The Benji jing and the Anle jing: Reflections on two Daoist and Christian manuscripts from Turfan and Dunhuang

Abstract

In Turfan, numerous Christian manuscripts have been discovered. Recent scholarship has joined and identified some Syriac fragments. The verso sides of several Syeriac Christian fragments were written in Chinese and could be identified as the fragments from chapter three of one of the most popular Daoist texts in the Tang dynasty, the Taixuan zhenyi Benji jing. The newly identified fragments provide new opportunity in comparing different versions of this Daoist text popular in the Tang and Song dynasties, since it was cited in the Song encyclopedia Taiping yulan. While doing a comparison between the Daoist text Benji jing and the Christian text Zhixuan anle jing, it is striking that they shared a set of same vocabulary and metaphors in developing their religious thoughts respectively. For instance, ‘true nature’ was used in both texts. In Daoist text it refers to the Dao-nature, yet in Christian text it means the divinity. Further study reveals that the Daoist temple where the Benji jing was formed was very close to the Christian church in Chang’an, the capital city of Tang China. It seems that the Daoist community and the Christian community mutually knew each other.

Keywords:

• the Benji jing
• the Anle jing
• Daoism
• Church of the East
• Tang Dynasty
• Chang’an

Acknowledgements

The earlier versions of this paper have been presented at the 4th international conference on the Church of the East in China and Central Asia held in Salzburg, June 1–4, 2013 and the international conference on the study of Dunhuang manuscripts in Princeton, September 6-8, 2014. Many colleagues have provided invaluable comments for improving this paper. All errors are solely my responsibility.

Notes

1. I use Chinese term Jingjiao 景教 (literarily Brilliant Teaching) to refer to the Christian tradition in medieval Chinese context in which the name was used by the Christians themselves as the Xi’an monument and the Christian manuscripts from Dunhuang have shown. It was a tradition from the Church of the East. Scholars have agreed that Nestorianism was labeled with bias as a heretic tradition by the Catholic Church so it would not be used in current scholarship.

2. Nishiwaki Tsuneki 西脇常記, Berurin Torufan korekushon dōkyo monjo, 47–66, esp. 49–50. He noted it as Syr1749v as this number appeared on the original fragment.

3. Chinesische und Manjurische Handscriften und Seltene Drucke, 133; For the Japanese version, see Nishiwaki Tsuneki, Doitsu shōrai no Torufan kango monjo.

4. Nicolas Sims-Williams, Iranian Manuscript in Syriac Script, 53: E 11 Liturgy, SyrHT 3 (=1749=T II B 66 No. 17), and E 11, n296 (1750=T II B 66 No. 18). The complete catalogue is compiled by Erica C. D. Hunter and Mark Dickens, see Syriac Texts from the Berlin Turfan Collection.

5. Taiping yulan, juan 673, 3000.

6. The picture of the fragment No. 17 can be seen at http://idp.bbaw.de/database/oo_scroll_h.a4d?uid=-13277455226;recnum=89999;index=1; and the picture of T II B 66, No. 18 can be seen at http://idp.bbaw.de/database/oo_scroll_h.a4d?uid=-13277455226;bst=101;recnum=85229;index=131. (Accessed on 8 December 2012). I benefit from reading this manuscript with my colleague, Stephen R. Bokenkamp. Earlier scholarship about this text has been very rich. Some major works include Chiyu Wu, Pen-tsi king; Sunayama Minoru, Zui Tō Dōkyō shisōshi kenkyū; Yamada Takshi, Tōsho Dōkyō shisōshi kenkyū; Ye Guiliang, Dunhuang ben Taixuan zhenyi benji jing jijiao; Huang Kunwei, Dunhuang ben Taixuan zhenyi benji jing sixiang yanjiu.

7. Such as Ganoderma lucidum and other herbs.

8. Taishang dongxuan lingbao shihao gongde yinyuan miaojing 太上洞玄靈寳十號功德因緣妙經, in Zhonghua daozang, vol. 4, 220b. Wang Zongyu 王宗昱 argues that this text was under the influence of Lu Xiujing’s 陸修靜 classification system of Daoist texts in the Numinous Treasure tradition and the latter could be seen in the Dunhuang manuscript P. 2256 in the Pelliot collection; see his Daojiao yishu yanjiu, 186–187. The same idea of classification also appeared in the later Numinous Treasure ritual text Liturgical Manual for the Yellow Register Retreat from the Most High (Taishang huanglu zhai yi 太上黃籙齋儀) compiled by Du Guangting 杜光庭 (850–933) around 891.

9. The phrase ‘Three vehicles’ is a common term borrowed from medieval Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhism, and refers to śrāvakayāna, Pratyekabuddhayāna, and Bodhisattvayāna, which are three paths/vehicles for the attainment of enlightenment.

10. The phrase ‘one vehicle’ here refers to the medieval Chinese Buddhist concept of Buddhayāna, the ultimate enlightenment toward Buddhahood.

11. Franciscus Verellen, “Daomen jingfa xiangcheng cixu,” in The Daoist Canon, vol. 1, 454.

12. Following Bokenkamp, I translate this as Celestial Worthy.

13. Stephen R. Bokenkamp, “Stages of Transcendence,” 132–134; for a lengthier study of this Daoist text, see Kamitsuka Yoshiko, “Kaikō chizō kyō nitsuite,” 29–84, she noted that this Daoist text was highly influenced by the Buddhist text Mahāparinirvāṇa-Sūtra 大般涅槃經; earlier Kamata Shigeo also noted the Dao-nature thought in this text, see his article “Dōshō shisō no keisei katei,” 61–157; for a short introduction to this text in English, see also Livia Kohn and Russell Kirkland, “Daoism in the Tang (618–907),” in Daoism Handbook, vol. 1, 356–357; and John Lagerwey, “Taishang yicheng haikong zhizang jing,” in The Daoist Canon, vol. 1: 527–529.

14. Daomen jingfa xiangcheng cixu 道門經法相承次序，juan shang 卷上; see Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, 584c. For a brief note on this text, see Bokenkamp, “Stages of Transcendence,” 133.

15. See Bokenkamp, “Haikong zhizang jing,” in The Encyclopedia of Taoism, 470–471.

16. Li Defan, Dunhuang daozang (Daoist Literature from Dunhuang), vol. 1, 59–110.

17. Wang Chengwen, Dunhuang gulingbaojing yu Jin Tang Daojiao, 756; Liu Yi, “Dunhuang ben Tongmen lun,” 47–55. For an earlier discussion see Ōfuchi Ninji, “On Ku Ling-pao-ching,” 33–56; idem., Dōkyō to sono kyōten, 596–600.

18. The Secret Essentials of the Most High (Wushang miyao 無上祕要), juan 57, 太真上元齋品; Zhonghua daozang, vol. 28, 218c.

19. Ritual of Confession and Atonement for the Retreat of the Divine Incantations of the Samādhi and the Abyssal Caverns [Revealed] by the Most High (Taishang dongyuan sanmei shenzhou zhai chanxie yi 太上洞淵三昧神呪齋懺謝儀), see Zhonghua daozang, vol. 30, 142b; as Christine Mollier remarks, this liturgical text explains the ritual for a family to cure illnesses, to expel demons, to avoid calamities, and etc.; see the entry of this text by her in The Daoist Canon, 510–511.

20. The Superior Scripture of the Jeweled Primordial of the Most High Cavern Mystic (Taishang dongxuan baoyuan shangjing 太上洞玄寳元上經), see Zhonghua daozang, vol. 8, 173c.

21. For a study and an annotated French translation of this text, see Christine Mollier, Une Apocalypse taoïste du Ve siècle.

22. For a study and an annotated English translation of this text, see Bokenkamp, Early Daoist Scriptures, 373–438.

23. Ch. 243 is a text merged from two fragments T III T 514 and Ch. 286 which also has a number T II 1178 in German collection.

24. Rong Xinjiang, “Tangdai Xizhou de daojiao,” 127–144; also see Lei Wen, “Guojia gongguan wangluo zhong de Xizhou daojiao,” 117–127. Earlier in 1960, Ogasawara Senshū has offered a preliminary observation on Daoism in the Turfan region, see his “Torufān shutsudo,” 249–278.

25. Nicolas Sims-Williams, “Sogdian and Turkish Christians,“ 43–61; Ian Gillman and H.-J. Klimkeit, Christianity in Asia before 1500, 205–262.

26. Besides this Daoist-Christian fragment, the Christians in this area also reused the paper of Buddhist texts, such as the Lotus Sūtra; see Nicolas Sims-Williams, “A Sogdian Version of the ‘Gloria in excelsis Deo’,” 257–262; Sims-Williams mainly dealt with a Sogdian fragment of the “Gloria in excelsis Deo”and Yoshida Yutaka identified the Lotus Sūtra on the recto side.

27. Wang Pu 王溥, Tang huiyao 唐會要 (compiled in 961), juan 50, says that it was Lü Shi 呂師; Song Minqiu 宋敏求, Chang’an zhi 長安志 (compiled in 1076), juan 5, says that it was Lü Shixuan 呂師玄.

28. See Yancong 彥悰, Tang hufa shamen Falin biezhuan 唐護法沙門法琳別傳, in T., vol. 50, no. 2051: 205b.

29. Perhaps the distance between these two sites was less than 4000 meters or 2.5 miles.

30. This text has been incorporated into the newly compiled Chinese Buddhist canon, see Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, Wang Ka edited this text for this canon. Earlier editing efforts have been done by Wan Yi, “Dunhuang Daojiao wenxian Benji jing,” 367–484; so far for the most comprehensive modern edition, see Ye Guiliang, Dunhuang ben Taixuan zhenyi benji jing jijiao.

31. Wang Ka, Dunhuang Daojiao wenxian yanjiu, 36.

32. Jiang Boqin, “Benji jing yu Dunhuang Daojiao,” 1–16.

33. For the discussion on Daoism in Dunhuang and Turfan, see Wang Ka, “Dunhuang Daojiao wenxian yanjiu,” 9–15, 36; Rong Xinjiang, “Tangdai Xizhou de Daojiao,”127–144; Lei Wen, “Guojia gongguan,” 117–127.

34. Atsushi Iwamoto, “Kyo-u Shooku zo Tonko-Hikyu gaikan,” 55–81.

35. Lin Wushu, Tangdai Jingjiao zai yanjiu, 176–228; Rong Xinjiang, “Dunhuang Jingjiao wenxian xieben de zhen yu wei,” 286–289.

36. See his “Parallel Themes,” 57–91.

37. Edkildsen, “Parallel Themes,” 64.

38. It is a common Buddhist word for translating Sanskrit word “animmitta.” It refers to the condition close to cessation or nirvana in some Buddhist texts. For a discussion on its meaning in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta, see Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology, 131.

39. See Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, 228c.

40. Numerous works have discussed the Dao nature in the Benji jing; see Chiyu Wu, Pen-tsi king; Sunayama Minoru, Zui Tō Dōkyō shisōshi kenkyū; Lu Guolong, Zhongguo chongxuan xue; Yamada Takshi, Tōsho Dōkyō shisōshi kenkyū; Huang Kunwei, Dunhuang ben Taixuan zhenyi benji jing sixiang yanjiu.

41. See Zhonghua daozang, Vol. 5, 233c.

42. Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, 215b.

43. In Daoism, the seven cavities include eyes, ears, noses, and mouth, referring to the Seven Mysterious Gates, which are essential for the circulation of pneuma and Yin Yang.

44. Wang Lanping suggested that the 10 visualizations in the Anle jing are very similar to ten actions in the Benji jing, yet he does not pay attention to the connection between 10 visualizations and non-desire and; see Wang Lanping, “Yi Zhixuan anle jing shiguan wei li,” 160–161.

45. For further discussion, see Huaiyu Chen, “The Connection between Nestorian and Buddhist Texts,” 93–113.

46. Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, 228–229. This edition is edited by Wang Ka 王卡, which is based on the Dunhuang manuscripts P. 2795 and P. 2398.

47. Zhonghua daozang, vol. 5, 229.