JIABS 14-1

THE JOURNAL

Of THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION Of

BUDDHIST STUDIES

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Roger Jackson Dept. of Religion Carleton College

Northfield, MN 55057 USA

EDITORS

Peter N. Gregory University of Illinois

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

Alexander W Macdonald Universite de Paris X

Nanterre, France

Steven Collins Concordia University Montreal, Canada

Volume 14 1991

Ernst Steinkellner University of Vienna

Wien, Austria

Jikido Takasaki University of Tokyo

Tokyo, Japan

Robert Thurman Columbia University

New York, New York, USA

Number 1

Both the Editor and Association would like to thank Carleton College for its financial support in the production of the Journal.

Copyright © The International Association of Buddhist Studies 1991 ISSN: 0l93-600X

Indexed in Religion Index One: Periodicals, American Theological Library Association, Chicago, available online through BRS (Bibliographic Retrieval Services), Latham, New York, and DIALOG Information Services, Palo Alto, California.

Composition by Ann Flanagan Typography, Berkeley, CA 94710. Printing by Thomson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, MI 48130.

CONTENTS

I. ARTICLES

1. The Pratftyasamutpiidagiithii and I ts Role in the Medieval Cult of the Reli cs ,fry Daniel Boucher

2. Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Functions of Sutra Texts as Depicted in Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tales and Hagiographies, by Robert F Campany 28

3. A Source Analysis of the Ruijing lu ("Records of Miraculous Scriptures"), by Koichi Shinohara 73

4. Pudgalavada in Tibet? Assertions of Substantially Existent Selves in the Writings ofTsong-kha-pa and His Followers, by Joe Braniford Wilson 155

II. BOOK REVIEWS

1. The Dawn qfChinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yuan)s Commentary on the Visualization Sutra, by Kenneth K. Tanaka (Allan A. Andrews) 181

2. Three Recent Collections: The Buddhist Heritage) ed. Tadeusz Skorupski; Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha) ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr.; and Rtjiections on Tibetan Culture) ed. Lawrence Epstein and Richard Sherburne (Roger Jackson) 191

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS 195

The Pratrtyasamutpiidagiithii and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics*

by Daniel Boucher

1. Introduction

Over the past one hundred and fifty years, thousands of clay seals, miniature stilpas, and images inscribed with the famous "Buddhist creed" (the ye dharma hetuprabhava ... verse) have been excavated from saared sites throughout the Buddhist world. The quantity and ubiquity of the finds has led Simon. Lawson to state recently: "From late in the Gupta period until the end of the Pala period, this verse was what drove Buddhism."! There has yet to be, however, a satisfactory explanation of the role of this verse in Buddhist cult practice. This paper is an attempt to address· part of the problem-to explore both the literary and archeological milieu surrounding the use of this verse during the early medieval period (ca. 600-1200 C.E.). My efforts will be directed at tracing the early developments that may have inspired the use of this verse epitome of the pratftyasamutpada and its connection to consecrating stilpas as an alternative relic of the Buddha. More importantly, we may also be able to gain a clearer sense of one of the ongoing struggles within the Buddhist tradition: to maintain the presence of the all-too-absent Buddha.

The Buddhist tradition has since the death of the Buddha, or perhaps more precisely, because of the death of the Buddha, wrestled between two tendencies: to locate the Buddha in his corporeal body, especially as left behind in his relics; or to locate the "true" Buddha in the dharma, his teachings. This dichotomy manifested itself in two directions: the cult of the stilpa, which venerated the physical remains of the Buddha;2 and the equation of the Buddha and his teaching in such pas-

1

2 JIABS VOL. 14 NO.1

sages as Sa'T(lyutta-Nikqya III, 120, where the Buddha states: "He' who sees the dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; he who sees me, sees the dhamma."3

As a corollary to this equation, the Pali sources also identified the paticcasamuppiida (Skt. pratftyasamutpiida) with the dhamma. 4 Since the "discovery" of the pratftyasamutpiida is intimately connected to the Buddha's enlightenment and therefore who he was as Buddha, it is not surprising to find it exalted as the premier dharma, the teaching par excellence. This doctrine has been taken as the very essence of the Buddha's teaching, the source of his Buddhahood, and has accordingly been expressed in a variety of ways in Buddhist canonical texts. 5

The intimate connection between the Buddha and the pratftyasamutpiida was taken up again in the Siilistambasutra, a canonical reflection on the chain of causation known from Chinese translations to date to 3;.t least the third century C.E. 6

The bodhisattva Maitreya says to Sariputra:

He, monks, who sees the pratztyasamutpiida sees the dharma; he who sees the dharma sees the Buddha. 7

Then, he glosses this equation as follows:

How does one see the pratztyasamutpiidd there (i.e., in this verse)? The Blessed One has spoken on this matter: "He who sees this pratztyasamutpiida, which is eternal, [lifeless], without the life-essence, as it should be, auspicious, unborn, not become, unmade, uncompounded, unobstructed, unsupported, propitious, fearless, unseizable, undecaying, with unending self-nature-he sees the dharma. And he who likewise sees the dharma, which is eternal, [lifeless], without life-essence ... and with unending self-nature, he sees the Buddha) whose body is the most excellent dharma, by attaining through right knowledge to the direct understanding of the noble dharma. 8

Early Mahayana literature repeatedly identified the dharma as the true body of the Buddha. 9 By extension, therefore, a discourse on the Buddha's dharma (dharmaparyqya) would equal if not surpass the Buddha's physical body, especially as left behind in his relics. This equation found its fullest practical expression in the cult of the book, an early Mahayana adapta-

CULT OF THE RELICS 3

tion for establishing new cultic centers vis-a.-vis the stupal relic cult. lO Briefly stated, the Mahayana sutras reinforced their cultic innovation by consciously identifying the loci of their written dharmaparyqya with the well established pilgrimage site of Bodh-Gaya, the seat of the Buddha's enlightenment (bodhima1!r/a).ll We find, for example, at AsP 28:

Furthermore, Kausika, just as those men or ghosts who have gone to the seat of enlightenment (bodhimar;rja), or to the vicinity of the seat of enlightenment, or to its interior, or have gone to the foot of the Bodhi tree itself, they accordingly cannot be harmed by men or ghosts, even with the help of evil animals, or be injured or taken possession of by them, except as a result of former deeds. Why? Because there the future, past, and present tathiigatas) arhats) [etc.] achieve enlightenment. ... In the same way, Kausika, where a son or daughter of good family will set up, preserve, [etc.] this perfection of wisdom, there, Kausika, beings cannot be harmed, [etc.] by men or ghosts except as a result of former deeds. Why? Because by this perfection of wisdom, Kausika, this spot of ground is made a true shrine (caityabhiita) for all beings, and is to be honored, worshipped .... 12

In a concrete sense, the bodhima1!r/a is the seat under the tree at Bodh-Gaya where Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment and became the Buddha. It is to this seat, an established pilgrimage site, that the loci of the dharmaparyqya are equated. Simultaneously, in a more figurative sense, the bodhimaTJr/a is the source or essence (maTJr/a) of that experience under the Bodhi tree. It represents what Lamotte has called the "presence toute spirituelle de la Loi ou du dharmakqya des Buddha, et ceci independamment de toute localisation materielle."13 A spot, therefore, where the dharmaparyqya is set up, recited, etc., is a true shrine (caityabhuta) because there the enlightenment experience of the past, present, and future buddhas is made present. Such a spot contains the quintessence of the Buddha himself and thus has no need of relics:

Why? There the body of the Tathagata is deposited in its totality. At which spot of earth this dharmaparyaya would be declared, or taught, or recited, or chanted in chorus, or written, or having been written, would be set up in a book-at that stiipa,


honor, reverence, worship, and homage should be done ... And furthermore, Bhai~ajyaraja, all beings who would succeed in praising, worshipping, or seeing this tathagatacaitya, they all, Bhai~ajyaraja, are to be known as ones who come near to the most excellent, perfect enlightenment. 14

Paralleling this link between dharma-text and the bodhimaTJrja in the Mahayana literature is the appearance of reliquary inscriptions of the pratftyasamutpada formula. From at least the second century C.E., inscriptions of a short sutra detailing the pratftyasamutpada were etched on relic caskets and other objects deposited inside stupas in India and Central Asia. The earliest known archeological evidence of this practice is a Kharo~thI inscription from the Kurram Valley in Peshawar. It was discovered on a copper relic casket "shaped like a miniature stupa with harmika and umbrellas, all complete." IS This stupa not only housed the Buddha's bodily remains, but was simultaneously vitalized in some sense with the "remains" of his enlightenment experience:

Anno, 20, the 20. day of the month Avadunaka, at this instant $vedavarman, the son ofYasa, deposits a relic of the Adorable Sakyamuni in the relic stupa (erected by King M ... ) the property of the Sarvastivada teachers-as it has been said by the Adorable one: contingent on ignorance (are) the forces, contingent on the forces perception, contingent on perception name and form, contingent on name and form the six senses, contingent on the six senses contact, contingent on contact sensation, contingent on sensation thirst, contingent on thirst grasping, contingent on grasping existence, contingent on existence birth, contingent on birth age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, downcastness and despair. Such is the origin of this entire mass of misery-in honour of all beings. And this contingent origination [paticasamupada (sic)] has been written by Mahiphatika in honour of all beings.16

Similar finds include the Devnimori relic casket inscriptions,17 the Kasia copper plate,18 the Gopalpur bricks/9 two important brick finds from Nalanda,20 a slab from Ratnagiri,21 as well as instances of the pratftyasamutpada formula engraved on the base of miniature stupas at Tun -huang. 22


In terms of Buddhist practice then, the cult of the book in early Mahayana consolidated the identification of the Buddha and the dharma by linking the locus of their written sutras to the well established and popular pilgrimage center at Bodh-Gaya, where the Buddha was thought to be in some sense still present. The reliquary inscriptions of the pratztyasamutpada indicate a parallel attempt to appropriate the enlightenment experience of the Buddha-his cognizance of the chain of causation-into the stiipa cult that venerated his corporeal remains. Thus we see developing a dialectic between what could be . described, for lack of better words, as the concrete and abstract modes of defining and locating the Buddha. 23

By the late Gupta period (ca. 6th-7th cent. C.E.), the tradition oflocating the Buddha in his concrete presence-at sites housing his bodily remains or at the bodhimarpja where he attained enlightenment-and the tradition that identified him with his dharma most essentially embodied in the pratztyasamutpada became completely synthesized. After the sixth century, when the reliquary inscriptions of the pratztyasamutpada formula appear to end in the archeological record, we begin to find deposited in stupas clay tablets and miniature stilpas inscribed or stamped with the verse epitome of the pratZtyasamutpada (ye dharma hetuprabhava ... ). This four-line verse has been rather matter-of-factly regarded as some form of Buddhist "creed." The function of this much-neglected verse and the complex of ideas surrounding it will be the focus of the remainder of this paper.

II. The Uirse and Its Function

The verse itself is quite simple. It is composed in the arya meter24 and occurs canonically in the famous conversion of Sariputta and Moggallana. 25 These two brahmacarins, disciples of the mendicant Safijaya, were unable to attain the deathless state. Sariputta, having seen Assaji (one of the Buddha's five initial discipl«s) wandering in Rajagaha for almsfood, approached him to inquire who his teacher was and what dhamma he professed. Assaji replied:


Now I, dear Sir, am new [i.e., newly ordained], not long on the renunciant's path, a newcomer to this dhamma and vinaya. I am not able to teach you the dhamma in detail. But I will tell you its essence (attha) concisely.

Sariputta, satisfied with a gist of the dhamma, implored Assaji to ins~ruct him. Assaji consented by uttering this dhammapariyiiya (short exposition of the dhamma) :

ye dhammii hetuppabhavii tesii'l7} hetu'l7} tathiigato iiha tesiiii ca yo nirodho eva'l7}viidr mahiisamar;o 'ti.

Those dhammas which arise from a cause The Tathagata has declared their cause And that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant has taught.

Having acquired the "stainless eye of wisdom" through the hearing of this verse, Sariputta conveyed this discourse to his fellow wayfarer Moggallana, to whom he repeated this formula of the dhamma.

Although relatively insignificant from a literary point of view, this verse appeared on clay seals and miniature stilpas virtually everywhere in the Indian Buddhist world during the medieval period (ca. 600-1200 CE). These clay balls, often regarded as among the most trivial of finds from Buddhist

: sites, functioned in many cases as far more than mementos. 26

Because it would be impossible to consider every inscriptional instance of this verse in all its contexts, I will focus on those better reported finds for which the archeological context of the discovery is known. Only then can we get a sense of the import of this verse and its place in a history of Indian Buddhist cult practice.

Thousands of small clay seals inscribed with the ye !, dharma . .. verse have been excavated from various stilpa sites

often from within the relic chamber itself. Many of these relicseals are simple and unadorned, bearing only this verse. Such examples would include many from Kasia/7 Sarnath,28 BodhGaya,29 . Ratnagiri,3o . Lauriya-Nandangarh, 31 Nalanda,32 ValabhI,33 GaznI,34 and Mainamati35 to name just a few. Others, however, are stamped with specific represen~ations. For exam-


pIe, Alexander Cunningham' unearthed from the ruined stiipas at Bodh-Gaya several burnt clay seals only a few inches in diameter. In the center is the Buddha seated on the vajrasana ( diamond throne) in bhiimisparfamudra, the posture of his enlightenment.36 Above the niche in which the Buddha sits is a straight-sided tower surmounted by an amalaka, depicting the famous temple at Bodh-Gaya. Branches of the Bodhi tree emanate from the top; small stiipas, found in abundance at BodhGaya, flank the niche. Below is etched the ye dharma . .. verse in medieval characters.37 These seals, in effect, juxtapose both senses of the bodhima1frja: they depict the enlightenment site at Bodh-Gaya as well as the essence of the experience at that site. Furthermore, they are intentionally placed within repositories traditionally associated with the corporeal remains of the Buddha. Other tablets like these have been found at Sarnath,38 Rajbadidanga,39 SanchI,40 Ratnagiri,41 Kasia,42 and in Sind,43 Burma44 and ThailandY

Clay seals inscribed with the pratrtyasamutpiidagatha were also frequently inserted into miniature clay stiipas, which in turn consecrated larger stiipas. Hsuan-tsang, the Chinese pilgrim who traveled throughout the Indian subcontinent in the seventh century, observed this practice in Magadha:

There is a practice in India of making incense powder into paste to make small stiipas 5· or 6 inches high. People write. [pieces of] scripture and place them into the interior [of these small stupas]. They call these dharmafarfra. When a number [of these small stupas] are greatly heaped up, they erect a large stupa and gather them into its interior, constantly doing piljii to it. This then is the practice of Jay as en a: with his mouth he proclaimed the wonderful dharma, instructing his students in it, while with his hand, he made stupas and acquired great merit by venerating them .... In 30 years he made altogether seven kotis of dharmafarfra-stupas. Every time he completed one koti, he erected a large stupa, collected them into its interior, and performed copious homage to it.46

The archeological evidence is equally abundant. Miniature stiipas of baked clay, often only 2 or 3 inches high, were found en masse inside of stiipa no. 40 at Sarnath:


Inside the stupa near the bottom is inserted a little tablet with . the Buddhist creed as is proved by other stupas of this type which were found in a broken condition. The stupa dates from about the 10th century A.D. Such stupas were made in India in abundance in the time of Hiuen Thsang, and were called dharma-fa(ira. That such stupas were frequently built into larger ones is shown by the fact that the core of stupa No. 40 to the north-east of the Main Shrine at Sarnath was, in the main, constructed of stupas of unbaked cl ay. 47

Cunningham also discovered such clay stilpas at BodhGaya: "Scores, and sometimes even hundreds, of these miniature stilpas were found inside of these larger stilpas, enclosing small clay seals."48 Similar relics were e~cavated from Rajagrha,49 Paharpur,5o Harwan (Kashmir)/l GaznI,s2 Mainamati,s3 and Gilgit. 54

Besides the plethora of archeological remains, there is also a short siltra preserved in Chinese that specifically enjoins the practice of depositing the ye dharma . .. gatha inside stilpas. Divakara's seventh century translation of the Siltra on the Merit if Building a Stilpa Spoken by the Buddha55 articulates what was understood to be the nature and function of this verse at a time roughly contemporaneous with its appearance in the epigraphical record. Because the text is little known and since there is no known extant Sanskrit version,56 I will provide a complete translation below:

Translated by the Central Indian Tripitaka master of the T'ang dynasty, Divakara, whose name means in Chinese, the "Day Illuminator."57

Thus have I heard at one time. 58 The Buddha was in the heaven of the thirty-three devas on a pure jade seat, together with an immeasurable assembly of great bhik~us, bodhisattvas, as well as the lord of the devas, Indra. At that time Brahma, NarayaJ}.a-deva, MaheSvara and the five gandharva kings, each with his retinue, came to where the Buddha was. They desired to ask the Tathagata the method of building a stupa and the amount of merit that would be produced by the stupa.

In the midst of this assembly, there was a bodhisattva named AvalokiteSvara, who, knowing their wishes, rose from his seat, bared his right shoulder, and placed his right knee on


. the ground. With palms together in salutation, he faced the Buddha and made this statement: "World-Honored One, the reason that these gods, gandharvas, and others have come here today is that they desire to request of the Tathagata the method of building a stilpa and the amount of merit that would be produced by this stiipa. I only desire that the World-Honored One expound this for them, benefitting all the innumerable beings."

At that time the World-Honored One explained to the bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara: "Noble son, among the heavenly beings present here and all the living beings of future generations, whoever is able to erect a stiipa wherever there is a place without one-whether its form be so exaltedly marvelous as to surpass the triloka or so extremely small as an iimalaka fruit; whether its mast ascends to the brahma heaven or is as extremely small as a needle; whether its parasol covers the great chiliocosm or is extremely small like a jujube leaf59-and if inside this stiipaone encloses the [body of the] Tathagata down to even one minute portion of his relics, hair, teeth, beard, or fingernails; or else if one deposits the twelve section scripture, which is the storehouse of the Tathagata's dharma, down to even one four line verse,60 this person's merit will be as great as the brahma heaven.61 At the end of his life, he will be born in the brahmaloka. When his long life reaches its end in that realm, he will be born in the five pure abodes; there he will be no different than the gods. Noble son, of such matters have I spoken-the magnitude of these stiipas and the cause of their merit. You and all the heavenly beings should study and observe this.

At that time the bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara once again addressed the Buddha, saying: "World-Honored One, I have accepted and upheld what you have just taught concerning the installing of relics or scriptures in the stiipa. But I do not understand the meaning of the four line (verse )of the Tathagata. I only wish that this could be separately explained for me."

At that time the World-Honored One uttered this verse:

All dharmas arise from a cause. I have explained this cause. When the cause is exhausted, there is cessation. I have produced such a teaching.62

"Noble son, this verse signifies the Buddha-dharmakaya. You should write [this verse] and place it inside the stiipa. Why? Because all causes and the dharma-nature of all things that are


produced are empty. This is the reason that I call it the dharma. kaya. If a living being understood the import of such causes, you should know that this person would then see the Buddha.

At that time, the bodhisattva AvalokiteSvara and the whole multitude of heavenly beings, gandharvas, and so forth heard what the Buddha taught. All were greatly delighted to faithfully receive and carry out the Sutra on the Merit qf Building a Stupa.

Several issues with regard to the medieval understanding of the verse are raised here. First of all, this siltra makes it clear that the bodily relics of the Buddha and the ye dharma . .. verse were interchangable-either may consecrate a stilpa. The extensive archeological evidence as well as eyewitness accounts more than confirm this.

Secondly, the ye dharma . .. verse is identified here with the dharmakaya "because all causes and the dharma-nature of all things that are produced are empty." This equation of the verse epitome of thepratrtyasamutpada and the Mahayana doctrine of filnyata can be traced back to Nagarjuna's Millamadhyamakakarikas:

ya~ pratztyasamutpiida~ sunyatiim tiiT(l pracak.)mahe sii prajiiaptir upiidaya pratipatsaiva madhyamii.

That which is the pratltyasamutpiida, we call it emptiness. This [funyatii] is a provisional term; it is indeed the middle path. 63

In the eighth century, Haribhadra, the famous commentator on the A{tasahasrika, understood a similar connection between the Mahayana notion of emptiness and the pratrtyasamutpadagathii. In his gloss ofthe word "caityabhilta" at AsP 28, Haribhadra elucidates the medieval conception of a "true shrine":

Caityabhuta: According to some, caityabhilta is this piece of ground in so far as itis equal to other caityas because by its worship and the like it causes the accumulation of merit, and because of the use of the word "bhuta" which signifies a simile, as pit,(bhuta means "like a father" (piteva). Candragomi explains: Where a piece qf ground is consecrated by the verse "ye dharma hetuprabhava and so on lJ which manifests the doctrine qf the vacuity qf the


. self, a stupa is considered to be)' there furnished with the setting up and the like of the perfection of wisdom (lit. the mother64),

which illuminates the doctine of the non-existence of selfnature in all things, a stupa does indeed exist in its entirety. Consequently, caityabhuta is a true shrine in the sense of having the same nature as one, as a siik.fibhuta is a "true witness" (siik-lYeva). 65

Thus a spot that is made a true shrine (caityabhiita) by the presence of the prajiiiipiiramitii-which illuminates the doctrine of the non-existence of self-nature in all things-is equivalent to a stiipa supported by the pratftyasamutpiidagiithii) which manifests that doctrine. That is to say, the spot consecrated with the perfection of wisdom was equivalent to what was obviously recognized in Haribhadra's time as a true shrine: a stiipa infused with the dharma-verse relic of the Buddha.

Finally, one who understands this verse on causation can be said to "see the Buddha." This linking up of the pratftyasamutpiidagiithii) the dharmakqya, and "seeing the BU,ddha" echoes the very same relationship we saw earlier in the Siilistambasiitra. If the connections seem a bit subtle in Divakara's translation, they are unmistakably clear in the Arya-pratftyasamutpiidaniimamahiiyiinasiitra :

Then the Blessed One spoke the pratftyasamutpiida verse:

Those dharmas which arise from a cause The Tathagata has declared their cause. And that which is the cessation of them, Thus the great renunciant has taught.

As for this, AvalokiteSvara, this pratftyasamutpiida is the dharmakiiya of the Tathagatas. He who sees the pratftyasamutpiida, sees the Tathagata. 66

The use of the ye dharmii . . , verse-relic would appear therefore to represent a move toward complete synthesis of the relic/ dharma dichotomy stemming essentially from the death of the Buddha. 67 The early Mahayana siitras, while appreciating the importance and popularity of the relic/ stiipa cult, attempted to establish alternative cultic sites centered around the written dharma. By setting the new books up as the true source of the


Buddha's enlightenment, they were able to link their cultic innovation to the established pilgrimage site ofBodh-Gaya, the seat of enlightenment for all buddhas. The reliquary inscriptions of the pratftyasamutpada formula demonstrate a parallel attempt to infuse the stilpa cult with what had long been recognized as the central achievement of the Buddha's enlightenment experience-the sine qua non of his Buddhahood.

The medieval shift to the ye dharma ... verse transformed dharma into relic. Unlike the sacralization of the written word in early Mahayana, the use of the pratftyasamutpadagatha took over the institutional context of the relic cult, the stilpa. It borrowed the already recognized cultic import of the pratftyasamutpada and reduced it to its essence. It is this essence, expressed in a four line verse, that manifests the Buddha's "true body," his dharmakaya. It effected in a sense a redefinition of what constituted a "piece" of who or what the historical Buddha was, and therefore how he was to be located and maintained at cultic centers.

The pratftyasamutpadagatha has also been found in a decidedly Tantric context outside ofIndia proper and generally later than the bulk of our evidence (after the ninth century). Guiseppe Tucci personally collected hundreds of clay seals from Tibet and the surrounding Himalaya region inscribed with the ye dharma.< .verse in both Indian and Tibetan scripts. Many of the seals are also inscribed with dharar;,ls or contain Tantric iconographical features. Several are of the mold we saw so frequently at Bodh-Gaya and Sarnath:

The Buddha, dressed in monk's robes, is seated in the vajraparyanka on the throne, bodhimar;rJa. His left hand is in the pose of meditation, dhyana-mudra, and the right touches the earth invoked as witness to the conquest of truth, in the pose of bhumisparsa-mudra .... Traces of inscription in Indian characters of the IX-X century. Below ... hy avadat tesa11} ca yo nirodha, i.e. the usual formula .... The tsha-tsha is very similar to those found in Bodhgaya, published by Cunningham and spread somehow everywhere in India. 68

Walter Liebenthal has published several brick inscriptions from Yunnan (South China) in which the ye dharma . .. verse is sandwiched among dhiirar;,fs. The gatha were written in a


medieval briihmz script that came to China with Tantra and "was reserved strictly for the purpose of copying dhiirar;zs."69 Although these inscriptions do not occur on the clay seals that we are accustomed to seeing, their context is unmistakably similar: "The bricks are found inside the walls of pagodas. They cannot be seen from the outside, becoming visible only if the building is in decay and parts of it are tumbling down. They were used instead rf a relic (she-li,a Sanskrit sarIra) or as a spiritual relic." 70

In later Tantric literature, the consecrating power ofth~ye dharmii . .. giithii is adapted to specific Tantric rituals. In the Adikarmapradzpa, we find it used to consecrate miniature stupas:

01\1! Homage to the Blessed One, the radiant king of the sun, the tathiigata) arhat, perfectly enlightened one. 01\1! subtle, unequalled, calm, subdued, unobstructed, independentrescue us! Famous, mighty, possessed of undisturbed ni!viir;_a, empowered by the empowerment of all Buddhas-SV AHA! One should make a caitya by reciting this dhiirar;z twenty-one times over a lump of clay or a lump of earth. As many atoms as there are in that clay (or earth), that many kotis of caityas will be made. Furthermore, one should consecrate it with the verse:

Those dharmas which arise from a cause The Tathagata has declared their cause. And that which is the cessation of them Thus the great renunciant has taught. 71

Besides the widespread appearance of theye dharmii . .. verse on clay seals and miniature stu pas, images were freql!.ently inscribed or stamped with this verse. For example, the Adikarmapradzpa just cited specifies that after making the small shrine of earth and paying homage to it, "Then the disciple makes the small reliquary mound into an image for worship with the ritual of smiting, that the shrine may open and reveal the Buddhahood within .... "72 Also, a short sutra translated into Chinese by the T'ang monk Yi Ching in 710 gives an account of the making of miniature stupas and images and infusing them with the ye dharmii . .. giithii. The relevant part of this Sutra on the Merit rfBathing the Buddha has the Buddha declare:


Noble son, all Buddhas, World-Honored Ones have three . bodies. They are known as the dharmakqya, the san:tbhogakqya, and the nirmiir;akqya. After my nirviir;a, whoever wishes to do homage to these three bodies, should do homage to my relics. But there are two kinds: the first is the bodily relic; the second is the dharma-verse relic. I will now recite the verse:

All dharmas arise from a cause. The Tathagata has explained their cause. The cessation of the cause of these dharmas This the great sramaI).a has explained.

"If men, women, or the five groups of mendicants would build an image of the Buddha; or if those without strength would deposit one as large as a grain of barley; or build a stupa-its body the size of a jujube, its mast the size of a needle, its parasol equal to a flake of bran, its relic like a mustard seed, or if someone writes the dharma-verse and installs it inside the stupa, it would be like doing homage by offering up a rare jewel. If in accordance with one's own strength and ability one can be truly sincere and respectful, it [the image or stupaJ would be like my actual body, equal without any difference."73

It appears that images and miniature stiipas, once consecrated with the ye dharmii ... verse, were in some way interchangeable. Yi Ching's translation and travel account suggest that both images and miniature stiipas are to be infused with the "formula on causation" and that both may receive the bathing of the Buddha ritual. In the Tibetan context, Tucci has attempted to trace the word tsha-tsha (which can be in the form of seals or stiipas) to a Prakrit sacchiiya or sacchiiha,meaning perfect image or representation. 74 Furthermore, we have a short text from the Gilgit manuscripts that, after enumerating the various substances of which an image of the Buddha can be made, states: buddha-pratimii kararJfyakii vii dzrghaka vii hraszukiim vii sadhiitukam vii sapratztyasamutpiidam vii ("images of the Buddha should be made either tall or short and with either a relic or with the pratztyasamutpiida"). 75

The archeological evidence for image inscriptions of the ye dharmii . .. verse is likewise abundant. There is, however, one find that deserves special mention. Inside stiipa no. 8 at Saheth-


Maheth, usually identified as the ancient SravastI, a broken pedestal with only the legs of a bodhisattva figure was discovered. 76 The pedestal contains a three line inscription datable on paleographical grounds to the early Ku~a:t;La period (ca. first century C.E.) .77 The fourth line contains the so-called Buddhist creed "added several centuries after the original record was carved." The language is Sanskrit, incorrectly composed, and in characters datable to the eighth or ninth centuries. 78 It would appear that someone, having only a piece of an ancient image, understood that even this piece, if inscribed with the pratffyasamutpadagatha, would sacralize a stupa in a way that the image alone would not.

III. Conclusion

Given the wealth of evidence that the ye dharma ... verse sacralized stupas with what was perceived to be a relic of the Buddha, it is very difficult to take this verse as a "Buddhist creed" as has been so commonly done. 79 A creed is generally regarded as a statement of religious belief, a confession of faith, such as the Nicene Creed or the Apostles' Creed. If Assaji's instruction of the essence of the Buddha's dhamma to Sariputta was meant to serve as a confession of faith-and we have no reason to believe that it was-it is certain that this was not how the verse functioned in the medieval period when it began to appear in inscriptions. In fact, much of the epigraphical evidence suggests that this so-called creed was frequently inscribed by "someone who did not know what he was writing."80 The ye dharma . .. verse had become more than an epitome of the Buddha's enlightenment. It became a manifestation of the Buddha's real presence at cultic centers-what Benisti has called "Ie principe vivant" -in the same way as relics were thought to infuse the living presence of the Buddha in stupas. 81

This early medieval development may thus help us examine a more fundamental problem in Indian Buddhism. Unlike Hindu gods and gurus, who are physically present for devotional contact, and the Jain tfrthahkara Mahavira who is wholly absent to his followers, the Buddha was both absent and present. On the one hand, Buddhists took his parinirva1Ja

16 JIABS VOL. 14 NO. I

literally. They located the "true" Buddha in his dharma, which led· to the developments in Abhidharma and later Mahayana speculation on the bodies of Buddha. But they also tried to represent him-to regain physical contact with him via his bodily remains, sacred sites, and imagesY While we have no reason to believe that a seventh-century Buddhist incorporated or even understood all of these developments when he or she stamped clay tablets with the ye dharma . .. verse, by transforming the notion of Buddha-as-dharma into relic, medieval Buddhists were able to harmonize the impulse to fix the Buddha in real time and space with the long established scholastic definitions that, apparently, could not be ignored. This dialectic could have important implications for our understanding of the entire historical development of the conceptions of the Buddha. However, much more work remains to be done.

NOTES

Abbreviations: ASIAR-Archeological Survey if India, Annual Report AsP-A~tasiihasrikiiPrajiiiipiiramitiisiitra (P. L. Vaidya, ed., Darbhanga, 1960) BEFEO-Bulletin de !'licole Franr;aise d'Extreme-Orient BSOAS-Bulletin if the School if Oriental and African Studies EI-Epigraphia India JAOS-Journal if the American Oriental Society JIABS-Journal if the International Association qf Buddhist Studies JRAS-Journal if the Royal Asiatic Society PTS-Pali Text Society Skt.-Sanskrit SN-Sa1'[lyutta-Nikifya (PTS) SP-Saddharmapu1f.4arfkasiitra (Kern and Nanjio, ed., St. Petersburg, 1912) Vaj-Vajracchedikiiprajiiiipiiramitiisiitra (Conze,ed., Rome, 1957)

*I would like at this point to extend my profound gratitude to Dr. Gregory Schopen who provided critical advice during the early stages of research on this project. I should also thank Drs. Ludo Rocher and Victor Mair for their careful readings of an earlier draft of this paper; their comments were invaluable.

1. Janice Leoshko, ed., Bodhgaya: the Site if Enlightenment (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1988), p. 68.

2. For a discussion of this cult, see Andre Bareau, "La construction et Ie culte des stilpa d'apres les Vinayapiraka," BEFEO 50 (1962): 229-274; also, a short· but worthwhile paper by David L. Snellgrove, "Sakyamuni's Final NirvaI,la," BSOAS 36 (1973): 399-411. More recently, Sugimoto Takushil has


contributed a large monograph on the cult of the stiipa in Japanese; Indo butto no kenkyii: butto siihai no seisei to kiban b [Studies in the Buddhist Stiipa-Cult in India] (Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1984).

3. Yo kho Vakkali dhammaT[l passatiso maT[l passati,yo maT[l passati so dhammaT[l passati. For other instances of this equation, see Itivuttaka (PTS) p. 91; DfghaNikaya (PTS) II, p. 154; Milindapaiiha (PTS), p. 71; Buddhacarita, E.H.Johnston, trans.(Reprint ed., Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984), pt. III, p. 90: "In this world the self-controlled man who sees my Law may live far away in point of space, yet he sees Me .... "

4. Majjhima-Nikaya (PTS) I, p. 190-91: yo paticcasamuppiidaT[l passati so dhammaT[l passati, yo dhammaT[l passati so paticcasamuppiidaT[l passati . .. ("He who sees the paticcasamuppiida sees the dhamma; he who sees the dhamma sees the paticcasamuppiida . .. ").

5. The classical exposition of the paticcasamuppiida is found in such texts as Mahiivagga (Vinaya-Pitaka I), 1 ff., SaT[lyutta Nikaya II, 1 ff., Majjhima Nikaya III, 63 Lalitavistara 346-7, Mahiivastu I, 1 ff.

, 6. Louis de La Vallee Poussin, Bouddhisme, Etudes et Matfriaux: Theorie des Douze Causes, (Gand: Luzac & Co., 1913), p. 69. De La Vallee Poussin notes here that although the Tibetan version labels this a Mahayana siitra, beside the fact that it is promulgated by the bodhisattva Maitreya, there is nothing distinctively Mahayana about it. In fact the Siilistamba is cited by Yasomitra, an eighth century Sautrantika commentator.

7. yo, bhik~ava~, pratftyasamutpiidaT[l pafyati sa dharmaT[l pafyati, yo dharmaT[l pafyati sa buddhaT[l pafyati; ibid., p. 70. Also Nagarjuna, Miilamadhyamakakiirikiis, L. de La Vallee Poussin, ed. (St. Petersburg, 1913), p. 6 and 160; Prajiiakaramati's commentary on the Bodhiciiryiivatiira, P.L. Vaidya, ed. (Darbhanga,1960), p. 186. •

8. L. de La Vallee Poussin, Bouddhisme: Etudes et Matiriaux, p. 72: Tatra kathaT[l pratftyasamutpiidaT[l pafyati? atroktaT[l bhagavatii: ya imaT[l prat7:tyasamutpiidaT[l satatasamitam [ajfvaT[l} nirj7:vaT[lyathiivad aviparftam ajiitam abhiitam akrtam asamskrtam apratigham aniilambanam fivam abhayam aniihiiryiim avyayam avyupafamasvabhiivaT[l pafyati, sa dharmaT[l pafyati; yas tv evaT[l satatasamitam [ajfvam} nirj7:vaT[l ityiidi piirvavat, yiivad avyupafamasvabhiivaT[l dharmaT[l pafyati so 'nuttaradharmafarfraT[l buddhaT[l pafyati, iiryadharmiibhisamaye samyagjiiiiniid upanayenaiva.

9. There are many such references in Mahayana siitra literature. See for example Vaj 26a-b; Samiidhiriijasiitra in K. Regamey, Three Chapters from the SamiidhirOjasiitra (Warsaw, 1938) 51 and 58; Suvar1Japrabhiisottamasiitra (J. Nobel ed., Leipzig, 1937) 18; among the many references in the Lotus Siitra that equate the written dharma with the Tathagata, see especially SP 227, 231, 338, 344. While there are five references to the dharmakaya in the AsP (Vaidya ed. 48, 50, 168, 228, 253), the earliest Chinese translations omit all occurrences but one. In Lokak~ema's second century translation (TaishO 224; vol. 8, 468c.l8), the term dharmakaya is rendered as "body of the Buddha's siitras "(fa ching shene). See Lewis R. Lancaster, "The Oldest Mahayana Siltra: Its Significance for the Study of Buddhist Development," The Eastern Buddhist n.s. 8, no. 1 (May 1975): 30-41. I should note, however, that Lancaster's conclusions with regard to the earliest Mahayana conceptions of the Buddha are probably somewhat prema-


ture. I am currently engaged in a project to investigate the earliest conception of the dharmkiiya on the basis of a broader range of early Chinese translations of Mahayana sutras.

10. This cult has been examined in detail by Gregory Schopen, "The Phrase 'sa Prthivzpradefaf caityabhuto bhavet' in the Vajracchedikii: Notes on the Cult of the Book in Mahayana," Indo-lranianJournal, vol. 17 (1975): 147-18l.

11. The importance of Bodh-Gaya as a sacred site is well known. In the Mahiiparinibbii1f.asutta it is one of the four sites the Buddha tells Ananda is to be visited after his death. A preoccupation with Bodh-Gaya continued throughout the history of Indian Buddhism. In the MahiivaT[lsa (ca. 5th cent. C.E.) the Bodhi tree is worshipped in a manner proper to worship of the Buddha himself (Geiger, trans., pp. 122-35). Epigraphical evidence suggests that Bodh-Gaya continued as a site of great importance through the 15th c. by Buddhists outside ofIndia: "No one can read through the inscriptions of Burma and Siam without being struck by the immense veneration in which the holy land of Buddhism was held-the Majjhima-desa, where the Great Events of the Buddha's career took place, and especially Bodhgaya, the scene of the Enlightenment, with its Mahabodhi tree and its Vajrasana, the centre of the universe" [A.B. Griswold, "The Holy Land Transported: Replicas of the Mahabodhi Shrine in Siam and Elsewhere," in Paranavitana Felicitation Volume (Colombo, 1965), p. 173J. For a recent monograph that discusses the complex and often confused history of Bodh-Gaya, see Janice Leoshko, ed., Bodhgaya: the Site of Enlightenment (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1988).

12. punar aparaT[l Kaufika tad yathiipi niima ye bodhima1f.q.agatii vii bodhima1f.q.aparisiimantagatii vii bodhima1f.q.iibhyantaragatii vii bodhivrk~amulagatii vii manuvii vii amanuvii vii tiryagyonigatiin apy upiidiiya yiivan na te fakyii manuvair vii amanuvair vii vihethayituT[l vii vyiiPiidayituT[l vii iivefayituT[l vii sthiipayitvii purvakarmavipiikam. tat kasya heto~? tatra hi atztiiniigatapratyutPanniis tathiigatii arhanta~ ... abhisaT[lbudhyante ca . ... evam eva Kaufika yatra kulaputro vii kuladuhitii vii imiiT[l prajiiiipiiramitiim udgrahZvati dhiirayivati . .. tatra hi Kaufika sattvii na fakyii manuvair vii amanuvair vii vihethayituT[l . .. sthiipayitvii purvakarmavipiikam. tat kasya heto~? anayaiva hi Kaufika prajiiiipiiramitayii Prthivzpradefa~ sattviiniiT[l caityabhuta~ krJo vandanZyo miinanZya~ . ... See also SP 340 and 391; Vaj 8; AsP 228; Schopen has discussed this phenomenon in greater detail, op. cit., 172 iT.

13. Etienne Lamotte, La Concentration de la Marche Hero"ique [Silramgamasamiidhisutra}, Melanges Chinois et Bouddhique, vol. XIII (Bruxelles, 1965), p. 221, note 242; Lamotte continues: "Con<;u primitivement comme un lieu sanctifie par la presence du corps materiel des Buddha, Ie bodhima1f.q.a est considere par plusieurs Mahayanasutra comme Ie symbo1e ou la quintessence du Dharma ou de 1a verite bouddhique."

Haribhadra, the eighth century commentator on the Asp, confirms this connotation (Vaidya ed., AbhisamayiilaT[lkiiriiloka, pp. 360.33-361.1):

bodher ma1f.q.a~ siiro' treti bhupradefa~ piiryiihkiikriinto bodhima1f.q.a~. "The bodhima1f.qa, the unsurpassed seat, is a spot so named because the

ma1f.qa, the quintessence (siira) of enlightenment, is present there." I have followed Lamotte's rendering for the most part; see The Teaching of Vimalaklrti (Vimalaklrtinirdefa) , rendered into English by Sara Boin (London: PTS, 1976), p. 94,


note-105. Lamotte gives a long series of references to the term bodhimaT}¢a in other Buddhist sources. __

14. SP 231 10-232.2: tat kasya heto~? ekaghanam eva tasmi1'[ls tathiigatafarzram upanik~iptam bhavati. yasmin Prthivzpradefe 'yam dharmapiiryayo bhaveta vii defyeta vii pathyeta vii samgayeta vii likhyeta vii likhito va pustakagatas ti~thet, tasmi1'[lf ca stupe satkiiro gurukiiro miinanii piJjaniircanii karaT}Zyii . . . ye ca khalu punar bhai~ajyariija sattvas tam tathiigatacaitya1'[l labheran vandanaya pujanaya darfanaya vii sarve te bhai~ajya-

riijiibhyasannzbhuta veditavyii anuttarayii~ samyaksa1'[lbodhe~. . 15. Sten Konow, "Remarks on a Kharo~rhl Inscrip~ion From the Kurram

Valley," Indian Studies in Honor qf Charles Rockwell Lanman (Cambridge, MA, 1929), p. 53. See also Konow, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. II, pt. I, pp. 52-55; V Natesa Aiyar, "An Inscribed Relic Casket from Kurram," EI 18 (1925-26): 16-20.

16. Konow, "Remarks," p. 57. 17. This find is discussed by Oskar von Hiniiber in "Epigraphical Vari

eties of Continental Pa1i From Devnimori and Ratnagiri," in Buddhism and Its Relation to Other Religions: Essays in Honour qf Dr. Shozen Kumoi on his Seventieth Birthday (Kyoto, 1985), pp. 185-200; also, A. Ghosh, "The Relic Casket from Devnimori," Journal qfthe Maharaja Sayajirao University qfBaroda 15, no. 1 (1966): 21-24.

18. F.K Pargiter, "The Kasia Copper-Plate," ASIAR 1910-11, pp. 73-77. This inscription was discovered in the relic chamber of a large stupa behind the Nirva!fa temple at Kasia, the ancient Kusinagara. Most of the epigraph is written in ink on a plate that covered the mouth of a copper reliquary vesseL Pargiter dates the inscription to the second half of the 5th cent. C.K on the basis of coins ofKumaragupta (d. 455) found within the copper vesseL

19. KH. Johnston, "The Gopalpur Bricks," JRAS (1938): 546-53. Johnston sets the probable date at ca. 500 C.K, at least two centuries later than' Smith and Hoey, who first discussed the bricks. See VA. Smith and W. Hoey, "Buddhist Sutras Inscribed on Bricks found at Gopalpur in the Gorakhpur District," Proceedings qf the Asiatic Society qf Bengal (1896): 99-103; also, Vincent A. Smith, "Deposit ofSutras in Stupas," The Indian Antiquary 33 (1904): 175.

20. N.P. Chakravarti, "Two Brick Inscriptions From Nalanda," Epigraphia India 21 (1931-32): 193-199; A. Ghosh, "An Inscribed Brick from Nalanda," EI 24 (1937-38): 20-22. For the relationship between the Gopalpur bricks, the Nalanda bricks, and the literary expositions of the pratztyasamutpiida, see Hirano Shinkan, "Innen soo no bonbun shiryo: indo koto shutsudo no renga meimon no naiyo hiteI, "d ["Sanskrit Materials on the Pratztyasamutpiida: A Comparison of the Contents of Brick Inscriptions of Archeological Finds of Ancient Indian Stiipas"], Indogaku bukkyogaku kenkyu [Journal qfIndian and Buddhist Studies], voL XII, no. I (1964): 158-61.

21. Debala Mitra, "The Indian Museum Inscription from Ratnagiri Orissa," Indian Historical Quarterly 34 (1958): 163-66. Unfortunately the in situ context of this find is not known.

22. Hubert Durt, Krishna Riboud, and Lai Tung-Hung, "A propos de 'Stupa Miniatures' Votifs du Ve siecle decouverts a Tourfan et au Gansu," Arts Asiatique40 (1985): 92-106.

20 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO.1

23. The traditional distinction between rilpakaya and dharmakaya is not adequate here. Not only is the semantic domain of these terms far from consistent, but we are in fact dealing with both cultic and literary expressions of the nature of the Buddha, the relationship between which is. yet to be worked out.

24. See E. Burnouf, Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1852), pp. 525-6 for the metrical difficulties of this verse. Burnouf proposed, not altogether convincingly, that the verse was originally composed in a popular dialect and became redacted in the iiryii meter when this creed spread to those familiar with the classical language. To assume the Pali to be anterior to the Sanskrit redactions on the basis of metrical conformity (and only after emendation) ignores the fact that the iiryii meter does not appear in Indian literature until after the common era, indicating the late date of this verse. See Edward]. Thomas, The Life qf Buddha as Legend and History (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1927), p. 94, note 1. For a somewhat more plausible suggestion, see E. Hardy, ed., The Netti-Pakarar;a (London: PTS, 1902), p. xxiii, note 5: "Supposing the texts of the Pali canon to have been remodelled again and again, before they assumed their final shape, I venture to advance the hypothesis that later on, when the Arya was employed with a special predilection for versus memoriales of every kind, the ancient formula of the Buddhist Creed came to be turned into the Arya, being before extant only in prose."

25. This narrative occurs in several places in Buddhist literature, most notably in Mahiivagga (Vinaya I), pp. 39-44; in Sanskrit it occurs in the Mahiivastu (Senart ed.) III, pp. 59-65. See also Andre Bareau, Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha dans les Siltrapitaka et les Vinayapitaka anciens: De la quite de l'iveil a la conversion de Siiriputra et de jl;JaudgaTyayana (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'ExtremeOrient, 1963), pp. 343-50. Also Etienne Lamotte, Le Traiti de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse [Mahiiprajfiiipiiramitii-siistra ] (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1949; repro 1967), Tome II, p. 623 ff., note 2 for the canonical occurrences ofthis legend in Pali, Sanskrit, and Chinese sources. That this legend was known in Central India in the early medieval period is evidenced by Hsuan-tsang's account of Magadha in his Hsi-yu-chi (MiskO, vol. 51, pp. 924c-925a); S. Beal, trans., The Records qf the Western World (London, 1884; repro Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981), Part II, pp. 178-9.

26. Cf. Alfred Foucher, The Beginnings qf Buddhist Art, trans. L.A. Thomas and FW. Thomas (Paris-London, 1917), pp. II-12. More recently, Gerard Fussman has remarked about similar finds from Gilgit: "Ces empreintes de terre crue et ce stUpa-miniature sont donc, dans Ie monde du bouddhisme indien, des objets d'une grande banalite. S'ils avaient ete achetes chez un antiquaire de Caboul, de Lahore ou de Delhi, rien ne permettrait de se pronouncer sur leur provenance et ils meriteraient a peine la publication. Trouves a Gilgit, ils tirent leur interet de leur banalite meme" ("Inscriptions de Gilgit," BEFEO 65 (1978): 7).

27. ]. Ph. Vogel, "Excavations at Kasia," ASIAR 1906-7, p. 60. Eighty clay tablets with the "Buddhist creed" were found among the ruined stilpas at Kasia. They were produced from eight different dies and range in date from the 7th to the II th century.


- 28. Daya Ram Sahni, Catalogue if the Museum if Archeology at Sarnath (Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1914), pp. 307-313.

29. Alexander Cunningham, Mahiibodhi or the Great Buddhist Temple under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha-Gayii (London: W.H. Allen & Co., 1892 ), p. 52.

30. A large number of terracotta tablets and stone slabs with the ye dharmii . .. verse have been excavated from Ratnagiri (Orissa). Debala Mitra has discussed these finds in Ratnagiri (1958-61) [Memoirs if the Archeological Survey if India, no. 80} (New Delhi, 1981), vol. I, especially pp. 27-32 (pIs. XIV; XIX, etc.). Although the in situ context of most of the seals is not known, many were found amidst the stiipa ruins that so inundate the site.

31. Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments (Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1971), p.84. Clay seals with the figure of the Buddha or with the "Buddhist creed" in characters of the 6th or 7th centuries were found at the base of the mound labelled "N' at this site.

32. Hirananda Sastri, "Nalanda and Its Epigraphical Material," Memoirs if the Archeological Survey if India, no. 66 (1942): 76-7, 106-13. See also H. Sastri, "The Clay Seals ofNalanda," Epigraphia India 21 (1931-2): 72 ff.

33. Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, p. 142. At this important scholastic center were discovered "many terra cotta tablets with the Buddhist creed in ch~racters of about the seventh century A.D.".

34. Maurizio Taddei, "Inscribed Clay Tablets and Miniature Stu pas from GaznI," East and f}est n.s. 20 (1970): 70-86.

35. F. A. Khan, Mainamati: A Preliminary Report on the Recent Archaelogical Excavations in East Pakistan (Pakistan, 1963), A large number of terracotta seals with the pratztyasamutpiidagiithii, some with a small stiipa-figure in relief, were discovered in the central shaft ofthe stiipas at the Kotila Mura site.

36. The singular importance of this posture in Buddhist art during the period we are focusing upon is noteworthy. "Despite all the different events that occurred at Bodh-Gaya which could have been depicted in art, the image of the Buddha in bhiimisparfa-mudrii was almost exclusively rendered as the image of the site during the Pala period" Oanice Leoshko, ed., op. cit., p. 34).

37. A. Cunningham, Mahiibodhi, p. 51 (see also Plate XXIV). We must be very cautious in assigning dates to these seals strictly on the basis of paleography. While Cunningham has frequently dated the various inscriptions at Bodh-Gaya on the basis of the form of the briihmz letter "y", Marshall has excavated seals with this verse that in fact exhibit "both the tripartite and the bipartite forms of the letter ya" on the very same seal ("Excavations at SahethMaheth," ASIAR 191O-11, p. 19).

38. J.H. Marshall and S. Konow, "Sarnath," ASIAR 1906-7, pp. 80-I. 39. Alexander Cunningham, Archeological Survey if India. Report for the Year

1871-72, vol. III (Calcutta, 1873), pp. 156-9. Cunningham discovered here a large stiipa of solid brick known locally as Birdaban. On the west side of the mound was excavated a large earthenware jar from a chamber that enclosed at least 2,700 lacquer seals. Although four different kinds of seals were discovered, at least one of the types is similar to the ones we noted above: "the figure of the Buddha, the ascetic, seated under the holy pippal tree of Buddha Gaya, with rows of small stupas on each side." Underneath, of course, is the ye dharmii . .. verse, in characters that Cunningham dates to the 10th or II th century.


40. John Marshall, "The Monuments ofSanchl," ASIAR 1913-14, p. 22. 41. From StD.pa 253 were found six plaques with the Buddha on a lotus

seat in bhilmisparfamudra, outlined by a halo and flanked by bodhisattvas; branches of the Bodhi tree project up in the background. Below i~ the creed in three lines in characters of the 9th or 10th century. See D. Mitra, Ratnagiri (1958-61), pp. 98-9 (pI. XLIX).

42 . .J. Ph. Vogel, "Excavations at Kasia," ASIAR 1906-7, p. 60. 43. Henry Cousens, "Buddhist Stupa at Mirpur-Khas,Sind," ASIAR

1909-10, p. 88. See also Cousens' summary of the Sind finds up to 1929 in "The Antiquities of Sind with Historical Outline," Archeological Survey of India, vol. XLVI, Imperial Series (Calcutta, 1929), pp. 92-3. An interesting feature of this site is the discovery of coins with Arabic inscriptions amidst the same stilpa ruins as the clay seals. Thus we know that the cult practice centered around this stilpa contil)ued after the Arab conquest of Sind. Note also the eighth century account of the Arab usurpation of Chach, the Indian ruler of Sind:

"When he [Chach] reached the temple, he saw the Samanl [Buddhist priest] sitting on a chair, engaged in worship, and having some clay in his hand with which he was making idols, he had something like a stamp with which the figure of the buddh (sic) was made on the clay, and when it was finished he placed it on one side." Sir H.M. Elliot, K.C.B., The History of India As Told By Its Own Historians, Vol. I (London: Triibner and Co., 1867), p. 149. The author of this account is not known; the work was translated into Arabic by Muhammad 'Ali bill- Hamid bin Abu Bakr Kufi in the early 13th century. See Elliot, p. 136ff. for the dating of this account.

44. Charles Duroiselle, "Exploration-Burma," ASIAR 1926-7, pp. 182-3. At this excavation in Prome were also found seals with the Buddha in the "earth-witnessing" attitude flanked on each side by stilpas and containing the "Buddhist creed" in characters of the 8th or 9th century.

45. G. Coedes, "Tablettes votives bouddhique du Siam," Etudes Asiatiques publiies a l'occasion du vingt-cinquieme anniversaire de l'Ecole Franljaise d'Extreme-Orient (Paris, 1925), pp. 145-67.

46. TaiskO 2087, vol. 51, p. 920a-b. 47. Daya Ram Sahni, Catalogue, p. 309. Many other miniature stilpaswere

found at Sarnath and recorded by Sahni; see pp. 309-10. 48. Alexander Cunningham, Mahabodhi, pp. 46-7. Also on p. 52, Cunning

ham notes the discovery of a great number of small clay balls and miniature stilpas containing unbaked seals with the Buddhist creed.

49. John Marshall, "Rajagrha and Its Remains," ASIAR 1905-6, p. 96. During the excavation of a large mound west of New Rajagrha, a number of miniature clay stilpas, two inches high and one inch in diameter, were found within the remains of brick walls (The mound in question is marked H on Plate XXXV). "The presence of these miniature stilpas suggest that a large stilpa, the core of which was of earth and debris, was built over the remains of the brick walls mentioned above. Inside each of them was a tiny tablet with the Buddhist formula Je dharma hetu-prabhava, etc.' inscribed in characters of the eighth or ninth century."


-50. Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, p. 243: ""Within the trapezoidal templecompound were noticed as many as one hundred and thirty-two votive stupas of varying shapes and sizes, the largest and smallest being respectively 25 ft. and 2 ft. 9 in. in diameter. In the relic chamber of one of these stu pas were found several thousands of miniature votive stupas of clay, each containing two circular clay tablets with the Buddhist creed placed face to face."

51. Ram Chandra Kak, Ancient Monuments of Kashmir (London, 1933; repro New Delhi, 1971), p. 107 ff (pI. XVIII). Amidst the stupa and chapel rubble, a few clay tablets with miniature stu pas in relief were discovered. Below the Kashmir-style stupas is the ye dharmii . .. verse in briihmz characters that Kak dates to the 4th century. The quality of the plate makes it impossible to examine the script, but we must be highly suspicious of such an early date in light of the developments and collateral evidence traced above.

52. Maurizio Taddei, op. cit., p. 80: "the clay tablets are often placed inside the miniature stu pas; their function would thus be that of consecrating the other ts'a ts'as-in the form of mch 'od rtens-which in their turn could be placed inside larger stupas."

53. F. A. Khan, Mainamati, p. 30 ff. From the central shafts of the main stu pas at the Kotila Mura site were excavated several hundred clay miniature stu pas which enclosed both bone relics and sealings upon which the ye dharmii . .. verse was inscribed.

54. Gerard Fussman, "Inscriptions de Gilgit," BEFEO 65 (1978): 5 ff. 55. Fo-shuo tsao t'a kung-te ching e; TaiskO 699, vol. 16, p. 801. 56. There is however a Tibetan text that parallels Divakara's translation

quite closely and which N. Aiyaswami Sastri has reconstructed, not altogether satisfactorily, into Sanskrit, known as the Aryapratztyasamutpiidaniima-mahqyiinasutra. See Aryii-Siilistambha sutra (Adyar Library, 1950), pp. 25-7.

57. Ti-P'o-ho-lo f ; Divakara (613-688) was a monk-translator from Central India. He resided at the monasteries of Mahabodhi and Nalanda while young, and was quite probably at the latter when the famous pilgrim Hsiiantsang visited. He arrived in China sometime between 676 and 679 and translated at least 19 texts into Chinese under Empress Wu's patronage. The Sutra on the Merit of Building a Stupa was translated at the Hung-fu monastery in Ch'angan in 680. Divakara died February 4,688 at the Wei-kuo monastery in Lo-yang. See Sung kao seng chuan, TaiskO 2061, vol. 50, p. 719a-b; K'ai-yuan shih-chiao-lu, TaiskO 2154, vol. 55, pp. 563c-564a; Antonino Forte, "Divakara (613-688), Un Monaco Indiano Nella Cina Dei T'ang, " Annali della Facolta di Lingue e Letterature Straniere di Ca' Foscari XIII, 3 (1974): 135-64.

58. For the change in punctuation from the TaiskO edition, see John Brough, "Thus Have I Heard ... ," BSOAS 13 (1949-50): 416-26.

59. Similar accounts of the making of miniature stupas are found in several other canonical texts. Cf. Hisashi Matsumura, "The Stupa Worship in Ancient Gilgit," Journal of Central Asia, vol. VIII, no. 2 (Dec. 1985): 135-7; Yael Bentor, "The Redactions of the Adbhutadharmpiiryqya from Gilgit," JIABS vol. 11,_ no. 2 (1989): 21-52. Also, the Arya Pratztyasamutpiida-niimamahqyiinasutram which parallels TaiskO 699 quite closely, enjoins the practice of making miniature stu pas and installing theye dharmii ... verse within; The Tibetan Tripitaka (Peking ed.),


Edited by D. T Suzuki, voL 34 (no. 878), p. 307-3-5 ff: . span-ras-gZigs-dbang-phyug rigs kyi bu'am rigs kyi hu mo dad pa can gang ta ta zhig

gis mi gans pa'i phyogs su mchod rten ni skyu ru ra'i 'bru tsam. srog shing ni khab tsam. gdugs ni ba ku fa'i me tog tsam zhig byas la rten cing 'brel bar '~yung ba chos kyi dbyings kyi tshigs su.bcad pa nang du bcug na de tshangs pa'i bsod nams bskyed par 'gyur teo

Whichever faithful son or daughter of a good family, AvalokiteSvara, who, having made a stupa no bigger than an iimalaka fruit ('bru-seed?) at an unestablished place (i.e., where there is no stupa) , with a mast (srog shing= ya~ti) no bigger than a needle, and with a parasol no bigger than a va kula fruit, and places within the dharma-relic verse of the prat'ityasamutpiida, he would produce brahma merit.

60. Skt. catu~piidikagiithii; the four line verse motif has a long history in Buddhist literature. In Mahayana literature, see among others Vaj 8, 11, 12, etc.; SP 224,344,395, etc.; Kafyapaparivarta (von Stael-Holstein ed.) 159; Vimalak'irtinirdefa (Lamotte, trans., rendered into English by Sara Boin, London: Pali Text Society, 1976) 250-1. For a discussion of the extent of this motif in other literature, see Etienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien: Des origines a {'ere Saka (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1958, repro 1967), pp. 546-7 and also Lamotte, Le Traite de la Grande Jiertu de Sagesse, pp. 688-89.

61. On the generation of brahma merit, see Richard Salomon and Gregory Schopen, "The Indravarman (Avaca) Casket Inscription Reconsidered: Further Evidence for Canonical Passages in Buddhist Inscriptions," jIABS, vol. 7, no. 1 (1984): 116 ff.

62. Although the ye dharmii . .. verse is rather formulaic in Sanskrit, with only minor deviations, it has been variously translated into Chinese, and at times, transliterated. HajimeNakamura has listed some of the renderings in his Gotama Budda: shakuson no shifgaig [Gotama Buddha: The Life of Shakyamuni] (Tokyo, 1969), p. 348. See also, Akira Yuyama, "Juni innenju oboegaki,"h ["Notes on the PratItyasamutpadagatha"], Indogaku bukkyogaku kenkyu, vol. XX, no. 1 (Dec. 1971): 447 ff.

63. Louis de La Vallee Poussin, ed., Mulamadhyamakakiirikiis (St. Petersburg: Imprimerie de l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1913), pp. 503 and 542. On this verse, see also D.S. Ruegg, The Literature if the iVladhyamaka School if Philosophy in India (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1981), p. 17, note 39.

64. See AsP 86, 228, etc. for references to the prajiiiipiiramitii as the "mother" of Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

65. P. L. Vaidya, ed., A~tasiihasrikii Prajiiiipiiramitii With Haribhadra's Commentary Called Aloka, p. 361.13-18: caityabhuto vandaniidinii pUr!:JIopacayahetutviit piteva pitr:bhuta ity upamiiviicakabhutafabdasyopiidiiniid anyacaityasamiinatvena caityabhuta~ sa p!thiv'ipradefa ity eke. yalra hi niima pudgalanairiitmyadyotikayii ')e dharmii hetuprabhavii" ityiidi giithayii adhi~thito bhubhaga~ stupo mata~ tatra samastavastunai~viibhiivyaprakiifikiiyii miitur udgrahaniidinopeta~ stupo nitariim eva, ity ata~ siiksyeva siik~ibhuta iti tatsvabhiivatve caityam eva caityabhuta iti Candragom'i.

66. Peking ed., voL 34 (no. 878), p. 307-3-3 ff: de nas bcom ldan 'das kyis rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba'i tshigs su bcad pa bka' stsal pa. ye dha. rmii he tu pra bha bii he tun te siin ta thiiga to hya dat. te sii nyca yo ni ro dha e bam bii d'i ma hii shra ma TJa~. chos gang rgyu byung de dag gi. rgyu dang de 'gog gang yin pa' ang.


de bzhin gshegs pas bka' stsal teo dge slong chen pos de skad gsungs. spyan-ras-gzigs-dbangphyug 'rli lta ste. rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba 'di ni de bzhin gshegs pa mams kyi chos kyi sku yin teo sus rten cing 'brel bar 'byung ba mthong ba des de bzhin gshegs pa mthong ngo.

67. This dichotomy however should not be understood as a lay/monk distinction. The monastic role in the cult of the relics remains a frequently misunderstood topic in the scholarly literature on Buddhism. See Gregory Schopen, "Two Problems in the History of Indian Buddhism: The Lay / Monk Distinction and the Doctrines of the Transference of Merit," Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik 10 (1985): 9-47 and also Schopen, "Monks and the Relic Cult in the Mahiiparinibbri1J.asutta: An Old Misunderstanding in Regard to Monastic Buddhism," in G. Schopen and K. Shinohara eds., From Banares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religion in Honor if Jan Yun-hua (Toronto, 1991, forthcoming).

68. Guiseppe Tucci,Stupa: Art, Architectonics, and fiymbolism [Indo-Tibetica I] trans. by Uma Marina Vesci, (New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 1988), p. 84.

69. Walter Liebenthal, "Sanskrit Inscriptions from Yunnan I," Monumenta Serica 12 (1947): 1-40; see especially pp. 31-4 and 36 for the occurrences of the verse.

70. Ibid., p. 2 (emphasis mine); Liebenthal cites a late but very interesting Tantric text from the Chinese canon, The Sutra on the Measurements if Building an Image, that discusses the use of the "spiritual relic." Particularly noteworthy is the list of the five kinds of dhiira1J.ls to be used as dharmakayafarlra, indu'ding one called the shih-erh yin-yuan choui which of course is our ye dharmii . .. giithii. Also, in Shih Chih's Chinese translation of the Maiijufrlniima-saT[!gltl (TaiskO 1190), the pratltyasamutpiidagiithii is transliterated as this very dhiira1J.l; see Akira Yuyama, "jllni innenju oboegaki," p. 445. ,

71. L. de La Vallee Poussin, ed., Bouddhisme: Etudes et NIateriaux (London: Luzac & Co., 1898), pp. 192-3: OT[! namo bhagavate vairocanaprabhariijaya tathiigatayiirhate samyaksaT[!buddhaya. tadyathii: OT[! siik~me 'samiisame prafiinte diinte ['} samiirodhe 'niilambe. tarasva yafovati mahiibhaje niriikule nirvii1J.e. sarvabuddhiidhi~thiinaadhi~thite sviihii. anayii dhiirar;.yii mrtpi1J.q.aT[! viilukiipi1J.q.aT[! vii. ekaviT[!fativiiriin parijapya caityaT[! kuryiit. yiivantas tasmin paramii1J.avas tiivatya[~] kot[y] a[f] caityiini krtiini bhavantfti. tadanu: ye dharmii hetuprabhavii hetuT[! te~iiT[! tathiigato hy avadat tqiiT[! ca yo nirodha evaT[!viidl mahiiframa1J.a~ anayii g iithayii prati~thaya.

72. Stephan Beyer, The Buddhist Experience: Sources and Interpretations (Encino, CA: Dickenson Publishing Co., Inc., 1974), p. 59.

73. Yu-fo kung-te chingj (TaiskO 698, vol. 16, p. 800a). I Ching recorded this very practice in the account of his travels to India and the Malay Archipeligo: "[People in India] make [incense] paste caityas and paste images from rubbings. Some impress them on silk or paper, and venerate them wherever they go. Some amass them into a pile, and by covering them with tiles, they build a buddha-stUpa. Some erect them in empty fields, allowing them to fall into ruin. Among the monks and laity ofIndia, they all take this as their practice. Furthermore, whenever they build images or make caityas, be they of gold, silver, copper, iron, paste, lacquer, bricks, or stones; or when they heap snowy sand, at the times they make them, they place inside two kinds of relics. One is called the relic of the great teacher; the second is called the dharma-verse on causation. This verse goes as follows: All dharmas arise from a cause. The Tathagata has


explained this cause. The cessation of the cause of these dharmas; This the great Sramal).a has explained" (TaiskO 2125, vol. 54, p. 226c).

74 .. Tucci, op. cit., p. 53-5. 75. Tathiigatabimbakiirapa7Jasiltra (Gilgit Ms. no. J8) in Adelheid Mette,

"Zwei kleine Fragmente aus Gilgit," Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik, vol. 7 (1981): 136, In. 22-3. I should also note that there exists a late Pali text (13th / 14th century), the Siir~sahgaha by Siddhattha, that enumerates three kinds of cetiya (Skt. caitya). Among them is the dhamma-cetiya, which is consecrated by either the pratftyasamutpiida formula or by an image. See]. Minayeff, "Buddhistische Fragmente," Bulletin de l'Acadimie Imperiale des Sciences de Saint-Pitersbourg (1871): 78 ff~

76. ]. H. Marshall, "Excavations at Saheth-Maheth," ASIAR 1910-11, pt. 2, pp. 10-12.

77. D. R. Sahni, ''A Buddhist Image Inscription from SravastI," ASIAR 1908-9, p. 133ff; see Plate VI.

78. Ibid.; Marshall proposes the 9th or 10th centuries, adding that the verse was probably "added at the time when this relic of a long-past age was being enshrined in the stilpa from which it has now been recovered" (op. cit., p. 12).

79. See, for example, E. Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien, p. 547: "Des lors la stance fameuse communique autrefois par Asvajit a Sariputra et qui resume si bien les quatre verites saintes est elevee au rang de credo bouddhique .... "

80. M. Taddei, op. cit., p. 76. See also Johannes De Casparis, "Some Aspects of the Expansion of NagarI Script in South and Southeast Asia," in Graciela de la Lama, ed., Proceedings qf the 30th International Congress qf Human Sciences in Asia & North Africa, South Asia I (1976), p. 127: "NagarI was used in the Tamilnadu for such special purposes as inscribing the so-called Buddhist 'Credo,' coin and seal legends-all cases where legibility was not essential" (emphasis mine).

81. Gregory Schopen has shown rather convincingly that a stilpa "was not conceived of as 'un reliquaire,' but as a structure housing the living presence of the Buddha-any worship of 'it' would actually be of him." See "On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of a Relic in the Inscriptions of Nagarjunakol).ga," JAOS, vol. 108, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1988): 536. Also "Burial 'Ad Sanctos' and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism: A Study in the Archeology of Religions," Religion vol. 17 (1987): 193-225.

82. I am reminded here of Eliade's discussion of the gnostic/ mystic dichotomy of early Buddhism in his Yoga: Immortality and Freedom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958), pp. 174-5: "In the course of time, all means of approaching the Buddha by way of 'experience' will become equivalent; he who learns and understands the canon assimilates the 'doctrinal body' of the Buddha; the pilgrim who visits a stilpa containing relics of the Enlightened One gains access to the mystical architectonic body of the same Buddha."

This equivalence is made explicit, as is well known, in the so called dharmakiiya symbolism of the stilpa, whereby each structure of the stilpa is related to a specific dogma of the Buddhist canon. See, among others, Gustav Roth, "Symbolism of the Buddhist Stilpa," in Anna Libera Dallapiccola and Stephanie


Zingd-Ave Lallemant, eds. The Stilpa: Its Religious, Historical and Architectural Significance (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1980), pp. 183-209. While explanations for this recurring symbolism have been varied and often rather weak, I might tentatively propose that the symbolic correspondence between the stilpa and the dharmakaya reflects another solution to the problem we traced above. That is to say, it may have been part of the ongoing debate within the tradition to define the relationship between the continued presence of the Buddha in, for example, his relics, and his abstract presence in the dharma. To equate the proper repository of the Buddha's corporeal remains with the body of his law is to legitimate a specific definition of not only who or what the real Buddha was, but where and how he continued to be. I hope to examine the symbolism of the stilpa in more detail in the near future.

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Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Functions of Siitra Texts as Depicted in Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle· Tales and Hagiographies

by Robert F Campany

In his magisterial study of the earliest period of Buddhism in China, Erik Zurcher observes that, in the types of source materials available to us, there is little mention of "popular" and "devotional" Buddhist practices. At one point, after describing the "metaphysical and philosophical problems and discussions" among Chinese Buddhist intellectuals in the late third and early fourth centuries C.E., Zurcher writes:

There was, of course, the devotional aspect. Not much is known about this side of early Chinese Buddhism. Simple faith and devotion may have played a great role in the popular cult about which hardly any information is available. Among the sophisticated Buddhist gentlemen of the fourth century, both monks and laymen, we very seldom hear emotional outbursts about the Buddha's endless love and compassion. 1

Zurcher's point is undeniable: written sources tell us much less than we would like to know about early Chinese Buddhist devotional practices both lay and monastic. Yet there do exist types of textual sources that, if read imaginatively, yield considerable insight into aspects of Buddhist life often neglected in favor of "metaphysical and philosophical discussions."

The sources I will tap here are the earliest extant examples of two closely related Chinese narrative genres: Buddhist hagiographical or biographical accounts, and Buddhist "miracle tales," each of them related in turn to the genre of "accounts

28

SUTRATEXTS 29

of the strange" (zhiguaia), which was put to use by Buddhist as well as non-Buddhist authors.2 The main hagiographical collection in question, the Lives qf Eminent Monks ( Gaoseng zhuan) of Huijiao (496-554 C.E.), features monks and was written by a monk. 3 The miracle tales studied here-some 264 of them, all cited from pre-Tang (that is, pre-618) collections now mostly extant as fragments in encyclopaedias compiled in the seventh and in the tenth centuries-were written by laypersons; and, significantly, more than twice as many of these tales' protagonists are laypersons as are monks or nuns. 4 Yet the hagiographical and miracle-tale genres are closely related: authors of each type of story are known to have drawn material from the other type, and both groups of authors probably gleaned material from other sources, such as mortuary inscriptions on stilpas and temple records. 5

The questions I want to address here are two and, although distinct, closely interrelated: First, what can we learn from a careful reading of these sources about the various devotional uses to which Buddhist sutra texts were put in China from the late third to the seventh centuries? Second, how was the sutra text as such-the very physical object-used as a Buddhist symbol by the authors of these narratives?6

By the term "devotional uses" I mean to include all save the most scholastic, and hence most often studied, uses of sutra texts. Familiar "modes of reception" such as translation, textual studies and lectures in monastic contexts, and the writing of commentaries are here deliberately excluded in favor of relatively "unstudied aspects" of the Chinese appropriation of sutras imported from India via Central Asia and Indochina. 7 The latter two phrases in inverted commas invoke exemplary attempts to chart this field: Miriam Levering has recently called for comparative studies of "modes of reception" of scriptures in various traditions, and has provided a fine example of the fruits comparative questions can yield when asked of Chinese Buddhism; while Jan Yiin-hua has published on a largely "unstudied aspect" of Buddhist practice, namely "the power of recitation" of sutra texts as reflected in the early Chinese hagiographies. 8 While none can deny their importance, scholastic pursuits hardly exhaust the uses to which Chinese people of the early medieval period put sutra texts or the range of ways


in which these sacred objects figured in the lives of monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen.

The first order of inquiry pursued here-that of the sutra text as a devotional vehicle or object-looks 'through the texts to discern patterns of verbal, ritual, and gestural practice involving sutras in the world in which the narrative texts were written. The second-that of the sutra text as a symbolic vehicle or object-looks at the narrative texts themselves to see how they employ the sutra as a literary symbol, a metonym for certain aspects of reality or of the world in which the narratives were created. In the first case, the "users" of sutra texts are protagonists in the stories; in the second, the users are the authors of the texts themselves. Although most of the protagonists mentioned in the tales probably actually lived, and although we have documentation in other sources concerning some of them, their historicity is not at issue here. What is at issue is how these narratives reflect-and perhaps shaped-the place of Buddhist sutra texts in the religious world of early medieval China.

1. Devotional Uses: Sutra Texts as Vehicles and Objects if Reverent Action

1. Recitation

The devotional use of sutras most ubiquitous in the narratives is their recitation: the repeated chanting of all or some of the words of the text. Many tales are careful to specify the number of times a protagonist recited a sutra, ranging from hundreds to thousands to, at least in one case, ten thousand recitations. 9

Others specify not the number of repetitions but the length of time spent in continuous recitation, ranging from several days to a month. lO Still others specify the number of words or syllables recited, II or the frequency and speed of recital. 12

I t must be noted at once that, with the exception of some hagiographies in the Gaoseng zhuan (especially those in the sections emphasized here, namely "Hymnodists" [jingshi b ], "Cantors" [songjingc] , and "Sermonists" [changdaod]) which simply speak of the skills of a monk specializing in recitation, most stories involving sutra recitation focus on cases in which this devotional act resulted in a miracle-a compassionate, salvific,

SUTRA TEXTS 31

and - clear intervention in human affairs by some powerful being, typically the bodhisattva or buddha on whom the siitra focuses.13 This is true not only of the miracle tales but also of many of the hagiographies.

By far the most commonly mentioned text in such tales is that which now stands as the twenty-fifth (or twenty-fourth, depending on the version) chapter of the Lotus Siitra, titled Guanshiyin pusa pumenpine (Universal Gateway [to Salvation) qf the Bodhisattva Avalokitefvara) .14 This chapter (at least its prose portion) was presumably translated into Chinese, along with the rest of the Lotus, at least six times between 286 and 601. 15 It circulated in China as an independent siitra text, and is often referred to as "the Guanshiyin Siitra" (Guanshiyin jingf) .16 It depicts the Buddha as promising to anyone-even sinners-that if they, finding themselves in any of the types of extreme difficulty mentioned in the text, simply call upon the name of the bodhisattva Guanshiyin, they will be swiftly and miraculously rescued from danger by the bodhisattva's great power.17 It is no surprise, then, that each of the Chinese stories of this type tells of a protagonist who, in dire straits and without means of escape, recites the Guanshiyin jing and is saved. IS In miracle stories involving recitation of the Guanshiyin jing, in other words, the effect of the recitation is almost always extrication from imminent peril.

For example, in chapter 25 of Kumarajlva's translation of the Lotus, the Buddha declares: "Even if there is a man, whether guilty or guiltless, whose body is fettered with stocks, pillory, or chains, ifhe calls upon the name of the bodhisattva He Who Observes the Sounds of the World, they shall all be sever-ed and broken, and he shall straightway gain deliverance." 19 The plots of at least thirteen miracle tales in the collections treated here are based squarely on this passage; Lu Gao's collection alone contains eleven ofthese.20 Here is an example:

Gai Hu was a native of Shanyang. Once he was imprisoned and was due to die. With a perfect mind he recited the Guanshryin Siitra for three days and three nights, without once relaxing his mind. Suddenly in the darkness he had a vision of Guanshiyin, whose emitted light shone upon him. At the same moment his chains and fetters fell off by themselves, the door


[to his cell] opened up, and Hu was released and taken out. He fled following the light to a point about twenty Ii away, where the light vanished. Hu hid the rest of the night in the brush, then continued his flight the next day and thus escaped. 21

This story, like its counterparts, is replete with devotional language. The phrase "with a perfect mind" (zhixing), like other phrases found in these texts, such as "with utter concentration" (zhinianh ) , "continuously" (hengi ) , "single-mindedly" (yixini) , and "exclusively" (weik ) , emphasizes the devotee's total absorption in the act of recitation. Some such phrase is used in almost all the stories involving either the independent Guanshiyin Siitra or the Lotus as a whole. 22 This usage echoes the language of the Guanshiyin Siitra itself, which several times repeats the admonition to "single-mindedly" (yixin) call upon the name of Guanshiyin when in distress. Furthermore, as noted above, it is common for these stories to mention the number of repetitions of the siitra or the length of time spent in its recitation (here "three days and three nights"). In these ways the stories characterize a specific devotional attitude and mark the passage of devotional time.

Merely to list some of the other perils from which protagonists are saved in these tales is to document the pervasive extent to which the bodhisattva was thought to respond to recitations of "his" siitra. (1) One story tells of "a Daoist wine libationer" who, though fifty years old, still had no son. At the suggestion of a Buddhist monk, he ceased "serving the Dao" and recited the Guanshiyin Siitra with perfect sincerity, after which his wife bore him a son. 23 This and similar stories are harbingers of one of Guanyin's most important religious functions in later Chinese history, the granting of sons and of safe childbirth to women. 24 (2) We have several accounts in which people, both monks and laypersons, recite the siitra in order to escape shipwreck during a storm. 25 (3) The monk Shi Huijin is cured of illness-itself brought on by exhaustion due to fervent recitation of the Lotus-by fulfilling his vow to recite a full one hundred chapters of the siitra, undeterred by an attempted robbery during his un broken recitaJ.26 (4) A mother and son separated by war are reunited after the mother constantly lights devotional lamps before an image of Guanshiyin and recites

SUTRATEXTS 33

his szUra. The mysterious lights that lead the boy home through several nights behind enemy lines turn out to be miraculous manifestations of the lamps lit by his mother many miles away.27 Asimilar story is told in the same collection of a father and son. 28. (5) There are several accounts of people saved from attack by bandits, robbers, or cannibalistic barbarians by reciting the Guanshiyin Siitra. 29 (6) People are said to have miraculously escaped fire by reciting the siitra. 30 (7) The monk Tan Wujie and his disciples, on a pilgrimage in quest of scriptures, are miraculously saved from attack by mountain elephants and wild buffalo when he recites the Guanshiyin Siitra, calls on the name of the bodhisattva, and entrusts their lives to him.31

Authors and collectors of such stories about the efficacy of reciting the Guanshiyin Siitra apparently fashioned them quite self-consciously to authenticate the siitra's claims for itself. In fact, the authentication worked in two directions at once: on the one hand, the records of actual miraculous events-which unfailingly specify the names of the individuals involved and often their place of origin and the date of the event-confirm the efficacy of recital. On the other hand, the events described in the tales are authenticated as miracles and their true significance located by reference to the siitra; they are imbued with a specific religious meaning and are thus distinguished from a mere list of anomalies. Hence we find authors occasionally citing specific passages from the siitra in order to link them to the miraculous event narrated. 32 And Lu Gao explicitly organized his tales under eleven rubrics quoted directly from the Guanshiyin Siitra and from another early text on Guanyin, the Qing Guanshiyin pusa xiaqfu duhai tuoluoni zhou jingl (Siitra qf Dhiira1Jl Incantations for Imploring the Bodhisattva Guanshiyin to Dissolve and Subdue Maleficent Phenomena) .33

While a full discussion cannot be given here, it should be mentioned that the miracle tales and hagiographies contain many examples of other siitras being recited in order to gain relief from difficulty. In time of drought, for instance, powerful monks are shown performing dhiira1Jl incantations and reciting the Hailongwangjingm (Siitra on the Oceanic Dragon Kings, SiigaraniigarajapariJn:cchii-siitra, T 598); the recital causes the serpentine creatures (Chin. longn, Skt. niiga) who control rain to appear, form clouds, and release atmospheric moisture. 34 Other stories

34 lIABS VOL. 14 NO.1

tell of extraordinary responses elicited by sutra recitals in funerary contexts on behalf of the dead. 35 Still others describe sutra recitals for the purpose of driving off demons and ghosts. 36

2. Collection) Preservation) and Display: Sutra as Sacred Commodity

Some stories yield a vivid sense of the extent to which sutras were appropriated as objects of special value-that is, as commodities, objects cherished within an ideological regime of value and circulated within a social matrix of exchange-in early medieval China. 37 We read, first of all, of distinct sites for the storage, display, and veneration of sidra texts: one story tells of how a "sutra hall" and adjacent "thatch vihiira" were miraculously spared from a fire that decimated the Wuxing commandery capital; another tells of a solitary monk in Jingzhou who had three separate chambers, one for images, one for sutras, . and one for his own occupancy.38

The following two stories-linked by their compiler apparently because of the similarity between them-afford a glimpse of how particular copies of sutras acquired the status of family treasures:

Zhou Min, a native of Run an, lived during theJin dynasty and served as an officer of the guard. His family had observed the Dharma for generations. During Sun Jun's rebellion [ca. 328 C.E.] people were rushing about wildly in the capital. Min's family had a copy of the Mahii-prajiiaparamita-sutra written on the back of an eight-zhang-long piece of plain white silk. 39 In addition they had several shelves full of other sutras, and the Maha-prajiiaparamita-sutra was somewhere among them. At the moment when they were about to flee the troubles in the capital they had to travel lightly and couldn't take everything; but, although they especially regretted leaving behind the Mahii-prajiiaparamita-sutra, they didn't know which shelf it was on. Time had run out and [Min] was pacing about anxiously, when suddenly this text emerged of itself, and, shocked and pleased, Min took it and fled. The Zhou family has treasured this text for generations, and it is said to be still extant.

Another story goes as follows: Zhou Gao's wife was of the Humu clan. They owned a copy of the Mahii-prajiiaparamita-sutra written on a strip of ordinary white silk. Although the silk strip

SUTRATEXTS 35

. was only five cun wide, the entirety of the sutra was contained on it. They also had a relic (shelio ) which was kept in a silver vase. Both [sutra and relic] were stored inside a deep chest. Dur~ ing theyongjia troubles, when the Humu clan was about to leave hastily to head south and escape the advancing troops,40 both the sutra and the relic emerged of themselves from the chest; so the family took them across the Yangzi River, hiding them· beneath their garments. On another occasion this family suffered a devastating fire, in which everything was totally destroyed; but the siltra and relic were found unscathed among the ashes. Wang Daozi ofKuaiji once visited Gao and asked for permission to make an offering to [these objects]; they met again later at Xinzhu Temple. LiuJingshu said he once saw this sutra himself: its characters were no bigger than sesame seeds and had been inscribed with extreme skill. This Xinzhu Temple is now known as Tianan [Temple]. This sutra text was probably inscribed by the monk Shi Huize. Some maintain that it was once read at the Jianjing Temple by the nunJingshou. 41

We note, first of all, the rare nature of these texts, which made them all the more valuable: the first was gigantic, measuring some eighty feet in length; the second was miniature, measuring only six inches or so in width. Then there are the histories of the two texts: each takes on a sort of "biography" interwoven with the vicissitudes of the family which owns it and punctuated by the notable people who have come into contact with it.42 The link of ownership is symbolized by the texts' miraculous emergence when their owners are about to flee. Thirdly, we note in the second story the request to make offerings to the text and relic-a clear indication of the fact that they both served as vehicles of the Buddha's (or perhaps a bodhisattva's) presence. Indeed, although offerings to sutra texts as acts of merit do not figure prominently in the pre-Tang miracle tales, they are certainly implied in these tales of careful collection and reverent preservation. Offerings to sutras would assume greater importance in Tang tales, in which acts ranging from the simple joining of one's palms in reverence to the burning of a finger or of one's whole body-all understood as offerings to a sutra (most often the Lotus)-are pictured as supremely meritorious. 43 Finally, it is striking that no one in either of the families is said to have read the texts. The protagonists are


described-by an author clearly sympathetic with, and desirous of promoting, the practices he depicts-as owning the texts, and storing them on a shelf or in a chest, but not reading them or discussing their contents. Of course this does not prove that reading sutra texts for meaning was unimportant even in lowerranking lay circles; we know that sutras such as the Vimalaklrti were virtually required reading among the learned aristocracy during these centuries. But it does suggest that reading was not the only-and perhaps was not even the major-purpose for which sutras were used. We are dealing with a world in which the very ownership of certain texts is of great religious significance, a point to which I shall return in the conclusion.

That the ownership and display of sutra texts were important sources of merit, capable of stimulating miraculous "responses," can be seen from the story of Wang Vi. While still a young cavalry officer, Wang was once miraculously led across a swollen river by a mysterious white wolf which appeared when he and his family, "having reached the point of utter hopelessness," placed all their trust in the Three Treasures. After narrating this event, the story continues:

Later Wang Yi became a minister in the Ministry onNar [under the Jin dynasty] and served as Regional Inspector of Xuzhou. Once when he was intending to serve a vegetarian feast, and so had swept and washed his home, set out incense and flowers, and displayed an abundance of sidra texts and images, he suddenly heard the sound of pure and melodious sutra reciting coming from the Dharma-hall (fotangp) in his home. When he went there to look, he saw five frammJas in front of the Buddha-seat (joZUOq) , of dignified yet unusual appearance, radiating an air of spiritual attainment. Yi knew these were no ordinary monks (janseng r ) , and his heart was filled with joyful surprise. The framar;as looked up from their recitations but continued on; and then, while they were still chanting, they suddenly flew up into the sky and departed. Counting all the family members, guests, and friends who were present, there were many who saw this; and all of them danced gleefully and redoubled their efforts toward faith and enlightenment (MX] 43 [LX 480]; cf. FYZL 65 [78Sb-c]).

SUTRATEXTS 37

This tale of a layman ritually purifying his home and proudly displaying the sutras owned by his family, along with images, in a "Dharma-hall," clearly signals that to collect and revere Buddhist texts was itself thought to advance one on the path "toward faith and enlightenment."

Finally, the value of creating and acquiring these precious commodities is stressed in stories of miracles attending their translation, copying, and transmission, as well as accounts of pilgrimages in ~ear~h of texts. 44 Some of the most famous Chinese BuddhIst lIterature narrates the arduous quest for scriptures-a motif most fully explored in the well known sixteenth century novel, The Journey to the West. 45

This attachment of religious value to the sheer ownership of texts should come as no surprise to anyone acquainted with the sutras themselves, which are known for promising their owners, copiers, transmitters, readers, and hearers untold spiritual and bodily benefits. What the tales usefully illuminate is the great extent to which, and the early period in which, these promises became part of Chinese religious literature.

3. Texts U0rn on the Body: The Siltra as Amulet

I have found one instance-unusual in extant Buddhist texts of this period and genre-in which the protagonist of a tale is described as wearing a sutra text on his very person. Knowing that the reciting, owning, and displaying of sutras were viewed as acts capable of eliciting miraculous responses, it should not surprise us to learn that sutras could be thus treated as virtual amulets and, like images or relics, worn on the head or at the neck. The story runs as follows:

Xing Huaiming, a native ofHejian, served as Adjutant to the Major General under the Song during the yuanjia period [424-453 C.E.]. He participated in the northern campaign led by the Regional Inspector of Jingzhou, Zhu Mingzhi, whose forces were defeated. Xing and others were captured alive by the enemy.46 But, with a handful of compatriots, he managed to escape. For three days they traveled by night and hid during the day. Even so they feared being pursued and recaptured, so they sent one man ahead to scout for enemies, and this man did not return for several days. Then one dark and rainy night this man

38 JIABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

suddenly came back. On arriving he said in surprise: ''As I approached I could see very plainly the bright light of a fire, so I came this way; how is it that when I arrive I find it completely dark here?" The group marveled at this -and could find no explanation for it. Now Huaiming had previously venerated the Dharma; and .throughout the campaign he continuously carried the Guanshiyirijing on top of his head, and recited it without ceasing. Furthermore, he had been reciting it that very night, so everyone suspected that [ this anomaly] was due to the divine power of the sutra. With that they all developed prayerful hearts, and after they had escaped they resided in a monastery.47

All extant versions of this story are careful to say that the pro"' tagonist not only wore the sutra on his head but also recited it. One version adds that he not only wore and recited it but, while doing so, "was extremely diligent in fixing his thoughts" (cunnians), a term used, in texts of this period, to designate both "concentration" (in this case almost certainly on the bodhisattva Guanshiyin) and "visualization." These details suggest that the authors understood the sutra to have been used not simply as an amulet, the very words of which were by themselves efficacious, but (also?) as a physical and symbolic vehicle for sustaining a level of mindfulness sufficient to elicit a :response from Guanshiyin. That the sutra was worn on the head strongly suggests that here, too, the text functioned as the symbolic equivalent of the bodhisattva or of his image; for there survive several tales of images of Guanshiyin worn on the head or at the neck for protection against the swords of robbers and executioners,48 and this seems only fitting since the bodhisattva himself was both artistically represented and meditatively visualized-both in India and in China-as wearing a figurine or transformation-body of the Buddha in his own headdress.49

Here, then, as we have seen and will see again, the sutra text performs a double religious function: on the one hand it is thought of as a vehicle which can be used to make a bodhisattva or buddha present; on the other hand, more radicallx, it stands in the place of, and (functionally speaking) is, a bodhisattva or buddha.

Now the Chinese locution which I here translate as "he continuously carried the Guanshiyin jing on top of his head" is quite literal and leaves little doubt as to its meaning. 50 How-

SUTRATEXTS 39

ever, Gregory Schopen's remarks on a somewhat similar Diamond Sutra passage raise an interpretive problem which, for our purposes, is important but insoluble at this stage of research. He translates the relevant Vajracchedikii passage as follows: "Those who will take up this discourse on Doctrine, will preserve it, will declare it, will recite it, will master it ... , all those living beings will carry my awakening on their shoulder."51 Citing similar passages from other Sanskrit Mahayana texts, Schopen suggests that some should be taken only figuratively and not literally, since the key phrase in most cases, firasii pratigrhTJiiti, commonly means "to receive, accept ... 'with the head'; i.e. 'humbly, obediently.''' However, he also finds cases in which a figurative reading is almost certainly impossible, and in which a person is clearly said to carry a scriptural text on the head or shoulders. Since two of the passages Schopen cites are from a Sanskrit edition of the Lotus Sutra, let us look more closely at cognate expressions in Kumarajlva's Chinese translation. - .

So far I have found three occurrences of the term dingshout ,

literally "to receive on the crown of the head," apparently a translation of the Sanskrit firasii pratigrhTJiiti. In each case the term is used to describe the reverential attitude with which a Buddhist seeker should treat the sutra:

If there is a listener / Who with due rejoicing receives it [i.e., the 'Dharma-seal' (foyinu) , that is, the scripture] upon the crown of his head [dingshou] ...

. . . seeks the Dharma in all four directions, / With joined palms receiving it on the crown of his head [hezhangv dingshou] ...

As a man wholeheartedly / Seeks the Buddhasarlra, / So may one seek the scriptures / And, having found them, receive them on the crown of one's head [deyiw dingshou] ... 52

It now seems impossible to tell whether these canonical prescriptions were originally intended literally or figuratively; the text as it stands is vague. For our purposes, however, two things are clear: for early medieval Chinese readers and hearers, the phrase dingshou could have been understood literally, since it is not obviously or exclusively metaphoric; and receiving the sutra is made tantamount to receiving the Dharma in the second


passage and, in the third passage, to receiving Buddha relicsfurther evidence of the sorts of functional equivalences that have been noted above.

Furthermore, there are parallel passages in the Lotus. The much less figurative term dingdaix occurs at least twice and clearly (despite Hurvitz's translation of the first occurrence) indicates carrying on the head: in the first case carrying the Buddha on one's head as an offering to him, and in the second case reciting and cherishing the Lotus as equivalent to carrying the Buddha himself on one's head.

The World-Honored One in his great lovingkindness / Uses a rare thing ... / To afford us profit. In incalculable millions of kalpas / Who could repay this? / Were he to sacrifice his hands and feet, / Do obeisance with his head bowed, / And make sundry offerings, / No one could repay this. / Were one to receive him on the crown of one's head, / Carry him on both shoulders [rUlryi dingdai; liangjian hifUY ] ...

If after the extinction of the Thus Come One anyone hears this scripture and without maligning it raises up thoughts of appropriate joy, be it known that this is a mark of his having already achieved profound faith and understanding. How much truer is this of one who reads and recites, accepts and keeps it! For such a man thereby carries the Thus Come One on his head [hekuang dusong shouchi zhi zhe; siren ze wei dingdai rulaiz], 53

The upshot of these passages is that the translated Lotus gave its Chinese audience vague yet undeniable precedent for wearing or carrying sutras, images, and relics on the head or shoulders. Seen in this light, the story of Xing Huaiming does not seem so strange. Another story translated below (p. 49) describes a man as tying a· sutra to his head while fording a stream. Although one easily assumes he did so simply to protect his precious commodity from water damage, these precedents suggest that he might also be seen as having done so to protect himself.

4. Inviolable Texts: Miraculous Punishment for Desecration qfSutras

The efficacy and sacrality attributed to sutras can be seen as well in negative terms, that is, in stories about people who

SUTRA TEXTS 41

receive extraordinary punishment for abusing or desecrating texts. For if sutra texts are depicted as objectified commodities in the stories, they are no ordinary commodities: the stories tacitly argue through didactic narrative that they deserve the respect and veneration one would offer to the Buddha or to a bodhisattva, and to desecrate them has the same effect as desecrating a Buddha-image or slandering the Buddhist teaching. Here is an example:

The Song Dynasty nun Shi Zhitong belonged to the Jianjing Nunnery in the capital. 54 She was young and beautiful, and her faith in the path was not very deep. In the ninth year of the yuanjia period [432 C.E.J her superior died and she left the path and was married to one Liang Qunfu of Wei Commandery. She gave birth to a son. When he was seven years (sui) old the family was extremely poor, and she had no materials to make clothing from. While Zhitong was a nun she had obtained several rolls of sutra texts on plain silk, including the Wuliangshou aa

[SukhavatfzryuhaJ, the Lotus, and others. She now sewed these together to make clothes for her son.

A year later she grew sick, and she was terrified because her body was covered with places where the skin had been torn off and scalded as though she had been burned by fire. Moreover there were tiny white worms that multiplied on her daily and caused excruciating pain, so that she howled day and night. She often heard a voice in midair saying: "It is for ruining sutra texts to make clothing that you are receiving this severe retribution." In a little over a week she died (MXJ82 [LX 505J; FYZL 18 [418cJ; TPGJ1l6.2).

In such stories, it is the sheer extraordinariness of the "response" to the crime-here the unusual nature of the former nun's affliction-that marks it, for the protagonist and for the reader, as a punishment and not simply a coincidentally contracted disease. As if to dispel any lingering doubt on the reader's part, this story indubitably confirms her condition by means of a clear message delivered by "a voice in midair."

Another such confirmatory device used in the stories is the notation of things that should have happened but, quite strikingly, didn't-events conspicuous by their absence. Here is one such story, intriguing for its depiction of struggle between Buddhist and Daoist adherents at the local level:


Liu Ling lived during the Song Dynasty; his family's native place is not known. He lived in Lucheng village to the east of Jinling. He was rather observant of the Dharma, and established in his home a vihiira (jingshe ab ) where from time to time he hosted vegetarian feasts and other gatherings. On the 27th day of the third month of the ninth year of the yuanjia period [432 C.E.], his father died suddenly of illness. A shaman (wu ac) and an invocator of spirits (zhu ad ) both warned that his family would soon experience three more deaths.

Now in a neighboring family there was a Daoist libation master (daoshijijiuae ) named Wei Po who was always making amulets and talismans (zhangfuaf) and deluding the people of the village. He told Ling: "The tragedies due to befall your family are not yet over, and it is all because you have served a barbarian deity (hushenag). If instead you serve the Great Dao, you will surely receive blessings; but if you do not change your ways, your whole family will be exterminated." So Ling began to perform wine libations and no longer observed the Dharma. Po then instructed him further: "If you burn your siitra texts and images, as is proper, then the calamities will be avoided." So Ling closed up his vihiira and set it afire. It burned for several days, but only the room itself was destroyed; the siitra texts, images, banners, and painted scrolls55 were completely intact, and the images gave off a bright glow at night. 56

At that time there were more than twenty wine-libationers in the area, and many of them, awed and cowed by this efficacious manifestation (lingyanah ), snuck away. But Po and his closest disciples were not to be deterred. He tied up his hair and performed the Paces of Yu, 57 and, brandishing a sword, commanded the Buddha to return to his barbarian country (huguo ai) and forbade him to remain in China and continue harming its people. That same night Ling felt as if someone were hitting him, and he fell to the floor. When family members lifted him up he still seemed to be breathing, but then he went motionless. As for the Daoist master Wei Po, the insides of his body developed ulcers at that same time, which multiplied quickly, and within a month he had died a painful death. All of his compatriots also grew ill.

One of [Liu Ling's] neighbors, Sui Qiuhe, the Governor of Dongan, transmitted this story in good faith [to me?] at Dongyang; and there were also many witnesses (MX] 85 [LX 507]; FYZL 62 [760c]).

SUTRATEXTS 43

In the ordinary scheme of things, objects made offabric-such as sutra scrolls, banners, and canopies-would naturally be the first to burn in a fire, certainly in a fire lasting three days. So the fact that these, along with Buddhist images (made of wood or metal)., were the onlY' objects to survive points to the superior power of that which they jointly symbolize or, to speak more accurately, embody. 58 Extra confirmatory touches are added by the simultaneity of the layman Ling's mysterious death and the Daoist libationer's ulcer attack, as well as by the closing mention of eyewitnesses, one of whom the author seemingly claims to have contacted personally.

For our purposes, the message of such stories is clear: sutra texts embody the beings whom they describe and whose words they contain; to harm the texts is to harm the beings and to incur the karmic retribution appropriate to such a heinous act.59 Once more, as I remarked earlier in discussing the story of Xing Huaiming, there are parallel stories involving images: a person first maligns, destroys, steals, or alters an image, often while openly mocking the Buddhist teachings; then, inevitably, the mocker gets his or her karmic desserts. And again, as noted above, such accounts of retribution for desecration of sutra texts are in direct agreement with some (at least) of the sutras themselves: the Lotus, to cite perhaps the most famous example, threatens those who malign its own reciters with a punishment more grave than that meted out to maligners· of

, the Buddha himself, 60 and it constantly equates itself as a text with the presence-indeed the very body-of the Buddha. 51

.• The Buddha, his teaching, Buddha images, and sutra texts: all seem to have been regarded-or at least were represented -as functionally interchangeable; and they were thus represented

'. not simply in translated sutra texts themselves but also in indi.. genous Chinese stories about sutra texts from at least as early as the first half of the fifth century.

II. Literary Uses: The Sutra Text as Symbol

Until now I have attempted to peer through the tales in order . to glimpse ways in which sutras were represented, at least, as having been religiously appropriated in the social world


reflected there. I do not, and need not, claim that each narrated event actually occurred as reported in a particular tale, but simply that the tale corpus as a whole can be taken seriously as a record of types or patterns of devotional practice that made sense and possibly were followed in the society in which they were written. Ultimately the probability of this claim rests on the nature of the genre itself: these tales are obviously designed to argue the benefits of certain actions and behaviors regarding sutra texts, and in order for the tales to have served this purpose the actions and behaviors they describe would have to have been intelligible and familiar to readers, even if their alleged miraculous results were deemed incredible.

But such a study as this would remain incomplete without some consideration of the roles played by sutra texts in the stories themselves taken as narrative texts. For, obviously, no story is an empty, neutral container of messages; as a medium it necessarily and profoundly shapes whatever messages it conveys. The question to which I now turn, then, is that of the literary role of sutras as objects, symbols, perhaps even actors in these narratives. In pondering this question I will select as examples tales other than the ones already discussed, although it should be clear that the role of the sutra in any of those tales could also be analyzed here.

1. Miraculous Slitra Recitals fry Women as Symbols Jor the Revelatory Transmission if Dharma

I begin with a pair of stories in which it is not the result of reciting a sutra, but the very fact of recital under certain circumstances, that is presented as miraculous. Consider the following example:

During thejian'an period oftheJin dynasty,62 Ding Cheng (courtesy name Deshen), a native of Jiyin, served as District Magistrate ofNingyin. At that time the peasant women on the northern boundary [of the district] were going to an outside well to draw their water. A Westerner (hurenaj) with a long nose and deep-set eyes came by the well and begged one of the women for a drink of water. When he had drunk it, he suddenly disappeared. The woman began having pains in her belly,

SUTRATEXTS 45

- which grew more and more intense. She shouted, then suddenly stood up and began speaking Western language (huyuak) and pointing at the banners (huia1 ). 63 Several dozen families gathered in the town to watch her. She then called for paper and a, brush, as if intending to write. When she got a brush she at once wrote in Western script (hushu am): the text she wrote ran horizontally, some characters looking like an.yian, others like ajiaO [that is, like Sanskrit]. After thus filling up five sheets of paper, she spread them on the ground and told the bystanders to read this script. In the town there was no one who could read it. But there was a certain young boy, perhaps ten years old, whom the woman pointed out, saying he could read it. When he was given the script, he at once read it aloud in Western speech (huyuap), and the onlookers were shocked, not knowing what to make of it. Then the woman told the boy to dance, and he got up and moved his feet quickly about as his hands swayed in mutual harmony.64 In a little while they both stopped.

All of this was then reported to [the magistrate J . Deshen, who summoned the woman and boy and questioned them. They both said that at the time [of these events J they had suddenly become unaware of themselves. Deshen wanted to confirm the reality of this event (yan qi shiaq) , so he sent a messenger to carry the text to Xuxia Monastery and show it to an old Westerner (jiuhu ar ) there. The Westerner was greatly surprised, saying the text was a missing piece of a Buddhist siitra, and that, since the way [to IndiaJ was long, he had despaired of ever getting it; although he had been able to recite it orally, this was not sufficient. Since this script was precisely the [missingJ text, it was left behind so that it could be copied (MX] 36 [LX 477J; FYZL 18 [417a-bJ).

It is the triple identity of the siitra transcriber in this story as a peasant, a woman, and an illiterate that forces the reader to see the siitra's transmission to her as an extraordinary event. The siitra, along with the Dharma it contains, is thus represented as something that can be transmitted by revelation or possession, much as Daoist texts were represented during the same period. The foreignness of the text, of its mysterious carrier, of its script, of the sounds attached to that script, and of the old monk who confirms it as a missing segment of a siitra-all emphasized by the fivefold repetition of the term hu, designating a foreign person or thing of Western (typically Indian) ori-


gin-only underscores that its transmission to an ordinary Chinese peasant woman is nothing short of miraculous. And that transmission in turn suggests something about what sutras essentially are: their words are no mere contingent representations of truth but are themselves indissolubly bound up with its fabric, and are communicable across boundaries of class, lan-guage, literacy, gender, and culture. .

We might compare this with another story, in which the father, son, and daughter of a family are diligent in following the Dharma but the mother remains trapped in darkness. The fourteen year-old girl dies of illness. She returns to life after seven days with instructions for her family: they are to set up a "high seat" (gaozuoas, on which more below) and place a copy of the Wuliangshoujing (Sukhiivatfvyuha Sutra) upon it. This done, the girl, who although she had kept the precepts and done her devotions had never once in her life looked at a sutra text, ascends the high seat and recites the sutra with a clear, resonant voice. She then declares that she herself, her father, and her elder brother upon death will all go to Amitabha's land to be reborn there; but her mother will not escape punishment, and so she has returned to warn them. Having delivered this pronouncement, the girl expires again. Her mother from now on believes in the Dharma. 65 This story is similar in structure to the one just examined. Here, too, a sutra is transmitted across a gap-another case of transmission by revelation. Here, it is the ability to recite clearly that symbolizes the reality of the protagonist's contact with Buddhist truth and of the Pure Land; there, it was the ability to write Sanskrit. Here, the gap spanned by the revelation is that between life and death; there, it was that between India and China; both are bridgeable gaps, and the bridging in each case symbolizes the ultimate reality and the authority of the Buddhist teaching, as well as the skill with which it is transmitted. Both stories end with a confirmatory device: here, it is the real effect on the mother that confirms the revelation as genuine, as there, it was the old Westerner's recognition of the automatically written text as an authentic missing part of a sutra. In both cases, the action revolves around a female protagonist who lacked any previous experience reading or copying sutras, and it is this lack that gives the stories their power. 66

SUTRATEXTS

2. Sutras as Symbols and Embodiments qfthe Bodhisattva's Responsive Compassion

47

Earlier, I considered stories in which sutras are somehow or other involved as vehicles for rendering the Buddha or a bodhisattva present. But there are also stories in which sutras are not represented as devotional vehicles but are symbols forperhaps replacements of-the personal response of a bodhisattva to a human act of merit or a mind offaith. In one such story, for instance, the pious people of a certain city, under threat of an attack by a barbarian commander, together concentrate on Guanshiyin. As a response, a copy of the Guanshiyin Sutra suddenly descends from the sky before the commander, who in his joy at its teaching pardons the city.67 In another story, a lay official imprisoned by enemies meditates on Guanshiyin, then dreams that he ascends a high seat (gaozuo) and receives from a monk a sutra listing the names of certain bodhisattvas. Upon awakening from his dream, he finds his fetters loose. Three days later, he is pardoned and released. 68 In this type of story, sutras seem to respond as the bodhisattva would, and their appearance functions in the narratives precisely as the appearance of Guanshiyin does in other stories.

Here .. are two stories in which this motif of "siitra as miraculous response" is expanded upon.

Zhou Dang lived during the Jin dynasty and was a native ofYan in Kuaiji. His family had observed the Dharma for generations. When Dang was sixteen years old he began eating only vegetarian food and keeping the other dietary restrictions. He also became skilled in chanting, after which he learned to recite sutras. He kept the first month Long Fast and sponsored Eightfold Fasts to which he invited monks as his guests. 59

On one of these occasions he went to Xiangshi Monastery and requested the senior monk there, Zhu Sengmi, along with Zhi Fakai and Zhu Forni, to come to his home and recite the Smaller Prajiiiipiiramitii-sutra during the fast days. 70 When the day arrived, the three monks proceeded to the meal but forgot to take the sutra. Only when they had finished the noon meal and wanted to begin the recitation did they realize that they had forgotten it, to their great regret. Dang's home was in the village of Banyi, thirty li away from the monastery, and there was no one to send back after it. People had even started to light


incense and pray, but the [Zhou] family members could only regret not having the siitra, and [Zhu Seng]mi for his part paced about nervously. Just then someone knocked on the door, saying they had brought the sutra. Dang was surprised and delighted. Opening the door, he saw a robed youth whom he had never seen before and who did not behave quite like an ordinary human being. Suspecting a miracle (shenyiat) , he prostrated himselfto receive the siitra, hoping that [the youth] would enter and be seated. But the youth did not enter, saying he would return that night to listen to the siitra. vVhen the guest monks went out [to see him], he suddenly disappeared, leaving behind a fragrance that filled the whole house. When they looked closely at the sutra, it turned out to be [Zhu Seng]mi's copy, at which the monks and laity present were both surprised and delighted.

The sutra had been securely stored in a locked chest within a storeroom [at the monastery]; but when the monks, having returned, inspected the lock, it was perfectly intact.

More than ten families in the village professed [faith in] the Buddha because ofthis, and their love and respect for Dang increased. Dang, for his part, left the household to become a monk, taking the [Dharma-]name Tanyi and reciting many sutras amounting to 200,000 syllables (MX] 24 [LX 469-70]; FYZL 18 [417c-418a]; TPG] 110.2).

Dong Ji of the Jin Dynasty was a native of Yuqian. His family had observed Dharma for three generations, so by Ji's time they were particularly zealous. He constantly adhered to t~e dietary rules and precepts, and recited the Shoulengyanjingau

(Sura'f(lgama [samiidhiJ sutra). Whenever anyone in his village was sick, they would ask him to recite the sutra; and of those he went to help, many were cured.

In the same district lived another layman named He Huang. During the xianhe period [327-334 C.E.] this man contracted an illness and was quarantined. Huang's older brother worriedly sped to request Ji's aid. The homes of the Dong and the He families were 60 or 70 Ii apart, and were, furthermore, separated by a large stream; and it was now the fifth month, when heavy rainfalls had begun. When Huang's brother first crossed the stream, the high waters had not yet arrived. Ji, after taking his noon meal, set out with him; but by now the waters had flowed down from the mountains and the stream was unfordable, and Ji couldn't swim. He paced back and forth

SDTRA TEXTS 49

. impatiently, then sat on the bank for a Icing while, wanting to continue the journey but not daring to attempt to cross. Now Ji was upright in his faith and longed to go on, so he conceived of the following thought, which he declared aloud: "In saving others from difficulty, I take no thought for my own safety. I entrust myself to the Tathagata Mahasattva (rulai dashi av), that he may look upon me and prove reliable." He then took off his clothes and used them to fasten the sidra text and its enclosing bookbag to the top of his head (bian tuoyi yi nangjing daizhi toushang aw), whereupon [they both] ventured into the stream. The water was neck high, but whenJi went across it only came up to his knees.

But when they reached the other shore they were dismayed to find that the siitra text and the bookbag had been lost. They pro ceded on to Huang's home, where Ji apologized profusely and tearfully blamed himself. Glancing upward, he saw the siitra in the bookbag on the high seat (gaozuoax). Joyfully taking it down and examining it, he found that the bookbag was damp as if it had been dropped in water. But when he opened the bookbag and looked at the siitra, he found it was dryas usual. Upon hearing this, everyone in the village undertook to observe the Dharma .... 71

In this latter story we not only see another example of the placing of a siitra text atop the head, a matter discussed earlier. We also encounter a third instance in which a siitra text is described as being placed -or else miraculously appearing-on a "high seat" (gaozuo). I summarized above the story of a girl who temporarily returns from death with instructions for her family to set up a gaozuo and place a siitra on it; after the family does so, the girl ascends this seat, reads and expounds the siitra, and delivers a final warning to her mother. I also mentioned the story of an imprisoned official who, having meditated on Guanshiyin, dreams of ascending a gaozuo and receiving a siitra there, after which he is pardoned and freed. In the story just translated, the protagonist, having lost his siitra and its enclosing bag in the stream, discovers that it has been mysteriously transported to the gaozuo in his client's home. In each of these stories, both the gaozuo and the text expounded from it or received upon it become symbols of the Dharma and its authority. When a siitra appears or is placed on the high seat, it is, symbolically speaking, restored to its proper place of eminence

50 lIABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

and also to the place from which it can effectively influence beings, no longer merely a latent but now an activated force for transformation.

According to standard reference works, a gaozuo was an elevated seat or platform on which a teacher sat and expounded the Dharma by reading and commenting on a scriptural text.72 Although this term does not appear in Johannes Prip-M011er's classic account of Chinese monasteries, Prip-M011er does describe elevated lecture platforms with decorated seats for lecturers and tables for the sutra texts. He also describes the ceremonies preceding a lecture: the sutra to be expounded, covered with embroidered silk, is carried into the lecture hall on a tray with incense, then placed on the elevated table and uncovered after the lecturer has thrice raised the incense to his forehead as a sign of veneration. 73 Such practices may have been part of the context in which our stories were written. But there were also canonical precedents for ritually venerating the Dharma by venerating the gaozuo from which it was expounded, and for symbolically linking together the preacher, his seat, and his sutra text as mutually embodying and conveying the Buddhadharma.

Toward the end ofLokak~ema's second-century translation of the A.rtasiihasrikii prajiiiipiiramitii sutra, for example, much attention is paid to the gaozuo on which the bodhisattva Dharmodgata (Tanwujie) expounds the Dharma in his city of Gandhavati. 74 The people of the city built it for him, setting it on a base of gold, adorning it with precious fabrics, covering it with a bejeweled canopy, and surrounding it with strewn flowers. "The bodhisattva Dharmodgata, from atop this high seat, often expounds prajiiiipiiramitii for the various bodhisattvs there, among whom there are those who hear it, those who write it, those who study it, those who recite it, and those who guard it."75 Later we read of a bejeweled, pointed tower, apparently built near or over Dharmodgata's high seat,

constructed ... for the perfection of wisdom. Inside it is a box made of purple stone76 and yellow gold, and inside that box is written the perfection of wisdom. The box [also] contains many varieties of precious fragrances. The bodhisattva Dharmodgata daily makes offerings: taking the various flowers, incense, lamps, hangings, banners, streamers, jewels from the

SUTRA TEXTS 51

. canopy, and music-taking all of these, he offers them to the perfection of wisdom. And the other bodhisattvas there make offerings to the perfection of wisdom in the same manner as this. 77

This passage is significant for our purposes because it suggests, through architectural symbolism, a conflation of the high seat, site of the exposition of Dharma and thus often a depositoryfor sutras, and the stupa (suggested by "pointed tower"), a depository for relics. Here then is another, and quite graphic, canonical precedeIit for the equivalence of Buddha and sutra and for the association of both with the high seat.

This passage from the A1tasiihasrikii Prajiiiipiiramitii sutra in turn is reminiscent of the eleventh chapter ofthe Lotus, in which a jeweled stupa, adorned with precious objects and containing "a thousand myriads of grotto-like rooms," wells up from the earth in response to the Buddha's discourse. 78 This apparition triggers the convergence of all the buddhas from the ten directions-who are but emanations (ftnshenay) of the one eternal Buddha-on this Saha world sphere, now become a pure land. Sakyamuni then opens the door of the stupa to reveal the Buddha Prabhutaratna seated within on a "lion throne" (shizi zuo az ); and the two sit on this seat side by side, recalling the way in which Sadaprarudita, in the A1tasiihasrikii, joins Dharmodgata on his high seat and there gains various powers of concentration and discernment. This conflation of the high seat and the hollow stupa sheds light on, and is reflected in, another Chinese tale in which, during a sutra recital, an apparition of "a strangelooking monk" manifests itself "inside the seat" (yu zuoneiba). 79

This, then, is the sort of scriptural background against which the symbolism of the Chinese tales becomes explicable.

3. The Sutra as a Metonymic .$ymbol rf Buddhist Norms

Finally, I translate one example of a tale that uses a copy of a sutra as a kind ofmetonym for Buddhist norms and teachings.

A governor ofWuxing district under the Song, .Wang Xizhi of Langye, was a learned man who loved the [DaoistJ teachings of Lao and Zhuang, did not believe in the Buddha, and devoted himself entirely to animal sacrifices (wei shi zaisha wei zhi bb ). At the time when he had begun serving as Inspector of the West-


ern Division of the Gentlemen of the Palace80 under the Jin dynasty, he was fond of entertaining guests. Inside his quarters he raised a pair of geese, toward which he felt very affectionate and which he considered as having gradually developed personalities. 81 One night he dreamt that one of the geese was carrying a scroll of text in its bill, consisting of around ten sheets. When [in the dream] he took the text and examined it, he found that it concerned matters of [karmic] sin and merit. The next morning he did in fact find the text [in his chambers], and it turned out to be a Buddhist siitra. So from that moment he ceased killing, and outstripped others in his faith. Later he became wealthy and prominent (XYj 24 [LX 443J; cf. BZL sec. 8, 539a).

Here the dream-text, an initial symbol of "matters of sin and merit" which it would behoove the protagonist to take seriously, becomes in waking reality-and is recognized as-a siltra. Its narrative translation from the dream-world to the waking state mirrors the protagonist's conversion from urbane courtier to devout layman.

III. Conclusion

This study suggests the need for broader, comparative inquiry into the status, role, and range of uses of religious texts in medieval China. Careful comparisons with exactly contemporary Daoist uses and understandings of the nature of scriptural texts, for instance, would be illuminating. In the case of the Shangqing scriptures, first revealed by the gods to Yang Xi in the late fourth century and compiled by Tao Hongjing (456-536) in the late fifth and early sixth centuries, it has been shown that, for many devotees, the sheer reception, possession, and transmission of the texts was at least as significant as the reading of them or the practice of the teachings they contained. According to Michel Strickmann, possession of these textual commodities-when gained by proper rites of transmission, not by other methods such as theft (through illicit copying) and forgery-"guaranteed as a rule the acquisition of an honourable posthumous position in the complex hierarchy of the Unseen World, even should the possessor never practise the operations

SUTRA TEXTS 53

set forth in the text." Furthermore, this guarantee was issued by the Daoist divinities in the scriptures themselves; in no way can it be dismissed, as it would naturally be by past generations of scholars, as a mere practical (or popular) corruption of orthodoxy. And here, too, the primary unit of ownership of texts was often not an individual but a family or clan as a corporate body; "texts received through authorised channels of transmission," to quote Strickmann again, "became part of a family's inalienable stock of goods," on the same plane as its corporate stock of merit compiled in the unseen world. 82 As we have seen, the narrative evidence gives ample reason to believe that Chinese Buddhists saw their sutras in closely similar ways. Furthermore, these Daoist modes of reception of scriptures rested in part upon certain conceptions of what the Daoist scriptures essentially were, and here again, comparisons with Buddhist conceptions of the nature of sutra texts would be fruitfu1. 83

Further inquiry into how the uses and understandings of sutra texts changed over time in China is also needed. In the Six Dynasties tales surveyed here, for instance, there is little (although there is some) mention of the efficacy of offerings to sutra texts as such; nor is there much emphasis on the efficacy of even a chance single hearing of a sutra recital. Both of these motifs would become markedly prominent in Tang Buddhist tales, a fact which prompts one to wonder whether this subtle but important literary shift reflects a change in modes of piety and Chinese notions concerning sutras, or is simply an epiphenomenon of the fact that certain tales happen to have been preserved and others lost from each century. The tentative answering of such questions could be aided, in turn, by the study of other types of Chinese Buddhist materials dealing with ritual procedures for, and merits of, various uses of sutras and other texts. 84 Finally, there remains the question of the relative extent to which these uses and understandings of sutras are distinctively Chinese or, on the contrary, are based squarely on Indian precedents contained in canonical texts or in the archaeological record. These various issues are beyond the scope of this paper but are the directions in which it points.

It is fitting to conclude with ruminations on a statement made by Reginald A. Ray, though perhaps of a sort not intended by him:

54 JIABS VOL 14 NO.1

Throughout its history, Buddhist tradition has maintained a paradoxical attitude toward its sacred texts. On the one hand, those texts have themselves been the objects of the utmost veneration; and life, limb, and more have b'een sacrificed to ensure their unaltered preservation .... At the same time, Buddhism avers that the sacred text has, in and of itself, no particular value. Its worth depends entirely on what is done with it.85

Ray's observatioh is confirmed by the narratives studied here. For in them, paradoxically, it is when siitras are represented as powerful commodities that can take the place of other entities as the efficacious objects of utmost veneration, and thus are placed at the very center of religious practice, that they seem most empty of intrinsic value. In the world ofthese narratives, very little turns on the appropriation of the doctrinal contents ofsiitras, or, to put it differently, on the "own-being" of the texts. By contrast, much depends on how they are used, on the functional place they fill in a system of roles and relationships, on how they are perceived, received, and socially constituted. Little importance is attached to the texts as vessels of doctrinal meaning; much importance is attached to the veneration in which the texts are held, and, in turn, to the role this veneration itself plays in the larger fabric of life. And this veneration, even when it takes the form of recitation, is not essentially a literary act but an act of faith and of a certain quality of mind. Much, in sum, turns on Ray's "what is done with it," precious little on the "it" taken in itself.

Yet-here the paradox turns back deliciously upon itselfit is the contents of the siitra texts themselves that set up this functional way of appropriating them. For, while they do not enjoin readers to ignore their teachings and simply commodify them as objects of veneration, many of the siitras mentioned in the tales teach the efficacy of acts of veneration to themselves, acts such as possession, copying, reciting, wearing, hearing, and making offerings.86 What is therefore most striking about these narratives is that they document the seriousness with which their authors and compilers, in the earliest centuries of the Buddhist presence in China, took these translated siitras J

self-presentations.

SUTRA TEXTS 55

A p~ndix: Primary Texts and Editions Used, with Dates;S? Abbreviations; E~planarion of Citation Methods

GSY Guangshiyin yingyan ji 1t tit 'ff.!l! ,~ Be

A Record qf Avalokitefvara's Responsive Maniftstations Originally written before 399 by Xie Fu but lost in that year; partially reconstructed by Fu Liang (374-426).7 tales + preface: RKKO ed.

XYj Xuanyanji 13 ~Be

Records in Proclamation qf Maniftstations Attributed to Liu Yiqing (403-444). 35 tales. LX ed.

XuGSY Xu Guangshiyinyingyanji ~1ttit'ff!l!,~Be

Continued Records qf Avalokitefvara's Responsive Maniftstations Written by Zhang Yan in mid-fifth century. 10 tales + preface. RKKOed.

MXj Mingxiangji ~~Be

Signs from the Obscure Realm Compiled by Wang Yan between 485 and 501. 131 tales + preface. LXed.

Xi GSY Xi Guanshiyin yingyan ji ~ Ill. tit 'ff!l! ~ Be

More Records qf Avalokitefvara's Responsive Maniftstations Compiled by Lu Gao in 501. 69 tales + preface. RKKO ed.

GSZ Gaoseng zhuan r'i'i ffjf {,J

Lives qf Eminent Monks Written by Huijiao ca. 531. T2059, v.50.

Citations qf Marvels Written by Hou Bo between 581 and 604. 10 tales. LX ed.

XYij Xiangyi ji ~ Jk. Be

Signs qfthe Marvelousss

Author and date unknown; most likely pre-Tang. 2 tales. LX ed.


BZL Bianzheng lun fo$ IE ~ifij

Essays on the Discernment of Right Polemical treatise compiled ca. 627 by Falin'. T2110, v.52.

FYZL Fayuan zhulin i*7~~**

A Grove of Pearls from the Garden of the Dharma Buddhist encyclopedia compiled ca. 668 by Daoshi. T2122, v.53.

LX Lu Xun, ed., Gu xiaoshuo gouchen, in Lu Xun sanshinianji (n.p.: Lu Xun quanji chubanshe, 1941) t1 fJ\ WH:t]~;;t

Ancient Tales Rescuedfrom the Depths of Oblivion Citations give the serial order of the tale in the particular collection in which it appears, followed by the page numbers in this edition.

RKKO Makita Tairyo, ed., RikuchO koitsu Kanzeon okenki no kenkyu (Kyoto: Hyorakuji shoten, 1970) h~)j t1 ~ lll.-tEI: ~!f!.~ 0) lilt §i:

A Study of Tales of Avalokitefvara 's Responsive j'vIaniflstations Surviving from the Six Dynasties Citations of tales first give the serial number of the tale in its particular collection, then the page number(s).

T TaishO shinshu daizokyo (Tokyo, 1924-34) * IE ~JfiJt;* Jli~

Number following Tis the number assigned to the title in this edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon; volume number is given next, followed by page numbers; letters indicate register.

TPGj Taipingguangji (Shanghai, 1930) *ZP:J{~c

Number before decimal indicates thejuan number; number after decimal indicates the cited story's place in the series of stories contained in that juan (e.g., 110.2 indicates the second item injuan 110).

DZ Zhengtong daozang (Shanghai, 1925-27) IE ~ill Jli

Number given is that of the fascicle (not the case) in which the text is located.

HY Daozang. zimu yinde, Combined Indices to the Authors and Titles of Books in Two Collections of Taoist Literature, Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series 25 (Peking, 1935). Number given is that assigned by this index to the cited text.

SUTRATEXTS 57

DKW]T Morohashi Tetsuji, comp., Dai Kan-wajiten (Tokyo: Taishukan shoten, 1957-60) *jHP~~

Cited by volume number (followed by colon), page, and register.

BKDjT Mochizuki Shink6, Bukkyo daijiten (Tokyo, 1931-63) {5Ilil&*~~

Cited by page number (volumes are continuously paginated) .

. BKGD}T Nakamura Hajime, Bukkyago daijiten (Tokyo: Shosekikan, 1975)

Cited in same manner as DKWjT {5Ilil&~*~~

NOTES

1. Erik Zurcher, The Buddhist Conquest qfChina, 2 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, .1972), 1 :73. I would like to thank my colleague, Professor Gregory Schopen, for his valuable critical comments on an earlier draft of this article.

2. The best overview of the miracle tale genre in its early period, including translations of sample tales, is Donald E. Gjertson, "The Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tale: A Preliminary Survey," JAOS 101.3 (1981) :287 -301. For the genre's continuation into the early Tang period (from 618 on), see also Donald E. Gjertson, Miraculous Retribution: A Study and Translation qf T'ang Lin's "Ming-pao chi", Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series 8 (Berkeley: Centers for South and Souteast Asian Studies, University of California, 1989), the introduction to which contains additional translations of some pre-Tang tales. For examples of Tang tales-in this case, a collection devoted exclusively to miracles associated with the Diamond Sutra-see also Bruno Belpaire, T'ang kien wen tse: Florilege de litterature des T'ang (Paris, 1959),223-45. Three tales from the largest extant preTang collection, the MXj, are translated in Karl S. Y. Kao, Classical Chinese Tales qf the Supernatural and the Fantastic (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985), 164-75; for a study of the MXj, including a comprehensive listing of the loci at which its items are now extant and the internal dates of the items, see Shinohara Koichi, "Meishoki ni tsuite," TOyogaku shukan 22 (1969):41-65. On the rise and early development of the zhiguai genre, see the introduction to Kao, ed., Classical Chinese Tales, as well as my Chinese Accounts qf the Strange: A Study in Religious Cosmography (forthcoming from State University of New York Press). For additional Western-language studies of Chinese Buddhist tales and Indian influence on them, see the works listed in Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion in Western Languages (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985), section on "Popular Buddhism-Buddhist Stories," 255-57. Numerous studies have been published of the continuation of the miracle tale genre in Japan, where it flourished; the most relevant of these include but are not limited to the fQllowing: Yoshiko K. Dykstra, "Miraculous Tales of the Lotus Siitra: The Dainihon-

58 JIABS VOL. 14 NO. "I

koku Hokkegenki," Monumenta Nipponica 32 (1977):189-210; idem, Miraculous Tales qf the Lotus Sutra from Ancient Japan: The cDainihonkoku Hokekyokenki' if Priest Chingen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983); idem, "Tales of the Compassionate Kannon: The Hasedera Kannon Genki,". Monumenta Nipponica 31 (1976): 113-43; Kyoko Motomochi Nakamura, Miraculous Stories from the Japanese Buddhist Tradition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973); and Marian Ury, Tales if Times Now Past: Sixty-two Stories from a Medieval Japanese Collection (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979). For examples of texts that stand on the fringe of the miracle tale genre in Japan, but are clearly related to it, see Robert E. Morrell, Sand and Pebbles (Shasekishil) (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), and Royall Tyler, The Miracles if the Kasuga Deity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990). The relationships between these Japanese texts and their Chinese models have yet, as far as I am aware, to be fully explored.

3. A partial translation-of the large and important section devoted to translators-is available: Robert Shih, Biographies des moines eminents (,Kao seng tchouan') de Houei-kiao (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1968).

4. The statement that the miracle tales were written by laypersons needs two qualifications: (1) As in the case of hagiographies and, indeed, any sort of text from this period, we have to deal with attributions of authorship, attributions which in the case of these texts are likely to be accurate. (2) In some cases these lay authors surely wrote the tales appearing in texts under their names, based upon personal experience or hearsay; this becomes clearest from their extant prefaces and biographies, for a discussion of which see my Chinese Accounts, chaps. 3 and 5. In other cases, however, they copied versions of tales from other sources both lay and monastic in origin and both textual and inscriptional in nature. As for the encyclopaedias, the two most useful for studying the tales are the seventh century FYZL and the tenth century TPGj (For a key to all abbreviations and a list of editions used, see the Appendix.) On the FYZL, see S. F. Teiser, "T'ang Buddhist Encyclopedias: An Introduction to Fayilan chu-lin and Chu-chingyao-chi," T'ang Studies 30(1985):109-28. On the purpose and circumstances of the compilation of the TPGJ, see Ssu-yii Teng and Knight Biggerstaff, An Annotated Bibliography if Selected Chinese Rqerence Works, 3d ed. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), 125, and Etienne Balazs and Yves Hervouet, eds., A Sung Bibliography (Bibliographie des Sung) (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1978), 341; for an analysis of its taxonomic scheme, see Edward H. Schafer, "The Table of Contents of the T'ai p'ing kuang chi," Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 2.2 Uuly 1980) :258-63.

5. On HUlJlao's use of sources and the close interrelations between his hagiographies and contemporary miracle tale collections, see Arthur F. Wright, "Biography and Hagiography: Hui-chiao's Lives if Eminent Monks," in Silver Jubilee Volume if the Zinbitn-Kagaku-Kenkyusyo, Kyoto University (Kyoto: Kyoto University, 1954),383-432. An informative, recent study that has done even more to clarifY the complex interrelationships is Koichi Shinohara, "Two Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies: Stupa Inscriptions and Miracle Stories," in Monks and Magicians: Religious Biographies in Asia, ed. Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1988), 119-228, which includes

SUTRATEXTS 59

an exhaustive list of textual parallels between the GSZ and the miracle tale collections. Shinohara finds. parallel passages concerning 36 distinct individuals.

6. Other topics in these narratives on which I am preparing articles include notions of afterlife and mortuary and post-mortuary Buddhist practices, the use of images, and understandings of visualization and dreams.

7. One important "popular" mode of reception, excluded here because it goes largely unmentioned in the tale literature on which this study is based, is that oflectures or sermons to laity. Texts of these lectures (jiangjing wenbc)-some of which may have been delivered to lay audiences-were found at Dunhuang; a collection of them has been published in Wang Zhongmin, ed., Dunhuang bian-wenji (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1984),2:411-700. .

8. See Miriam Levering, "Introduction: Rethinking Scripture," and "Scripture and Its Reception: A Buddhist Case," in Levering, ed., Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 1-17 and 58-101; and Jan Yun-hua, "The Power of Recitation: An Unstudied Aspect of Chinese Buddhism," Studi Storico Religiosi 1.2 (1977) :289-99. An earlier, though less direct, inspiration for the line of research reported in this article came from Gregory Schopen, "The Phrase 'sa Prthivlpradefaf caityabhilto bhavd in the Vajracchedikii: Notes on the Cult of the Book in Mahayana," Indo-Iranian Journal 17 (1975):147-81.

9. In one mIracle-tale collection alone-the XiGSY by Lu Gao, completed in 50l-there are at least nine mentions of numbers of repetitions, including one story in which a layman vows to recite the GuanshiJinjing ten thousand times and indeed completes at least 7,000 recitations before his prayer is granted.

10. The monk Shi Senghong is said to have recited the GuanshiJin jing for a month while in prison, after which time-also having previously fashioned a bronze image of the Buddha or perhaps of the bodhisattva Guanshiyin-he was miraculously spared execution (XiGSY 22 [RKKO 35J; cf. MXJ 129 [LX 533-34J).

11. For example: the hagiography ofShi Fagong, in GSZ, songjing section, item 11 (407c), states that he "recited sutras up to more than 300,000 words/ syllables." Compare the similar statement in the hagiography of Shi Daosong, GSZ, songjing section item 16 (408b).

12. For example, Shi Zhaobian's GSZ hagiography (songjing section item 17, 408b) says that he recited the Lotus Sutra once a day for over 30 years as his special vocation. Cf. the hagiography of Shi Senghou, who is credited with often having completed an entire recitation ofthe Lotus, Vimalaklrti, or Jinguangming (SuvarTj.aprabhiisa, T663) sutras in two days and with having continued this practice for 60 years (GSZ, songjing section, item 19, 408c).

13. I follow Wright, "Biography and Hagiography," 405, in translating the names of the categories of monks in the Gaoseng zhuan. On "Sanskrit chants" in China during this period, see Zenryu Tsukamoto, A History if Early Chinese Buddhism, tr. Leon Hurvitz (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1985), 1:326-30.

14. The literal meaning of his Chinese name, Guanshiyin, is He Who Observes the Sounds of the World; Hurvitz translates it literally. I have here written "Avalokitesvara" since that is the name of the corresponding Indian


figure; but in doing so I do not intend to enter into the dispute over the etymology of the Sanskrit or, for that matter, the Chinese name. In what foliows I will use the untranslated Chinese name unless quoting Hurvitz.

15. The first translation, that of Dharmarak~a completed in 286, probably contained only the prose and not the verse sections or giithiis. The most famous and perhaps the most widely circulated translation, that of Kumarajlva (ca. 350-410) done in 406, is the one that will be referred to here; in it, the Guanshiyin pusa pumenpin stands as the twenty-fifth chapter.

16. The extreme importance of the Lotus in Chinese Buddhist thought and practice needs no comment here; I merely note that as many as 1,048 copies were found around the turn of the century in the sealed collection at Dunhuang, by far the greatest number of copies of any sutra found there; and almost 200 separate copies of the Guanshiyin Jing recovered from Dunhuang exist today in collections outside the People's Republic of China, with many more doubtless preserved in Chinese collections. See Miyeko Murase, "Kuan-yin as Savior of Men: Illustration of the Twenty-fifth Chapter of the Lotus Sutra in Chinese Painting," Artibus Asiae 33 (1971):39-40.

17. See Kumarajlva's (ca. 350-410) translation, Miaqfo lianhua Jing (T 262, v.9, 56c-58b), and the English translation based on this version by Leon Hurvitz, Scripture if the Lotus Blossom if the Fine Dharma (The Lotus Surra) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976),311-19.

18. Other stories picture the protagonist as simply calling the bodhisattva's name out loud, as the Lotus text describes. Protagonists often perform other devotions as well, such as vowing to build a stupa, feed monks, or join the sangha if saved. The reader should note that the saving power of Guanshiyin was promulgated not just in stories but also through visual media; see Miyeko Murase, "Kuan-yin as Savior of Men" (cited above), as well as Cornelius P. Chang, "Kuan-yin Paintings from Tun-huang," journal if Oriental Studies (Hong Kong) 15 (1977):140-60 + 5 plates.

19. 56c, lines 20-22, following Hurvitz, Lotus, 312. 20. XiGSYitems 19-20,23,27, and 34-40 (RKKO 33-34, 36, 38, and 40-

43 respectively); MXj 84 (LX 506-7), on which XiGSY23 is based; MXj 119 (LX 528). In a closely related story type, the protagonist gains official pardon from punishment for a crime he or she is alleged to have committed; see, e.g., XiGSY22 and 23 (RKKO 35-36).

21. XiGSY 19 (RKKO 33-34), following Makita's suggested readings based on variants (notes 113-114).

22. Some stories of the latter category, in mentioning a "recitation of the Lotus," may be using that title to refer not to the entire Lotus Sutra but only to the GuanshiyinJing.

23. MXj69 (LX 498). 24. Cf. XiGSY 55 (RKKO 50), in which a son is born as a result of a vow

(not sutra recitation) on the eighth day of the fourth month (traditionally the Buddha's birthday) and is named Guanshiyin; and the story of Wang Min's wife in BZL sec. 8, 537c, also appearing in TPGj 110.4.

25. MXj96 (LX 513), the story ofGu Mao, a Song official; MXj87 (LX 508), the story of the monk Zhu Huiqing, also appearing in GSZ, songjing sec-

SUTRATEXTS 61

tion, item 7, 407b, and discussed by Shinohara, "Two Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies," 139; and the story of the monk Shi (or, in some versions, Zhu) Fachun transporting by water a column for a new temple, appearing in (a) XiGSY 8 (RKKO 29), (b) GSZ, songjing section, item 3, 406c, (c) MXj 46 (LX 485). ~n the various versions of the latter story, see Shinohara, "Two Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies," 133-36.

26. XYij 2 (LX 432); MXj 125 (LX 532-33); GSZ, songjing section, item 13, 407c-:"408a.

27. XiGSY63 (RKKO 55-56). 28. XiGSY62 (RKKO 54-55). 29. See, e.g., GSY 3 (RKKO 15-16), which is translated in Donald E.

Gjertson, Ghosts, Gods, and Retribution: Nine Buddhist·Miracle Tales from Six Dynasties and Early T'ang China, Asian Studies Committee Occasional Papers Series no. 2 (Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1978),5-6. Cf. XiGSY46 (RKKO 45-46), also appearing in MXj 47 (LX 485), in which a layman captured by Qiang cannibals while gathering herbs in the mountains is the only one of his party to escape being eaten. A tiger appears, chases offhis Qiang captors, and frees him from the cage in which he has been held.

30. GSYI (RKKO 14), also MXJ12 (LX 461-62). 31. MXj73 (LX 500); cf. GSZ, 338b-339c. This figure is not to confused

with the character of the same name in T 224, discussed below, p. 50 (Tanwujie). Cf. XuGSY 3 (RKKO 20-21), in which the hermit-monk Huijian first concentrates on Guanshiyin and then recites his siltra in order to subdue a mountain spirit.

32. One story tells of how the monk Shi Sengrong, beset on Lu Mountain by a group of ghosts (guibd ) who were angered by his insistence that "ghosts and gods have no spiritual efficacy" (guishen wulingbe), called out the name of the bodhisattva Guanshiyin, and "before the sound of the last syllable faded away" there appeared a tall figure clad as a general who killed one of the ghosts and drove off the rest. The text then continues: "The siltra mentions that in some cases [the bodhisattva] appears in the body of a general of the gods, to save [beings] according to the appropriate means: is this not such a case?" (XuGSY6 [RKKO 22]; Makita [n.l7] notes that this story appears in six other places). Here the author is clearly referring to the line in the twenty-fifth chapter of the Lotus which occurs in a list of the manifold bodily forms which the bodhisattva will display in order to convert beings of various. types and levels of consciousness: "To those who can be conveyed to deliverance by the body of the general of the gods he [Guanshiyin] preaches Dharma by displaying the body of the general of the gods" (57b, lines 2-4; Hurvitz, trans., 314). Similarly, in the rather famous story of how the monk Zhu Fayi (who was especially skilled in reciting the Lotus) after singlemindedly calling on Guanshiyin for several days was miraculously healed by a dream-figure who cut him open and removed, washed, and replaced his intestines, the dream-figure is explicitly identified with the "brahmaciirin framaTJ.a" mentioned in the siltra ( GSZ 350c-351 a; GSY7 [RKKO 18]; MXj32 [LX 474-75]; FYZL 95 [988b] and 17 [409b], although the latter version fails to identifY the dream-figure with the one mentioned in the siltra; TPGj lIO.3). See the discussions of the various versions of this story by Makita


(RKKO 82, nJO) and Shinohara ("Two Sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies," 132-33). Gjertson translates one version (i"\lIiraculous Retribution, 18-19).

33. The first seven rubrics are from the Guanshiyinjing, the last four from' the Qing Guanshiyin jing. According to Nanjio, the· latter siltra, T 1043 (v.20, 34-38, Skt. $aqak.faravidyii-mantra?), was translated sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century, then lost, then retranslated in 420; see Bunyiu Nanjio, A Catalogue qf the Chinese Translation qf the Buddhist Tripitaka (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1883), p.83 (no. 326). Its contents are helpfully discussed in Kobayashi Taichiro, "Shin To no Kannon," Bukkyo geijutsu 10 (1950): 14-15, and in Alexander Coburn Soper, Literary Evidence for Early Buddhist Art in China (Ascona: Artibus Asiae Publishers, 1959); 150ff. Like the Guanshiyinjing, it promises Buddhist faithful that they have but to invoke the bodhisattva and he will instantly rescue them from various perils. As its title implies, it contains several dhiira1Jls the incantation of which renders Guanshiyin present. It puts its words in the mouth not ofSakyamuni but of Amitayur-buddha, who is attended by the bodhisattvas Guanshiyin and Mahasthamaprapta.

34. Two of the best examples are MXJ 13 (LX 462), based on FYZL 63 (764c), a story of how Huiyuan during a drought recited the siltra and secured a rain at his monastic retreat on Lushan, erecting a "Naga Spring Vihiira bf" at the spring from which the creature emerged and flew up to heaven; and MXJ 56 (LX 488-89), based on FYZL 63 (764b-c), in which the Indian monk Zhu Tanyi recites the'same siltra and secures rain on behalf of General Liu Vi. The latter story is particularly clear on the magical effects of the recital, keying stages in the rainstorm's progress to points in the reading (e.g., "as he began to recite, clouds began to form; when he reached midpoint, clouds began converging from all sides," etc.). In thus securing rain, monks were assuming a role long occupied by shamans in China: see Edward H. Schafer, "Ritual Exposure in Ancient China," Harvard Journal qf Asiatic Studies 14 (1951): 130-84. FYZL 63 is a rich mine of such stories. On Buddhist niiga lore, see esp. Lowell'vV. Bloss, "The Buddha and the Naga: A Study in Buddhist Folk Religiosity," History qf Religions .l3J (Aug. 1973) :36-53; Lowell K. Bloss, "Ancient Indian Folk Religion as Seen through the Symbolism of the Naga," PhD diss., University of Chicago, 1971; and M. W. de Visser, The Dragon in China andJapan (Amsterdam: Johannes Miiller, 1913).

35. For example, MXJ 17 (LX 464) (based on FYZL 42 [616b-c)), in which a deceased pious layman appears at the recital being conducted on his behalf, having momentarily returned from the Western Land of Bliss, in order to hear the siltras; and MXJ63 (LX 492-93) (based on FYZL 42 [616c-617a)), in which, during the recital for a recently deceased foreign monk, a cloud suddenly appears from the southwest (i.e., the direction ofIndia) and a mysterious object encircles the corpse and then disappears.

36. Examples are extremely numerous; one of the longest, most odd, and most humorous is MXJ 80 (LX 503-4, based on a FYZL item which I cannot locate), in which a virtuous dead man during his own funeral instructs his family to recite the SilraT[lgamasamiidhi-siltra in order to expel a hungry ghost posing as him. An example probably involving the Guanshiyinjing, though the title of the siltra is never made explicit, is XuGSY3 (RKKO 20-21).

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37. On the theory of commodities I have benefited from Arjun Appadurai, d The Social Lifo qfThings: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge: Cam~ridge University Press, 1986); on specifically sacred commodities, see, irifra alia the essay by Patrick Geary in that volume, as well as his Furta Sacra: Thrifts qf RelicS in the .~entrallv~iddle Age~ (Princeton: Princ?ton Un.iversity Press, 1978). On the histoncal reaha of Chmese book productlOn, which I do not address here, see, irifra alia, Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962), and now Frederick W. Mote and Hung-lam Chu, Calligraphy and the East Asian Book (Boston: Shambhala, 1989), esp. (for sutra texts) 5lff. On the mythology and symbolism surrounding writing techniques in China and elsewhere, see my Chinese Accounts, chap. 2.

38. The first story is found in XYj 5 (LX 436-37), which is based on TPGj 161.22 (13.4a). The second is Xu GSY3 (RKKO 20-21).

39. The text gives the sutra title simply as Dapinbg, which in clerical contexts would indicate a short name for the Larger Perftction qfWisdom Sutra (specifically in its 25,OOO-line version, the PaiicavirrLSatisiihasrikii-prajiiiipiiramitii-sutra). On this identification, see John R. McRae, "Ch'an Commentaries on the Heart Sutra: Preliminary Inferences on the Permutation of Chinese Buddhism," journal qfthe International Association qfBuddhist Studies 11.2 (1988):88 and 106 n.8, and Tsukamoto, History qf Early Chinese Buddhism, 2:996 note k. In this story, the text meant could be a version of any one of the titles now classified as T220-223.

40. This refers to the disastrous events leading up to and including the fall of Loyang in 311 to "Hun" forces under Liu Zong. See Wolfram Eberhard, A History qf China, 4th ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 123-25.

41. MXj 20 (LX 465-66); FYZL 18 (417b); TPGj 113.3. Liu Jingshu, mentioned as having personally viewed this miniature sutra, is the reputed author of an important zhiguai text, the Yryuan bh (Garden qf Marvels), now extant in a reconstructed version of ten juan. I have not yet found any further information on the nun Jingshou.

42. Fora stimulating study of "the cultural biography of things," see the essay by Igor Kopytoff in the volume edited by Arjun Appadurai and cited above (n. 37).

43. On this motif see Michihata Ry6shu, Chugoku bukkyi5 to shakai to no ki5shi5 (Kyoto: Heirakuji shoten, 1980), esp. 94-111. On the giving of oneself as an offering in China, see also Jan Yiln-hua, "Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China," History qf Religions 4 (1964-1965) :243-68, and Jacques Gernet, "Les suicides par Ie feu chez les bouddhistes chinois du Ve au Xe siecle," Melanges de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises 2 (1960) :527-88. For Indian parallels, see J Filliozat, "La mort voluntaire par Ie feu et la tradition bouddhique indienne," journal Asiatique 251 (1963):21-51.

44. An example of a story about copying is MXj 35 (LX 476-77), in which a hermit copies the Shoulengyanjing (SuraT(!gama[samiidhiJ siltra, T642) by hand. Afterwards, he was present at the White Horse Temple when a fire broke out; all was destroyed save this siitra, which was miraculously preserved.

45. In the miracle tale corpus, examples of this motif include the famous story of Emperor Ming of the Han (MXj 1 [LX 451J) and that of the monk Shixing's westward travels to Khotan in search of texts (MXj3 [LX 452-53J),

.64 jIABS VOL. 14 NO.1

each discussed by Ziircher (in his Buddhist Conquest of China) at 1 :22 and 1:6lff. respectively; MX] 11 (LX 461), concerning Kang (i.e. "the Sogdian") Falang's journey to India; and lvIX] 73 (LX 500), concerning Tan (i.e., "the Indian's") Wujie's journeys to "Buddhist countries" in search of scriptures, during the course of which his devotion to Guanshiyin repeatedly saved him and his 52 disciples from attack by animals.

46. I have translated as "the enemy" the Chinese term lu bi , which in this and other stories from these collections probably refers to any of several groups of non-Chinese northerners who were in control oflarge regions of north China during these centuries. Lu means "slaves" or "bondsmen," and may refer to those in the lower echelons of the tribal organizations of these groups, on which see Eberhard, A History of China, 109-47; here, however, it is more likely a term of disdain, similar to the term fiibj ("bandits") as used in modern Chinese. Whoever the lu were, they are ubiquitous in the pre-Tang Buddhist miracle tales-and especially in the XiGSY-as relentless marauders of Chinese people; they are often depicted as pursuing Chinese on horseback, capturing them, and killing them or forcing them into servitude.

47. Translation based on a comparison of several extant versions: XiGSY 57 (RKKO 50-51); MX]92 (LX 511-12), which is based on FYZL 23 (459b). The last two versions add a further story of Xing Huaiming which is omitted here.

48. I will translate and discuss these in the article, now in preparation and alluded to below, on the role of images in the early Chinese miracle tale and hagiographic corpus.

49. On his coiffure in Indian artistic representations, see the classic study by Marie-Therese de Mallmann, Introduction a l'etude d'Avalokitefvara (Paris: Civilisations du Sud, 1948), 221ff. This iconographic feature was carried over into China-though it is impossible to know how early-since on wall paintings and silk banners recovered at Dunhuang and dating from the seventh to the eleventh centuries, Guanyin is usually (though not always) represented with a small figurine in his headdress: see the illustrations in Murase, "Kuan-yin as Savior of Men," 39-74. Regarding meditation, Guanshiyin was visualized in China from at least the early fourth century, during meditation practices undertaken for rebirth in the Pure Land, as bearing a transformed Buddha on his head-a practice based on the Guan Wuliangshoufo jingbk (T 365, Amitii)!ur-buddhanusmrti-sutra [?], not to be confused with the sutra known in Chinese as Wuliangshoujing b1 [T 360] and for which there is an extant Skt. Sukhiivatfvyuhasutra), in which the locus classicus comes in the Buddha's instructions on how to visualize: "On top of his head is a heavenly crown of gems like those that are fastened (on Indra's head), in which crown there is a transformed Buddha standing, twenty-five yoganas high" (quoted from J. Takakusu, tr., The Amitii)!ur-dhyiina-sutra, in F. Max Miiller, ed., Sacred Books of the East xlix [1894; rept. New York: Dover Publications, 1969], part ii, p. 182); see also de Mallmann, 22ff.; Soper, Literary Evidence, 141ff.; and for the Chinese receptionor, quite possibly, the independent Chinese origin-of this sutra see Fujita Kotatsu, Genshijodo-shiso no kenkyu (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1970), 116ff., and more recently his "The Textual Origins of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching: A

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Canonical Scripture of Pure Land Buddhism," in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 149-73. This head-carried Buddha-figure is the chief mark by which the visualizer distinguishes AvalokiteSvara / Guanshiyin from his counterpart Mahasthamaprapta; on this point see Kenneth K. Tanaka, The Dawn of Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine.: Ching-ying Hui-yuan's Commentary on the "Visualization Sutra" (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990), 170.

50. In the XiGSY and MX] versions the Chinese reads: toushang hengdai Guanshiyinjing bm. The FYZL version simply gives changbn ("continuously") in place of the synonymous heng but is otherwise identical.

51. Gregory Schopen, "The Manuscript of the Vajracchedikii Found at Gilgit," in Luis O. Gomez_ a~d Jonathan A. Silk, eds., Studies in t~e Literat~re of the Great Vehicle: Three Nfahayana BuddhIst Texts (Ann Arbor: CollegIate Instltute for the Study of Buddhist Literature and Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, The University of Michigan, 1989), 124. The passage occurs in a manuscript found at Gi1git.

52. All three passages occur in the third chapter ("Parables"): (1) Hurvitz, tr., 76; cf. 15b, line 9; (2) Hurvitz, tr., 82; cf. 16a, line 27; (3) Hurvitz, tr., 82; cf. 16b, line 2. Schopen translates the Sanskrit passage that apparently corresponds to the Chinese (3) thus: '~s some man who searches for it would thus preserve a relic of the Tathagata, just so, he who searches for such a sutra, after having obtained it, would carry it on his head," the latter phrase being murdhani dhiirayeta ("The Gi1git Manuscript," 136).

53. The first passage occurs at Hurvitz, tr., 98; cf. 18c, lines 26-27. The second occurs at Hurvitz, tr., 252; cf. 45b, lines 24-25. Schopen translates what appears to be the Sanskrit passage corresponding to the second of these as follows: "Then, he carries the Tathagata on his shoulder, who, after making this discourse on the Doctrine into a book, carries it on his shoulder" ("The Gilgit Manuscript," 136). The Chinese here reads quite differently. A bit further on the Chinese text does mention the merits of writing the sutra or "making it into a book" (shu bo read as a verb), but it does not link the writing of the text with carrying it on the head or shoulders. I mention two further passages that are relevant, both involving corporeal rewards given by the Buddha to those who properly revere the Lotus: (1) One who reveres the Lotus is carried on the Buddha's

. shoulders: "If there is a person who shall read and recite the Scripture of the Dharma Blossom, be it known that that person shall be of himself adorned with the adornments of a Buddha; borne about on the Buddha's shoulders [rulai jian suo hedanbp] ... " (Hurvitz, tr., 175; cf. 31a, lines 4-5). (2) One who reveres the Lotus has his head caressed by the Buddha: "These persons ... shall have had their heads caressed by the hand of the Thus Come One" [wei rulai shou rno qi toUbq] (Hurvitz, tr., 178; cf. 31b, lines 25-26).

54. This nunnery is not mentioned in the sixth century Loyang qielanzhi (Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Loyang) , the most complete and reliable preTang work on Chinese monastic establishments, translated by Yi-t'ung Wang as A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in Lo-yang (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). It is, however, mentioned once in Shi Baozhang's Biqiuni zhuan (Biographies of Nuns, T 2063, v.50, 934-48), written in 517, of which there is also an


English translation, competent but under-annotated: Li Jung-hsi, Biographies if Buddhist Nuns: Pao-chang's "Pi-chiu-ni-chuan" (Osaka: Tohokai, n.d.); cf. 45-47. I find no mention of the nun Shi Zhitong in this text, which is to be expected since the text was written to illustrate the virtues of exemplary nuns.

55. The Chinese for the last term is zhengbr, on which cf. DKW JT4.481 b. On the use of painted scrolls in lecture and devotional contexts, see Victor H. Mair, T'ang TranifiJ17nation Texts (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1988), and Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and its Indian Genesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1988).

56. Emending LX's fonghuo bs ("emitted fire") and following FYZEs jangguangbt ("gave ofT light") .

57. A Daoist exorcistic dance in which the priest, mimicking the worldordering travels and labors of the proto-historical sage Yu, steps through the nine zones of the ritual arena as Yu traveled through the nine ancient provinces, sealing ofT each zone against demonic influence. For descriptions of the modern version, see Michael R. Saso, Taoism and the Rite qf Cosmic Renewal, 2nd ed. (Pullman: Washington State University Press, 1989), 74 and 87-88, and John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 99-102.

58. This story could thus also be analyzed as one of several instances of the motif of "the miraculous preservation of sutras," often symbolizing the invincibility of Buddhadharma. Compare, for example, the stories of sutras' miraculous preservation from fire reported in MX]35 (LX 476-77, drawing on FYZL 18 [4l8a]). This is in turn a sub-motif of the larger motif of "miraculous pres evation of objects symbolic of Buddhism or of the Buddha (monasteries, stu pas, etc.)." And perhaps one could add as a sub-motif under the motif of "miraculous preservation of sutras" the motif of "the non-decay of the tongues of corpses of people who recited the Lotus Sutra while living": seejY] 4, 7,and 9 (LX 539-40, 541, and 542 , respectively).

59. I cite one more, rather humorous, example: the monk Shi Huiyan, complaining of its inordinate length, decides to trim down the Daniepan jing bu

(Sutra qfthe Great Decease) and then makes copies of his abridgment for distribution, which he shows to his friends; but on two successive nights he is warned by an apparition about "the dangers of altering and taking lightly the sutras," and on waking the third morning he destroys all his abridged copies and thus avoids punishment (MX] 120 [LX 528-29], FYZL 18 [418c]).

60. This passage occurs in chapter 10 ("Preachers of Dharma") of Kumarajlva's translation; see 30c 1.29-31a 1.3, and Hurvitz, trans., 175: "0 Medicine King! If there is an evil man who with unwholesome thought shall appear before the Buddha in the midst of a kalpa and constantly malign him, his guilt shall be comparatively light. If there is a person who with a single malicious word shall denigrate those who read and recite the Scripture of the Dharma Blossom, be they within the household or already out of the house-hold, his guilt shall be very grave." .

61. As seen again in chapter 10 (and elsewhere), 3lb lines 26-29, Hurvitz, trans., 178: "0 Medicine King! Wherever it may be preached, or read, or recited, or written, or whatever place a roll of this scripture may occupy, in all

SUTRATEXTS 67

those places one is to erect a stilpa of the seven jewels, building it high and wide and with impressive decoration. There is no need even to lodge sarzra [sheli bv, relics] in it. What is the reason? Within it there is already a whole body of the Thus Come One."

62. There was no such reign period during the Jin. jian'an was the name of the last effective Latter Han reign period, 196-220 C.E. The text as it stands could refer to this period, or it could perhaps be an erroneous reference to the Western Jin period jianxing (313-316) or the Eastern Jin periods jianwu (317), jianyuan (343-34~), ?r xian'an (371-72). In his note, Lu Xun suggests that jianyuan is the perIod mtended.

63. This term, given in both LX and FYZL, may be an error for the nearly homophonous term more commonly used to designate Buddhist banners in the tale corpus, namely wei bw, which has already been seen above (e.g., in the story of the layman Liu Ling).

64. I take this passage as intending to describe some style of Indian

dance. 65. MXj71 (LX 499); FYZL 15 (400b); TPGj114.2 66. Somewhat different is the story of the nun Huimu who learns to recite

the Mahii-prajiiiipiiramitii-sutra at an early age, has visions of a divine monk-like figure in her teacher's siltra hall, dreams while performing nocturnal recitations of traveling to the Western Pure Land, and finally has a visionary audience with (presumably Amitabha) Buddha, who expounds sutras for her and is in the process of bestowing four scrolls on her when she is unfortunately awakened by a fellow nun. See MXj 89 (LX 509-10), FYZL 15 (400a); compare her somewhat parallel biography in Biqiuni zhuan,juan 2 no.9, 938c, translated in Li Jung-hsi, Biographies of Buddhist Nuns, 60-61.

67. XiGSY 43 (RKKO 44); MXj 52 (LX 487); FYZL 17 (41Ob); TPGj 110.15.

68. XiGSY23 (RKKO 36); MXj84 (LX 506-7); FYZL 23 (459b-c). 69. "Long Fasts" (changzhai bx) were periods of special dietary restric

tions and other observances carried out by pious monks and laity in the first, fifth, and ninth lunar months; see Tsukamoto, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism, 1 :354. Similarly, "Eightfold Fasts" (baguanzhaiby) were four-day periods of convocations of lay and clerical Buddhists, during which eight special vows of abstention were observed; see Tsukamoto, History, I :353 and 605-6 note ad. The monk Zhidun (314-366) has left three poems on the baguanzhai; see Guang hong- . mingjibZ (T2103, v.52) ,juan 30, 350a-b.

70. The Chinese siltra title is simply Xiaopin, which in clerical contexts would be-and probably is here as well-a shortened designation for the Xiaopin banruo jingca or one version of the Aitasiihasrikii prajiiiipiiramitii-siltra (T 227); cf. Tsukamoto, A History of Early Chinese Buddhism, 1:372.

71. MXj 23 (LX 468-69); FYZL 18 (417b-c); TPGj 112.2. All give exactly the same phrase describing Ji's placing of the siltra on his head. There follows another story, omitted here, telling of how Dong Ji recited this same sutra to subdue the demons at a mountain near his home.

72. SeeBKDjT1043; BKGDjTl:397a; DKWjT12:600a-b.


73. Johannes Prip-M011er, Chinese Buddhist Monasteries (Copenhagen, ]937; rpt. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1982),268-71, describing a lecture Prip-M0ller observed at Huiju Monastery on Baohuashan in Jiangsu. Cf. his description of the ceremonial "drying of the,sutras" (shaijing cb ) on a special platform each year on sixth day of the sixth lunar month (60-65).

74. See T224, Daoxing banruojingcc, v.8, 47Ic-478b. Conze has translated a Sanskrit manuscript: cf. The Perftction of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary, 2d ed. (Bolinas, California: Four Seasons Foundation, 1975), 279-300. Conze translates gaozuo (and its abbreviated form, zuo) as "pulpit." The Chinese text contains passages and details not found in Conze's translation.On Lokak~ema, see Ziircher, Buddhist Conquest, 1 :35-36. On the textual background of this sutra, see Andrew Rawlinson, "The Position of the A:j(asiihasrikii Prajiiiipiiramitii in the Development of Early Mahayana," in Lewis Lancaster, ed., Prajiiiipiiramitii and Related Systems: Studies in Honor of Edward Conze (Berkeley: Berkeley Buddhist Studies Series, 1977),3-34.

75. 472a, lines 1-7; cf. Conze's translation of the corresponding Sanskrit passage, 280-81.

76. The Chinese is zimo cd , a compound that probably designates some mineral; I have been unable to identify it.

77. 473a, lines 23ff. The Sanskrit of Conze's manuscript must read quite differently here, for he translates: "And in the middle of that pointed tower a couch made of the seven precious things was put up, and on it a box made of four large gems. Into that the perfection of wisdom was placed, written with melted vaidurya on golden tablets. And that pointed tower was adorned with brightly colored garlands which hung down in strips" (288).

78. 32b-34b; Hurvitz, tr., 183-94. 79. MXJ108 (LX 519-20, based on FYZL 17 [408cJ). 80. "Gentlemen of the Palace" translates sheng langzhongce; cf. the descrip

tion of this office given in Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 301. Wang would thus have held this position early in his career, after completing the exams but before receiving an administrative appointment outside the capital.

81. The Chinese is yiwei de xingcf, which I take to mean that Wang regarded his geese as having human-like natures, in the same way that many people come to regard their pet animals.

82. Michel Strickmann, "The Mao Shan Revelations: Taoism and the Aristocracy," T'oung Pao 63 (1977): 1-64; the first quotation above is taken from p. 28, the second from p. 30. For a translation of one of the Shangqing scriptures that promises divine rank to its possessors, see Michel Strickmann, Le Taoisme du Mao Chan: Chronique d'une revelation, Memoires de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises 17 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1981), 209-224, a translation of Shangqing housheng daojun liejicg (DZ 198, HY 442).

83. The Daoist canon contains vast, largely untapped resources for such a study. Consider, for example, simply the following passage, only one among probably hundreds of similar scriptural statements about the origins and metaphysical status of scriptures: "The Jade Slips of the Five Old Ones"-a humanly accessible version of which is revealed in the very text in which this

SUTRATEXTS 69

assige appears-"are texts that were completely self-created in empty space. ~hey are hidden!~ the S.even-Jewele.d Dark Tower within the Palace ofPur?le Tenuity in the Spmt CapItal of the Nmth Heaven; they are guarded by the FIve Thearch Divine Officials. In accordance with the Mysterious Regulations, they emerge once every 40,000 kalpas." This passage is taken from a Lingbao Daoist text probablY written in the fifth century, the Yuanshi wulao chishu yupian zhenwen tianshujingch (DZ 26, HY22), lao The entire scripture is taken up with a description of the primordial cosmic origins and initial divine transmission of itself. I would like to thank my colleage, Professor Stephen Bokenkamp, for his comments on this text during a seminar at Indiana University in 1990, as well as other members of the seminar for their insights. .

34. In this connection, see, for instance, the excellent work by Daniel Boucher, "Pratltyasamutpadagatha: A Study and Contribution of Two T'ang Translations," M.A. thesis, Indiana University, 1939, which uses Chinese translations of two sutras (here translated into English), Xuanzang's and Yijing's Indian pilgrimage accounts, and archeological evidence to paint a composite portrait of the .widespr.ead practice of enshri~i~g t~e fo~r-~erse .s~mmation of Gautama's basIc teachmg on codependent ongmatIOn wIthm mmIature stu pas, alongside-or as a functional replacement for-relics. While Boucher focuses on this practice in India, there is much in his study that is pertinent to China. See also Boucher's "The Pratztyasamutpiidagiithii and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics" in this issue.

35. Reginald A. Ray, "Buddhism: Sacred Text Written and Realized," in Frederick M. Denny and Rodney L. Taylor, eds., The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1935), 143.

36. Perhaps it is the twin notions of skillful means (on the epistemological level) and emptiness (on the metaphysical level) that are most important in establishing the ideological ground for this double understanding of the religious role of sutras. More study is needed of the relationship between the sorts of devotional understandings studied here and the basic Mahayana doctrines. Levering ("Scripture and Its Reception," 90-91) gives a brief but only preliminjiry discussion of this issue, based on some of the doctrines contained in the Awakening if Faith in the Mahayiina.

37. In matters of dating and textual history I follow Gjertson, "The Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tale."

33. The character xiang ci ("detail") in the title is probably an error for the xiangcj ("sign") that also occurs in the title of MX] I translate accordingly.


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SUTRATEXTS 71

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',~ Source Analysis of the Ruijing lu (,'Records of Miraculous Scriptures") 1

•• ·byKoichi Shinohara

'·1. Introduction

Toward the end of his life, the Vinaya master Daoxuan (596-.... 667) of the Ximingsi temple in the capital city of Chang'an H;compiled a collection of miracle stories, entitledJi shenzhou san.·.·bao gantong lu ("Collected Records of Three Treasure Miracles :A.n China"). In the colophon written by Daoxuan himself and ,cJit:tached to the end of this collection, Daoxuan noted, that he c~rf'hurriedly completed this work on the 20th day of the sixth ;;:\Illonth of the first year of Linde (664); after remarking that the l/~ollection is not a complete one, Daoxuan referred to the "reC~ently" completed Fayuan zhulin ("Jade Forest in th~ Garden of c.Dharma") in one hundred fascicles (juan) by the Vinaya Master Daoshi of the same Ximingsi temple. 2 Daoxuan and the 'compiler of the Fayuan zhulin, Daoshi (?-668?), were known to

... have been close collaborators.3 The Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu is in fact a collection of

. smaller collections of miracle stories. The Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu in the Taisho collection consists of three fascicles. 4 The first facicle begins with a brief preface, which ends by noting that the work consists of three fascicles, listing first stiipa mir-;acles, then miracles connected with Buddha images, and

•. ~hirdly stories of supernatural events associated with temples, . scriptures, and monks. The main part of the first fascicle con

·(hins stories about stiipa miracles: a collection of stories headed by a table of contents listing 20 items is followe9. by a section

,Jhat bears its own titled preface and forms an independent col.}ection of miracle stories about stiiPas.. This is the Zhendan shen

zhou fa sheli gantong xu ("Records of Buddha Relic Miracles in

73


China"), and it gives a list of miracle stories, possibly in an abbreviated form. The second fascicle contains acounts of miracles associated with images of the Buddha. It is headed by a table of contents listing 50 items. The third fascicle begins with a collection of stories about "supernatural temples" (shensi), which is followed by a titled collection of accounts of miracles about scriptures (Ruijing lu) and a titled collection of miracle stories about "supernatural monks" (Shenseng gantong lu ["Record of miracles concerning supernatural monks"]). The classification of miracle stories in this work obviously has a connection with its overall title: the title indicates that the work is a collection of miracle stories associated with the Three Treasures, i.e., the Buddha, the Teaching, and the Monastic Community. The Buddha is here represented by relics and images (the first and second fascicles), the Teaching, by scriptures (Ruijing lu), and the Monastic Community, by stories of supernatural temples and monks (the first part of the third fascicle and the Shenseng gantong lu) .

The above cursory review of the contents of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu suggests that this work was in fact a collection of several smaller collections of specific types of miracle stories. There is sufficient evidence to indicate that on a number of occasions Daoxuan prepared similar lists or collections of miracle stories. Towards the end of his life he appears to have attempted to compile a more comprehensive collection of miracle stories by revising these earlier lists / collections and bringing them to a larger synthesis. The work had to be carried out in a hurry, and the outcome was the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu in three fascicles. His collaborator at the Ximingsi temple, Daoshi, was at that time compiling the massive Buddhist encyclopedia, the Fayuan zhulin, and was also compiling classified collections of miracle stories as a part of this project. There appears to have been a good deal of communication between Daoxuan and Daoshi as they compiled their separate collections of miracle stories.

One important evidence for this hypothesis is the fact that the smaller units of miracle stories in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu are reproduced as sets of related miracle stories in several miracle story sections that are found in different parts of the Fayuan zhulin. The Fayuan zhulin is a massive encyclopedia

RVIJING LV 75

. (lei shu) in which numerous excerpts from the canonical literature are arranged around one hundred topics. One of the distinctive features of this encyclopedia is the sections on stories

'of miracks that occurred in China ((Ganying yuan") that are attached to virtually all ofthe one hundred topical sections. At least one important part of the project of compiling this encyclopedia must ha~e been a major ~ffort to collect th~se mirac.le stories and classIfy them accordmg to the categorIes used m this work. Daxuan and Daoshi appear to have been working closely together in compiling the miracle story collections in their respective works.

In the two earlier articles mentioned above (footnote 2), I investigated the relationship between the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu and the Fayuan zhulin in some detail. The majority ofthe smaller units of miracle stories in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu are found as comparable units in a variety of sections in the Fayuan zhulin. The sources for the stories· in these units in the Fayuan zhulin are not noted in the text, a rather conspicuous fact,

.. since the Fayuan zhulin in the case of other miracle story collec-. dons generally notes the sources for each story meticulously .

. In the light of other often quite unambiguous evidence, I inter

.' preted this relationship between the passages in these two works as follows: Daoxuan's collection was prepared first, and Daoshi used this collection by Daoxuan extensively in compiling his encyclopedia; since Daoxuan's collection generally does not specify the sources of the stories included in it, Daoshi . could not give the sources for each of the stories taken from

. there as he had for the miracle story sections of the Fayuan zhulin; the material collected by Daoxuan was not yet titled when Daoshi made use of it, or for some other unknown reason, Daoshi chose not to give the title of Daoxuan's work, i.e., Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, as the source for the blocks of material he copied from there as the main substance of many of the groups .of miracle stories embedded in the Fayuan zhulin.

The detailed comparison of the contents of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu and the Fayuan zhulin showed also that while the relationship described above holds for the bulk of the material in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, an entirely different relationship appears to exist between the contents of the last two sections of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu and the Fayuan.


zhulin parallels to them. Both in the case of the Ruijing lu and the Shensenggantong lu ("Records of Miracles about Supernatural Monks"), the Fqyuan zhulin parallels are not found in comparable collections of related materials. Parallels are found in a more scattered manner in various parts of the Fqyuan zhulin, suggesting strongly that Daoxuan and Daoshi worked with the same body of source materials. 5 Furthermore, the Fayuan zhulin indicates the sources of these scattered stories meticulously, in the same manner in which it generally indicates the sources of the miracle stories included in it. It appears that when Daoshi compiled the Fqyuan zhulin, the two smaller collec~ tions now attached at the end of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu may not have existed as distinctive collections, at least in the same way in which other collections in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu did. It thus may be instructive to examine more· closely the relationship between these two collections and the parallel material in the Fqyuan zhulin. Since the sources for the Fqyuan zhulin parallels are noted rather meticulously for each of the stories included in the two collections, it is possible to investigate this relationship in some detail.

The evidence from these two smaller collections is particularly important for us, since these references in the parallel Fqyuan zhulin passages enable us to trace the sources that either Daoshi alone, or with Daoxuan, or perhaps even as a member ofa team oflearnedmonks engaged in ajoint effort at the Ximingsi temple, used to compile the relevant sections of the Fqyuan zhulin (or, possibly, earlier sets of small collections which Daoshi then used in compiling the corresponding parts of the Fqyuan zhulin). The various parts of the Fqyuan zhulin containing material paralleling the Ruijing lu were probably compiled at different stages in the long and complicated process of compiling this massive encyclopedia. Thus, in some cases the Fqyuan zhulin parallels, compiled relatively early, might have been the sources that Daoxuan used in compiling the Ruijing lu. In other cases, Daoshi may have used Daoxuan's earlier collection (i.e., Ruijing lu), in compiling the parallel Fqyuan zhulin passages, which were compiled relatively late in the compilation of the encyclopedia. There is also the distinct possibility that Daoxuan and Daoshi may have collaborated closely, or that the parallel passages might have been prepared by a team of monks without any specific reference to either one of the two collec-

RUIJING LU 77

tions-. Below, I will attempt to throw some light on these com-· plex and in many ways obscure questions concerning the sources and procedures that Daoxuan and Daoshi followed in

· compiling their larger bodies of miracle stories. In this _paper, I will concentrate my attention on the first of

· these two smaller collections, the collections of miracle stories associated with scriptures (Ruijing lu). This collection, in virtually identical form but with a diff~rent title, Lidai zhungjing yinggan xingjing lu ("Records of Awe-in~piring Mira?les ~bout Scriptures that Occurred Under Vanous DynastIes In the Past"), is also found in the tenth fascicle ofDaoxuan's catalogue of Chinese Buddhist literature under the title Datang neidian lu (T. Vol. 55, 338a-342a). The preface of the Datang neidian lu bears the date of the first year of the Linde period (664-665) (219a3). Since, as we noted above, the colophon at the end of the Ji shen-

'zhou sanbao gantong lu states that Daoxuan completed this work on the 20th day of the sixth month of the same year, Daoxuan

· appears to have produced both the Datangneidian lu and the Ji ". shenzhou sanbao gantong lu around the same time. Two stories in ;';the Ruijing lu (nos. 15 and 38) are absent in the Lidaizhungjing ,yinggan xingjing lu. Since no specific reason appears to explain

this absence, these two stories may have been added later, and .... this would suggest that the Lidai zhungjingyinggan xingjing lu was .. compiled first, and that this same collection was renamed Ruijing lu, slightly expanded with the addition of two stories, and " incorporated into the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu. I will examine

the sources that lie behind this collection in some detail • through identifying the Fayuan zhulin parallels and tracing the .~source of the stories included there through the notes attached Cto these Fayuan zhulin parallels. I will begin my detailed discus," sionby focusing on the sources mentioned in the Fayuan zhulin .. passages.

··2. Preliminary Observations Concerning the Relationship Between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin.

'The Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu does not generally indicate the • 'sources from which the individual stories were taken. The Rui;ljing lu generally follows this practice and tells the stories without 'i identifying their sources, though in several cases the sources


are indicated as part of the main text, generally at the end of a story. 6 The sources of each of the stories are meticulously indicated in the Fayuan zhulin. Thus, the fact that there is some identification of the sources might in some cases serve as a clue as to which of the compared versions was the original, if we can determine on other bases that the two versions are directly related to each other. In the cases where we can be certain that the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions of the same stories are directly related, and the Ruijing lu does not indicate the sources for a story, the Fayuan zhulin versions of the stories themselves could not have been copied from the Ruijing lu. IfDaoshi copied these stories from the present version of the Ruijing lu versions, he would not have been able to specify the source of the story without consulting other sources. 7

In a small number of exceptional cases, the relationship between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin is stated explicitly in the Fayuan zhulin. The Fayuan zhulin mentions a work called the Sanbao gantong lu as the source for its stories on Daoji (corresponding to Ruijing lu story no. 17), Yisu (no. 20),8 Shi Heshi (Ruijing lu story no. 21), Linghu Yuangui (Ruijing lu story no. 22), Tanyun (Ruijing lu story no. 23), and the Scripture written in the sky in Yizhou (Ruijing lu story no. 36).9 These six stories are found together in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. The Sanbao gantong lu must refer to the same work as the present Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, which appears also to have been known as Dongxia sanbao gantong ji.lO Daoxuan's miracle story collection, bearing either one of these known titles, must have existed in some form when Daoshi compiled this section of the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. Furthermore, since these

. stories are not found elsewhere among the materials collected in other parts of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, the work that Daoshi used in preparing this part of the Fayuan zhulin must have been the Ruijing lu. The text of these six stories in the 18th fascicle in the Fayuan zhulin is virtually identical to that of the Ruijing lu. ll

The relationship between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin appears to have been rather complex. Since the Fayuan zhulin passages containing stories that correspond to Ruijing lu stories are found scattered in a number of different fascicles of that massive encyclopedia, we can safely assume that these passages

RUIJING LU 79

may have been composed sep~rately at ~i~ferer:t stage~ in the compilation of the encyclopedIa. Thus, It IS qUIte possIble, as we noted above, that some of these Fayuan zhulin passages containing stories very similar to those in the Ruijing lu were compiled earlier, before the Ruijing lu was compiled by Daoxuan, and that Daoxuan used them as sources for the Ruijing lu. In contrast, other Fayuan zhulin passages may have been compiled later, well after the Ruijing lu had been produced as a part of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, and Daoshi may have relied on the Ruijing lu in preparing these passages. This complex relationship again suggests that Daoxuan and Daoshi must have collaborated very closely in preparing their respective miracle story collections.

A closer examination of the Fayuan zhulin stories that are· said to have come from the Sanbao gantong lu enables us to trace the general process through which at least some of the stories, which could not have been copied directly from the Fayuan zhulin, came to be collected by Daoxuan before they were eventually included in the Ruijing lu. Four of the six stories under examination here, i.e., the Daoji story (no. 17), the Yisu story (no. 20) 1 the Shi Heshi story (no. 21), and the Tanyun story (no. 23) are found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan. Passages that parallel nos. 20 and 21 word-for-word constitute the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography ofYisu ("reciters of scripture" section, 690ab) and these stories are both about the tongues of reciters of the Lotus Sfltra, which did not decay after burial. l2 Story no. 17, about the monk Daoji, is an abbreviated version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography that appears in the "reciters of scripture" section (the seventh in the section, 687c-688a).13 Story no. 23, about the monk Tanyun, loosely parallels a passage (593b4-ll) in the longer Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of the same monk ("meditation masters" section, 592c-593c).14 The other two stories, i.e., the story about Linghu Yuangui (no. 22) and the story about a student called Xun, who wrote the Diamond Sfltra in the sky (no. 36), are stories about laymen, and therefore it is not surprising that these stories are not found in Daoxuan's Xu gaoseng zhuan, which, as its title ("Further Biographies of Eminent Monks") indicates, was a collection of monks' biographies. 15 All of the evidence suggests that Daoxuan must have played a central role in the development and transmission of these stories: in


some cases he visited the site where the miracle had occurred 'and probably collected the stories at that time. He appears to have been interested in such stories and had assembled them over a long period while preparing his biographical collection.

. The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Yisu consists of two stories about the tongues of the Lotus Sutra reciters Yisu and Shi Heshi, which were dug out ten or more years after the death of these two monks; the tongues had not rotted despite the passage of time. Thus, this biography in fact consists in a small thematically unified collection of miracle stories of the kind that Daoxuan later developed on a much larger scale in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu. This example, thus, might serve as a minor piece of evidence suggesting that the project of compiling a large thematic collection of miracle stories began as a part of Daoxuan's earlier project to compile a massive collection of the biographies of monks. The story of Yisu's tongue must have originated after the 11th year ofZhenguan (637/38), when his body was exhumed and people learned that his tongue had not decomposed. Elsewhere, the date of the fifth year of Zhenguan period (631/32) is attached to the story of Linghu Yuangui. The story must have originated after this date. Finally, the Xu gaoseng zhuan reports that Tanyun died in the 16th year of Zhenguan (642/43). These dates are significant in pointing generally to the period in which Daoxuan may have begun collecting miracle stories of the kind later used in compiling the Ruijing lu in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu.

As we noted briefly above, since there appears to have been a close relationship between Daoxuan's miracle collections and his collaborator Daoshi's encyclopedia, the Fayuan zhulin, the notes attached to the Fayuan zhulin parallels to the Ruijing lu, indicating the sources from which the stories were copied or abbreviated into the Fayuan zhulin, enable us to discuss the sources of the corresponding Ruijing lu stories with greater precision as well. These Fayuan zhulin parallels are found scattered in different parts of the encyclopedia, and the sources mentioned are also diverse. Yet, a detailed analysis of these complex materials points to a general pattern, which in turn throws some light on the nature of the Ruijing lu as a distinctive collection of miracle stories. I will attempt to reconstruct, albeit in a highly speculative and hypothetical form, the general process though which Daoxuan appears to have compiled this collection.

RUIJING LU 81

3. Gaoseng zhuan stories in the Ruijing lu

The main text of the Ruijing lu begins with a statement "The Gaoseng zhuan says ... "( 426b21), and first tells the story of Tan Wujie. As we will examine more closely below, there are some problems ~.bout this refer~~ce to the .Gaoseng zhuan as the source of Tan WUJle story, but RU1:JWg lu stones numbered 2 to 6, 8, and 10 are ultimately based on the Gaoseng zhuan.

There is a good possibility that this statement, "the Gaoseng zhuan says," at the beginning of the main body of the Ruijing lu was meant to apply not only to the Tan Wujie story but also to the series of stories that follows it. The stories about Dao'an (no. 2), Sengsheng (no. 3), Daojiong (no. 4), Puming (no. 5),

. Huiguo (no. 6), and Hongming (no. 8)16 all begin with the conjunction you ("also") and are all ultimately based on the Gaoseng zhuan biographies. The story about Huijin (no. 7) does not have this conjunction at the beginning, and the passage identical to it in the 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin identifies its source as the Mingxiangji.17 The only other stories for which the Fayuan zhulin parallel designates the source as the Gaoseng zhuan are the story about Daolin (no. 10), which comes after these stories, and the story of the layman Sun Jingde, which is known from a variety of sources, including the Xu gaoseng zhuan. Since the stories that begin with the conjunction you are in fact stories taken form the Gaoseng zhuan, and the one story that interrupts this sequence appears to have been taken from a different source, it is probably safe to assume that these conjunctions (you) were meant to indicate that the initial note, giving the Gaoseng zhuan as source, was meant to apply to these subsequent stories as well. If that is the case, we may have excavated an earlier form of this section of the Ruijing lu: Daoxuan began his compilation of the Ruijing lu with stories based on the Gaoseng zhuan and listed the stories nos. 1-6, and 8;18 later he inserted the story about Huijin (no. 7) between the stories about Huiguo and Hongming, and possibly on yet another occasion added the story about Daolin from elsewhere to its present position.

In the earliest draft reconstructed here, then, the Ruijing lu designated explicitly the sources for its stories nos. 1-6 and 8 (which were given as the first seven stories). Daoxuan may

even have begun this collection with the intention of designat-


ing sources for all stories to be included in the Ruijing lu. When . he inserted the story about Huijin, however, he did not feel it necessary to designate its source, and the conjunction you, left hanging without explicit referent in front of story no. 8, about Hongming, dropped offin some editions (as in the Korean edition on which the Taisho text is based). As Daoxuan continued the draft for the Ruijing lu further, not identifying in detail the sources for the stories included, the meaning of the word you at the beginning also became unclear.19

If the Ruijing lu existed earlier in the form reconstructed here, and if Daoshi had access to this early version, then he could easily have compiled the corresponding passages in the Fayuan zhulin by copying from this early version and providing the note on the sources of stories from it. In connection with the main body of the Gaoseng zhuan stories which appear in closely related forms in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin, we cannot assume as elsewhere that the absence of a note on the sources in the Ruijing lu precludes the possibility that Daoshi's Fayuan zhulin versions could have been based on the Ruijing lu. If the Ruijing lu existed in an earlier form as we reconstructed

." it here, explicitly identifying the stories as being based on the Gaoseng zhuan, it is possible that Daoshi may have used it as his source in compiling the corresponding sections of the Fayuan zhulin.

Ruijing lu stories numbered 3 to 8 and 10 appear to be intimately related to the corresponding biographies in the 12th fascicle of the Gaoseng zhuan, and though only seven biographies were chosen from the 21 biographies in this "reciters" section of the Gaoseng zhuan, the items are given in the same order in which they appear in the Gaoseng zhuan. 20 This fact may be significant. If Daoxuan copied these stories directly from the Gaoseng zhuan, he must have had the "reciters of the scripture" section of the Gaoseng zhuan in front of him when he compiled this section of the Ruijing lu. It also appears to suggest that the Ruijing lu may have developed as an expanded and modified version of the "reciters of scripture" section of the Gaoseng zhuan. Since scripture miracles (or "miraculous scriptures," ruijing) are commonly, though not exclusively, associated with the practice of reciting scriptures, it is quite understandable that Daoxuan's collection began in this manner by focusing on materials that are found in the "reciters" section of the Gaoseng zhuan.

RUIJING LU 83

Yet, this very fact also might suggest that Daoxuan was initiating a new development in Chinese Buddhist historiography by compiling a collection that overlaps significantly with a well-established category of the normative biographical collection. Daoxuan, who in fact compiled his own major collection of monks' biographies as the second effort in the series of normative collections succeeding the Gaoseng zhuan, might have come to recognize that there was room and possibly the need for a different type of collection. Daoxuan's shifting sensitivity might also reflect at least some of the changes that Chinese Buddhism was undergoing in the middle of the seventh century.

In his monumental work on the history of early Chan historiography, Yanagida Seizan calls attention to a number of scripture miracle collections that appeared after Daoxuan had completed his Xu gaoseng zhuan, stating that the early Chan histories developed in the same environment. Yanagida is interested in these collections as signs of profound changes in Chinese Buddhism: the well-established tradition of Chinese Buddhist historiography, represented most recently by Daoxu an's Xu gaoseng zhuan was transformed in these collections ipto something new and different. Our discussion of the RuUing lu shows that this new tradition of "scripture miracle collections" had its root in Daoxuan himself. 21

A comparison of the RuUing lu with the corresponding Fayuan zhulin passages results in a complex set of observations. In cases where the RuUing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions of the stories are identical and both of these versions diverge from the Gaoseng zhuan originals, we can conclude that the RuiJing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions must have been directly related to each other. However, as noted earlier, since both the RuUing lu and the Fayuan zhulin indicate the sources for the particular stories we have been considering, it is not possible to determine which of the two versions of the same story was dependent on the other.

If either the RuUing lu, as is generally the case, or the Fayuan zhulin gives an abbreviated version of the Gaoseng zhuan story which is reproduced more faithfully in the other, we might assume that the fuller version of the story in that form could not have been directly based on the abbreviated one; it must have been based on the Gaoseng zhuan original. If for some specific reason we can assume that one of the fuller versions and the ab-


breviated version are directly related to each other, we will be . able to conclude that the abbreviated version was dependent on that fuller version. Otherwise, we will not be able to determine whether the abbreviated version was based on the Gaoseng zhuan original or its faithful copy in one of the two other sources being compared.

a) The Tan Wujie story (no. 1) The first story in the Ruijing lu, the story of Tan vVujie (no.

1), is an ambiguous case: the passage in the Ruijing lu is identical with that in the Fayuan zhulin (juan 65, 786a), yet the former gives the Gaoseng zhuan and the latter the Mingxiang chi as the source of the story. The version common to the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin is a good deal shorter than the Gaoseng zhuan passage (V,338b-339a) and concentrates on one incident told toward the end of the Gaoseng zhuan biography.22 Unless the Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin passages are exact copies of the otherwise unknown Mingxiang ji passage, they are probably directly related with each other. In this case, since both the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin passages give different sources, there must have been a mistake in one of these identifications, and we cannot say which of the two passages is more likely to have been the original.

b) The story about Dao)an (no. 2) The Fayuan zhulin contains a passage that is identical to the

Ruijing lu story about Dao'an (juan 18, 418a). The Dao'an passage in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin appears at the begin-

. ning of the section containing six stories which are said to have come form the "Liang gaoseng zhuan or other records" (418b28). This short passage on Dao'an is clearly based on one section of the Gaoseng zhuan biography (especially, 353b17- 23).23 This story is a good example of cases in which we can be certain that the Ruijing lu story and the parallel Fayuan zhulin story are directly related with each other, but we cannot determine which of these two closely related versions was the original.

c) The story about Sengsheng (no. 3) In this case again, the Ruijing lu and the corresponding

Fayuan zhulin passages appear to be directly related. The stories

RUIJING LU 85

. about Sengsheng in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin (juan 18 ["Paying respect to .the Teaching"], 418aI:) are clearly based on

the Gaoseng zhuan bIOgraphy and follow Its text word for word . the most part. But the last section of the Gaoseng zhuan biography is omitted both from the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin

". passage, and the two versions end in exactly the same way.

d) The story about Daojiong (no. 4) ,', A variety of sources concerning Daojiong's biography have 1';;be~n preserved, and the relationships among theses sources ;:.are rather complex.24 The Fayuan zhulin contains three passages ","'on this monk: one injuan 17 (408c-409a), another in juan 35 ',(567bc), and still another injuan 65 (784c-785a). The 35th fas

,:;cicle version is explicitly said to be based on the Liang gaoseng :,zhuan, and it is indeed a faithful reproduction of the Gaoseng ,'zhuan biography of this monk (407ab). The 17th and 65th fasci'{de stories appear to have been taken from the Mingxiangji, and c:l;.'tell different stories. The Ruijing lu story (no. 4) of Daojiong ~{}enters around two stories which are told together in the Gao~:?'tseng zhuan biography, but separately in greater detail in the two '~{.'Mingxiang ji fragments. The phraseology of the Ruijing lu story ::;!.'/issimilar to that of the Gaoseng zhuan biography. Thus, it would .~;\'be safe to conclude that the Ruijing lu story about Daojiong is >',iran abbreviated version of the Gaoseng zhuan biography, either ;~J.)aken directly from the Gaoseng zhuan itself, or possibly from its \~GOPy in the 35th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. Since the Ruijing [:;lu story is an abbreviated version of the Gaoseng zhuan/ Fayuan ,,/;;zhulin (juan 35) passage, the parallel passage in the 35th fas:;c"cicle of the Fayuan zhulin could not have been copied from the ,'Ruijing lu.

fil e) The story about Puming (no. 5) '~ The Fayuan zhulin parallel to the Ruijing lu story about Pum-!.;/ing is found in the 17th fascicle, immediately after the story /",about Daojiong. 25 This Fayuan zhulin passage is identical to the f.f Gaoseng zhuan biography, and the Ruijing lu story matches the ~}first half of this story in the Gaoseng zhuan and the 17th fascicle l.}ofthe Fayuan zhulin. Again, since the Ruijing lu is an abbreviated '!~;,version of a well-known story, the Fayuan zhulin version could ,l' Ilot possibly have been based on the Ruijing lu version. >~~ ;;>~~:.

~!~""" '

------------------


f) The story about Huiguo (no. 6) The 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin begins with a story

about Huiguo (983bc) that is very simil~r to the Ruijing lu story about this monk. The Fayuan zhulin story is said to be based on the Gaoseng zhuan biography, and it is in fact identical with the biography of this monk (407bc) in the "reciters of scripture" section of the collection. The Ruijing lu story appears to be a slightly abbreviated version of this biography. Here again, the Fayuan zhulin is unlikely to have been based on the abbreviated version in the Ruijing lu.

g) The story about Huijin (no. 7) A passage identical to the Ruijing lu story about Huijin is

found in the 95th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin ("sickness," 989ab), and here the source of the passage is given as the Mingxiang ji. The Gaoseng zhuan biography of Huijin follows this Mingxiang ji story very closely, though there are some differences in phraseology and the former gives the date of the monk's death as the third year of the Yongming period of the Qi dynasty (585-486) and specifies his age at the time of death more precisely as eighty-five. In this case, the Ruijing lu·and the Fayuan zhulin stories appear to be directly related to each other.

h) The story about Hongming (no. 8) The Fayuan zhulin contains two passages on Hongrriing (no.

8): one passage is found in juan 28 ("Miracles" [shenyiJ, 492bc) and the other in juan 94 ("impurities," 983c). The notes give the Tang gaoseng zhuan (498a29 injuan 28) and the Liang gaoseng zhuan (983cl5) as their sources, but the Tang gaoseng zhuan mentioned in the 28th fascicle is clearly a mistake for the Liang gaoseng zhuan, or simply Gaoseng zhuan. The 28th fascicle story is clearly an abbreviated version of the Gaoseng zhuan biography.26 The 94th fascicle story, which tells the same story very briefly, is identical to the Ruijing lu version. Again, the Ruijinglu passage and the corresponding Fayuan zhulin passage appear to be directly related to each other.

i) The story about Daolin (no. 10) The Fayuan zhulin story about Daolin (juan 42, 6l7a) is vir

tually identical, word for word, with the Gaoseng zhuan biography of this monk, and mentions the Gaoseng zhuan as its

RUIJING LU 87

'Ouree ("Liang gaoseng zhuan," 617a17); one difference is that the ,~ aIlle of the scripture he recited is given as J#imo jing in the : Fayuan zhulin version and as jin~m~ng jing iri th~ Gaoseng ~huan. ;Yhe Ruijing lu story about Daolm IS an abbrevIated verSIOn of the account in the Gaoseng zhuan and the Fayuan zhulin, and here

.'thename of the scripture is given asjingmingjing, as in the Gao·.··.···s~ng zhuan b~ography. -yve may assume that the .R~ijing lu story

is an abbrevIated verSIOn of the Gaoseng zhuan ongmal, and that ... the Fqyuan zhulin version was prepared independently on the

• basis ofthe same Gaoseng zhuan original. '; '. In five cases (Tan Wujie, Dao'an, Sengsheng, Huijin,

i Hongming), including the ambiguous case of the story about :;: Tan Wujie, the Ruijing lu stories have identical parallels in the

Fayuan zhulin. These parallels indicate that there was some direct relationship between the Ruijing lu stories and the corres

';::ponding Fqyuan zhulin stories. In three cases (Daojiong, Pum-ling, Huiguo), the Ruijing lu version is abbreviated, while the

i:~closest Fqyuan zhulin parallels reproduce the Gaoseng zhuan origi,":nals faithfully. In one case (DaoEn), we could conclude that '::~i\he Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions were' prepared inde:;ipendently of each other on the basis of the common Gaoseng :;:;·zhuan original. Since the parallel passages in the Fqyuan zhulin . 'care found scattered in different parts of the encyclopedia,27 the ;::relationships among the various parallel passages of the Ruijing

lu and the Fqyuan zhulin might not have been uniform. In fact, :;-: ~.~ •• the evidence we have collected indicates that in five cases there ·;;.was a direct relationship between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan >,zhulin passages, but that in one case we can be reasonably cer. tain that there was no direct relationship between the parallel '~ .. ' passages in these two works. 28

In three cases, two stories that are found side by side or close to each other in the Ruijing lu have their parallels again side by side in the same order in the same fascicle of the Fayuan

l.':.zhulin (Dao'an and Sengsheng injuan 18 [418ab], Daojiong and .Puming in juan 17 [408c-409a], and Huiguo and Hongming in juan 94 [983bc]).29

aa) The stories about Dao'an and Sengsheng in the Ruijing . and the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin are identical with

each other. Since both of these identical stories are different from the original Gaoseng zhuan biographies, there is little

I'


doubt that the Dao'an and Sengsheng stories in the Ruijing lu . and the Fayuan zhulin were directly related to each other.

bb) Both the stories about Daojiongand Puming appear in an abbreviated form in the Ruijing lu, while the Fayuan zhulin, at least in one passage (35th fascicle) in the case of Daojiong, reproduces the Gaoseng zhuan original more faithfully. We must note also that whereas the Daojiong and Puming stories appear together in the same order as in the RuiJing lu in the 17th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, the Daojiong story in that fascicle does not appear to be directly related to the Ruijing lu version. In fact, it is the 35th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin that reproduces the Gaoseng zhuan story of Daojiong, which is clearly the basis of the RuiJing lu story. In this case, therefore, it would be safe to conclude that the parallel between the Daojiong a~d Puming stories in the Ruijing lu and the 17th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin was accidental, and that there was no direct relationship between these two stories as distinct units of related stories. It is more likely that the parallels between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions of these two stories occurred through independent copying of the Gaoseng zhuan originals.

cc) The situation of the two sets of parallel stories in the Ruijing lu and the 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is more complex than the two cases reviewed above. The Huiguo story in the Ruijing ,lu is a shortened version of the Gaoseng zhuan biography, which is also reproduced faithfully in the 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. The other story in the 94th fascicle, the story of Hongming, is identical with the RU,?jing lu version and distinct from the Gaoseng zhuan biography of the same monk. Whereas the Huiguo and Hongming stories appear side by side as the first two stories in the miracle stories section of that fascicle in the Fayuan zhulin, the story about Huijin appears between these two stories in the Ruijing lu. As noted above, the Fayuan zhulin parallel to the Huijin story (95th fascicle) is identical to the Ruijing lu story, and gives as its source the Mingxiangji.

I t is difficult to interpret the significance of the complex evidence of the 94th fascicle paraliels. None of the three logical possibilities that need to be considered for cases where only the Ruijing lu version is abbreviated can be ruled out conclusively:

RUIJING LU 89

(1) The parallel between the Ruijing lu and the 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin might have been accidental, as appears to

. have been the case in the parallels in the 17th fascicle discussed above; (2) the Ruijing lu version might have been directly dependent.on the Fayuan zhulin version, in which case Daoxuan at some point must have revised this part of the Ruijing lu and inserted Huijing's story between those of Huiguo and Hong-wing; (3) the Fayuan zhulin version might have been based on

.' the hypothetical earlier version of the Ruijing lu, and the Ruijing . 'lu underwent further revision later, and at that time the Huiguo story was abbreviated and the Huijin story inserted. . The biography of Huijin appears as the 13th biography in the 12th fascicle of the Gaoseng zhuan, between those ofHuiguo

..•..•. (10th) and Hongming (14th). It is conceivable that Daoxuan ;. was aware of the order in which the stories paralleling the "re-

·~'.·citers of scriptures" biographies in the Gaoseng zhuan( 12th fasci;.~ ." ele) were arranged in the Ruijing lu, and that he felt it necessary },. to arrange them in the order in which they appear in the Gao;"!;'seng zhuan.

i:: It is somewhat puzzling, however, that Daoxuan, who !}: .musdt thehn. hav~ be hen lc~ns~ting .. the r:aosenfg hzhuan or~ginhal,

> use at t IS pomt t e lv.LZngxzang JZ verSIOn 0 t e story, m t e (.<form in which it is reproduced in the 95th fascicle of the Fayuan ,."Zhulin, and not the Gaoseng zhuan version. Since his contempo

rary collaborator Daoshi, who worked at the same Ximingsi temple as Daoxuan, quotes freely from the Mingxiang ji, Dao

.. xuan must also have had direct access to the Mingxiang ji him,'"' self, and it is conceivable that he used this version because the

Mingxiang ji stories date earlier and were used as an important '.; source when Huijiao prepared his Gaoseng zhuan biographies. 30

:? The evidence reviewed above concerning the Gaoseng zhuan i,stories in the Ruijing lu and the corresponding Fayuan zhulin pas

.!....... sages is complex, and does not enable us to deduce one simple }>conclusion concerning the relationship among these sources. ;.The fact that the main body of the Gaoseng zhuan stories in the .<.Ruijing lu is drawn from the section of the "reciters of scrip}.tures" in the 12th fascicle of the Gaoseng zhuan and that the 'fstories appear in the same general order as the biographies in :{~ithat section ofthe Gaoseng zhuan, appears to indicate that Dao~'<:~";"-, ' -

-------- --------------------------

90 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

xuan must have been consulting this section of the Gaoseng . zhuan himself, when he compiled this section of the Ruijing lu. The present text of the Ruijing lu suggests that the text may have been revised at least once and on that occasion a Mingxiang ji story corresponding to a Gaoseng zhuan biography was inserted at a point where the biography in question appears in the "reciters of scripture" section of the Gaoseng zhuan ..

Later, I will present an argument, based on further evidence concerning other parts of the parallels between the Ritijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin, that in compiling the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin Daoshi appears to have copied certain materials from the Ruijing lu. From this broader point of view, it will become possible to conclude that at least in the case of the two stories from the Gaoseng zhuan that are found in identical forms in the Ruijing lu and the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (stories about Dao'an and Sengsheng), it was the Ruijing lu version that was the original.

4. The Xu gaoseng zhuan stories in the Ruijing lu

The Ruijing lu stories about SunJingde (no. 9), Zhizhan (no.ll), the anonymous monk at the Wuhousi temple (no. 12), the lips dug out of the ground at Mt. Dongkan (no. 13), the eunuch who grew a beard (no. 14), Daoji (no. 17), Baogui (no. 18), Kongzang (no. 19), Yisu (no. 20), Shi Heshi (no. 21), Tanyun (no. 23), and Tanyan (no. 26) are based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan. The Fayuan zhulin, juan 18 (419c-420a), contains a passage that is identical to the story in the Ruijing lu (no. 16) of an anonymous monk and a novice who returned from the realm of the dead and specifies its source as the Tang gaoseng zhuan, but the story does not appear to exist there. As in the case of Gaoseng zhuan stories, the Ruijing lu stories based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan were mostly, though not exclusively, taken from the "Reciters of scripture" section, and the order of the materials taken into the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu parallels the order in which they appear, though not always immediately one after another, in the Xu gaoseng zhuan. 31

(a) The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography qfZhizhan Ruijing lu stories No. 11 to 14 were taken from the biog

raphy of Zhizhan (the first biography in the "reciters of scrip-

RVIJING LV 91

ture" section in the 28th fascicle, 686ab). A note at the end of the story about the eunuch (no. 14) in the Ruijing lu states that "these were all (bing) taken from Hou Junsu's jingyi ji" (427cl).32. Here, the referent of the note is ambiguous. It is attached to the story about the eunuch, but the adverb "bing" implies that there was more than one story preceding this note; in the present context this adverb appears to suggest that the

.. " five stories listed before were also taken from the same source. But we have seen above that the first of these five stories, that ofDaolin, was actually taken from the Gaoseng zhuan. 33

In fact, this note about the jingyi ji appears to have been copied verbatim from Zhizhan's Xu gaoseng zhuan biography (686b14). The adverb "bing" ("all") in this Xu gaoseng zhuan note indicates that all the stories listed there, possibly but not

. necessarily including Zhizhan's biography itself, were drawn this work. Daoxuan compiled the ji shenzhou sanbao gantong

which contains the Ruijing lu in the third fascicle, toward the of his life, in the first year of Linde (664-665), while the draft of the Xu gaoseng zhuan was completed sometime after 19th year of the Zhenguan period (645-646).34 Though

is evidence indicating that Daoxuan kept working on his biographical collection until the end of his life, the fact that the adverb bing makes perfect sense in the Xu gaoseng zhuan but that

meaning becomes unclear in the Ruijing lu, enables us to :,L\'IH,",~U\'l,", that Zhizhan's biography existed by the time Daoxuan compiled the Ruijing lu. 35 If there was any direct relationship between these two passages on Zhizhan in the two separate works compiled by Daoxuan, it was the Xu gaoseng zhuan that was the source, and the Ruijing lu was dependent on it.

The date of Zhizhan's death is not given, but the biography' states that his stilpa in Mt. Rentou still existed at the "present

" suggesting the possibility that Daoxuan himself had visthe location. The extraordinary phenomenon surrounding

Zhizhan's death was the fact that after he died one finger of each of his harids was extended, indicating that he had attained the "First Fruit" (the rank of the "stream winner") .

. The two stories that follow that of Zhizhan, about the anonymonk of the Wuhousi temple and the lips and tongue dug

out at Mt. Dongkan (no. 12 an 13), both center around tongue miracles; the last story (no. 14) in this small collection of mira-


cle stories attached to Zhizhan's biography is about the beard . that grew ona eunuch.

We have seen above, in discussing the Sanbao gantong lu note in the Fayuan zhulin on the Ruijing lu stories of Yisu and Shi Heshi (nos. 20 and 21), that tongue miracle stories were appended to a biography of the monk Yisu. Both the biography ofYisu and that of Zhizhan are found in the "reciters" section (the first and thirteenth biographies in the section). Daoxuan was obviously interested in these miracles and was preparing small collections of these stories as appendices to his Xu gaoseng zhuan biographies of "reciters."

The Fayuan zhulin parallels to Zhizhan's biography and the stories appended to it are found in two places: the 18th and the 85th fascicles. In the 85th fascicle, Zhizhan's biography and three of the appended stories (corresponding to the Ruijing lu stories, nos. 12b, 13, 14) are given as one block of material, just as in the Xu gaoseng zhuan. This block of material appears as the second large item in the miracle stories section of this fascicle, and a note in small characters appended at the end of the Zhizhan stories reads: "The above two stories appear (jian) in HouJunsu's collection" (i.e., thejingyiji).36 I am inclined to believe that the immediate source for the group of stories associated with Zhizhan's biography in the 85th fascicle was in fact the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Zhizhan, and that the note on jingyi ji as the source for the 85th fascicle stories was copied from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. The use of the expressionjian ("appear" or "seen in") in the note, to be discussed in greater detail below, is an important clue. If Daoshi had collected these two stories directly from the jingyi ji, he probably would have written this note using the verb chu ("come from") as he did consistently in writing the notes indicating the sources of the miracle story passages he had collected. When he edited the 85th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, Daoshi took these stories from the Xu gaoseng zhuan original and understood the meaning of the note at the end of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Zhizhan in the strongest possible sense as indicating that both Zhizhan's biography and the appended stories were taken from the jingyi ji. 37

Thus, the text of the Zhizhan story in the 85th fascicle appears to be directly dependent on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biog-

fji5~;) RUIJING L U 93

i;:0~ ,'raphY; it is a. so~ewhat abbreviated vet:"sion, but the text of ~he " "" parallel stones IS even closer to the Xu gaoseng zhuan verSIOn

, " " than the Ruijing lu version is. Since this 85th fascicle passage '::'!'lncludes elements in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography that were }' "not included in the correspondirtg Ruijing lu passage (e.g., refer

,"ence to GUJ;lavarman as the founder of the Xiancaosi temple , ~.~ ,.}.

(909c26; ref., Xu gaoseng zhuan, 686a4,5), it probably was not ,:,;, ~opied from the Ruijing lu. The reference to GUJ;lavarman is " "also missing from the other Fayuan zhulin passage in the 18th :;"?'rasCicle. Tdhus, thhe 8185thh !.asc~clle vers~on d?ehs not appear to have ) "been base on t e t laSClC everSIOn, elt er. ~:,:; The Ruijing lu passage on the anonymous monk of the Wu',J;'housi temple (no. 12) is marked as one story in the table of con,": tents given at the beginning ofthe Ruijing lu (426b 14), but this \l'passage in fact consists of two stories: the story about the ':.:," > anonymous monk of the Wuhousi is followed by an indepen-

"dent story about a monk in Yongzhou, who retired into Mt. :/j;i Bolu ("White Deer"). The version in the 85th fascicle of the {~;;'Fayuan zhuli~ rd~producehs thehsecRond of tzhese sit dories, but not the

" ;' first. This III lcates t at t e " uijing u cou not have been i;il::dependent on the 85th fascicle story. The 85th fascicle version ,';'; 'of Zhizhan's biography and appended stories appear to have :'been independently based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography.

('~'~,'i The passage on Zhizhan's biography and appended stories ;(in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is virtually identical to

);,'. the corresponding Ruijing lu passage. In this passage, however, :i;the conjunctionyou ("again'" "and") that appears at the beginr;;; f.ning of the story about the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi ;"Ctemple (427b16) and the story about the eunuch who grew a l#,',Sbeard (427b26) is in both cases changed to hou ("later") ';;.y:J418b19 and 29). Since the conjunctionyou also appears at the ~~~'corresponding points in the Xu gaoseng zhuan version (686a13, "'b8), it might be safe to assume that it was the editor of the 18th 'ifascicle version in the Fayuan zhulin who changed the conjunc;::,;;,tionyou to hOU. 38 If this assumption is correct, the close parallel :l~~~~jn the contents of these passages would indicate that the Ruijing " lu was the original that was copied by the editor of the 18th fas

i~;;'" dele collection of the Fayuan zhulin. i~r( "" In the 18th fascicle, Zhizhan's biqgraphy and appended ""stories are given as separate items and immediately following

';~i~1{;j :{ ;';?iclt:


three stories that can be shown to have been taken from the . Gaoseng zhuan. 39 After Zhizhan's biography and the two stories about tongue miracles a note is inserted stating that the six preceding stories come from "the Liang collection of the Lives of Eminent Monks (Gaoseng zhuan) and other miscellaneous records" (418b28). Since the three entries immediately preceding this note, i.e., the stories about Zhizhan, the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi temple, and the lips and tongue dug out from the ground at Mt. Dongkan, are all based on the Xu gaosengzhuan biography of Zhizhan, this note giving their source as Liang gaoseng zhuan is obviously faulty.

The passage on the eunuch (no. 14) immediately follows this set of six stories, and the Jingyi ji is given as its source. In editing this section of the miracle story collection in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, Daoshi appears to have read the now familiar source note (which ultimately goes back to the Xu gaoseng zhuan) differently and taken it to refer only to the last story among those appended to Zhizhan's biography. The note itself is revised in the 18th fascicle and the adverb bing ("all") is here dropped (427cl).

Daoshi's rewriting of this note makes some sense if we assume that he was copying this material from the Ruijing lu and if we take into account the two different contexts in which the passage on Zhizhan and the appended stories appeared in the Xu gaoseng zhuan and the Ruijing lu. In the Xu gaoseng zhuan, where biographies of monks are listed one after another as discrete units of the text, there is little room for misunderstanding the reference of the adverb bing that appears at the end of Zhizhan's biography: it refers either to the appended stories, or, at most, to everything included in the section on Zhizhan's biography. When the same note containing the same adverb was copied into the miracle story collection Ruijing lu, Zhizhan's biography was read as one of the many stories included in the collection, and the stories appended to Zhizhan's biography acquired independence from the biography itself, because they too were read as stories of the type collected in the Ruijing lu. One consequence of this transformation was, as we noted above in commenting on the text of Ruijing lu, that the reference of the note with the adverb bing that was found at the end of this body of material became unclear.

RUIJING LU 95

If the reader is not familiar with the Xu gaoseng zhuan background of these stories, there would be no reason to suspect that the reference is meant to extend only to Zhizhan's

. story at most. When he copied the passage and the note into the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, Daoshi appears not to have been aware of the Xu gaoseng zhuan background of these stories and thus might have felt that the adverb bing, with its indeterminate reference, was inappropriate here; he might have chosen to read the note most conservatively as referring only to the story to which the note was attached, and dropped the adverb from the note; he would then have looked for the sources for other stories elsewhere and introduced the error mentioned above.

The analysis, of the way in which the note giving the source for the group of stories under examination as jingyi ji appears in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, the passages in the 18th and .85th facicles of the Fayuan zhulin and the Ruijing lu, leads to the following conclusions: (1) it was Daoxuan who collected this material from the jingyi ji and this work was done when he compiled the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Zhizhan; (2) Daoxuan then abbreviated this material and included it together with the mechanically copied note in the Ruijing lu; (3) Daoshi used the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography itself as his source when he compiled the relevant material in the 85th fascicle; (4) Daoshi relied on the Ruijing lu without the awareness of its ultimate dependence on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography when he compiled the relevant material in the 18th fascicle.

(b) The Sun jingde story The reference to the jingyi ji also appears in a variety of

sources mentioned for story no. 9, about Sun Jingde's AvalokiteSvara image. The same story, in virtually the same but slightly more detailed wording, appears as well in the image miracle collection in the second fascicle of the ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu (story no. 31, 420ab). Daoxuan thus included this story twice, in two separate parts of the ji shenzhou sanbao gan- . tong lu, first in the image miracle section in the second fascicle

. and then in the scripture miracle collection entitled Ruijing lu. 40

The last sentence in the Ruijing lu gives the source of this story as "the Qi shu." In the image miracle collection in the second


fascicle, the source of this story is given as "Records such as the Qi zhi and the Jingyi ji" (420b5). The story of Sun Jingde also appears in the Xu gaoseng zhuan, among the image miracle stories appended to Sengming's biography (692c22-693a9). The source of the story is not indicated there. This Xu gaoseng zhuan version is very closely related to the version found in the image miracle collection in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu. The two versions are of equal length, giving virtually the same details; the phraseology is identical for the most part, though at a number of places the two versions make the same points in different words. There is also an entry on this story in Daoxuan's Shijia Jangzhi, compiled in the first year ofYonghui (650)(T. Vol. 52, 972b18-28). This version, again, is quite similar to the versions mentioned above, sharing the same phraseology at a number of points, but it is significantly shorter, and a distinctive feature of this version is the passage at the end which mentions that there were numerous stories about people who, during the period when Southern and Northern China were divided and ruled by different dynasties and kingdoms, had escaped from similar predicaments by reciting the names of the Buddhas. The ShiJia Jangzhi does not indicate the source for this story.

The comparison of the four versions of the story of Sun Jingde's AvalokiteSyara image in three works compiled by Daoxuan, i.e., two versions of this story in theJi shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, the Xu gaoseng zhuan version, and the Shijia Jangzhi version, suggests the following relationship among the stories.

(i) Since the longer version of the story in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu appears to be related to the probably earlier version in the Xu gaoseng zhuan, it may be safe to conclude that this was the earlier version, which Daoxuan abbreviated to produce the corresponding passage in the Ruijing lu.

(ii) One sentence toward the end of the version in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu mentions that after he was released Sun Jingde hosted a vegetarian feast to honour the vow he had made earlier (420b3,4). This information is missing in the Xu gaoseng zhuanversion, but is repeated in·a slightly modified form in the Ruijing lu version ("he hosted a vegetarian feast and welcomed the image, i.e., brought the

RUIJING LU 97

image to the place where the feast was held," 427b1). This evidence suggests that the Ruijing lu version was directly related to the version in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu rather than to the probably earlier Xu gaoseng zhuan version.

, (iii) Daoxuan probably used the "records such as the Qi zhi and the Jingyi ji," mentioned at the end of the version of the story in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, in preparing this longer version of the story. This version might well have been first written when he compiled the Xu gaoseng zhuan appendix to Sengming's biography. The "Qi shu" mentioned in the note found in the Ruijing lu version probably refers to· the Qi zhi in the longer note in the second fascicle version, and this might have been the principal source that Daoxuan used in compiling the longer Xu gaoseng zhuan / Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, second fascicle, version.

(iv) The ShijiaJangzhi version was also an abbreviated and revised version, prepared on yet another occasion, probably in the first year of the Yonghui period (750-751) when the Shijia fangzhi was compiled, assuming that the Xu gaoseng zhuan version already existed by then.41 There appears to be no direct relationship between the two shorter Shijia Jangzhi and Ruijing lu versions. The comment on many similar miracles, a distinctive feature of the Shijiafangzhi version, is missing from the Ruijing lu version.

In the Fayuan zhulin, the story appears twice: in the 14th fascicle, it appears in a form identical to the version in the image miracle section of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu; in this version, the note on the source, identical to the one in the image miracle section of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, is given in small characters at the end (38gc). In the 17th fascicle, a shorter version of the story is given; a note found at a later point in the collection states that this story was taken from the Xu gaoseng zhuan (411 bc). But this 17th fascicle version is in fact identical to the short version that is found in Daoxuan's Shijia Jangzhi, mentioned above. I t is a shorter version than that of the Xu gaoseng zhuan passage, though, as suggested above, the Shijia fangzhi version might well have been originally produced by abbreviating the Xu gaoseng zhuan account.

We have remarked that the note in the 14th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin on the source of Sun Jingde's story is given at the


end of the story in small characters. The miracle story sections . of the Fayuanzhulin generally give the sources of the stories in a note attached at the end of each story, and in smaller characters. Thus, it might be tempting to conclude that here the version in the 14th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is the original and that Daoxuan, in copying this material into the 2nd fascicle of his Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong Iu, neglected to give the source in smaller characters. There is, however, another, stronger consideration that points to a different conclusion. In the Fayuan zhuIin, these notes are usually given in a standard formula which uses the character chu ("to come from") in specifying the source. The notes generally read as "the above one [or more, according to the context] story comes from such and such source." The note on the Sun Jingde story in the 14th fascicle begins with a character jian (" [ this story] is found in") (Fayuan zhuIin, 389c24; ref., Ruijing Iu, 427cl; Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong Iu, 420b5). 42 The reference to the jingyi ji in the material associated with Zhizhan's biography examined above also was given in a note that begins with the character jian (Xu gaoseng zhuan, 686b14; Fayuan zhuIin, 418c4, 91Oa24). In the case of the stories given in Zhizhan's biography, we are relatively certain that the reference to the jingyi ji first appeared in the Xu gaoseng zhuan and then was copied into other versions, including the two passages in the Fayuan zhulin. Furthermore, in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Zhizhan, the reference to the jingyi ji is given in regular characters as the last sentence of the main text (686b14). In the two locations in the Fayuan zhuIin, i.e., in the 18th and 85th fascicles, the note on the jingyi ji is given in smaller characters. Daoshi must have taken a sentence in the main text of Daoxuan's Xu gaoseng zhuan biography and transformed it into notes on the source of the quoted passage that look very similar to other notes on sources that he composed elsewhere in the Fayuan zhulin. If this analysis is correct, then it was Daoxuan rather than Daoshi who first used the character jian in giving the sources for the story attached to Zhizhan's story. The use of the same character,jian, in the case of the Sun Jingde story suggests therefore that Daoxuan may have used this same character consistently in giving sources for the stories he collected and that it was again Daoxuan who was the original author of the source note mentioning the jingyi ji for the Sung Jingde story. 43

RUIJING LU 99

Sun Jingde's story probably existed in one more or less standardized form: the phraseology of the existing versions is remarkably similar, though they mention different sources. At the moment I am not able to determine what the titles Qi shu, and Qi zhirefer to, but the standardized version may well have been found in the Jingyi ji as well. In a more comprehensive review of the development of stories concerning the Gaowang guanshiyinjing, i.e., the scripture that is said to have been given to Sun Jingde and to have saved his life in the end, Makita Tairyo noted that it was Daoxuan who introduced the name SunJingde into this story and that this same story had existed by that time for roughly a hundred years as the story of an event that befell another, more prominent person44

It appears very likely, therefore, that it was Daoxuan who produced the earlier versions of the story about Sun Jingde. Daoshi copied the version of the story in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu when he compiled Sun Jingde's story in the 14th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. Daoshi seems to have copied the ShijiaJangzhi version of the story when he COII).

piled the story in the 17th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. As noted above, this Shijia Jangzhi version might originally have been prepared on the basis of the version found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Sengming. For a reason that is not clear, Daoshi gave the Xu gaoseng zhuan as the source of the story of Sun Jingde in the 17th fascicle version.

(c) The Sanbao gantong lu stories Earlier, I discussed briefly the stories about Daoji (no. 17),

Yisu (Ruijing lu no. 20), Shi Heshi (no. 21), and Tanyun (no. 23). These stories are ultimately all based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan, but they appear side by side in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, where their source is explicitly said to be the Sanbao gantong lu. The Fayuan zhulin contains other passages on the stories about Daoji (juan 64, 779b), Yisu and Shi Heshi (juan 85, 91Oc-911a). In both cases the source is explicitly said to be the Tang gaoseng zhuan.

The 64th fascicle story about Daoji is a slightly abbreviated and in places extensively reworded version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. In one place, the shorter version in the Ruijing lu and the 18th fascicle preserves the original wording of the Xu


gaoseng zhuan biography (shi bu fu chou, Fayuan zhulin, 421al1; Rui;jing lu, 427 cl9; Xu gaoseng zhuan, 687 c28), whereas the 64th fascicle version shows a number of revisions (shi bu chou huai

~ , 779b23, 24). This might constitute a small piece of evidence pointing to the conclusion that the shorter version in the Ruijing lu I 18th fascicle was prepared directly from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography.

The 85th fascicle story about Yisu and Shi Heshi is again an abbreviated version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Yisu. The beginning section of Yisu's Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, reproduced in an abbreviated form in the Ruijing lui 18th fascicle version of this story, is entirely missing from the 85th fascicle version. This indicates that the Rui:jing lui 18th fascicle version could not have been prepared on the basis of the abbreviated version in the 85th fascicle. It was, again, prepared directly from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography.

To summarize the relationship between the Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin parallels examined so far, in eight out of the nine cases examined, I arrived at the conclusion that the Fayuan zhulin parallels which can be shown to be directly related to the Ruijing lu stories were copied from the Ruijing lu: the stories about Zhizhan (no. 11), the anonymous monkofthe Wuhousi temple (no. 12), the lips and tongue dug out from the ground at Mt. Dongkan (no. 13), and the eunuch who grew a beard (no. 14) use the expression hou ("later") instead of the usual you ("and"); the Fayuan zhulin parallels to the Ruijing lu stories about Daoji (no. 17), Yisu (no. 20), Shi Heshi (no. 21), and Tanyun (no. 23) state explicitly thatthey are based on the Sanbao gantong lu. In one case, that of the story about Sun Jingde (no. 9), a closer examination indicated that the Ruijing lu version was a rather independent, and probably late version, not directly related to either one of the two Fayuan zhulin versions.

(d) Other parallels The evidence is more complicated in the remaining three

Xu gaoseng zhuan stories in the Ruijing lu. Baogui's story (Ruijing lu no. 18) appears in the 55th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (709b), where it is said to have been taken from the Tang gaoseng zhuan. This Fayuan zhulin story about Baogui is in fact an abbreviated and slightly reworded version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan

RUIJING LU 101

versIon. The Ruijing lu story about Baogui is an even shorter version, but it contains phrases that clearly go back to the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography (e.g., wu tafangshu, 427c22 [Xugaoseng zhuan, 688a12], bushizhe zhong, 427c24 [Xu gaoseng zhuan, 688a21 J) which are not found in the longer version in the 55th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. Thus, the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin stories on Baogui appear to have been independently abbreviated from the common original Xu gaoseng zhuan biography ..

Kongzang's story (Rufjing lu no. 19) appears twice in the Fayuanzhulin. Both thatinjuan63 (766a) andjuan85 (91Oc-911a) are said to have been based on the Tang gaoseng zhuan. The 63rd . fascicle version is virtually identical to the Ruijing lu story, though it is slightly more detailed toward the end. One phrase in the 63rd fascicle story preserves the phraseology in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, and thus suggests that the 63rd fascicle version might be the original copied by Daoxuan into the Ruijing lU. 45 This evidence is rather fragmentary, and in itself it is perhaps not quite sufficient to support this conclusion firmly. But the Ruijing lu version of the story. does not specify its source, and therefore, as I suggested at the outset of my discussion, it is unlikely to have served as the source for its Fayuan zhulin parallel (in this case the passage in the 63rd fascicle), which specifies the source correctly as the Tang gaoseng zhuan. Since the version in the 63rd fascicle and the Ruijing lu version are very similar, and both are drastically abbreviated versions of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, we may conclude that the 63rd fascicle version was the earlier version that was copied by Daoxuan with minor revisions into the Ruijing lu.

The 85th fascicle passage on Kongzang is also an abbreviation of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. Interestingly, this passage focuses on the part of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography that was not excerpted in the parallel versions in the Ruijing lu and the 63rd fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. This 85th fascicle passage on Kongzang appears as the first part of a clearly marked unit of stories, which along with three preceding stories about monks is said to have been taken from the Xu gaoseng zhuan. Within this clearly marked unit, Kongzang's story is immediately followed by the stories about Yisu and Shi Heshi (nos. 20 and 21). We have noted that the Yisu and Shi Heshi passages in the 85th fascicle appear to be independently excerpted from

I'i , , , ,


the Xu gaoseng zhuan and not directly related to the 18th fascicle version directly copied from the Ruijing lu. Thus, none of the three stories about Kongzang, Yisu, and Shi Heshi in the 85th fascicle appears to be directly related to the Ruijing lu. The Corresponding section of the Xu gaoseng zhuan (juan 28, 689b-690b) contains the biographies of Kongzang, Huiquan, and Yisu (with an appendix that includes the story of Shi Heshi). Thus, the sections in the Ruijing lu and the 85th fascicle that contains the materials on Kongzang, Yisu and Shi Heshi may have been independently based on this Xu gaoseng zhuan passage. This would explain why the stories about Kongzang, Yisu, and Shi Heshi appear side by side in the Ruijing lu and again appear side by side in the same order in the 85th fascicle. 46

The Ruijing lu story about Tanyan (no. 26) centers around a miracle story: upon Tanyan's request, brilliant light appeared from both ends of the shaft of the scroll on which the Nirval]a Siitra was copied and from the large relic stiipa, and the light reached the sky, illuminating everywhere in the four directions; both monks and laymen everywliere around the temple thought that a fire had started at the temple and came running in great panic, only to realize their mistake upon arrival.

The story about Tanyan appears in the 24th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (467 c), and his biography is found in the eighth fascicle of the Xu gaoseng zhuan ("exegetes" section, 488a-489c). The Fayuan zhulin story is obviously an excerpt from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography (488a3-5, a25-blO, 489b14-l6), and both the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography and the Fayuan zhulin story lack one detail of the story, that people mistook the miraculous light for fire in the temple. There may have been some direct relationship between the Ruijing lu and the Xu gaoseng zhuan/ Fayuan zhulin versions, but the phraseology of these two versions is significantly different. Thus, the Fayuan zhulin could not have been based on the Ruijing lu version. Since the Ruijing lu version tells the story about the miraculous light differently, it might have been directly based on a different source that is mentioned in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, i.e., Lii Shuding's inscription or the Bie zhuan biography (489b29, c25). If this happens to be the case, though the parallel Fayuan zhulin story was based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, the Ruijing lu story would have been prepared independently from an earlier source.

RUIJING LU 103

If this is so, the Ruijing lu story about Tanyan would not have been based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, and we must consider this case as not belonging to the group of stories in the Ruijing lu that are based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biographies, and which constitute the subject of the present investigation.

In summary, the Ruijing lu contains twelve stories that are closely related to the Xu gaoseng zhuan biographies. In eight cases, the stories about Sun Jingde (no. 9), Zhizhan (no. 11), the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi temple (no. 12), the lips and tongue dug out from the ground at Mt. Dongkan (no. 13), the eunuch who grew a beard (no. 14), Daoji (no. 17), Yisu (no. 20), Shi Heshi (no. 21), and Tanyun (no. 23), the Ruijing lu appears to have been the source for the corresponding Fayuan zhulin stories; in one case, the story of Kongzang, the Fayuan zhulin story in the 63rd fascicle appears to have been the original that was copied by Daoxuan into the Ruijing lu; in two cases, the stories about Sun Jingde, and Baogui, the Fayuan zhulin stories do not appear to have any direct relationship with the Ruijing lu; the situation is rather unclear in one case, that ofTanyan, but here again the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions were prepared independently of each other, and the Ruijing lu story was based at least partly on sources other than the Xu gaoseng zhuan.

This detailed examination of the materials in the Ruijing lu that are ultimately based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biographies shows again that the main part of these stories was taken from· the "reciters of scripture" section of that collection, and that the majority, though not all, ofthese Ruijing lu stories were first prepared by Daoxuan on the basis of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biographies that he had himself compiled earlier. In these cases the Ruijing lu story first prepared by Daoxuan was later copied by Daoshi into the Fayuan zhulin .

. 5. The Mingbao ji stories

The third major source for the stories collected in the Ruijing lu is the Mingbaoji, completed by Tang Lin (?600-659?) sometime between the years 653 and 655. 47 Tang Lin, a high government official who presumably was also a devout lay Buddhist, compiled this collection of miracle stories by collecting a large

104 jIABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

number of stories that circulated as oral stories during his life . time.48 The title of this collection and its preface indicate that Tan Lin collected these stories in order to show how karmic retributions work. 49 Thus, Mingbaoji is a very different kind of work from the Gaoseng zhuan and the Xu gaoseng zhuan mentioned above, and Daoxuan's reliance on this source needs to be carefully taken into account in evaluating the nature of the Ruijing lu.

Ruijing lu stories nos. 24, 25, 27-35 appear to have been taken from this source. .

Ruijing lu story no. 24 is about the monk Sengche, and the Fayuan zhulin contains an identical story in the 95th fascicle (989bc), where the source of the story is given as the Mingbao shiyi, Lang Yuling's collection that was probably completed around 663.50 The significance of the Fayuan zhulin's reference to the Mingbao shiyi is not entirely clear. It is possible that the Fayuan zhulin was mistaken in this attribution. A longer version of this story is found in the Taisho edition version of the Mingbao ji (788c-789a).51 In his reconstruction of the original Mingbao ji,52 Gjertson lists it as the third story. It is also possible, however, that the version of the Sengche story reproduced in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin was in fact taken from the Mingbao shiyi. As Gjertson explains in some detail, the Mingbao shiyi often took stories that were found in the Mingbao ji, recapitulating their contents and adding further details to them. 53 Since the Mingbao shiyi is no longer extant in its entirety, we cannot investigate this possibility any further; Sengche's story is not found among the list of Mingbao shiyi fragments collected by Cen Zhongmian. 54

.The story about the nun from Hedong, "who was diligent in practice" (Ruijing lu, no. 25) is also found in the 27th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (486c), where the source of the story is said to be the Mingbao ji. The Fayuan zhulin version is identical to the Mingbao ji text reproduced in the Taisho collection (789ab), except for the beginning and the end. In the Taisho Mingbao ji, Tang Lin explains that he heard the story from the monk Faduan, the other principal figure in the story, and adds a note saying that he had forgotten the name of the nun. The Fayuan zhulin passage begins by naming the nun as Faxin, and ends with two lines commenting generally on the miraculous effects

RUIJING LU 105

f copying scriptures. These lines are not found in the Taisho Mingbao ji text, and thus appear to ~ave been ~dded by Daoshi, along with the name of the nun whIch Tang Lm had forgotten, when he copied the story from the Mingbao ji. 55 The Ruijing lu version is an abbreviated version, which does not mention the name of the nun Faxin, and ends with a note that says that Tang Lin himself told the story. This Ruijing lu version appears to be related directly to the Mingbao ji passage, and not copied from the corresponding passage in the Fayuan zhulin. Gjertson lists this story as the 4th story in his reconstruction. 56

The Fayuan zhulin does not contain any story about Daosun that corresponds to the story about this monk in the Ruijing lu (no. 27). A story about this monk is found in the Taisho text of theMingbaoji (789b). Gjerston lists Daosun's as the 5th story. 57

Daosun's biography is included in Daoxuan's Xu gaoseng zhuan Uuan 14 ["exegetes" section], 532c-533a). Though there are frequent differences in phraseology, for the most part the Rui-jing lu story parallels the Mingbao ji story. The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography is a good deal longer, and in one passage tells what appears to be an entirely different version of the Ruijing lui Mingbao ji story (533b8-23). Thus, there is little doubt that

. Daoxuan compiled the Ruijing lu version of this story on the basis of the Mingbaoji story.

The Ruijing lu story about Zhiyuan (no. 28) gives basically the same account as the Zhiyuan story in the Fayuan zhulin Uuan 18, 420c-421 a). The Fayuan zhulin story gives its source as the Mingbao ji, and the corresponding passage in the Taisho Mingbao ji text (789c) is virtually identical to the Fayuan zhulin excerpt. The Ruijing lu version appears to have been an

. abbreviated summary of the Mingbao ji story. Gjerston lists Zhiyuan's story as the 7th.58

Van Gong's story in the Ruijing lu (no. 29) describes him as a man of the Jiangzhou Prefecture. The 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin contains a story about Van Gong of the Yangzhou Prefecture, which it says has been taken from the Mingbao ji. The Mingbao ji story about Van Gong in the Taisho collection (790bc) also describes the man as Van Gong of the Yangzhou Prefecture. The Fayuan zhulin passage is a slightly modified copy of this Mingbao ji story. The main body of this Mingbao ji story is about a strange experience that Van Gong and his par-


ents had: Van Gong went to Yangzhou on a boat with 50,000 . pieces of money that his parents had given him. He bought from the captain of another boat fifty large turtles that had been destined to be sold at the market and killed. Van Gong then set the turtles free. Later, the boat of the captain who sold the turtles sank, and the captain was killed. On the same day, fifty guests, all dressed in black, appeared at the home ofYan Gong's parents and gave back the 50,000 pieces of money. Upon Van Gong's return, everyone realized that the fifty guests were in fact the large turtles that Van Gong had set free. It is then said that Yan Gong and his parents moved to Yangzhou, built a temple (jingshe) and concentrated on copying the Lotus Siitra. The family prospered, and the building was expanded. A large number of scribes worked for them. Several short stories then follow. Gjerston lists this story as the 11 th story in the reconstructed Mingbao ji. 59

The Ruijing lu story about Van Gong tells three of the stories told in the last part of this Mingbaoji story, i.e., the story about the 10,000 pieces of money reluctantly loaned to someone and mysteriously returned following a shipwreck; the story about the dream in which the god of the Gongting hu (Gong hu) lake returned the offerings of a merchant, telling him to present them to Yan Gong to cover the costs of copying the scripture; and the story about the 3,000 pieces of money presented to Van Gong by an apparition when Van Gong found himself'short of money for buying paper. Another story then follows, which describes how a fisherman who saw a floating flame in the river and went to welcome it on a boat found a box containing a scripture copied by the Van family. This story is not found in the Mingbao ji story, neither in the original text nor in the Fayuan zhulin copy of the story in the 18th fascicle. Since the Ruijing lu was a collection of stories about scripture miracles, it is understandable why Daoxuan, when he prepared his entry on Van Gong, chose to drop the long story at the beginning and concentrated on the stories that were related to the Van family's business of copying scriptures. The story about the fisherman, not found in the Mingbao ji version, suggests that Daoxuan used additional sources in preparing his Ruijing lu story on Van Gong. The description ofYan Gong as a man of Jiangzhou may also come from a source other than the Mingbao ji.

RUIJING LU lO7

The Fayuan zhulin story about Li Shanlong (juan 20, 436abc) that corresponds to Ruijing lu story no. 30 gives its source as the Mingbao ji. The Taisho edition of the Mingbao ji contains the Li Shanlongstory (795c-796b), and the comparison of the Fayuan zhulin and the Mingbao ji passages indicates that the Fayuan zhulin passage is in fact a copy of the Mingbao ji story. The Ruijing lu story is an abbreviated version of the Mingbao ji story. Gj erston lists the Li Shanlong story as the 29th story in his reconstructed Mingbao ji. 60

Ruijing lu story no. 31 is about Li Siyi. The story about Li Siyi does not appear in the Kozanji manuscript of the Mingbao ji, reproduced in the Taisho collection, but according to Gjertson it appears in the Maeda manuscript, the other of the four known manuscripts of this work that is relatively easily accessible to scholars. 61 Consequently, Gj ertson lists this story as story A in his reconstructed Mingbao ji. 62

The Ruijing lu story describes Li Siyi's experience in the realm of the dead, and gives the date of this incident as the first month of the 20th year of the Zhenguan period (646). The Fayuan zhulin, juan 91 (p. 938), records a story about Li Siyi which is said to have been quoted from the Mingbao shiyi. The incident reported here occurred in the fifth month of the third

. year ofYonghui (654). At the beginning of this story in the Ruijing lu, it is said that what Li Siyi reported after the first time he was revived from death, in the first month of the 20th year of Zhenguan, is found in the Mingbao ji. Since the date ofthe incident in the Ruijing lu passage and this reference to the Mingbao

. ji story agree, there is little doubt that the original Mingbao ji contained a story about Li Siyi, and that Daoxuan must have taken his Ruijing lu story from that source. In a typical fashion described by Gjertson, the Mingbao shiyi appears to have supplemented this Mingbao ji story by reporting what happened Li Siyi later, and it was this later Mingbao shiyi story that was reproduced by Daoshi in the Fayuan zhulin.

The story about Lady Doulu in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (421 c) is a longer version of Ruijing lu story no. 29. The Fayuan zhulin version gives its source as the Mingbao ji. The story appears in the Mingbao ji text reproduced in the Taisho collection (795bc). There is, however, one revealing difference between the Fayuan zhulin version and the Mingbao ji text repro-


duced in the Taisho collection: the Mingbao ji at the end states . that the subject, aged 80, was still alive at the time the record is made (between 653-655) and that Tang Lin heard the story from Lady Doulu herself; the Fayuan zhulin states that the subject died at the age of 80. Lady Doulu probably told this story to Tang Lin when she was 80 years old, and she died in the same year; Daoshi must have copied the story from the Mingbao ji after Lady Doulu passed away, and since the story mentions that her younger brother Lord Rui predicted on his death bed that Lady Doulu would live until the age of 100, Daoshi might have felt obliged to mention the fact that she died sooner, at age 80. Here again Daoshi appears to have added a new detail to the Mingbao ji passage in his characteristic fashion, and Gjertson mentions this as a good example of this practice. 63 The Ruijing lu version is an abbreviation of the Mingbao ji / Fayuan zhulin story. Neither the statement that Lady Doulu is still alive (Mingbao ji) nor that she died at age 80 (Fayuan zhulin) appears in the Ruijing lu passage, and thus we cannot determine whether the Ruijing lu was copied from the Mingbao ji directly, or from the revised Fayuan zhulin copy. Gjertson lists this story as no. 28. 64

A longer version of the Ruijing lu story about Cen Wenben (no. 33) is found in the Fayuan zhulin,juan 56 (712c-713a), and its source is given there as the Mingbao ji. The version of the story found in the Mingbaoji text in the Taisho collection (795a) is virtually identical to the Fayuan zhulin version, which must have been copied from it. The Ruijing lu gives an abbreviated version of the Mingbao ji story. Gjertson lists this story as the 25th story in his reconstructed Mingbao ji. 65

The story about the maid servant seen by Su Chang (Rui-jing lu, no. 34) is found in a fuller version in the Fayuan zhulin (juan 18, 421c), which gives the source as the Mingbaoji. The Taisho edition of the Mingbaoji reproduces the same story twice (794b and 795a), with slight differences in phraseology and content. Some mistake must have occurred in the transmission of the version of the Mingbao ji that survived in the Kozanji manuscript. The statement that the box containing the Lotus Scripture became wet outside but remained dry inside (after it had drifted in turbulent waters, being held on her head by the pious maid servant) appears only in the second passage in the Taisho text. This point is made both in the Fayuan zhulin and

RUIJING LU 109

(Fz the Ruijing lu versions. The original Mingbao ji version of this

'.story must have mentioned this point, and both the Fayuan zhu:lin and the Ruijing lu versions must have copied it from there.

:::;'" The Ruijing lu story about Dong Xiong (no. 35) is virtually ::,identical to the Fayuan zhulin version of the same story Uuan 27, ;:.485ab), which gives its source as the Mingbao shiyi. The Taish6 :{:~dition of the Mingbao ji contains a version of the same story :/(794c-795a), . but this Mi~gbao ji version is some~h.at more "detailed and IS accompamed by a long note explammg how 'il'ang Lin, the compiler of the Mingbao ji, first heard about it ,Tfrom Li Jingxuan and then confirmed the story by speaking to j:,'Dong Xiong himself. Gjertson lists this story as no. 24 in his ~~ . ~ . r,::reconstructlOn. : As I noted in earlier similar cases, the Dong Xiong story, : 'which appeared in the Mingbao ji, might have appeared in an '~:;abbreviated version in the Mingbao shiyi as well, and it is possi:~1ble that it was this abbreviated version that was copied by Daoi::kuan and Daoshi into the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin. In the ~~!present case, however, since the Ruijing lui Fayuan zhulin version ;;:1adds no further details, and even though it is clearly an 1:r~bbreviated version of the Mingbao ji original, and preserves ~r:the original phraseology faithfully in the unabbreviated sec;t~tions, it is also possible, and perhaps more likely, that the note ({in the Fayuan zhulin, giving the source of the story as the Ming:,:>bao shiyi, was a mistake. This would mean that the Ruijing lui ;:;Fayuan zhulin passage was tak~n directly from the Mingbao ji. If :';rhis was the case, the Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin versions, :':which are abbreviations of a single source and ate virtually f:>identical with each other, must have been directly related to lI~each other. . : Furthermore, one minor difference between the Ruijing lu

frand Fayuan zhulin versions enables us to determine that the Rui(~Jing lu must have been dependent on the Fayuan zhulin. The :(;:story of Dong Xiong centers around a miracle. An Assistant :jMinister of the Court of Judicial Review, Dong Xiong, who ~;cwas involved in an incident that angered the Emperor greatly, :i~:was chained and placed in the same room as fellow prisoners ~;Li Jingxuan, another Assistant Minister of the Court of Judi:tcial Review, and Rectification Clerk Wang Xin. He had recited ;!~!the Pumen chapter of the Lotus Siltra three thousand times, and '<c'


when he was reciting the siitra in the middle of the night, his chains spontaneously fell to the ground. 57 Investigating Censor Zhang Shouyi, who was spending the night in official quarters that night, was amazed, and having chained Dong Xiong and locked the chain, he sealed the lock with .a paper. 58 But Dong Xiong recited the siitra until five 0' clock in the morning, and the chain fell to the ground again. Dong Xiong was afraid, and he informed his fellow prisoners of what had happened. In the Mingbao ji text in the Taisho collection, a somewhat obscure sentence follows here; it probably means that the fellow prisoners said that they should not report anything to the jail officers, and when they looked together after dawn, they discovered the lock and the chain on the ground, separated from each other. The lock was still closed and the paper seal unbroken. The Corresponding passage in the Fayuan zhulin is, if anything, even more obscure, but it appears to indicate that his fellow prisoners told Li Jingxuan about what had happened and Li discovered that the lock had been opened without breaking the paper seal. 69 In the corresponding passage in the Ruijing lu, Dong Xiong and his fellow prisoners are said to have told Zhang Shouyi about the miracle in the morning, and it is Zhang Shouyi who is said to have seen that the lock had been opened without breaking the seal. The meaning of the passage appears to have been changed dramatically: in the kIingbao ji, the fellow prisoners did not wish the official to know about the second miracle; in the Ruijing lu, the miracle was confirmed by the official himself. I am inclined to believe that Daoxuan emended the rather obscure passage in the Fayuan zhulin (or possibly in the Mingbao shiyi summary copied faithfully by Daoshi into the Fayuan zhulin) and that he could not have been aware of the original Mingbao ji passage at this point, since, if he had he known the original passage, it seems unlikely that he would have changed the meaning into its opposite at this point. This would mean that it was either Daoshi or the compiler of the Mingbao shiyi who first abbreviated the Mingbao ji story, and that Daoxuan then revised Daoshi's abbreviated version slightly in producing his Ruijing lu version.

This review of the Ruijing lu materials drawn from the Mingbao ji shows that in six out of a total of the eleven cases, the Fayuan zhulin version, identical or very similar to the Ming-

'RVI]ING LV III

~~~?J~':< ~~it'baoji original, appears in an abbreviated form i~ the Ruijing lu: ~;p;;;siories about the nun from Hedong (no. 25), Zhlyuan (no. 28), ;}Eti Shi:wlong (no. 30), Lady Doulu (no. 32), Cen Wenben (no. ;~:j:~33), and Su C~ang (no. 34). Gen~~~lly speak~ng, it is not possi&;;"ble to dete.rmme whether the RU1Jzng lu verSIOn was based on .Li-he Mingbao ji original or the materials collected for compiling ;f:~the Fayuan zhulin. But we noted in examining the story about the M,{~un from Hedong that the Fayuan zhulin version gives the name "t~iofthe nun which Tang Linhad forgotten, and lacks the note in ;I::,fhe Mingbao ji that explains the origin of this story; the Rujing lu g~;passage does n~t .mention the name of the nun, but ends with a ~;:tri()te on the ongm that appears to have been related to the .,';J'Mingbao ji passage. The story of this nun in the Ruijing lu thus W'a.ppears to have been directly based on the Mingbao ji version. ~,,' In one case, the Ruijing lu passage appears to be dependent ;';'~;bn the Mingbao jil Fayuan zhulin version, but it also appears to ;~;;:have had other sources. The Van Gong story in the Ruijing lit 1~'~{no. 29) contains materia.ls paralleling sections of the Mingbao ;~(ji passage on Van Gong, which in turn is reproduced more or ~~~Jless faithfully in the Fayuan zhulin, but it describes Van Gong as ;~~{rman of Jiangzhou, and not as a man ofYangzhou, as in the ~~Mingbao ji I Fayuan zhulin version, and it also contains additional ~0~;details toward the end. !I~f In two cases, the Fayuan zhulin does not contain a story corf(i(}responding to the Ruijing lu, and only a direct comparison with ~;the Mingbao ji story shows that the Ruijing lu stories were taken [<;from that source. Thus, Daoxuan must have copied the Ruijing ;i{s'Zustory of Daosun. (no. 27) directly from the Mingbao ji; he did (It). so also in the case of Li Siyi, while Daoshi copied his story ,;~I;,apQut Li Siyi from the Mingbao shiyi. 3,:;" In two cases, the stories about Sengche and Dong Xiong :~;,:{Ruijing lu nos. 24 and 35), the Ruijing lu stories are virtually W~identical to the Fayuan zhulin version, which gives the source as H,~heMingbao shiyi. The same stories are found in a, more detailed Jt~~(orm in the Mingbao ji. We cannot determine whether (I) the ;~~versions of the story common to the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan 1,:Ji-r:.hulin were based on summaries of the original Mingbao ji ~~stories that were found in the Mingbao shiyi, or (2) the attribu-2}ri.!ion to the Mingbao shiyi is mistaken, and the common versions ;~i:in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin were directly related to ;~;~"'~':i-;'«;'iJ~._


each other. In either event, we were able to determine that in the case of Dong Xiong's story the Ruijing lu story was depen_ dent on the Fayuan zhulin version (which might be reproducing the Mingbao shiyi summary faithfully), and not vice versa.

Four of the eleven stories under examination here appear in the lSth fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin: the stories about Zhiyuan (no. 2S), Van Gong (29), Lady Doulu (32), and Su Chang's maid servant (34). In the case of three of these stories (nos. 2S, 32, and 34), the Ruijing lu version of the story is abbreviated from the longer version in the Fayuan zhulin and the Mingbao ji in the Taisho collection. In one case (no. 29), the Ruijing lu version reproduces a part of the longer version in the corresponding Mingbao ji / Fayuan zhulin version, but contains other materials that must have been taken from another source. In the case of these stories, Daoxuan could have taken his material for the Ruijing lu from the lSth fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, or its earlier draft, abbreviated them, and in the case of the Van Gong's story, added further material taken from elsewhere. It is also possible that both the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin (fascicle IS) were independently based on the Mingbao ji original: the Ruijing lu version was abbreviated (and expanded in other ways with other materials in the case of the story about Van Gong [no. 29]), and the Fayuan zhulin was not.

Two stories, those about the nun from Hedong and Dong Xiong, appear in the 27th fascicle. We have noted that the Ruijing lu story about the nun from Hedong appears to have been copied directly from the Mingbao ji, and not made from its revised Fayuan zhulin copy. The Ruijing lu story about Dong Xiong appears to have been copied either from the Fayuan zhulin version, or from the Mingbao shiyi version, which the Fayuan zhulin passage gives as its source. In this case, therefore, the evidence is somewhat contradictory, and does not point to any close relationship between the Ruijing lu and the 27th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin.

Parallels to the other four stories, whose ultimate origin can be traced to the Mingbao ji through their Fayuan zhulin versions, are scattered in different fascicles: the Li Shanlong story (no. 30) is found in the 20th fascicle; the Cen Wenben story (no. 33) in the 56th fascicle; Li Siyi story (no. 31) is referred to

RUIJING LU 113

briefly in the Fayuan zhulin excerpt from the Mingbao shiyi in the 91st fascicle; and the Sengche story (no. 24) is found in the 95th fascicle.

The accounts in the Mingbao Ji are of particular interest to US because the origins of these stories, in many cases oral statements by the parties directly involved in them, are indicated carefully at the end of the stories. Many of the incidents recounted in these stories had taken place relatively recently, and stories often mention dates from the Zhenguan period: the story about the nun from Hedong (no. 25) mentions the second year (628-629), the Daosun story (no. 27) mentions the fourth year (630-631), the Z~iy~~n story (no. 28) men~ions the 13th year (639-640), the LI SIYI story (no. 31) mentIOns the 20th year (646-647), and the Dong Xiong story (no. 35) speaks of the "Zhenguan period." This part of the Ruijing lu, along with the material to be reviewed below, gives the Ruijing lu a very distinctive character.

6. Contemporary stories

The last two stories of the Ruijing lu (nos. 37 and 38) both bear dates that are close to the date given for the completion of the text: the story about a descendant of Gao Biaoren (no. 37) begins with the date of the 27th day of the first month of the third year of Longsu (February 27, 663); the story about Cui Yiqi (no. 38) with that of the 20th day of the sixth month of the same year (July 30, 663). Story no. 38 also mentions the even .more recent date of the first month of the first year of Linde (664). The colophon attached to theJi shenzhou sanbao gantong lu (435b) gives the date of the compilation ofthe work as the 20th day of the sixth month of the first year of Linde (July 18, 664).

I noted above that a version of the Ruijing lu-which according to Daoxuan's note appears to have been completed earlier, by the first month of the fourth year of Longsu (which is the same year as the first year of Linde) -constitutes the last section of Daoxuan's catalogue of Buddhist works, the Datang neidian lu. In general, the two versions of this same collection in the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu and the Datang neidian lu are


very close to each other, but rather significantly, story no. 38 . J

the last story in the Ruijing lu, is missing in the Datang neidian lu version of the collection. 70 Obviously, story no. 38, which describes an incident that took place during the vegetarian feast at the residence of General Xie in the first month of the first year of Linde (664), was not available to Daoxuan when he was completing his compilation of the Datang neidian lu, in the same month. Daoxuan then seems to have augmented his text later in the sixth month of the same year when he compiled the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu and included the Ruijing lu in the third fascicle ofthat work.

A variant and longer version of these stories is included in the Foyuan zhulin. The note at the end of the Fayuan zhulin version of Gao Fayan's story (no. 37) indicates that the story was widely known at the time. 71 The note at the end of the story about Cui Yiqi's wife, the daughter of Xiao Keng, indicates the location of the residence, and states that Daoshi visited the place and observed the articles used by the maid servant, who could recite three scriptures (The Diamond, Bhai{ajyaguru, and Lotus sutras) in Sanskrit (912a26, 27).

No literary sources are given for these two stories in the Foyuan zhulin, and. their location at the very end of the Ruijing lu probqbly indicates that they were supplementary material added to a work that was for the most part based on well-known literary sources. Daoxuan probably took two familiar contemporary stories of scripture miracles and added them one by one to his collection, possibly by summarizing easily available (and perhaps oral) versions of the stories in question. He may have understood this practice, moreover, as a continuation of Tang Lin's Mingbaoji project: as we saw above, Tang Lin had recorded many miracle stories that he had heard directly himself. Many of these stories, widely known among pious contemporary Buddhists, were incorporated into the Ruijing lu and the Foyuan zhulin. In incorporating the two stories under examination here into the Foyuan zhulin, Daoshi used different longer versions, a fact that may be interpreted as evidence of the fluid condition of the stories, which must have been easily available in different forms to these compilers.

RUIJING LU 115

'6. Summary and Concluding Remarks: The Fayuan zhulin parallels. :¥".

,"We have examined the Fqyuan zhulin ~arallels to the Ruijing lu ;'n order to reconstruct as far as possIble the process through .;~hich Daoxuan compiled ~he Ruijing .lu. This same analysis, however, also throws some hght on a dIfferent but related quesition: how did Daoshi, the compiler of the Fqyuan zhulin, use the 'Ruijing lu material in compiling his encyclopedia? If, for exam,pie, the same stor~ is giv~n in the sa~e ~orm in the Ruijing lu and the Fqyuan zhulzn, and If that form IS dIfferent from the form ',in which the story is told in the source identified in the Fqyuan fzhulin, we might conclude that, in compiling the Fqyuan zhulin :'version of the story, Daoshi copied directly from the Ruijing lu, "and not from the source identified in the Fayuan zhulin passage. lilE on the other hand, the Fqyuan zhulin version is identical or ;d~ser to the form in which the story is told in the source the );passa~e iden.tifies, an~. different from th~ form in whic~ th.e ,story IS told III the RU1Jzng lu, then Daoshl must have copIed It 'f(or abbreviated it) directly from the source identified in the {passage. With this slightly different focus, let me review briefly :%e analysis we have conducted above.

;j) In many cases, the text of the parallel stories in the Fqyuan fzhulin is closer to the Ruijing lu text than to the version given in i'llie sources that the Fqyuan zhulin passage identifies: :'ii no. 1, Tan Wujie story. The Ruijing lu and Fqyuan zhulin ,:versions are identical, but they give different sources for the .:passage. •...... no. 2, Dao'an story. The Ruijing lu and Fqyuan zhulin versions :are identical. This is particularly significant, since they are both based on one small section of the Gaoseng zhuan biography, ,~nd it is highly unlikely that the Ruijing lu and the Fqyuan zhulin excerpted this passage from a long biography independently.

;~!. no. 3, Sengsheng story. The Fqyuan zhulin text is corrupt, b.ut·the contents are the same as the longer Gaoseng zhuan versJOn.

,.:~ no. 7, Huijing story. It is possible that both the Ruijing lu 'i~nd the Fqyuan zhulin versions are based directly on the ?lingxiang ji, but more likely that the Fqyuan zhulin version is :£9pied from the Ruijing lu.


no. 8, Hongming story. The version in the 94th fascicle of the Fayuan zhu lin is an exact copy of the Ruijing lzl version.

no. 11, Zhizhan story. The Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin (18th fascicle) versions are identical. This is significant because the text is an abbreviated version of the original Xu gaoseng zhuan biography, which appears elsewhere in Fayuan zhulin, 85th fascicle, in a differently abbreviated form.

nos. 12-14, stories about the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi temple, the lips and the tongue dug out at M t. Dongkan, and the eunuch of Wei who grew a beard. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan 18) passages are identical. The use of the conjunction hou in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin indicates that this version was copied from the Ruijing lu version.

no. 15, the story about the scripture coming down from the sky during the persecution of Buddhism under Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou dynasty. The same text is fou~d both in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin (juan 419b), but neither passage identifies the source. This story is not found in the version of the Ruijing lu in the Datang neidian lu.

no. 16, the story about an anonymous monk in Yangzhou. The same story appears in both the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin Uuan 18. 419c-420a). The Fayuan zhulin passage gives the source of this story and that of the story that appears immediately after it as the "Tang gaoseng zhuan" (420b 1), but the corresponding passage is not found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan. There appears to be a mistake in the Fayuan zhulin note, and the source of this story is unknown.

no. 17, Daoji story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan 18) versions are identical, and both are based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan, though the phraseology there is different. The Fayuan zhulin, juan 64, gives a longer version of the same story, which reproduces the Xu gaoseng zhuan original more faithfully.

no. 19, Kongzang story. The RuiJing lu and the Fayuan zhulin (juan 63) versions are nearly identical, and there are some reasons to suspect that the Fayuan zhulin (juan 63) version might have been the original that was copied into the Ruijing lu. This common version had been abbreviated from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. Another part of this Xu gaoseng zhuan biography was excerpted into the 85th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, but this version appears to be entirely unrelated to the Ruijing lu.

RUIJING LV 117

i~H<·:' ~';i no. 20, Yisu story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan 18) J':~ersions are identical. A slightly different version appears in ;;cB5th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. All these versions are based :F~n the Xu gaoseng zhuan, but the phraseology there is different J;,Jrom that of the parallel text in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan ffthulin (juan 18). ~~i' no. 21, Shi Heshi story. The Ruijing lu and Fajuan zhulin rUuan 18) versions are identical, and this common ve~sion is ~,ibased on the Xu gaoseng zhuan, though the phraseology IS often ~Ldifferent there. The Fayuan zhulin 85th fascicle version is the Dsame story with different phraseology. It is closer to the Xu gao-'Is>::,.:". •

~;~seng zhuan verSIOn. 1," no. 22, Linghu Yuangui story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan '~;i~iiulin (juan 18) versions are identical. As I discussed in some ~~:detail in a long note above (note 15), the source of this story ap~;pears to have been an oral report by Shentai, who was the chief jii~administrator (sizhu ) of the Ximingsi temple. :~i" no. 23, Tanyun story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan ~~!8) versions are identical, and this common ve~sion is b~sed on rlthe Xu gaoseng zhuan, though the phraseology IS often dIfferent [f~there. There is a related note in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan i"zhulin, which states explicitly that in the eleventh year of the :litZhenguan period (637-638) Daoxuan saw the miraculous r~~cripture, copied by a supernatural being. ~;i,r no. 24, Sengche story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan ~;95) versions are identical, but the original version in the Ming(thao ji is longer. ;l!~" no. 35, Dong Xiong story. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin :LUuan 95) versions are identical, and this common version is r;;pased on the Mingbao ji, which contains a slightly different ver-;,t:;··' ~ision of the story. ~':~: no. 36, the story about the Diamond Siitra written in the ;f~~kyin Yizhou. The Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin (juan 18) ver~~sions are identical. The source of this common version of the i,~tory is not known. fi~~!·? ~:ti) In some cases, the Fayuan zhulin parallels are closer to the ~~iources they mention than to the Ruijing lu versions: ~r~ no. 4, Daojiong story. The Fayuan zhulin gives three stories ~}~bout this monk, one in the 17th fascicle, which is said to be ~;i'?:

I,


based on the }.4ingxiangji, another in the 35th fascicle, which is based on the Gaoseng zhuan biography, and the third in the 65th fascicle, the source of which is not identified. The Gaoseng zhuan biography of this monk appears to be 'based on the stories in the 17th and 65th fascicles, and the Ruijing lu excerpt is based on the Gaoseng zhuan biography. The Fayuan zhulin passages on this monk could not have been based on the Rziijing lu.

no. 5, Puming story. Both the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin stories are based on the Gaoseng zhuan biography, but the Ruijing lu story corresponds to the first half of the Gaoseng zhuan biography, while the Fayuan zhulin story includes the second half. The note at the end of the Fayuan zhulin states that the story is based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan, but this note is mistaken. Though two biographies of Puming are found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan, neither of these monks is the same monk as the Puming who is the subject of the story in the RuiJing lu.

no. 6, Huiguo story. The Fayuan zhulin (juan 94) version of this story is very similar to that in the Gaoseng zhuan biography, while the Ruijing lu version is abbreviated.

no. 9, SunJingde story. Daoxuan appears to have been the original compiler of several versions of this story. The Ruijing lu version of this story appears to have been based on the longer version that is found in the second fascicle of the Ji shenzhou sanbaogantong lu; the Fayuan zhulin (juan 14) version is identical to the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu version, and the Fayuan zhulin (juan 17) version is identical to the Shijiafongzhi version, which appears to have been based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan version.

no. 10, Daolin story. The Fayuanzhulin version of this story is said to have come from the Gaoseng zhuan, and the two texts correspond perfectly. The Ruijing lu story, also clearly based on the Gaoseng zhuan biography, is abbreviated.

no. 18, Baogui story. Both the Ruijing lu and Fayuan zhulin stories are abbreviated from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. But the Xu gaoseng zhuan original is abbreviated differently in these two versions.

no. 25, the story about a nun from Hedong. The Fayuan zhulin (juan 27) version is a slightly modified version of the Mingbao ji. original; the abbreviated Ruijing lu version appears to have been prepared directly on the basis of the Mingbao ji passage.

RUIJING LU 119

rio. 26, Tanyan story. The Ruijing lu versions differs slightly from the Fa;yuan zhulin (juan 24) version that was taken from the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. The Ruijing lu version contains one detail not found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan version, on which it might be based for the mos.t part, and thus the Ruijing lu version might have been based m part on another source.

no. 28, Zhiyuan story. The Fayuan zhulin version is copied from the Mingbao ji. The note at the end of the Mingbao ji entry, describing how Tang Lin confirmed this story in Youzhou, is incorporated into the main text in the Fa;yuan zhulin with a minor change. The Ruijing lu version is abbreviated, and thus different from the Fa;yuan zhulin version.

no. 29, Yan Gong story. The Fa;yuan zhulin version is copied from the Mingbao ji (minor differences in wording). The first part of the note at the end of the Mingbao ji story is incorporated into the main text in the Fayuan zhulin. The Ruijing lu gives a version of the story ofYan Gong different from the Fa;yuan zhulin / Mingbao ji version.

no. 30, Li Shanlong story. The Fa;yuan zhulin version is copied from the Mingbao ji. The Ruijing lu gives an abbreviated version of the Mingbao ji story; the Ruijing lu version is thus different from the Fa;yuan zhulin version.

no. 32, the story about Lady Doulu. The Fa;yuan zhulin version is copied from the Mingbao ji, with one minor difference: the Mingbao ji states at the end that the subject, aged 80, was still alive at the time the record was made (the Mingbao ji was compiled between 653 and 655 [Gjertson, p. 295, note, 54J); the Fa;yuan zhulin states that the subject died at the age of 80. The Ruijing lu gives an abbreviated version of the Mingbao ji story; the Ruijing lu version is thus different from the Fa;yuan zhulin version.

no. 33, Cen Wenben story. The Fa;yuan zhulin version is copied from the Mingbao ji (minor differences in wording). The note at the end of the Mingbao ji, explaining how Tang Lin heard the story, is turned into a part of the main text in the Fayuan zhulin version. The Ruijing lu gives an abbreviated version of the Mingbao ji story; the Ruijing lu version is thus differ-ent from the Fayuan zhulin version.

no. 34, the story about Su Chang's maid servant. The Fayuan zhulin version is copied from the second passage where


this story appears in the Taisho version of the Mingbao ji (795a). The Ruijing lu gives an abbreviated version.

iii) Only in two cases are stories that correspond closely to the Ruijing lu stories absent in the Fayuan zhulin (no. 27, the Daosun story and no. 31, the Li Siyi story).

iv) In the case of the two last stories in the Ruijing lu, both Daoxuan and Daoshi appear to have relied on oral sources, and thus the Fayuan zhulin does not specify the location of written sources of these stories.

The following comments may be made on the basis of this companson.

i) Of the 20 cases where the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin versions are closer to each other than to the source identified in the Fayuan zhulin, 14 cases (nos. 2, 3, 11, L2, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17,20, 21, 22, 23, 36) are in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, and two (nos. 7 and 24) in the 95th fascicle, Others are scattered: no. 1 (65th fascicle), no. 8 (94th fascicle), no. 19 (63rd fascicle), and no. 35 (27th fascicle). The Fayuan zhulin parallels to stories nos. 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, and 36 are explicitly said to have been based on the "Sanbao gantong lu," which probably meant the Ruijing lu section of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu. We have discussed in detail the relationship between Ruijing lu stories nos. 11-14 and their parallels in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, concluding that Daoshi probably produced the version of these stories in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin by consulting Daoxuan's Ruijing lu version. Two stories (nos. 15 and 16) are found only in the Ruijing lu and the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin, thus indicating that two documents must be closely related to each other. Four stories in this list of twenty stories (nos. 1, 2, 3, 8) had been taken from the Gaoseng zhuan, and two of these stories (nos. 2, 3) are found in the 18th fascicle. In both cases, the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin stories are closely related to each other, though we cannot determine which of these versions is earlier.

These observations appear to indicate that Daoshi must have consulted the Ruijing lu (possibly in an earlier form)

RUIJING LU 121

xterisive1y when he compiled the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan e hulin, and copied its version of the 14 stories under examina~ion here from the Ruijing lu into the 18th fascicle. A closer examination of the manner in which the sources of these 14 stories are noted in the Fayuan zhulin serves to strengthen this hypothesis. The Fayuan zhulin par~l!els to.Ruijing lu stories nos. 17 20, 21, 22, 23, and 36 are explIcItly SaId to have been taken fr~m the Sanbao gantong lu. If our reading of the conjunction you ("again") in the b:ginnin?" sectio?- of the Ruijing !u. is correct, the Ruijing lu, or ItS earlIer versIOn, noted explIcItly that a group of stories at the beginning of this collection was taken from the Gaoseng zhuan. This would account for the fact that Daoshi knew that stories nos. 2 and 3 had been taken from the Gaoseng zhuan. Stories nos. 15 and 16 are clearly related to their payuan zhulin parallels, but the Fayuan zhulin curiously fails to note the source of story no. 15; the reference to the" Tang gaoseng zhuan" (420b 1) for story no. 16 appears to be mistaken. Stories ilOS. 11 to 14 are ultimately based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Zhizhan, but, as we examined in detail above, in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin Daoshi gives a version which appears to have been based on the Ruijing lu, and he adjusts the note that appears at the end of story no. 14 so that it would read asa note that applies only to this last story in the series of stories taken from the Xu gaoseng zhuan; he also places the ear-

Jier stories (nos. 11 to 13) in a larger group whose sources are described vaguely as "the Liang gaoseng zhuan and other miscellaneous records." By reading the ambiguous note in the Ruijing luin the way he did, he was left with no clues concerning the sources of stories nos. 11 to 13, and he designated their sources in this vague and misleading manner in the 18th fascicle.

ii) Of the 13 cases where the Fayuan zhulin version is closer to the source they mention, four cases (nos. 28,29,32, and 34) are in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin; two cases (nos. 4 and 5) are in the 17th fascicle. Others are scattered: no. 10 in

. the 42nd fascicle, no. 18 in the 55th fascicle, no. 26 in the 24th fascicle, no. 30 in the 20th fascicle, and no. 33 in the 56th fascicle. All four stories that are found in the 18th fascicle are originally from the Mingbao ji, and the Fayuan zhulin passages mention their sources explicitly and correctly.


The 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is entirely devoted to a collection of Chinese miracles (41 stories) that constitute the last part of the section which begins i? the middle of the 17th fascicle (411 c29) called "Treating the Teaching with respect" (jingfa). Daoshi appears to have compiled this larger collection partly on the basis of the Ruijing lu, but he also had the original Mingbao ji in front of him when he compiled the 18th fascicle collection, and where he decided to include the Ruijing lu stories that were themselves based on the Mingbao ji, he substituted the Ruijing lu version of these stories with the original Mingbao ji version. If we take into account that the "Teaching" (fa) in the 17th and 18th fascicles refers to the Buddha's teaching recorded in "scriptures" (jing) , we would be justified in treating Daoshi's collection of the "jingfa" collection in the 18th fascicle as an expanded version ofDaoxuan's Ruijing lu.

In my earlier article on the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, I noted that its collection of image miracles in the second fascicle is closely related to the miracle story collection in the 13th and 14th fascicles of the Fayuan zhulin, and, in fact, the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu collection appears to have served as a source for the collection in 13th and 14th fascicle. 72 The 13th and 14th fascicles of the Fayuan zhulin constitute the first half of the large section called "Treating the Buddha with respect" (jingfl) that ends in the middle of the 17th fascicle. In my article on the Sengseng gantong lu, I noted that the short collection of stories about "supernatural monks" that constitutes the last section of Daoxuan's Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu is closely related to the miracle story collection in the 19th fascicle of the Fayuan zhuIi"'!, 73 The 19th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin contains the section of the encyclopedia entitled "Treating monks with respect" (jingseng). A general pattern of relationship between the miracle story collections between the 13th to 19th fascicles of the Fayuan zhulin and the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu emerges from this analysis: the sections in the Fayuan zhulin that focus on the theme of "treating with respect" the so-called "three treasures," the Buddha, the Teaching, and Monastic Order or monks, contain miracle stories that appear to be closely related to important sections of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu, or "Collected Records of Three Treasure Miracles in China." Both Daoshi and Daoxuan appear to have been organizing miracle stories using the same framework of the "three treasures." 74

RUIJING LU 123

Another conclusion of my earlier studies was that the sec.' (ons of the Fayuan ;::,hulin that contain material parallel to the

lontents of the first two fascicles and the first section of the :fhird fascicle of the Ji sh~n;::,hou sanbao ga.ntong lu, were p~obably

compiled later by copymg and sometImes summanzmg the ", corresponding sections of the Ji shen;::,hou sanbao gantong lu. The p'ayuan ;::,hulin parallels to the Shenseng garitong lu were compiled earlier, and Daoxuan probably compiled the Shenseng gantong lu using these Fayuan ;::,hulin collections as his sources. The above

analysis of the Ruijing lu suggests that the section of the Fayuan zhulin most closely related to it, the miracle story collection in 'the 18th fascicle, was based in part on the Ruijing lu.

A general picture of the relationship between Daoxuan's . collection, Ji shen;::,hou sanbao gantong lu, and the corresponding sections ofthe Fayuan ;::,hulin emerges from this analysis. As his colophon at the end of the Ji shen;::,hou sanbao gantong lu states explicitly, Daoxuan compiled the Ji shen;::,hou sanbao gantong lu

»quickly in the first year of the Linde period (664), a few years .... before he ended his life, in the second year of the Qianfeng ',period (667). Since all the three known titles of this work ; include the reference to the "three treasures," Daoxuan himself may have called the collection by a title that referred to the "three treasures." 75

If Daoxuan was self-consciously preparing a collection of "three treasure miracles," he may well have begun this project

.by preparing a collection of the Buddha relic and image mira-cles (first two fascicles). He would then have proceeded to the task of compiling a miracle story collection associated with the Teaching, and for this he appears to have been able only to produce a shorter collection (Ruijing lu), which he used also in the related project of compiling the Datang neidian lu, a project that he was carrying out almost at the same time. It is possible that this collection, the Ruijing lu, was first produced in connection with the Datang neidian lu project and later incorporated into the Ji shen;::,hou sanbao gantong lu. This would explain the fact that this body of material is presented somewhat differently than in the earlier sections on the Buddha relic and image miracles. Here again, Daoxuan appears to have relied primarily on materials he collected himself. But at this point, Daoshi's

124 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO. I

Fayuan zhulin project was well on its way to completion, and it is quite possible that Daoxuan took some material from a draft version of the collection. 76

Finally, perhaps running short of time, Daoxuan may have quickly produced a collection of miracles stories about super_ natural monks (Shenseng gantong lu), which was intended, possibly along with the "supernatural temples" (Shengsi) section in the third fascicle, as the Monastic Order miracle stories, making use of the material that had already been collected by Daoshi for the Fayuan zhulin. Daoxuan's reliance on the material that had been collected earlier for the Fayuan zhulin may have something to do with his comments in the colophon, where he invited readers to consult the Fayuan zhulin, which had been "recently compiled by Daoshi of the Ximingsi temple."

However, the version of the Fayuan zhulin known to us had not been completed in the first year of the Linde period. I suspect that Daoshi incorporated the content ofDaoxuan's collection into relevant sections of the Fayuan zhulin before producing . the final form of this encyclopedia. This would explain the frequent duplication of materials that are found in the 18th fascicle, parallel to the Ruijing lu, with material found elsewhere in the Fayuan zhulin. In these cases, the material found elsewhere is more directly related to the original sources than the stories in the 18th fascicle, which are frequently copied directly from the Ruijing lu. Daoshi appears to have been fully aware of the basic scheme of the "three treasures" miracles that Daoxuan used in organizing his collection, and incorporated the miracle stories taken from Daoxuan's collection into the parts of his own encyclopedia that deal with the treatment of the "three treasures ."

RUIJING LU

R' . ···ng lu stories and their parallels .. U7J1

. ·1 Tan Wujie Fayuan zhulin,juan 65, 786a (from the Mingxiangji). t~s;ng zhuan, juan 3, 338b-339a (especially, 338cl4-28). Neidian lu, 338b.

125

nO. 2, Dao'an Pajuan zhulin,juan 18, 418a (from the group of six stories said to have come from

the Liang gaoseng zhuan and other sources). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 5, 351c-354a (especially, 353bI7-23). Neidian lu, 338bc. Ref., Shenseng gantong lu, story no. 12 (432c-433a).

no. 3, Sengsheng .. FO)uan zhulin,juan 18, 418ab (from the group of·six stories said to have come

from the Liang gaoseng zhuan and other sources). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 406c-407a. J.leidian lu, 338c .

. no. 4, Daojiong FO)uanzhulin,juan 17, 408c-409a (from the Mingxiangji).

juan 65, 784c-785a. juan 35, 567bc (from the Liang gaoseng zhuan as its source).

Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 407ab. Neidian lu, 338c. Ref., Shenseng gantong lu, story no. 21 (433c).

no. 5, Puming FO)uan zhulin,juan 17, 409a (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Ga{)seng zhuan,juan 12, 407b. Neidian lu, 338c.

no. 6, Huiguo Fayuan zhulin,juan 94, 983bc (from the Liang gaoseng zhuan). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 407bc. Neidian lu, 338c0339a.

no. 7, Huijin Fayuan zhulin, juan 95, 989ab (from the Mingxiangji). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 407c-408a. Neidian lu, 339a.

no. 8, Hongming Fayuan zhulin,juan 28, 492bc (mistakenly mentions the Tang gaoseng zhuan as its

source).


juan 94, 983c (from the Liang gaoseng zhuan). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 408a. Neidian lu, 339a.

no. 9, Sunjingde Fayuan zhulin,juan 14, 389c ("Jian qi zhijijingyi dengji").

juan 17, 411 be (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 29, 692c22-693a9. Shijia fangzhi, 972b 18-28. Neidian lu, 339a. Ref.,Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu,juan 2, 420ab.

no. 10, Daolin Fayuan zhulin,juan, 42, 617a (from the Liang gaoseng zhuan). Gaoseng zhuan,juan 12, 409a. Neidian lu, 339ab.

no. ll, Zhizhan Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 418b (mentions the Liang gaoseng zhuan, etc., as the Source

of the group of six stories). juan 85, 90ge ("jian houjunsuji", i.e., the Jingyiji) .

Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 686ab. Neidian lu, 339b.

no. 12, the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi temple Fayuanzhulin,juan 18, 418b (mentions the Liang gaoseng zhuan, etc., as the source

of the group of six stories). juan 85, 91Oa4 ("jian houjunsuji", i.e., the Jingyiji) .

Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 28, "Zhizhan zhuan", 686aI3-17. Neidian lu, 339b.

no. 13, the lips and tongue dug out at Mt. Dongkan Fayuanzhulin,juan 18, 418b (mentions the Liang gaoseng zhuan, etc., as the source

of the group of six stories). juan 85, 910a ("jian houjunsuji", i.e., the Jingyiji) .

Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 28, "Zhizhan zhuan" , 686aI9-29. Neidian lu, 339b.

no. 14, the eunuch of Wei who grew a beard Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 418bc (mentions the Liang gaoseng zhuan, etc., as the

source of the group of six stories). juan 85, 910a ("jian houjunsuji", i.e., the Jingyiji) . Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 28, "Zhizhan zhuan", 686bO-14. Neidian lu, 339b.

no. 15, the scripture coming down from the sky during the persecution of Buddhism under emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou dynasty

RUIJING LU

. zhulin,juan 18, 419b (no source mentioned). in the Neidian lu.

127

••... "16 an anonymous monk in Yangzhou '·r;;ua; zhulin;juan 18, 419c-420a (in the group of two stories said to have come

from the Liang gaoseng zhuan).

Neidian lu, 339bc.

"no. 17, Daoji . Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 421 a (from the Sanbao gantong lu).

juan 64, 779b (Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xugaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 687c. ]Veidian lu, 339c ..

18, Baogui Fayuan zhulin,juan 55, 709b (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xugaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 688ab. Fanyi mingyiji,juan 4, 1125ab. lYeidian lu, 339c.

no: 19, Kongzang 'Fayuanzhulin,juan 63, 766a (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan).

....... juan 85, 910c-911a (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). "Xugaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 689b.

}feidian lu, 339c-340a.

no. 20, Yisu F'ayuan zhulin,juan 18 (from the Sanbao gantong lu).

juan 85, 91Oc-911a (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 690a .

. Weidian lu, 340a.

no. 21, Shi Heshi Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 421a (from the Sanbao gantong lu).

juan 85, 911a (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xugaoseng zhuan,juan 28, 690b. Neidian lu, 340a.

22, Linghu Yuangui Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 421 ab (from the Sanbao gantong lu; originally heard from

Shenji of the Ximingsi). Neidian lu, 340ab.

no. 23, Tanyun Fayuan zhulin,juan 18,421 b (from the Sanbao gantong lu). Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 20, 592a-593b (especially, b4-11). Neidian lu, 340b.


no. 24,Sengche Fayuan zhulin, juan 95, 989bc (from the Mingbao ji). Mingbao ji, 788c-789a. Ref., Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 20, 595bc. Neidian lu, 340b.

no. 25, a nun from Hedong Fayuan zhulin,juan 27, 486c (from the Mingbao ji). Mingbaoji,789ab. Neidian lu, 340b.

no. 26, Tanyan Fayuan zhulin,juan 24, 467c (from the Tang gaoseng zhuan). Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 8, 488a-9a (especially, 488ab). Neidian lu, 340bc.

no. 27, Daosun Mingbaoji, 789b. Xu gaoseng zhuan,juan 14, 532c-533c (especially, 533b8-23). Ref., Xu gaoseng zhuan, 489b24. Neidian lu, 340c.

no. 28, Zhiyuan Fayuan zhulin,juan 18 (from the Mingbao ji). Mingbaoji,789c. Neidian lu, 340c.

no. 29, Van Gong Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 419bc (from the Mingbaoji). Mingbao ji, 790c. Neidian lu, 340c-341a.

no. 30, Li Shanlong Fayuan zhulin,juan 20, 436abc (from the Mingbao ji). Mingbao ji, 795c-796b. Neidian lu, 341a.

no. 31, Lady Doulu Fayuan zhulin,juan 18,421 c (from the Mingbaoji). Mingbaoji,795bc. Neidian lu, 341.

no. 32, Li Siyi Related story in the Fayuan zhulin,juan 91, 958c (from the Mingbao shiyi). Neidian lu, 341ab.

RVIJING LV

33 Cen Wen ben " .f&ua~ zhulin,juan 56,712c (from the Mingbaoji). " Mingbaoji, 795a.

Neidian lu, 341b.

34, Su Chang's maid servant Fa uan zhulin,juan 18,421 c (from the Mingbao ji).

»Jngbaoji, 794bc and 795a. Neidian lu, 341 b.

Yno. 35, Dong Xiong FilJuan zhulin,juan 27, 485ab (from the Mingbao shiyi).

'.' Mingbao ji, 794c-795a. Neidian lu, 341 bc.

no. 36, a scripture written in the sky in Yizhou Fayuan zhulin,juan 18, 421 bc (from the Sanbao gantong lu) .

. >Neidian lu, 341c.

no. 37, Gao Fayan Fayuan zhulin,juan 46, 640bc-641 a.

iNeidian lu, 341c-342a.

no. 38, Cui Yiqi Fayuan zhulin,juan 85, 911 a. Not in the Neidian lu.

NOTES

129

1. This paper has resulted from a project on Chinese Buddhist biog-raphies supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Council

. of Canada. '. 2. I have commented elsewhere on the question of discrepancy in the . dates of this colophon and that of the Li Yan's preface to the Fayuan zhulin, which : gives the date of the completion of this encyclopedia as the 30th day of the third ,month of the first year ofZongzhang (668), that is, four years after the date of : Daoxuan's colophon. See Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, eds., Monks ,and Magicians: Religious Biographies in Asia (Oakville, Ontario, 1988), p. 216, n. 110; ."Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu: Some Exploratory Notes," Kalyana-Mitta: Prqfissor iHajime Nakamura Felicitation Volume, edited by V N. Jha (Delhi, 1990), p. 203 and nA, and "Daoxuan's Collection of Miracle Stories about 'Supernatural Monks' (Shenseng gantong lu): An Analysis of Its Sources," Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal,

: no, 3. (1990), p. 319. 3. Daoshi's close association with Daoxuan is mentioned in Daoshi's

biography in the Song gaoseng zhuan, 726cl6,17.


4. The Taish6 text, no. 2106, is based on the Korean edition, which Was produced during the 15-year period between 1236-1251. The Song, Yuan and Ming editions are used for listing the variant readings of the text. The original Korean text, numbered as K 1069, is found in vol. 32, pp. 589c-635a of the recently published photographic edition of the canon.

5. There are a few exceptions (no. 27 "Daosun" in the Ruijing lu; no. 25 "Liu Ningzhi" in the Shenseng gantong lu) in which the materials corresponding to those in the two collections at the end of the ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu are not found in the Fayuan zhulin.

6. These exceptions include the following: the story of Tan Wujie (no. 1) is said to be a quotation from the Gaoseng zhuan; the Sun Jingde story (no. 9, 427ab) mentions a work called the Qishu; the story about the eunuch who grew a beard (nO". 14, 427bc) is said to be based on the jingyiji; stories no. 22 and 23 indicate that the accounts were based on Daoxuan's personal experience as wit. ness; the story about the nun from Redong traces the story to the monk Faduan. I shall examine in some detail other clues in the Ruijing lu which enable us to determine the immediate sources Of the stories included.

7. Even if we take account of the possibility that the Ruijing lu might have evolved over a period of time, the fact that some of the stories in the present form of the Ruijing lu mention their sources explicitly indicates that there is only a very remote possibility that the sources of the stories were indicated in detail in a manner similar to the corresponding Fayuan zhulin passages in this. hypothetical earlier version of the Ruijing lu. If the sources were indicated in a meticulous manner similar to the Fayuan zhulin in an earlier draft, and then removed when the final version of the Ruijing lu was produced, why should only a small number of source references have been left in the final version?

As we shall show in greater detail later, however, the Fayuan zhulin often identifies a source in an obviously mistaken manner, and at least in some of these cases, Daoshi did not appear to have had the correct information about the source of the passages in question. Thus, we cannot always assume from the source note in the Fayuan zhulin that Daoshi was copying the passages from the sources named. In some cases Daoshi may have been copying from the Ruijing lu, and yet at the same time mention a source which is incorrect. The principle mentioned above, therefore, needs to be applied carefully, and in connection with other evidence.

8. The Ruijing lu does not number the stories it contains, but I have assigned a number to each story for easy reference, starting with no. 1 for its first entry, on Tan Wujie, and continuing sequentially up to no. 38, assigned to its last story, on Cui Yiqi. The name of the subject for the first ofthe five stories attributed to the Sanbao gantong lu in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is given there as Daoyu, but a corruption of the text appears to have occurred here. I . am reading the name as Yisu, following the variant reading attested in all four versions of the texts consulted in preparing the Taish6 edition. See n. 9 in T. Vol. 53,p.421.

9. The Taish6 edition of the Fayuan zhulin(no. 2106) reproduces the text of the Korean edition (K 1406) as the base text and notes variant readings in four other texts (i.e., Song, Yuan, Ming, and Kunaich6 Library editions) in the

RUIJING LU 131

;:tes. See ShOwa hObo somokuroku (reprint edition, Tokyo, 1979 [first edition: i~29]), p. 619c. The base text states that five stories in the 18th fascicle were

.... ken from the Sanbao gantong lu. The variant reading of this same passage, ····!~ared in all four versions of the. text consulted, ~ives t~e number of stor~es

based on the Sanbao gantong lu as SIX. If we follow thIS readmg, the set of stones 'the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin that was based on the Sanbao gantong lu

'. :gins with t~at ?f Daoji: The. text of the Daoji story in the. 18th fascicle of t~e ,j;'oyuan zhulin IS .vIrtually ~dentIcal to that of the story on thIS figure (no: 17) :n the Ruijing lu (l.e., the Jz shenzhou sanbao gantong lu), though the note gIVen m small characters in the Fayuan zhulin version-which states that this monk is called by a different name, Daoyuan, in another source-is not found in the Rui

lu passage. I am here following the variant reading of this passage. 10. Fayuan zhulin, 1023c8; Datang neidian lu, 333a20. 11. Paradoxically, this explicit reference to the Sanbao gantong lu might

appear to suggest that other Fayuan zhulin passages that are clearly related to corresponding passages in the Ruijing lu were not directly dependent on the Rui

.'. Jing lu, since they fail to mention the Ruijing lu or the Sanbao gantong lu as their sources. They refer instead to earlier sources on which both the Fayuan zhulin and the Ruijing lu passages were ultimately based. Thus, in these cases the Rui

'jing lu passage might appear to have come into being later and to be dependent on the Fayuan zhulin passage. If the Fayuan zhulin passage was dependent on the

.. Ruijing lu in these cases as well, Daoshi might be expected to have indicated its source as the Sanbao gantong lu in the same way inwhich he mentions this work

.... in the six cases discussed above. As we shall show in some detail below, the relationship between the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin appears to be very com-plex, and needs to determined for each story; the first question is of course :vhether the stories appear to be directly related at all; the next question is

.•. which of the two was the original. Thus, the consideration based on the explicit .identification of the sources, or the absence of such identification, needs to be examined in connection with other relevant evidence based on the examination of the content ofthe stories themselves. On the basis of a detailed analysis presented below, I conclude that many other stories in the Fayuan zhulin were also dependent on the Ruijing lu.

12. Shi Heshi appears to have been a lay practioner who recited the Lotus Sfltra, and Daoxuan included his biography as an appendix to the monk Yisu's biography. The stories about Yisu (the name given as Yiyu) and Shi Heshi appear again in the 85th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin (91Oc-911 a). The source for this passage in the 85th fascicle is given as the Tang gaoseng zhuan (9lla20) .

. The 85th fascicle passage is an abbreviated version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography ofYisu.

13. Another passage on Daoji appears in the 64th fascicle of the Fayuan ihulin (779b), where it is said to have been based on the Tang gaoseng zhuan

. (779cl9). This passage is more detailed than the one in the 18th fascicle, and the first part of the story is a faithful copy of the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography. Extensive differences in phraseology appear in the second half of the story.

14. The Ruijing lu and the parallel Fayuan zhulin passages on this monk end with a related note indicating that Daoxuan saw the miraculous scripture


written by a supernatural being for Tanyun in the tenth year of the Zhenguan period (636- 637) (428b20,21 in the Ruijing lu; 421 b22,23 in the Fayuan zhulin).

15. According to a corrupted passage that appears in slightly different forms in the Ruijing lu (428b 7,8) and the Fayuan 'zhulin (421 b 10), the source of the story about Linghu Yuangui appears to have been an oral report by the chief administrator (sizhu) of the Ximingsi temple, Shentai. The name of the monk is given as Shencha in the Ruijing lu and as Shenjiin the Fayuan zhulin. The two characters that appear in these two names, cha and}i "are similar, and thus there is little doubt that Shencha and Shenji are different versions of the same name. According to a passage in the 39th fascicle of the Fozu tongji (367ab), when the Ximingsi temple was built by the imperial order in the second year of the Xianqingperiod (657), Daoxuan, Shentai, and Huaisu were appointed as the head monk (shangzuo), the chief administrator (sizhu) , and the ceremonial leader (weina) respectively. The character tai is also similar to the two charac_ ters cha and}i, and I suspect that the name given as Shencha and Shenji by Daoxuan and Daoshi is the same name as the one given as Shentai by Zhipan. I have so far not been able to find further information about this monk. The parallel note in the Ruijing lu and the Fayuan zhulin states that this monk saw the miraculous scriptures that survived fire with his own eyes, and told this story about the scriptures which Linghu Yuangui had arranged to have copied. Since both Daoxuan and Daoshi resided at the Ximingsi temple, we cannot determine from this note which one of the two versions of the story is the original one.

16. Here I am following the variant reading attested in the Song, Yuan, and Ming editions. The Korean edition reproduced in the Taisho collection lacks the you in front of Hongming's biographies but the variant reading that is found in all other editions includes this character.

17. This work was compiled by Wang Yan toward the end of the fifth century (some time between 485-501). A large number of fragments from this work, including Wang Yan's preface (juan 14, 388c), have been preserved in the Fayuan zhulin.

18. It is also possible that this collection of the Gaoseng zhuan was produced earlier by someone other than Daoxuan, and that in compiling the Ruiling lu, Daoxuan may have been simply using this earlier work as the basis of the first part of his collection. There is no conclusive evidence on this matter. I am inclined to believe that the person who began the main text ofthe Ruijing lu following its preface and the table of contents with a statement "The Gaoseng zhuan says ... " was Daoxuan himself

19. The conjunction "you" again appears at the beginning of the stories about the anonymous monk of the vVuhousi temple (no. 12), the eunuch who grew a beard (no. 14), and the Prajiiaparamita scripture seen in the sky (no. 15). Stories nos. 12 and 14 are parts of the long passage in the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography ofZhizhan (686ab) from which Ruijing lu stories nos. 11-14 appear to have been taken and the conjunctions are present in the original Xu gaoseng zhuan text (686a13 and b8). Daoxuan appears to have used this expression frequently in places where he listed stories that belonged to the same category together.

RVIJING LV 133

20. They appear as biographies numbered 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, 14, and 21 in he section on "reciters of scripture."

t 21. Shoki zenshii shisho no kenkyii (Kyoto, 1967), p. 60. Yanagida mentions a I rge number of new collections, including the Hongzanfohua zhuan compiled by ~uixiang (not earlier than 706), the Fahua zhuanji compiled by Sengxiang ( robably after 754), the Huayan jing zhuan ji compiled by Fazang (first com~led in 690 and revised until Fazang's death in 712), the Huayanjing ganying

Phuan by Hu Youzhen (originally compiled by Fazang's disciple by Huiying, but ~evised by Hu Youzhen in 783), and the Jingang banruo jiyanji by Meng Xian-

···.zhong (718). . 22. The Gaoseng zhuan passage parallel to the main story told in the Rui-

. yilg lui Fayuan zhulin passage is found in 338c24-28. The two passages are very 'similar, except that the reference to the Guanshiyinjing scripture found earlier in the . Gaoseng zhuan biography (c23) is incorporated into the parallel passage in the Ruijing lu (426b22 and 24) and the Fayuan zhulin (786a5,6, and 8).

23. We saw above that there are six stories in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin which Daoshi says explicitly come from the Sanbao gantong lu. The payuan zhulin passage on Dao'an under discussion here is also found in the 18th fascicle. It is likely that there was a close relationship between the Ruijing lu pas-sage on Dao'an and the Dao'an passage in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin.

24. I discussed the Gaoseng zhuan biography of Daojiong and its relation to the },;[ingxiangji fragments on the same figure preserved in the Fayuan zhulin in some detail in my earlier article, "Two sources of Chinese Buddhist Biographies: stiiPa inscriptions and miracle stories," Monks and Magicians: Religious Biographies in Asia, ibid., pp. 136-139.

25. The note on this story, found at 409bl, gives the source as the "Tang gaoseng zhuan," but this is clearly a mistake for" Liang gaoseng zhuan."

26. The two texts are identical except for one section toward the end of the Gaoseng zhuan biography (408a17-21). This passage is missing in the version

..... in the 28th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. 27. The Tan Wujie passage is found injuan 65, Dao'an and Sengsheng

passages in juan 18, Daojiong and Puming passages injuan 17, Huiguo and Hon.. gming passages injuan 94, Huijing passage injuan 95, and Daolin passage in ,juan 42.

28. This applies to the case of the story about Daolin. We noted above that the story about Daolin appears to have been added later to the original list of the Gaoseng zhuan stories in the Ruijing lu. For this reason the relationship among the three sources compared here, the Ruijing lu, the Fayuan zhulin parallel, and the Gaoseng zhuan original might have been somewhat different in the case ofthis story.

29. In the Gaoseng zhuan the biographies of Dao'an and Sengsheng are found separately in the 5th and 12th fascicles ("exegetes" and "reciters" sections). Those ofDaojiong, Puming Huiguo, and Hongming are all found in the 12th fascicle ("reciters" section) in the Gaoseng zhuan following the same order, though in the Gaoseng zhuan, other biographies are found between each of these four biographies.


30. We have seen earlier that the first story in the Ruijing lu, the story of . Tan Wujie, is said in the Ruijing lu to be based on the Gaoseng zhuan and yet the identical story in the Fayuan zhulin is said to be based on the Mingxiang ji. Perhaps in Daoxuan's time, the Gaoseng zhuan's dependence on the Mingxiangji was widely known, and the parallel versions of the biographies / miracle stories that are found in these two works were not clearly distinguished by Daoxuan and his contemporaries. Consequently, Daoxuan might have considered these stories about Tan Wujie and Huijin as Gaoseng zhuan stories, rather than as Mingxiangji stories, as indicated in the Fayuan zhulin, and used these shorter Versions of the stories as suitable summaries of the Gaoseng zhuan biographies when he compiled the Ruijing lu.

3!. The Ruijing lu stories about Zhizhan (no. 11), the anonymous monk of the Wuhousi (no. 12), the lips dug out from the ground at Mt. Dongkan (no .. 13), and the eunuch who grew a beard (no. 14) are found in the biography of Zhizhan that appears first in the "reciters of scripture" section. The Ruijing lu story about Daoji (no. 17) is based on the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of the same monk that appears as the seventh biography in the same section. The story about Baogui (no. 18) is based on the biography ofBaogui that appears as the eighth in the section. The story of Kongzang (no. 19) is based on the eleventh biography. The stories about Yisu and Shi Heshi (nos. 20 and 21) are based on the biography ofYisu that appears as the 13th biography of this same section in the Xu gaoseng zhuan.

32. A brief comment on this work appears in Gjertson, "The Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tale: A Preliminary Survey," Journal qfthe American Oriental Society, Volume 101, no. 3 (July-September, 1981), p. 294.

33. The story about Sun Jingde (no. 9) is accompanied by a note stating that it was taken from a work called Qi shu; sources are not mentioned for the four stories after that (stories nos. 10, 11, 12, 13); the story about the eunuch (no. 14) is accompanied by the Jingyiji note. The story no. 10 is about Daolin, which had been taken from the Gaoseng zhuan.

34. Daoxuan gives this date in his preface as the latest point of the period covered in the collection (425b22).

35. Daoxuan's additions to the 645 version of the Xu gaoseng zhuan are dis~ cussed in Maekawa Takashi, "Dosen no koshil kosOden ni tsuite: zoku kosOden tona kanren," Ryilkoku shidan, 46 (1960), pp. 20-37.

36. The Taisho text of the Fayuan zhulin is based on the Korean edition, and notes variant readings in other editions at the bottom of each page. Thus, . we learn from the Taisho edition in the note giving the Jingyi ji as the source of the Zhizhan stories in the 85th fascicle that the character for "two" is missing in the Song, Yuan, and Kunaicho editions. The note reads: "The above story appears (jian) in Hou Junsu's collection." This would imply that we do not know the source of the first item in the miracle stories section of the 85th fascicle, and that Daoshi probably copied the note on the source for the second item, i.e., the Zhizhan biography stories, from the corresponding passage in the Xu gaaseng zhuan biography. It appears quite possible that, since the source for the first item is not specified by an independent note, someone assumed that the source for the first item was also the Jingyiji, and changed the note for the item

RUIJING LU 135

..•.... cordingly, by inserting the character for "two" at the appropriate place. The a\es in the miracle stories sections in the Fayuan zhulin typically follow the fornOat of attaching a note at the end of last story in the series of miracle stories fIlken from a given source, saying that "The above such and such number of .t~ories come from such and such source." ~ .... The first" item in the miracle stories section of the 85th fascicle is a story bout the Tinghu lake deity in Yangzhou. It is also possible, however, that this

atory had in fact been based on the Jingyiji and when Daoshi prepared this sec{ion of the Fayuan zhulin, fascicle 85, he simply chose to indicate this fact by modjfYing Daoxuan's original note on the second story slightly. In that case, we 'must assume that the character for "two" was dropped at some relatively early stage in the transmission of the text.

37. As we noted in passing above, a note at the end ofa group of miracle stories attached to Zhizhan's biography, in a collection of monks' biographies, which says '~ll (bing) these stories are found in HouJunsu'sJingyiji," may be tead to mean either that both Zhizhan's biography and the groups of stories attached to it are found in the Jingyiji, or that only the stories and not Zhizhan's biography itself are found in that work. Since the Jingyiji has now been lost, we cannot determine which of these readings is in fact correct, though I am inclined to believe that it was only the group of stories that was found in theJingyiji and not Zhizhan's biography itself. The Jingyi ji was not a biographical collection, and the Xu gaoseng zhuan generally does not mention the sources of the biographies included in it explicitly.

The section in the 85th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin where the biography of Zhizhan and the attached group of miracle stories are found is itself not a biogra.phical collection, but a collection of miracle stories. In this context, a reader might naturally assume that the note that is found at the end of this material, saying that '~ll these stories are found in Hou Junsu'sJingyi ji," was meant to include all the stories, including Zhizhan's biography itself, as coming from the ]ingyi ji. Medieval Chinese miracle stories were frequently told in the form of biographies, and Zhizhan's story does mention several miraculous events.

38. The Ruijing lu passage also uses the conjunction you at the beginning bfthe story about the monk in Yongzhou (427bI8). This word is also found in the corresponding 85th fascicle passage in the Fayuan zhulin (91Oa4), but does not appear at the corresponding place either in the corresponding passage in the 18th fascicle of the Fayuan zkulin (418b21), or in the Xu gaoseng zkuan biography ofZhizhan (686aI5). Daoxuan used the conjunction you frequently in listing stories one after another, and since we are reasonably certain that the 85th fascicle passage was independently and directly based on the Xu gaoseng zkuan passage, we cannot dismiss the possibility that this word you might have existed in some earlier version of the Xu gaoseng zkuan, which was copied by Daoshi when he prepared the 85th fascicle passage. The word could then have been dropped at some point in the course of the textual transmission of the Xu gaoseng zkuan.

If we follow the analysis presented here that the passage in the 18th fasciCle was prepared on the basis of the corresponding passage in the Ruijing lu, we would have to assume that Daoshi must have simply dropped the you that followed closely the earlier occurrence of the same word, rather than changing it again into kou.

I'

I


The significance of these differences regarding the conjunction you in front of the story about the monk in Yongzhou remains rather obscure. .

39. These Gaoseng zhuan stories correspond to Ruijing lu stories no. 2 (Dao'an) and no. 3 (Sengsheng) and Shenseng gantong lu story no. 2 (Zhu Shixing).

40. This fact again suggests that the main body of the Ji shenzhou sanbao ganto'fl:g lu and the Ruijing lu may have been originally prepared on two separate occasions and the Ruijing lu may have been appended to the main body oftheJi , shenzhou sanbao gantong lu either at the time the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu Was compiled or later. As suggested earlier, the Ruffing lu might have been first pre- , pared as a part of the Datang neidian lu. '

41. If this was the case, it would probably mean that the collection of miracle stories attached to the Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Sengming existed " by the time the Shijia Jangz,hi was compiled, in the first year ofYonghui (650-51).

42. The version in the 17th fascicle is given in the middle of a set of three .' stories which are said to comeJrom (chu) the Tang gaoseng zhuan, using the standard formula used in the Fayuan zhulin. The Shijia Jangzhi version lacks th~ note , that gives the source of this story using the verb jian, and therefore if Daoshi " copied this version of the story from the Shijia Jangzhi, it is natural that the verb . jian does not appear in the note on the source of this story in the 17th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin. '

43. In the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu Daoxuan appears to have used the character ru ("as") as well asjian in referring to the sources where the story in question appears. Thus the character ru appears in 404'a22 (no Fayuan zhulin parallel), 4l3cll (The Fayuan zhulin parallel also gives ru, 383b13), 4l9b5 (source note dropped in the Fayuan zhulin passage) , 423a6 (no Fayuan zhulin', parallel). In addition to the passages discussed in detail above, the character' jian appears in 414a12 (The Fayuan zhulin also givesjian, 383a16), 432a (The' Fayuan zhulin uses the word chu in a note that in a typical manner gives the: sources for the group offive miracle stories taken from the Mingxiangji, 6l7a7). " Thus, in one case the verb jian is preserved in the Fayuan zhulin version, and in '.~ another replaced by a more typical formula for referring to sources used in that ' encyclopedia.

One notable exception to the pattern described here is the case of the source note for the story about the Buddha's footsteps in the Xiangsisi in Yuzhou: the source for this story is given with the verb chu in the second fascicle' of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu (422a6, 7) and with the verb jian in the note in small characters in the 14th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin(39l b12). Thus the usage of chu andjian is reversed in this example. The same story also appears in the Luelic datang yuwang guta li in the Guang hongming ji, compiled by Daoxuan . (203ab), but the source is not indicated here. In spite of this one contrary example, I am still inclined to believe th~t it was Daoxuan who preferred to use the verbjian in the context we are interested in here.

A brief survey of the references to bibliographical references in the Xu gaoseng zhuan collected in the KosOden sakuin (ed., Makita Tairyo and Suwa Gijun,. Kyoto, 1975) reveals that both the verb ru andjian are used frequently in men:'; tioning biographical and historical sources. For example, references to indepen-~ dent biographies of monks, described by such titles as Bieji and Biczhuan, use the'

RUIJING LU 137

in a number of cases: 618c23 (Huiman's biography), 634b29,cl biography) and 70lcll (Facheng's biography) use the verb jian

to the respective Bieji biographies; 489c25 (Tanyan's biography), (concerning Shensu in Zhikuan's .biography), 558c 13 (Tanxiang's biog-575b16 (Huizan's biography), 647a23 (Sengyi's biography) and 658a26

biography) used the same verb in referring to Biezkuan biographies. "_aUmpr" the verb jian is used in referring to a work called Ganying zkuan

Shetisina's biography); to a work described as Baockang deng lu and the lu (429a16,17 and 29 in Bodhiruci's biography); to Fei Changfang's

ji (as Suidai sanbao lu, 431a in Gounaluotuo's biography; as Fei sanbao lu, 434c8 in Shenajueduo UnanaguptaJ's biography; as Feijie

560b9 in Xinxing's biography); to the jingyiji (686b14 in Zhizhan's [a discussed above]); to the Suidaijing lu (i.e., the Zkongjing mulu com-

by Yancong [also known as Renskou lu], 434c22 in Shenajueduo's biogto Daoxuan's Neidian lu (434cl3 in Shenajueduo's biography); to a work

Leiwen (650b27 in the section on Fu Hong in Huiyun's biography). The cku is frequently used in the Xu gaoseng zkuan in a different sense, to indicate

works that the subject in question had produced: e.g., 530a19 (Shensu's ,ioe:rarmy, 434b4 (Shenajueduo's biography), 455a22 (Xuanzang's biog-

18 (Huijing's biography), 596a13 (Sengche's biography), 428all 'T' __ •• ~~.'o biography), 434b4,5 (Shenajueduo's biography). In ~ne passage

, the verb cku is used in a statement made by the subject of the biog-Zhixuan as the verb preceding the source of information being discussed

the Emperor of the Northern Zhou dynasty and Zhixuan. In the light of this evidence concerning Daoxuan's usage, I am inclined to

that the use of cku in the story ofXiangsisi mentioned above is truly an :xcepu,on, and possibly a corruption of the original jian, which Daoshi copied

the Fayuan zkulin. In an earlier article, I suggested that the story of the two floating images Wu Commandary found in Fayuan zkulin, 13th fascicle, may have been the

which Daoxuan copied into theji skenzkou sanbao gantong lu: story no.3, fascicle (413c-414a; especially, 414a12). See "Two sources of Chinese

Biographies: stilpa inscriptions and miracle stories," ibid., footnote p. 222. This story is also accompanied by a note which gives thejingyiji as of the two sources mentioned and begins with the verb jian. The analysis

here in connection with two otl::ter notes on the jingyi ji suggests that it was again Daoxuan who composed the note on this same source for the

of the two floating images in the Wu Commandary, and that the Fayuan version of this story might have been copied from the ji skenzkou sanbao lu. My earlier observation in the above mentioned note needs to be mod-

accordingly. 44. Makita Tairyo, "Kiiiikanzenonkyii no skutsugen," Makita Tairyo, Gikyii

__ __ (Kyoto, 1976), pp. 272-287. The comment on Daoxuan's role is found on _ 281-282. The following background to this story is particularly interesting

The name of the Gaowang guanskiyin jing appears for the first time in the ,;na-r"T,h" of Lu Jingyu in the fMii sku, compiled by Wei Shou in 554, and in the

ski, compiled by Li Yanshou in 659. Makita notes that the original fMii sku


biography of Lu Jingyu has been lost, and the current edition of the vVei shu· reproduces the Bei shu biography in its place. Makita believes, nevertheless, that the original VVei shu story must have been very similar to the present version based on the Bei shu (Ibid., 274). In this biography, the core of the story associated with Sun Jingde in Daoxuari's accounts is told briefly in connection with another figure, Lu Jingyu; the name of the scripture is given as Gaowang guanshiyin jing, iIi exactly the same manner as in Daoxuan's Sun Jingde story. Thus, there is little doubt that the story in LuJingyu's biography represents an earlier form of the same story. Falin's Bianzheng Iun (written in response to Fu Vi's memorial in the fourth year of the Wude period [621]) mentions the same story briefly as a event thatoccurred under the Qi dynasty (qishi yauyin) !juan 7 53 7bc). The reference to the Qi zhi and Qi shu in the notes in the Ji shenzhau san~ . baa gantang Iu may have some relationship to the reference to the Qi dynasty in the Bianzheng Iu.

The name Xiao Xun appears in the Zhau shu in the account describing the end of the Later Liang dynasty. After a brief description of the end of Xiao Gong's reign, this passage lists the titles given to the sons of the first ruler of the . Later Liang, Xiao Gha, and then those of the second ruler, Xiao Kui (the names of the successors to the throne whose lives are described in detail earlier are not mentioned here-thus Xiao Gong is not mentioned in the list of Xiao Kui's sons). Among several others, the list of Xiao Kui's sons mentions Xiao Xun who is said to have been appointed as the Prince of Nanhai, and Xiao Yu, wh~ is said to have been as the Prince ofXin'an (p.866). The appointment ofXiao Yu as Prince ofXin'an was also mentioned in the two biographies ofXiao Yu' reviewed above. .

The biography ofXiao Gong appears in the Sui shu, juan 79, pp. 1793-94, and the Bei shi,juan 81, pp. 3092-3093. Xiao Gong succeed his father, Xiao Kui, Emperor Ming, as the last ruler of the Liang dynasty (or Later Liang, 555-587). When the Sui emperor Wen abolished the state of Liang, Gong was given the title of Duke ofJu. Later, Xiao Gong was favoured by the second Sui ruler, Emperor Yang, and was appointed as Duke of Liang. In the end, he lost the emperor's favour, and partly because he was close to Heruo Pi, and partly because of a popular children's song that hinted at the resurgence of the Xiao family, the Emperor ordered that Xiao Gong's family be exterminated (fei JU jia, p. 1794, 1. 8). Xiao Gong ended his life shortly after that. The Sui shu,juan 79 (p. 1794) and the Bei shi, juan 81 (p. 3093) state that he had a son called Xuan, who had served as the Vice-Governor of Xiangcheng. But he must have been killed when the Emperor ordered Xiao Gong's family exterminated, and the title of Duke of Liang was passed on to Xiao Ju, who was a son ofXiao Gong's younger brother.

A short biography of Xiao Gong's younger brother, Xiao Huan, is appended to Xiao Gong's biography: this biography states Xiao Huan called himself the third son of Xiao Kui, and also mentions his other younger brothers, Jing, Ghang, and Yu. This list is a little shorter than that in the Zhou shu mentioned above, and most notably, the name Xiao Xun does not appear in this passage in the Sui shu. We must also note that the title Duke of Liang is mentioned in connection with other figures in the Sui shu passage.

RUIJING LU 139

The discrepancies between the Sui shu and Tang shu passages on the Xiao may reflect the different orientations of the two dynastic histories. The

ruler of the Later Liang dynasty, Xiao Cong, and his nephew, Xiao Ju, were by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty, and this special relationship may

why'the Sui shu passage describes Xiao Cong's life in some detail. Xiao who also'had been close to Emperor Yang, responded to the invitation of founding Emperor of the Tang dynasty, and served Emperor Taizong

This would explain why the Jiu tang shu devotes a long biography to Perhaps' the Jiu tang shu chose not to mention Xiao Cong because of his relationship with the Sui Emperor Yang.

',We noted above that the Xu gaoseng zhuan describes Huiquan's father as the who served the Sui dynasty as the Lord of Liang. This description appears the life ofXiao Cong as it is described in the Sui shu, rather than that of the

Xiao Xun (the Fayuan zhulin" 911a9, states that the biographies of both of Song, i.e., Xiao Yu, and his elder brother, the taifusi,daqing are found

"dynastic histories [guoshi], but Xiao Xun's biography is not found in any of " existing dynastic histories). In describing Huiquan's father as the Duke of

Daoxuan may have confused Xiao Xun with Xiao Cong who served the , dynasty. Or, there might have been other complex stories behind these

11Vt~r!!'~!lL accounts of the Xiao family in the Sui shu and the Tang shu. The idenof the father of Huiquan and Zhizheng still remains somewhat obscure.

flinUT~lDnlles of later members of the Xiao family are found in the 99th fascicle Jiu tang shu and the lOlst fascicle of the Xin tang shl!' 45. The phrase is the description of Kongzang's death: zhongyu huichang,

zhulin, 766a19; Xu gaoseng zhuan, 689cl4,15; the corresponding passage in Ruijing lu reads as mo yu jingsi, (428a9).

46. There may have been a complex relationship between the Xu gaoseng . section on the biographies of Kongzang, Shi Huiquan, and Yisu (which

the section on Shi Heshi)(689b- 690b) and the Fayuan zhulin passage Kongzang, which contains in the 85th fascicle (9lOc-912a) a long appendix

, the stories about Yisu, Shi Heshi, Duke of Song (911a8, 13) and his brother, "Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial TreasJiry" (taifusi 911a8,9, 16). This section in the 85th fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin is fol

. by a long story about Cui Yiqi and his wife, who was the daughter of Keng, a nephew of the Duke 'of Song mentioned above. The same story

in a shorter form at the end of the Ruijing lu (430ab). The relationship these two versions of the story will be discussed below. What is of par

interest to us here is the fact that the stories about the Xiao family to have been carefully collected in this section of the Fayuan zhulin. Since

. Xiao family traces its background to Emperor Wu* of the Liang dynasty, in later legendary traditions appears to have become a paradigmatic pro

,!i'i:i;UUllUlill~l ruler in China, comparable in some regards to King Asoka in India, interest that Daoxuan and Daoshi showed in stories associated with this

tl.~\~tjlITulv is worthy of some attention. The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography ofBuiquan is, in fact, an extended account

eminent members of the Xiao family. Stories about the Duke of Song, Lord ~1",'-l.L!lY Advanced (689c20), i.e., Xiao Yu, and about his older brother "Chief


Minister of the Court of the Imperial Treasury" (690a3) constitute a large part of the second half of this biography (690a 7 -11 and 690a ll-14 respectively).

There are obvious parallels between the Xu gaoseng zhuan account of the Xiao family and the passage about the Duke of Song and his older brother in the Fayuan zhulin, suggesting that these two passages were intimately related to each. other. The Xu gaoseng zhuan account is more extensive than that of the, Fayuan zhulin, but the Fayuan zhulin account also contains information not found in the Xu gaoseng zhuan account. This suggests that the two accounts might have been based on a common source, from which Daoxuan and Daoshi excerpted materials independently and rather freely. The material on the Xiao family is placed in different places in the two sets of stories about the same subjects in the Xu gaoseng zhuan and the Fayuan zhulin: it is found before the biography of Yisu in the Xu gaoseng zhuan and after that biography in the Fayuan zhulin. The reason for this difference is unclear.

Members of the Xiao family occupied important positions during the Sui and Tang period, and their biographies are found in several dynastic histories. Xiao Yu's biographies are found in the two histories of Tang dynasty: the Xin tang shu, juan 101, pp. 3949-3952; theJiu tang shu,juan 63, pp. 2398-2404. Xiao Yu's father was the Emperor Ming, and at the age of nine Yu was appointed as the Prince of the Xin'an Commandary. TheJiu tang shu gives a short biography' of a man called Xiao Jun, who is said to have been a son of Xiao Yu's older brother Xiao Xun, the Duke of the state of Liang (p. 2405).

The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography of Huiquan states that Huiquan's father was an older brother ofYu, Duke of Song, Lord Specially Advanced, and served the Sui dynasty as the Duke of Liang (689c21); it also mentions that XiaoJun was Huiquan's older brother (689c29). If we follow the Jiu tang shu passage about Xiao Xun mentioned above, Huiquan's father, who is said to have been a Duke of Liang, appears to have been Xiao Xun. The Xu gaoseng zhuan biography notes further that Huiquan had a younger brother, a monk named Zhizheng who lived in the same place as Huiquan. The father of the monk Zhizheng is described separately as the older brother of the Duke of Song, the Chief Minister of the Court of the Imperial Treasury (taifuqing) (690a3). We have noted above that this title is also mentioned in the Fayuan zhulin passage as that ofXiao Yu's brother, who was also a pious lay Buddhist.

The name Xiao Xun appears in the Zhou shu in the account describing the end of the Later Liang dynasty. After a brief description of the end of Xiao Cong's reign, this passage lists the titles given to the sons of the first ruler ofthe Later Liang, Xiao Cha, and then those of the second ruler, Xiao Kui (the names of the successors to the throne whose lives are described in detail earlier are not mentioned here-thus Xiao Cong is not mentioned in the list of Xiao Kui's sons). Among several others, the list of Xiao Kui's sons mentions Xiao Xun, who is said to have been appointed as the Prince ofNanhai, and Xiao Yu, who is said to have been as the Prince ofXin'an (p.866). The appointment ofXiao Yu as Prince of Xin'an was also mentioned in the two biographies of Xiao Yu reviewed above.

The biography ofXiao Cong appears in the Sui shu,juan 79, pp. 1793-94, and the Bei shi,juan 81, pp. 3092-3093. Xiao Cong succeed his father,Xiao Kui,

RVIJING LV 141

Ming, as the last ruler of the Liang dynasty (or Later Liang, 555-When the Sui emperor Wen abolished the state of Liang, Gong was given

. of Duke ofJu. Later, Xiao Gong was favoured by the second Sui ruler, Yang, and was appointed as Duke of Liang. In the end, he lost the

favour, and partly because he was close to Heruo Pi, and partly of a popular children's song that hinted at the resurgence of the Xiao

the Emperor ordered that Xiao Gong's family be exterminated (jei yu 1794,1. 8). Xiao Gong ended his life shortly after that. The Sui shu,juan 79

. ·1794) and the Bei shi, juan 81 (p. 3093) state that he had a son called Xuan, had served as the Vice-Governor of Xiangcheng. But he must have been

when the Emperor ordered Xiao Gong's family exterminated, and the of Liang was passed on to Xiao Ju, who was a son ofXiao Gong's

brother. short biography of Xiao Gong's younger brother, Xiao Huan, is

to Xiao Gong's biography: this biography states Xiao Huan called the third son of Xiao Kui, and also mentions his other younger Jing, Ghang, and Yu. This list is a little shorter than that in the Zhou

Im:;U'"'JU"~ above, and most notably, the name Xiao Xun does not appear in passage in the Sui shu. We must also note that the title Duke of Liang is men

in connection with other figures in the Sui shu passage. The discrepancies between the Sui shu and Tang shu passages on the Xiao

may reflect the different orientations of the two dynastic histories. The of the Later Liang dynasty, Xiao Gong, and his nephew, XiaoJu, were by Emperor Yang of the Sui dynasty, and this special relationship may

why the Sui shu passage describes Xiao Gong's life in some detail. Xiao who also had been close to Emperor Yang, responded to the invitation of founding Emperor of the Tang dynasty, and served Emperor Taizong

This would explain why the Jiu tang shu devotes a long biography to Perhaps the Jiu tang shu chose not to mention Xiao Gong because of his relationship with the Sui Emperor Yang. We noted above that the Xu gaoseng zhuan describes Huiquan's father as the who served the Sui dynasty as the Lord of Liang. This description appears the life ofXiao Gong as it is described in the Sui shu, rather than that of the

Xiao Xun (the Fl1;Yuan zhulin, 911a9, states that the biographies of both . Duke of Song, i.e., Xiao Yu, and his elder brother, the taifosi daqing are found

histories [guoshiJ, but Xiao Xun's biography is not found in any of existing dynastic histories). In describing Huiquan's father as the Duke of

Daoxuan may have confused Xiao Xun with Xiao Gong who served the dynasty. Or, there might have been other complex stories behind these

lIw~rgl~nt accounts of the Xiao family in the Sui shu and the Tang shu. The iden-of the father of Huiquan and Zhizheng still -remains somewhat obscure.

. oflater members ofthe Xiao family are found in the 99th fascicle tang shu and the 101 st fascicle of the Xin tang shu. Gjertson, ibid, p. 295, n. 54. For a fuller and very informative discus

ofthe Mingbaoji, see Gjertson's Ph.D. dissertation, A Study and Translation qf "Ming-bao chi": A T'ang Dynasty Collection qf Buddhist Tales (Stanford Univer-1975; UMI no. 76-5736).

'\


48. Gjertson reports that Tang Lin heard seven, of the 53 stories members of his family (p. 105), four from Cen Wenben, a high government

. cial, and four from Lu Wenli, "a member of a prominent family" (p. 109). more stories were heard from monks, and three were told to the compiler by acupuncture doctor (p. 109). Only two stories in this collection were copied from earlier written works, and some scholars even go so far as to suspect that these stories might not have been part of the original Mingbaoji. (p. 112).

49. The text of the preface is found in Taish5, veil. 51, 787b-788a; it is translated with extensive notes by Gjertson in his dissertation, pp. 200-215.

50. See Gjertson, ibid, p. 295; Dissertation, p. 174. 51. As Gjertson explains carefully, "the text ofthe Ming-pao chi as it

today is unfortunately not in its original state"; ibid., p. 112. For an explanation of the text reproduced in the Taish5 collection, see ibid., pp. 123-124.

52. Dissertation, p. 131; translation, pp. 230-234. 53. Dissertation, pp. 175-177. 54. Cen Zhongmian, "Tang Tang Lin Mingbao ji zhi fuyuan" (A

struction of Tang Lin's Mingbaoji) , Lishiyuyanyanjiusojikan, no. 17, pp. 192-94. The source of this list of Mingbao ji fragments is the Fayuan zhulin (and partly Taiping guangji, which appears to have been dependent on the Fayuan zhulin). Cen mentions the Sengche story on p. 194, and states that it should be excluded from the list of Mingbao shi,yi fragments because it appears in the Mingbao ji. Since, as noted above,(i) the Mingbao shi,yi often recapitulated Mingbao ji stories and (ii) the versions of the Sengche story in the Fayuan zhulin story, attributed ' the Mingbao shi,yi, and the Sengche story in the Kozanji manuscript, in the Taisho collection, are not identical, Cen might have been somewhat too hasty in his conclusion.

55. Gjertson notes that Daoshi on more than one occasion added new otherwise relevant details to the passages he copied from the Mingbao ji. See his dissertation, pp. 178-179.

56. Dissertation, p. 131; translation, pp. 235-237. 57. Dissertation, p. 132; translation, pp. 238-242. 58. Dissertation, p. 132; translation, pp. 247-251. 59. Dissertation, p. 132-133 (where a large number of variant versions of

the stories preserved ina number of sources are listed); translation, pp. 262-267. 60. Dissertation, p. 136; translation, pp. 349-355. 61. Gj ertson discusses the four existing manuscripts of the Mingbao ji in

considerable detail on pp. 115-117 of his dissertation. 62. Dissertation, p. 140; the translation of the four stories that'

only in the Maeda manuscript is not included in Gjertson's Gjertson also notes that a variant version of this Mingbaoji story appears in the jingang banruo jing ji,yanji, compiled by Meng Xianzhong, Xuzangjing, vol. 149, p.42b-43a.

63 .. Dissertation, pp. 178-179. 64. Dissertation, p. 136; translation, pp. 346-348. 65. Dissertation, p. 135; translation, pp. 338-339. 66. Dissertation, p. 135; Translation, 332-337.

RUIJING LU 143

'. 67. The Pumen chapter here refers to the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra, hich is often called the Guanyin jing, or the AvalokiieSvara scripture. Many 'rraordinary examples of the assistance that this bodhisattva provides for those , 0 recite his name are described in this chapter.

68. The name of this official is given as Zhang Jingyi (794cl4) it the ingbao ji text in the TaishO collection; it. is given as Zh~ng Shouyi b~th in the uying lu (429cl3) .. ~nd the Fqyuan zhul:n (48?b3) verslO.ns. This rmght also

~uggest that t~e RU1Jzng lu and Fqyuan zhulzn verslOn~ we~e dIrectly r.elated . . - , 69. ThIS sentence appears to be confused, SIllce III the preVIous sentence 'l'is said that Dong Xiong first told (Wang) Xin and (Li Jing)xuan (xin xuan,

"Sb6), and thus Li Jingxuan would have known about the second miracle thout being told about it again in the morning. , 70. The only other story missing in the Datang neidian lu is story no. 15, "ch is about a copy of the 13th fascicle of the Larger Prajiiiipiiramitii Sutra that s seen in the sky during the persecution of Buddhism under Emperor Wu * of

e Northern Zhou dynasty. 71. In this passage, the figure which is described as "a descendant of Gao

'aoren" in the Ruijing lu (430a6) is identified as Gao Fayan, described as a 'eat-great-grandson (xuansun) of Gao Jiong, a Chief Administrator during the lli dynasty (640b28, 29). In the TaishO edition Gao Jiong's name is give~ as ao Ying, with a note indicating that the character ying is given as lei in the unaicho edition. I inferred that the personal name of this figure must have en "Jiong," as it is given in the 41st fascicle of the Sui shu (p. 1179). The Sui shu ographynotes that one of his sons was called Gao Biaoren (p. 1184).

72. "Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu: An Exploratory Note," pp. 207-210. 73. "Daoxuan's Collection of Miracle Stories (Shenseng gantong lu): An

alysis ofIts Sources," pp. 325-335. 74. The organization of the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu is somewhat

Bcure. The first fascicle of this collection contains stupa and relic miracle "ries; the second fascicle, image miracles; and third fascicle, stories of"super~

atural temples" (shengsi), "miraculous teachings" (lingjiao), and "supernatural "onks" (shenseng). The section called "miraculous teachings" in the table of ontents at the beginning of the third fascicle is in fact the Ruijing lu; the section alled "supernatural monks" in the same table of contents is in fact the Shenseng

tong lu. The broad parallels with the 13th-19th fascicles of the Fayuan zhulin gest that the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu was intended, as the title suggests, a collection of "three treasure" miracles, and that the stories in the first and

second fascicles were probably intended as "Buddha" miracle stories, those of :the Ruijing lu as the "Teaching" miracles, and those of the Shenseng gantong lu as :J:he "Monk or Monastic Order" miracles. , 75. As noted above, the collection appears also to have been known as

ongxia sanbao gantong ji, or simply as Sanbao gantong lu. 76. We noted above that the stories about Kongzang (no. 19) and Dong

iong (no. 35) in the Ruijing lu might have been based on the corresponding assage in the Fqyuan zhulin (63rd and 27th fascicles).

"", The collection of miracle stories attached at th~ end of each of the 100 topi"al sections of the Fayuan zhulin are all given under the heading "Ganyingyuan."

.'

I' :'


I t is probably significant that the" Ganyingyuan" section at the end is never men. tioned explicitly in the table of contents that is given at the beginning of each of these topical sections, nor is it included in the rather complex numbered head. ings and subheadings used for each of these sections. Each" Ganying yuan" sec. tion begins with its own table of contents. The first" Ganying yuan" section that appears in the fifth fascicle of the Fayuan zhulin at the end of the section on "gods" contains a rather long introductory essay (303bc). My suspicion is that the Fayuan zhulin was originally conceived simply as a topical collection of rei. evant passages from the scriptures and treatises, and that it was only later that the collections of miracle stories were added to this basic framework. If the idea of adding a miracle story collection arose later, then we could naturally assume that this idea, and the work that was required to carry it out,must have been closely related to Daoxuan's work on gathering miracle stories and producing miracle story collections. Since stories in the main part of each of the topiCal sections in the Fayuan zhulin are generally taken from translated Buddhist litera. ture, they deal with Indian subject matter (one exception to this general pattern is a long passage about Daoxuan's miraculous experience that is found in the 10th fascicle, 3·53c-355b). By contrast, with few exceptions, the material in the miracle story collections treats Chinese subjects. This difference in contents might reflect a significant concern on Daoshi's part. In fact, both Daoxuan and Daoshi might have been interested in miracle stories partly because the stories

. they collected were stories of miracles in China; they may well have been concerned to show that the Buddhist teachings were just as effective in China as in India. I am hoping to explore this general question further in the near future.

RVIJING LV· 145

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pudgalavada in Tibet? Assertions of Substantially Existent Selvesin the Writings ofTsong-kha-pa and His Followers

·byJoe Branford Wilson

Introduction

In a recent article ("Santarak~ita on the Fallacies of PersonalIstic Vitalism") 1 Matthew Kapstein argues, with respect to research into Indian Buddhist philosophy, that the traditional way of studying it as a facet of Buddhist religion "may bias in c:ertain respects our study of Buddhist thought."2 This is the cease, he says, because the issues current in Religious Studies or Philosophy of Religion would tend to define the areas of inquiry. The remainder of his article is devoted to an analysis of

. the concept of personalistic vitalism as it is seen in the West beginning in Plato's Phaedo through its criticism by Kant, and as it is seen in India in the writings of the, Nyaya-Vaise~ikas

and in its criticism by the Buddhist writer Santarak~ita. Kapstein summarizes his approach to this material in the following words: 3

To study these and many other topics in classical Indian thought from the perspective here advocated does not require our losing sight of the essential religious interests which motivated and informed the Indian discussions with which we are concerned; what it does require is an involvement in the history of ideas quite broadly conceived. In this context, we should recall that it is now possible to treat much of classical Indian thought from a truly historical, and not merely doxographical, vantage-point.

155

.1


Kapstein has cogently argued elsewhere that one should: "[ rej ect] the prevailing s~gre~a~ion" of p~ilosophies acc?rding' to cultural and geographIc ongms. 4 :rhIS argument anses in the course of a review of Steven Collins' Selfless Persons; in the introduction to that book, Collins speaks of his own approach:5

In the pages which follow I will try to confront the native English thinker with certain aspects of the mental universe as it appears to the Buddhist mind. The result of thus placing one- " self, for a moment, in a Buddhist world ... will be, I hope, to widen a little the cultural horizons in which both oui' common_ sense and our philosophy set their ideas of the person a~d of selfhood.

Both Kapstein and Collins present challenges that Buddhologists must try to meet, and in the present article-which " treats one small part of the Tibeto-Mongolian philosophical ' discussion on personal identity-I shall try to do so. Following; Kapstein, I hope that by clearly setting forth the positions ,,; articulated by several late eighteenth and early nineteenth cen-.~ tury writers, I will be presenting evidence demonstrating, to~ those who discuss the issue of personal identity in other~ philosophical traditions, that Buddhist and Western thought;t are not incommensurable and, indeed, Buddhism may have' contributions of its own to make to the global history of ideas.; Following Collins, I am attempting to allow the Tibetan and' Mongolian writers I discuss to speak for themselves, allowing, the reader to enter the minds of at least some Buddhists.

This being said, it must also be said that my presentation and analysis of assertions about persons will be done from what will doubtless appear to comparative philosophers such as Kapstein to be a largely doxographical and not a truly historical standpoint. In part, this is because the state of the art in Tibetan Studies does not approach that of Indian Studies .. However, I do this mainly because the state of the art in the study ofTibeto-Mongolian Buddhism will never approach that seen in Indology if comparative philosophy and comparative religion become the norm, and Tibeto-Mongolian systems of thought and practice are not studied (and then discussed in

-print) in their own terms. Comparative studies are indeed important, but not to the exclusion of all else. In order to

PUDGALAV ADA IN TIBET? 157

_~'i' _~~a~ine a topic in its own terms, it is necessary to present it, l~:as well as we are. able, first as it ap~e~red to the Tibetan think~'b-s who framed It, perhaps also as It IS understood by contemi~porary B~dd~ist philosophers, and only then to recast it in 'J~rnore provmcially Western te.rms. 6 • ••

~~K>'Given that the first step m understandmg BuddhIst philosrif()phies is to e~ami~e them in their own terms, the question ~~becomes, how IS thIS to be done? It has been nearly ten years ·Jl~ince Paul Griffiths admonished us that "translation is very fre~re~riently not the be~t way of perfo:~ing the herme~eutical task, '~fi;fact rarely realIzed by practIcmg Buddhoiogists, most of Iffwhom stand transfixed in awe of their texts and are concerned It~rgely to transmit them by means of translation re&"ardless of ~rwhether or not they have been understood."7 There IS a kernel !:~f6ttruth in Griffiths' provocative statement. It is possible to !~l:tfanslate texts philologically without much concern for their ~~hilosophical meanings or implications, and the history of ~fB,uddhist Studies has not been ~ithout examples of this. M~st f~there not, however, be some mIddle way between a BuddhIst i~§tua.ies which seeks ~erely to translate texts ;-vithout ~nalyz~ng lithe Jdeas presented m them and a BuddhIst StudIes whIch ~!seeks merely to show how the ideas seen in the texts relate to fJissues discussed in the history of Western philosophy?8 Further~~ore, it is one of the tasks of the Buddhologist to stand in awe :~!bf the text at hand, in the sense of being open, at least tempo-,%t:jl_"'

~~rily,. to its claims (as Collins cal!s for above). It is. ~nly the.n, ;i:~s Gnffi ths says elsewhere, that ' [w] e do the tradItIOn a dIsi:~.ervice if we refuse to move beyond the exegetical mode ofaca(~Hemic discourse to the normative, the judgemental."g ~tjf: Norma~i~e d~scourse, however, inclu~~s not merely ne-?"aiitive and CrItIcal Judgements but also posItIve and affirmatIve .1judgements. As Robert Wilkens said in his presidential address ~tto the American Academy of Religion, quoting a previous presi~gent (Wendy Doniger) : 10

t?:f

She wrote: "Though it is deemed wrong to care for religion, it is not wrong to care against religion." Since the Enlightenment "hatred of religion has been a more respectable scholarly emotion than love, particularly hatred of one's own religion."


Thus, as Buddhologists who "feel a duty not merely to Com~ . municate with fellow specialists, but also with the wider schol~

arly world and with the interested public"ll a twofold task is set for us. As academicians who sturfy religions in an objective fashion we must avoid both the reductive and the constructiv~ extremes. We should fall neither to the extreme of reducing Budsfhist ideas to those of other cultures nor to that of contruct~ ing a theology of our own. However, as individuals participating in the intellectual historie,$ if our own cultures, we find that these extremes are not entirely avoidable and even that such avoid~ ance is not entirely desirable. We must make the translation from, for example, the world view of eighteenth century Tibeto~ Mongolian Buddhism to that of our own contemporary culture (which is a necessarily reductionist enterprise), while at the same time, constructively, we bring from our own cultures a new critique to the Buddhist position and lay the groundwork for a Buddhist critique of those cultures. The latter task is con-' structive because it creates something new, something not pre~ viously present either in Buddhism or in our own cUltures.

I have attempted such a middle way in the present article . by combining an exposition of the presentations made by two relatively recent Tibetan Buddhist philosophers on the nature . of the person with my own reflections on the implications of . their writings. The topic itself, in fact, is already constructive in character because personal identity is not a traditional con- ". cern of Buddhism. (Of course, any ethics or metaphysics as~·· sumes something about what it means to be a person, no less those of Buddhism. "However, the Buddhist concern-as has been pointed out in this context many times-is with not the sort of identity that persons have, but the sorts of identity they lack. That is, the concern is with selflessness and not self.) There is clearly much more that may and should be done of a comparative nature with this material, but that is the subject of a different and, I would argue, a later study.

The Place if Persons in Buddhist Philosophies

In terms of its ontology, Buddhism is above all a doctrine of selflessness (anatman)-where selflessness, depending on what Buddhist viewpoint we examine, is variously the rejection of

PUDGALAV ADA IN TIBET?

a permanent, partless, and independent self (rtag gcig rang dbang cangyi bdag) ,

(b) a self-sufficient self (rang rkya thub paJi rdzasyod kyi bdag) ,

(c) an inherently existent self (rang bzhingyis grub paJi bdag).12

159

~'Historically, this is what set the Buddha's teachings off from ;lthose of the Upani~adic philosophers and, later, from the f',8rthodox (astika). schools of Indian philosophy. Selflessness 'f~lso has been seen as the basis of, Buddhist ethics by 5~philosophers su.ch as Cand~aklrti and San~ideva, when they ltake it as the ratIOnale for unIversal compassIOn. 13

tt~· At another level, however, there is a tension in Buddhism i~between selflessness and ethics. If Ajatasatru murders his ;l;;ather (in his case, a regicide), surely Ajatasatru must reap the :iifruits of his immorality as a harvest of suffering. This is the ~{a~ctrine of karma, as basic to Buddhism as selflessness, if not ffIIlore so. But if there is really no Ajatasatru, who did the killing l£rid who will experience the consequences? '~'~r It clearly is impossible to imagine a Buddhism without a ~~basis for moral retribution, without a mechanism whereby an li$ction of moral choice is able to produce an effect long after it ~~as itself ceased. Thus, the question being addressed here is the r;following: have Buddhist philosophers felt they must posit the ~~ristence of persons (gang zagJ pudgala) 14-existent selves-in i:J~~der to be able coherently to present a relationship between ~:hlOral actions and their effects? And if they have so posited, ~:how are we then to understand the commonplace that in Budt~:4~ism there are actions but no agents, that there is pain yet no !~6ne suffers?15 ~f~i.; There was a school ofIndian Buddhism, the Vatslputrlyas, ~~(msidered to be a subschool of the Vaibha~ikas (the Distinction~Ji1ists), 16 who advocated the existence of a person. This person, !~~ccording to commentators from sGo-mang College of 'Bras ~~i)Ung monastery, is an inexpressible (brjod du med paJ anabhilapya) , f,~~!lbstantial (rdzas suyod paJ dravyasat) entity, neither the same as ~l~or different from mind and body.17 While the Tibeto-Mongo~an tradition does not remember the VatslputrIyas as heretics, ~~n inordinate amount of space is devoted to explaining why


they are not. (This is not the time to discuss the question of .. whether heresy is or has been possible in Buddhism in the .• same sense it has been seen in the, Abrahamic religions.) ~ccording to dKon-mc~og-'jigs-med-dbang-po (pronounced Gon-chok-jik~me-wang-bo), a philosopher is a Buddhist philosopher by reason of accepting four propositions to he true: 18 .

1 all compound things ('dus byas, samskr:ta) are impermanent; 2 all contaminated phenomena (zag bcas, sasrava) are

unsatisfactory; 3 all phenomena (chas, dharma) are selfless .

(bdag med pa, nairatmya); 4 nirvana is peace (zhi ba, santa).

The self asserted by the Vatslputriyas seems to violate the third proposition, but It does not. The self rejected by all Buddhist philosophers (and seen directly in meditation as nonexis-: tent by all superiors ['phags pa, arya-defined as someone who ... has had a direct meditative perception of reality]) is the most~.i superficial one-a permanent, single, and independent self. The:~; self asserted by the Vatslputnyas is the substantial self (subs-:.1 tantial in the sense of being self-sufficient) .19 j

It must be borne in mind that the Vatslputrlyas enjoyed a great popularity from the fourth to the seventh centuries C.E. in India; their assertion of such a self is not one remembered as an easy-to-refute curiosity, but reflects a view once accepted.20

Turning to more recent Buddhist philosophy, that of the dGe-lugs-pa (Ge-luk-ba) order of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Tsong-kha-pa (Dzong-ka-ba), we seem again to see the assertion of a real person, that is, a real self. If it is the case that there is a person who is the agent of actions and the basis for moral retribution, how does this person posited by the dGe-lugs scholars of Mongolia and Tibet differ from the person asserted-problematically-by the Vatslputriyas a millenium before in India? Tsong-kha-pa's followers and the Vatslputrlyas are both "Proponents of a Person" (Pudgalavadins), but do they speak of the person in the same way?


The present analysis of Buddhist views on personal identity sbased primarily on the work of two scholars ofthe dGe-Iugs rder of Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism who have addressed

heIllselves to this issue: a Tibetan, Gung-tliang ~Kon-mc~og..; stan-pa'i-sgron-me (pronounced Gung-tang G6n:"chok-den-' 6~dr6n-me, 1762-1823), and a Mongolian, Ngag-dbang-dpal.,~~ (Nga-wang-bel-den, b.l797) .21 In order to fully understand ce context in which these two present their positions, it will be

~lt:ri~cessary to examine some of the ideas advanced by two earlier ~!I:;cholars upon whose works they saw themselves as commenItators-the founde~ of their m_onastic order, Tsopg-kha-pa bLo~;bzang-grags-pa (Dzong-ka-ba lo-sang-Q.rak-ba, 1357-1419) f;;~hd the foundational thinker of their monastic college, 'Jam- . ~. -~fdbyangs-bzhad-pa (Jam-yang-§he-ba, 1648-1721).22 The brief i;O:verview of Indian and Buddhist philosophy written by dKonW~jInchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po (G6n-chok-jik-me-wang-bo, 1728-f~;;1791)-'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa's successor in terms of being his _Jecognized incarnation (sprul sku)-has also been consulted.23 Ig~ng-thang himself was a student of dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-l¥iJlbang-po. . I{ The dGe-Iugs-pas, of course, are well known as the most I!~c:holastic of the orders of Tibetan Buddhism. (This is someI'tirnes offered as a compliment, sometimes not.) Although all the ~;philosophers of this order take the Prasangika-Madhyamika !f(the Consequentialist Middle Way School) of the Indian Budf~\dhist philosopher CandrakIrti as their own position and see ~i~he study of other doctrinal systems as precursors to an under~i!~ta:nding of CandrakIrti, there is a good deal of variation ~l!ainong them. These scholastic rivalries are institutionalized in :Hthe various monastic colleges, especially those associated with ~lthe major monasteries formerly located in Lhasa-'Bras spung ~~i(:Oe-bung), bLo gsal gling (Lo-sel-ling), and dGa' Idan (GaniJl~en). Both Gung~thang and Ngag-d~~ng-dpal-lda~, were r:J~embers of the sGo-mang (Go-mang- Many Doors) Colf~l¢ge of 'Bras spung. The Tibeto-Mongolian interpretations of ~tiBuddhist doctrine examined in this paper will, for the most ~part, be taken from the distinctive assertions of this college. Wi:;), There is a further source to be considered. As Stephan lit" ~i~~eyer noted almost twenty years ago, "a Buddhologist does not

I,


deal with Buddhism so much as he deals with Buddhists."24 Whether one is a philologist or a philosopher working with a te:ct (or set of ~exts) or an anthro'pol~gist wo:rkin.g with living TIbetans or SrI Lankans, the subject matter IS stIll Buddhists. Buddhist texts are artifacts created at some point by Buddhists and used (and understood) in certain ways by Buddhists in the contemporary world. Thus, in terms of the present study, there is another important source (which may be considered a text) the oral commentaries by contemporary Tibetan and Mongo~ lian philosophers on the written texts mentioned above.

The Taxonomy if Buddhist Doctrinal Systems

The standard Indo-Tibetan typology of four main schools of Buddhist philosophies is wellknown. The four schools of tenets (grub mtha', siddhiinta) , listed from what the tradition con~ siders to be least to most sophisticated, are:

Distinctionalist School (Vaibh~ika) 25 . Sutra School (Sautriintika) Mind-Only School (Cittamiitra) Middle Way School (Miidhyamika).26

Tibetan analysts of Indian philosophy like to speak not so much of individual thinkers or writers as they do of these schools of thought. They thus avoid the extreme of attributing a position merely to someone indefinite (which, however, is not uncommon in Tibetan texts)27 and the extreme of citing a position in terms of its author and the book in which it may be found (which is also seen, although often as a citation of merely an abbreviated book title).

It is this Indo-Tibetan penchant for speaking of schools of thought rather than individual philosophers or commentators .that leads to the use of the word "doxographical" in this context. The term "doxographer," Websters tells us, means "a collector and compiler of extracts from and commentator on ancient Greek philosophies."28 Whereas "doxography" literally means merely "writing about opinions," the inference I believe· we are supposed to make is that Tibetan doxographical writing


IvJ;;'a~ abstractive reporting of the assertions of Indian phil os-c¥'!';JS . , h d h' 'I Th T'b h i~6phers WIt no regar t~, Ist~nca concer,ns, e I, etan te~ -r~hical term for such wntI~,g IS gr~b mtha, (!frub pa't mtha', szd~~i'dMnta-translated here as tenets ) and, III ItS most elementary ~1torrn (as seen, for example, in dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbangl~p()'S Precious Garland,qfTenets) , it,is abstra~tive,reporting, painting ~ithe picture of IndIan BuddhIst doctnne III the broadest of IJtrokes, Its more sophisticated form, however, seen in 'Jamt~abyangs-bzhad-pa's Great Exposition qf Tenets, presents us with ~tdefailed and often constructive (not abstractive) analyses of ~~po~itions taken by Indian philosophers a~d by earlier Ti?etan ~~~cornrnentators, Even, however, were the TIbetan scholastIc traft;dition merely an exercise in reducing Indian Buddhist philos~~'bphy to easy-to-understand dogmatic positions, it would remain ~;'mour interests as Buddhologists to examine it in its own terms ;t~bcefore we introduce the concerns of our own intellectual history, ~:~i:! Returning to the subject at hand, in a further abbreviation ~fi6f the Indian typology of four main Buddhist tenei: systems, ~~~Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa and his followers reduce Buddhist ~l!tdoctrinalists into two categories, those who accept and those I~ho reject true existence (bden par grub pa, satyasiddha) :29

~r~,':~' ?t,~:r ': t';~i, .; I Proponents of True Existence (dngos por smra ba) include:

the Distinctionalists, the Sutra School, the Mind-Only School,3°

2 Proponents of Entity less ness, or of No Intrinsic Identity (Ni~svabhiivavadins), i,e" rejectors of true existence, are the Middle Way School, including both:

the Autonomists (rang rgyud pa, sViitantrika) the Consequentialists (thaI 'gyur ba, priisangika)

~!I'fhe first group, the Proponents of True Existence-who assert ~}that at least some phenomena are truly existent-may be further tAHivided into two groupS:31

I Proponents of [External] Objects (don smra ba) assert truly existent external objects, and include the Distinctionalists and the Siitra School.

164 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

2 Proponents of Mind-Only (sems tsam pa, Cittamiitra) assert that minds are truly existent but that objects which are different entities from the minds perceiving them are not; that is, they reject truly existent externar objects.

I t should be noted that both the Middle Way School and the Mind-Only School are said by dGe-Iugs-pas to deny the existence of truly existent external objects.

The Mind-Only School, however, denies the possibility of functioning, that is, of acting as a cause or being an effect, without being truly existent. According to them, whatever is not truly existent is an imaginary.32 They differ from the Middle Way School in saying that any phenomenon that enters into causal relationships, i.e., any dependent (gzhan dbang, paratantraJ phenomenon, is the same substantial entity (rdzas, dravya) as the mind apprehending it and, therefore, is not a truly existent external phenomenon.33

The Person in the Sarpyuttanikaya

In a section of his Responses to Questions on Doctrinal Assertions, Gung-thang comments on the sutra passage in which the convention "sentient being" (sems can, sattva) , or person, is identified· as a designation made in dependence on the psychophysical aggregates (phung-po, skandha). 34 In presenting the aggregate or aggregates which are the basis for this designation, Gung-thang speaks not of the assertions of individual Indian doctrinalists, but, rather, makes use of the traditional fourfold taxonomy just· outlined.

Ngag-dbang-dpal-Idan, on the other hand, is concerned not only with the observed object (dmigs yul, iilambana) of the correct apprehension of an existent person, but also with the object of the innate misconception of self. This latter concern is with what it is among the aggregates of body and mind that is mistakenly held to be the self. Although the two scholars approach the problem from different angles, they are discussing the same phenomenon, the conventionally existent individual. Gung-thang also concerns himself with this topic in his Textbook on Fundamental Consciousness; there, the assertion that

PUDGALAV ADA IN TIBET? 165 !/~, ,;

f?H:;-'j

~~~fhe fundamental consciousness (kun gzhi'i rnam par shes pa, ~~~:~layavijfiiina) ~s a substantially existent self i.s treated in detail. ~5 ~lYL The basIs for Gung-thang'spresentatIOn of the person In ~J?Risponses to, f2:uestions on Doctrin~l Asse~tion~ is the .SaT[ly~ttanikqya ~;werse describIng the way a sentient beIng IS a desIgnatIOn made ~¥t'tb the psychophysical aggregates: 36

Just as a chariot is spoken of In dependence on the collection of its parts, So there is the convention, "sentient. being," In dependence on the [psychophysical] aggregates.

~:c: This passage is quoted by Buddhaghosa (5th century C.E.) ~~'(as scriptural proof of the thesis that apart from mind and body, ~:.,there is no being orperson.37 Buddhaghosa concludes that al;~;fuough conventionally there is a person or sentient being, ultimately, ffi;!.!there is no sentient being which is a basis for the conception of ~~'!an I or ego; ultimately, there is only mind and body.38 Candra~iikIrti also quotes this passage, in the auto commentary on his fJ};¥adhyamakiivatiira; the context is his refutation of a person ~f:which is merely the collection or combination of the aggregates ~J78f mind and body. 39 Thus, it is evident that the concern of both j~~'st:holars-whose views, within the spectrum of Buddhist doc~'ttine, are not close-is mainly to refute a self, not to establish ,i£i}./

,;1'3: person. :::" Why, then, do Tsong-kha-pa and his followers devote time 1.;to establishing the existence of the person? They do so in order ~{tb explain how cyclic existence and nirvana co-exist. It is clear ¥~jn their works that while selflessness is very much the core of ~:[Buddhist doctrine, there must still be a coherent explanation of s:llon-ultimates, of conventional truths. The central conven;]::;tional truth, of course, is the mind. And the relationship of t;'ji~ind and body, and of mind and environment, is described by ii~:ithe doctrine of karma-the relationship between an intentional '~iijaction that either helps or harms a sentient being and some ~;Jater experience or state of mind and body. This is not as radir!~;cal a move as it might seem, even in the context of Buddhist 1;~.pelflessness. It is, in fact, a highly conservative move, the reaf~tfirmation of the Mahayana dictum that cyclic existence is ~i,'nirviiTJa and nirvii1Ja is cyclic existence. 40

I


What Tsong-kha-pa and his school assert is that ultimate and conventional are compatible and do not harm or contradict one another. Analagously, selflessness ,and the person are COm_

patible and provide a useful means of describing experience in an integrated and coherent way. As Gung-thang writes-citing Tsong-kha-pa's student mKhas-grub (Ke-<;iup, 1385-1438) :41

There is no proponent of tenets who would say the following: the contradictions in my presentations of the two truths which others speak of do exist; I myself assert that there exist contradictions in my own presentation of the two truths; the conventional is negated by valid cognition analyzing the ultimate.

This, then, is the context for examining the views ofGung_ thang and Ngag-dbang-dpal-Idan concerning the person. The problem is, as noted above, that if it is the case that there is a person who is the agent of actions and the basis for moral retribution, does this person posited by these dGe-1ugs-pa scholars differ from the person asserted-heretically-by the Vatslputrlyas?

In order to determine this, we must examine the expositions made by Gung-thang and Ngag-dbang-dpa1-ldan of Buddhist assertions concerning the persoll.

The Person According to Proponents qf Objects

Proponents of [External] Objects-the Distinctiona1ists and the Sutra School-are actually proponents of. truly existent sense objects which are not the same entities as the minds perceiving them. According to Gung-thang, most Distinctiona1ists and members of the Sutra School assert that the aggregates which are the basis of the designation "person" are the five individual aggregates of body and mind. 42 Just as a chariot is spoken of in reliance on the collection of its parts, so the person is posited in dependence on the collection of the individual aggregates.

N gag-d bang-d pa1-1dan reports an explanation of the verse from the San:zyuttanikaya (quoted above) in which the ]:(ashmiri branch of the Distinctionalists and the Sutra School Abhidhar-

PUDGALAVADA IN TIBET? 167

I~L . ~;')!"ka~ (known as the Sutra School Following Scripture) are said ,.rnI . f h (. h . t:tbassert the contmuum 0 ~ e agg~egates I.e., t e contmuum iff rnind and body) as the IllustratIOn of the person, whereas ~lliose of the ~utra Scho~l following Dharmaklrti (the Sutra ~Mchool Followmg Reasonmg) are held to assert the mental con~~~tiousness to be the person.43 .;~: ';\"

ii~~; ~~Proponents qf Mind- Only ~:,~~/.. . ~;Xogaca:as or Citta~atrins-propone~ts ofMind-Only-ass~rt f::.that mmds and objects are truly eXIstent, but deny any eXIS-3'.f~nce at all to objects external to the minds apprehending ~;them. They hold that the meaning of the designation "person" ;~inust, like the meaning of any designation, be findable when ;!;~ought. Not only must one find a person, but one must find it ~~mong its bases of designation-the psychophysical aggre~tgates.44 Those of the Mind-Only persuasion who assert eight ;i;consciousnesses, the followers of Asanga (called Followers of iiScripture), assert the fundamental consciousness (iilayavijfiiina) ~tb be the illustration of the person.45 The Followers of Reasont}hg, following the six-consciousness School of DharmakIrti, ~:~te said to hold the mental consciousness to be the illustration tiofthe person.46

{Aoponents qfNo Intrinsic Identity (Middle Way School)

i?fibetan scholars divide the Middle Way School into two camps, those of the Autonomist School whose most prominent

;members were Bhavaviveka and Santarak~ita, and those who ~fol1ow Candraklrti's Consequentialist Middle Way. The two {differ greatly in regard to their assertions on the person. fIndeed, the Consequentialist Middle Way School differs from ;leaH other schools of Buddhist doctrine in their assertion that lexistents exist only conventionally, only nominally. Unlike !()ther systems of Buddhist doctrine, they say that the search for ,Jan imputed phenomenon is an ultimate analysis-one that reaches the final nature of existence of that thing. According to


Consequentialists, a phenorr:enon. car;not. be foun? when sought among its bases of deslgnatIOn, Dut IS merely Imputed by thought. 47 ,

Autonomists, on the other hand, say that phenomena can_ not be merely imputed by thought, but must be posited through. the force of their appearance to un mistaken consciousnesses. Additionally, phenomena, including the person, must be estab_ lished not merely through imputation, but from the side of the basis of imputation. 48 Ngag-dbang-dpal-Idan says that the Autonomists who follow Bhavaviveka (the Sutra School Autonomists) assert, as the illustration of the person found among. the bases to which it is imputed, the mental consciousness. 49

The other branch-the Yogic Practitioner Autonomists who follow Santarak~ita-say that the person is the continuum of the mental consciousness. 5o Gung-thang explains that the phrase from the sutra quotation, "In dependence on the aggregates," is interpreted by Autonomists as an indication that (I) negatively speaking, the person has no existence without reliance on something other than it, an other that establishes its existence and (2) positively, the basis of designation of the person must be established from its own side.5!

Candraklrti's Consequentialist Middle Way rejects all other Buddhist assertions on the person through insisting on a rigorous analysis of the meaning of the SaT[lyuttanikaya passage. If the person is posited in dependence on the aggregates, they say, it can be neither the aggregates as a whole nor anyone of them.52 Nothing can depend on itself. For Consequentialists, an object designated cannot be found among its bases of desig- ... nation. All non-Consequentialist Buddhist doctrinalists hold, on the other hand, that a phenomenon is found when sought for among its bases of designation. Consequentialists agree with other Buddhists that the psychophysical aggregates are the basis of the designation of a person, as well as being the basis of the false view of self, but they disagree with the others when they say that this person cannot be found among its bases of designation. 53

This does not mean that Consequentialists refute the person. In his commentary on Candraklrti's Madhyamakiivatiira, Tsong-kha-pa says:54


The assertion by others that the aggregates or the mind are the self is a case of positing a self or person in the context of searching for the meaning of the imputation of that [person], without understanding that [the person] is merely posited by the power of convention.

is more specific in his commentary on Nagarjuna's (Miidhya-

The self which is the basis of observation when Devadatta thinks "I" without distinguishing selves of former and later '[lifetimes], is the mere-I which has operated beginninglessly.55

~~,fhus, from looking at these various assertions about the person, ~~\fwo principal models emerge. ~~~~~\; d;}~

$i1~.1~'.'~i;,; .. ;~~,~" '

ie 1 The position of most Buddhist doctrinalists-the Sutra School,

the Distinctionalists, the Mind-Only School and the Autonomist Middle Way School-is that there is a substantialf:y existent illustration qfthe person (either the continuum of the aggregates, a subtle mental consciousness, or the fundamental consciousness [iilqyavijfiiina]) and this substantially existent illustration of the person is find able among the bases of designation of that person.

2 The position of the Gonsequentialist Middle Way School is that whereas there is no find able person, and no substantial existence anywhere, there is an imputedf:y existent mere-I which is the illustration of the person.

'l/:,L 1nAs Gung-thang and other later dGe-Iugs-pas present the latter t~position, the person is by definition an imputed and not a sub;~.stantially existent phenomenon; it is "a phenomenon imputed t~;to one or another of the four or five psychophysical aggregates."56 ~,The qualification "four or five" takes into account the Formless !l;IRealm, where there is no aggregate oHorm (that is, no physical ~ibody), and thus there are not five but four aggregates. ~;;; Whereas the SaT[lyuttanikiija verse quoted by Gung-thang ~".explicitly presents the imputedly existent person-in its words, :~~"the convention 'sentient being"'-Gung-thang and Ngagliidbang-dpal-Idan assert that there is, concomitant with tnis I~imputed self, a substantially existent person. Their assertion i:3

i~!·( '71 .*~:~.


goes back to Tsong-kha-pa and rests on the general principle· that for all except Consequentialists, there must exist at least one ill~stration of all existent imputations, an illustration findable among its bases of imputation. Just as any illustni.tion of table-for instance, wooden table-must be a table, so the illustration of the person must be a person. We read in Tsang_ : kha-pa's Illumination qf the Thought (his commentary on C andra_ kIrti's MadhyamakiivatiirabhiifYa) :57 .

This master [Bhavaviveka], because he does not assert a funda_ mental consciousness [says] that the consciousness which appropriates the body is the mental consciousness. The others who do not assert a fundamental consciousness are similar to him. Those who do assert a fundamental consciousness say that it is just this fundamental consciousness. that is the illustration of the person.

Furthermore, although these [non-Consequentialist] systems [of Buddhist doctrine] assert that Hearers [fravakas] and Solitary Realizers [pratyekabuddhas] of the Modest Vehicle [kina-

. yana] realize the non-existence of a substantially existent person, they do not realize the non-existence as a substantial entity of [either of] those two consciousnesses [i.e., the mental consciousness or the fundamental consciousness]. Hence, the position that the person is not substantially existent in the sense of . being self-sufficient is an assertion made within the context of the self-isolate [rang-ldag] of the person [-that is, the person itself]. There is no such assertion made concerning the consciousness which is the illustration of the person.

When it comes time to posit something which is the person imputed to the psychophysical aggregates, an illustration must be presented. In the case of Asanga's Yogacara School, this is the fundamental consciousness (iilayavijfiiina). Although the fundamental consciousness is the illustration of the imputed person, it is itself substantially existent. Moreover, since it is an illustration of the person, or self, it is a person or self. It must, therefore, be said to be a substantially existent self.58 What is being rejected by Tsong-kha-pa and his followers is a self which is substantially existent in the sense of being selfsufficient (rang rkya thub paJi rdzas yod).59 The substantially existent self asserted by the VatslputrIyas is said to be such a self. 60

PUDGALAV ADA IN TIBET? l7l

dGe-lugs-pas hold that Buddhist philosophers, with the exception of Consequentialists, do not reject substantial existence-more precisely, whereas they reject one kind of substantial existence, they accept another, at least for some phenomena. At sGo-mang College, the distinction is made between the following types of substantial existence: 51

1 substantial existence in the sense of self-sufficiency (rang skya thub paJi rdzas yod), where this is taken to mean an ability on the part of a thing to stand by itself without depending on bases of designations or on parts;

2 substantial existence in the sense of being self-sufficiently apprehensible (rang rkya Hzin thub pa)i rdzas yo d) , taken to mean the ability to appear as an object of consciousness without reliance on an other entity, for example, the prior elimination of an object of negation.

A pot, for example, is the second but not the first. It is self-sufficiently apprehensible because it may be directly perceived (by, for instance, a visual consciousness) without the prior elimination of an object of negation. It is, however, not self-sufficient, because it is not established independently of its parts. 52 All of the illustrations of the person presented by Gung-thang and Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan on behalf of the various Buddhist doctrinal systems would, for sGo-mang scholars, be substantially existent in the sense of being self-sufficiently apprehensible, but none would be substantially existent in the sense of selfsufficiency; all depend on their parts.

We thus see dGe-lugs-pas claiming that all Buddhists save Consequentialists assert two types of persons:

(a) an imputedly existent person (b) a substantially existent person which is the illustration

ofthe imputed person.

The imputed person, the person itself, is an imputation made to some basis or bases of imputation among the psychophysical aggregates. That person in no way substantially exists; since something whose entity is other than the person-the aggregates-must first appear as a basis for the designation

172 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO. I

"person." However, the illustration of that person-the mental consciousness or the fundamental consciousness-does sub. stantially' exist; it is self-sufficiently apprehensible and not merely a designation made in dependeflce on something else.

The person or self that is refuted in the doctrine of selfless. ness is the self-sufficient person; although it appears to exist among the aggregates that are its bases of designation, it can be shown that there is no self-sufficient person there. 63 The Consequentialist Middle Way School additionally refutes even the substantially existent person the other schools accept. They say that when an illustration of the imputedly existent person is sought, nothing substantial will be found; there are merely imputedly existent aggregates with no substantial basis.64 The Consequentialist assertion, according to dGe-Iugs. pas, of a person which is a merely impui-ed "mere-I" (nga tsam) serves the same function as other Buc1 ... hists' assertion of a sub .. stantially existent consciousness or continuum of aggregates as . the person. For, their mere-I exists on a par with other phenomena; in Consequentialist philosophy, everything that exists is merely imputedly existent.

The Person as Agent

Both the substantially existent illustrations of the per~on, such as the fundamental consciousness, and the imputedly existent mere· I of the Consequentialists are posited as transmigratorstakers of rebirth from life to life. Thus, they are posited for the sake of presenting a basis whereby intentional moral and immoral actions (karma) may be connected with effects at a later time, typically after the death of the one doi?g the action. 65

Gung-thang makes the point that whereas Sariputra's fun· damental con§ciol.lsness is a transmigrator, it is not a monk (even though Sariputra, of course, is a monk). A transmigrator is a person posited from the viewpoint of the psychophysical aggregates as karmic fruitions; a monk, however, is an instance of an imputed person-the monk is dependent on having a preceptor, assuming and keeping certain vows, and so forth.66 Similarly, if my own fundamental consciousness were a human· or were Joe Wilson (both of which are imputations and neither of which are substantially existent), it would have a mother, yet it is absurd to speak of a consciousness having a mother. 67


Gung-thang places this in the context of ethics when he says that although Ajatasatru's fundamental consciousness is an

o that is an illustration of Ajatasatru and, thus, an ego that ···~gan illustration of a patricide, his fundamental consciousness

.• ~~not a patricide. 68 To say that the fundamental consciousness ~s an ego that is an illustration of something is not to say that if one searches for that thing, one finds the fundamental consciousness. 69 When one says that Aj atasatru's fundamental consciousness is the ego that is the illustration of a killer, this

• 'means that if one seeks the killer of Bimbisara, Ajatasatru will .. be turned up, but not his fundamental consciousness. The fun-. damental consciousness is not the killer; however, the I or ego

that is the killer is the fundamental consciousness. A fundamental consciousness, Gung-thang says, is neither an agent

.nor an experiencer. It can only be the ego found when the

. agent or experiencer is sought among its bases of designation. Consequentialists disagree with other Buddhist doc

trinalists when they say that the mere-I that is Ajatasatru's basis of conception of I exists beginninglessly. The others say that if the basis of designation of the imputedly existent I is sought it will be found among the aggregates of this lifetime. For non-Consequentialists, Ajatasatru and his aggregates are contemporaneous. 70 Consequentialists speak of the mere-I as a shared I that exists over many lifetimes, past, present, and

· future. 7l They say that this mere-I is the basis of the thought "I" when someone clairvoyantly remembers a former lifetime and is the basis of that person's acting ethically due to fear that

· he will suffer in a future lifetime should he do otherwise.72 An individual such as Ajatasatru is not this mere-I. "Ajatasatru's I" is only a particular instance of the mere-I of his continuum;

.' Tsong-kha-pa calls it "the minor self of an individual rebirth."73

Conclusions

.Certain things have become evident in this brief examination of assertions on selves and selflessness. First, it is clear that there are many different senses in which the word "self" is used, even when used in the term "selflessness."74 Within the selflessness of persons, a division is made into coarse and sub-tle selflessnesses. Vatslputrlyas are able to maintain their

174 jIABS VOL. 14 NO.1

standing as Buddhists because, while they do propound a selfsufficient person, they reject the coarse self-a permanent partless, and independent person. The Tibetan and Mongolia~ writers examined in this article are able to assert the existent self as they do because they clearly differentiate it from the sub_ tle nonexistent self. That is, they interpret non-Consequen_ tialist Buddhist doctrinalists to be rejecting a self-sufficient self but (at least from the viewpoint of sGo-mang College) to be asserting a self-sufficiently apprehensible illustration of the person. The distinctions they make within substantial existence particularly that between self-sufficiency and self-sufficien~ apprehensibility, seem to be novel to them; if they have their origin in the works of such Indian scholars as Asanga, it must be said that such origin is by way of suggestion or implication rather than explicit indication.

I t is further apparent that there are some similarities and some dissimilarities between the analyses of person and personal identity made by these modern Tibeto-Mongolian philosophers and analyses of personal identity made by modern Anglo-American philosophers.

Both are clearly identifying an entity within the context of moral responsibility, but from different viewpoints. However, where Western philosophers regard the person as being a rational, responsible entity, a self-aware being who is an actor in the moral sphere,75 the Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhist philosophers examined in this paper hold a position that implies a different perspective. Whereas one can speak of a designation-the imputedly existent person-which is an actor and is therefore morally responsible, once one turns and seeks an illustration of this person, what is found is not an actor and therefore not morally responsible.

This is because what is found is either nothing (according to the Consequentialists) or is a subtle type of consciousness that is neither virtuous nor nonvirtuous-i.e., not morally definitive (lung du ma bstan pa, myakrta) -such as the fundamental consciousness. 76 Actions are for most Buddhists really fulfilled intentions, and thus mental in nature. 77 This, however, is not enough: moral actions must definitively be either virtuous or nonvirtuous. The substantially existent person, which is the ground of personal continuity and thus the entity that car-


the seeds left by actions / intentions, must be neither virtunor nonvirtuous. Were it otherwise, it would not be able to

while its opposite was present; for, virtuous minds nonvirtuous minds are incompatible and cannot coexis.t at

same time in the same place. 78 Were the person one or the it would cease as soon as its inimical opposite arose and

"UJ''''--' that case personal continuity would be lost.

Buddhists posit substantially existent persons within the sphere, but they are not actors. They do, however, serve

make moral responsibility possible. Illustrations of the persuch as the fundamental consciousness, the basis carry

the seeds left by moral and immoral actions, are merely mechanisms by which an action can bring about a later

They are persons because they survive over time; they , not selves (that is, as the term is used in "selflessness")

within that continuity they change and because they of temporally discrete parts, and therefore not

1. Journal qf Indian Philosophy 17:43-59 (1989). 2. Ibid., p. 43. 3. Ibid., pp. 55-56. 4. Matthew Kapstein, "Collins, Parfit, and the problem of personal

in two philosophical traditions-A review of Selfless Persons by Steven and Reasons' and Persons ,by Derek Parflt" (Philosophy East and T#st 36/3 289-298), p. 295.

5. Steven Collins, Selfless Persons (Cambridge: Cambridge University 1982), p. 3. 6. Roger Corless says, in his recent book, The Vision qf Buddhism (New

York: Paragon House, 1989), p. xx: "It is my contention that history, a western, post-Christian, academic discipline, is non-Buddhist, even anti-Buddhist ... and, hence, any attempt to explain Buddhism primariTy by means of its history obscures, and sometimes destroys, the reality, that is, the Buddhism that it is

trying to study and explain." 7. "Buddhist Hybrid English: Some Notes on Philology and Hermeneu

tics for Buddhologists" (pp. 17-32 in Journal qf the International Association qf BudStudles4/2 [1981]), p. 20.

8. The former extreme may be seen in many translations published by Western centers of Tibetan Buddhism, whereas the latter is seen in Kapstein's article, "Santarak~ita on the Fallacies of Personalistic Vitalism."


9. On Being Mindless. Budd~ist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem (La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1986), p. XIX. . . . . "

10. "Who Will Speakfor the RehglOus TradltlOns? (Journal of the American Academy of Religion 57: 699-717), p. 701. Wilkens is quoting Doniger in "The Uses and Misuses of Other Peoples' Myths" Uournal of the American Academy if Religion 54: 219-239).

11. Griffiths, "Buddhist Hybrid English," p. 21. 12. See 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, Grub mtha' chen'mo, 131b.6-132a.l_

there he distinguishes the Vaibha~ika or Distinctionalist School from the Sau_ trantika or Sutra School; the former reject only a permanent, partless, and inde_ pendent self whereas the latter also reject a substantial self. See also Joe vVilson, Chandrakfrti's Sevenfold Reasoning: Nfeditation on the Selflessness of Persons (Dharam_ sala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1980), p. 14.

13. Candraklrti, Madhyamakiivatiirabhiirya-the commentary on the basic verses (Madhyamakiivatiira) 1.3-4; see the translation ofTsong-kha-pa's commen_ tary in Jeffrey Hopkins, Compassion in, Tibetan Buddhism (Valois, New York: Gabriel! Snow Lion, 1980), pp. 116-125. Santideva implies that an understanding of selflessness underlies compassion in his discussion of self and other at Bodhiciiryiivatiira 8.99ff. (pp. 162ff. in the Bibliotheca Indica edition ofVidhushekhara Bhattacharya [Calcutta: The Asiatic Society, 1960]).

14. The Tibetan is given here prior to the Sanskrit following a format suggested by Leah Zahler ("Meditation and Cosmology: The Physical basis of the Concentrations and the Formless Absorptions According to dGe-lugs Tibetan Presentations," pp. 53-78 in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 13/1 [1990]), note 1, p. 73). I am not presenting Tibetan philosophical analyses merely as an aid to an understanding of Indian Buddhist writers, but in their own right. The Sanskrit is given as a point of reference for the convenience of those with no Tibetan.

15. See, for example, Etienne Lamotte, Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien (Louvain-la-neuve: Institut Orientaliste, 1976), p. 671.

16. 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, Grub mtha' chen mo, 126a.5-6 and 130b.3-4. Vasubandhu's commentator Yasomitra (in the commentary on the ninth-chapter refutation of the self in the Abhidharmakofa) seems to equate the Vatslputrlyas and the Sal!lmatlyas. See Yasomitra, Abhidharmakofasphu{iirthavyiikhyii (edited by Swami Dwarikadas Shastri [Bauddha Bharati Series No.5] as Abhidharmakofa & Bhiirya of Acharya Vasubandhu with Sphutiirtha Commentary of Acarya Yafomitra [Banaras: Bauddha Bharati, 1970]).

17. dKon-mchog-'jig-med-dbang-po, Precious Garland of Tenets (Grub pa'i mtha'i rnam par bzhag pa rin po che'i 'phreng ba [Mundgod, India: Drepung Loseling Printing Press, 1980], p:7) identifies the self asserted by the Vatslputrlyas as one that exists substantially in the sense of being self-sufficient. 'Jam-dbyangsbzhad-pa discusses this in Grub mtha' chen mo (13 7b.l-139a.5). The relevant annotation is in Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan, Annotations for (jam-yang-s,..hi-ba's [Jamdbyangs-bzhed-paJ) "Great Exposition of Tenets," Freeing the Knots of the Difficult Points, a Precious Jewel of Clear Thought (Grub mtha' chen mo'i mchan 'grel dka' gnad ndud grol blo gsal gces nor [Sarnath: Pleasure of Elegant Sayings Press, 1964]), vol. dngos,


.16a.4-21b.6. On this school, see also A. K. Warder, Indian Buddhism (Delhi: . 11 tilal Banarsidass, 1980), pp. 240-242.

o 18. See, for example, dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po, Grub mtha rin che

;hhreng ba, p. 17. 19. Kapstein's translation of atman as "substantial self" seems ill consi-

ered, given that Buddhist p~ilo.sophers differentiate among so many different )rts of atman, only one of whIch IS a rdzas yod kyi bdag.

20. See Lamotte, Histoire, pp. 600, 673-4. 21. The main source for the assertions on personal identity presented in

:Us article is Gung-thang's On a variety qf Responses to Questions on Doctrinal Asserons (literally, various Answers to Questions Concerning Assertions in the Four Tenet ~s,rns-Grub mtha' bzhi'i 'dod tshul sogs dris lan sna tshogs kyi skoT, pages 127-170 in ne Collected liVorks qf Gun-than Dkon-mchog-bstan-pa'i Sgron-me [New Delhi: Ngarang Gelek Demo, 1972], Volume III)-abbreviated as Grub mtha' dris lan. The laterial relevant to personal identity is seen at 3b.4-7a.3 (that is, pp. 132-139). I.ilother important source is Gung-thang's Textbook on Fundamental Consciousness KY.ngzhi'iyig cha). The full name ofthis work is A Fordfor the WIse: An Explanation (the Difficult Topics qf (Tsong-kha-pa's) "[Extensive Commentary on the Difficult ToPics o Mentality and Fundamental Consciousness" (Yid dang kun gzhi'i dka'i gnad rnam par shad pa mkhas pa'i 'jug ngog [Buxa: 1965 J). I t has been translated in Joe Wilson, rhe Meaning qf Mind in the Buddhist Philosophy qf Mind-On{Y (doctoral dissertation: lniversity of Virginia, 1984). My source for Ngag-dbang-dpal-Idan's positions s his Annotations for Uam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa's ['jam-yang-sM-baJ) "Great Exposition f Tenet!;," Freeing the Knots qf the Difficult Points, a Precious Jewel qf Clear Thought 'Grub mtha' chen mo'i mchan 'grel dka' gnad mdud grol blo gsal gees nor [Sarnath: Pleaure of Elegant Sayings Press, 1964])-abbreviated hereafter as Annotations.

22. 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, Explanation qf [the Basic Verses Called] "Tenets," :Un oj the Land qf Samantabhadra Brilliantly Illuminating All qf Our Own and Others' renets and the Meaning qfthe Profound, An Ocean qfScripture and Reasoning Fu{filling All

30pes qf All Beings (Grub mtha'i rnam bshad rang gzhan grub mtha' kun dang zab don mchog tu gsal ba kun b.zang zhing gi nyi ma lung rigs rgya mtsho skye dgu'i re ba kun skong [Musoorie: Dalarna, 1962])-known as (and abbreviated here as) Grub mtha'

'chen mo. 23. dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po, Precious Garland qfTenets (Grub pa'i

mtha'i rnam par bzhag pa rin po che'i 'phreng ba [Mundgod, India: Drepung Loseling Printing Press, 1980J)-known as (and abbreviated here as) Grub mtha rin che 'phreng ba.

24. Stephan Beyer, The Cult oj Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley; University of California Press, 1973), p. xvi-quoted in Paul Griffiths, On Being Mindless, p. 146 (note 8). Griffiths confesses to difficulty with this idea, asserting that Buddhist texts are as much a part of the study of Buddhism as Buddhists.

25. According to 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa (Grub mtha' chen mo, p. 132a.l-5), the word vaibhajika derives both from the fact that these writers are followers of

.', the Mahavibhaja and from the fact that they make distinctions among subs tan, tial entities (rdzas, dravya).

26. See 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, Grub mtha' chen mo, 124b.6-126a.3.


27. Many positions are identified in ambiguous ways-as those of kha ci ("someone"), or la la ("someone"), or bod pa snga ma ("a previous Tibetan"), etc~

28. Websters' Third New International Dictionary (Chicago: Merriam-Webster 1981). '

29. Ngag-dbang-dpa1-1dan, Grub mtha'mchan, vol. stod, 20.4-6. 30. 'Jam-dbyangs-bzhad-pa, Grub mtha' chen mo, 249.5. 31. Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan, Grub mtha' mchan, vol. stod, 20.7. 32. dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po, Grub mtha rin che 'phreng ba, p. 45.

See also Geshe Lhundup Sopa and Jeffrey Hopkins, Cutting Through Appearances: Practice and Theory if Tibetan Buddhism (Ithaca: Snow Lion, 1989), pp. 260-267.

33. dKon-mchog-'jigs-med-dbang-po, ibid., page 50. 34. Grub mtha' bzhi'i 'dod tshul sogs dris lan sna tshogs kyi skor (pages 127-170

in The Collected U0rks if Gun-than Dkon-mchog-bstan-pa'i Sgron-me [New Delhi: Ngawang Gelek Demo, 1972J, Volume III), 3b.6-4a.l (that is, pp. 132-133).

35. The full name of this book is A FordJor the Wise: An Explanation if the Difficult Topics if (Tsong-kha-pa's) "[Extensive Commentary on the Difficult ToPics qfj Mentality and Fundamental Consciousness" (Yid dang kun gzhi'i dka'i gnad rnam par bshad pa mkhas pa'i 'jug ngog [Buxa: 1965 J. It has been translated in Joe Wilson, The Meaning if Mind in the Buddhist Philosophy if Mind-Only (doctoral dissertation: University of Virginia, 1984). See especially pages 513-519 and 561-581 of the translation.

36. Gung-thang, Grub mtha' dris lan, 4a.1 (p. 133.1). Gung-thang's source for this passage is probably Candraldrti's NIadhyamakiivatiirabhiiva (commentary on Madhyamakiivatiira 6.135ab, where this as well as the immediately preceding verse of the sutra are quoted. The Tibetan (Dharamsala edition [Tibetan Publishing House, 1968], p. 198.7-9; Bibliotheca Buddhica edition of Poussin, p. 258) reads: Ji ltar yan lag tshogs rnams lal brten nas shing rtar brjod pa ltar I de bzhin phung pa rnams brten nas I kun rdzob sems can zhes bya'o I. The original is San:zyuttanikqya I, page 135 (Pali Text Society edition [reprinted 1973J): yatha hi angasambhara II hoti saddo ratha iti I I evam khandhesu santesu I I hoti satto ti sammuti I I .

37. The Vzsuddhi-Magga if Buddhaghosa, edited by C.A.F. Rhys Davids (London: Pali Text Society, 1975), p. 593; translation in Bhikkhu Nyanamoli, Path if Purification (Berkeley: Shambhala, 1986), p. 688 (Visuddhimagga XVIII,25-26) .

38. Ibid., XVIII, 28; Pali text, p. 594. 39. Madhyamakiivatiirabhiiva (Dharamsala edition), p. 198; commentary

on Madhyamakiivatiira 6.135. See Tsong-kha-pa, Illumination if the Thought: An Extensive Explanation if (Candrakirti's) Madhyamakiivatiira (Dbu ma la 'jug pa'i rgya cher bshad pa dgongs pa rab gsal [P6142, volume 154J-Sarnath: Pleasure of Elegant Sayings Press, 1973), pp. 379-80. Abbreviated hereafter as Dgongs pa rab gsal.

40. See Jeffrey Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness (London: Wisdom Publications, 1983), p. 415.

41. Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, 21a.4-5. The passage quoted is translated following the citation in the Buxa edition and not the Lhasa edition which erroneously reads brdzad pa for brjod pa. I have been unable to find this quotation in Mkhas-grub's Stong thun mig 'byed; however cf. 214b.2 in Lha-mkhar Yons-


B"stanpa-rgyal-mtshan [ed.], Stoh thun chen mo qf Mkhas-grub Dge-legs-dpal.. :g and other texts on Madhyamika philosophy (New Delhi: 1972). t,an 42. Gung-thang, Grub mtha' dris lan, p. 133.2-3.

43. Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan, Grub mtha'mchan, vol. dbu 25b.8-26a.l. 44. Gung-thang, Grub mtha' dris lan, p.l33.3-S. 45. Ibid.' 46. Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan, Grub mtha'mchan, vol. dbu 26a.l. 47. See Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, pp. 170, 173, 192. 48. Gung-thang, Grub mtha' dris lan, pp.l33.S-134.2. 49. Ngag-dbang-dpal-ldan, Grub mtha' mchan, vol. dbu 26a.l. 50. Ibid., 26a.l-2. 51. Gung-thang, Grub mtha' dris lan, pp.l34.l-2. 52. Gung-thang presents the Prasangika refutation of the other systems

mtha'dris lan, ,4b.2-5a.4. 53. See Wilson, Chandrakrrti's SeverifOld Reasoning. 54. Tsong-kha-pa, Dgongs pa rab gsal (Sarnath), p. 373.6-8. 55. Tsong-kha-pa, Ocean qf Reasoning: An Explanation qf (Niigiirjuna's) (CTrea~

on the Middle Wlry" (Dbu ma rtsa ba'i tshig le'ur byas pa shes rab ces bya ba'i mam ad rigs pa'i rgya mtsho [Sarnath: Pleasure of Elegant Sayings Press, 1973]),

'.215.8-10. Abbreviated hereafter as Rigs pa'i rgya mtsho. 56. This is the definition of person (gang zag) presented orally by contem

IWi·,nnr,"rv dGe-lugs-pa scholars. Tsong-kha-pa, Dgongs pa rab gsal, p. 368.3-9. Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, 49b.6. See Hopkins, Meditation on Emptiness, p. 303; Wilson, Chandrakrrti's

pp. 16-17; and Gung-thang, Kungzhi'iyig cha, 50a.3-Sla.3. Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, SOa.4-5. Ibid., SOb.S-6. Ibid.,50b.6-Sla.l. See Tsong-kha-pa, Dgongs pa rab gsal, p. 368.l0ff., 391.12ff. Ibid., pp. 404.17-405.6. See Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, 28a.1-2, 28b.5-29a.2. Ibid., 27b.5-6. lowe this insight to the Abbot Emeritus of Go-mang College, Geshe

,,,,~ ... ~ •• ,,, Nyima. 68. Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, 24b.3. 69. Ibid., 24b.1.ff. 70. Ibid. 71. Ibid., 28b.6-29a.2-quoting Tsong-kha-pa, Rigs pa'i rgya mtsho,

pp. 237.16-238.l. 72. Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'i yig cha, 28b.5-6. 73. Tsong-kha-pa, Rigs pa'i rgya mtsho, 21S.l2-13-quoted in Gung-thang,

cha, 28b.S. See Wilson, Chandrakirti's SeverifOld Reasoning, pages 13-15 for an

See, for example, Daniel Dennett, "Conditions of Personhood" (pp. in Amelie Oksenberg Rorty [ed.], The Identities qfPersons [Berkeley: Uni-


versity ofCa1ifornia Press, 1976J), pp. 177-178 where six "familiar themes" are enumerated: (1) persons are rational beings; (2) persons are beings to which states of consciousness are attributed; (3) persons are treated in certain special ways; (4) persons are capable of reciprocating this treatment; (5) persons are capable of verbal communication; (6) persons are distinguishable from other entities by being conscious in some way.

76. Concerning the morally neutral nature of the fundamental conscious_ ness, see Gung-thang, Kun gzhi'iyig cha, pp. II b.6-12a.l and30a.l-30b.1.

77. See Etienne Lamotte, "Le traite de l'acte de Vasubandhu: Karmasid_ dhiprakaraI).a" (pp. 151-288 in Melanges chino is et bouddhiques 4 (1935-36)), pp. 166--171.

78. This is, according to the Mind-Only philosophers, one of the reasons one must assert a fundamental consciousness or something functionally equiva_ lent to it. See Wilson, "Meaning of Mind," pp. 321-325.

II. REVIEWS

The Dawn if Chinese Pure Land Buddhist Doctrine: Ching-ying Hui-yuan's Commentary on the Visualization Sutra, by Kenneth K. Tanaka, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1990. 304 pages, AppendL'(, Notes, Glossary, Bibliography, Index.

This book is an important study in the history of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism. It clarifies the role of the oldest surviving commentary on the Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching (Visualization Svira, Contemplation Sutra, or Meditation Sutra) ,1 the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching i-shu, compiled by the sixth century Buddhist exegete Ching-ying Hui-yuan (523-592). It corrects a biased assessment of Ching-ying Hui-yuan and of his relation to the better known Pure Land master Shan-tao (613-68l) .

. It raises several interesting issues in the history of Chinese Pure Land piety, some intentionally and some unintentionally. And it contributes an accurate and readable translation of an influential Chinese Buddhist text, Ching-ying Hui-yuan's commentary on the Kuan ching.

Ching-ying Hui-yuan was one of the most prominent clerics of his age. He is called Ching-ying Hui-yuan-Hui-yuan ofChing-ying Temple-to distinguish him from his more illustrious predecessor, Lu-shan Hui-yuan (334-416), Hui-yuan of Mount Lu. A disciple of Sangha Supervisor Fa-shang (495-580), Ching-ying Hui-yuan was a prolific writer and important thinker. His works include commentaries on a num~er of important texts such as the Nirviir;a Sutra, the Vimalakfrti, the Srzmiiliidevf, the Sukhiivatzvyuha and the Awakening if Faith in the Mahifyiina, and, of course, on the Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching. In addition, he compiled a large encyclopedia of Buddhist terms, the Ta-ch'eng i-cha'T!g. He survived the suppression of Buddhism during the years 577-580 to emerge as one of the so-called Six Worthies of the early Sui Dynasty (581-618). While Ching-ying Hui-

. yuan has traditionally been associated with the She-lun or Ti-lun schools, Tanaka maintains that this ascription is inaccurate and that he is more correctly described as an eclectic thinker interested in

. Yogacara thought who preceded and provided a transition to the more narrowly focused founders of the Buddhist schools of the early T'ang period (618-906).

Although Tanaka translates the title of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching ("Sutra of Contemplation/Visualization on [the Buddha of] Immeasurable Life") as Visualization Sutra, we will refer to this text

181


as the Contemplation Sutra> a title used by Tanaka himself elsewhere (Fujita 1990).2 Ching-ying Hui-yuan's Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra is the oldest surviving commentary on this text, and is a work which, as Tanaka demonstrates, had a major impact on Pure Land devotionalism in China. It is one of two Pure Land works produced by Ching-ying Hui-yuan. The other, as mentioned above, is a Commentary on the Sukhiivativyuha or Larger Pure Land Sutra> or more exactly, on the fifth century translation of the Sukhiivatzvyuha titled Wu-liang-shou ching.

In spite of his impact on Chinese Pure Land piety, the character of and the motivation for Ching-ying Hui-yuan's interest in Pure Land devotionalism-a subordinate interest at most-remains obscure. According to Tanaka, Ocho Enichi and others have proposed that the severe persecution of Buddhism to which Hui-yuan was subjected convinced him of the arrival of the final age of the dharma> and that this stimulated his interest in Pure Land piety. Tanaka rejects this motivation, however, because Hui-yuan's writings do not express a belief in the advent of the final age of the dharma. Tanaka proposes instead that Hui-yuan's association with the Hui-kuang lineage helps account for his interest in Pure Land piety. Hui-kuang (468-537) was a disciple ofBodhiruci-the same Bodhiruci who converted the well-known Pure Land master T'an-Iuan (c. 488-554) to Pure Land faith-and a teacher of Fa-shang, Ching~ying Hui-yuan's teacher. Although both Fa-shang and Hui-yuan were more interested in Yogacara teachings than any other, Hui-kuang apparently aspired to rebirth in Amitabha's Pure Land, and Tanaka points out that Hui-kuang and his lineage had considerable interest as well in another important Pure Land text, the Wu-liang-shou-ching yu-po-t'ishe yuan-sheng chieh ("Discourse on the Sutra ofImmeasurable Life and Verse on Rebirth") ascribed to Vasubandhu, the eminent Yogacara master. Tanaka does not discuss, however, the character ofHui-yuan's Pure Land piety. We will return to this point below. (In passing, we should note that in his Glossary Tanaka mistakenly assigns the graphs for Hui-ch'ung to Hui-kuang. In fact, the whole sequence of graphs between "Hui-ch'ung" and "Hui-kuang" is misaligned.)

The major contribution of Tanaka's book is to show how Chingying Hui-yuan's Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra enhanced the status of the Contemplation Sutra and contributed substantially to the subsequent discourse on Pure Land themes derived from that siUra. The Contemplation Sutra is a well-known text, interesting for both its origins and contents. Tanaka, summarizing the researches of Fujita Kotatsu and Yamada Meiji, presents convincing evidence that it is an apocryphal work. 3 Although Tanaka does not come to this conclu-

REVIEWS 183

. 'on it seems clear from his discussion of the research on the subject ~at' this text was compiled in China by the Central Asian mission

.. ry-monk Kalayasas and a Chinese assistant between 424 and 442, ~sing several kir:ds of pre-exist:nt C~nt~al Asian ~nd Chinese n:ateials. Tanaka pomts out that whIle thIS sutra was wIdely used for htur~ical purposes, prior to its treatment by Ching-ying Hui-yuan it had as yet attracted little scholarly interest. In the approximately one

.. >hundred years between its compilation and Hui-yuan's commentary it had received only the attention ofT'an-luan, who refers to and discusses it several times in his commentary on the Discourse on the Sutra of Immeasurable Lift and verse on Rebirth ofVasubandhu, and of Ling-yu (518-605), wh~ apparently authored a co~~.ent,ary on the Contemplation Sutra w~llch may have preceded Hm-yuan s commentary but no longer survIVes.

The Contemplation Sutra opens with a dran:atic prologue on the tragic situation of Lady Vaidehi, presents Sakyamuni Buddha's

. instructions to her on forming thirteen contemplations on various aspects ofthe Pure Land, Amitabha Buddha and his bodhisattvas, and then presents three additional "contemplations," which are actually descriptions of the rebirths into the Pure Land of nine grades of persons. The first thirteen contemplations are instructions in contemplative buddha-reflection (kuan-fo), and the nine grades present various means or causes of rebirth, such as meritorious acts, types of faith and especially invocational buddha-reflection (ch 'eng-ming nienfl). It is thus a text very rich in instructions on praxis, including forms of ethical conduct, the cultivation of devotional attitudes and descriptions of buddha-reflection, and moreover praxis ranging in difficulty from detailed visualizations culminating in buddha-reflection samadhi [nien-fo san meiJ to simple utterance of the name of Amitabhajust ten times.

Subsequent to Ching-ying Hui-yuan's commentary, the Contemplation Sutra became the subject of considerable scholarly attention. Commentaries and treatments by Chi-tsang (549-623), Tao-ch'o (562-645), Shan-tao and others followed in rapid succession. Tanaka lists twelve extant commentaries or treatments dating through the Sun period (960-1279). And from the Sui period on, the Contemplation Sutra became a basic scripture of the lay devotional movement led by Tao-ch'o, Shan-tao and their successors. The Contemplation Sutra was therefore at the very center of the development of Pure Land piety in China.

Tanaka's study of Ching-ying Hui-yuan's Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra clarifies the process of this development in a number of ways. Tanaka claims that Hui-yuan's commentary interjected the


Contemplation Sutra into Buddhist scholarly discourse. In spite of the fact that thissutra had not received much scholarly attention hereto_ fore, Ching-ying Hui-yuan gave it the same careful treatment and subjected it to the same formal commentarial format as he had already applied to several major Mahayana texts. Tanaka points Out that this tended to give to the Contemplation Sutra the same high status as these major texts and bring it to the serious attention of other scholars. Tanaka further claims that Hui-yuan's commentary integrated the Contemplation Sutra into Mahayana doctrine, first by giving it a "doctrinal classification" (Fan-chiao )-a position within a systematic schema of all Buddhist doctrines-and secondly by assign_ ing to the persons of the nine grades of rebirth locations upon traditional Buddhist soteriological path-structures.

In addition to enhancing the status of the Contemplation Sutra, Tanaka points out that in his Commentary Hui-yuan made important contributions to Pure Land thought as well. One type of contribution was in defining the major problems or issues to be treated in the sutra. Another was devising the nomenclature utilized in his own and subsequent commentaries on the sutra. Some of the major problems or issues defined by Hui-yuan were the essential teaching (tsung) of the sutra; the soteriological status of the interlocutor, Lady Vaidehi; the types of sentient beings for whom the sutra was preached; the causes of the rebirth of the nine grades of persons; the soteriological status of the nine classes of persons reborn; and the ontological status of the Pure Land and its Buddha. Nomenclature utilized by Hui-yuan which subsequently became standard for Pure Land doctrinal discourse include such terms as "ordinary person" (fan-ju) . and "saint" or "sage" (sheng:jen), and meditative good works (tingshan) versus non-meditative good works (san-shan). These issues and terms were utilized not only in subsequent commentaries on the Contemplation Sutra which agreed with Hui-yuan's interpretation, such as the Chi-tsang and T'ien-t'ai commentaries, but also in commentaries and treatments such as the Shan-tao commentary and Taoch'o's An-lo chi which disagreed with many of the conclusions of the Hui-yuan commentary.

Finally, a third form of influence wielded by Hui-yuan's commentary upon the Pure Land movement was to offer interpretations of the sutra which endured and became widely accepted, even by the popular or lay Pure Land movement led by Tao-ch'o and Shan-tao. Tanaka points out, for example, that contrary to the view of most modern scholars, Ching-ying Hui-yuan considered the Contemplation Sutra a teaching for ordinary persons and not for saints or sages, and moreover that he designated invocation of the name of Amitabha Buddha as one of several possible causes of rebirth in the Pure Land.

REVIEWS 185

An additional concern of this book is to clarify the relation of Ching-ying Hui-yuan's commentary on the Contemplation Sutra to the 'better known commentary of the T'ang period Pure Land Buddhist Shan-tao. Shan-tao. is the most important Chinese Pure. Land thinker and evangehst. From around 650 C.E. he took up resIdence in the capital and vigorously propagated Pure Land piety. In addition to composing several liturgical works setting out hymns and

''rituals for congregational worship and painting dozens of depictions of Amitabha and the Pure Land as objects of devotion, he produced 'an extensive commentary on the Contemplation Sutra. This commen

,tary and Shan-tao's other writings vigorously propagated Pure Land ,.faith and also clarified and systematized Pure Land doctrines and practices.

Shan-tao's commentary presents a quite different interpretation of the Contemplation Sutra than that found in the Hui-yuan commentary. Tanaka discusses in detail the major differences between the two. From this discussion and an examination of the two commentaries it is clear that whereas Ching-ying Hui-yuan interpreted the

. sutra primarily as instruction in meditation for advanced practicers, . though also as encouragement to aspiration for rebirth, Shan-tao

interpreted it as a revelation of the availability of Pure Land rebirth for even the most unworthy, as well as instruction in meditation. Yet, although Shan-tao's view ofthe soteriological import ofthe sutra was quite different from Hui-yuan's, Tanaka points out that the Shan-tao commentary owes a great debt to Hui-yuan. First of all, since Hui

. yuan's commentary had established the Contemplation Sutra as the pri-mary vehicle for discourse on Pure Land themes, Shan-tao's very choice of the Contemplation Sutra as a text to elucidate was probably

, influenced by the Hui-yuan commentary. Moreover, consistent with the influence of Hui-yuan's work on subsequent treatments of the Contemplation Sutra, Shan-tao's commentary utilizes nomenclature devised by Hui-yuan, treats many of the same problems as had Huiyuan, and even adopts some ofHui-yuan's interpretations.

The above points constitute the major contributions of this book. While making these observations, Kenneth Tanaka also endeavors to correct a bias in Pure Land Buddhist studies which has not only obscured Ching-ying Hui-yuan's contributions to the Chinese Pure Land movement, but has also distorted our understanding of the scope and process of development of that movement. Tanaka points out that most modern scholarship on Chinese Pure Land has been conducted by Japanese scholars, and by Japanese scholars affiliated with the major Japanese Pure Land denominations, the Jodo Shu and theJodo Shinshu. For these denominational scholars authentic or "orthodox" Chinese Pure Land tends to be con-


fined to the thinkers who have been designated as the patriarchs and forerunners of these denominations. Consequently, figures, not included in this lineage, such as Ching-ying Hui-yuan, have been neglected or misunderstood. For most Japanese Pure Land Buddhist scholarship, Ching-ying Hui-yuan has been seen as merely a mistaken interpreter of the Contempation Siitra whose views were subsequently corrected by the Pure Land patriarch· accepted by the Japanese, Shan-tao.

This study thus applies a valuable corrective to a field which has long been dominated by biased sectarian scholarship. Unfortu_ nately, however, Tanaka's study itself is cast in a sectarian mold. In reaction to the sectarian bias he so laudably and capably corrects Tanaka shapes his own study around a distinction between figure; he calls "orthodox Pure Land Buddhists" and "those of Pure Land Buddhism." (Tanaka defines Pure Land Buddhism as "a set of beliefs and practices that espouses for its aspirants the realization of the stage of non-retrogression ... either in the present life or through rebirth in a Buddha land or realm ... called 'Sukhavat!' .... ") The orthodox Pure Land Buddhists, he identifies as T'an-Iuan, Tao-ch'o and Shan-tao. Those categorizable under "the larger rubric Pure Land Buddhism" he designates as Lu-shan Hui-yuan, Fa-chao (c. 763-804), and other figures such as Ching-ying Hui-yiian who, though not related to the Japanese denominational lineages, wrote Pure Land commentaries or treatises. While Tanaka realizes that the "orthodox Pure Land Buddhists ... neither espoused a uniform set of ideas ... nor constituted a direct line of transmission," nonetheless his application of this termilJology to Chinese Buddhist history is distorting.

The problem is partly that the term orthodox means much more than "espousal ofa uniform set of ideas," or constitutive of "a direct line of transmission." It means true teachings and implies normative status within an established religious community. While the figures Tanaka labels orthodox Pure Land Buddhists are certainly accorded such status by Japanese Pure Land Buddhists, they held no such position in China. Quite the contrary, the three figures called orthodox Pure Land Buddhists by Tanaka were in general not well-known in their own times, were not patronized by the state as were the founders ofT'ang period schools, and their thought was criticized as deviant by exponents of other Buddhist traditions. 4 The use of the term orthodox to describe these Chinese figures tends to shape Chinese religious history according to a Japanese paradigm and to that extent to distort the Chinese phenomena. Though Tanaka has adopted this terminology primarily for purposes of providing "con- .

REVIEWS 187

. uity with past scholarship and a common framework for carrying U:t the objectives of this analysis," nonetheless its use is regrettable. o Tanaka's larger goal is to broaden our understanding of the Pure

,.' Land tradition by including within its boundaries figures such as '. Ching-ying Hui-yuan who have generally been excluded by sectar

. 'an scholarship. This is commendable and a necessary corrective. ~d here again there is a problem. While both the "orthodox Pure

. Land Buddhists" and "those of Pure Land Buddhism" were no doubt '. participating in the same broad movement, there remain important • differences betwen them. That Honen and Shinran perceived their .• origins in the thinkers Tanaka refers to as "orthodox Pure Land Bud

dhists" reflects not only their subjective judgments, but also actual differences in the religious messages of these "patriarchs" versus the teachings of other figures not accorded patriarchal status. In other words, perceptions are not substance, but can-and in this case doreveal substance. It is becoming increasingly clear that in the his-

. . tory of Chinese Buddhism there was a broad movement characteriz..... able as Pure Land devotionalism which encompassed a spectrum of

views and practices ranging on the one extreme from those who were concerned primarily with the Pure Land rebirth of the vast majority

,.of humankind, the laity, through the agency of the compassionate ...... savior Amitabha Buddha, to those on the other extreme who utilized

.' Amitabha-centered meditative or devotional practices chiefly as a . propaeudeutic-as a preparatory or preliminary means-for achieving personal religious objectives more highly valued than Pure Land rebirth. The former orientation we can tentatively call lay Pure Land piety, the latter, monastic Pure Land piety. In more detail, these orientations differed in the following ways:

(1) In the breadth of their concern: Lay-oriented Pure Land piety, though led by clergy, focused on the spiritual well-being of the average person involved in the ordinary life of society, whereas those

.. who participated in monastic Pure Land piety were clergy concerned primarily with their own spiritual progress.

(2) In their views of history and the human condition: Whereas lay Pure Land piety was convinced that the final age of the dharma had arrived and that almost all contemporary persons were ordinary mortals destined, unless they availed themselves of Amitabha's compassion, to endless sarp.saric suffering, those involved in monastic Pure Land piety either rejected the identification of their age with the final age of dharma or, in the conviction that spiritual. realization through self-effort was nonetheless quite possible, insisted on the necessity for even greater effort during such a degenerate time.

(3) In their practices, especially forms of buddha-reflection (nienfl): While both forms of Pure Land devotionalism valued a broad


ar:ay of ~evotional ~ractices cer:-ter~~g on buddha~reflection, lay orIented pIety emphasIzed the aVaIlabIlIty and effectIveness of invo_ cational buddha-reflection, the practice of calling on the name of Amitabha, and monastic piety favored contemplative buddha-reftec_ . tion, i.e., meditating upon an icon or a mental image of Amitabha.

( 4) In their soteriology: Pure Land piety addressed to the laity sought first and foremost Pure Land rebirth, emphasizing the vows of Amitabha as the primary enabling condition, a sOteriology which can be characterized as posthumous and bestowed; monastic Pure Land piety sought a hierarchy of soteric goals, first and foremost a transforming mystical insight characterizable as an imnianentalist soteriology, but also Pure Land rebirth as a lesser objective.

This is an ideal typology, and very few historical figures would conform exactly to either orientation. Even Shan-tao, a typical representative oflay Pure Land piety, was very interested in buddha-con_ templation (kuan-.fo).

The final point we would like to make is that the Pure Land piety of Ching-ying Hui-yuan was clearly of the monastic orientation, and was thus quite different from that of Shan-tao. Yet, in spite of their differences, we must be cognizant, as Kenneth Tanaka has so ably demonstrated, that these two leaders of differing orientations to Pure Land piety interacted in a creative fashion.

This book enhances our understanding of Pure Land Buddhism in China in a number of ways, and this reviewer for one is grateful for the insights and valuable resources it provides for thinking and rethinking the character and history of this field of study.

Allan A. Andrews

NOTES

I. See References for bibliographic details. 2. While Tanaka renders kuan as "visualization," nien-fi as "Buddha

contemplation" and ch'eng (-ming) as "recitation" ("of the Buddha's name"), we prefer "contemplation" for kuan, "buddha-reflection" for nien-fi and "invocation of" or "calling on" ("the name of the Buddha") for cheng (-ming).

3. This research is summarized in Fujita 1990 and Ryukoku 1984. 4. Though Shan-tao was given a governmental appointment late in his

life, it seems that is was in recognition of his stature as an artist and not as a leader oflay Pure Land piety.

REVIEWS 189

REFERENCES

An-lo chi ("Passages on the Land of Peace and Bliss"), T #1958, by Tao-ch'o. Buswell, Robert E. Jr., ed. 1990. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu: Univer

. sity of Hawaii Press. Commentary on the Contemplation Siitra by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.

See Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching i-shu. · Commentary on the Contemplation Siitra by Shan-tao.

See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching shu. Commentary on the Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching.

See Commentary on the Contemplation Siitra by Ching-ying Hui-yiian. Contemplation Siitra.

See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching. Discourse on the Siitra of Immeasurable Life and Mrse on Rebirth.

· See Wu-liang-shou-chingyu-po-t'i-she yuan-sheng chieh. Fujita Kotatsu. 1990. "The Textual Origins of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching: A

Canonical Scripture of Pure Land Buddhism," Translated by Kenneth K. Tanaka, in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell,Jr.

Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching ("Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life"), T #365.

Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching i-shu ("Commentary on the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha ofImmeasurable Life"), T #1745, by Ching-ying Hui-yiian.

". Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching shu ("Commentary on the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha ofImmeasurable Life"), T #1753, by Shan-tao.

Ryukoku University Translation Center, trans. 198~. The Siitra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life as Expounded by Siikyamuni Buddha. Translated and annotated by the Ryukoku Translation Center under the direction of Meiji Yamada. Kyoto: Ryukoku University.

· T See Taisko shinshii daizokyo. Ta-ch'eng i-chang ("Mahayana Encyclopedia"), T #1851, by Ching-ying Hui-yiian. Taisko shinshii daizokyo. 1924-32. ("TaishO Period Revised Edition of the Chinese

Buddhist Canon"). Ed. by Takakusu Junjir6 and Watanabe K., 100 vols. Tokyo: TaishO Shinshu Daiz6ky6 Kank6kai.

Visualization Siitra. See Kuan Wu-liang-shou-fo ching.

Wu-liang-shou ching ("Sutra of [the Buddha of] Immeasurable Life"), T #360. Wu-liang-shou-ching yu-po-t'i-she yuan-sheng chieh ("Discourse on the Sutra of

Immeasurable Life and Verse on Rebirth"), T #1524.

190 ]IABS VOL. 14 NO. 1

CHARACTER LIST

ch'eng-ming nien-fo m1S~{~

fan-fu }L:1<::

fIui-ch'ung .R Hui-kuang ~:Jrc IC/.'

kuan ~

kuan-fo ~{~

nien-fo san-mei ~{9Ir=$!(

nien-fo ~{~

p'an-chiao ~~t

san-shan 1tt~

sheng-jen ~A

ting-shan ~~ ,=..

tsung ~

Three Recent .Collections: The Buddhist Heritage, ed. Tadeusz Skorup~ki; Chinese Buddhzst Aprocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr.; and Rejlectzons on Tibetan Culture, ed. Lawrence Epstein and Richard Sherburne

What follows is not actually a review-probably no Buddhologist .. ould claim the competence to review three such disparate vol\nes-but simply a listing ofthe contents of three unusually promis~ng recent collections of articles, in hopes that such a list may be of

. value to the Journal's readers .

. ' The Buddhist Heritage: Papers delivered at the ~mposium of the same name convened at the School of Oriental and A.frican Studies, University of London, November 1985, ed. Tadeusz Skorupski. Tring, UK.: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1989, xi + 276 pages.

D.L. Snellgrove, "Multiple Features ofthe Buddhist Heritage" H. Bechert, "Aspects of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and

Southeast Asia" KR. Norman, "The Pali Language and Scriptures"

.AH. Christie, "Buddhism in Southeast Asia: An Anecdotal

.. Survey" JK. Locke, S.]., "The Unique Features ofNewar Buddhism" E. Zurcher, "The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Culture in an His

torical Perspective" R. Whitfield, "Buddhist Monuments in China and Some Recent

Finds" L.R. Lancaster, "The Rock Cut Canon in China: Findings at Fang

shan" Youngsook Pak, "Excavations of Buddhist Temple Sites in Korea

Since 1960" Ree-Sung Keel, "Word and Wordlessness: The Spirit of Korean Bud

dhism" T. Kubo, "Contemporary Lay Buddhist Movements in Japan: A

Comparison between the Reiyukai and the Soka Gakkai" A. Piatagorsky, "Buddhism in Tuva: Preliminary Observations on

Religious Syncretism" D. Seyfort Ruegg, "The Buddhist Notion of an 'Immanent Absolute'

(tathagatagarbha) as a Problem in Hermeneutics" Russell Webb, "Contemporary European Scholarship on Buddhism"

191


Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990. ix + 342 pages. Appendix, list of Con_ tributors, General Index, Index of Texts.

Robert E. Bu~well, Jr., "[Introd~ction:] Prolegomenon to the Study. of BuddhIst Apocryphal Scnptures"

Kyoko Tokuno, "The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues"

Michel· Strickmann, "The Consecration Siitra: A Buddhist Book of Spells"

Stephen R. Bokenkamp, "Stages of Transcendence: The Ehiimi Concept in Taoist Scripture"

Kotatsu Fujita (tr. Kenneth K. Tanaka), "The Textual Origins of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching: A Canonical Scripture of Pure Land . Buddhism"

Whalen Lai, "The Chan-ch'a ching: Religion and Magic in Medieval China"

Mark Edward Lewis, ~'The Suppression of the Three Stages Sect: Apocrypha as a Political Issue"

Antonino Forte, "The Relativity of the Concept of Orthodoxy in Chinese Buddhism: Chih-sheng's Indictment of Shih-Ii and the Proscription of the Dharma Mirror Siitra"

Paul Groner, "The Fan-wang ching and Monastic Discipline in Japanese Tendai: A Study of Annen's Futsiijubosatsukai koshaku"

Ronald M. Davidson, "[Appendix:] An Introduction to the Standards of Scriptural Authenticity in Indian Buddhism"

Rdlections on Tibetan Culture: Essays in Memory if Turrell V. /i:1jilie, ed. Lawrence Epstein & Richard F. Sherburne. Studies in Asian Thought and Religion, vol. 12. Lewis.ton [N.Y.] / Queenston [Ontario] /Lampeter [Wales, U.K.]: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990. xiv + 350 pages. Abbreviations, References.

[Geography] Elena De Rossi Filibeck, "A Guide-Book to Tsa-ri" Jeffrey D. Schoening, "The Religious Structures at Sa-skya"

[History] Hugh E. Richardson, "The Mgar Family in Seventh Century Tibet" Leo E. Rose, "Modern Sikkim in an Historical Perspective" Elliot Sperling, "Ming Ch'eng-tsu and the Monk Officials of Gling

tshang and Gon-gyo"

REVIEWS 193

· [Philosophy and Textual History] William L. Ames, "A Translation of Chapter Sixteen, 'Examination of

Bondage and Liberation,' from Tsong-kha-pa's Rigs pa'i rgya mtsho"

David P. Jackson, "The Earliest Printings ofTsong-kha-pa's Works: The Old Dga'-ldan Editions"

Per Kvaerne, "A Preliminary Study of the Bonpo Deity Khro-bi Gtso-mchog Mkha'-'gying"

· Karen Christina Lang, "Spa-tshab Nyi-ma-grags and the Introduc-; tion ofPrasangika Madhyamaka into Tibet"

janos Szerb, "Two ~otes on the Sources ofthe Chos-'byung of Buston : Rin-chen-grub Mark Tatz, "Whom is Tsong-kha-pa Refuting in His Basic Path to

Awakening?"

• [Language] W. South Coblin, "A Reexamination of the Second Edict ofKhri-s

rong-Ide-btsan Roy Andrew Miller, "Case-grammar in the First Two Tibetan Gram-. matical Treatises"

[Monasticism] .Ter Ellingson, "Tibetan Monastic Constitutions: The Bca'-yig"

Melvyn C. Goldstein, "Religious Conflict in the Traditional Tibetan State"

Ngawang 1. Nornang, "Monastic Organization and Economy at Dwags-po Bshad -gru b-gling"

····[Foreign Scholars] Nancy Moore Gettelman, "Karma-bstan-skyong and the Jesuits" Joseph M. Kitagawa, "Kawaguchi Ekai: A Pious Adventurer and

Tibet" cRichard F Sherburne, "A Christian-Buddhist Dialog? Some Notes on · Desideri's Tibetan Manuscripts"

[Comparative Studies] .. Christopher!. Beckwith, "The Medieval Scholastic Method in Tibet . and the West" ,Lawrence Epstein, "A Comparative View of Tibetan and Western

Near-death Experiences"

CONTRIBUTORS

Prof. Allan A. Andrews Dept. of Religion University of Vermont Burlington, VT 05405

Mr. Daniel Boucher Dept. of Oriental Studies Williams Hall 847 Univ.ofPennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Prof. Robert F. Campany Dept. of Religious Studies Indiana University Sycamore Hall 230 Bloomington, IN 47405

Prof. Roger Jackson Dept. of Religion Carleton College Northfield, MN 55057

Prof. Koichi Shinohara Dept. of Religious Studies McMaster University 1280 Main Street West Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8S 4K1

Prof. Joe Bransford Wilson Dept. of Philosophy and Religion Univ. of North Carolina at Wilmington Wilmington, NC 28403

195

JIABS 14-1

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