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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Sages, Sinners, and the Vernacularization of Buddhism in Nihon ryōiki A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures by Shih-Wei Sun 2020 © Copyright by Shih-Wei Sun 2020 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Sages, Sinners, and the Vernacularization of Buddhism in Nihon ryōiki by Shih-Wei Sun Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles, 2020 Professor Torquil Duthie, Chair Nihon ryōiki is known as the earliest extant Buddhist anecdotal collection in Japan. Very little is known about its compiler, a monk named Kyōkai who belonged to the lower aristocracy and was active in the provinces rather than at the central court. Nihon ryōiki was compiled to keep a record of the miraculous events occurred in Japan. Like the tales documented in Buddhist sutras and Chinese anecdotal collections, Kyōkai insisted that similar events had happened in Japan in different ii ages and areas. Evidence of such miraculous events indicated, in Kyōkai’s view, that Japan, like India and China, was a land that deserved the Buddha’s salvation. Nihon ryōiki makes the case that the reason miraculous events occurred equally in Japan is the existence of Japanese sages of great virtue who were not inferior to Chinese sages. Although the reliability of the historical accounts in Nihon ryōiki is somewhat questionable, I am not interested in whether the Nihon ryōiki stories have any basis in reality, but rather in what has been changed and why the changes have been made. Stories that are adaptations from sutras or Chinese sources have been modified and adapted to become miraculous events that supposedly occurred in Japan. In the first chapter, I discuss how Kyōkai establishes a Japanese lineage of sagehood as evidence of Japan being a sacred land. In the second chapter, I focus on Prince Nagaya, who is depicted as a sinner who receives the penalty of death because he is unable to identify a “hidden sage”. In the third chapter, I examine the historical context of the Chinese monk Jianzhen’s arrival at Japan and introduce how Tiantai teachings were promoted by Jianzhen’s disciples, how a tale that asserted Prince Shōtoku was a reincarnation of monk Huisi spread. I also make a comparison between the Nihon ryōiki and a Chinese anecdotal collection titled Min bao ji to examine how Chinese influences are vernacularized and changed. Nihon ryōiki adopts a deliberate and iii consistent policy of vernacularizing its Chinese sources by changing key details in the stories and thereby adapting them to a Japanese context. iv The dissertation of Shih-Wei Sun is approved. Seiji Mizuta Lippit David T. Bialock Torquil Duthie, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2020 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: The Sages in the Nihon ryōiki ………………………………………………9 1. Before Buddhism: Emperor Nintoku …………………………………………………12 2. Prince Shōtoku…………………………………………………………………………..24 3. Emperor Shōmu…………………………………………………………………………48 4. Gyōki………………………………………………………………………………………66 Chapter Two: Immediate Penalty of Death: Prince Nagaya as a Sinner……………92 1. Sinners of imperial lineage……………………………………………………………94 2. Prince Nagaya in Nihon ryōiki Tales and Shoku Nihongi Accounts……………102 3. The Historical Prince Nagaya: The Background to the Nagaya Incident………119 4. The Prince who Suppressed the Unofficial Monks: Prince Nagaya and Buddhism………………………………………………………...137 5. Prince Nagaya and Daoism: The “Sinister Way” …………………………………150 6. The Exclusion of Daoist Elements from Nihon Ryōiki……………………………160 7. Nagaya’s Burial and his Descendants……………………………………………...170 Chapter Three: The Vernacularization of Miraculous Events………………………..175 1. The Reincarnation of Sages: Monk Huisi, Prince Shōtoku and Emperor Shōmu………………………………...179 2. Jianzhen and the Tiantai teachings: How the Huisi Reincarnation Tale was Created……………………………………184 3. The Missing Walls of the Citadel: How the Main Point of a Chinese Tale was Removed…………………………….196 4. The Palace in an Exotic Land: King Yama’s Palace in Nihon ryōiki…………..213 5. The Bureaucracy of the Afterlife: Offices of the Judges and the Palace of King Enra…………………………………224 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………249 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………….261 vi LIST Of FIGURES Page 1. Prince Nagaya’s Genealogy……………………………………………………………..117 2. Fujiwara no Fuhito and Emperor Shōmu’s Genealogy……………………………..118 vii ABBREVIATIONS DBZ Dainihon Bukkyō Zensho 大日本仏教全書 NKBT Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 日本古典文学大系 NKBZ Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū 日本古典文学全集 SAT Daizōkyō DB SAT Daizōkyō Text Database 新脩大正大蔵経テキストデータベース SNKBT Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 新日本古典文学大系 SNKBZ Shinpen Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshū 新編日本古典文学全集 Ch. Chinese J. Japanese K. Korean viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation began as a presentation I made in 2014 at the Japanese Studies Graduate Conference at UCLA. Since the first year of my PhD program, my interest toward Nihon ryōiki kept growing, and eventually expanded to this dissertation project. My interest in early Japanese texts began with a modern Japanese translation of Kojiki and Nihon shoki mythology that I read when I was an international exchange student at Waseda University dispatched by my undergraduate Alma Mater, National Taiwan University. After my mandatory military service in 2005, I was lucky to have the opportunity to study at Peking University where I majored Comparative Literature and received my first MA. My thesis was a comparative research project on the textual Kiki mythology, and the folklore, anecdotes, and myths orally transmitted by the ethnic minorities of southeastern China and aborigines of southeast Asian regions including the Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan and Okinawa. I have been fortunate to study with great teachers at Columbia University. After I joined Columbia to pursue my second MA degree in 2010, I focused more on textual analysis and close readings of the Kojiki and Nihon shoki. I am extremely grateful to my advisor at the time, Professor David Lurie, who helped me complete my second thesis and encouraged me to pursue my interest in early Japanese mythology by addressing larger questions. My words of gratitude also go to professors Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki, the former librarian of C.V. Starr Library Dr. Sachie Noguchi, and the late Professor Emeritus Donald Keene who taught his final graduate seminar on yōkyoku and Nō theater before he moved to Japan permanently in 2011. I was lucky enough to attend this class. After a short period of work experience in Japan, I came back to the US and began my PhD program at UCLA. I appreciate the opportunity that the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures gave me. The abundant resources provided an ideal environment for anyone intending to conduct a long-term research project on Japanese literature. The Terasaki Center of Japanese Studies offered a variety of funding opportunities that supported my study experience in Japan in the summer of 2014. My best words are not enough to express my appreciation for all the faculty members and staff of ALC. I am extremely grateful and owe a debt of gratitude to my advisor, professor Torquil Duthie. Without his kindness, patience, understanding and helpful advice at every point of my study at UCLA, I would not ix be here today. Professor William Bodiford spared time from his busy schedule to read the Nihon ryōiki with me and guided me to learn everything I needed to know about early Japanese Buddhism. Professor Michael Emmerich gave me helpful advice on the dissertation; Professor Seiji Lippit taught a seminar where I was able to read theoretical works and modern novels. At USC, my words of gratitude go to Professor David Bialock who kindly joined my committee; Tomoko Bialock provided every help I needed since she became the librarian of the Japanese Study section at UCLA’s Young Research Library. I am grateful to the Japan Foundation and the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities which financially supported me to conduct research at Waseda University for two academic years as an international research fellow from September of 2015 to October of 2017. I am grateful to every staff member at the Yotsuya headquarters of the Japan Foundation, to the coordinator and staff of the school of Humanities and Social Science at Waseda Toyama campus, and to the staff of the Yanai Initiative who assisted my stay in Japan. In Japan, there are so many people to whom I need to acknowledge my debt. Professor Inahata Kōichirō, who has been my mentor for years, encouraged me in every way. Professor Kōno Kimiko, my advisor during the stay at Waseda, kindly gave me every support I needed. I was fortunate to be able to attend her seminars. Professor Toeda Hirokazu made the exchange program possible; Professors Jinno Hidenori, Takamatsu Hideo, and Matsumoto Naoki from the School of Education all gave me valuable advice on my study. Professor Komatsu Yasuhiko from Aoyama Gakuin University taught a class focusing on the Pacific War and Man’yōshū poems as a visiting professor at Waseda during the time when I was affiliated with the school. Besides Waseda, I am grateful to institutions such as The National Institute of Japanese Literature and The University of Tokyo. Professor Shinada Yoshikazu from Komaba kindly invited me to join his study group; Professor Tada Kazuomi gave me valuable advice on my presentation at the Jōdai bungaku conference in 2017.