By Martino Dibeltulo a Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of The
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THE REVIVAL OF TANTRISM: TIBETAN BUDDHISM AND MODERN CHINA by Martino Dibeltulo A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Asian Languages and Cultures) in The University of Michigan 2015 Doctoral Committee: Professor Donald S. Lopez, Jr., Chair Assistant Professor Micah Auerback Assistant Professor Benjamin Brose Professor Tomoko Masuzawa Associate Professor Elliot Sperling, Indiana University Associate Professor Gray Tuttle, Columbia University © Martino Dibeltulo ————————————2015 All rights reserved ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation owes its completion to the labors of many people and to the contribution of many institutions. First of all, I would like to thank the members of my committee, who have inspired me and supported me in many ways during my graduate career. My advisor, Professor Donald Lopez, has always offered the best advice, providing me with the intellectual space that has seen this project grow into the present form. The clear, insightful, and timely comments he has made on each of my many drafts have illuminated my writing, inspiring my commitment to scholarship in Buddhist Studies. Both in the research and writing stages, Professor Micah Auerback has generously offered his insight into the study of Buddhism in modern and contemporary Japan, unselfishly helping me to read and translate texts from the Japanese language. Since my early graduate years, Professor Benjamin Brose has been a mentor and a friend, providing me with essential advice on the study of Buddhism in China. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to Professor Tomoko Masuzawa, who has welcomed me in several of her graduate seminars, where this dissertation was conceived as a genealogy. Not only has she guided me in the study of religion, she has also patiently accompaned me in my journey through the realm of academic writing. Professor Gray Tuttle has kindly offered precious feedback on the history of China-Tibet relations, giving me invaluable directions for my archival research. Finally, I would like to thank Professor Elliot Sperling, for having generously joined the committee in the final stages of writing. ii In Taiwan, during my tenure at the National Taiwan Library in summer 2011, two scholars in particular have enriched my research. This dissertation has greatly benefited from their expertise in the field of Tibetology in Taiwan, Japan, and China. In Taibei, I owe many thanks to Professor Xu Mingyin, with whom I have conversed at length on the history of Tibetan Buddhism, and who has served as the discussant of my talk at the National Taiwan Library. Professor Lin Chong’an has welcomed me in Taoyuan; he has discussed with me the history of Tibetan Buddhism in Republican China and in Taiwan, pointing me to avenues of research that have seen light in this dissertation. In Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Beijing, Shanghai, and Wutai Shan, many more unnamed friends have contributed to the making of this dissertation. In Europe, Professor Ester Bianchi, my long time mentor in Buddhist Studies, has helped me understand the shifts in the study of Tibetan Buddhism in China after the Cultural Revolution. Professor Stefania Travagnin has shared with me her expertise in the study of Buddhism in Taiwan, helping me to form academic connections in Taibei. Marion Dalvai has kindly helped me with translations from German. Finally, the community of graduate students at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has greatly supported my journey: Joseph Leach, Anna Fodde-Reguer, Ignacio Villagran, Harjeet Grewal, Anna Johnson, Becky Bloom, and Eric Haynie. Thank you all. Many institutions have provided financial support at different stages of research and writing. I would like to thank the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan for the awards that funded my preliminary research in China in 2010, and in Taiwan in 2011. The Center of Chinese Studies (CCS) at the University of Michigan has also supported my archive research in Chongqing with an award in 2010. I am also grateful to the Center for Chinese Studies (CCS) at the National Central Library in the Republic of China, Taiwan, for iii their generous summer 2011 award. During the two months I stayed in Taibei, the staff of the CCS has created for me the perfect research environment, providing me also with academic liaisons that have inspired me to pursue the argument of this dissertation. Again, I say a word of thanks to both the faculty and staff of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, for their award of a Hide Shohara Fellowship in 2013-2014. I would also like to thank the Rackham School of Graduate Studies for the fall 2014 Dissertation Writing Fellowship. Finally, I offer many thanks to my family, whose dedication and generosity have inspired me through many years of travel, study, and writing. My mother Cenza Concu, together with my sisters Silvia and Lidia Dibeltulo: to them goes my warmest thank you. Many thanks also to: my grandmother Ica, Immacolata Concu, and Filippo Manconi; Paola and Anna Dibeltulo, with Vincenzo Gambuzza; Franciscu Sedda, Ornella Demuru, and Soliana; Riccardo Mura, Renzo Maciocco, and Giulio Cherchi. The enthusiasm with which Marino Lenassi has always nourished my passion for research deserves much of the credit for the completion of this dissertation. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS................................................................................................................. ii LIST OF SINOGRAPHS................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER 1................................................................................................................................... 10 TALE OF A PROLOGUE............................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 2................................................................................................................................... 66 THE ORIGINS OF THE REVIVAL ................................................................................................. 66 CHAPTER 3................................................................................................................................. 100 CHINESE BUDDHISM ............................................................................................................... 100 CHAPTER 4................................................................................................................................. 149 TIBETAN BUDDHISM............................................................................................................... 149 CHAPTER 5................................................................................................................................. 199 TANTRISM ............................................................................................................................... 199 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 239 BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................................................... 246 v LIST OF SINOGRAPHS CHINESE Benjiao 笨教 / 本教 Chan Beizong 禪北宗 Chiming sheng 持明乘 Dasheng 大乘 Daichuan Fojiao 傣傳佛教 Tuoluoni 陀羅尼 Fojiao 佛教 Guo sheng 果乘 Hanchuan Fojiao 漢傳佛教 Handi Fojiao 漢地佛教 Hanzu 漢族 Hongjiao 紅教 Huangjiao 黃教 Jingang sheng 金剛乘 Jingzang 經藏 Lama 喇嘛 vi Lamajiao 喇嘛教 Lianhua bufa 蓮華部法 Lüzang 律藏 Lunzang 論藏 Mijiao 密教 Misheng 密乘 Mizhou 密咒 Mizong 密宗 Tanggute 唐古特 Tanteluo 坦特羅 Tanteluo sheng 坦特羅乘 Tufan 吐蕃 Xianzong 顯宗 Xiaosheng 小乘 Xizang 西藏 Xizang Fojiao 西藏佛教 Xizang zizhiqu 西藏自治區 Zangchuan Fojiao 藏傳佛教 Zangzu 藏族 Zhenyan sheng 真言乘 Zhongguo Fojiao 中國佛教 Zhou 咒 vii JAPANESE Seizō Bukkyō 西藏佛教 Shina Bukkyō 支那佛教 viii INTRODUCTION This dissertation traces the many ways in which Tantrism (C. Mijiao) and Tibetan Buddhism (C. Xizang Fojiao) have been understood in China over three generations of Buddhist innovators between the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century1: (1) the Qing historian Wei Yuan (1794-1856), together with the publisher and educator Yang Wenhui (1837-1911); (2) the Republican-era scholars of Buddhism, Li Yizhuo (1881-1952) and Lü Cheng (1896-1989); (3) the renowned reformer Taixu (1890-1947), and his student, the monk and translator Fazun (1902-1980). Tantrism, a ritual tradition long vanished in India and China but preserved in modern Japan and Tibet, became a component of the revival of Chinese Buddhism (C. Zhongguo Fojiao fuxing) at the turn of the twentieth century, but in a more prominent way between the World Wars. Promising the attainment of enlightenment in a single lifetime, Tantrism became appealing to revivalists who, in China’s time of internal war and foreign invasion, sought to recover this lost tradition, writing about its rituals, initiations, and teachings in a nostalgic mode. I argue that the work of these early innovators reveals fissures between the late Imperial and the Republican-era (1912-1949) discourse of Tantrism with that of the contemporary People’s Republic of China (PRC). One such fissure is found in the narratives about the role of Tantrism and Tibetan Buddhism in the history of Buddhism in China.