Rebirth From China To Japan In Nara Hagiography

A Reconsideration

Authors

  • T. H. Barrett School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v26i1.103

Keywords:

Rebirth, China, Japan, Nara Hagiography

Abstract

This study takes up a portion of the early hagiography of a Japanese prince who was reputedly a reincarnated Chinese monk, and uses a peculiarity in a colophon dated 718 to argue that though the text may have been composed in China, it must in that case derive from the writing of a Japanese visitor. A possible identification of the visitor is made, and some attention is given to the likely sources he used.

Author Biography

  • T. H. Barrett, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
    School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

References

Bai Juyi. 1979. Bai Juyi ji. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.

Barrett, T.H. 1992. Li Ao: Buddhist, Taoist, or Neo-Confucian? Oxford: Oxford University Press.

———. 2000. ‘Shinto and Taoism in Early Japan’. In Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami, edited by John Breen and Mark Teeuwen, 13–31. Richmond: Curzon Press.

Bingenheimer, Marcus. 2001. A Biographical Dictionary of the Japanese Student-Monks of the Seventh and Early Eighth Centuries. Iudicium: München.

Brashier, K.E. 2005. ‘Text and Ritual in Early Chinese Stelae’. In Text and Ritual in Early China, edited by Martin Kern, 249–284. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Broughton, Jeffrey L. 1999. The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Cen, Zhongmian,1963. Shanghai: Zhonghua shuju.

Cole, Alan. 2009. Fathering Your Father: The Zen of Fabrication in Tang Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Como, Michael. 2008. Shotoku: Ethnicity, Ritual and Violence in the Japanese Buddhist Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Eide, Elling O. 1982. ‘Li Po’s Riddle Naming Cloud-Ritual Hsü in Relation to the Feng Sacrifice of 742 and the Great Heavenly Treasure Scandal to Which is Appended A Note on the Stamping Songs and Sino-Turkish Name for the Huns’. T’ang Studies 1 (1982): 8–20.

Faure, Bernard, 1989. Le Bouddhisme Ch’an en Mal d’Histoire: Genèse d’une Tradition Religieuse dans la Chine des T’ang. Paris: École Française D’Extrême-Orient.

Faure, Bernard, 1997. The Will to Orthodoxy: A Critical Genealogy of Northern Chan Buddhism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Hoku, c. 1314. Jogu Taishi shui ki. Dainihon Bukkyo zensho, vol. 112.

Magnin, Paul. 1979. La vie et l’oeuvre de Huisi (515–577). Paris: École Française D’ExtrêmeOrient.

Loewe, Michael, 1993. Early Chinese Texts: A Bibliographical Guide. Berkeley: Society for the Study of Early China.

Li, Fang-kuei. 1956. ‘The inscription of the Sino-Tibetan Treaty of 821–22’. T’oung pao 44(1-3): 1–99.

Payne, Richard K., ed. 2006. Tantric Buddhism in East Asia. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.

Richardson, Hugh, 1978. ‘The Sino-Tibetan Treaty Inscription of A.D. 821/823 at Lhasa’. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1978.2, 137–162

Sekiguchi, Shindai. 1967. Daruma no kenkyu. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.

Takeuchi, Rizo, 1965. Nara ibun. Tokyo: Tokyodo shuppan.

Tanaka, Tsuguhito. 1983. Shotoku Taishi shinko no seiritsu. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan.

von Verschuer, Charlotte. 1985. Les Relations Officielles du Japon avec la Chine aux VIIIe et IXe Siècles. Genève-Paris, Librarie Droz.

Waley, Arthur, 1960. Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang. London: George Allen and Unwin.

Wang, Qinruo. 1989. [Songben] Cefu yuangui. Beijing: Zhonghua shuju.

Welter, Albert. 2006. Monks, Rulers, and Literati: The Political Ascendancy of Chan Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Zhao,Yi. 1957. Gai yu cong kao. Shanghai: Commercial Press.

Downloads

Published

2009-08-22

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Barrett, T. H. (2009). Rebirth From China To Japan In Nara Hagiography: A Reconsideration. Buddhist Studies Review, 26(1), 103-109. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v26i1.103