Amoghavajra

Reviewed by: Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism ed. by Yael Bentor and Meir Shahar Geoffrey C. Goble Yael Bentor and Meir Shahar, eds., Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017. xii, 450 pp. €125 (HB). ISBN 978-90-04-34049-7 Chinese and Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism is an ambitious and promising volume that is exciting for several reasons. In addition to its stated purpose of considering the vast sweep of ritual technologies, soteriologies, and ontologies that fall under the rubric of Esoteric Buddhism, the volume also implicitly promises to reorient the commonplace association of Chinese and Japanese articulations of Esoteric Buddhism by instead considering Tibetan and Chinese Esoteric Buddhist traditions side by side. Consisting of seventeen individual essays grouped into seven parts, the book contains material that ranges temporally from the eighth century to the present day, and geographically from the Chinese Tang Dynasty, to the Dali Kingdom of presentday Yunnan, to Tibet, and the Western Xia. Part 1 of the volume consists of three essays concerning the origins of Esoteric Buddhism as read through Chinese materials. Charles Orzech reads eighth-century tantric ritual as performances that shape individual subjectivities through scripted liturgical actions of purification and confession in addition to visualizations, mudra performances, and mantra recitations. Heinrich Sørensen traces the development of Esoteric Buddhism “prior to the comprehensive structural and institutional formations reflected in the tradition associated with” Śubhākarasiṃha 善無畏, Vajrabodhi 金剛智, and Amoghavajra 不空 (p. 43). Lü Jianfu’s contribution similarly seeks to trace the emergence of “Esoteric” or “Tantric Buddhism” by tracking the shifting semantic meanings of the terms “esoteric teaching” (mijiao 密教) and “Tantra” (variously transliterated) in Chinese scriptural sources. Part 2 of the book, with contributions by Robert Sharf, Lin Pei-ying, and Meir Shahar, addresses Esoteric Buddhism in relation to other Chinese religious traditions. Sharf studiedly eschews the label “esoteric Buddhism” in favor of “Buddhist Veda”, a term he adopts in order to signal his interpretation of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism as a Brahmanicized ritual technology rather than a “tradition set apart by its distinctive teachings” (p. 86). This ritual technology, he argues, was characterized in part by the use of mantra and spell incantations, master-disciple transmissions, the trope of the luminous mind, precept altars (or mandalas), and a large pantheon of deities that informed the subsequent development of the indigenous Chan tradition. Lin Pei-ying identifies a number of elements in the Śubhākarasiṃha’s Essentials of Meditation (Wuwei sanzang chanyao 無畏三藏禪要; T 917) that are continuous with “Northern” Chan ideas and concludes that there was a “doctrinal affiliation between the Chan school and Esoteric Buddhism” (p. 144). Meir Shahar demonstrates the influence of Tantric Buddhism on Daoism and popular Chinese literature through a case study of Hayagrīva Avalokiteśvara, the Horse-headed Avalokiteśvara. [End Page 71] Part 3 contains essays addressing Tantric Buddhist scriptures in the Tibetan context by Dan Martin, Eran Laish, and Yael Bentor. Martin’s contribution is a consideration of the gya-log teachings of Padampa Sangye, teachings that generally involve stating the opposite of the intended meaning, or, as Martin presents it, teachings predicated on presumed unexpected causal relationships between internal practices and external results and vice versa; for example, “the basis of disease gets turned into one of the [seven] elements of the healthy body” (p. 203). Eran Laish takes the assertion of a non-dual, primordially pure (ka-dag) reality in Tantric texts as a fundamental challenge to the “prevailing Buddhist view” that sees consciousness as a state of delusion requiring purification and Yael Bentor’s essay is a study of how the practice of body maṇḍalas (the divinization or realization of the divinization of the body through tantric saddhana, emplacing or realizing deities within the body) was variously understood through their representation in polemical writings from the Sakya and Geluk traditions of the eleventh through the fifteenth century. Part 4 of the volume consists of essays by Shen Weirong and Ester Bianchi, whose contributions concern Tibetan Buddhism in China during the Ming Dynasty and the eighteenth to nineteenth century, respectively. Shen’s essay, a study of Chinese Ming Dynasty texts demonstrated to be translations from Tibetan...

The “Jiaoxiecheng” narrative, compiled on the basis of the Japanese monk Ennin’s experiences in Tang China, began circulating in society from the late Heian period. Continuously evolved and adapted by later generations, it became a famous Buddhist setsuwa (anecdotal tale) in ancient Japan, yet it was not a Japanese original. The compilation and evolution of the “Jiaoxiecheng” narrative were products of Eurasian cultural exchange during the Tang Dynasty. Its ideological origins lie in the excessive alienation of the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism and the constructed image of Emperor Wuzong among certain groups in Central China at that time. Furthermore, the nostalgia for the homeland revealed in the story’s depiction of Ennin’s experiences in Tang China is actually a microcosm of the homesickness felt by Japanese scholars who traveled to Tang for study and Buddhist teachings, set against the broader context of Sino-Japanese cultural exchange. The cross-cultural perspective presented by the “Jiaoxiecheng” narrative provides an important reference for studying the openness of Tang culture and offers new textual evidence and dimensions for contemplating the relationship between ancient China and Eurasian cultures.

Wei Wu’s Esoteric Buddhism in China examines the rise of esoteric Buddhism during the Republican era (1912–1949) in China, focusing especially on the cross-cultural interactions between Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Drawing on Ann Swidler’s repertoire framework—the way people strategically select from a repertoire of resources to address specific problems—Wei Wu analyzes the choices and motivations of Chinese Buddhists who strategically used esoteric texts, rituals, and practices to address issues they faced in the early twentieth century. These included Taixu太虛 (1890–1947), Dayong 大勇 (1893–1929), Nenghai 能海 (1886–1967), and Fazun 法尊 (1902–1980). Exploring a range of previously unexamined sources including speeches, periodical articles, letters, advertisements, memoirs, biographies, commentaries, and lecture notes, Wu considers the doctrinal, ritual, and institutional impact of esoteric Buddhism on Buddhist modernity in China.

The metamorphosis of Buddhism synchronizing with alterations in political ideology, rapid economic growth, and evolving societal demands in China’s new era is the focus of this book. It traces the metamorphosis to 2002 when the Communist Party of China declared upholding traditional Chinese culture, including Buddhism, to be essential to its leadership. The chapters offer rich case studies of updated “authentic” Buddhist teachings by clerics and other innovations in temples and nunneries, new lay communities and their practices, and the emergence of Buddhist cultural sites ranging from scenic areas to mega-expos. The comprehensive view of Buddhism in China illustrates how Buddhism is going beyond state-imposed boundaries of religious space. With a primary focus on Mahayana Buddhism practiced among Han Chinese, it also considers interactions with Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Confucianism, Daoism, and folk beliefs. The eleven contributing scholars—experts in anthropology, history, philosophy, religious studies, and sociology— draw on extensive fieldwork to provide transdisciplinary analyses of the metamorphosis, raising key questions about the dynamics of religious space

The paper deals with the problem of the interaction between Buddhism and Confucianism in Tang China, a critical period in the history of Chinese Buddhism after which the intellectual power of Buddhism in China and its ideological influence on the Confucian elite considerably weakened. The research is based on the translation of Han Yu’s ‘Letters to Reverend Da Dian’ and its historical and cultural analysis and textual analysis. The letters are included in the Collected Works of Han Yu, the letters have not been translated into Russian and have not been the subject of special research so far. The purpose of the article is to reveal the historical and cultural significance of Han Yu’s letters to Da Dian and to show what processes took place in the worldview of their author, a typical Confucian official of the second half of the Tang dynasty. The article shows that the very fact of the existence of Han Yu’s letters to Da Dian, without referring to their content, captures the interest of a Confucian of this era in the personality of a Buddhist and the need for new spiritual food. Letters are a symbol work in the literary heritage of Han Yu, they indicate that in Tang society the dialogue between a Confucian official and a Buddhist has become commonplace despite the criticism of Buddhism by Confucians. The content of the letters reveals Han Yu as a person who is in a spiritual and ideological search, not completely satisfied with Confucian ideas and seeking answers to his spiritual needs in other philosophical and religious traditions, primarily in Buddhism. We draw a conclusion that the letters reflecting Han Yu’s spiritual quest demonstrate the mechanism of maturing the new ideological orientations among Tang Confucians, thus being the forerunner of Neo-Confucianism of the Song period

This chapter examines the factional motives in the Chan Buddhism in China during the Tang Dynasty using transmission records. It reviews early Chan transmission records that exposes the rise of factionalism in Chan just as these factions are beginning to forge a successful identity in Chinese Buddhism. It analyzes the factional nature of the claims of the three full-blown multilineal transmission records compiled around the beginning of the Song Dynasty including the Patriarch's Hall Anthology, Jingde Record Lamp, and the Tiansheng Extended Transmission of the Lamp.

to Baptism in the community, where traditional Baptist faith has recently come into increasing conflict with newer trends.Part of this evolution turned early converts into converters themselves, becoming disseminators of American Baptism in regions inaccessible by Western missionaries.The evangelical tradition adopted by Naga Baptist missionaries, Chophy argues convincingly, was a natural progression among the converted Naga Baptists who "now saw in their eastern Naga brethren a reflection of themselves before their own conversion" (p.171).Yet despite the increasing breadth of American Baptism in the region, deep-rooted diversity of language and culture remained; Chapter 4 makes brief reference to the role that Baptist missions played in promoting indigenous languages through facilitating numerous translations of the Bible to support their mission.In the final section of the book (Chapters 6-9), Chophy further focuses his attention on the experience of Naga Baptists within a rapidly changing modern political and cultural climate, particularly within a nation increasingly divided by religious tension between a Hindu majority population and varied religious minority groups.These chapters are structured less clearly than the rest of the book and sometimes meander in focus.They oscillate for the most part between semi-biographical accounts and framing of those accounts within their sociohistorical background.At times, these transitions are slightly jarring.Nevertheless, Chophy succeeds in conveying both the unique narratives of prominent Naga spiritual and political leaders and the broader context that gave rise to those narratives.Throughout the book, Chophy alternates between historical narrative and analysis of modernity.Though this is a difficult balance to maintain, Chophy successfully transitions between the two by deftly drawing and expanding upon the influence of the first upon the material of the second.The extent to which the Naga Baptist is satisfactorily "distinguished" is debatable.Nevertheless, the community is more than sufficiently framed within its unique socio-historical context, and the challenges it faces in the futurewhich share a kinship with those faced by other minority ethnoreligious groups in the developing worldare clearly and thoughtfully articulated.

Esoteric Buddhism in China (Zhenyan and Mijiao)

The Chuanlao Song, composed by the Southern Song Chan monk Daochuan 道川 (1104–1163, Southern Song), represents a hybrid form of exegetical lecture text from the Diamond Sūtra (金剛經). Neither a standard commentary (zhu 註) nor a ritual manual (keyi 科儀), it fuses rhetorical features of Chan sermons with versified praise, often associated with chanting. From the twelfth century onward, the Chuanlao Song circulated across China, Korea, and Japan, yet its textual identity has long been obscured. In particular, the Zokuzōkyō (續藏經) recension misclassified it as a commentary, resulting in interpretive confusions that have persisted into modern scholarship. This study reconsiders the Chuanlao Song within broader contextual frameworks of textual form, ritual practice, and editorial strategy. While grounded in philological analysis, three regional trajectories are highlighted: the Chuanlao Song’s preservation in China as an appended text within collective annotations; its transformation in Korea through royal patronage and the multiplication of textual forms; and its reinterpretation in Edo-period Japan as an object of sectarian commentary. By tracing these transregional movements, this study argues that the Chuanlao Song offers a valuable case study of how Buddhist texts were circulated and adapted across East Asia, shedding light on the intra-Chinese domestication and, beyond China, regional vernacularization and recontextualization.

Nenghai 能海, a distinguished patriotic monk in the history of modern Chinese Buddhism, made remarkable contributions to the revitalization of Han Buddhism and the promotion of Han-Tibetan cultural exchanges. He journeyed to Xizang twice, studying under Khang Gsar Rinpoche 康萨仁波切 (1890–1941) and mastering both the exoteric and esoteric teachings of Buddhism. Upon his return to the Han regions of China, he founded “the Great Prajñāpāramitā Sect 大般若宗”, guiding disciples through Tibetan Lamrim and managing monasteries according to Han traditions, thereby adeptly propagating the integrated teachings of exoteric and esoteric Buddhism. During times of national turmoil and ethnic crises, he strove to revive the declining influence of Buddhism, fearlessly persevering against adversities. His efforts significantly contributed to preserving the integrity of Buddhist doctrines in China and fostering the diversity and prosperity of various Buddhist sects.

Buddhism was introduced into China from the Eastern Han Dynasty , and after imput and imitation of Chinese Buddhism to the Three Kingdoms period of the first stage, it entered a rapid development, reform and gradually phase of chinese localization during the period of the Northern Dynasties and Tang Dynasty, until Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Buddhism has been completely localized. Development of Buddhism in China, in addition to its intrinsic reason that on the basis of the traditional Indian Buddhist thought, then adapt and adjust to local conditions of China, but also because of the extenal factors that after the Eastern Jin Dynasty it got the strong support of the rulers and the general public. Therefore, its rapid development can not only rival with Taoism, many times, it even pressure over the Taoism. It led that Buddhist stupa in the country as well as everywhere, and the level of the scale was constantly improved. a few can be compared with the palace buildings. Meanwhile all the monks and nuns who constantly expanding forces have received unprecedented growth. In the development process of the Buddhism, as the spread and interpretation medium of the Buddhist thought, Buddhist architecture and works of art played an irreplaceable important role. So Buddhist archaeological surveys, excavations and research have become an important part and branch of Chinese archaeology. Chinese Buddhist archaeology is an archaeology branch that study with the Buddhist relics. it is divided into two parts, cave temples, plains and mountain temple. Currently, Chinese Cave Temple archaeology research is comparatively systematic and independent. It also got a lot of rich results. But the flat and mountain temple ruins of archaeological research is relatively weak, it still needs further development and improvement. Although Chinese Buddhist archaeology have got great achievements. there are still many problems. Cave Temple partitions, staging still needs to be fully carried out. Relationships across regions and between regions within the cave temples and the comprehensive study of the cave temples are still relatively weak. There are many Buddhist relics that only be excavated of the layout. There are almost no Buddhist temple ruins that were completely excavated. The reports of the Buddhist archaeological sites is so rarely that it can not fulfill with the needs of researhers. Comparative Study of fragmented temple is not comprehensive enough. Buddhist sects and Buddhist temples in the form of relationship is not clear and its relationship with are Cities, towns, etc. are worth to explore. In recent years, more and more scholars are concerned and paying attention to the Buddhist archaeology.Surveys and excavations of the ruins began to increase.it greatly promoted the development of Buddhism-related archaeological research.Related researches become more sophisticated, systematic, and technological. It shows that the development of Chinese Buddhist archeology is incomparably great.

The Guangyuan Thousand-Buddha grotto is of great value in researching the spread of Buddhism in China. To explore a scientific deterioration degree evaluation method, the authors selected 11 grottos from the middle Tang Dynasty in the Guangyuan Thousand-Buddha grotto as survey objects; a traditional deterioration investigation was undertaken, and an analytic hierarchy process (AHP method) was applied to build a system to calculate the weight of 15 deterioration criteria and evaluate the deterioration degree of the grotto. The results showed that 15 deteriorations can be classified into two categories: stability deterioration and weathering deterioration. Each deterioration has its own weight on affecting the preservation condition of the grotto. In contrast to realistic conditions, the calculation results can quantitatively reflect the preservation condition of the grotto. The results offer a quantitative basis for determining the priority of grotto conservation and verifying the feasibility of the AHP method in helping conservators identify major deteriorations or judge conservation orders. This research proposes a quantitative evaluation method for the deterioration degree of the grotto, which can lay the foundation for further conservation of the grotto.Graphical

The epitaph of Kim Yeong constitutes the first scientifically excavated tomb inscription of a Silla Kingdom royal family member who served as a hostage in Tang China. Kim Yeong was the grandson of Kim Uiyang, a paternal cousin of King Seongdeok (Kim Heungguang) of the Silla Kingdom. For three generations, his family remained in the Tang realm as imperial guard hostages, receiving official appointments. Kim Yeong himself was twice dispatched as a deputy envoy to the Silla Kingdom, participating in missions related to royal mourning and investiture ceremonies. By analyzing the content of this epitaph alongside other inscriptions and historical records, this study contributes significantly to our understanding of Tang－Silla diplomatic relations and offers important insights into the suzerain-vassal relationship and the political and cultural interactions during the Tang Dynasty.

The veneration of relics occupies a special place in Buddhism, as it does in many religious traditions. Buddhist traditions distinguish different types of relics. The earliest canonical description of the use of a stūpa is found in the Mahāparinibbāna sutta and concerns the internment and worship of the Buddha's relics in a stūpa . The worship of stūpas has been a central feature of Mahāyāna Buddhism from the time of its inception during the second century BCE. Relics and stūpas played a key role in the propagation of the Buddhist teaching in South and East Asia. Esoteric Buddhism continues Buddhist traditions regarding stūpas and relics but adds two distinctive dimensions to their use. There are several important scriptures and manuals in the esoteric Buddhist tradition in China that detail various aspects of the worship of stūpas and pagodas. Keywords: Esoteric Buddhism; Mahāyāna Buddhism; relics; stūpas

The thesis examines the art and epitaphs of five princess tombs of the Chinese medieval Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) against the background of the historical period and ritual concepts. The thesis discovers that the tomb of a princess did not depict her former life but that its scale, epitaph, and art reflected the status that the tomb builders planned for the deceased, the current political situation, and contemporary concepts of death and burial. Ritual is the grammar with which image and text built their representation of the princess's last abode. The first chapter provides a survey of the field, theoretical perspective and research methodology, and a broad narrative account of the five tombs using archaeological reports and firsthand fieldwork observation. Chapter Two explores the historical background of the sixty-four year period (643-706 A.D.) in which these tombs were built, the conflicts over the extent of princess influence and prestige and the relationship between status and representation. Chapter Three uses ritual texts to reconstruct the possible structure of the transition of the princesses from life to death and the codification of their commemoration, beginning from the living household of the princess and ending at the tomb, her new abode-in-death. The preparations and the burial itself could take anywhere from one to seven months. I argue that these ritual actions and concepts created a space in which the classic stages of rites of passage-separation, liminality, and re-incorporation-occur. Chapter Four shows how princess identities were codified at death by epitaphs which followed a ritually- prescribed plan in describing the princesses' lives. Chapter Five discusses how murals, pottery figurines, and the line engravings on stone together contribute to a coherent program depicting the entry and settlement of the deceased into her new home.