Introduction
[1]
The translation of the Lives is based on the Japanese edition of the Chinese
Buddhist canon, the Taishō-shinshū-daizōkyō. The Lives is no. 2063 in
vol. 50. All further references to the Taishō edition will be abbreviated T.
[2]
Shih Pao-ch'ang, biography in Hsü kao seng chuan (Further lives of eminent
monks), T. 50, no. 2060, 426.b.13-427.c.20. For more about Shih Pao-ch'ang,
see Wright, "Biography and Hagiography."
[3]
See appendix A for details about the history of the text.
[4]
Buddhism separated into two main branches about three to four hundred
years after its founding, the Hīnayāna and Mahāyāna, or Small Vehicle and
Great Vehicle. The adherents of the Great Vehicle assigned the title Hīnayāna
to their opponents. We prefer to use the term Disciples' Vehicle rather than
Hīnayāna. The adherents of the Disciples' Vehicle ignored their opponents.
The only remaining school of the Disciples' Vehicle is the Theravāda school
found mostly in Southeast Asia. See Robinson and Johnson, Buddhist Religion,
pp. 65-69; Ch'en, Buddhism in China, pp. 11-16. (See also chap. 1 n.
50, below.)
[5]
See Tsai, "Chinese Buddhist Monastic Order," pp. 2-3, for a much more
detailed discussion of this problem. Also see Paul, Women in Buddhism,
which has a different approach and understanding.
[6]
Cullavagga, X, 1.4, 6; and among others in the Chinese Buddhist canon
the Ssu fen pi-ch'iu-ni chieh mo fa (Dharmaguptaka nuns' rites and rule book)
T. 22, no. 1434, 1066.c.18-19; and also Ssu fen pi-ch'iu-ni chieh pen (Dharmaguptaka
nuns' rule book), T. 22, no. 1431, 1037.c.20-21.
[7]
Robinson and Johnson, Buddhist Religion, p. 7ff.
[8]
Hou han shu (History of the Latter Han dynasty), chaps. 42, 88.
[9]
Taoism was never a single set of practices or beliefs. That Buddhism
superficially resembled Taoism in so many aspects contributed in some measure
to the initial spread of Buddhism. Recently much scholarly work has been
done in the study of Taoism. Two good introductory books are Welch, Taoism:
The Parting of the Way; and Kaltenmark, Lao Tzu and Taoism. Two
important collections of articles are Facets of Taoism in Chinese Religion, ed.
Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel; Symposium on Taoism, in History of Religions.
A very important article, a combination of a bibliography and an encyclopedic
entry, is Seidel's, "Chronicle of Taoist Studies." This issue of Cahiers
is a double issue devoted entirely to Taoist studies. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica,
fifteenth ed., has excellent articles on both Taoism and Buddhism.
[10]
Maspero, "Les origines," esp. pp. 92-93.
[11]
The decision to translate the Buddhist texts into Chinese was of monumental
importance for the history of Buddhism in China. It is not an automatic
assumption that sacred scriptures should be translated. Other religions
often keep their holy books in ancient and original tongues. The texts most
popular in China were usually the ones most similar to the taste of literate
Chinese.
[12]
Ch'en, Buddhism in China, pp. 48-53; Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest,
pp. 26-27; Link, "Taoist Antecedents of Tao-an's Ontology," pp. 181-215.
[13]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 57.
[14]
Prip-Møller, Chinese Buddhist Monasteries, preface.
[15]
See Wright, "Fo-t'u-teng," pp. 325-326.
[16]
The story is from Yün chi ch'i ch'ien (Seven tallies in a cloud satchel),
chüan 115-116, p. 1614. This is a Sung-dynasty collection of about a.d.
1025 of major Taoist writings.
[17]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 273, 286-287; Ch'en, Buddhism in
China, pp. 184-185.
[18]
Ch'en, Buddhism in China, pp. 76-77; Gernet, Aspects économiques,
pp. 25-26, passim.
[19]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 28-29.
[21]
Tao-an (312-385), biography in Kao seng chuan (Lives of eminent
monks), T. 50, 351.c.3ff; Ch'u san-tsang chi chi (Collected notes on the translation
of the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese), T. 55, 43.c., 44.b-46.b;
108.a-109.c; Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 187-189; biography translated
by Link, "Biography of Shih Tao-an."
[22]
Hui-yüan (344-416), biography in Kao seng chuan, T. 50, 357.c.23ff;
and in Ch'u san-tsang chi chi, T. 55, 110.b.ff. Ch'en, Buddhism in China, pp.
76-77; Robinson, Early Mādhyamika in India and China, pp. 96-114. Biography
translated in Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 240-253.
[23]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 28.
[24]
Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi (A record of monasteries and convents in
Lo-yang), T. 51, no. 2092, 1004.c.15-16, 1005.c.16-17, 21; and reprinted
by Shih-chieh Publishing, 1962, map insert between pp. 8-9.
[25]
Kao seng chuan, by Hui-chiao, a contemporary of Pao-ch'ang, T. 50,
no. 2059. See appendix A.
[26]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, pp. 231-239.
[27]
See, for example, Ssu fen lü (Dharmaguptaka-vinaya), T. 22, no. 1428,
924.c.17-18; Ssu fen pi-ch'iu-ni chieh pen (Dharmaguptaka nuns' rule book),
T. 22, no. 1431, 1037.c.20;
Mo-ha-seng-shih pi-ch'iu-ni chieh pen (Mahāsānghika-bhikshunī-prātimoksha),
T. 22, no. 1427, 557.b.12.
[28]
One may learn the causes and conditions of why modern women
become Buddhist nuns and teachers in Friedman, Meetings with Remarkable
Women, especially the story of Karuna Dharma, pp. 193-211.
[29]
Zürcher, Buddhist Conquest, p. 7.
[30]
Gernet, "Les suicides," pp. 537, 548; also Le lie-sien tchouan, pp. 36
n. 1, 54 n. 2, 81, passim.
[31]
The collection of Buddhist texts, compared to, for example, the Bible of
the Christians, or the Koran of the Muslims, is vast. Of the major collections
of Buddhist texts, which are classified by language, the Chinese collecton is
the largest. The Chinese Buddhist canon, the Ta tsang ching (Great storehouse
of scriptures), consists of fifty-five volumes of texts, plus a forty-five-volume
supplement. Each volume has about one thousand pages, and each page has
about one thousand characters.
[32]
The monk Seng-chao, in his commentary to the Vimalakīrti, the Chu
wei-mo-chieh ching, T. 38, no. 1775, 344.c.lff.
[33]
Needham, Science and Civilisation, 5, no. 2:294-304.
[34]
In the "Medicine King" chapter in Miao fa lien hua ching, 53.b-54.a;
Cheng fa hua ching, 125.b-126.a. See Flower of the Law Scripture in Bibliography.
[35]
Le lie-sien tchouan, p. 37, passim.
[37]
Demiéville, "Momies," pp. 148-149. He suggests that mummification
was rare in Taoism; Needham, in Science and Civilisation, 5, no. 2:300,
believes it was more common.
