A PURE MIND Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and Buddhist monasteries, in both Ancient India and China, have played a crucial social role, for religious as well as for lay people. They rightfully attract the attention of many scholars, discussing historical backgrounds, institutional networks, or influential masters. Still, some aspects of monastic IN life have not yet received the attention they deserve. This book therefore A aims to study some of the most essential, but often overlooked, issues of CL Buddhist life: namely, practices and objects of bodily care. For monastic EAN authors, bodily care primarily involves bathing, washing, cleaning, shaving and trimming the nails, activities of everyday life that are performed by lay BO people and monastics alike. In this sense, they are all highly recognizable A PURE MIND D and, while structuring monastic life, equally provide a potential bridge Y between two worlds that are constantly interacting with each other: IN A CLEAN BODY monastic people and their lay followers. Bodily practices might be viewed as relatively simple and elementary, Bodily Care but it is exactly through their triviality that they give us a clear insight in the Buddhist Monasteries into the structure and development of Buddhist monasteries. Over time, of Ancient India and China Buddhist monks and nuns have, through their painstaking effort into regulating bodily care, defined the identity of the Buddhist samgha, overtly displaying it to the laity. Ann Heirman & Mathieu Torck Ann Heirman, Ph.D. (1998) in Oriental Languages and Cultures, is Professor of Chinese Language and Culture at Ghent University, Belgium. Ann Heirman & Mathieu Torck She has published extensively on Chinese Buddhist monasticism and the development of disciplinary rules, including Rules for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya (Motilal Banarsidass, 2002) and The Spread of Buddhism (edited volume with Stephan Peter Bumbacher, Brill, 2007). Mathieu Torck, Ph.D. (2006) in Oriental Languages and Cultures, is Teaching and Research Assistant of Chinese Language and Culture at Ghent University, Belgium. His publications deal with topics from research fields such as the history of nutrition and food culture in China, Chinese medical traditions and maritime and military history. He is the author of Avoiding the Dire Straits (Harrassowitz, 2009), a monograph about the history of scurvy in East and Southeast Asia. pure.mind.book Page 1 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM A PURE MIND IN A CLEAN BODY BODILY CARE IN THE BUDDHIST MONASTERIES OF ANCIENT INDIA AND CHINA pure.mind.book Page 2 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM pure.mind.book Page 3 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM A PURE MIND IN A CLEAN BODY BODILY CARE IN THE BUDDHIST MONASTERIES OF ANCIENT INDIA AND CHINA Ann Heirman & Mathieu Torck pure.mind.book Page 4 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM © Academia Press Eekhout 2 9000 Gent T. (+32) (0)9 233 80 88 F. (+32) (0)9 233 14 09 [email protected] www.academiapress.be The publications of Academia Press are distributed by: J. Story-Scientia nv Wetenschappelijke Boekhandel Sint-Kwintensberg 87 B-9000 Gent T. 09 255 57 57 F. 09 233 14 09 [email protected] www.story.be Ef & Ef Media Postbus 404 3500 AK Utrecht [email protected] www.efenefmedia.nl Rest of the world: UPNE, Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA (www.upne.com) Ann Heirman & Mathieu Torck A Pure Mind in a Clean Body Bodily Care in the Buddhist Monasteries of Ancient India and China Gent, Academia Press, 2012, 194 pp. Lay-out: proxessmaes.be Cover: 2 Kilo Design ISBN 978 90 382 2014 7 D/2012/4804/210 U 1901 No part of this publication may be reproduced in print, by photocopy, microfilm or any other means, without the prior written permission of the publisher. pure.mind.book Page 1 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM 1 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION . 3 1. Bodily care practices and objects. 3 1.1. From India to China. 4 1.2. Material culture. 5 1.3. Monastic and lay people . 6 1.4. Beyond daily life . 6 2. Overview of sources . 9 2.1. The monastic context . 9 2.2. The lay world . 16 3. Outline of chapters. 18 Notes . 20 I. BATHING FACILITIES . 27 1. Bathing practices in vinaya texts . 28 1.1. Bathing facilities in the monastic compound. 31 1.2. Assisting a teacher in the bathhouse . 32 1.3. Sūtra On Bathing Monks in the Bathhouse . 33 2. Bathing facilities in Chinese vinaya commentaries and disciplinary guidelines . 35 2.1. Practical rules on how to make and use bathing facilities. 35 2.2. Bathing facilities for Chinese vinaya masters . 37 2.3. Bathing practices in Yijing’s travel account . 40 3. A new genre develops: qing gui 清規, ‘rules of purity’ . 42 4. Concluding remarks: monks, laymen and soap. 46 4.1. Laymen and monks. 47 4.2. Bathhouses and soap . 49 Notes . 52 II. TOILET FACILITIES . 67 1. Toilet practices in vinaya texts . 67 1.1. Prātimokṣa rules on toilet practices . 67 1.2. Practical rules relating to how to make and use toilet facilities. 69 1.3. Toilet practices in vinaya texts: concluding remarks . 73 2. Toilet habits in Chinese vinaya commentaries and disciplinary guidelines . 74 2.1. Practical rules on how to make and use toilet facilities. 74 2.2. Toilet care for Chinese vinaya masters. 76 2.3. Toilet habits in Yijing’s travel account. 79 3. A new genre develops: qing gui 清規, ‘rules of purity’ . 81 4. Concluding remarks: pigsties, paper and wiping sticks . 84 4.1. Toilets and toilet habits in first-millennium China . 88 Notes . 94 pure.mind.book Page 2 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS III. CLEANING THE MOUTH AND TEETH. 109 1. Dental care in the vinaya texts . 109 1.1. Why clean one’s teeth? . 110 1.2. The benefits of using tooth wood . 111 1.3. How to make tooth wood. 112 1.4. How to use tooth wood . 112 1.5. What if tooth wood does not solve the problem? . 113 1.6. Are there any alternatives?. 113 1.7. Concluding remarks . 114 2. Dental care in Chinese disciplinary texts . 114 2.1. Great (Sūtra) of Three Thousand Dignified Observances of a Monk . 114 2.2. Dental care as described by Chinese vinaya masters . 116 3. Concluding remarks: paste, brushes and tooth wood . 119 3.1. Oral hygiene practices in early imperial China, the yangsheng tradition. 120 3.2. Tools used in oral hygiene . 123 Notes . 126 IV. SHAVING THE HAIR AND TRIMMING THE NAILS . 137 1. Hair and nails in Buddhist disciplinary texts . 137 1.1. Concluding remarks . 140 2. Shaving and trimming in early Chinese disciplinary texts. 141 2.1. Shaving the hair as an identity marker . 141 2.2. Chinese vinaya masters: taking care of hair and nails. 143 3. Concluding remarks: identity, beauty and cleanliness. 151 3.1. Hair care in lay society . 151 3.2. Attitudes to nails. 155 Notes . 157 CONCLUSION . 165 Notes . 168 BIBLIOGRAPHY . 169 pure.mind.book Page 3 Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:45 AM 3 Introduction 1. Bodily care practices and objects Daily life is naturally intertwined with objects and practices that establish routine and therefore give a sense of continuity. This is equally true for members of the Bud- dhist monastic community. Objects and practices form part of the living environ- ment of monks and nuns, and are part of their daily routine, so they naturally evoke ideas and attitudes. Superficially, these objects and practices may be the same or at least similar for everyone, but their use, and particularly the reactions provoked by them, can vary considerably with context, space or time. This book aims to study some of the most essential, but often overlooked, objects and practices of daily life: namely, those relating to bodily care. As with all topics, these need to be seen in a well-defined context, taking historical and geographical data into account. The context chosen for this study is the relatively well-documented envi- ronment of the early Buddhist monasteries. Over time, Buddhist monks and nuns have put painstaking effort into regulating all aspects of their daily life, thereby defin- ing the identity of the Buddhist saṃgha. As is well known, the Buddhist community developed in India a few centuries before start of the Common Era. In these early centuries, monastic leaders compiled large bodies of disciplinary texts or guidelines, commonly called vinaya. The Buddhist monastic way of life also continually attracted new people, who gradually spread across the Asian continent, taking the vinaya texts with them. These texts now con- stitute a very rich source of information about utensils, practices, ideas and attitudes that were essential in the functioning and even survival of the Buddhist communities. The authors/compilers address a variety of topics, including practical everyday issues. The vinaya texts therefore provide detailed information on bodily care, mainly based on experience gained in Indian Buddhist communities at the time of compilation of the vinaya guidelines. Nevertheless, one needs to be cautious not to overestimate the information provided by vinaya data. As we will discuss below, the authors/compilers of the vinaya texts wrote with a particular aim – to guide Buddhist practitioners in the ideal way to behave. In this sense, the texts do not reveal what these practitioners actually did, but rather provide us.