Burning for the Buddha

Notes

261 Notes Introduction 1. For this account of Daodu’s 道度 (462–527) self-immolation I follow the funerary inscription “Liang Xiaozhuangyan si Daodu Chanshi bei” 梁小莊嚴寺 道度禪師碑, composed by Xiao Gang 蕭綱 (503–551)—who later became the Liang emperor Jianwendi 梁簡文帝 (r. 549–551)—and preserved in the Korean epigraphical collection Sõkwõn salin 釋苑詞林 (A Forest of Words from Šâkya’s Garden), fasc. 193, Han’guk Pulgyo chõnsõ 韓國佛教全書 (Complete Works of Korean Buddhism), vol. 4, 660–662. See also the biographies of Daodu in Hongzan fahua zhuan 弘贊法華傳 (Biographies Which Broadly Extol the Lotus) 5, T 51.2067.24c14–25a21; and Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林 (A Grove of Pearls in a Dharma Garden) 96, T 53.2122.992c16–993a5. 2. The prince of Wuling mentioned in the inscription was probably the emperor Liang Wudi’s 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) eighth son, Xiao Ji 蕭紀 (508–553). See his biography in Liang shu 梁書 (Book of the Liang) 55/825–828. Liang shu 3/68 says that the prince of Wuling was appointed governor of Eastern Yangzhou in the sixth month of Putong 5 (July 17–August 14, 524). 3. Prip-Møller 1967, 178. 4. Pingyang is located in present-day Linfen 臨汾, Shanxi. 5. See his biography in Han shu 漢書 (Book of the [Former] Han) 44/2157. 6. The Chinese way of reckoning age (sui) holds that a person is one year old at birth. Thus twenty sui equals nineteen years old. This Bhadra can very likely be identi¤ed with the Buddha-bhadra who was the teacher of Sengchou 僧稠 (480– 560). See Chen Jinhua 2002a, 152, n. 9. The inscription offers Chengwang si 城王 寺 as the name of the monastery. No monastery of that name is known to me, and I suspect that Fawang si 法王寺, a famous monastery on Song shan 嵩山 is intended . My thanks to Chen Jinhua for suggesting this reading. 7. Zhong shan (Bell mountain) is now known as Zijin shan 紫金山. It stood northeast of the Liang capital, Jiankang 健康, close to the Yangzi river. 8. Prince Anchengkang was Liang Wudi’s father’s seventh son, Xiao Xiu 蕭 秀 (475–518). See Liang shu 22/341. 9. Daodu took these copies, plus ¤ve hundred fascicles of the Nirvâÿa Sûtra 262 and Liang Wudi’s commentary on the Mahâprajñâpâramitâ sûtra (which the emperor had bestowed on him) to the North, where he proselytized until some time before Putong 4 (523), when he returned to Jiankang. 10. The chapel is referred to in the inscription as Hualin Dengjue dian 花林 等覺殿 , that is to say, the building called the “Hall of Equality” (Dengjue dian 等 覺殿) in the Hualin 華林 palace garden—as seen, for example, in the biography of Huijue 慧覺 (450–535) in XGSZ 12, T 50.2060.469b, translated by Andreas Janousch (Janousch 1999, 114). Chen Jinhua discusses this building in his study of the Buddhist Palace Chapel in the time of Liang Wudi (forthcoming). 11. Han’guk Pulgyo chõnsõ, vol. 4, 661b. 12. Han’guk Pulgyo chõnsõ, vol. 4, 661c; Hongzan fahua zhuan 5, T 51.2067.24 c21–24. 13. Ohnuma 1997 and 1998. 14. See Ohnuma 1997, 84–92. 15. Ohnuma 1997, 85. 16. On this practice, see the study by Liu Shufen (1998), later published in English as Liu 2000. 17. See, for example, Shisong lü 十誦律 (Ten Recitation Vinaya), T 23.1435. 284a–b. On Buddhist attitudes to cremation, see the article “Dabi” in Hôbôgirin 6, 803–815. Phyllis Granoff (1992) discusses the issue of killing parasites in the cremation process. 18. On Wudi’s Buddhist persona see Janousch 1999 and Chen Jinhua’s forthcoming article “Pañcavârºika Assemblies in Liang Wudi’s (r. 502–549) Buddhist Palace Chapel.” 19. The most comprehensive discussion of ganying is now found in Sharf 2002, 77–133. 20. Sharf 2002, 83. 21. Gernet 1960, Jan 1965, Benn 1998. Gernet’s article prompted Jean Filliozat to publish a study of auto-cremation in Indian sources (Filliozat 1963). Orzech (1994) and Raveri (1992) have both offered more theoretical re¶ections on the materials studied by Jan and Gernet. Studies of suicide in Buddhism that discuss self-immolation include La Vallée Poussin 1919 and Lamotte 1965 (later translated into English as Lamotte 1987). Robert Lingat (1965) wrote brie¶y about self-immolation in Thailand. 22. Funayama 2002. The work of Nabata (1931) was apparently not followed up by many other scholars. Mizuo 1963 is only one page long. Okamoto 1974 is rather introductory. Myôjin Hiroshi’s two short articles (1985...