A Primer in Chinese Buddhist Writings Supplement: Epigraphy

A Primer in Chinese Buddhist Writings Supplement: Epigraphy Acknowledgements Thanks are due to the members of the epigraphy seminar of 2016 that worked with and contributed to what follows: Allan Ding, Sinae Kim, Sangyop Lee, Kedao Tong, Dan Tuzzeo and Likun Yang. Sinae Kim worked on extensive revisions to this supplement and should be listed as co-author. Please send corrections and suggestions to: [email protected] October, 2016 Cover: Rubbing in the collection of the Peking Library. Běijīng tuúshūguǎn cáng Zhōngguó lìdài shíkē tàběn huìbiān 北京圖書館藏中國歷代石刻拓本匯編 (Zhèngzhōu: Zhōngzhōu gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1989), vol. 4, p. 80. 1 Table of Contents Preface ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Short Donative Inscriptions ................................................................................................................................. 4 1. The Zhái Mán Maitreya Stele ....................................................................................................................... 4 2. The Chéng Duàn’ér Stone Stūpa ................................................................................................................ 12 3. The Táng Xiǎohǔ Maitreya Stele ................................................................................................................ 17 4. The Liú Wèi Maitreya Stele ........................................................................................................................ 24 5. Stele in the Nelson-Atkins Museum ......................................................................................................... 39 6. The Hán Xiǎohuá Image from Qīngzhōu ................................................................................................ 42 7. The Yuánzhào, Yuánguāng Maitreya Image ........................................................................................... 45 8. An Inscription from Fángshān .................................................................................................................. 50 9. An Inscription from Lóngmén .................................................................................................................. 54 10. Zhái Fèngdá Inscription from Dūnhuáng ............................................................................................. 58 11. (Bonus track) Lotus Sūtra Colophon ...................................................................................................... 62 Longer Inscriptions .............................................................................................................................................. 64 1. Stele in the Hénán Museum ....................................................................................................................... 64 2. A Stūpa for a Parrot ...................................................................................................................................... 74 3. Rooster Tomb Inscription .......................................................................................................................... 76 4. Epitaph for a Tang Monk ............................................................................................................................ 78 5. The Dampa Stele ........................................................................................................................................... 86 6. Votive Inscriptions on the Southern Dynasties Stone Buddhist Images Discovered on Xī’ān Road in Chéngdū .............................................................................................................................................. 94 7. Inscription for the Reconstruction of the Guǎngfú Chán Monastery of the Wise ...................... 102 2 Preface This supplement is intended primarily for advanced students interested in Chinese Buddhism. Before attempting this supplement, students should work through the main three volumes of the Primer and, ideally already have a good command of Classical Chinese. I do not gloss common terms here, focusing instead on introducing the main sources for Buddhist epigraphy in China, including extant pieces now housed in museums, rubbings of inscriptions, collections of transcriptions, archaeological publications, and local gazetteers. Part 1 of this supplement provides a brief introduction to each piece and a bibliography of relevant sources. Part 2 includes annotation of difficult passages, and reflects class discussion over alternate readings for a given passage. Part 3 provides an English translation. After working through the material, with reference to Parts 2 and 3 as needed, the student should attempt to return to Part 1 and read the primary sources without recourse to Parts 2 or 3, or any other external material. Eventually, I hope to expand this supplement with more selections from local gazetteers, an important source for Buddhist epigraphy in China. 3 Short Donative Inscriptions 1. The Zhái Mán Maitreya Stele Background Our first inscription is found above an image of Maitreya on a stele now preserved in the Kyoto National Museum, but presumed to have been made in Henan (see photo below). Below the image of Maitreya is a longer inscription (Wànshòu sì beījì 萬壽寺碑記) that I do not include here. The longer inscription dates the image to 706. Below we will look at some instances in which the original stone is lost, the inscription surviving only in one or more rubbings (tàpiàn 拓片). The practice of making rubbings goes back to at least the fifth century, but most extant rubbings are from the late Qing and early part of the twentieth century.1 The rubbing (see image below) for our stele shows how—even in cases in which the original stele or image survives—old rubbings often preserve inscriptions that are no longer visible on the stone. I reproduce a rubbing from the Peking Library collection below. In addition to making rubbings, literati and modern scholars have copied out inscriptions in epigraphical collections. Again, these can be helpful for interpreting characters no longer visible on the original stone or in later rubbings. And, again, at times inscriptions survive only in such collections. The great novelist and scholar Lǔ Xùn 魯迅 in the early decades of the twentieth century hand-copied a large number of rubbings, collected in his Lǔ Xùn jíjiào shíkē shǒugǎo 魯迅輯校石刻 1 For a survey of the history of Chinese rubbings, see Kenneth Starr, Black Tigers: A Grammar of Chinese Rubbings (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2008). The collections of the Peking Library and the Fu Ssu-nien Library are particularly useful. Many of the rubbings of the Peking Library collection are available in a 100 volume set, Běijīng túshūguǎn cáng Zhōngguó lìdài shíkē tàběn huìbiān 北京圖書館藏中國歷代石刻拓本匯编 (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji chūbǎnshè, 1989-91). This collection is available in digital form at http://www.cadal.zju.edu.cn/. Stanford students have access to this database. The first time you use it, you need to register a username and password. For a catalog of the Fu Ssu-nien holdings of rubbings for the Northern Wei period, see Fójiào tàpiàn yándú xiǎo zǔ 佛教拓片研讀小組, Zhōngyāng yánjiùyuàn lìshǐ yǔyán yánjiùsuǒ cáng Běi Wèi jìniàn fójiào shíkē tàběn mùlù 中央研究院歷史語言研究所藏北魏紀年佛教石刻拓本目錄 (Taipei: Zhōngyāng yánjiùyuàn shǐyǔsuǒ, 2002). 4 手稿 (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi shūhuà chūbǎnshè, 1987).2 I reproduce his transcription of this rubbing below. My transcription below is based on yet another source, originally published in 1915, about the time that Lǔ Xùn began to record inscriptions in his book. This work is by the great scholar of Buddhist art Ōmura Seigai 大村西崖, entitled Shina bijutsushi: Chōso hen 支那美術史: 雕塑篇 (Tōkyō: Kokusho Kankōkai, 1972 [1915]), p. 235, which I have compared with the other sources mentioned above. This inscription, along with the longer passage that follows, have been cited as evidence for conceptions of heaven and hell in China in the early sixth century. 2 Zhào Chéngjié 趙成杰, “Lǔ Xùn jīnshíxué yánjiù de shíjiàn yǔ kāituò” 魯迅金石學研究的實踐與開拓, Liáochéng dàxué xuébào 聊城大學學報 (2015.6), pp. 22-31. 5 Zhái Mán Maitreya stele. H. 123 cm, W. 70 cm. Kyoto National Museum. Photo from Dorothy C. Wong, Chinese Steles: Pre-Buddhist and Buddhist Use of a Symbolic Form (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2004), p. 97. 6 Rubbing in the collection of the Peking Library. Běijīng túshūguǎn cáng Zhōngguó lìdài shíkē tàběn huìbiān 北京圖書館藏中國歷代石刻拓本匯編 (Zhèngzhōu: Zhōngzhōu gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1989), vol. 4, p. 80. 7 Lǔ Xùn jíjiào shíkē shǒugǎo 魯迅輯校石刻手稿 (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi shūhuà chūbǎnshè, 1987), case 2, volume 1, p. 103. 8 Lǔ Xùn jíjiào shíkē shǒugǎo 魯迅輯校石刻手稿 (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi shūhuà chūbǎnshè, 1987), case 2, volume 1, p. 104. 9 Inscription 3 4 佛弟子翟蠻為亡父母洛難弟造彌勒像一塸，願使亡者上生天上、託生西方。 5 侍佛佐右，供養三寶時。 3 Notice that the non-standard 洛 is given for 落. 4 Again, note the form the character takes in the original by looking at Lǔ Xùn’s transcription. 5 Notice that Lǔ Xùn gives 待 which matches the rubbing. In inscriptions, the radical 亻 is often interchangeable with 彳 (e.g. 佛 is often written as 彿). 10 Bibliography Běijīng túshūguǎn jīnshí zǔ 北京圖書館金石組 ed., Běijīng túshūguǎn cáng Zhōngguó lìdài shíkē tàběn huìbiān 北京圖書館藏中國歷代石刻拓本匯編 (Zhèngzhōu: Zhōngzhōu gǔjí chūbǎnshè, 1989), vol. 4, p. 80. Fójiào tàpiàn yándú xiǎo zǔ 佛教拓片研讀小組 ed. Zhōngyāng yánjiùyuàn lìshǐ yǔyán yánjiùsuǒ cáng Běi Wèi jìnián fójiào shíkē tàběn mùlù 中央研究院歷史語言研究所藏北魏紀年佛教

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