POPULAR EXPOSITION IN PROSE AND VERSE OF THE VIMALAKIRTI SUTRA An Annotated Translation of Stein Manuscript Number 4571 by STEPHAN MARCUS SALZBERG B.A., The University of Rochester, 1974 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES Department of Asian Studies We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September 1983 |cj Stephan Marcus Salzberg, 1983 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of ryg^ .y^j{^du<y The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 Date ?\ \^-£~Mt~ /ifr^ ABSTRACT This thesis consists of an annotated translation, with introduction, of a text recovered from Tun-huang, Stein manuscript number 4571. The text, dating from about 945 A.D., is of the genre called chianq-chinq-wen, texts used at religious gatherings, held twice yearly and lasting at least a week, at which lectures on a given Buddhist sutra were delivered for the benefit of a lay congregation. The text translated herein is one such lecture, covering the opening passages of the Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra (Wei-mo-chieh so-shuo ching), one of the more influential sutras in the history of Chinese Buddhism. The text partakes of the tripartate cyclical form characteristic of the genre: a chanted sutra portion, followed by a prose explanation or exposition, then by a relatively lengthy sung verse recapitulation which, in its final line, introduces the next sutra portion. The aim of the lecture lies less in scholarly explanation than in the fostering and reinforcement of certain religious attitudes through the narration and embellishment of the sutra passages. The translation, the first into any language, to the writer's knowledge, of a text in this genre, is accompanied by notes detailing, inter alia, discrepancies between the manuscript and the only printed edition of the text. The introduction describes the development and social context of the genre as well as the ceremonial setting of the lectures and their mode of performance. Various special features of the translated text are also discussed including the sources used and methods of adaptatio TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page i Abstract r. ii Table of Contents iii List of Abbreviations v Acknowledgement vi INTRODUCTION I. The Tun-huang Legacy 1 II. Background: Form, Function and Setting of the Chiang-ching-wen 5 III. An Exposition in Prose and Verse of the Vimalaklrti Sutra: Descriptive Information, Analysis and Synopsis 13 IV. Texts, Dating, Method and Aims of Translation 25 Notes to the Introduction 28 TRANSLATION AND NOTES SECTION I. Thus 32 Notes 40 SECTION IIA. "I" 47 Notes 51 SECTION IIB. Ananda: "I heard" 55 Notes 65 SECTION III. At one time they all arrived 78 Notes 85 iii SECTION IVA. The Bodhisattvas 90 Notes 98 SECTION IVB. The Bodhisattvas: Great Physician Kings ... 105 Notes 115 SECTION V. Textual Notes 123 SECTION VI. The Buddha: Overspreading the entirety of the vast multitude 125 Notes 134 SECTION VII. Vimalakirti and the five hundred sons of the elders 1 39 Notes 152 Bibliography 159 Appendix 163 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Bussho: Ono Genmyo, Bussho kaisetsu daij iten. 1 974 rpt. of 1964-67 rev. ed. Chang: Chang Hsiang, Shih-tz ' u-ch 'u yii-tz 'u hui-shih. 1954, 1975. Chiang: Chiang Li-hung, Tun-huang pien-wen tzu-i t'ung- shih. 1959, 1975. Daikanwa: Morohashi Tetsuji, Daikanwa j iten. Dayal: H. Dayal, The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhist Sanskrit Literature. 1932. Hsu, pu cheng: Hsu Chen-o, "Tun-huang pien-wen chi chiao-chi pu- cheng." 1958. tsai pu: "Tun-huang pien-wen chi chiao-chi tsai- pu." 1958. Hurvitz: Leon Hurvitz, trans., Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 1976. Iriya index: Iriya Yoshitaka and Matsuo Yoshiki, "Tonko henbunshu kogo goi sakuin." Second draft, 1977. Luk: Charles Luk, trans., The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra, 1972. Mochizuki: Mochizuki Shinko, Bukkyo daij iten. Rev. ed. 1 954- 71 . MS: Stein manuscript no. 4571, microfilm copy. Oda: Oda Tokun5, Oda bukkyS daij iten. 1 954 rpt. PWC: Wang Chung-min, et al., eds., Tun-huang pien-wen chi, 1961 Taiwan rpt. (References to pg. and line.) T: Taisho shinshu daizokyo. 1924-32 (References to vol., pg. and col.) Ting: Kumarajiva, trans., Wei-mo-chieh suo-shuo ching. 1921 (?) rpt. of Wu-hsien Ting-shih ed. with commentary by Kumarajiva and Seng Chao (entitled Wei-mo-ching chu). Tn: Taisho text number. Waku: Waku Hakuryu, Bukkyo shokubutsu j iten. 1 979. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I wish to express my special gratitude to Professors Iriya Yoshitaka, Kanaoka Shoko and Daniel Overmyer who introduced me to this field of study and guided me with infinite patience. Their broad knowledge and openhearted generosity have been an inspira• tion to me. I have been fortunate enough to have had many fine teachers, too many to thank individually here. This thesis owes much to each of them. Draft translations of the first two sections were read by Professor Leon Hurvitz, who contributed a number of helpful suggestions. I benefitted especially from the valuable comments and advice of Professor Overmyer, who read the entire draft of the thesis. He also tolerated without comment the burdens imposed by my often frenetic working habits, for which many thanks are due. I also thank my wife, Joy Lin Salzberg, who, on top of everything else, typed the first draft of the translation. Marjorie Chan typed and processed succeeding drafts and the present version. Alice Liou contributed the calligraphy. I wish to express my gratitude to the staff of the Asian Studies Library, University of British Columbia, for their constant friendship and support. INTRODUCTION I. The Tun-huang Legacy An accidental discovery by a Taoist monk around the turn of this century focussed worldwide attention on Tun-huang , an oasis settlement in present-day Kansu, located on the ancient Silk Road linking China with Central Asia and ultimately with the West. Once a thriving commercial center marked by its cosmopolitan population and Buddhist religious activity, Tun-huang had passed into relative obscurity from the beginning of the thirteenth century when it fell under Tungut control and did not become a "Chinese" city again until the eighteenth century.1 The discovery by the monk, Wang Yiian-lu iQl]^ , of a secret sealed cave among the hundreds of cave-shrines built over the course of centuries just outside Tun-huang, fallen into decay with the old monk as their de facto custodian, recalled for the world the days of Tun-huang's glory. The removal of a wall revealed a concealed storehouse inside of which were piled perhaps twenty thousand mostly hand-written scrolls, bound pamphlets, scraps of paper, tapestries and banners.2 The materials documented five centuries, from the fifth to the tenth,3 of life in Tun-huang and, more broadly, in China in all its rich variety: intellectual, religious, legal, artistic. News of this rare find of mostly manuscript material in a civilization 1 which, because of its early invention and widespread adoption of printing, took few pains to preserve such material began to spread, eventually reaching Western ears. With the 1907 expedition of the explorer Sir Aurel Stein and the subsequent visits of the French sinologist Paul Pelliot, most of the best material was shipped off to London and Paris respectively. Japanese expeditions and belated efforts by the Ch'ing government, in its death throes, to safeguard what remained of this cultural treasure trove further dispersed the collection, which now has found its way into various hands, public and private, the world over.4 A whole new field of Tun- huang studies was spawned, as broad in its sweep as the range of materials found in Tun-huang, covering the entire spectrum of the four traditional categories of Chinese learning: Confucian classics, history, philosophy and belles lettres. Previously unknown commentaries, variant editions of Buddhist sutras, entirely unknown Taoist writings and various multi-lingual texts opened new vistas for traditional sinology in innumerable areas including textual criticism, Chinese linguistics, Central Asian languages and linguistics, religious philosophy and history. Ephemera of all sorts, the written records of daily life which had been preserved nowhere else, account books, contracts, children's primers, even calligraphy practice sheets have provided invaluable raw material for scholars in many disciplines. 2 The treasures of the visual arts yielded forth from and contained within the caves; murals, silk paintings, and statuary have enriched and furthered our knowledge immensely. Of signal importance among the written materials which came out of Tun-huang was the unprecedented finding of numerous scroll written in the colloquial language of the time, some of them representing notes and prompt books to be used in oral performances on both Buddhist and secular themes. The profound implications of these texts for linguistics, religious history and literary history were realized very early on, and although hampered by the dispersion of the scrolls, incomplete cataloging and difficulties of access, the scholarly efforts by pioneer Chinese scholars resulted in the identification, dissemination and study of these texts which came eventually to be known generally, if imprecisely in many cases as pien-wen .5 This thesis is concerned with one genre among the several sometimes grouped together as pien-wen, a genre now commonly referred to as chiang-ching-wen ^' n°tes and prompt-books for lectures, religious performances really, based upon and interpreting abstruse Buddhist canonical books, sutras, for a congregation of mostly lay people, involving chanting, spoken exposition, and sung poetry.