Buddhist Storytelling Texts from Tun-Huang 敦煌

BUDDHIST STORYTELLING TEXTS FROM TUN-HUANG 1~-Jr plicably equates it with " J1"Ji--." thus making the temple name "Ying-ming-ssu Jill, /;J/3{ .1136 He offers no evidence to substantiate this, however, and no mention of,such a temple has been found in other sources. A more remote guess that "% "is two characters, " ~ " and " /~"" so that the phrase might read "while stopping over at the Hsin-ming-ssu" seems unlikely. The lack of other characters joined together in this manner would tend to rule this out. As for the location of this second temple, ,, l place within Hsi-ch' uan such as I-chou ~ -H Sha-chou ~)- +l-/, which was the administrative " -J-1-} " could refer to some (i.e. Ch'eng-tu) or to term for Tun-huang. If this latter possibility is admitted, it would at least explain the means by which the scroll travelled the distance from Hsi-ch'uan and wound up in the archives. To venture a hypothesis, the writermay have carried it with him to Tun-huang where he performed it at the age of 48, on a hot day. Since the lighter ink of the second colophon is the same as that of the corrections and fill-ins, he may have remembered some of the phrases he left out afterwards and took time to correct minor errors, finally adding 49 the second colophon. Perhaps he donated the scroll to the temple he was staying in, or he could have sold it to someone to use as a reference for future performance. Regardless of the disposition of these questions, we can at least assume that the writer of P. 2292, who did not sign his name, was an itinerant monk who probably helped support himself on his travels by performances of chiang-ching-wen. In contrast, the writer of P. 2187, a pien-wen on S~riputra's struggle against the Six Masters of Heterodoxy, held a regular position at one of the major Tun-huang temples and stated in a colophon: "In the ninth year of the T'ien-fu era, the year chia-ch'en in the huang-chung month, on the day when the ming-chia plant sprouted ten leaves, (Nov. 28, 944). It was freezing so I had to breathe on the brush in order to/write this. Written by the Fa-Ill ~*'~~ Yuan-jung, residing at the Ching-t 'u-ssu." 37(C) . 38 "Fa-Iii" was an official rank in the Buddhist Church in Tun-huang. At the time that this ms. was written, such monks were part of the central ,I ).. administrative office under the seng-t'ung 1'1,f~~uor Chief of Monks but were located in one of the seventeen main temples. There were as many as ten fa-Iii to a temple where they oversaw administrative, economic and ritual matters. Particularly with regard to the latter function, they organized a variety of ceremonies some of which probably involved performances of chiang-ching-wen and pien-wen. The small, spindly calligraphy of this piece is written by a fairly practiced hand maintaining linear order and balanced construction of individual characters. Like most storytelling texts from Tun-huang, there are some characters filled in, cross-outs and corrections indicating that Yuan-jung performed an editorial function. The calligraphy and accompanying pieces indicate that this was written after a performance and was intended as a personal record and a reference for future occasions. Following the colophon is a short piece written in the same hand on another sheet which is attached to the scroll: '~n addition there was a laudatory chant in praise of meritorious achievement and a doxology was offered. The Seng-t'ung of our city prayed that we may long continue to receive imperial blessings and that all 49 the second colophon. Perhaps he donated the scroll to the temple he was staying in, or he could have sold it to someone to use as a reference for future performance. Regardless of the disposition of these questions, we can at least assume that the writer of P. 2292, who did not sign his name, was an itinerant monk who probably helped...