Introduction

Introduction The tape recordings described in this catalogue are of two Buddhist liturgical services which took place in Shan-tao Szu, Taipei, Taiwan, in the fall of 1969. The two services were based on the same liturgical text, Y;_;-chia yen-k' ou shih-shih yao-chi Jfi' {1,>~ jjf__ Ji'l ,,.Jiit(,:f ~4 M"~ fi•JA.1>r !iji~'r f1iJ!!fJ}.if ;i"'i& . 'Translated by the San-tsang and srama'.'a Amoghavajra of Ceylon, by Imperial command granted the title of Chih-tsang (Repository of Wisdom),"' L. Giles, Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Manuscripts from Tunhuan in the British Museum, London, 1957, p.166. And Yen Ying in his-):__ t ,~ _ ,}(...,~ -;f ':£3- ' 4f/fj ,_ ilj-ft (Memorial verse and preface for the great Repository of Wisdom olthe Hsing-shan szu of the Great T'ang), in vol.62, of T'ang wen-ts'ui~~{f' stated, "The monk, named Pu-k'ung (Amoghavajra) was a native of the Hsi-~,\;;J;~ (western regions)." But all sources agree that he went to India and Ceylon to collect liturgical texts. I X influence of Nestorian liturgy on 8th century Buddhist service. 4 The liturgy as recorded on these tapes, however, is much more complex than the text of Amoghavajra. In comparing the text sources, the reader of this catalogue will discover that almost fifty per cent of the present liturgy appeared only in the 5 ·A. ,_,,. piled by the erudite Chu-hung ;f'l'-- ft'> two editions of the text comIt is interesting to note that the additional materialstend to be either gathas preceding mantras or lyrical passages lamenting the sunnnons of death. The expanded liturgy also seems to suggest that mantras from other services might have been added to the original text of the "yen-k'ou" 6 4 For a sunnnary of "the Masses for the Dead", please read K.L. Reichelt, Truth and Tradition in Chinese Buddhism, Shanghai, 1927, pp.77-126. Reichelt mentioned, "Amoghavajra quickly saw that it was important to outshine the Nestorians -- he and his helpers copied the rituals of the Nestorians" (p.89). P.Y. Saeki, The Nestorian Monument in China, London, 1916, pp.136-145; Saeki considered the Ullambana;;!,.!j,j;'Bi,theFestival of Departed Souls, "one of the most conspicuous, indirect results produced by the Assyrian Christians in China," (p.144). 5 ·,; -"' The. mo1;k_ Ch~ih;.;ng 1:-t- '~ , also known as Yiin-ch 'i Lien-ch 1 ih Chu-hung 6 •f:fill'_ ,~'f'~';W, , was one of the prolific Buddhist masters of " the Ming. Ch'en Yuan pointed out that Chu-hung was a contemporary of Matteo Ricci and considered the authentic dates of Chu-hung, 1535-1615. The~~ dE[es_would place Chu-hung as a contemporary of T'ang Hsien-tsu ~~ ~JJi111 , the celebrated Ming playwright and the forerunner of the Kung-an /p~ school of literary criticism. It is generally known that Amoghavajra collected some 500 different texts during his trip to Ceylon and India, taken during (746-771),(Nanjo Bunyiu, A catalogue of the Chinese translation of the Buddhist Tripitaka, Oxfo_r,t, 188;3, l'P· ~45-4_48)1-.a'lf: that the Yii-chia chi-yao yen-k 'ou shih-shih 2:. :fR•I 1:&a _Jf; .if- ,)_,ga ~ 1\:_ {~' (Ceremonial rules for giving food to the Flaming-mouth [Preta] ) in the collection of important (articles) of Yoga, was probably admitted into the canon with other " Tantra doctrines during the Sung and Yuan dynasties. When I was reading the Tun-huang manuscripts at the British Mu~e)P.11, I came across the text on the verso of S. 2144, ,{#iJf..:Jk -'tN2. {,iJfi ~ ~ (petitionary prayers to establish an altar to give food to call back the wayward spirits), preceded by a section of discussion on the talismanic and supernatural power of the mantra syllables, wan "i- , E ;:J-f ,, and h 4 ng gff , which. is foJ.lowed by the words T 1$ '"' ~_.!)f ?:- }fr'( o)" J' ;1J;_ K ,qf :;;r, "ii 4'7.£1Jf , vol. 4, translated on Imperial order by the San-tsang and srama~a Amoghavajra the Great Repository of Wisdom of...