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Chapter five

On the Appearance of Siddhis in Chinese Buddhist Texts

Ryan Richard Overbey

Chinese Buddhist translation activities began in the second century ce in the Eastern Hàn 東漢 state and continued for well over a millen- nium. While many texts have been irretrievably lost to the ravages of political change, war, and persecution, enough remain to give scholars some precious details of ’s long history in East Asia and beyond. This corpus also provides evidence for the study of South Asian religious history, since Chinese translations often preserve texts which would otherwise be lost in the mists of Indian time. Even when Indian counterparts exist, the dateable Chinese translations often rep- resent earlier stages of development, giving scholars valuable insight into the evolution of particular texts and traditions.1 Were a South Asianist to survey works on East Asian Buddhism to learn more about the development of the notion of , she would doubtless emerge disappointed and confused. There are no studies devoted to the emergence of this term in Chinese sources, and the few scholars that do discuss siddhis define the term quite differently. In this short chapter, I hope to shed some light on the emergence of the siddhi in Chinese Buddhist texts, and to address some common mis- steps in scholarship on this concept.

1 The Mahāmāyūrīvidyārājñī corpus provides an excellent example of the utility of Chinese translations for understanding the growth of Indian texts. The six extant translations date from around the fourth century up through the eighth, and many differ radically from the extant MSS. For a good overview of the Mahā­ māyūrī and its sources, see Henrik H. Sørensen, “The Spell of the Great, Golden Peacock Queen: the Origin, Practices, and Lore of an Early Esoteric Buddhist Tradi- tion in China,” Pacific World, 3rd ser., no. 8 (Fall 2006). Some key episodes of the Mahāmāyūrī involving the cure of snakebite draw from a very deep well of Buddhist precedent, on which see Lambert Schmithausen, Maitrī and Magic: Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude Toward the Dangerous in Nature (Wien: Verlag der Öster- reichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997). 128 ryan richard overbey

The word siddhi derives from the verbal root √sidh (‘to accom- plish’), and serves as a general term for ‘success’ or ‘achievement’. In this sense, the word is often used to represent a religious goal.2 In the Pātañjala Yogaśāstra as well as in Hindu and Buddhist Tantric tradi- tions, siddhi can have a narrower semantic range, referring to particu- lar sets of extraordinary powers gained through religious practices, incantations, drugs, or other means.3 Siddhi in this narrower sense does not occur in Indian Buddhist literature before the rise of the Tantric Buddhist texts of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Siddhis are found in the Mañjuśrīmūla­ ,4 the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana,5 and other similarly late texts, but when earlier Buddhist texts occasionally use the word siddhi, they do so only with the broader meaning.6 Given these facts, it would be a significant discovery indeed if one could find an example of siddhis in the narrow sense in Chinese Buddhist texts before the eighth century. Such an example would be our earliest evidence for the development or appropriation of this concept in the Buddhist context. Several scholars have implied the existence of siddhis in early , and some have even named particular texts and passages which they claim provide evi- dence for the presence of siddhis before the eighth century. I believe all these claims are mistaken. The most common mistakes fall into three categories.

2 see, for just one small example, Bhagavadgītā 12.10/Mahābhārata 6.34.10: abhyāse ’py asamartho ’si matkarmaparamo bhava / madartham api karmāṇi kurvan siddhim avāpsyasi. “If you are incapable of rigorous practice, you should be devoted to acting for me. By performing actions on my behalf, you will attain success (sid- dhi).” 3 see YŚ 4.1: janmauṣadhi--tapaḥ-samādhijāḥ siddhayaḥ “Siddhis come from birth, from drugs, from incantations, from ascetic practices, or from meditative concentration.” In this paper I refer to the Madras edition, but scholars should note the recent work of Philipp André Maas, whose critical edition of the first chapter is a welcome addition to scholarship on the Yogaśāstra. See Samādhipāda: das erste Kap- itel des Pātañjalayogaśāstra zum ersten Mal kritisch ediert (Aachen: Shaker Verlag, 2006). 4 This text probably dates to sometime in the early āP la dynasty, possibly around the eighth century. See Matsunaga Yūkei, “On the Date of the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa,” in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R.A. Stein, ed. Michel Strickmann. Mélanges Chinois et Bouddhiques 22 (1985). 5 Sarvardurgatipariśodhana : Elimination of All Evil Destinies, ed. Tadeusz Skorupski (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1983). 6 see, for example, the Mahāvastu Avadāna 3.115.2, which glosses the name Siddhārtha with the expression sarvasiddhisaṃprāpta, “by whom all accomplish- ments are attained.”