details, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 56–57, note 39.
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respect and veneration. A person who is qingjing 清淨 (‘clean/pure’) has removed all external dirt and is internally pure. A qingjing 清淨 person is beautiful and upright:
耆域長跪白佛言 […] 今欲請佛及諸眾僧、菩薩大士,入溫室澡浴。願
令眾生長夜清淨,穢垢消除,不遭眾患。 (T.16.701: 802c20–23)
Jīvaka [a famous doctor] kneels and tells the Buddha: ‘[…] I am asking the
Buddha, all monastics and the bodhisattvas to enter the hothouse and to
bathe. I want to make sure that all beings are eternally pure, that dirt is
removed and all disasters averted.’
It is here that the Buddha enumerates the benefits of donating a bathhouse
to monastics and bodhisattvas: the donors will be healthy, pure and beautiful
(qingjing 清淨), and respected by all. Clothing, wealth and jewellery will materialize, and all anxiety will cease (T.16.701: 803a7–15).
This text on bathing was quite popular in China, and influential masters,
such as Huiyuan 慧遠 (523–592), commented upon it. Huiyuan notes that
‘the central message of this scripture is the merit of giving’ (Wenshi jing yiji
溫室經義記, Analysis of the Sūtra on the Bathhouse, T.39.1793, p.512c15). John
Kieschnick (2013: 118) has shown that this message spread throughout Chinese
society, so the Sūtra on the Bathhouse ‘provided the impetus for lay people to
contribute to the construction of monastic bathhouses through its emphasis
on the merit accruing to those who build bathhouses for monasteries’.
Karmic return was indeed an important consideration for donors, in both
India and China. However, Michael Walsh (2010: 109–112) points out that the
accumulation of merit required active participation from both the donor and
the recipient: the monks needed to be decent and clean, symbols of internal
purity, and thus capable of transferring merit; and the donors needed to provide material help to the monastic community, in return for which they received merit. When discussing this process of exchange in their disciplinary
texts, the Buddhist masters paid increasing attention to purity, thus advancing
the threshold of what was deemed necessary to become a ‘good monastic’. The
role of lay donors in this process is strikingly clear in the qing gui rules, which
underscore how those who help the monastic community to maintain cleanliness (and purity) accrue considerable merit:
如施主設浴。則課經回向能妙觸宣明。成佛子住則功不浪施矣。
(T.48.2025: 1131c1–c3)44
44
Chixiu Baizhang qing gui 敕修百丈清規, Baizhang’s Rules of Purity Revised on Imperial
Order, compiled by Dongyang Dehui 東陽德輝 between 1335 and 1343. A similar passage
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If a donor constructs a bathhouse, a sūtra will be recited so that the merit
that will be returned can reach Bhadrapāla in a wonderful way.45 If bodhisattvas come into being, the merit [donation] will not be spent in vain.46
Karmic return is also an important aspect of life inside the monastery, at least
according to the Chinese manual the Great (Sūtra) of Three Thousand Dignified
Observances of a Monk. A dirty monk cannot serve the abbot, or greet the Three
Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha). And even if he participates in a ceremony,
he will not accrue any merit.
應淨身口淨衣食。淨身者。洗大小便剪十指爪。淨口者。嚼楊枝漱口
刮舌。若不洗大小便。得突吉羅罪。亦不得僧淨坐。具上坐及禮三
寶。設禮無福德。(T.24.1470, p.914a15–19)
One has to eat with a clean body and mouth and with clean robes. A
clean body entails washing the ‘places of urine and excrement’ and cutting the ten fingernails. A clean mouth entails that one chews tooth
wood, rinses the mouth and scrapes the tongue. If one does not wash the
‘places of urine and excrement’, one commits a duṣkṛta offence. One also
cannot obtain any ‘pure position’ in the saṅgha,47 serve the abbot or greet
the Three Jewels. And even if he greets [the Three Jewels], he will not accrue any merit.
3.3
Purity
The above examples reveal a close connection between the outward nature of
the body and inner morality, a quite traditional feature of Buddhism. For instance, Suzanne Mrozik has suggested that the physical shape of the body functions as a marker of ethical development. In this sense, it is possible to speak of
‘virtuous bodies’, which are often also marked by social status, such as a wealthy
45
46
47
can be found in Chanlin beiyong qing gui 禪林備用清規, Auxiliary Rules of Purity for
Chan Monasteries, compiled in 1311 by the monk Zeshan Yixian 澤山弋咸 (W 112,
p. 110b8–10).
宣明 xuanming, the layman Bhadrapāla, attained enlightenment in a bathhouse and was
subsequently granted bodhisattva-ship. See, among others, Yifa 2002: 285, note 7 (with
references to the development of the tradition of inviting bodhisattvas to the bathhouse).
For a detailed analysis, see Fritz 1994: 119.
The term jing zuo 淨坐 (‘pure position’) remains unclear. Given the context and the fact
that members of the saṅgha, and certainly members who assume any sort of responsibility, need to display exemplary behaviour, the term possibly refers to any position (zuo)
that requires purity (jing).
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family or a high religious position.48 When living beings come into contact with
such a virtuous religious body—of the Buddha, of a bodhisattva or of a member
of the monastic community—they are transformed for the better, both physically and morally. Mrozik describes this discourse as ‘physiomoral’.49 The internal mental condition of a monk or a nun, and by extension of the whole
Buddhist community, can thus be inferred from their outward behaviour, since
external features express internal elements.50 Bodily care has a strong moral aspect, too, as Reiko Ohnuma (2007: 203) explains: ‘Thus the human body, as both
the vehicle for one’s spiritual progress and the locus of its ultimate goal (enlightenment), should be adequately cared for and maintained.’ This connection
between the body and internal purity is strongly emphasized in the Chinese disciplinary texts. However, this was scarcely an original notion.51 Indeed, several
vinaya passages had already commented on the link between bodily features or
practices and state of mind. For instance, the Mahīśāsakavinaya associates long
nails with an impure way of life:
爾時諸比丘養爪令長。生染著心不樂修梵行。遂有反俗作外道者。
諸白衣譏呵。此諸沙門如受欲人。修飾手爪無厭離心。 (T.22.1421:
173a29−b2)
At that time, some bhikṣus let their nails grow. They harboured impure
thoughts and were not happy to follow the pure conduct. Some returned
to lay life or entered a non-Buddhist group. The householders criticized
them: ‘These śramaṇas look like people who have desire. They decorate
their fingernails and do not have thoughts of detachment.’
In this context, time spent sleeping is particularly revealing, since it can expose
a chaotic and impure mind through unconscious bodily behaviour, such as the
emission of semen or uttering improper words dreaming:52
48
49
50
51
52
Mrozik 2007: 61−81. See also Powers 2009a: 1−23, on the physical beauty and masculinity of
the Buddha’s body and its moral connection; and Powers 2009b on the strong correlation
between virtue and physical beauty.
Mrozik 2007: 62.
As Richard Gombrich (1984: 100) puts it, decorum becomes ‘empirical evidence of a
monk’s internal state’.
It appears quite frequently in non-vinaya texts, as both Mrozik (2007) and Powers (2009a
and 2009b) point out.
For more examples, see Heirman 2012: 428−430 (on sleep).
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時有一比丘亂意睡眠於夢中失精有憶念覺已作是念。世尊與諸比丘結
戒。弄陰失精僧伽婆尸沙。而我亂意睡眠於夢中失精而有憶念。將不
犯僧伽婆尸沙耶。我今當云何。[…] 世尊以此因緣即集諸比丘告言。
亂意睡眠有五過失。一者惡夢。二者諸天不護。三者心不入法。四者
不思惟明相。五者於夢中失精。是為五過失。善意睡眠有五功德。不
見惡夢。諸天衛護心入於法。繫意在明相。不於夢中失精。是謂五功
德。於夢中失精不犯。(Dharmaguptakavinaya, T.22.1428: 579b13−c1)53
At that time, a bhikṣu had a chaotic mind and when asleep he lost semen
in a dream. He remembered it and when awake, he thought: ‘The Buddha
made a rule for bhikṣus, saying that one who masturbates and loses
semen commits a saṃghāvaśeṣa.54 Now, I had a chaotic mind and when
asleep I lost semen in a dream and I remembered it. I will not have committed a saṃghāvaśeṣa, will I? What is my case now?’ […] [He asks other
bhikṣus for advice and these bhikṣus ask the Buddha.] For this reason, the
Buddha gathered the bhikṣus and told them: ‘When asleep with a chaotic
mind, there are five bad things: one, one has bad dreams; two, the gods do
not protect you; three, the mind does not enter the Dharma; four, one
does not think of brightness; and, five, one loses semen in a dream. These
are the five bad things. When sleeping with a good mind, there are five
good things: one does not have bad dreams; the gods protect you; the
mind enters the Dharma; one is linked to brightness; and one does not
lose semen in a dream. These are the five good things. If one loses semen
during a dream, one does not commit an offence.’
Even the position in which one sleeps can be telling, as is clearly stated in
the Mahāsāṃghikavinaya (T.22.1425: 507a15–b1), a vinaya that explicitly links
moral behaviour with the adoption of a correct sleeping position: sleeping
with the face downwards (on the belly) is said to be the sleeping position of an
asura; sleeping with the face upwards (on the back) is the position of a hungry
ghost;55 and lying on one’s left side is the position of a man full of desire. So the
only proper sleeping position is lying on one’s right side.56
53
54
55
56
Similar passages appear in other vinayas (see Heirman 2012: 429, note 6).
A saṃghāvaśeṣa is an offence that, after a monastic procedure, potentially leads to temporary expulsion from the order. It is the second-gravest category of offence (see Heirman
2002: part I, 128−138).
An asura is one of a group of beings considered to be opponents of the gods. A ‘hungry
ghost’ (preta) suffers from an insatiable appetite as a punishment for its greed in former
lives.
For a discussion and comparison with similar ideas in other vinaya traditions, see
Heirman 2012: 438−439.
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The above examples clearly link sleeping practices with state of mind. Yet
all of these problems occur unconsciously, so a monk or nun cannot be held
responsible for them. Although the actions are said to reveal an impure mind,
there is no volition or intention, and no awareness of them.57 The agent is
acting unwillingly. Consequently, the action does not constitute an offence.
In fact, apart from the revelatory aspect of sleep, the vinayas only very occasionally connect bodily practices to internal (im)purity. A notable exception
is the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya’s account of a visit to the toilet by the Buddha’s
disciple Śāriputra (T.24.1451: 276c29−277b27). It tells the story of a Brahmin
who goes in search of a group that values purity.58 He visits several potentially
promising communities, but each time learns that there is no washing facility specifically designated for use after a visit to the toilet. However, he then
spots Śāriputra carrying a bottle of water to a toilet area and decides to investigate. He sees the monk carefully and elaborately cleaning his bottom, hands
and arms, and rinsing his mouth. After watching this elaborate procedure, the
Brahmin joins the Buddhist community. The Buddha then praises the infinite
value of purity (qingjing 清景) in monastic discipline.
時此城中有一婆羅門。常樂清淨希願出家。(T.24.1451, pp.276c29−277a1)
Then in that town there was a Brahmin who constantly found pleasure in
purity. He was hoping to leave home.
舍利子既見彼人隨從而行。遂便斂念觀此婆羅門何故隨我。乃知此人
心求潔淨。欲於我所伺其善惡。(T.24.1451, p.277a11−13)
Śāriputra saw that this man was following him. He was wondering: ‘Why
does this Brahmin follow me?’ Then he understood that this man was
seeking purity. ‘He wants to watch in me virtue and evil.’
因斯制戒為清淨事福利無邊。(T.24.1451, p.277b24−25)
If one make rules in this way for the sake of purity, the benefits will be
boundless.
57
58
See Peter Harvey (2000: 52): ‘the degree of unwholesomeness of an action is seen to vary
according to the degree and nature of the volition/intention behind an action, and the degree of knowledge (of various kinds) relating to it. A bad action becomes more unwholesome as the force of volition behind it increases, for this leaves a greater karmic “trace” in
the mind.’
It is no coincidence that it is a Brahmin who is searching for purity. As Patrick Olivelle
(1998: 189) says, ‘especially within the Brāhmaṇical tradition, maintaining the purity of
the body was and continues to be a major element of ritual and morality’.
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From decency, respect and decorum, this Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya story has
shifted the focus to purity. Physical acts of cleansing externalize moral purity.
As we will see in the next passage, which discusses the correct procedure for
washing robes, this can be the first step on a virtuous path: as a person becomes more clean and pure, they provide ever more fertile ground in which
the Dharma may grow. The robe, as an extension of the body, becomes a fully
integrated part of this discourse:
佛 […] 為說出世之法。所謂苦集滅道聖諦。猶如浣衣先除垢穢。既
清淨已色即易染。耶舍亦爾。初聞佛說心器清淨。便能了知四聖諦
法。(Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, T.24.1450: 129a8−11)
Thereupon the Buddha spoke about the way to leave the world, that is,
about the noble truths of suffering, of the origin of suffering, of the cessation of suffering and of the path [leading to the cessation of suffering]. It
is like washing the robes: one first removes all filth. When [the robes] are
clean and pure [qingjing 清淨], colour can easily penetrate. [The monk]
Yaśa is also like this. He first heard the Buddha speak about the cleanliness and purity of the mind [xin qi 心器, lit. ‘of the mind instrument/
organ’]. Thereupon, he could understand the four noble truths.59
This clear connection between cleanliness and purity in the
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya is also a feature of Chinese disciplinary texts, less so
in the first commentaries that discuss the vinayas, but increasingly in manuals
and travellers’ accounts, and culminating in the qing gui rules, the ‘rules of purity’. While this was an internal Buddhist development—as is apparent in the
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya and the Sūtra on Bathing Monks in the Bathhouse—it
was certainly appropriate for the Chinese context, where Buddhism gradually acquired an important position. As Roger Ames (1993: 164) points out, the
Confucian elite similarly emphasized the close relationship between body and
mind: he defines the central Confucian concept of ren 仁—often translated
simply as ‘benevolence’ or ‘kindness’—as ‘the whole human process: body and
mind’. In this sense, it was only a small step to start relating bodily practices to
moral values. In his article on the development of bathing customs in ancient
and medieval China, Edward Schafer (1956: 59) formulates this as follows: ‘We
know virtually nothing about the bathing habits of commoners, but washing
his person was de rigueur for a gentleman, for whom the bodily and moral purity was closely interdependent.’
59
For a discussion of the robe as an extension of the body, see Heirman 2014: 484−485.
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Purity also lies at heart of Daoist guidelines on bodily practices. In addition,
Daoist communities rely on a high level of ritualization. A telling example is
the chapter on washing and rinsing in the Xuanmen shishi weiyi 玄門十事威儀,
Ten Items of Daoist Ceremonial (DZ 792, fasc. 564, 7b−8b), a seventh-century CE
text on Daoist monastic precepts.60 One of its chants says:
洗灰除垢用灰為首穢去真來淨心淨口成道度人天長地久急急如律令
(DZ 792, fasc. 564, 8b)
Washing with ashes to remove dirt, using the ashes as a primary means,
may foulness go and perfection arise. Cleansing the heart and cleansing
the mouth, realizing the Dao and saving others, Heaven is great and Earth
everlasting! Swiftly, swiftly, in accord with the statutes and the
ordinances!61
Such chants, which are still in use today,62 ritualize daily life and unmistakably
connect cleansing and purity. The body is cleaned both inside and outside,
washing away dirt and defilements.
3.3.1
Chinese Masters
As mentioned above, the Chinese masters who discussed and propagated
Buddhism responded to both an internal Buddhist development and to the
Chinese context in which they lived. Unsurprisingly, the monk Yijing 義淨,
who lived in India and South Asia between 671 and 695, is a prime example
of this. He displays a desire to spread Buddhism in China, relies heavily on the
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, and shares that vinaya’s focus on purity. Moreover, he
frequently complains about the laxity of his fellow monastics in China. For him,
discipline protects against moral deprivation, and serves as a basis for decency,
respect and purity.63
小便則一二之土可用洗手洗身。此即清淨之先。爲敬基本。或人將爲
小事。律教乃有大呵。若不洗淨。不合坐僧床。亦不應禮三寶。此是
身子伏外道法。佛因總制苾芻。修之則奉律福生。不作乃違教招罪。
斯則東夏不傳。(T.54.2125: 218b19−25)
60
61
62
63
For a short description, see Kohn 2003: 221−222.
Translation: Kohn 2003: 117.
See Kohn 2003: 240, note 7.
Yijing complains that, in China, teachers and disciples alike do not seem to pay sufficient
heed to the vinaya rules (T.54.2125, p.219b15−21).
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After urinating, one can use one or two lumps of earth to wash the hands
and the body. This is the essence of purity [qingjing 清淨]. It is the basis
of respect. Some people will see this as a trivial thing, but the vinaya has
great [impact]! If one does not clean oneself, one cannot sit on a seat of
the saṅgha and one cannot venerate the Three Jewels [Buddha, Dharma,
Saṅgha]. This is the way in which Śāriputra subdued a non-Buddhist.
Therefore, the Buddha generally controls the bhikṣus. If they follow this,
they venerate the vinaya and blessings will accrue. If they do not, they go
against the teaching and they will incur guilt. This is not transmitted to
China.
又凡受齋供及餘飲噉。既其入口方即成觸。要將淨水漱口之後。方得
觸著餘人及餘淨食。若未澡漱觸他。並成不淨。其被觸人皆須淨
漱。(T.54.2125: 207a27−b1)
When receiving food, or when eating and drinking, as soon as food enters
the mouth one is ‘touched upon’. Only after washing the mouth with
clean water can one touch someone else or take another dish of clean
food. If one touches someone else before rinsing one’s mouth, that person also becomes impure, and the person who has been touched also
needs to wash himself [lit. ‘purify and rinse’].
So a clean mouth testifies to a monk’s—and, by extension, the saṅgha’s—purity, while functioning as an identity marker for Chinese monastics. A dirty
monk has no place in the saṅgha. Similar ideas about purity appear in other
Chinese writings, too, such as the manual Da biqiu sanqian weiyi, which states
that a monk who has not cleaned himself will not accrue any merit, even if he
greets the Three Jewels. Still, some texts accord the concept of purity a more
prominent place than others in their discussions of bodily care. This is most
striking in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya and Yijing’s account of his travels. By
contrast, the early Chinese vinaya commentaries and monastic manuals focus
on decency, respect and decorum. At the same time, however, Daoist manuals—although they rely heavily on their Buddhist counterparts—strongly underscore the importance of purity and the link between external and internal
purification. This connection also fits neatly within the Confucian framework
of the perfect gentleman.
3.3.2
Rules of Purity
Clarifying the relationship between cleanliness and purity culminated in the
qing gui rules, the ‘rules of purity’, which started to develop in the eighth century CE. The oldest extant code is the Chanyuan qing gui 禪苑清規, The Pure
Rules for the Chan Monastery (W 111, pp.875−942), compiled by Changlu Zongze
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長蘆宗赜 (d. 1107?) in 1103. In these rules, chanting—with karmic return and
purity as central issues—is of paramount importance:
初三十三二十三念皇風永扇帝道遐昌。佛日增輝法輪常轉。伽藍土地
護法安人。十方施主增福增慧。為如上緣念清淨法身等云云。 (W 111:
885b17−886a1)
On the third, thirteenth and twenty-third of each month the monks
chant, ‘May the spirit of the emperor live for ever, and may the Dao of the
emperor forever flourish. Let the sun of the Buddha grow brighter, and let
the wheel of the Dharma eternally turn. May the guardian deities of the
monastery and the guardian deities of the earth protect the Dharma and
comfort all humans. May the donors from the ten directions increase
their merit and wisdom. For all those hopes we chant: “Pure Dharma
Body.”’64
Later qing gui rules, compiled in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, go even
further than the Chanyuan qing gui in emphasizing the importance of purity.
All insist, for instance, that a ‘toilet incantation’ should be recited on every visit
to the toilet.65 When giving this instruction, the Chixiu Baizhang qing gui 敕
修百丈清規, Baizhang’s Rules of Purity Revised on Imperial Order, compiled by
Dongyang Dehui 東陽德輝 between 1335 and 1343, declares:
夫登溷者不念此咒。[…] 亦不能淨。凡登殿堂瞻禮並無利益。奉勸受
持每誦七遍。是故鬼神常相拱護。(T.48.2025: 1145c1−4)
Whoever goes to the toilet and does not recite these ritual sentences will
never be able to purify himself […] No matter how often he goes to the
shrine hall to worship, it will be of no use. Therefore, one must uphold
[the ritual sentences] and recite them seven times on every occasion. In
this way, the ghosts and the spirits will always accompany and protect
[the person who is reciting].66
Dongyang Dehui’s message is clear: external purity is the inevitable counterpart of internal purity. This purity also resides in the patched monastic robe:
it feeds human life, just like a rice field.67 Standing for the Dharma, it elevates
the mind:
64
65
66
67
Translation: Yifa 2002: 137. On ‘Pure Dharma Body’, see Yifa 2002: 12.
See Heirman and Torck 2012: 83.
For a full translation, see Ichimura 2006: 312–313.
Vinaya texts had similarly compared the design of a monastic robe to a rice field many
centuries earlier. For details, see Yifa 2002: 64–65.
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增輝記云。田畦貯水生長嘉苗。以養形命。法衣之田潤以四利之水。
增其三善之苗。以養身法慧命也。(T.48.2025: 1139a10−12)
The Zenghui ji [The Record of Rising Splendour] says: ‘A rice field stores
water and nourishes good seeds.68 In this way it nurtures the body. As a
kind of rice field, the Dharma robe is moistened with the water of the
four benefits [kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity]. It strengthens
the seeds of the three good things [absence of greed, hatred and
ignorance].69 In this way it nurtures the Dharma [embodied in the body]
and wisdom.’
Purity also affects the activities of the body. Sleep, although unavoidable,
should be kept to a minimum. A pure mind is trained through activity, primarily meditation, and the body has a proper sleeping posture.70 Speech
should also be minimized, to the extent that monks who need anything during
mealtimes should make this known in silence (moran 默然), using gestures.71
Hence, in large Chinese monasteries, each meal was eaten in silence, apart
from a few ritual sentences that were chanted at the beginning and the end:72
68
69
70
71
72
The Zenghui ji (full title: Xingshi chao zenghui ji 行事鈔增暉記, The Record of Rising
Splendour of the [Abridged and Explanatory] Commentary [on the Dharmaguptakavinaya]
(a commentary of vinaya master Daoxuan) is no longer extant. It is mentioned in Huixian’s
慧顯 catalogue (of the Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)), the Xingshi chao zhujia ji biaomu 行事鈔諸家記標目, Catalogue of the Records on the [Abridged and Explanatory]
Commentary [on the Dharmaguptakavinaya], W 70: 102a3–4. It is said to have been compiled by a monk called Wenguang 文光 (865–c. 948).
Si li 四利 and san shan 三善 are explained in the Sifen lü suiji jiemo shu zheng yuan ji 四分
律隨機羯磨疏正源記, The Origin of the Dharmaguptaka, Commentary on the [Abridged]
and Explanatory Karmavācanā of the Dharmaguptakavinaya (= a karmavācanā commentary of the vinaya master Daoxuan), compiled by the monk Yunkang 允堪 (c. 1005–1062),
W 64: 398b15–16: ‘The four benefits are kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity; the
three good things are absence of greed and so on [hatred and ignorance].’ Many thanks to
Fa Ling (Ghent University) for helping to trace the origin of this passage.
For a discussion, see Heirman 2012: 435–442.
See, for instance, Chanyuan qing gui, W 111: 882b5.
Similar contemplations can be found in Daoxuan’s writings. Notably, these focus on the
virtue of a pure mind and eating only simple, modest meals, which are seen as no more
than a means to sustain the body (see Daoxuan, Sifen lü shanfan buque xingshi chao,
T.40.1804: 84a8–12). For details on the origin of these contemplations, see Yifa 2002: 263,
note 187.
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一計功多少量彼來處。二忖己德行全缺應供。三防心離過貪等為宗。
四正事良藥為療形枯。五為成道故應受此食也。(Chanyuan qing gui,
W 111: 882a6–7)
One, to ponder the effort necessary to supply this food and to appreciate
its origins; two, to reflect on one’s own virtue being insufficient to receive
the offering; three, to protect the mind’s integrity, to depart from error,
and, as a general principle, to avoid being greedy; four, at the same time
to consider the food as medicine and bodily nourishment, preventing
emaciation; five, to receive this food as necessary for attaining
enlightenment.73
3.4
Ritualization
As was mentioned above, the increasing focus on purity in Chinese disciplinary texts on bodily care goes hand in hand with increasing ritualization, which
in these texts is primarily characterized by chanting and by strict rules on the
correct sequence of actions. One such ritualized sequence had previously appeared in the Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya, when Śāriputra welcomes the Brahmin
into the Buddhist monastic community by explaining how he cleans himself
during a visit to the toilet, using a set number of objects in a precise order.
Śāriputra washes himself with fifteen lumps of earth, squats down, places a
water jar on his left thigh, and washes his left hand with water from the jar and
the first seven lumps of earth. Then he uses the next seven lumps to clean both
hands and arms, and the fifteenth to wash the jar. Having donned his robe,
he washes his feet. Finally, he rinses his mouth three times. In a truly ritual
activity, only the rules matter, not the result.74 For Śāriputra, however, both the
rules and the result are important: he thoroughly cleans himself while executing the precise sequence of actions that is set down in the rules. Hence, in this
case, the strict order ritualizes the action but does not make it purely ritual.
Similarly, when monastics eat their meals, they follow a highly standardized
routine, but they also consume food to nourish themselves.
In the constant intermingling of decency, decorum, respect, karmic return
and purity, most daily actions—such as eating and bathing, going to the toilet, sleeping and getting up in the morning—become standardized: they testify to the respectful attitude of the saṅgha members, which merits karmic
return. Purity is an essential part of the monastics’ identity. Through their pure
behaviour, they help the lay community and protect the Dharma. The Chixiu
73
74
Translation: Yifa 2002: 127.
Here, I am following Frits Staal’s definition. See Staal 1979: 9.
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Baizhang qing gui neatly summarizes this notion when it discusses the rules of
daily conduct:
然則法門興廢繫在僧徒。僧是福田所應奉重。僧重則法重。僧輕則法
輕。內護既嚴外護必謹。(T.48.2025, p.1147a27–29)
The rise and fall of Buddhism lies in the hands of the members of the
saṅgha. The saṅgha is a field of merit that must be respected. If the saṅgha
is respected, the Dharma is respected. If the saṅgha is belittled, the
Dharma is belittled. When one is committed to guarding one’s inner side,
one must be cautious to guard one’s outer side.
This is the basis for the meticulous regulation of all activities, in which objects
and practices are placed in strict sequences and occasionally even numbered.
Ritual sentences accompany these practices, even in such seemingly trivial activities as visits to the toilet. Chanting clearly enhances the ritual level of the
action: at first, the chants still had clear meanings, but in the later disciplinary
texts several sentences contain only mantra-like syllables. In this way, when
‘contrasted with the applied activities of our ordinary, everyday life’,75 they
neatly exhibit their ritual character. Such ritual aspects became an integral
part of daily life in China’s large public monasteries, and even today monastics
are urged to recite the following whenever they visit the toilet:76
大小便時 當願眾生 棄貪瞋癡 蠲除罪法 唵。很魯陀耶莎訶 (a popular
ritual sentence, of which the direct source is the Pini riyong qieyao 毗尼
日用切要, The Essentials of Daily Conduct of the Vinaya, W 106: 129b14–15,
a seventeenth-century manual)77
When relieving oneself, one should wish that all living beings abandon
greed, hatred and ignorance, and remove errors. An, henlutuoyesuohe.78
In sum, empowered by ritual spells, when taking care of one’s body, one respects decorum, removes impurity and ensures karmic return. It is a virtuous
75
76
77
78
Staal 1979: 9.
On such chants, see Heirman and Torck 2012: 83–84.
With many thanks to the participants of a vinaya workshop in Chengdu, 2013, and to
Michael Radich (Victoria University of Wellington) for helping to trace the source of this
ritual sentence.
The ritual sentence ‘an, henlutuoyesuohe’ had previously appeared in the fourteenthcentury Chixiu Baizhang qing gui, T.48.2025, p.1145c4–5. Shohei Ichimura (2006: 313) reconstructs it as ‘Oṃ krodhāya svāhā’. While in Chinese, the syllables are purely ritualistic,
in Sanskrit ‘krodhāya’ standing between the ritual syllables ‘oṃ’ and ‘svāhā’ might have a
meaning related to ‘anger’ (krodha).
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circle: while enhancing the status of the saṅgha (and its individual members),
it also increases the level of purity.
4
Conclusion
The organization of monasteries plays a crucial role in the construction of the
Buddhist identity. The activities of monks and nuns thus naturally influence
the perception of Buddhism. In this perception, the body is of paramount importance because it is the outward expression of a way of life that has the potential to become a model for the rest of society. Bodily practices provide the
Buddhist community with a sense of continuity, and, as Bourdieu puts it, with
‘a present past that tends to perpetuate itself into the future’. Indeed, Buddhist
guidelines on bodily practices focus on decency, respect, decorum, karmic return and purity throughout the spread of Buddhism from India to China.
Nevertheless, there is also evidence of adaptation to new contexts and networks, and here Elias’s ‘expanding threshold of aversion’ is apparent. In China,
this might more accurately be termed an ‘advancing purity threshold’. Purity,
with its strong connection between outward behaviour and inner thoughts,
is an important facet of Buddhist guidelines on bodily care in both India and
China. In this sense, dirt and bodily secretions represent not only physical but
also mental and spiritual weakness.79 However, the human body inevitably gets
dirty and produces filth, and these weaknesses need to be cleansed, thoughtfully and with purity always in mind. This latter focus on purity gradually
moved to the fore in the Chinese monastic identity, culminating in the ‘rules of
purity’, which were written primarily for use in large public monasteries.
A strong ideal of purity fitted well in the religious–philosophical context of
China, where Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian ideas intermingled. Adherents
understood that they must be diligent in cleaning and purifying their bodies,
leaving no spots of filth behind. Everything that related to the body, be it material, such as the robe, or physical, such as speech and sleep, shifted into a
higher realm: they stood for purity and proximity to the Dharma. Body and
robe shone, while sleep and speech were kept to a minimum. This whole process triggered ever more ritualization: specific chants were outlined in the monastic guidelines on daily behaviour, and the correct sequences of actions were
standardized. The purity threshold to reach one’s monastic goal did indeed
advance—a development that strongly influenced the perception of Buddhist
identity in medieval and early modern China.
79
See, among others, Williams 1997: 209–210.
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Bibliography
Taishō Tripiṭaka Texts (Volume and Number)
T.1.1: Chang ahan jing 長阿含經 [Dīrghāgama], trans. Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian
竺佛念.
T.1.26: Zhong ahan jing 中阿含經 [Madhyamāgama], trans. Saṃghadeva.
T.2.99: Za ahan jing 雜阿含經 [Saṃyuktāgama], trans. Guṇabhadra.
T.2.100: Bieyi za ahan jing 別譯雜阿含經 [Saṃyuktāgama], trans. anonymous.
T.2.125: Zengyi ahan jing 增一阿含經 [Ekottarāgama], trans. Saṃghadeva.
T.8.246: Renwang huguo boreboluomiduo jing 仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經, trans. attr.
Amoghavajra.
T.9.262: Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經 [Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra], trans.
Kumārajīva.
T.9.263: Zhengfahua jing 正法華經 [Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra], trans. Dharmarakṣa.
T.9.264: Tianpin miaofa lianhua jing 添品妙法蓮華經 [Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra],
trans. Jñānagupta 闍那崛多 and Dharmagupta.
T.9.265: Satanfentuoli jing 薩曇分陀利經 [Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra], trans.
anonymous.
T.10.297: Puxian Pusa xing yuan zan 普賢菩薩行願讚 [Samantabhadrācāryapraṇidhā
narāja], trans. Amoghavajra.
T.11.310: Da baoji jing 大寶積經 [Mahāratnakūṭasūtra], trans. Bodhiruci.
T.12.347: Dasheng xianshi jing 大乘顯識經 [*Bhadrapalāśreṣṭhiparipṛcchāsūtra], trans.
Divākara.
T.13.397: Dafangdeng daji jing 大方等大集經 [Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra], trans. Sengjiu
僧就.
T.16.701: Wenshi xiyu zhongseng jing 溫室洗浴眾僧經, trans. attr. An Shigao 安世高.
T.18.867: Jingangfeng louge yiqie yujia yuqi jing 金剛峰樓閣一切瑜伽瑜祇經, trans. attr.
Vajrabodhi.
T.19.982: Fomu dakongque mingwang jing 佛母大孔雀明王經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī],
trans. Amoghavajra.
T.19.983A: Dakongque mingwang huaxiang tanchang yigui 佛説大孔雀明王畫像壇場
儀軌 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī], trans. Amoghavajra.
T.19.984: Kongquewang zhou jing 孔雀王呪經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī], trans.
Saṅghavarman.
T.19.985: Dakongque zhouwang jing 大孔雀呪王經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī], trans.
Yijing 義淨.
T.19.986: Dajinse kongquewang zhou jing 大金色孔雀王呪經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī],
trans. anonymous.
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T.19.987: Dajinse kongquewang zhou jing 大金色孔雀王呪經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī],
trans. anonymous.
T.19.988: Kongquewang zhou jing 孔雀王呪經 [Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī], trans.
Kumārajīva.
T.22.1421: Mishasai bu hexi wufen lü 彌沙塞部和醯五分律 [Mahīśāsakavinaya], trans.
Buddhajīva and Zhu Daosheng 竺道生.
T.22.1425: Mohesengqi lü 摩訶僧祇律 [Mahāsāṃghikavinaya], trans. Buddhabhadra
佛陀跋陀羅 and Faxian 法顯.
T.22.1428: Sifen lü 四分律 [Dharmaguptakavinaya], trans. Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian
竺佛念.
T.23.1435: Shisong lü 十誦律 [Sarvāstivādavinaya], trans. Puṇyatara, Dharmaruci and
Kumārajīva.
T.23.1440: Sapoduo pini piposha 薩婆多毘尼毘婆沙 [Sarvāstivādavinayavibhāṣā], trans.
anonymous.
T.24.1450: Genbenshuoyiqieyou bu pinaiye po seng shi 根本說一切有部毘奈耶破僧事
[Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya Saṅghabhedavastu], trans. Yijing 義淨.
T.23.1451: Genbenshuoyiqieyou bu pinaiye zashi 根本說一切有部毘奈耶雜事
[Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayakṣudrakavastu], trans. Yijing 義淨.
T.24.1458: Genben sapoduo bu she 根本薩婆多部律攝 [Mūlasarvāstivādavinayasaṃ
graha], trans. Yijing 義淨.
T.24.1463: Pinimu jing 毘尼母經 [*Vinayamātṛkā], trans. anonymous.
T.24.1470: Da biqiu sanqian weiyi 大比丘三千威儀, trans. attr. An Shigao 安世高.
T.25.1509: Dazhi du lun 大智度論 [Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra], attr. Nāgārjuna, trans.
Kumārajīva.
T.27.1545: Apidamo da piposha lun 阿毘達磨大毘婆沙論 [Abhidharma mahāvibhāṣā
śāstra], trans. Xuanzang 玄奘.
T.31.1585: Cheng weishi lun 成唯識論, by Dharmapāla, trans. Xuanzang 玄奘.
T.34.1718: Miaofa lianhua jing wenju 妙法蓮華經文句, by Zhiyi 智顗.
T.34.1723: Miaofa lianhua jing xuanzan 妙法蓮華經玄贊, by Kuiji 窺基.
T.39.1793: Wenshi jing yiji 溫室經義記, by Huiyuan 慧遠.
T.40.1804: Sifen lü shanfan buque xingshi chao 四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔, by Daoxuan
道宣.
T.44.1851: Dasheng yizhang 大乘義章, by Huiyuan 慧遠.
T.45.1897: Jiao jie xinxue biqiu xinghu lü yi 教誡新學比丘行護律儀, by Daoxuan 道宣.
T.46.1941: Fahua sanmei chan yi 法華三昧懺儀, by Zhiyi 智顗.
T.48.2016: Zongjing lu 宗鏡錄, by Yanshou 延壽.
T.48.2025: Chixiu Baizhang qing gui 敕修百丈清規, by Dongyang Dehui 東陽德輝.
T.49.2035: Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀, by Zhipan 志磐.
T.49.2039: Sanguo yishi 三國遺事 [Kor. Samguk yusa], by Iryŏn 一然.
T.50.2053: Da Tang Daciensi sanzang fashi zhuan 大唐大慈恩寺三藏法師傳, by Huili
慧立 and Yancong 彥悰.
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T.50.2059: Gaoseng zhuan 高僧傳, by Huijiao 慧皎.
T.50.2060: Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳, by Daoxuan 道宣.
T.50.2061: Song gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳, by Zanning 簪寧.
T.51.2066: Da Tang xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan 大唐西域求法高僧傳, by Yijing 義淨.
T.51.2075: Lidai fabao ji 歷代法寶記.
T.51.2076: Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄, by Daoyuan 道原.
T.51.2084: Sanbao ganying yaolüe lu 三寶感應要略錄, by Feizhuo 非濁.
T.51.2085: Gaoseng Faxian zhuan 高僧法顯傳, attr. Faxian 法顯.
T.51.2087: Da Tang xiyu ji 大唐西域記, by Xuanzang 玄奘.
T.51.2089: You fang ji chao 遊方記抄, by Huichao 慧超.
T.51.2097: Nanyue zongsheng ji 南嶽總勝集, by Chen Tianfu 陳田夫.
T.52.2120: Daizong chao zeng sikong dabian zheng guang zhi sanzang he shangbiao
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T.53.2122: Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林, by Daoshi 道世.
T.54.2125: Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan 南海寄歸內法傳, by Yijing 義淨.
T.54.2128: Yiqie jing yinyi 一切經音義, by Huilin 慧琳.
T.54.2131: Fanyi mingyi ji 翻譯名義集, trans. Fayun 法雲.
T.55.2145: Chu sanzang jiji 出三藏記集, by Sengyou 僧祐.
T.55.2156: Da Tang zhenyuan xu Kaiyuan Shijiao lu 大唐貞元續開元釋教録, by Yuanzhao
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T.55.2156: Zhenyuan xin ding Shijing mulu 貞元新定釋經目録, by Yuanzhao 圓照.
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T.61.2228: Jingangfeng louge yiqie yuqi jing xiu xing fa 金剛峰樓閣一切瑜祇經修行法
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T.70.2300: Sanlun xuanyi jianyou ji 三論玄義檢幽集, trans. Zhengchan 證禪.
T.74.2379: Chuanshu yixinjie wen 傳述一心戒文 [J. Denjutsu isshinkai mon], by Kōjō
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Index
abhidharma
Abhidharmamahāvibhāṣā 321, 328
Abhidharmapiṭaka 331
mātṛkā 151, 329–330
abhiṣeka (Chin. guanding 灌頂) 95, 337
absolute truth (Kor. ch’e 體) 291, 326
Acala See Fudō
Acuoye Guanyin (阿嵯耶觀音) 90–107
See also Avalokiteśvara
Ado (阿道) 258
Āgamas 138, 325, 327
Ahmad Fanākatī (Chin. Ahema 阿合馬)
200n14
Aizen’ō (愛染王) See Aizen
Aizen (愛染) 109–110, 112, 113n8, 117, 120, 122,
124–127, 133, 134n33
Denpu Aizen (田夫愛染) 131
Ryōzu-Aizen (両頭愛染) 113
Tenkyū Aizen (天弓愛染) 123
Zen’ai (染愛) 115
Ajātaśatru 36
Ajita (Chin. Ayoutuo 阿由陀) 140
Ājīvakas 322, 338
Ajja-gona-hpaya 26
ālīḍhāsana 42
Aluvihāra 330
Amaterasu (天照) 115–116, 117n13
Amdo 52, 55, 205–206
Amitābha 90, 93, 285
Amitāyus 28n17
Amogha (Chin. Amojia 阿謨伽) 123n21
Amoghavajra (Chin. Bukong 不空) 96,
112, 113n8, 123n21, 139, 148, 268,
336–337
titles 337
Amoluoba (菴摩羅跋) 243n73
Āmravana See Amoluoba
Ānanda 324, 327n30
Anige 75
aṅkuśa 42
An Lushan (安祿山) 337
Annam 90–91, 94, 97, 106
Annen (安然) 113, 123, 125
An Shigao (安世高) 137, 146n15, 348n24,
356
An Xuan (安玄) 137
An’yōbō Hōgen (安養房芳源) 123
apparitional beings (Skt. upapāduka) 321
armour 45, 75
army 45–46, 222, 337
asceticism (Chin. toutuo xing 頭陀行)
261n15, 313
Aśoka 49n53, 148n18, 322–323, 325–326,
332–333, 338 See also Aśokan edicts
Aśokan edicts
Allāhābād-Kosam 156n32
Girnār 158
Jaugaḍa 154, 187
Kālsī 168, 187
Mānsehrā 149, 173
Shāhbāzgaṛhī 149, 158, 173
Aṣṭamahābodhisattvas 25n12, 26
astronomy 211
Avalokiteśvara 16, 26n15, 30n18, 82, 121,
217n71, 264, 285
Dragon-Head (Chin. Longtou 龍頭)
100n50
Jianguo Guanshiyin pusa (建圀觀世音
菩薩) 101
Nyoirin Kannon (如意輪観音) 117
Pumen pin Guanshiyin pusa (普門品觀
世音菩薩) 102
Xunsheng jiuku Guanshiyin pusa (尋聲救
苦觀世音菩薩) 102–103
Yizhang Guanshiyin pusa (易長觀世音
菩薩) 100
Zhenshen Guanshiyin pusa (真身觀世音
菩薩) 100
Ayodhyā 328n32
Ayurbarwada See Qan, Buyantu
Bactria 84
Bagan 15, 21–22, 26, 32n24, 42, 45–46,
49–50
and China 23, 42, 50
monuments 23, 25, 30, 45
baiman (白蠻) See barbarians, White
Baizhang Huaihai (百丈懷海) 274, 344
Bangladesh 2n1, 22
Bao Tang school (保唐) 269, 274n54
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barbarians See also Fan; hu
Black (Chin. wuman 烏蠻) 87
Southwestern (Chin. xinan yi 西南夷)
85
White (Chin. baiman 白蠻) 87
bathing 344–349, 347–348, 356–358, 362,
367
bei (碑) See stele
Benbo (本波, Tib. dbon po) See Mubo
Bengali 6, 21, 23, 25, 84, 86
benqin (本勤, 本欽, Tib. dpon chen) (‘viceroy’)
218
Bhaiṣajyaguru 60–61, 73–77, 79, 286
Bharukachha 328
bhūmisparśamudrā 28
Bihar 4, 13, 22–23, 25–26, 28n17, 30n19, 31
biography See also Jōgū Kōtaishi bosatsu
den; Tō daioshō tōseiden; Xu Gaoseng
zhuan
of Chajang (慈藏) 17, 261–268, 277, 281
of Chinp’yo (眞表) 267
of Faxian (法顯) 4–5, 231
of Huisi (慧思) 301n2, 306–308
of Hyehyŏn (慧顯) 261
of Jiang Cai (薑才) 199n10
of Jianzhen (鑒真) 309, 314
of Kim Taebi (金大悲) 274n56
of Muyŏm (無染) 273
of P’ayak (波若) 261
of Sungyŏng (順璟) 278
of Sunji (順之) 272–273
of Tanshi (曇始) 260
of Ŭisang (義湘) 279–280
of Wŏnch’ŭk (圓測) 277
of Wŏngwang (圓光) 259, 261, 263, 265
of Wŏnhyo (誓幢) 278
of Xuanzang (玄奘) 231, 324n33
of Yanshou (延壽) 279n67
of Zhengu (貞固) 248n97, 250
of Zhi Dun (支遁) 260
birth stories (Skt. jātaka) 310, 333, 338
Blue Annals (Tib. Deb ther sngon po, Chin.
Qingshi 青史) 206n36
Bodhgayā 3n3, 12, 23–25, 26n15, 28, 42, 50,
86n12, 238n45, 242n72, 242n73, 243,
246, 250, 251n108
Bodhidharma 292, 302–303, 308n22, 310–311,
314, 319
417
bodhimaṇḍa (Chin. daochang 道場) (‘place
of awakening’) 103, 104n59, 217n71,
246n89
Bodhi Mandir See Bodhgayā
Bodhiruci 335
bodhi tree (Chin. jueshu 覺樹) 250
body
decorum of the 262, 342, 344, 346–352,
355–356, 359n50, 362, 364, 367–369
illness of the 175, 229n16, 234, 244, 345
massage of the 347
meditation 46, 80, 129–130, 133, 204, 217,
265, 272, 286, 306–307, 310–315, 317–319,
324, 355, 366
naked 76, 90n26, 347–348, 354–355
purity of the 18, 342–344, 356–359,
361–369
real-life embodiments (Jap. shōjin 生身)
115
shintai (身体) 116
border army (Chin. chujun 出軍) 222
borderland (Chin. biandi 邊地) 206, 228,
229n16, 252
complex 12–13, 17, 228, 230, 246–347, 302
Brahmā 30n18
Brahmacarya 249
Brahmin 6–7, 334n55, 336, 338–339, 361,
367
British Museum 25n10, 25n12, 74
bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan (Chin. danbi qianjian
擔畀謙賤) (‘victory banner of the
teachings’) 95
btsan po gcung (Chin. zanpu zhong 贊普鐘)
(‘younger brother of the emperor’) 88,
96
Buddha
ashes of the 36, 39
biography/life events of 28, 30, 229
birthday of the 264
dharma 297, 335
garments of the 75
Medicine 73, 75
Mother See Butsugen
Saṅgha See Three Jewels
teaching of the 16, 137, 320
Buddhavacana 18, 137, 321 See also
Buddha-word; sūtra
Buddha-word 18, 321, 323, 326–328, 330
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Index
Buddhism See also Chan, Esoteric Buddhism,
Korean Buddhism
East Asian/Sinitic 17–18, 256, 259, 269,
283–284, 298, 304, 319
Huayan (華嚴) 280, 335
in China 1–2, 4, 7, 12, 16–17, 76, 103, 135,
142, 206, 215, 217n71, 222, 227–230,
246–247, 252, 254, 257, 266, 281–282,
286, 293n34, 298, 302–303, 319, 338, 344,
355, 363
in Dali (大理) 82, 91, 101
in India 13, 17, 42, 96, 98, 228–229, 252,
303, 336, 343
in Nanzhao (南詔) 86, 91–92, 94–97
in Silla (新羅) 259, 264, 266, 268, 285,
286n6
in Tibet 15–16, 52, 78, 196–198, 204,
206–207, 209n44, 212n50, 213, 216,
221–222
Japanese 16, 110–111, 301, 303, 304n8, 306,
307, 313, 316n43, 317–318
Liao 100n47
Shingon (真言) See Shingon
spread from India to China 16, 18, 86,
232, 252, 276, 340, 369
Tantric 45, 109n3, 196n1, 336, 337n75
Buddhist See also identity, monasteries,
networks
apologetics 246, 275, 355
canon 330
centre 302–303
communities/groups 1, 6–7, 10, 12–13, 18,
23, 45, 79, 185n62, 313, 317, 319, 322,
325–326, 331–332, 338, 341, 355, 356,
359, 361, 369
country 253n2, 279, 282
disappearance 321–322
doctrine 12–13, 118n14, 248, 303, 321, 324,
326, 336, 355
exchanges 2, 7, 17, 253, 254n4, 255, 280,
282
faith 321, 326
motherland 284, 303, 319
sacred realm 17, 229
synod (Skt. saṃgīti) 323–325
teachings/worldview 15, 17, 57, 95, 191,
196, 198, 204, 211, 222, 283–284, 298, 302,
309
tradition 6, 11, 81, 97, 101, 106, 206,
239n50, 269, 283–286, 294, 297, 303,
322, 343, 355
transmission 82, 98, 302, 304, 307, 316
world 1–2, 4, 7, 9–12, 14–15, 17–18, 25n10,
26, 82–83, 106, 281–282, 318–319, 338
Bukhara 198
Bukong Jin’gang (不空金剛) See Amoghavajra
Burma 3n3, 15, 21–23, 25–26, 30, 81, 84,
86–87
Butsugen (仏眼) 120, 132–135
caitya 26n15, 36
cakravartin 95
camels 202n19, 349, 353
Candra (Chin. Zhanda 栴大) 140, 141n7
Candragupta (Chin. Zantuojueduo 贊陀崛多)
96
canon 18, 46, 144n12, 231n23, 247n93, 256,
261n16, 284, 323, 325, 330–334, 335n62,
338, 343
catalogue
of Huixian (慧顯) 366
Gojinen mokuroku (御持念目録) 122
censorship 213, 331
Central Asia 4–5, 10, 21, 23, 42, 84, 94,
138–144, 147, 149, 156, 162, 164, 166,
178, 181, 184–185, 188–190, 198, 220,
335 See also hu
Chajang (慈藏) 17, 261–268, 277, 281
Champa 94n32
Ch’amyu Togwang (璨幽道光) 290
chan ding (禪定) 314
Chang’an (長安) 4, 9, 93, 123, 217, 232n27,
242n71
Changlu Zongze (長蘆宗赜) 364
Chan
lineages/lines 101, 260, 290, 310
mountain schools 272, 274, 289, 299
Northern (Chin. beichan 北禪) 286
orthodox 284
patriarchs 14, 98, 272, 304, 311n29
recorded sayings (Chin. yulu 語錄)
286
rhetoric See encounter dialogue
seventh patriarch 101n51, 270n37
Southern (Chin. nanchan 南禪) 286,
289n12, 289n20, 291, 296–297
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Tang 285
transmission 284, 287
chanmen (禪門) 312
Channa 320
Chaozhou (潮州) 218–219
cheng bei (乘杯) 324n35
Chengdu (成都) 88, 93, 217, 269, 292,
368n77
Chengzu (成祖) 77
Chihwang (智晃) 261n16
Chimyŏng (智明) 266
China See also Dynasty
and Japan 7, 16, 18, 75n21, 127, 135,
303–305, 316, 319
and Korea 254n4, 255
and Tibet 17, 255, 298
as a centre (of Buddhism) 252n111,
302–303
Chief Military Command See Du yuanshuai fu
Chinese See also Han
biographers/biography 17, 255, 281
calendar 262
empire/government 85–86, 88, 196n1,
212n50, 212n51, 282, 334–335, 344n15
See also court; Dynasty
classics 93n31, 95, 228, 336
delegation (Chin. Han shi 漢使) 245
garments/silk/textiles 22, 30
history 334, 356
inferiority complex 229
inscriptions 15, 51n57, 57, 72, 76, 250
intellectuals/literati/scholars/writers
137, 254n4, 199–200, 209, 215, 220n80,
222, 309n25, 319
[monks’] double identity 227–229, 246,
250
society 227, 341, 355n40, 357
territory 15, 82, 93, 102, 104, 106–107
transliteration 138, 140–141, 187, 190
Chinese Buddhist
disciplinary texts 18, 345, 354–355, 357,
359, 362, 367–368
imaginaire 255, 281–282
monks/monasticism 4–6, 8–9, 11, 13, 17,
229–230, 244, 255, 262–263, 272–273,
302, 307n15, 355, 356n42
translations 137–144, 147, 214n58, 257, 342
travellers 11, 228–229, 247
419
Chinp’yo (眞表) 267
chixian (赤縣) 238n43 See also China
Ch’oe Ch’iwŏn (崔致遠) 273–275, 276n59,
282
Chōen (長宴) 121n17
Chōnen (奝然) 111n7
Chonghua (沖華) See Wang Zhaoyi
Chŏngyuk (亭育) 272
Christianity, Nestorian 47
Chuan fabao ji (傳法寶記) 309–310
chuanxin (傳心) See transmission
Chuji (處寂) 269
Chuntuo Dashi (純陁大師) 101n51
Činggizid See period, Činggizid; Qan, Činggiz
coins 85
Comilla 22
Commandery
Yizhou (益州) 84, 86, 106, 292, 300
Yongchang (永昌) 84–86, 88, 106
commentaries See also Sangyō gisho
Chinese Buddhist 1, 95–96, 186, 240n56,
341–342, 344–348, 362, 364
exegetes (Chin. yijie 義解) 265, 278, 282
Huguo sinan chao (護國司南抄) 95–96,
104
of Wŏnhyo (元曉) 278–279
Commission for Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs
See xuanzhengyuan
concentration (Jap. jō 定) 112, 115, 116n11,
120, 133–134
horse penis 110
Confucianism 14, 93, 209, 209, 211, 227,
232n25, 246n90, 275, 284n3, 305,
333–336, 339, 355n40, 362, 364,
369 See also ren
Confucius 249n101, 275
consecration See abhiṣeka
continuity 81, 250, 304, 340, 369
convention (Skt. saṃvṛti) 326
copper 84
cosmologization 251
court
Han (漢) 84–85
Ming (明) 15, 52–53, 78
Mongol/Yuan (元) 74, 197, 211, 213–214,
216, 222
Nanzhao (南詔) 91–92, 97, 101
Silla (新羅) 298
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court (cont.)
Song (宋) 104, 277
Tang (唐) 8, 86, 88, 96, 265
cowries 84–85
Cullavagga 326n24
cultural See also identity
boundaries/borders 15, 78, 108, 285, 298,
341
exchange 303
identity 17, 228, 287, 298, 303
dado-hō (駄都法) See ritual
Dadu (大都) 196, 199–201, 203, 204n28, 209,
211–212, 214–217, 222
Daecheong Island (大青島) 220–221
Daiitoku (大威徳, Skt. Yamāntaka) 121,
125
Daishō Kongō (大勝金剛) 121, 125–126
Dali (大理) 15–16, 23, 32, 45, 81–83,
86–87, 90–91, 93–94, 96–107,
197 See also Buddhism
elites 81–82, 93, 98, 100n47, 101, 105–107
Mongol campaign against 197
as a transit hub 106
dan (丹) See also India
Dao (道) 233n29, 246n90, 263, 265
Dao’an (道岸) 312n31
Daoxin (道信) 270, 310n26
Daoxuan (道宣) 17, 255, 260–268, 275–277,
281–282, 301n2, 302, 306–307, 310, 313,
329, 345, 348, 350–351, 355n40, 366n68,
366n69, 366n72
Daoyi (道義) See Toŭi
Daoyu (道育) 310n26
Da Tang guo Hengzhou Hengshan daochang
Shi Huisi chanshi qidai ji (大唐國衡州
衡山道場釋慧思禪師七代記) See
biography, of Huisi
Da Tang Xiyu ji (大唐西域記) 231
Dai Tō denkai shisō myōki daioshō Ganjin den
(大唐伝戒師僧名記大和上鑑真伝)
See biography, of Jianzhen
Dazhi du lun (大智度論) 153n26, 167n42
death penalty (Chin. si 死) 219
Denjutsu isshin kaimon (伝述一心戒文)
308–310, 317 See also Kōjō
Deyoudi (德祐帝) See Zhao Xian
Dhammapada 140n6
dhāraṇī
by Luocha nü (Chin. 羅剎女) 174
Mahāpratisarā-vidyārājñī 104
meanings 185–187, 191
in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka 137, 150
by Samantabhadra 176
Uṣṇīṣavijayā 104
by Vaiśravaṇa 171
by Virūḍhaka 172
Dharma
guardians 98
hundred dharmas (Chin. wuwei baifa
五位百法) 214
king (Skt. dharmarāja) 333, 337
Latter See mappō
monks in search of the 230–231, 259
name 289
seekers 241
theory of eastward flow of 305
Dharmaguptaka 325n20, 325n21, 326,
366n69
Dharmaguptakavinaya 321n3, 342n10, 343,
345–347, 349–354, 360, 366n68,
366n69
dharmakāya (Chin. fashen 法身) 251
dharmaparyāya
Dhatu-hō kudenshū (菰効法口伝集) 120
dhoti 90n26, 93, 95
diamond thrones See vajrāsana
dictionaries 76, 105, 138n2, 139n5, 151–152,
154, 156–157, 213n57, 245n83
Dīghanikāya 330n37
diplomatic mission 8, 32n23, 42n36, 257,
289n16
Disāprāmuk 32n23, 42n36, 45
discourse
of Chineseness 88
on dharma 336n64
elite 227
ethno-cultural 87
physiomoral 359
dishi (帝師) See Imperial Preceptor
divine intervention 321
Dōji (道慈) 303–304, 308n17, 316n43
Do Kham (Tib. mDo khams) 206n33
Do me Myriarchy Office See Junmin wanhu fu
Do me (Tib. mDo smad) 205–208, 211,
215–216
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Doṇa 36
Dongge (東閣) 232n27
Dongyang Dehui (東陽德輝) 257n44, 365
Dong (董) 88, 104
donors 22, 30, 32, 36, 356–358, 365
door protectors 22, 42
Dōsen (道璿) 310
double belonging 17, 228n7, 246–247
dragon See also nāga
rainmaking king 112, 121, 128, 131n28, 278
nyoi hōju gongen (如意宝珠権現) 128
Suiten (水天) 131n28
worship 128
Drukpa (Tib. ’Drug pa) 78
drums 84, 101, 321
Duan Siping (段思平) 97
Duan Yizhang Sheng (段易長生) 100
Duan Yizhang Xing (段易長興) 100
Duan Zhengxing (段政興) 100
Duan Zhixing (段智興) 98, 100
Du Fei (杜朏) 18, 307, 309–310, 312, 319
Dunhuang (敦煌) 4–5, 74–75, 82, 144, 213,
243, 252, 268, 310
dunwu (頓悟) See enlightenment
Duogansi (朵甘思) See Do Kham
du yuanshuai fu (都元帥府) (‘Chief Military
Command’) 205
Dynasty
Chen (陳) 259, 265n27, 280
Han (漢) 81, 84–86, 106, 156, 275, 334
Koryŏ (高麗) 213–215, 222, 254, 273,
279n67, 280, 289n13
Liang (梁) 258, 260, 303
Ming (明) 15, 50, 56–57, 60–69, 72, 96,
105n62, 212n51
Northern Zhou (北周) 276
Pāla 94n32, 96
Qin (秦) 84, 191, 256
Song (宋) 82, 97, 104, 198, 199n7, 199n8,
202, 209, 213, 250, 254, 260, 269, 277,
280, 282, 343, 366n68
Tang (唐) 8, 86, 93, 282, 335
Yuan (元) 16, 106, 196, 204–205, 208, 211,
212n51, 216, 219, 222
Early Middle Chinese
Eiei (榮叡) 314–315
eight events 25n11
138n2
eight ills 102
Eizan daishiden (叡山大師伝) 308n21,
317n46
elites 4–5, 15–16, 81–82, 85n8, 90, 92–93,
97–98, 100n47, 101, 104–107, 200,
266–267, 303, 335, 362
Emperor See also Qan; Zhao Xian
Chengzong (成宗) 217n72
Goreizei (後冷泉) 113
Gosanjō (後三条) 113
Hui Zong (徽宗) 200n11, 220
Kammu (桓武) 317
Li Sanlang (李三郎) 308n17
Nagayaō (長屋王) 315
Shirakawa (白河院) 123n21
Yōmei (用明) 305
Empress Dowager See Xie Daoqing; Quan
Enchin (円珍) 121–125, 135
encounter dialogue (Chin. wenda, Kor.
mundap 問答) 273, 284, 286, 288, 296
enlightenment 112, 161, 232, 250, 279,
295–296, 320, 352, 358–359, 367
sudden (Chin. dunwu 頓悟) 14, 284, 315
Ennin (圓仁) 253, 283, 289n16, 293, 307n16,
311
Enshū (圓修) 307n15
Esen Qutug (也先忽都) 207
Esoteric Buddhism 16, 26n15, 95–96,
102–103, 109, 111–112, 114, 117, 118n14,
119n15, 121, 127, 129, 134–136, 268, 304n8,
312, 335–337, 339
eulogy (Chin. zan 讚) See also poem
by Yancong (彥悰) 231
by Yunshu (蘊述) 250
Eun (恵運) 113
exile 16, 198–223
Faguang Heshang (法光和尚) 101n51
Fahua sanmei chanyi (法華三昧懺儀) 143
family bonds 298
fan (梵) 94 See also India
Fan (蕃) 245
Fanxiang juan (梵像卷) 82n1, 98, 100–103,
105
fanyu (梵宇) 234n33 See also monasteries
Farong (法融) 270
Faru (法如) 310
Fatian (法天) 104
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Index
Guanyin (觀音) 13, 16, 82, 100n501, 101–103,
105–106 See also Avalokiteśvara
Acuoye 82, 91–102, 105, 107
Guanyin De (觀音得) 100, 105
Guazhou (瓜洲) 199
Guilin (桂林) 220–221, 236, 248
Guiyang school (潙仰) 272
Guizhou (貴州) 81, 105
Gumon nikki (愚聞日記) 120
Guohai heshang (過海和尚) See Jianzhen
Guohai heshang taming (過海和尚塔銘)
312
Guru Lhakhang 76
Gyōhyō (行表) 310
Gyōshin (行信) 306
gyrfalcon (Chin. haidongqing 海東青) 220
Faxian (法賢) See Fatian
Faxian (法顯) 4–7, 228n13, 229n17,
230–231
Faxiang (法相) 335
Fayun (法雲) 326
filial piety 355
Five Dynasties See period, Five Dynasties
five punishments (Chin. wuxing 五刑) 219
Fobao (佛寶) 100
foreigners 11, 32–33, 37–39, 46, 49, 90, 146,
231, 255, 298, 302, 319
four benefits (Chin. si li 四利) 366
foyan (佛言) See buddhavacana
Fozhe (佛逝) See Śrīvijaya
Fudō (不動) 16, 109–121, 125–136
Fujian (福建) 272, 275–276
Fushō (普照) 314–315
Gandhāra 4, 145n13, 173, 189
Gāndhārī 140–142, 148, 150, 153, 155, 158–160,
162, 164, 168, 171–173, 177–182, 187–190
Gangō-ji garan engi (元興寺伽藍縁起)
305
Gansu (甘肅) 4, 202, 205–206, 221, 236,
242n71
Gaochang (高唱) See Turfan
Geluofeng (閣邏鳳) 87–88
genealogy 271, 304
generals 67–68, 73–76, 80, 84, 104n59, 140,
235, 265
Gir See Aśokan edicts
goddesses 30, 45n43, 116
gods 14, 30, 45n43, 80, 104n59, 112,
134n32, 232, 262, 321–322, 324,
329, 360 See also Twelve devas
Gongdi (恭帝) See Zhao Xian
Goshichinichi no mishiho (後七日御修法)
See ritual
Goya nenju (後夜念誦) See ritual
Goyuigō (御遺告) 119
Goyuigō daiji (御遺告大事) 116–117, 119
Gṛdhrakūṭa 237, 239, 246, 313, 315
Guanding (灌頂, Chinese monk) 309n25
guanding (灌頂, ‘consecration’) 95
See also abhiṣeka
Guangfu (廣府) 289
Guangzhou (廣州) 248n97, 249n99, 289n18,
289n19
habitus 340, 342n9
Haedong (海東) 276, 295 See also Korea
Haengjŏk (行寂) 293–294, 299–300
haiqing (海青) See gyrfalcon
Hangzhou (杭州) 196–199, 204n28,
209–210, 217, 219, 271, 313
Han Yu (韓愈) 227
Han (漢) See Chinese; court, Han; Dynasty,
Han
healthcare 344
Heian See period, Heian
He Jun (贺均) See Esen Qutug
He Weiyi (贺惟一) See Tuoba Taiping
Heze Shenhui (菏澤神會) See Shenhui
Hōkyō (宝篋) See Rendō
Hongch’ŏk (洪陟) 272
Hongjik (洪直) 272n44
Hongjing (弘景) 312
Hongren (宏仁) 286
Hongren (弘忍) 269–270, 310n26
Hongzhou (洪州) 270–271, 290, 292, 300
honzon (本尊) See icon
horses 36, 104–105, 110, 197, 320
Hōshō (宝生, Skt. Ratnasambhava) 118, 120
Hossō (法相) 317
hu (胡) 94 See also Central Asia
Huairang (懷讓) 270, 271n39, 272
Huaizhou (懷州) See Qinyang (沁陽)
Huayan (華嚴) 263n23, 280, 293, 335
Huguang (湖廣) 219–220
Huichao (慧超) 230, 243–246
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Huijiao (慧皎) 260, 326
Huike (慧可) 310n26
Huili (慧立) 231
Huineng (慧能) 14, 269–270, 272, 274, 286,
289n18, 289n20, 292, 296–297, 311n29
Huirui (慧睿) 86n12
huisheng (慧生) (Skt. *prajñājāta) 141
Huisi (慧思) 18, 301–304, 306–319
Huitian (慧天) See Wuxing
Huiyuan (慧遠) 240, 357
Hui Zong (惠宗) See Toghon Temür
humanity 327n40, 275 See also ren
Hu Shi (胡適) 227
Hwaŏm See Huayan
Hyech’o (慧超, aka Hye-cho 惠超) 243,
268, 283
Hyech’ŏl (慧徹) 272, 299–300
Hyehyŏn (慧顯) 261
Hyeso (慧昭) 274n56, 299–300
Hyŏngwang (玄光) 280
Hyŏnnul (玄訥) 271
Hyŏnuk (玄昱) 272, 299
Ichiji Kinrin (一字金輪) 130, 132, 135
icon, primary (Jap. honzon 本尊) 120,
131n28
identity
formation 18, 254
groups 321–322
normative 326
permanence in change 341
sectarian 298, 304
trans-cultural 298
immigrants 221, 301n1, 305
Imperial Preceptor (Chin. dishi 帝師) 196,
216–217
incantations 336, 339, 365
India See also Buddhism, in India
as a barbarian region 227, 228n4, 245
Chinese words for (tianzhu 天竺; dan 丹;
fan 梵) 94, 101, 193, 234n33, 238n44
Eastern 5, 9, 21–22, 28, 45, 155
Northern 30
Northwest 244
Southern 86n12, 118n14, 193, 217n71
Indian
monks 91, 94, 96–98, 101, 106, 228,
252n111
423
patriarchs 270, 302
pilgrims 252, 293n34
Indo-European 137
Indra 30n18, 163n40
inner reality (Jap. naishō 内証) 116–118, 124,
126
inscriptions See also Aśokan inscriptions;
stele
beixia ti (碑下題) 308n17
formulaic 287
Korean 273–274
panegyric 287
Jagdishpur 25n11
Jainas 322–323, 338
Jaipurgarh 28n17
Jālaṅdhara 328n32
Jambudvīpa 244
Japan
China and 7, 16, 18, 75n21, 127, 135,
303–305, 316, 319
inferior to China 253, 318–319
texts brought to 104, 111, 113, 122, 124,
135, 312
jewelled banner (Jap. hōdō 宝幢) 121,
125
Jiang Cai (薑才) 199n10
Jiangling (江陵) See Jingzhou
Jiangnan shijiao zongtongsuo (江南釋教總
統所) 196
Jiangxi (江西) See Hongzhou
Jiankang (建康) 220–221
Jianzhen (鑑真) 18, 303, 308–309, 311–316,
318–319
Jieyang (揭陽縣) 216
Jindi (晉地) 231n23 See also China
Jingangzhi (金剛智) See Vajrabodhi
Jing (靜) 275
Jingjiang (靜江) See Guilin
Jingūhō narabi ni shinbutsu itchi shō (神宮方
并神仏一致抄) 131n28
Jingzhao (京兆) 217
Jingzhong Shenhui (淨眾神會) 101n51
Jingzhong school (淨衆) 269
Jingzhou (荊州) 220
Jīvaka 344, 357
Jñānagupta 144–145, 148, 151–152, 157, 159,
161–162, 164, 167–168, 176–177
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Index
Jōgū Kōtaishi bosatsu den (上宮皇太子菩
薩伝) 308 See also Situo
Jōgū Shōtoku Taishi hōō teisetsu (上宮聖徳太
子法王帝説) 305
Jōgū Taishi shūi ki (上宮太子拾遺記)
307n16, 309
Jōjin (成尋) 111n7, 282
junmin wanhu fu (軍民萬戶府) 206
Jurchen 200n11, 205, 220
Kaccha 160, 328n32
Kaktŏk (覺德) 258, 266
Kakukai (覚海) 110n4
Kakuzen (覚禅) 113, 134
Kakuzenshō (覚禅鈔) 113–114, 118, 122,
123n20, 123n21, 125, 134–135
Kālandaveṇuvana (Chin. Jialantuo zhuyuan
迦蘭陀竹苑) 239n51
Kālidāsa 244
Kaliṅga (Chin. Jialingjia 伽陵伽) 155,
238n45, 328n32
kalyāṇamitra 249, 291
Kaṇṭhaka 320
Kanyākubja 328n32
Karakorum range passage (Chin. Xuanlu
懸路) 243
karma 1, 214, 222, 243, 247
Karma Gardri style (Tib. Kar ma sgar bris)
57
Karmapa
II, Karma Pakshi (Tib. Kar ma Pak shi)
218–219
V, Deshin Shekpa (Tib. De bzhin gShegs pa)
52–53, 77
IX, Wangchuk Dorje (Tib. dBang phyug
rDo rje) 58
XIV, Thekchok Dorje (Tib. Theg mchog
rDo rje) 15, 57, 77–78
karmic return 342, 356–358, 365, 367–369
kāṣāya 50, 204, 279
Kathapa East 34, 36, 50
Kenkairon (顕戒論) 308–309, 317 See also
Saichō
Khadalik 139
Kham 52, 217
Kharakhoto 23, 26, 37, 50, 73, 76
Khayishan See Qan, Külüg
Khitan 11, 13
Khojar Dukhang (Tib. Kho char ’du khang)
76
Kim Chijang (金地藏) See Kim, Ven.
Kim Taebi (金大悲) 272, 274n56
Kim Ŭich’ong (金義宗), Prince 295
Kim, Ven. (金和尚) 292
Kingdom See also Bactria; Bagan; Kucha;
Śrīvijaya
Dachanghe (大長和) 97
Da Fengmin guo (大封民國) 94n33
Dali (大理) See Dali
Dian (滇) 84–85
foreign (Chin. fanguo 蕃國) 94
“Middle Kingdom” (中國) 17, 228
Nanzhao (南詔) 15–16, 81–83, 86–102,
105–107
Shan Shan (鄯善) 150n23, 172n49, 187
small kingdoms (Chin. zhao 詔) 87
Tangut (Chin. Xi Xia 西夏) 197
Unified Silla (新羅) 255–256, 267, 283,
289n13
Kinrin See Ichiji Kinrin
Kōbō Daishi (弘法大師) See Kūkai
Köden (Chin. Kuoduan 闊端) 205
Kōgei (皇慶) 121n17, 122–124
Koguryǒ (高句麗) 255–261 See also Korea,
Three Kingdoms
Kōjō (光定) 18, 308–311, 317
Kongōsatta (金剛薩埵, Skt. Vajrasattva)
121, 133–134
Kongque mingwang jing (孔雀明王經)
Koṅkanāpura 328n32
Korea
crossing the sea to 275
Eastern Barbarians 274, 277
relations with China (tribute–investiture
model) 17, 253, 254n4, 255, 298
Three Kingdoms 254–255, 258
Korean Buddhism 221, 254–255, 260,
277–279, 281, 285, 289n12
marginal position of 278
Korean Sŏn Buddhism 282–286, 289n13,
290, 294, 298
Koryŏ Taejanggyŏng Yŏn’guso 276n58
krodha 26n15, 42, 50, 141, 368n78
Kṣudrakavastu 324
Kubyauk-gyi 30, 42, 46, 49
Kucha 137, 146n15, 159, 172n49
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Kuiji (窺基) 240n56, 278
Kūkai (覚海) 110
Kūkai (空海) 113, 119, 123, 128, 283, 314
Kulika See Kurikara
Kulūta 328n32
Kumārajīva 16, 103, 137–138, 141–149, 151,
153–154, 156–165, 167–168, 170–172,
176–179, 181, 183–191, 194
Kunduz 328n32
Künga Lödro Gyeltsen (Tib. Kun dga’ blo gros
rgyal mtshan) 217
Künga (Tib. Kun dga’) 217–219
Kunming (昆明) 84, 85n7, 91
Kunmön (Tib. Kun smon) 218–219
Kurikara (倶利伽羅) 112, 121, 125–127, 130,
131n28, 132, 135
Kuśala See Qan, Khutughtu
kuyi (苦役) See slaves
Kuśīnagara 39, 242n73
Lakhi Sarai 25n11
Laṅgala 328n32
language See also Sanskrit
of early Buddhism (langue précanonique)
191
logographic/phonographic 146
Laos 81
lazhang (拉章, Tib. la drang) 217
Leh 78
Let-put-kan 42–44, 50
Lha btsun (Chin. hezun 合尊) 16, 198,
199n8, 207, 210, 213n57, 214n60
Li Guanyin De (李觀音得) 105
lineage
Chan 101, 260, 290, 310
Khon 217
zhaomu (佋穆) 93, 270
Li Tingzhi (李庭芝) 199n10
Liang Su (梁肅) 312
Liaoyang (遼陽) 219
Linjian lu (林間錄) 277n61
liu (流) See exile
Lokapaññati 50
Longguo furen (隆國夫人) See Wang Zhaoyi
Lotus Sūtra 16, 82, 91, 100n50, 102–103,
105, 120n16, 147n17, 189, 239n54,
240n56, 240n57, 247n93, 261, 306,
313–315, 317
425
Pumen pin (普門品, ‘Universal Salvation
Chapter’) 82, 100n50, 102–103, 105
luanyu (鑾輿) See Emperor
Luosheng (邏盛) 87, 91, 94
Luoyang (洛陽) 310
Luyuan (鹿苑, Skt. Mṛgadāva) 243n75
Lüzong (律宗) See Vinaya school
Maek (貊) See Korea, Three Kingdoms
Magadha 144n12, 189n67, 228, 322, 324,
328n32
Magu Baoche (麻谷寶徹) 272, 274
Mahabalipuram 94n32
Mahākāśyapa (Chin. Mohejiaye 摩訶迦葉)
312n31, 36
Mahāmoggallāna 39
Mahāpratisarā-vidyārājñī See dhāraṇī
Mahārāja (Chin. Moheluocuo 摩訶羅嵯)
95, 101n51
Mahārāṣṭra 94n32, 328n32
Mahāsāṃghika 325–327, 330, 342n10, 351,
360
Mahāsaṃnipātasūtra 326
Mahāvairocana See Dainichi
Mahāyāna 11, 126, 135, 156, 187, 205, 240n56,
241n66, 247n93, 316, 326–328, 331–333,
336, 338
Mahīśāsaka 325–326, 343n10
Maitreya 26n15, 30n18, 53, 64, 73, 79, 90, 93,
121, 267, 285, 306
Majjhima Nikāya 141
Mālānanda (Chin. Moluonanduo 摩羅難陀)
257
Maldives 84
maṇḍala (Chin. manchaluo 曼荼羅)
Aizen’ō/Aizen (愛染) 121–129, 135
Bhaiṣajyaguru 60, 73–74, 76–77, 79
lotus 25n12
Miroku (弥勒) 120
Shōugyōhō (請雨経法) 130
Sonshō (尊勝) 120
Vajra-realm (Jap. Kongōkai mandara 金剛
界曼荼羅) 115–118
Womb (Jap. Taizō mandara胎蔵曼荼羅)
115–118
Mañjuśrī (Chin. Wenshushili 文殊室利)
60, 62, 69, 73, 79, 146n15, 252, 267–268,
289, 293–294, 337
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mantra 105, 116n11, 132–134, 162–164, 183, 368
hhūm 131, 133
oṃ krodhāya svāhā 368
Mantra Kings (Jap. myōō 明王) 109 See also
Fudō; Aizen; krodha
manuscripts
Gilgit 143–144, 147, 158, 184–185, 189–190
Central Asian 141, 143–144, 147, 162, 178,
184–185
Man (滿) 52, 274
Manzi (蠻子, Tib. sman rtse) 210, 212, 216
mappō 305 See also dharma
Māra’s army 45–46
marks of a Buddha
main marks (Skt. lakṣaṇa) 250n104
minor marks (Skt. anulakṣaṇa) 250
masked dance festival (Tib. ’cham) 15, 57
Mathurā 328n32
Mātṛkāpiṭaka See abhidharma
mātṛkā See abhidharma
meditation See concentration
Meghadūta 244
Menander (Chin. Milan 彌蘭) 138
Mengshe (蒙舍) 87
Miaofa lianhua jing (妙法蓮華經) See Lotus
Sūtra
Middle Indic 138, 180, 191
military
colony farm labour (Chin. duntian 屯田)
222
conscription 222
service 337n75
Ming Zong (明宗) See Qan, Khutughtu
Minnanthu 32, 50
mirror-image (Jap. kyōzō 鏡像) 301n1
Mogao caves 243
monasteries
Baolin ( 寶林寺) 289n20
Baotan (寶壇寺) 289
Chongsheng (崇聖寺) 23, 90
Dacien (大慈恩寺) 231
Dafuxian (大福先寺) 310
Daigoji (醍醐寺) 113–114, 116, 118–119, 121,
128–131, 132n30, 134
Drotsang Dorjechang (Tib. Gro tshang rdo
rje ‘chang) See monasteries, Qutan
Enryakuji (延暦寺) 123, 125
Fazang (法藏寺) 103–104
Gonge (功德寺) 212n50
Guangsheng (廣胜寺) 75
Hemis 78
Kaiyuan (開元寺) 290, 292, 300
Kajūji (勧修寺) 114
Kiyomizudera (清水寺) 123n21
Korzok (Tib. dKor zog dgon pa) 57–69,
72–74, 76–78
Mahābodhi (Chin. Moheputi si 摩訶菩
提寺) 12, 86, 243
Miidera (三井寺) 121n18, 123
Ninnaji (仁和寺) 123
ownership of 356n42
public 343, 368–369
Qutan (瞿曇寺) 52, 54–55
Sakya (Tib. Sa skya) 199, 205, 207–208,
210–211, 215–218
Sera (Tib. Se ra) 52–53, 56
Shaolin (少林) 292, 300
Tianjie (天界寺) 212n51
Tōdaiji (東大寺) 313
Tōshōdaiji (唐招提寺) 313
Wuta (五塔寺) 74
Yangzhou Dayun (揚州大雲寺) 312
Yangzhou Longxing (揚州龍興寺)
311
Yuquan (玉泉寺) 312
Zhaoqing (招慶) 275
Zhengzhi (正智寺) 203
monastic
affiliation 18
bad deed (Skt. duṣkṛta) 347, 352, 358
biographies 17, 255, 260, 280
bodily care 18, 340–342, 344, 349,
351–352, 359, 364, 367, 369
code 316, 324, 328, 338, 342
community 11, 327, 340–343,
346–347, 350, 352, 355, 356n42,
357, 359, 367
decorum 362
lawmakers 343, 353
mealtimes 352–353, 366
orchestra 58, 76
precepts 363
robe 351, 365
saṃghāvaśeṣa 360
saṃkakṣikā 347–348
silence 348, 352–353, 366
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sleep 341, 349, 352, 354, 359–361,
366–367, 369
See also body, purity of the; prātimokṣa
Mongolia, Inner (Chin. Neidi 內地)
201–202
Mongolian
hats 47
hunters 46–47
monks
in search of the dharma (Kor. kubŏpsŭng
求法僧) 230–231, 259
foreign (Chin. huseng胡僧)
naked foreign 11, 90, 255, 298
mountains
Hiei (比叡山) 123
Heng (衡山) 308, 311
Jiuhua (九華山) 269
Liupan (六盤山) 197
Murō (室生山) 117, 118n14, 128
Shibao (石寶山) 90, 93, 98, 102
Shizhai (石寨山) 84n5, 85n7
Tian (天山) 202n19
Tiantai (天台山) 123, 300
Wei (巍山) 91
Wutai (五臺山) 14, 74, 252, 267, 289n17,
293, 300
Mubo (木波) 204–206 See Zhao Xian
Müdegen (Chin. Mengdagan 門達干,
Budagan 布達干), younger sister
of 217n72
mudrā
añjali 95
karma 133
samaya 133
Mūlasarvāstivādavinaya 248n94,
325n20, 343, 351, 361–364,
367 See also Kṣudrakavastu
mundap See encounter dialogue
murals 15, 21–23, 26–27, 30, 32, 34–35,
40–42, 45–46, 48, 50–51
Musang school (無相) 269, 276, 292, 300
Muyŏm (無染) 272–274, 299
Myinkaba 30, 50
Myŏngjŏk See Toŭi
nāga 36, 100n50, 185n62, 238n45, 329 See
also dragon
Nāga river 238
Nairañjana river (Chin. Longhe 龍河)
237n42, 238n45, 242n72
naiyuan (柰苑) See monasteries
Nalanda 4, 8–9, 25n11
Nandamanya 34, 36, 38, 50
Nangaku Eshi See Nanyue Huisi
Nanjing 52, 74, 77, 212, 220, 256
Nanquan Puyuan (南泉普願) 272, 274
Nanshan school (南山) 261
Nanyue Si chanshi famen zhuan
(南岳思禪師法門傳) See biography,
of Huisi
Nanyue Huisi (南岳慧思) 301, 306–307
See also biography, of Huisi
Nanzhao 15–16, 81–83, 86–102, 105–107
Nengren (能仁) See Śākyamuni
network
conceptual 16, 108–109, 111, 127–128,
132n29, 135–136
nodes 6, 82, 86
theory 82–83
traffic 82
translocal human 16
vertical 52, 108, 109n2, 129
networks
Dali to China 81–83, 86, 101–102, 104
Dali to Pyu 97
irrigation 83
Ming Chinese to Tibet 221
pilgrimage 11, 83
religious 83, 98
social 18, 220n80, 341
textual 104–105
transregional 81, 83
Yunnan to India 98
neyārtha See sūtra
Nihon shoki (日本書紀) 256, 259n11,
303n6, 305, 319
Nine Mountain Schools See Sŏn
nirmāṇakāya (Chin. huashen 化身)
251
nītārtha See sūtra
Niya 149, 150n23, 159, 172n49, 173, 187
Norbulingka 53
Nurgan (奴兒干) 220
orality 262, 265, 332, 356, 358, 361n58
orthopraxis 330
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Index
Pacification Commission See Xuanwei si
Paekche (百濟) 255–259, 261 See also
Korea, Three Kingdoms
pagoda See also stūpa
Baota shi (寶塔詩) 237n42
Fotu (佛圖塔) 103
Qianxun (千尋塔) 90, 93, 100, 102
Three Pagodas of the Chongsheng Temple
23
Treasure Pagoda 91
Xiaoyan (小雁塔) 93
painting 21–23, 25n11, 26, 28, 32, 37, 47, 53,
56–58, 69, 73, 75–76, 78, 98, 102, 124,
130, 267, 277
Pakpa Lama (Tib. ’Phags pa) 197, 216
Palembang See Śrīvijaya
Pāli Nikāyas 325 See also Dīghanikāya;
Saṅgitisutta
Paramārtha 327
Parthian 137–138
Parvata 328n32
passions (Jap. bonnō 煩悩) 126
patriarchs
of Chan 14, 98, 304
Chinese 18, 269–270, 274, 301–302,
314–315, 318
foreignness of 302, 319
Indian 270, 302
Meditation/Meditator 306, 310
P’ayak (波若) 261
people
artisans 1, 82, 93, 102, 105, 126, 198, 240
craftsmen 1, 22, 198
foreigners (Chin. yiyu ren 異域人)
32–33, 37, 39, 49, 231
refugees 198
slaves 198, 222
peoples
Ailao (哀牢) 84–86, 88
Hani (哈尼) 87
Khitan (Chin. Qidan 契丹) 11, 13,
220n79
Mosuo (摩梭) 87
Nanzhao (南詔) 15–16, 81–83, 86–107
Tanguts 11, 13, 23, 29, 76, 104n60, 196–197,
199, 205, 221
Wu-Yue (吳越) 269n34, 271, 277,
279–280, 282
period See also Dynasty, Koryŏ
Aśokan 322–323, 325–326, 332–333, 338
See also Aśoka; Aśokan edicts
Činggizid 197
Edo (江戸) 110n4
Five Dynasties (Chin. wudai 五代) 276,
280
Jingde (景得) 272n42, 274n56, 280,
281n72, 286n10, 294
Kamakura (鎌倉) 110n4, 114–115, 124,
130–131
Qianfeng (乾封) 278
Sui-Tang (隋唐) 7–9, 13, 81–83, 85–91,
93–94, 96–97, 102, 105–107, 111, 113,
123–124, 227, 230, 233, 237n42, 238n43,
246, 252, 254, 256, 259, 265, 303, 309,
312, 314, 316–317, 335, 337
Xuande (宣德) 53
Yangjia (陽嘉) 237n40
Yanyou (延祐) 212
Yongle (永樂) 52–54, 77
Zhiyuan (至元) 201, 205n31
Zhizhi (至治) 209, 211
Phyang Village 76
pianwen (駢文) See writing, parallel prose
Piluoge (皮羅閣) 87–88
platform (Chin. tai 臺) 129–130, 132,
201n19, 239, 263, 266–267, 289n17,
313 See also ritual
poem 17, 200n11, 200n13, 201–204, 206,
209, 212, 230–231, 233–239, 241–247,
250, 252, 308, 317 See also poetic
anthology
Baota shi (寶塔詩) 237
death (Chin. shang 傷) 241–342
Fuqiu daoren zhaohunge (浮丘道人招
魂歌) 201n15
Jian ying fogu biao (諫迎佛骨表) 227n1
Lisao (離騷) 237
of mixed metre (Chin. zayan shi 雜言詩)
237
Pingyuan jungong yeyan yuexia dai
Yingguo gong gui yufu (平原郡公夜宴
月下待瀛國公歸寓府) 200n13
prose preface (Chin. xu 序) 237
Shengwan Wenchengxiang (生挽文丞相)
201n15
Sichou (四愁) 235
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thirteen poems by Wang Yuanliang
(汪元量) 200–206, 209
to Zhengu (貞固) 247–250
Zeng seng Yagong (贈僧崖公) 234n35
poetic anthology See also poem
Chuci (楚辭) 237
Quan Tangshi (全唐詩) 234n35, 237n42,
240n55
Sui quanshi (隋全詩) 237n42
Wenxuan (文選) 235, 237
political
advisors 333, 336, 338–339
authority 306, 334
boundaries 298
networks 221, 333, 339
purges 201n14, 220
structure 88
Pŏmil (梵日) 272, 294–300
Pŏpsŏng (法性) See Faxiang
population
movements 197–198
nomad 57
porcelain 51
Prabhūtaratna 91, 239n54
Prajñā 100n47
Prajñādeva (Chin. Boretipo 般若提婆)
See Wuxing
Prakāśamati (Chin. Banjiashemodi 般伽舍
末底) See Xuanzhao
Prakrit 16, 137–145, 147–153, 155–194
Prakritisms 139, 141, 143, 144n12, 145, 184, 187,
190
conjunct assimilations 188
intervocalic lenition 187
Pratibhānakūṭa 65, 73
prātimokṣa 325n22, 327n30, 328–330, 345n21
prime ministers (Chin. qingpingguan
清平官) 13, 97
Prince Shōtoku See Shōtoku Taishi
Prince Takahito (尊仁) See Emperor Gosanjō
Prince Umayado (厩戸皇子) See Shōtoku
Taishi
Principle (Jap. ri 理) 114–116, 117n13, 121,
125–126, 129
Puji (普寂) 310, 312
Puṇḍravarddhana 328
Pūṇṇako (Chin. Fennake 分那柯) 139
pure position (Chin. jing zuo 淨坐) 358
429
purity (Chin. qingjing 清淨) 18, 342–344,
355–359, 361–369
duan hui (斷穢) 141
Puyǒ (夫餘) See Korea, Three Kingdoms
Qan
Buyantu 220–221
Činggiz 197
Gegeen 199, 209, 215
Jayaatu 220
Khutughtu 220
Külüg 220
Möngke 218
Ögedei 205
Qara Qorum 196
Qiantangjiang (錢塘江) 312
Qieyun (切韻) 138n2, 156n30, 157, 171
Qilian (祁連) 202n19, 242n71
Qinyang (沁陽) 220–221
Qiongzhou (瓊州) 220
Qipchaq 198
Qishanding (祇山頂) See Gṛdhrakūṭa
Qiulong (酋龍) See Shilong
Quanzhou (泉州) 271n39, 272, 275
Quan taihou (全太后), Empress Dowager
199, 201, 203, 204n27, 211–212
qusheng (去聲) (‘falling tone’) 103
Qu Yuan (屈遠) 237
Rāgarāja See Aizen
Rājagṛha 238, 239n48, 242n72, 324–325
Rāmagrāma 36
Ratnasambhava See Hōshō
rebirth 240n56, 242n70, 310–311, 313, 322
Red Annals (Chin. 紅史 hongshi) 206n36,
207, 208n39, 209, 217n73, 218n75,
218n76
relative truth (Kor. yong 用) 292
religious
exchanges 253, 298
groups 128, 322, 338
identity 198, 295, 298, 319
networks 83, 98
tolerance 196
Rendō (蓮道) 110n4
Renxiaowen, Empress (仁孝文) 77
Ren Zong (仁宗) See Qan, Buyantu
ren (仁) (‘humanity’) 275, 362
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430
Index
Ṛg Veda 322
ritual
dado-hō (駄都法) 119
Goya nenju (後夜念誦) 120
Great Platform (Jap. Daidanpō 大壇
法) 129–130, 132n30
Latter Seven-day (Jap. Goshichinichi no
mishiho 後七日御修法) 119, 120n16
Placation of Serpents (Jap. Byakujahō 避
虵法) 120n16
Rain Prayer Sūtra (Jap. Shōugyōhō 請雨
経法) 121, 135–136
shuhō (修法) 129n27
Subjugation (Jap. Ōsashihyōhō 奥砂子
平) 120n16, 132, 280
wish-fulfilling jewel (Jap. nyoi hōju 如意
宝珠) 119, 120n16
rivers
Gaṅgā 25n10, 243n73
Hiraṇyavatī 242n73
Nairañjanā 237n42, 238n45, 242n72
Yamunā 243n73
Rupshu (Tib. Ru shod) 57
sacrifice 84n5
saddharma 321, 329
Saddharmapuṇḍarīka See Lotus Sūtra
Saichō (最澄) 18, 283, 303–304, 308–310,
316–319
Śākyamuni 25, 28, 42, 91, 101n51, 229, 241n62,
313, 315, 333, 338
Sakya Paṇḍita 218
Samādhi 143, 314–315
Samantabhadra 337
Samantabhadrācāryapraṇidhānarāja
337n71
Samarkand 198
saṃbhogakāya (Chin. baoshen 報身) 251
Saṃghavarman 139
saṃgīti See Buddhist synod
Saṅgitisutta 330n37
Sangyō gisho (三経義疏) 306
Sanron (三論) 317
Sanskrit 9, 16, 83, 93, 97, 104–105, 119,
138–145, 147–148, 150, 152–156, 158–159,
161–175, 178–179, 181, 183–187, 189–191,
204–205, 213, 214n58, 217n71, 241, 329,
336n64, 338, 343n11, 368n78
in Dali 104–105
mixed 139
as ‘sacred’ language 336
Sanskritisations 139, 143–145, 155, 170,
188n67, 189–190
Śāriputra (Chin. Shelizi 舍利子) 361, 364,
367
Sariputta 39 See also Śāriputra
Sarvāstivādavinaya 321n3, 324, 325n20,
342n10, 343–344, 346–347, 351
scripture
miaodian (妙典) 247
twelve categories of 326
Seizon (成尊) 113, 128, 136
Sengcan (僧璨) 310n26
Senglang (僧郞) 256, 258
Sengyou (僧祐) 326, 355–356
Seven oceans (Chin. qihai 七海) 240
Shākya Yeshe (Tib. Shākya ye shes) 53, 57,
60, 77
Shangdu (上都) 196, 199, 201, 202n19, 211
Shanmiao (善妙) 280
Shaodi (少帝) See Zhao Xian
Shaozhou (韶州) 297, 311n29
Shazhou (沙州) See Dunhuang
Shengdeng (省澄) 271, 275
shengjiao (聖教) 94 See also Buddhism
shengtian (生田) 242
Shenhui (神會) 101n51, 270, 286
Shenxiu (神秀) 310
shenren (神人) 293
Shenzhou (神州) 234, 238n43, 238n46
See also China
Shichidaiki (Chin. Qidai ji 七代記)
See biography, of Huisi
Shidebala (碩德八剌) See Qan, Gegeen
Shi Huiying (釋慧英) 237n42
Shili fozhe (室利佛逝) See Śrīvijaya
Shilong (世隆) 91
Shingon (真言) 16, 109–115, 118–121, 123–125,
128–129, 131–132, 134–136
Mikkyō (密教) 109, 117, 118n13, 126n23,
131n28
Ono (小野) lineage 16, 113–114, 128–129,
131, 135–136
rainmaking 16, 119n15, 121, 128, 131n29,
132
relic ritual 129, 131
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and Tendai 111, 113, 121, 123, 125, 128,
135–136
ultimate secret teaching of 110
Shinsen’en (神泉苑) 128–129, 131
Shinto 131n28
shishu (事數) 336
Shitou (石頭) 270–271, 286, 291, 296,
299
Shōbō (聖宝) 113
Shōkaku (勝覚) 119n15, 134n33
Shōtoku Taishi (聖徳太子) 18, 301–309,
311, 313–315, 316n43, 317, 319 See also
Shōtoku Taishi denryaku
Shōtoku Taishi denryaku (聖徳太子伝曆)
309 See also Shōtoku Taishi
Shōugyōhō (請雨経法) See ritual, Rain
Prayer Sutra
Shuei (宗叡) 113
Shunhuazhen (舜化貞) 91
Shuzhou (舒州) 291
Sichuan (四川) 81, 84–86, 88, 90, 93–94,
101n51, 206, 269
Siddhārtha 320 See also Buddha
Sil pŏpsa (實法師) 261n16
silence (Chin. moran 默然) See monastic
silence
silk 21n1, 22, 30, 32, 47, 53, 60, 74, 90n26, 231,
334n57
Silla (新羅) 253n2, 255–259, 261–268,
272–274, 277–278, 281–283, 284n2,
285–288, 289n16, 290, 292, 294–295,
297–298 See also Korea, Unified Silla
siṃhanāda (Chin. 獅子鳴) 251
Simhǔi (審希) 290
Sinitic
Buddhism 257, 259, 269, 280
culture 256
script 82, 85, 93, 104–105
world order 253
Sinnpflege (‘treatment of meaning’) 330
Śiṣyaka 328–329
Sithu III 32
Situo (思託) 18, 308–309, 313–316, 319
slaves (Chin. kuyi 苦役) 198, 222
social organisation 325
Sŏk Kwangjun (釋匡儁) 270
soldiers 45–46, 85, 199n10, 200n14, 202, 216,
218, 235
431
Sŏn Buddhism 282, 284–286, 289n13, 290,
298 See also Chan
Song
court/royal house 104, 200, 203, 277
loyalists 199–200
Northern 200n11, 209n45, 294
Southern 196, 199n8, 206, 210n48, 216,
366n68
Songzhu (宋主) See Zhao Xian
Sŏn
Mt. Kaiji School (迦智山門) 289, 299
Kusan Sŏnmun (九山禪門) 272, 289n13
Pongnim School (福林山門) 290, 299
Mt. Sagul (闍崛山) 293–294, 299
Southeast Asia 6–7, 11, 13–14, 81–85, 93–94,
96, 100n50, 106, 229, 250
spells See mantra, dhārāṇī
spiritual 141, 198, 284–290, 292, 294–298,
320, 359, 369
pedigree 288, 294
śrāmaṇera (‘novices’) 289, 347
śrāvaka (‘disciples’) 321
Śrāvakayāna 328, 333
Sri Lanka 2n1, 3n3, 6, 9, 11, 21–22, 26, 231
Śrīmālā, Queen 306, 314
Śrīvijaya 13, 94n32, 247, 249n99, 249n100,
250
Ssanggye-sa 274n56
state
monasteries 332
orthodoxy 334
preceptor (Chin. guoshi 國師) 196–197,
218n74
protection ritual/ceremonial 120
support 222
stele 25n11, 246n86, 268n33, 273, 274n56,
275, 282, 285, 287, 290–291, 293–294,
312–313
Dehua bei (德化碑) 91, 93
for Wang Renqiu (王仁求) 91
Sthaviravādin 325
stūpa 29, 36–37, 117–118, 243, 297
burning 265, 287
iron 118n14
made of the seven treasures (Chin.
qibao ta 七寶塔) 239n54
suchness (Kor. chinnyo 真如) 291n28,
292n29
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432
Sumatra See Śrīvijaya
Sǔngnang See Senglang
Sungyŏng (順璟) 277–278, 280
Sunji (順之) 272–273
Supreme Control Commission
See zongzhiyuan
Suraṣṭra 328n32
Sūryaprabha (Tib. Nyi ltar snang byed) 63,
73–74, 77
sūtra See also dhāraṇī; Lotus Sūtra
Avataṃsaka 278
on Bathing Monks in the Bathhouse
(Chin. Wenshi xiyu zhongseng jing
溫室洗浴眾僧經) 356, 362
Bhaiṣajyaguru 73
Great S. of Three Thousand Dignified
Observances of a Monk (Chin. Da biqiu
sanqian weiyi 大比丘三千威儀)
348, 350, 353–354, 358
Mahāsamājasūtra 140
Mahāvadāna 251n107
Mahāvairocana 100n47, 110, 121
of the Most Wonderful Meditation
(Chin. Zuimiao shengding jing
最妙勝定經) 301
of nītārtha 330n40
of neyārtha 330n40
Peahen (See also dhāraṇī) 131
Prajñāpāramitā (Chin. bore jing 般若經)
189, 240n56
Prajñāpāramitā Scripture for Humane
Kings to Protect Their Countries 95,
98n45
Śrīmālā 306
sūtravibhaṅga 330
Vimalakīrti(-nirdeśa) 156, 306
Suvarṇadvīpa (Chin. Jinzhou 金洲) 249n99
Suzhou (蘇州) 217, 219
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitarō (鈴木大拙貞太郎)
227
Taizong (太宗) 8, 86–87, 233n29, 335
Tang See also Dynasty, Tang
Min state (閩) 269n34, 282
Tang-Song (唐宋) 81–82, 98n44, 102,
105–107, 111
Tang guoshi bu (唐國史補) 314n39
Tanshi (曇始) 260 See also biography, of
Tanshi
Index
Tarim Basin 137
tattoo (Chin. cizi 刺字) 222
Ta-tu See Dadu
Tayok-pyi-hpaya-gyi 26
temples
Loka-hteik-pan 22, 25
Mahābodhi 12, 86n12, 243
Mye-bon-tha-hpaya 22
Patho-hta-mya 22
Temür, Emperor 212, 215, 217, 220–221
Tendai (天台) 301, 304, 306, 309, 311,
316–319
ten perfect rules (Chin. shifa 十法) 241n66,
241n67
textiles 15, 22, 47, 53, 57–58, 60, 69, 73–74,
76–77
Textpflege (‘textual treatment’) 330
Thai 87
Thambula 24, 26–28, 32–36, 50
Thamuti-hpaya 26, 28, 50
thangka (Tib. thang ka) 26n15, 50, 57, 77
Theravāda 11, 22, 45
three bodies See dharmakāya; nirmāṇakāya;
saṃbhogakāya
threefold refuge (Skt. triśaraṇa) 334
three good things (Chin. san shan 三善)
366
Three Jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha)
293n34, 358, 364
Three Kingdoms See Korea
Three Learnings 265
three-life stone (Jap. Sansheng shi 三生石)
306, 313
Three Stages Sect (Chin. Sanjie jiao 三階教)
335
Three Worthies (Jap. sanzon 三尊) 117,
118n14
Tianwang (天王, Skt. devarāja) 100n47
Tibet See also Tubo, Xiyu
Central 52, 78
and China 104n60, 197–198, 209, 214,
216–218, 221–223
Eastern 57, 78, 217
and the Yuan court 74, 222
Tibetan
Khon family 216–217
royals exiled to China 216–219
and Tangut monks 196–197, 221
territory 197
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tin 84
Tō daioshō tōseiden (唐大和上東征伝) 308
Toghon Temür 220–221
Tokharestan (Chin. Tuhuoluo 吐火羅) 245
tombs 84–85, 201n19, 279n66, 297
Tongcheng county (通城縣) 291
T’onghyo (通曉) See Pŏmil
tōryū setsu (東流說) See dharma
Toŭi (道義) 272, 273n51, 274, 289–290, 293,
299–300
Touzi Datong (投子大同) 291
Toyun (道允) 272, 274, 299
tradition
Chan (禅) 303–304, 344n15
Korean Sŏn (禅) 289n12, 294n37
ordination 268
Shingon 115
Vedic 322, 336, 339
vinaya 265, 349n28, 360n56
written 331n46, 332
Trailokyavijaya (Jap. Gōzanze 降三世) 120
translation
Amoghavajra’s 96, 112, 113n8, 123n21, 139
Dharmarakṣa’s 141–146, 148, 151, 155,
159–161, 163–164, 166, 168–172, 174,
176–180, 182, 184–185, 247n93
geyi (格義) 335–336
Zhao Xian’s (趙㬎) 213
transliteration 16, 137–138, 140–141, 146, 148,
151, 154, 156n30, 159, 165, 167, 169, 177,
184–185, 187, 190–191, 343n10
Kumārajīva’s 103, 137–138, 144, 146, 165,
167, 184–185, 190–191
transmission
between Chan and vinaya 310, 312
Chan Lü hu chuan (禪律互傳) 312
Chan/Sŏn/Zen (禅) 284–285, 287
mind to mind (Chin. chuanxin 傳心)
284
oral 323, 329
outside the established teaching (Chin.
waijiao biechuan 外教別傳) 284
process 140–142, 186, 189–190
records 260, 269
secret 291
Sino-Japanese 301, 303–304, 307,
318–319
Trāyastriṃśa Heaven 262
trikāya (Chin. sanshen 三身) See three bodies
433
tripiṭaka 8, 18, 231, 300, 326–332, 338, 356
See also abhidharma; sūtra; vinaya
Tsering Tashi (Tib. Tshe ring bkra shis) 57
Tsomori, Lake 57–58, 78
Tubo (土番) See Tibet
Tugh Temür 212, 220–221
Tuoba Taiping (拓跋太平) 207
tuoluoni (陀羅尼) See dhāraṇī
Tuosima (脫思麻, 脫思馬) 205n32
See also Amdo
Turfan 5, 323n26
Twelve devas (Jap. jūniten 十二天) 130
two rivers (Chin. lianghe 兩河) 242–243
Udraka Rāmaputra 320
Udyāna 328n32
Ŭich’ŏn (義天) 280, 295
Ŭisang (義湘) 263n23, 268, 279–280, 283,
285n5
Ujjayanī 328n32
unification 13, 254–256, 259, 267, 277, 335
Upagupta 48–49
Upāli 324
Upālisutta 141
Upaniṣads 322–323
uṣṇīṣa 26
Ü-Tsang (Tib. dBus gtsang) 206n33, 218n74
Vairocana (Chin. Bilouyena 鞞樓耶那) 140
Vaiśālī 243n73, 325
vajra 42, 73, 76, 103–104, 112–113, 115–118, 125,
133–134
Vajrabodhi 112, 268
vajrāsana (Chin. juezuo 覺座) 26, 29, 251
Vajrasattva See Kongōsatta
Vedic tradition 322–323, 336, 339
vinaya See also monastic; prātimokṣa
and highbrow Chinese culture 265
‘canonizing’ function 331
commentaries 364
Dharmaguptaka 343n10
eṣa dharma eṣa vinaya idaṃ śāstuḥ
śāsanam 325
Mahīśāsaka 325n20, 326, 343
Mahāsāṃghika 325n20, 326, 343n10
masters 234, 312, 345, 366n68
Mūlasarvāstivāda 238n42, 238n45, 362
observance 266
Sarvāstivāda 325n20, 343n10
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Index
vinaya (cont.)
school (Chin. Lüzong 律宗) 261, 329
texts 321, 324–325, 330, 343–344, 346,
352n32, 366n67
Vipārśvagiri (Chin. Guangxie 廣脇) 239n53
Vipulagiri (Chin. Pibuluoshan 毘布羅山)
239n53
Vṛji 328n32
Vulture Peak See Gṛdhrakūṭa
waijiao biechuan (外教別傳)
See transmission
Wakhan (Chin. Humi 胡蜜) 245
Wang, Commander (王太尉) 272n43
See also Wang Shenzhi
Wang Go (王暠) 215
Wang Qinghui (王清惠) See Wang Zhaoyi
Wang Renqiu (王仁求) 91
Wang Shenzhi (王審知) 272n43
Wang Xuance (王玄策) 8, 242, 246
Wang Yuanliang (汪元量) 200–201,
203–204, 206, 209 See also poems
Wang Zhaoyi (王昭儀) 201–203
Wanla Sumtsek 76
wanzi 萬字 (Skt. svastika) 251n106
Weizang sanlu junmin wanhu (衛藏三路軍
民萬戶) 218
Wendeng (文僜) 271n39, 275
Wen Tianxiang (文天祥) 200–201
Wen Zong (文宗) See Qan, Jayaatu
Wenguang (文光) 366n68
Western Regions See Central Asia; Tibet
wisdom (Jap. e 恵; Jap. chi 智) 109, 112–113,
115–116, 118, 121, 125–128, 131, 141, 193, 233,
240n56, 249, 265, 365–366
wish-fulfilling jewel (Jap. nyoi hōju 如意
宝珠) 119, 120n16
Wŏn’an (圓安) 261
Wŏnch’ŭk (圓測) 268, 277–278, 280
Wŏngwang (圓光) 17, 259, 261, 263,
265–266, 281–282
Wŏnsŭng (圓勝) 261n16
woodblocks 276n58
writing
Brahmic 323–324, 336, 338–339
Kharoṣṭhī 142, 145, 159, 162n38, 171, 173,
189
lantsa 74n17
parallel prose (Chin. pianwen 駢文) 273
Wuguocheng (五國城) 220n79
Wukong (武空) 230
Wusizang (烏斯藏) See Ü-Tsang
Wuxing (無行) (Skt. Prajñādeva) 8, 239
wuxing (五刑) (‘five punishments’) 219
Wuxue (無學) 291
Wu-Yue (吳越) 269, 271, 277, 279–280, 282
Wu Zetian (武則天) 303, 335
Wuzhu (無住) 269, 274n54, 292
Wu Zong (武宗) See Qan, Külüg
Xanadu See Shangdu
Xi’an (西安) See Chang’an
Xianbei (鮮卑) See Korea, Three Kingdoms
Xianghe (祥河) See Nairañjana
Xianzhe Mai Chuncuo (賢者買純嵯)
101n51
xianzhou (仙洲) 234n33 See also India
Xiao Tong (蕭統) 235
Xie Daoqing (謝道清), Empress Dowager
199
xiliu (細柳) (‘delicate willows’) 242n71
Xingsi (行思) 270–271
Xinuluo (細奴邏) 87, 91, 94
Xitang Zhizang (西堂智藏) 272, 274, 290
Xitu (西土) See Tibet
Xixia (西夏) See Tangut
Xiyu (西域) See Central Asia; Tibet
Xizhou (西州) 232 See also Turfan
Xuankui (玄逵) 234
xuanwei si (宣慰司) (‘Pacification
Commission’) 205
Xuanzang (玄奘) 4–5, 7–9, 13, 94, 148,
154–155, 163, 178, 214, 230–232, 234n33,
239n53, 240n56, 241, 269, 278, 280,
328
Xuanzhao (玄照) 8–9, 241–242
xuanzhengyuan (宣政院) (‘Commission for
Buddhist and Tibetan Affairs’) 197
Xu gaoseng zhuan (續高僧傳) 260, 261n15,
261n16, 263n21, 267–268, 277, 301n2,
307, 310, 313 See also Daoxuan
yakṣa 139, 329
Generals 67–68, 73–76, 80
Yamāntaka See Daiitoku
Yan Shigu (顏師古) 242n71
Yan Zhenqing (顏真卿) 309n25
Yancong (彥悰) 231, 233n29
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Index
Yang Rin chen skyabs (Chin. Yang Lianzhenjia
楊璉真伽) 197
Yangshan Huiji (仰山慧寂) 272
Yan’guan Ji’an (鹽官齊安) (Yanguan Qi’an)
272, 295
Yangzhou (揚州) 119n10, 311–312, 314n38
Yaoshan Weiyan (藥山惟儼) 296
Yaoshi Xiang (藥師祥) 100
Ye (濊) See Korea, Three Kingdoms
Yi (彝) 87
Yilan county (依蘭縣) 200n11, 220n79
Yingguogong (瀛國公) See Zhao Xian
Yingze (滎澤) 248n95
Ying Zong (英宗) See Qan, Gegeen
Yixing (一行) 312
Yizhou (益州) See Chengdu
Yogācāra 214, 217, 269
Yŏngjo (靈照) 271, 281, 289
Yŏngjun (英俊) 280
Yuanzhao (圓照) 337n70
Yueyang county (岳陽縣) 216
Yūgen (融源) 110
yujing (玉鏡) (‘the pure Dao’) 233
See also Dao
yumedono (Chin. mengdian 夢殿) (‘hall of
dreams’) 314
Yun (筠) 275
Zangpo Pel (Tib. bZang po dpal) 216–217,
219, 221
Zanning (贊寧) 12–13, 255, 260, 277–280,
282
zan (贊) See eulogy
Zenghui ji (增暉記) 366
Zen (禪) See Chan
Zeshan Yixian (澤山弋咸) 358n44
435
Zhang Banglong (張傍龍) 90n25
Zhang Heng (張衡) 235, 237
Zhang Jingman (張淨滿) 274n56
Zhang Qian (張騫) 84
Zhang Shengwen (張勝溫) 98n44
Zhang Weizhong (張惟忠) 101n51
Zhangjing Huaihui (章敬懷暉) 272
Zhaohui (昭慧) See Xuanzhao
Zhao Xian (趙㬎), Emperor 16, 196, 198–214,
222–223
Zhao Yue (趙樾) 200n11
Zhao Yupiao (趙與) 201, 202n19
Zhao Yurui (趙與芮) 200n13, 201, 203
Zhaoqing (招慶) 275
Zheng Hui (鄭回) 88
Zheng Maisi (鄭買嗣) 97
Zhi Dun (支遁) 260
Zhiman (智滿) 312
Zhishen (智詵) 269
Zhiyi (智顗) 186, 301, 309n25, 311n29, 313,
315–316, 318–319
Zhiyue (智越) 261
Zhizang (智藏) See Amoghavajra
Zhongguo (中國) 228 See also China
Zhonghua (中華) 228 See also China
zhongmen (中門) 240n56
zhou (咒) See mantra
Zhuang Qiao (莊蹻) 84
Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) 85
Zhujiang (珠江) 248n97
Zhuyuan (竹苑) See Veṇuvana
zongchi (總持) See dhāraṇī
Zongmi (宗密) 270, 279
zongzhiyuan (總制院) (‘Supreme Control
Commission’) 197
zuo 座 See vajrāsana
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