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Notes
2 In the version of the title given at the end of the manuscript, the first five characters are replaced by “Mulian” 目連.
3 Most important are Zheng Zhenduo 鄭振鐸, Zhongguo su wenxue shi 中國俗文學史 (History of Chinese popular literature; Beijing: Dongfang chubanshe, 1996 reprint; 1st published, Changsha: Commercial Press, 1938), pp. 486–95; Liu Zhen 劉禎, “Mulian jiu mu yu baojuan xingcheng” 目連救母與寶卷形成 ([The story] of Mulian rescuing his mother and the formation of baojuan), Zhongguo minjian Mulian wenhua 中國民間目連文化 (Chinese Mulian folk culture; Chengdu: Ba Shu shushe, 1997), pp. 241–57; Che Xilun 車錫倫, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu 中國寶卷研究 (Research on Chinese Baojuan; Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue, 2009), pp. 72–76 and 491–96; Yoshikawa Yoshikazu 吉川良和, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Kyū bo hōkan’ no Mokuren mono ni kansuru setsuchō geinō teki shiron” 救母經と救母寶卷の目連物に関する説唱藝能的試論 (Preliminary discussion of the storytelling art characteristics concerning the story of Mulian in Sūtra of Rescuing Mother and Baojuan of Rescuing Mother), Shakaigaku kenkyū 社會學研究 (Studies in Social Sciences; annual bulletin of Hitotsubashi University) 41 (2003·2): 61–135, and “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Sei ten hōkan’ no seisho nendai shōken” 救母經と生天寶卷の成書年代商榷 (Discussion of the time of composition of the Sūtra of Rescuing Mother and the Baojuan of Rebirth in Heaven), Jinbun kenkyū 人文研究 (Studies in the Humanities [Kanagawa University]) 155 (2005·3): 9–43; Beata Grant and Wilt L. Idema, trs., Escape from Blood Pond Hell: The Tales of Mulian and Woman Huang (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011), “Introduction,” p. 9.
4 See Rostislav Berezkin, “The Development of the Mulian Story in Baojuan Texts (14th–19th centuries) in Connection with the Evolution of the Genre,” doctoral diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2010, pp. 104–105, and Dragocennye svitki (Baotsiuan’) v duhovnoi kul’ture Kitaia: Na primere Baotsiuan’ o Treh Voplosheniyah Muliania (Precious scrolls [Baojuan] functioning in the culture of China, with Baojuan about Three Rebirths of Mulian as an example; Saint-Petersburg: Saint-Petersburg Center for Oriental Studies, 2012), pp. 69–71. For a short description of this manuscript, see Kira F. Samosyuk, “Kitaiskaia illiustrirovannaia rukopis’ o hozhdenii Muliania v preispodniuiu,” Soobscheniia Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha LXIX, Saint-Petersburg, 2011, pp. 175–82; English translation: “Chinese Illustrated Manuscript about the Descent of Mulian into Hell,” Reports of the State Hermitage Museum 64 (2011): 175–82. Dr. Samosyuk focuses mainly on the illustrations and does not compare the text with other storytelling pieces dealing with the Mulian story.
5 For the convenience of the reader, a chronological list of the major pieces on Mulian discussed in this article appears in Appendix One.
6 Samosyuk, “Chinese Illustrated Manuscript,” p. 179.
7 This number directs the reader to the listing of the baojuan in Che Xilun 車錫倫, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu 中國寳卷縂目 (Comprehensive catalogue of Chinese baojuan; Beijing: Yanshan shuju, 2000).
8 Zheng reproduced in modern typeset form part of the text in his Zhongguo su wenxue shi (pp. 486–95) but mis-transcribed part of the title as sheng tian 升天 instead of shengtian 生天. Yoshikawa Yoshikazu reproduced the entire text (again, in modern typeset form) in his “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Kyū bo hōkan,’” pp. 123–34. I rely below mainly on his version but with a few corrections made after comparison with the original.
9 The non-Chinese original, if indeed there was one, has not survived.
10 On the development of the story in general, see Chen Fangying 陳芳英, Mulian jiu mu gushi zhi yanjin ji qi youguan wenxue zhi yanjiu 目連救母故事之演進及其有關文學之研究 (Study of the development of the story of Mulian rescuing his mother and related literature; Taibei: Guoli Taiwan daxue wenxueyuan, 1983); Stephen F. Teiser, The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988); Victor H. Mair, T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989), pp. 17–18; and Liu Zhen, Zhongguo minjian Mulian wenhua, pp. 1–31.
11 See for example, David Johnson, ed., Ritual Opera, Operatic Ritual: “Mu-lien Rescues His Mother” in Chinese Popular Culture; Papers from the International Workshop on the Mu-lien Operas (Berkeley: University of California, 1989); Zhu Hengfu 朱恆夫, Mulian xi yanjiu 目連戲研究 (Study of Mulian drama; Nanjing: Nanjing daxue chubanshe, 1993); Liu Zhen, Zhongguo minjian Mulian wenhua, pp. 32–343; Qitao Guo, Ritual Opera and Mercantile Lineage: The Confucian Transformation of Popular Culture in Late Imperial Huizhou (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005); and Wang Kui 王馗, Guijie chaodu yu quan shan Mulian 鬼節超度與勸善目連 (Salvation, the Ghost Festival, and propagation of morality through Mulian; Taibei: Guojia chuban she, 2010).
12 See David Johnson, “Mu-lien in Pao-chüan: The Performative Context and Religious Meaning of the Yu-ming pao-ch’uan,” in idem., ed., Ritual and Scripture in Chinese Popular Religion: Five Studies (Berkeley: University of California, 1995), pp. 55–103; and Berezkin, “The Development of the Mulian Story in Baojuan Texts” and Dragocennye svitki (Baotsiuan’) v duhovnoi kul’ture Kitaia.
13 The fact that the manuscript was commissioned by a female member of the imperial court is quite in accord with the information that we have about later manuscripts and editions of baojuan. For instance, the woodblock edition of Baojuan of the Original Vows and Merit of the Master of Medicine [Bhaişajya] (Yaoshi benyuan gongde baojuan 藥師本願功德寶卷; 1544) is said to be sponsored by the imperial consort Zhang (Zhang Defei 張德妃) and five princesses. See Zhang Xishun 張希舜 et al., eds., Baojuan chuji 寳卷初集 (The first collection of baojuan), 40 vols. (Taiyuan: Shanxi renmin, 1994), 14: 385.
14 , right side, has an example of this.
15 Since these numbers refer to sets of two pages, in my citations to the manuscript I use an additional “a” or “b” to indicate whether the first or second page of each set of double pages is meant.
16 The first set of double pages is unnumbered.
17 On the possible origins of this type of verse, see Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 83–84.
18 The original Chinese and translations of the prose parts of the first two sections is provided below in the main text, while the original text and a translation of the non-prose part of the first section appears in Appendix Two.
19 While in the first volume all illustrations appear in three-page clusters (excluding the illustrations on the first six pages), in the third volume, four of the fourteen clusters of illustrations are on double pages, and in the fourth volume, ten of the twelve clusters of illustrations are on double pages.
20 Zhu Hengfu, Mulian xi yanjiu, p. 94.
21 Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Sei ten hōkan,’” p. 27.
22 Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Sei ten hōkan,’” pp. 31–33.
23 Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, 73.
24 Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Kyū bo hōkan’ no Mokuren mono,” pp. 90–91, already demonstrated that similar song patterns appear in the late 16th century novel Jin Ping Mei cihua 金瓶梅詞話 (Plum in the golden vase). This novel describes the performance of baojuan and related tunes.
25 Professor Nancy S. Steinhardt, a specialist in Yuan dynasty art, noted the similarity of the style of several illustrations of this manuscript to the style of the Yongle gong 永樂宮 (Palace of eternal joy) murals, a masterpiece of Yuan dynasty religious art of the 14th century (personal communication, January 2010).
26 Zheng Zhenduo, Zhongguo su wenxue shi, 479.
27 It is well known that baojuan imitated aspects of the format of Buddhist and Daoist scriptures.
28 See El’vira S. Stulova, ed. and tr., Baotsziuan’ o Pu-mine (Moscow: Nauka, 1979); this baojuan is also reproduced in Baojuan chuji, 4: 377–525, and Pu Wenqi 濮文起, ed., Minjian baojuan 民間寳卷 (Folk baojuan) 20 vols., 2. 334–450, in Zhongguo zongjiao lishi wenxian jicheng 中國宗教歷史文獻集成 (Collection of scriptures of Chinese religions) 120 vols. (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2005).
29 See, for instance, an edition probably dating from the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century reprinted in Minjian baojuan, 5. 225–302.
30 Significantly, Liturgy Based on the Diamond Sūtra also has the same structure of prosaic and poetic parts of the text as in Baojuan of Mulian and Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana, except that the first does not use arias.
31 Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 69–70.
32 On the existence of these in Liturgy Based on the Diamond Sūtra and baojuan of the sixteenth century, see Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 71–72 and 518–28. On the authorship of “Hymn of Old Man Chuan” and its circulation in Buddhist texts, see ibid., pp. 512–23 and 526–27.
33 The manuscript was catalogued as S (Stein) 2614 and is translated and annotated in Victor H. Mair, Tun-huang Popular Narratives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 123–66 (notes, pp. 223–62). The next most complete version is P (Pelliot) 2319, which is available in a translation by Eugene Eoyang as “The Great Maudgalyayana Rescues his Mother from Hell,” in Y. W. Ma and Jospeh S. M Lau, eds., Traditional Chinese Stories: Themes and Variations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978), pp. 443–55. The copyist of P2319 elided portions of the verse passages but left traces when he did so (see Mair, T'ang Transformation Texts, pp. 124–25).
34 For an important intermediary apocryphal piece, see Teiser, The Ghost Festival, pp. 58–62.
35 For a photoreprint of the Japanese edition, see Miya Tsugio 宮次男, “Mokuren kyū bo setsuwa to sono kaiga—Mokuren kyū bo kyō e no shutsugen ni tsunde” 目連救母說話とその繪畫—目連救母經繪の出現に因んで (The story of Mulian and its illustration—On The Illustrated Scripture on the Story of Mokuren Rescuing his Mother), Bijutsu kenkyū 美術研究 (Journal of art studies) 255 (January 1968): 155–78. For a critical edition (collated with the Korean edition of 1537), see Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Kyū bo hōkan’ no Mokuren mono,” pp. 116–22.
36 Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Sei ten hōkan’ no seisho nendai shōken,” pp. 18–19.
37 For a reproduction of its text, see Minn Yonggyu 閔泳珪, “Wŏrin Sŏkpo</emph> che isip-sam chan’gwon” 月印釋譜第二十三殘卷 (On the 23rd volume of Worin Sokpo), Tongbang hakchi 東方學志 (Journal of Far Eastern studies) 6 (June 1963): 5–9. See also Sa Jae-dong 史在東, “Zhong-Han Mulian gushi zhi liubian guanxi” 中韓目連故事之流變關係 (Circulation of the Mulian story in China and Korea), Hanxue yanjiu 漢學研究 (Chinese Studies) 6·1 (1988): 224–25.
38 See Minn Yonggyu, “Wŏrin Sŏkpo che isip-sam chan’gwon,” p. 4.
39 For a comparison of details, see Miya Tsugio, “Mokuren kyū bo setsuwa,” pp. 166–67.
40 Liu Zhen, Zhongguo minjian Mulian wenhua, pp. 247–48.
41 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has a variant form for one character (徧 for 遍).
42 For the rest of this sentence after the semicolon, Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has “True pearls filled the storehouses, with heaps of jade and piles of gold” 珍珠滿庫, 積玉堆金.
43 Skt. sat-pāramitās; the six practices of a bodhisattva that ferry one beyond the sea of mortality to nirvāṇa: charity, morality, forebearance, effort, meditation, and wisdom. Instead of these three sentences, Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has “The elder was fond of doing charity and fasting, and constantly practiced the pāramitās” 長者好善持齋, 常行波羅蜜.
44 This sentence in Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana is worded differently (忽然長者得患重病. 不過數日而亡) but the meaning is basically the same.
45 The wording in Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana for the last four characters (止有一子) is slightly different, but the meaning is basically the same.
46 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has wanghua 亡化 instead of wangmo 亡歿, and adds that Luobu “organized a vegetarian feast and a ritual assembly” 修齋設會.
47 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has “buried [his father] in a mountainous place” 埋殯山中 and adds “maintained mourning for three years” 守孝三年. In Sūtra of Mulian, “father” and “mother” from Luobu’s point of view are written as Aye 阿爺 and Aniang 阿娘, respectively, while in Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana these terms are fu 父 for him and muqin 母親 or just mu 母 for her.
48 This phrase in Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana is worded differently (羅卜守父服滿), but the meaning is basically the same.
49 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana just has him address his mother (啟告), but adds her name/title, Lady Qingti 青提夫人, after “mother.”
50 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has qianliang 錢糧 instead of qiancai 錢財.
51 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has rujin 如今 instead of jijin 即今.
52 The order of these two nouns is reversed in Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana.
53 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has maimai 買賣 instead of jingji 經紀. It also adds “I wonder what Mother thinks of that?” 未知母意如何, and “When the lady heard him say this she then …” 夫人聽說便… .
54 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has ling 令 instead of qian 遣, jiaren 家人 instead of nu Yili 奴益利, and panyun 盤運 instead of yun 運, and kunei qianwu 庫內錢物 instead of qianben chu 錢本出.
55 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana specifies that Luobu evenly divided the money.
56 Quan 全 (complete) may be a mistake for jin 金 (gold). The Korean edition of 1536 has jin instead of quan (see Yoshikawa Yoshikazu, “‘Kyū bo kyō’ to ‘Kyū bo hōkan,’” p. 117), as does Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana, which also adds nei 內 after the name of the country.
57 Baojuan of Maudgalyāyana has jingying shengli 經營生理 (engage in business) instead of xingsheng jingji 興生經紀.
58 The punctuation of the Chinese texts was added by me.
59 This text was first described by Qian Nanyang 錢南揚 (1899–1987), “Mulian xi kao” 目連戲考 (Study of Mulian drama), Beida guoxue yuekan 北大國學月刊 (Peking University national studies monthly), ser. 1, 6 (1927): 109–113. It is also described in Liu Zhen, Zhongguo minjian Mulian wenhua, pp. 248–55. Examples of a Ming and a Qing woodblock edition of a similar text with a slightly different title with pretty much the same meaning, Cibei lanpen Mulian dao chang chanfa 慈悲蘭盆目連道場懺法, are preserved in the National Library of China; both have a postface that is dated to 1351.
60 It was also once owned by Fu Xihua 傅惜華 (1907–1966), who recorded the sheng tian 生天 of the title as sheng tian 升天 in his 1951 Baojuan zonglu 寳卷縂錄 (Catalogue of baojuan), but is now kept in the Library of the Research Institute of Drama (Xiqu yanjiu suo 戲曲研究所) in the Chinese Academy of Arts.
61 Only the last two volumes out of three survive and a part of the conclusion is missing. On this text, see Dai Yun 戴雲, “Mujianlian zunzhe jiu mu chuli diyu sheng tian baojuan manlu” 目犍連尊者救母出離地獄升天寶卷漫錄 (Leisurely notes on Baojuan of Reverend Maudgalyāyana Rescuing His Mother [so that she] Escapes Hell and Is Reborn in Heaven), Gansu yiyuan 甘肅藝苑 (Arts of Gansu) 2004. 2: 11–13 and Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 491–96.
62 See Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 151–61.
63 Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, pp. 493–94.
64 See, for instance, Dai Yun 戴雲, “Mujianlian zunzhe jiu mu chuli diyu sheng tian baojuan manlu,” p. 13.
65 This religious tradition has been quite well studied. See, for example, Daniel L. Overmyer, Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999), pp. 38–46.
66 Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, p. 77, n.1.
67 This refers to Vulture Peak (Lingjiu 靈鷲), a mountain located near Rājagṛha where the Buddha was supposed to have preached many Mahāyāna sermons such as the famous Lotus Sūtra.
68 Deva, nāga, yakṣa, gandharva, asura, garuḍa, kimnara and mahoraga.
69 In the sūtras the pretense is that Buddha’s disciple Ānanda, who had attended all of the Śākyamuni Buddha’s lectures and memorized them, was later asked to recite the sermons so that they could be recorded.
70 On these paragons of filial piety, see Keith Knapp, Selfless Offspring: Filial Children and Social Order in Early Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2005).
71 For the Buddhist appropriation of filial piety as a core Buddhist value, see Alan R. Cole, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998). Mulian also appears in the lists of filial sons in several texts from Dunhuang. See, for instance, Huang Zheng 黃征 and Zhang Yongquan 張涌泉, eds., Dunhuang bianwen jiaozhu 敦煌變文校注 (Dunhuang transformation texts collated and annotated; Beiijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1997), pp. 1016 and 1154.
72 See, for example, Rostislav Berezkin, “An Analysis of ‘Telling Scriptures’ During Temple Festivals in Gangkou (Zhangjiagang), With Special Attention to the Status of the Performers,” CHINOPERL Papers 30 (2011): 44.
73 Berezkin, “An Analysis of ‘Telling Scriptures,’” pp. 38–39.
74 For a survey of these, see Victor H. Mair, Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1988).
75 See Mair, T'ang Transformation Texts, pp. 73, 99, 100–103. Since the publication of this text more work has been done on mural paintings at Dunhuang that depict the Mulian story. These include Fan Jinshi and Mei Lin, “An Interpretation of the Maudgalyāyana Murals in Cave 19 at Yulin,” Orientations 27 (November 1996): 70–75, and Yu Xiangdong 于向東, “Yulin ku di 19 ku Mulian bianxiang yu Mulian bianwen” 榆林窟的19窟目連變相與目連變文 (Transformation tableau of Mulian in Yulin caves [Cave no. 19] and the Mulian bianwen), Dunhuang xue jikan 敦煌學輯刊 (Bulletin of Dunhuang studies) 1 (2005): 90–96. On the wall paintings at Dunhuang and storytelling in general, see Sarah E. Fraser, Performing the Visual: The Practice of Wall Painting in China and Central Asia, 618–960 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004).
76 P4524.
77 On visual aids and reading practices in China see Robert E. Hegel, Reading Illustrated Fiction in Late Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998).
78 This is attested, for instance, in the novel Plum in the Golden Vase. On this question, see also Johnson, “Mu-lien in Pao-chüan,” pp. 59–60 and 64–69, and Tsuji Rin 辻リン, “Hōkan no rufu to Min-Sei josei bunka” 宝卷の流布と明清女性文化 (The circulation of precious scrolls and female culture in the Ming and Qing), in Chūgoku Koseki Bunka Kenkyūjo 中国古籍文化研究所 (Institute for the study of the culture of classical Chinese texts), ed., Chūgoku koseki ryūtsūgaku no kakuritsu: Ryūtsūsuru koseki, ryūtsūsuru bunka 中国古籍流通学の確立: 流通する古籍, 流通する文化 (The establishment of the study of the circulation of classical Chinese texts: Circulating classical texts and circulating culture; Tokyo: Yūzankaku, 2007), pp. 258–82.