Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious - Volume 8

458 Pages·2004·20.329 MB·English

by  Paul Williams

BUDDHISM
Critical Concepts in Religious Studies
Edited by Paul Williams
Volume VIII
Buddhism in China, East Asia, and Japan
~~ ~~o~~~;n~~~up
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2005
by Routledge
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Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
Editorial material and selection © 2005 Paul Williams; individual owners
retain copyright in their own material
Typeset in Times by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-415-33226-5 (Set)
ISBN 0-415-33234-6 (Volume VIII)
Publisher's Note
References within each chapter are as they appear in the original complete
work.
CONTENTS
VOLUME VIII BUDDHISM IN CHINA, EAST ASIA AND
JAPAN
Acknowledgements Vll
97 Did I-ching go to India? Problems in using 1-ching as a
source on South Asian Buddhism 1
T.H. BARRETT
98 Stupa, sutra and sarira in China, c.656-706 CE 12
T.H. BARRETT
99 The life of Shinran Shonin: the journey to self-acceptance 56
ALFRED BLOOM
100 Cliches canoniques bouddhiques dans les legendes sur les
debuts du bouddhisme au Japon 106
HUBERT DURT
101 Two Interpretations of human-flesh offering: misdeed or
supreme sacrifice 117
HUBERT DURT
102 Flying mountains and walkers of emptiness: toward a
definition of sacred space in Japanese religions 137
ALLAN G. GRAPARD
103 The place of the sudden teaching within the Hua-yen
tradition: an investigation of the process of doctrinal change 161
PETER N. GREGORY
v
CONTENTS
104 On the concept of the hijiri (holy man) 184
ICHIRO HORI
105 Buddhist self-immolation in medieval China 236
YUN-HUA JAN
106 The development of the kenmitsu system as Japan's
medieval orthodoxy 259
TOSHIO KURODA
107 The dragon girl and the abbess of Mo-shan: gender and
status in the Ch'an Buddhist tradition 291
MIRIAM L. LEVERING
108 Historical and historiographical issues in the study of
pre-modern Japanese religions 305
NEIL McMULLIN
109 The idolization of enlightenment: on the mummification of
Ch'an masters in medieval China 337
ROBERT H. SHARF
110 Buddhist influence on early Taoism: a survey of scriptural
evidence 367
ERIK ZURCHER
Index 420
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Volume VIII
The publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reprint their
material:
Buddhist Studies Review for permission to reprint T.H. Barrett, 'Did I-ching go
to India? Problems in using I-ching as a source on South Asian Buddhism', Bud
dhist Studies Review 15, 2, 1998, pp. 142-56.
Buddhist Studies Review for permission to reprint T.H Barrett, 'Stiipa, sutra and
sarira in China, c.656-706 CE', Buddhist Studies Review 18, 1, 2001, pp. 1-64.
The Institute of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint Alfred Bloom, The
Life of Shinran Shonin: The Journey to Self-Acceptance, Revised Edition, 1968,
pp. 1-80.
Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie for permission to reprint Hubert Durt, 'Cliches canon
iques bouddhiques dans les Iegendes sur les debuts du bouddhisme au Japon',
Cahiers d 'Extreme-Asie 1, 1985, pp. 11-20.
The International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies for permission to
reprint Hubert Durt, 'Two interpretations of human-flesh offering: misdeed or
supreme sacrifice', Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist
Studies (Kokosai Bukkyogaku daigakuin daigaku kenkyu kiyo) 1, 1998,
pp. 236-310.
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Allan G. Grapard, 'Flying
mountains and walkers of emptiness: toward a definition of sacred space in
Japanese religions', History ofR eligions 21, 3, 1982, pp. 195-221.
The International Association of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint Peter
N. Gregory, 'The place of the sudden teaching within the Hua-yen tradition: an
investigation of the process of doctrinal change', Journal of the International
Association of Buddhist Studies 6, 1, 1983, pp. 31-60.
Brill Academic Publishers for permission to reprint Ichiro Hori, 'On the concept
of the Hijiri (holy man)', Numen 5, 1958, pp. 128-60, 199-232.
Vll
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Yun-hua Jan, 'Buddhist
self-immolation in medieval China', History ofR eligions 4, 2, 1964, pp. 243-65.
The Nanzan Institue for Religion and Culture for permission to reprint Toshio
Kuroda, 'The development of the kenmitsu system as Japan's medieval ortho
doxy', translated by James Dobbins, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23,
3-4, l996,pp.233-270.
The International Association of Buddhist Studies for permission to reprint
Miriam L. Levering, 'The dragon girl and the abbess of Mo-shan: gender and
status in the Ch'an Buddhist tradition', Journal of the International Association
ofB uddhist Studies 5, l, 1982, pp. 19-35.
The Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture for permission to reprint Neil
McMullin, 'Historical and historiographical issues in the study of pre-modem
Japanese religions', Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 16, l, 1989,
pp. 3-40.
University of Chicago Press for permission to reprint Robert H. Sharf, 'The idol
ization of enlightenment: on the mummification of Ch'an masters in medieval
China', History ofR eligions 32, 1, 1992, pp. l-31.
Brill Academic Publishers for permission to reprint Erik Zurcher, 'Buddhist
influence on early Taoism: a survey of scriptural evidence', T'oung Pao LXVI,
1-3, 1980,pp.84-147.
Disclaimer
The publishers have made every effort to contact authors/copyright holders of
works reprinted in Buddhism: Critical Concepts in Religious Studies. This has
not been possible in every case, however, and we would welcome correspon
dence from those individuals/companies whom we have been unable to trace.
viii
97
DID I-CHING GO TO INDIA?
Problems in using I-ching as a source on South
Asian Buddhism
TH. Barrett
Source: Buddhist Studies Review 15, 2 (1998): 142-56.
For almost a century and a half Sinologists in this country have been accus
tomed to being buttonholed by their Indological colleagues who wish to know
what light Chinese sources might throw on Indological problems1 We are, I am
•
sure, always pleased to help, but if sometimes we might seem to hesitate to give
straightforward answers, we would like our colleagues to be aware that such
hesitation need not be due to indifference, incompetence or false modesty.
Rather, Chinese information on India is often deeply puzzling for reasons which
are not merely linguistic. In asking the question in my title I would no more
wish to question the historical reality of l-ching's journey to India than I would
Marco Polo's visit to China2. What I would wish to do, however, is to suggest
that the records of both journeys exhibit problems at a variety of levels which
demand careful consideration before these sources may be used as evidence.
Thus, notoriously, the account as we have it of Marco's Chinese sojourn
turned out to be so at variance with what later European visitors of the sixteenth
century found that for some time many learned men even hesitated to identify
his Cathay with China. One modem reaction to this has been to suspect foul
play, to accuse Marco of playing some sort of gigantic hoax on his readers. But
while it is certainly possible to point to one or two palpable lies in the text of the
work that goes under his name, it is in my view much more profitable to medi
tate on the differences between Europe in the thirteenth century and in the six
teenth, as well as the differences between thirteenth and sixteenth century China,
and - yet further - to try to understand the vast differences that separate his
viewpoint (that of an expatriate isolated in a predominantly Muslim foreign
community, living in a China controlled by Mongols) from the perceptions of
jetsetting modems today. On this topic I will say no more, especially since Peter
Jackson of Keele University has published an excellent account of how his tale
stands up as a mediaeval document3, but in what follows the similarities and dif
ferences between 1-ching and Marco may perhaps be kept in mind.
BUDDHISM IN CHINA, EAST ASIA AND JAPAN
For Chinese travellers to India certainly brought their own cultural attitudes
with them, affecting not simply their outlook on what they saw, but also their
very modes of expression, which must always be read against Chinese conven
tions if they are not to mislead us utterly. I have already drawn attention to one
particular form which Chinese conventions of description could take in India, in
discussing the reasons why Chinese Buddhist visitors to the holy places of Bud
dhism might be moved to tears, and I am very happy to see that at least one
Indologist has found my remarks on this point useful4 In exploring one little
•
comer of 1-ching's writings, however, I find more to say about politics than liter
ature, though again I hope that Indologists will see my remarks, limited as they
are, as but a case study of a phenomenon which may well deserve more
extended consideration.
Once again my object is to suggest that we cannot read a travel record like
that of I-ching straighforwardly as an eyewitness deposition, but this time with
particular regret, for though we possess several accounts of overland voyages
from China to India, I-ching presents the most detailed information we have on
the sea route out and back which he took through South-East Asia on his way to
study in Nalanda, granted that beyond that route there is little sign of his having
explored India beyond the closely grouped historic sites of Buddhism at all5 The
•
quickest way to draw attention to the entire passage in which it occurs, first in
the well-known translation by 1. Takakusu (with the orthography updated), and
secondly in the most recent translation I know of the portion of the text in ques
tion, by Daniel Boucher.
'The priests and laymen in India make caityas or images with earth, or
impress the Buddha's image on silk or paper, and worship it with offer
ings wherever they go. Sometimes they build Stiipas of the Buddha by
making a pile and surrounding it with bricks. They sometimes form
these stiipas in lonely fields, and leave them to fall into ruins. Any one
may thus employ himself in making the objects for worship. Again,
when the people make images and caityas which consist of gold, silver,
copper, iron, earth, lacquer, bricks, and stone, and when they heap up
the sand or snow, they put in the images or caityas two kinds of sariras.
I. The relics of the Great Teacher. 2. The gatha of the Chain of Causa
tion.
'The Gatha is as follows:
All things (Dharmas) arise from a cause.
The Tathagata has explained the cause.
This cause of things has finally been destroyed;
Such is the teaching of the Great Sramai)a (the Buddha).
If we put these two in the images or cait'jas, the blessings derived from
them are abundant. This is the reason why the Siitras praise in parables
the merit of making images or caityas as unspeakable. Even if a man
2