Buddhism and Self-Immolation

James A. Benn. Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Studies in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. 376 pp. $48.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8248-2992-6. Reviewed by Ryan Overbey Published on H-Buddhism (November, 2009) Commissioned by Dan Lusthaus (Harvard University) James A. Benn’s frst monograph begins with fluence of biographical writing in Chinese Bud‐ a spectacular death. In the year 527, after a series dhist history. of striking miracles (rays of light, augural won‐ In his frst chapter, “Mounting the Smoke ders, and numinous vapors), the monk Daodu 道 with Glittering Colors,” Benn surveys early biogra‐ 度 strikes a chime, recites verses on emptiness, phies of eminent monks and nuns by Baochang 寶 and burns himself to death. His remains are hon‐ 昌 (463–after 514) and Huijiao 慧皎 (497–554). ored, placed in a sacred reliquary by the local These sources provide our earliest evidence of ruler, and a laudatory funerary inscription is Chinese self-immolation, and they lay the founda‐ carved. In the space of a few pages after this anec‐ tion for future doctrine and action. Benn shows dote, Benn concisely traces the religious motiva‐ how the early self-immolators often combined tions of Daodu as well as his political connections, Daoist dieting practices with explicit mimicry of placing the monk squarely within the long arc of Buddhist jātaka and avadāna tales. But already in a broader Buddhist religious history while frmly these early moments Benn sees a kind of somatic locating him in his specific Chinese context. This sinification: the body of the self-immolator is not little story is beautifully chosen, for it contains the just an offering to relieve the suffering of another essence of Burning for the Buddha. In a series of (as is usually the case in Indian texts), but rather chronologically and thematically arranged chap‐ is a “site of transformation.” For Chinese self-im‐ ters, Benn expands on every element of this anec‐ molators from the very beginning, religious sui‐ dote: on the long history of Chinese Buddhist self- cide has been “an active means of deliverance” immolation (a category that contains not only (p. 40). Benn shows how early self-immolation auto-cremation but also any form of religious self- was often constructed and construed as an explic‐ harm or suicide), on the role of the body in Bud‐ itly political act, a way of getting an emperor’s at‐ dhism, on the power of scripture, and on the in‐ H-Net Reviews tention and forcing him to act for the benefit of “moral blackmail” (pp. 81, 87). Most important, the Buddhist community. Benn frames all these stories within the larger In chapter 2, we learn how Chinese acts of context of Daoxuan’s life and work, and his politi‐ auto-cremation were often modeled specifically cal imperative to advance the interests of the Bud‐ on the template of the Bodhisattva Medicine dhist order under the reign of Tang Emperor King’s auto-cremation in the twenty-third chapter Taizong 太宗. Not only does Benn pay attention to of the Lotus Sūtra. Here, Benn makes a striking the political context of individual monastic acts and provocative claim, that whereas Indian read‐ depicted in biographies of eminent monks, but he ers would have easily recognized the hyperbole also keeps the reader focused on the creative and rhetorical movements of the Lotus, Chinese projects underlying the composition of the biogra‐ readers were conditioned by their own traditions phies themselves. of reading to take the scripture quite literally. And In chapter 4, Benn discusses two attempts by it was not just the Lotus Sūtra depicting self-im‐ Chinese exegetes to deal with the ethical and doc‐ molation in a positive light; the Chinese Buddhists trinal implications of self-immolation: Daoshi’s 道 also were importing and translating scroll after 世 (596–683) Fayuan zhulin 法苑珠林 and Yong‐ scroll of Indian scriptures and treatises which ming Yanshou’s 永明延壽 (904–75) Wangshan gave “almost constant affirmation of the act” (p. tonggui ji 萬善同歸集. He shows how these monks 69). In turn, the Chinese began generating their react to accusations that self-immolation consti‐ own genres of Buddhist literature, a kind of sec‐ tutes a violation of the monastic prohibition on ond layer of texts built on their encounters with suicide. Daoshi summarily used Mahāyāna scrip‐ the newly imported canon. Natively written Chi‐ tures to trump any concerns from the Vinaya, and nese tales proclaiming the miracles of Guanyin 觀 then gave vivid stories from jātaka tales to back 音 or of the Lotus Sūtra gave a kind of proof that up his points. Benn helpfully tracks down and ex‐ acts of self-immolation generated powerful re‐ plains all of Daoshi’s occasionally obscure refer‐ sults. ences. Yanshou, in contrast, worked a bit harder Chapter 3 examines the Xu gaoseng zhuan 續 to draw out all the ramifications of self-immola‐ 高僧傳 (Continuation of the Biographies of Emi‐ tion. While critics like Yijing 義淨 (635-713) be‐ nent Monks) written by Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667), lieved that Chinese monks were spiritually imma‐ highlighting in particular stories dealing with the ture, and not capable of acting like heroic bod‐ relationship of the Buddhist order and the Chi‐ hisattva-mahāsattvas, Yanshou held out the pos‐ nese state. Here, Benn shows how anxieties about sibility that monks on Chinese soil could act freely the decline of the dharma and imperial patronage in emptiness, transcending all dualisms. Yanshou of the saṅgha could lead monks to threaten and argued in the “mature” tradition of Chinese commit ostentatious and public acts of self-injury. Huayan exegesis, wielding arguments about prin‐ The story of Dazhi 大志 (567–609) of Lushan 廬山 ciple and phenomena (li 理 and shi 事), and sub‐ is especially useful. After the emperor, Sui Yangdi stance and function (ti 體 and yong 用). Benn also 隋煬帝, decided to begin limiting the growth of the places Yanshou’s arguments in historical context, Buddhist order, Dazhi wailed loudly, remonstrat‐ guessing that they may have been a response to ed with the emperor, burnt his arm to a crisp with Later Zhou Emperor Shizong’s 世宗 955 edict con‐ a hot iron, peeled off his fesh to reveal the bones demning self-immolation in the north, or to Wu- underneath, and then charred the bones them‐ Yue Emperor Zhongyi’s 忠懿 refusal to allow the selves. Benn deftly shows how monks were “bar‐ monk Shaoyan 紹巖 to self-immolate. gaining with their bodies,” engaging in a kind of 2 H-Net Reviews Chapter 5, “Local Heroes in a Fragmenting longer depended on the Lotus Sūtra and jātaka Empire,” works from the Song gaoseng zhuan 宋 tales to justify the practice; they “had produced 高僧傳 (Biographies of Eminent Monks Written in nothing less than indigenous literature of self-im‐ the Song Dynasty) of Zanning 贊寧 (ca. 919–1001). molation” (p. 194). Benn shows how the practices of self-immolation Benn’s most frequently mentioned goal is to have by now worked themselves into a self-confi‐ show that religious suicide was “not the random dent and thoroughly Chinese Buddhist practice, a act of a disturbed individual” and “not a marginal world where the sacred mountain Wutaishan 五台 or deviant practice indulged in by a handful of 山 was a religious center. Auto-cremation was no suicidal losers” (pp. 2, 195). He wants his readers longer accompanied by simple Chinese markers to believe that monks who burn themselves alive of the uncanny, such as purple vapors or screech‐ or throw themselves before tigers in hopes of be‐ ing birds. Instead, the suicides of monks produce ing eaten “were not completely misguided or de‐ thousands of precious relics, to be distributed and luded” (p. 202). Benn accomplishes this goal not honored just like the relics of the Buddha. Benn only through solid scholarly analysis but also shows how the tenth century was a time of “relic through a careful structuring of the book itself. inflation,” with “an almost entirely closed system Benn’s rhetorical approach involves a nearly un‐ in which relics produced in China bred more ending parade of vivid and grisly scenes, each fol‐ relics” (pp. 144–145). The memory and remains of lowed by a careful unraveling of the self-immola‐ self-immolators became the focus for local reli‐ tors’ textual precedents, religious inspirations, gious cults, and the legends of self-immolators be‐ and political motivations. This serves to numb the gan to focus on aesthetic concerns, such as the reader to the raw emotional impact of these grue‐ comportment and serenity of the monk at the mo‐ some suicides. By the end of the book, I felt like a ment of his death. medical student in anatomy class, probing these In chapter 6, Benn works on important generously donated corpses with keen interest. sources of the late imperial period, the Bu xu The long succession of detailed anecdotes also gaoseng zhuan 補續高僧傳 (Supplement to the serves another broader argument made in this Continuation of the Biographies of Eminent work: that self-immolation was not a single prac‐ Monks) of the late Ming and the Xin xu gaoseng tice but the result of constant ferment and person‐ zhuan siji 新續高僧傳四集 (Four Collections of New al religious creativity. Benn is not seduced by the Continuations of the Biographies of Eminent synthetic classifications of the biographers; he Monks) of the Qing and early Republican periods. wants to recover individual stories, to pluck them Benn’s survey of these materials demonstrates out of the specific agendas of the Daoxuans and just how thoroughly embedded in Chinese Bud‐ Zannings of the world and restore them to their dhism self-immolation had become.

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