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MOUNT WUTAI Mount Wutai, Considered the Most Sacred

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MOUNT WUTAI Mount Wutai, Considered the Most Sacred the clear and cold 27 CHAPTER TWO THE CLEAR AND COLD: MOUNT WUTAI Mount Wutai, considered the most sacred mountain in Chinese Buddhism, is located in northeastern China in Shanxi province, approximately one hundred fifty miles from the provincial capital of Taiyuan. This cluster of five flat-topped peaks encompasses about one hundred square miles, and the highest terrace rises ten thousand feet above sea level. Early Literature on Mount Wutai Like many Chinese mountains, Mount Wutai has had a long and complex spiritual history which is reflected in the historical records and poems that both describe and celebrate this site. There are several major sources of information about the history and legends surrounding this mountain.1 The oldest is by the Tang dynasty monk Huixiang 慧祥, the Gu Qingliang zhuan 古清涼傳 (Ancient Record of Clear and Cold).2 Huixiang visited Mount Wutai in 667. Yanyi 延一, a monk of the Northern Song dynasty, wrote a more complete work called the Guang Qingliang zhuan 廣清涼傳 (Expanded Record of Clear and Cold), which dates to approximately 1060.3 Another Song dynasty work was written by the lay Buddhist Zhang Shang- ying 張商英 (1043-1122), the Xu Qingliang zhuan 續清涼傳 (Further Re- cord of Clear and Cold) around the time of his visit to Mount Wutai in 1088.4 Appended to this record is the Taishan ruiying ji 臺山瑞應記 (Record of Signs and Wonders of Mount Wutai) by Zhu Bian 朱弁 (d. 1144), a brief ac- count of visions of Mañjuśrī witnessed by Jin dynasty officials.5 Zhang Shangying’s work is essentially a diary of his spiritual experiences on the 1 For a more complete list of early Chinese works on Mount Wutai, see Ono Katsutoshi 小野勝年 and Hibino Takeo日比野丈夫, Godaisan 五臺山, 342-368. 2 Huixiang, Gu Qingliang zhuan (hereafter GuQLZ), T. 51.2098. 3 Yanyi, Guang Qingliang zhuan (hereafter GuangQLZ), T. 51.2099. 4 Zhang Shangying, Xu Qingliang zhuan (hereafter XuQLZ), T. 51.2100. Robert M. Gim- ello has translated a portion of this work in “Chang Shang-ying on Wu-t’ai Shan,” in Pil- grims and Sacred Sites in China, ed. Susan Naquin and Chün-fang Yü, 89-149. 5 Robert M. Gimello has translated the record in “Wu-t’ai Shan during the Early Chin Dynasty: The Testimony of Chu Pien,” Chung-Hwa Buddhist Journal 7 (July 1994): 501-612. 28 chapter two mountain; the records of Huixiang and Yanyi contain much more historical information. Yet another significant source of material about Mount Wutai is Nittō guhō junrei gyōki 入唐求法巡禮行記 (Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law), the diary of the Japanese Tiantai (Jpn. Tendai) monk Ennin 圓仁 (793-864), who visited the mountain during his trip to China from 838 to 847.6 Another Japanese Tiantai monk, Jōjin 成尋 (1011-1081), visited both Mount Tiantai and Mount Wutai from 1072 to 1073 and left a record called San Tendai Godaisan ki 參天臺五臺山記 (Record of a Visit to Tiantai and Wutai Mountains). His religious experiences on the moun- tain were similar to Ennin’s.7 The Dunhuang manuscripts contain several brief accounts of visits to Mount Wutai by Indian and Chinese Buddhist monks. Manuscript P. 3931 is the diary of the Indian monk Rama Śrīnivāsa, known by his Chinese name, Puhua 普化. This text dates from the late ninth or early tenth cen- tury, and shares many numinous sites with the Mount Wutai poems.8 Manuscript S. 0397, written in the Tang or Five Dynasties era, is especially valuable for its description of the Buddha Radiance Temple (Foguang si 佛 光寺).9 Manuscript S. 4648 dates from the eighth century and is significant for its mention of a picture of Mount Wutai.10 Manuscript P. 3973, entitled Wang Wutai shan xing ji 往五臺山行記 (Record of a Trip to Mount Wutai), was written in the Late Tang or Five Dynasties era. This work consists only of a fragment of 100 characters. Other Tang records by Buddhist monks that mention Mount Wutai in- clude two works by the Vinaya Master Daoxuan (596-667), Ji Shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄 and Daoxuan lüshi gantong lu 道 6 Ennin, Nittō guhō junrei gyōki (hereafter NGJG), in Nittō guhō junrei gyōki no kenkyū 入唐求法巡禮行記の研究, ed. Ono Katsutoshi. The work has been published in English as Ennin’s Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law, trans. Edwin O. Reischauer. 7 See Cheng Xun (Jōjin), Can Tiantai Wutai shan ji, ed. Bai Huawen 白化文 and Li Dingxia 李鼎霞. 8 See Richard Schneider, “Un Moine Indien au Wou-t’ai chan: Relation d’un Pèleri- nage,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 3 (1987): 27-40, for a complete French translation and expli- cation of this work. Du Doucheng, Dunhuang Wutai shan wenxian jiaolu yanjiu, 221-222, contains the Chinese text. 9 See Marylin M. Rhie, The Fo-kuang ssu: Literary Evidences and Buddhist Images, 47-64, for a translation and study of this work. 10 See Hibino Takeo, “Tonkō no Godaisan junreiki” 敦煌の五臺山巡禮記, in Ono Katsutoshi hakushi shōju ki’nen. Tōhōgaku ronshū 小野勝年博士頌壽記念. 東方學論 集, for further discussion of S. 0397 and P. 4648..
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