SKILLED EATING: KNOWLEDGE OF FOOD IN YICHU’S SHISHI LIUTIE, A BUDDHIST ENCYCLOPEDIA FROM TENTH-CENTURY CHINA by ROBBAN ANTHONY JOHN TOLENO B.A. Lewis and Clark College, 1995 M.A. University of Hawai’i, Manoa, 2005 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Asian Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2015 © Robban Anthony John Toleno, 2015 Abstract A common approach in studies of food and religion is to understand food taboos as emerging out of a symbolic system based on notions of the sacred. Religion is understood in this view to construct meaning on the basis of symbolism, which is grounded in sacred authority. In Chinese Buddhist discourse on eating contained in a tenth-century Buddhist encyclopedia, however, in place of food taboos one finds a doctrine of equanimity and moderation in eating. Using the Chinese Buddhist encyclopedia Shishi liutie as source, I argue that Chinese Buddhists framed the morality of eating not by sacral authority but by a notion of skill. This theoretical frame describes Buddhist ethics generally: kuśala (Ch. shan 善) is that which is skillful because it is wholesome, good, virtuous, or meritorious; and akuśala (Ch. bushan 不善) is that which is unskillful, because it is unwholesome or lacking in virtue. Viewing morality as a problem of skill helps explain the variation of interpretations on how to best eat as a Buddhist, which are found in different Buddhist writings. Buddhist teachings on food are provisional forms of knowledge rather than authoritative pronouncements. Most central to Buddhist attitudes on food in the Shishi liutie are proper knowledge and proper attitude––both of which allow individuals to skillfully obtain the benefits of eating while avoiding pitfalls such as gluttony and illness. By highlighting skill over sacral authority, I question the commonly held notion that religious knowledge is by definition fundamentally symbolic. In medieval China, Buddhist knowledge of eating was practical and provisional, evolving with society to meet contemporary needs. ii Preface This dissertation is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Robban A. J. Toleno. The project evolved out of an earlier investigation of taste 味 in Buddhist literature. I conceived of the project in its present form after coming across the Shishi liutie in a collection of Buddhist lexical works (Fanchi Jushi et al., Foxue cishu jicheng). I realized that working with a Buddhist encyclopedia could solve my methodological conundrum of having too many scattered sources. While in Tokyo on a BDK fellowship, I worked from a facsimile of the oldest woodblock print edition, using trackpad writing on my computer to manually input the source text. The Shishi liutie is not contained in digitized Buddhist canons (CBETA and SAT). All translations are mine unless otherwise indicated. iii Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................... ii Preface...................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents.................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables........................................................................................................................... vi Notes on Usage....................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................viii Dedication............................................................................................................................... ix Introduction: Chinese Buddhist Perspectives on Food and Morality.................................. 1 Opening.......................................................................................................................... 1 Food in Durkheim’s social thesis on religion and the case of Buddhism.................... 3 Meat-eating in Buddhism.............................................................................................. 5 From social symbolism to the efficacy of normative attitudes..................................... 7 Plural Buddhisms and religious repertoires................................................................. 11 Eating as an attitudinal problem in Buddhism............................................................ 13 Sources and methods..................................................................................................... 15 Buddhist rejection of ritual purity and social construction of in-groups.................... 16 Skillful attitude as a Buddhist solution........................................................................ 18 Morality as a problem of skill....................................................................................... 19 Meat-eating monks....................................................................................................... 21 Vegetarianism revisited................................................................................................ 23 Overview of chapters................................................................................................... 24 Part I. Eating in Medieval Chinese Buddhism and Yichu's Shishi liutie.............................. 29 1. Historicizing Chinese Buddhist Attitudes Toward Food................................................. 30 1.1 Opening a vegetarian can of worms...................................................................... 30 1.2 Vegetarianism as a red herring in Buddhist food history..................................... 33 1.3 Questioning the thesis of straightforward diffusion between India and China... 35 1.4 Mahāyāna vegetarianism........................................................................................ 39 1.5 Cultural resonance in China................................................................................... 46 1.6 Daoists and experimental diets.............................................................................. 50 1.7 Moral vegetarianism in Song recipe collections.................................................... 54 1.8 Daoist medicine and the nourishing of life............................................................ 65 1.9 Chapter conclusions............................................................................................... 67 2. Lexicon or Encyclopedia? Assessing Genre for Yichu’s Extra-Canonical Shishi liutie... 70 2.1 Origins.................................................................................................................... 70 2.2 Buddhist leishu? A problem of genre...................................................................... 75 2.3 The Shishi liutie as a Buddhist leishu....................................................................... 95 2.4 Implications of a conceptual orientation............................................................... 99 2.5 Chapter conclusions...............................................................................................101 3. Food Themes: The Topic of Shi 食 in the Shishi liutie................................................... 104 iv 3.1 Opening................................................................................................................ 104 3.2 Method...................................................................................................................112 3.3 Themes................................................................................................................... 117 3.4 Chapter conclusions.............................................................................................. 142 Part II. Case Studies..............................................................................................................145 4. Transcendent Eating: Doctrine of Four Foods in Chinese Buddhism........................... 146 4.1 Chapter introduction............................................................................................. 146 4.2 Interpreting the doctrine of Four Foods.............................................................. 149 4.3 Four Foods in Chinese Buddhist leishu................................................................ 165 4.4 Chapter conclusions............................................................................................. 183 5. The Celebration of Porridge in East Asian Buddhism.................................................... 188 5.1 Chapter introduction............................................................................................. 188 5.2 Porridge in Buddhist mealtime liturgy................................................................. 191 5.3 The ten benefits of porridge in the Shishi Liutie................................................... 192 5.4 Commemorative porridge..................................................................................... 203 5.5 Chapter conclusions.............................................................................................. 216 Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 219