Chinese Buddhist Texts in the Context of Chinese Religion
Outline
1. Schedule
2. Reference Works
3. Questions
4. Vocabulary
5. Reflections
Last update: 9 December 2008
1. Schedule
Week 1 (8/27/08): Intro
Week 2 (9/2/08): Zhengao (1) (Declarations of the Perfected)
Week 3 (9/9/08): Zhengao (2)
Week 4 (9/16/08): Assorted Daoist “mummy” texts (on Lan Fang, etc.)
Week 5 (9/23/08): Baolin zhuan
Week 6 (10/7/08): Qiqian foshuo shenfu jing (T 2904)
Week 7 (10/14/08): Image consecration manual (T 1418)
Week 8 (10/21/08): Wuzhen pian (Zhang Boduan)
Week 9 (10/28/08): Jindan sibaizi (Zhang Boduan)
(11/4/08): Cancelled class, but we *will* have class next week, on V-day.
Week 10 (11/11/08): Yunqi fahu (Zhuhong’s collected writings): Shishi yigui, esp. the two prefaces at front of the ritual manual.
Week 11 (11/18/08): Yunqi fahu (Zhuhong’s collected writings): Shishi yigui buzhu
Week 12 (11/25/08): Xiang'er commentary to the Laozi
Week 13 (12/2/08):documents that Prof. Robson has been working on that relate to religious statuary in Hunan; final day of class
2. Reference Works
For readings Chan texts such as Baolin zhuan, which have a lot of colloquialisms:
Anderl, Christoph. Studies in the Language of Zu-tang ji. Ph.D. thesis. 2 vol. Oslo, Unipub April/November 2004. (XXVIII + 963 pp.)
For more on guest/host interaction protocol, see:
Of Tripod and Palate
For deciphering mantras, see:
Zhenyan cidian:can't find it now...?
For Indian transformations of a statue into an animate object:
From Material to Deity
On 19th/20th century Daoism:
Be aware that Liu Xun has a forthcoming book on this topic.
On meaning of Daoism:
Nathan Sivan evidently has good discussion of this in his collection and in an article in History of Religions.
On regressive time in Daoist rituals:
See article by Schipper.
On religious mountains in China:
See bibliography Robson sent me.
On Chinese views of religious language:
See excellent article by Anna Seidel, 1983, "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments," Tantric and Taoist Studies 2, Melanges Chinois et Bouddhiques 21.
3. Questions
1. Robson mentioned a useful review, online, of Japanese electronic dictionaries. Where is that review? Answer: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/japanese.html
2. How to find the vulgate versions of a given text?
3. What is the TLS project, and how might it change the way Chinese dictionaries work?
4. Kirby’s textbook was mentioned as being useful for something: what?
5. Is there any kind of place where translations of works from the Daoist canon are listed in an easy-to-find method, in a way similar to on this list for Buddhist canonical works?
If I were to make one, what would be the best way to organize it? [Looking more closely at Komjathy’s Title Index to the Daoist Canon would prove esp. useful, I believe.]
6. Eric mentioned a convenient way to find dates that correspond to reign periods in using the Siku quanshu. What method?
7. In 2006, Robson mentioned an article on a Burmese Buddhist mummy. Does he still have these, or references to them?
8. Could there be a connection between mummy-making (between two kan that are fitted together) and waidan (involving two crucibles fitted together one on top of the other, sealing one another off--also cf hu2lu2 imagery, with one chamber yin and the other chamber yang).
9. What are the best ways to do digital searches of the Daoist canon, and what are the caveats to be aware of in each case?
10. How do Daoist "canons" differ from Buddhist ones, and is there anything called Daoist "apocrypha" (weijing)?
11. How were various gazetteers made from xu4gao3, and how to access the original (uncensored) xugao data? (Harvard-Yanjing library evidently has some access to such materials; Jianye didn't think we had such things at UCB.)
12. Supposedly Journal of Chinese Religions articles can be accessed from ATLA, but this was not working very well for JCR last time I checked. Is there a better way?
13. When can PDFs of articles one has published in JCR be posted online?
4. Vocabulary
信件： “faith offerings”: what a Daoist disciple gives to his master
比: bì: “to go to” (ancient usage)
雙聲，疊運： two kinds of ancient Chinese binomes (repeat of initial vs. repeat of final, respectively)
San1guan1, sheng4tai1, nei4guan1: all have both Daoist and Buddhist meanings.
Jiu3huan2dan1: nine-fired elixir
In alchemy, can translate "lu2" as "crucible" and "ding3" as "cauldron."
5. Reflections
1. Did the status of women tend to go down in Daoism over time? Do we see a similar process in the change of miko in Japanese shrines from “shrine oracles” to “shrine maidens”?
2. A question in Daoist studies: Did neidan begin in the Tang or Song?
3. Issues of esoterization per see, and 密卷文: see work by Wáng Yùchéng; could also compare with work by modern artist Xu Bing and his 天書. Ideas of "imbricated graphs."
4. Geneaology of important Chan "lineage" texts: (1) Baolinzhuan, to (2) Zutangji (modeled on BLZ), to (3) Jingde chuandeng lu, which became the new standard source and model.
5. Makita and Oshia: mining temple libraries of Japan; as of 2008, no catalog. Oshia just published indexes of texts; new discoveries always possible.
6. Taisho volume 85 is not taken so seriously as a source of DH-texts, and it introduced many errors. Better to use original DH texts from various collections. Stein collection available on IDP website; Pelliot texts available on ArtStor but are not easy to navigate there.
7. To what extent, and how, is our sample of extant statuary in China skewed? For instance, in terms of material of construction, or in terms of what museums are likely to keep hold of as "works of high art"? In terms of which ones the government, the Boxers, Taipingguo people, CCP and CCP-inspired people during the Cultural Revolution would destroy?
8. There's significant ethnographic data in 19th c. missionary accounts, esp. on local religion, icons, and other things the missionaries often despised. Ex: Chinese Buddhism, by Joseph Edkins (1879). Ex: Hamden Dubose book, 1886, "The Idol Factory" chapter.
9. "Deconsecration" rituals are in interesting topic; these are performed in Japan, in Hunan,... [Reminds me of questions in Taiwan such as "how to get rid of Buddhist magazines"--or even ordinary paper with writing in some Hakkas areas/ cf. xi2zi4ta3.]
10. Evidently someone has done MRI scans of Korean statuary--some French people? Catalog made by Gomberg?
11. What does it really mean for an image to be "alive"? By what process does one become alive?
12. Guo Xiang's commentary on the Zhuangzi--set future readings--but he has even cut out stuff he didn't like.
13. What exactly does it mean to say Chan was the most "Daoist" of the Buddhist schools?
14. Evidently Hakuin learned from a neidan practitioner, and he absorbed a lot of ideas about dan1tian2 丹田; also wrote on the wu3wei4 五位; dantian ideas in Japanese Zen, including Soto, may have derived from this.
15. Trends that always seem to be the case: Chinese Buddhists are always rectifying contemporary practices; monks are always of lower caliber than in the past; it is always "end times," lay Buddhism is always increasing in importance; there is always increasing syncretism between the three teachings,....
16. What are the exact connections between the following rituals: yankou, mengshan shishi, lianghuang baochan, shuilu fahui, etc. Mengshan shishi evidently has connections to Zhuhong's shishi manual.
17. Bencao gangmu mentions cases of ppl who died and whose organs were transformed. Ex: girl whose heart became stone (due to anger); dog whose heart became stone (because ravenous); monk whose heart became a small buddha statue (due to excessive zeal). Could look into Chinese medical system for more on transformations of body (cf mummification, relics). (Also: I heard from Julia Cross that R. Birnbaum has a photo of a monk’s skull with the character 和 engraved in it, which was said to be a result of the monk’s meditation.)
18. When exactly did punctuation begin in Chinese texts? What is the relationship between punctuation added by editors to any original punctuation, if any? A major question to resolve, given the interpretive force punctuation can add to a text. Could check out these books: Printing for Profit; Hanyu biaodian fuhao liubian shi; Zhongguo gudai biaodian fuhao fazhan shi.
19. Han dynasty commentaries are evidently seamlessly integrated into the root text (or vice versa): characters all of the same size, in a continuous flow, without punctuation or line breaks, etc.
20. What is the history, origin of any kind of Chinese text discussing lists of precepts?
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