English-language Studies of Precious Scrolls: a Bibliographical Survey (original) (raw)
Related papers
2000
C. K. Yang wrote in Religion in Chinese Society that, aside from Buddhism and Taoism, the third form of institutional religion in China "was that of the syncretic religious societies" (University of California Press, 1961, p. 301). Daniel Overmyer has studied some of these popular religious sects, which he calls "folk Buddhist religion," and compared them to religious reform movements such as "the Pure Land Buddhist in thirteenth century Japan, the Lutheran in sixteenth century Europe, and bhakti sects in medieval Hinduism" (Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976], p. 1). While they incorporated elements from Maitreyan, Pure Land, and Ch'an Buddhism, Inner Alchemy Taoism, and Confucian ethics, the religions should be regarded as new, for they possessed important characteristics that set them apart from traditional Chinese religions. These characteristics included the belief in a mother goddess who is the creator and savior of humankind, an eschatology marked by three stages, and universal salvation unmediated by religious professionals. Another striking characteristic is that they possessed their own scriptures known as pao-chiian (precious volumes). These texts, believed to have been divinely revealed to sect founders, are characterized by "simple classical language interspersed with vernacular constructions, the alternation of prose sections with seven-or ten-character lines of verse, usually in rhyme; and direct expositions of mythology, doctrinal teaching, and moral exhortation" (p. 3).
The Journal of Asian Studies, 2000
C. K. Yang wrote in Religion in Chinese Society that, aside from Buddhism and Taoism, the third form of institutional religion in China "was that of the syncretic religious societies" (University of California Press, 1961, p. 301). Daniel Overmyer has studied some of these popular religious sects, which he calls "folk Buddhist religion," and compared them to religious reform movements such as "the Pure Land Buddhist in thirteenth century Japan, the Lutheran in sixteenth century Europe, and bhakti sects in medieval Hinduism" (Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late Traditional China [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976], p. 1). While they incorporated elements from Maitreyan, Pure Land, and Ch'an Buddhism, Inner Alchemy Taoism, and Confucian ethics, the religions should be regarded as new, for they possessed important characteristics that set them apart from traditional Chinese religions. These characteristics included the belief in a mother goddess who is the creator and savior of humankind, an eschatology marked by three stages, and universal salvation unmediated by religious professionals. Another striking characteristic is that they possessed their own scriptures known as pao-chiian (precious volumes). These texts, believed to have been divinely revealed to sect founders, are characterized by "simple classical language interspersed with vernacular constructions, the alternation of prose sections with seven-or ten-character lines of verse, usually in rhyme; and direct expositions of mythology, doctrinal teaching, and moral exhortation" (p. 3).
Ming Studies, 2017
This paper analyzes early illustrations of the Miaoshan story, which served a popular hagiography of Bodhisattva Guanyinthe murals of the Hall of the Great Mercy of the Monastery of Great Wisdom in Beijing (ca. 1513)in relation to the vernacular narrative of performative nature, the Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain. These murals, though they have not received much attention from scholars so far, are noteworthy as the whole ensemble of this monastery was commissioned by Zhang Xiong, a powerful eunuch of the Zhengde court. This paper clarifies the source of the subject of these murals with the use of newly discovered textual materials, and also tries to contextualize them in the cultural life of eunuchs. Such analysis also leads to redefining the status of precious scroll literature, which, though written in vernacular language, was also used in the higher stratum of society, and entered the Ming inner court in the fifteenth to early sixteenth centuries.
Shendu 慎獨 and Qingdu 情獨: Reading the Recovered Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts
The terms du 獨and shendu 慎獨frequently appear in transmitted texts, notably among others, the Xunzi 荀子and Liji 禮記. Drawing reference from the poetry of “Shijiu” 鳲鳩 (Ode 152) and “Yanyan” 燕燕 (Ode 28) in the Book of Odes詩經, the recovered texts of “Wuxing Commentary” 五行說and “Kongzi shilun” 孔子詩論have provided new material for re-shaping our current understanding of the concepts of du and shendu. This study will briefly survey the semantic ranges of these terms within the exegetical tradition and explore their meaning with regard to the poetry from which they are contextualized. In the final analysis du can be understood as the ontic quality of the heart-mind within the broad sense of cheng (誠sincerity), or devout love of human emotions, whereas shendu can be regarded as a moral cultivation process. To some extent the re-interpretation of these terms finds commonality with, rather than subverts, the semantic ranges established by traditional glosses. The recovered texts have enhanced our understanding of these terms in particular the concepts of heart-mind and emotions in early China.
Religions, 2021
The Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond is a newly discovered manuscript (copied ca. 1993), used in the “telling scriptures” tradition in Changshu, which represents ritualized storytelling based on the vernacular narrative texts called “precious scrolls” (baojuan). The local tradition of “telling scriptures” can be traced back to the 19th century, though it may have even earlier origins. While it has been generally accepted that precious scrolls had ritual functions in the late imperial period, little research has been done on the local varieties of this type of storytelling in connection with ritual practices. The material of the Precious Scroll of the Blood Pond from Changshu demonstrates how the Mulian story, widely known in China, has been adapted to the folk ritual of the afterlife salvation of a female soul through repentance of her sin of physiological impurity. While the related ritual in the neighboring Jingjiang on the northern bank of the Yangtze River has been thoroughly s...
Religion and Poetry in Medieval China: The Way and the Words
2023
This volume of interdisciplinary essays examines the intersection of religion and literature in medieval China, focusing on the impact of Buddhism and Daoism on a wide range of elite and popular literary texts and religious practices in the 3rd-11th centuries CE. Drawing on the work of the interdisciplinary scholar Stephen Bokenkamp, the essays weave together the many cross-currents of religious, intellectual, and literary traditions in medieval China to provide vivid pictures of medieval Chinese religion and culture as it was lived and practiced. The contributors to the volume are all highly regarded experts in the fields of Chinese poetry, Daoism, Buddhism, popular religion, and literature. Their research papers cut across imagined disciplinary boundaries to show that the culture of medieval China can only be understood by close reading of texts from multiple genres, traditions, and approaches.
Composite Manuscripts in Medieval China: The Case of Scroll P.3720 from Dunhuang
Manuscript P.3720 from Dunhuang is a collation of different texts, including appointment decrees, religious poetry, a funerary inscription, a short record of the history of the Mogao caves. The texts come from distinct sources, and some had been written at different times by different persons as separate manuscripts, before they were all joined together into a single scroll. Thus the manuscript is also a composite object physically, consisting of separate pieces of paper glued together sometime during the 10th century. While the individual texts have been successfully used by scholars as primary sources for information about the history of Dunhuang and the cave complex at Mogao, it is clear that in order to fully understand the motivation behind the creation of the scroll, the arrangement of the individual components (i.e. sheets of paper) and texts must also be examined. A remarkable aspect of the arrangement is that some of the texts are dated and the dates range from 851 to 938, with an 87-year gap between the earliest and latest ones. The present study is an attempt to enhance our understanding of the date, authorship and composition of this manuscript, and at the same time also shed light on the practice of creating such composite scrolls in medieval China.