Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise

Appendix 1 On Esoteric Buddhism in China

Appendix 1 263 Appendix 1 On Esoteric Buddhism in China There is considerable disagreement, if not confusion, among scholars regarding how to define or characterize Buddhist Tantra, but I will resist reviewing the literature here.1 My immediate concerns lie with Tantra in China, a tradition that poses its own particular set of historical and intellectual problems. Indeed, scholars are often at a loss as to what to call it, alternating somewhat indiscriminately between Chenyen tsung
 (Mantra School), Mi-chiao tsung
 (Esoteric School), Yü-ch’ieh tsung
 (Yoga School), Vajray#na, Mantray#na, Tantra, and so on.2 Irrespective of the issue of nomenclature, scholars in both Asia and the West seem confident that such a school existed; that it reached its apogee in the T’ang with the teachings of 1ubhakarasimha (Shan-wu-wei
 , 637–735), Vajrabodhi (Chinkang -chih
 , 671–741), and Amoghavajra (Pu-k’ung
, 705– 774); and that it quickly faded a generation or so following the passing of those eminent Indian patriarchs. Most would agree that the school is distinguished first and foremost by its emphasis on the incantation of potent Sanskrit formulae known as mantra and dh#ran%.3 The incantations are frequently used in conjunction with icons, mandala, altars, and other sacramental paraphernalia in the performance of elaborate rites directed toward the invocation of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and sundry other deities. These rituals are intended to elicit divine blessings, supernatural powers, and/or liberative wisdom, although they are also employed in response to exigencies: to make rain, cure an illness, defeat an enemy, protect the emperor’s health, and so on. Some scholars see invocation, worship, and meditative communion with deities in elaborately scripted ceremonies (Sk. s#dhana) as the central characteristic of Buddhist Tantra.4 Others suggest that an equally salient and perhaps defining feature of this tradition is the 263 264 Appendix 1 trope of sacred kingship, prominent in Tantric mythology, doctrine, and consecration rituals.5 The problem with characterizing Tantric or Esoteric Buddhism in this manner, at least in the case of China, is that the use of dh#ran%, mantra, and the invocation of deities, coupled with a quest for divine grace and thaumaturgical powers have been a staple of Chinese Bud- dhist monastic practice since its inception. As early as 1918, Omura Seigai, in his pioneering tome on the development of East Asian Esoteric Buddhism, identified as bearing on Chinese esoterism over eight hundred Chinese texts, many of which are not normally classified as - “esoteric” by sectarian historiographers and bibliographers (Omura 1972). These texts, selected primarily because of their emphasis on mantra and dh#ran%, include works associated with every major translator and exegetical tradition in Chinese history, beginning with scriptures dating to the dawn of Chinese Buddhism in the Eastern Han. In Chapter 2 of this study I noted the importance of invocation rites in Chinese monastic practice, with special reference to one of the earliest Mah#y#na scriptures transmitted to China, the Pan-chou san-mei ching (Sk. *Pratyutpannasam#dhi-s^tra). This early text, not normally classified as “esoteric,” is by no means unusual. Note, for example, the centrality of invocation in the so-called kuan-ching
, or “discernment s^tras,” a group of scriptures that played an important role in the evolution of T’ien-t’ai and Pure Land praxis. These scriptures describe elaborate invocation procedures involving the use of icons, mantra, visualization, and other elements often associated with Tantra.6 Moreover, they promise that the procedures described will in short order eradicate even the most intractable evil karma as well as cure sickness and ward off calamities—claims that are again commonly linked with esoterism. Yet the discernment s^tras appeared in China in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, well before the purported Tantric transmissions of the T’ang. With a single exception, these scriptures were never classified as “esoteric.”7 In order to unravel some of the ambiguities and confusions that attend discussions of Chinese Tantra, I will begin with the legacy of Japanese sectarian historiography.8 There are two major traditions of esoteric teachings (mikky&
) in Japan, Shingon (known as T&mitsu
) and Tendai (Taimitsu
), both of which view themselves as the culmination of a continuous transmission going back to India via the patriarchs 1ubhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi, and Amoghavajra.9 Both schools make a fundamental distinction between the esoteric teachings, Appendix 1 265...