Search Results (12)

Inheriting a tradition of religious tolerance from the Inner Asian Steppe, the Mongol Yuan Empire elevated Buddhism to a pivotal role in unifying its multiethnic and culturally diverse domain, with Tengriist ideology serving as the political foundation for these Buddhist veneration policies. The ruling class of the Yuan dynasty practiced a complex interaction between religion and political unity through the institutionalization of the cult of writing, printing, and reading the Buddhist Canon. Specifically, the Yuan dynasty established specialized government offices to mobilize elites from Mongolian, Han Chinese, Goryeo, and other ethnic groups for the construction of a multilingual Buddhist Canon. They copied the scriptures with gold and silver ink in Chinese, Tibetan, Uyghur, and other languages. Participants in scripture copying were rewarded or granted official positions. In this way, they achieved the goal of enlisting local elites, the cohesion of the community’s beliefs, and enhanced the unity of the local elites. By subsidizing the writing and reading of Buddhist classics, the Yuan rulers succeeded in constructing a space of identity at the level of material culture and facilitated cultural interaction and political integration among various social groups such as the Mongols, ethnic groups, and Han Chinese. Through state-sponsored scripture carving and recitation activities, the Yuan rulers cultivated a shared identity in the material culture sphere, facilitating cultural exchange and political integration across the Mongolians, the Han Chinese, and other ethnic communities. However, the effectiveness of state unification was significantly constrained by the Mongolian rulers’ policy of ethnic segregation, central–local conflict, and the high concentration of social wealth in the Buddhist communities. Full article

This study explores the publication and dissemination of the Pilu Canon 《毗盧藏》, engraved by followers of Bao’en Wanshou Hall in Houshan Village, Fujian, during the Yanyou reign of the Yuan Dynasty. Funded through donations, this canon was part of a broader initiative to republish the four major Buddhist Canons. Its engraving style blends influences from Yan Zhenqing, Ouyang Xun, and Zhao Mengfu, with rounder characters and more spacious layouts compared to earlier Song editions. The project, supported by the White Lotus Society, involved various engravers and resulted in diverse transcription practices. Although no complete set survives, scattered volumes are housed in different institutions. The Pilu Canon provides valuable insights into the evolution of Buddhist scripture layout, the White Lotus Society’s influence, and the interaction between Buddhist texts and secular society in medieval China. Full article

This article examines four block-printed Mahāpratisarā dhāraṇī amulets from late Tang to early Song China, highlighting how Sanskrit-script texts circulated in everyday religious life. Through a philological and visual analysis, it reveals a decentralised dhāraṇī culture shaped by variant bījākṣara (seed syllable) arrangements, divergent textual recensions, and diverse ritual uses—from burial and temple consecration to daily wear and cave enshrinement. Rather than static texts, these amulets reflect dynamic interactions among sacred sound, material form, and vernacular Buddhist practice, offering rare insight into non-canonical transmission and popular engagement with Indic scripture. Full article

Buddhist books have always played a central role in the lives of Tibetan people. This is evident by looking at the hundreds of thousands of manuscripts and xylographs produced by Tibetans, and then copied, multiplied, worshipped, spread, and transmitted uninterruptedly from religious masters to disciples over the centuries. Tibetan manuscripts and xylographs have started to be studied in their entirety only recently, and the interest for their visual aspect, material features, and social life has exponentially grown, becoming crucial to progress in different fields of study, to deeply understand the way in which Tibetan Buddhist people interact with such artefacts but also to preserve a disappearing cultural heritage. This essay will focus on a so far neglected element of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts, namely, decorations of writing frames. Any element found in a Tibetan scripture is essential from care and conservation viewpoints since it contributes to preservation for as long as possible. This is fundamental to spread Buddha’s word and to accumulate spiritual merits to progress on the path towards Enlightenment. The numerous elements exhibited in manuscripts may help locating their provenance and/or narrowing down their dating. This will also lead to a better understanding of the spread of certain scriptures within the various Tibetan areas. This essay attempts to provide a preliminary analysis of decorated writing frames found in Buddhist manuscripts produced in different periods with the twofold aim of tracing their use and codicological aspects and investigating the type of texts that were mostly chosen to be decorated as such. Full article

The text Poxie lun:Daojing shijingfo wen破邪論:道經師敬佛文 (Treatise on Refuting Heresies: On the Respect of Taoist Scriptures for Buddha) records twenty-three items of “miscellaneous ancient records in Taoist scriptures” 道教古經古事雜抄. Half of these entries align with contents found in Dunhuang manuscripts and pertain to the practice of “replacing Buddhism with Taoism”. The Dunhuang manuscripts that involve the content of “replacing Buddhism with Taoism” can be categorized into five situations: First, Taoist scriptures that retain Buddhist terminology which was later replaced by later generations; Second, instances where traces of Buddhist terminology remain, showing signs of having been altered or replaced; Third, cases where the replacement of Buddhist terminology has already been completed in the manuscripts; Fourth, instances where, after replacing Buddhist terminology, the sentence structure was also revised; Fifth, sections that were preserved which, in later generations, were deleted due to their content relating to the blending of Buddhism and Taoism. These instances of “replacing Buddhism with Taoism” may reflect efforts by Taoism to remove Buddhist elements amid criticism or an attempt by Buddhist monks to preserve Buddhism’s sanctity by altering Taoist texts. The Dunhuang Taoist manuscripts offer vibrant historical material for discussing interactions between Buddhism and Taoism in medieval China. Full article

There are many foreign astronomical materials that were preserved in the Chinese translation of Buddhist canons. From the content, these astronomical materials include cosmology theories, lunar mansion systems, calendrical data, etc. These astronomical materials are important evidence for the exchange and dissemination of astronomy between ancient civilizations. This paper aims to sort out and analyze the astronomical materials preserved in the Chinese translation of Buddhist canons, classifying and differentiating the content of astronomy, which was foreign to China, tracing the origins of these astronomical knowledge, discussing their impact on local astronomy in China, and evaluating the preservation form, characteristics, reliability, functionality, and limitations of these astronomical materials. Through the above discussion, this paper will demonstrate the core meaning of the historical view of transcultural transmission of sciences and technology, which is ‘knowledge progresses through dissemination and civilization thrives through communication’. Full article

The story of Futijinhu 浮提金壺 (“Golden Pot of Futi”) in Shiyiji 拾遺記 (Record of Gleanings), whose authorship is traditionally attributed to Wang Jia (王嘉) from the Eastern Jin Dynasty, appears to be a Daoist rendition at first glance, reimagining the legend of Laozi’s Daodejing. However, upon closer examination of the depiction of “Golden Pot of Futi”, the characters with “Shentong Shanshu” (神通善書, supranormal cognition and exceptional writing ability) and the narrative of writing and its outcomes, it becomes evident that this tale harbors a multifaceted Buddhist essence. In the tale, one can observe the changes and diversity in the early methods of translating Buddhist scriptures into Chinese, the references and adaptations of Buddhist imagery and narratives by Daoists, the understanding and imagination of materials used for writing Buddhist scriptures and early iconographic forms, and even the author’s insights and responses to the evolving religious landscape of their era. When placed in a broader historical context, exploring the Buddhist elements in this tale further aids in understanding the dynamic interactions between Buddhism and Daoism during the Wei and Jin periods. Full article

For a long time, scholarly research on Buddhism in Luoyang during the Tang Dynasty has mainly focused on eminent monks and Buddhist temples. This focus is evident in the recorded literature of ancient times, such as The Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks and The Biographies of Eminent Monks. Based on stone inscriptions, this paper examines the dissemination and development of Buddhism in the Eastern Capital of Luoyang during the Tang Dynasty. This article presents the following viewpoints and findings: Firstly, the epitaphs and pagoda inscriptions provide historical details that are not widely known, such as the names of temples in the suburb, the identities of prominent monks who propagated Dharma in Luoyang, the Buddhist scriptures chanted and learned by the Luoyang people, and the people’s motivation to adopt Buddhism. Secondly, the epitaphs and pagoda inscriptions supplement important historical materials on Chan Buddhism, confirming the widespread popularity of the Northern Sect of Chan Buddhism in the Luoyang region. Thirdly, the epitaphs and pagoda inscriptions reveal that Luoyang Buddhist practice was popular, characterized by the succession of blood-related monastic companions; that is, many families had two or more relatives who became monks or nuns simultaneously or successively, a phenomenon that has not attracted attention from academic circles. Fourthly, the blood-related monastic companions of Buddhist practice affected the mentoring relationships and organizational management of temples and monasteries, promoting communication and interaction between Buddhism and traditional Chinese culture. Full article

Famous for its cliff-carved Buddhist cave-shrines, Longmen was also a burial ground that attracted a few women from the seventh and the eighth centuries. This paper examines the burial caves of two lay women, Lady Lou (d. 661) and Lady Zhang (c. 658–c. 718), in relation to the newly excavated archaeological material and epigraphic evidence. Lady Lou compared her cave burial to the Indian ascetic practice in the forest of Śītavana but did not enact the compassionate offering of flesh. Lady Zhang was later removed from her burial cave by her sons so that she could be interred in a joint tomb with her husband. Through these two cases, I investigate the motivations behind the adoption of cave burials in medieval China. Canonical Buddhist scriptures taught these women that their social gender presented an obstacle to the final release. Dedicatory inscriptions at women’s burials and two tales of miraculous events at Longmen further suggest that family ties, an important constituent of women’s social gender, were believed to persist posthumously. Married women were expected to maintain their spousal and parental relations in the afterlife, and unmarried girls were imagined as turning into seductive spirits because of their lack of spousal union in their lifetime. I argue that cave burials at Longmen were not a compromise of the Indian ascetic practice but rather presented these lay women with a socially acceptable way to break free from their familial attachments after death. Full article

This paper explores the religious function and meaning of long banner paintings from Cave 17 of the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang, in conjunction with material culture in Northwestern China in the ninth and tenth centuries CE. The so-called forty-nine-chi banners have peculiar traits such as extremely long lengths, an optional triangular headpiece, and a paired or single strip of textile on which a series of standing bodhisattvas are painted. The author focuses on the large number of textiles used for such banners and questions how the extraordinary length and material used contributed to fulfilling the donor’s wishes. By examining both the banners’ physical characteristics, such as the type of textiles, pigments, and configurations, and the theological background based on the Buddhist and Daoist scriptures about longevity, repentance, and healing, the author suggests that the long banners are a materialized form of longevity and prosperity by physically lengthening the banner with multiple bolts of silk. This paper further argues that depicting multiple bodhisattvas in a pictorial form on a long strip of textile was regarded equally as a powerful means for obtaining good health, prolonging life, eliminating sins, and thus being reborn in the Pure Land. Full article

Considering visual culture alongside written source material, this article uncovers the socioeconomic aspect of Korean Buddhist monastic life, which has been a marginalized field of research. Arguing against the idea of an “other-worldly” Buddhism, the article specifically discusses the ways in which Buddhist monasteries conducted fundraising activities in late Koryŏ period (918–1392 CE) Korea. Via fundraising strategies, which targeted wealthy aristocrats as well as the commoner population, Buddhist monks managed the production and maintenance of Buddhist material culture, such as the construction of shrines, the casting of precious sculptures, and the carving of thousands of woodblocks used for the printing of sacred Buddhist scriptures. While the scholarship on Koryŏ Buddhism has traditionally focused on meditation, doctrine, state sponsored rituals, and temples’ relationships with the royal court, this study expands the field by showing that economic activities were salient features of Koryŏ Buddhism “on the ground.” By initiating and overseeing fundraising activities, Buddhist manager-monks not only gained merit, but also maintained the presence and physical appearance of Buddhist temples, which constitute the framework of Buddhist ritual and practice. Full article

This essay considers the importance of the transspecies imagination for moral cultivation in contemporary Chinese Buddhism. Drawing on scriptural, theoretical, and fieldwork-based ethnographic data, it argues that olfaction—often considered the most “animalistic” of the human senses—is uniquely efficacious for inspiring imaginative processes whereby Buddhists train themselves to inhabit the perspectives of non-human beings. In light of Buddhist theories of rebirth, this means extending human-like status to animals and recognizing the “animal” within the human as well. Responding to recent trends in the Humanities calling for an expanded notion of ontological continuity between the human and non-human—notably inspired by critical animal studies, post-humanism, the new materialism, and the “ontological turn”—this essay contends that Buddhist cosmological ideas, like those that demand the cultivation of the transspecies imagination, present resources for moral reflection that can challenge and enrich current mainstream thinking about humanity’s relation to the nonhuman world. Full article