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Abstract
It is often overlooked that women were highly regarded in Buddhist literature for their indispensable contribution to the family welfare. In the Śrgalavadasūtra, whose earliest translation into Chinese is traditionally attributed to the Parthian monk An Shigao (d. 168), fulfilling the husband-wife relationship was singled out as one of the ethical cornerstones of a blessed and prosperous family, and the wife is given due credit for familial prosperity. The scripture was translated at least nine other times in South China from the fourth to the fifth centuries, suggesting that Buddhist wisdom was sought to manage household life. The popularity of the Śrgalavadasūtra indicates that a wife of Buddhist faith and devotion was considered to be crucial to familial peace and prosperity. More importantly, the Buddhist advice given in the Śrgalavadasūtra is fully consistent with Confucian instructions on the husband-wife relation, demonstrating a seamless and uncompromised Buddho-Confucian integration that had been overshadowed by the sensationalized conflict between the two doctrines in early medieval times. This paper analyzes the various translations of the Śrgalavadasūtra, compares them to Confucian instructions on the husband-wife relationship, and contextualizes their popularity in early medieval Chinese society. It argues that the Buddhist notion of family articulated in the Śrgalavadasūtra and introduced in the midst of much conflict between Buddhism and Confucianism in medieval times, in fact contributed to the development of the ideal of family in imperial China.
Notes
1 See CBETA (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Association) Tripitaka, T01n0016_p0250c11–0252b01. The scripture was given various titles in Chinese in early medieval China, and the one adopted by the Taishō Tripitaka and CBETA is based on an alternative title given in Zhisheng's 智昇 Kaiyuan Shijiao lu 開元釋教錄 (Kaiyuan catalogue of Buddhist teachings) where “Fo shuo” (“spoken by the Buddha”) were absent. The Kaiyuan catalogue was completed in 730.
2 For a detailed analysis of the scripture and its historical significance in early medieval China, see Yuet Keung Lo, “Recovering a Buddhist Voice on Daughters-In-Law: The Yuyenü Jing,” History of Religions, 44, no. 4 (2005), 318–50.
3 See Lo, “Recovering a Buddhist Voice on Daughters-In-Law,” 366. I would like to add that, as character assessment was in vogue in early medieval China, nuns would even be invited to arbitrate controversial judgments. See CitationXu Zhen'e, Shishuo xinyu jiaojian (Annotations to New Account of Tales of the World) (Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1987), 19.30, 378, and Richard B. Mather, trans., A New Account of Tales of the World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 355.
4 Decades ago, the four Chinese versions of the Śrgalavadasūtra were translated into English by Bhadanta Pannasiri. See “Sigālovāda-Sutta,” Visva-Bharati Annals, 3 (1950), 150–228; for An Shigao's version, see 165 ff.
5 T49n2034_p0052a15. The title Shijialuoyue liufang li jing now given for An Shigao's translation was first recorded in Zhisheng's Kaiyuan shijiao lu, in T55n2154_p0479b24. See n. 1.
6 Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, in T55n2145_0027a04. Given the ambiguity of the title of the translation, it is possible that the original text was identical to that of An Shigao's Śrgalavadasūtra.
7 According to Yuanzhao's 圓照 Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu 貞元新定釋教目錄 (A new catalogue of Buddhist teachings from the Zhenyuan reign), completed in 800, the Śrgalavadasūtra in his catalogue was four pages in length (sizhi 四紙). See T55n2157_1039a03.
8 T49n2034_0068a17. Seng You also mentioned another translation of Zhi Fadu's base text without the name of its translator and it was called the Scripture of Paying Homage to the Six Directions: A Different Translation (Yi chu liuxiang bai jing異出六向拜經). See T55n2145_0027a03.
9 Interestingly, none of the translations recorded in the Chu sanzang ji ji was attributed to Zhi Fadu. The Kaiyuan shijiaolu states that Zhi Fadu's translation was four pages in length, but another translation of the Sūtra of the Son of Sujātā was seven pages long. See T55n2154_0715c2 and T55n2154_p0691c2 respectively. The Zhenyuan xinding shijiaolu registered one translation of the Sūtra of the Son of Sujātā that was also seven pages in length. The translator's name was not given. See T55n2157_1039b23.
10 For a study of the role of Dharmarakṣa in the transmission of Buddhism in China, see Daniel Boucher, “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China” in Asia Major, 19, parts 1–2 (2006), 13–37.
11 Jialuoyue is a corrupted form of Shijialuoyue (尸迦羅越, Śrgala/Sigala). It should be noted that Shijialuoyue was actually a mistransliteration of Śrgala/Sigala as the final syllable yue is not part of the name of the elder's son.
12 See Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, in T55n2145_0008b21 and Fajing 法經, Zhongjing mulu 眾經目錄 (Catalogue of various scriptures), in T55n2146_0130b04, and Fei Zhangfang, Lidai sanbaoji, inT49n2034_0063b02-03.
13 T55n2154_0496a11.
14 The scripture was also called Weihua zhangzhe liuxiang bai jing 威花長者六向拜經. See T55n2154_0508c17. See also See Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, in T55n2145_0008b21 and Fajing, Zhongjing mulu, in T55n2146_0130b04, and Fei Zhangfang, Lidai sanbaoji, inT49n2034_0063b02-03. T55n2154_0496a11.
15 Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, T55n2145_0010b23-26.
16 T55n2154_0638b18.
17 T49n2034_0072a02.
18 T55n2145_0011b01.
19 See T55n2154_0531b23-26 and T49n2034_0093a27–0093c08.
20 For a detailed documentation of the various translations of the different versions of the Śrgalavadasūtra, see CitationWang Kaifu, “Shansheng jing de lunli sixiang jianlun Ru Fo lunli sixiang zhi yitong,” in Disici Ru Fo huitong xueshu yantaohui lunwen ji (Taipei: Huafan Daxue, 2000), 225–41.
21 T24n1488.
22 See Huiyuan's 慧遠 (523–92) commentary on the Bodhisattva-bhūmi (Dichi lun yiji 地持論義記), in X39n0704_0225a02–04, Kuiji's 窺基 (632–82) and Zhizhou's 智周 (668–723) on the Lotus Sūtra respectively in Miaofa lianhuajing xuanzan 妙法蓮花經玄贊 (T34n1723_0821b28–c05) and Fahua xuanzan sheshi 法華玄贊攝釋 (X34n0636_0111b21–0112a10). Huiyuan was a master of the Daśabhūmikā School while both Kuiji and Zhizhou were masters of the Consciousness-only School.
23 See Daoxuan's 道宣 (596–667) Sifenlü shanfan buque xingshi chao 四分律刪繁補闕行事鈔 (T40n1804_0031a10) and Jingxiao's 景霄 (Tang Dynasty) Sifenlüchao jianzheng ji 四分律鈔簡正記 (X43n0737_0174b10–0174c02).
24 T54n2128_0657c07. In reality, the Yiqie jing yinyi incorporated many Buddhist philological works of lesser scale, and the comment on the Śrgalavadasūtra actually came from another work completed between 655 and 663 by the translator-monk Xuanying 玄應.
25 X56n0939_0655b08184ff and T43n1829_0152c17–23.
26 T54n2123_0080a10–23.
27 T53n2122_0432a20–c17; T53n2122_0668c28–0669a05; T53n2122_0670b07–12.
28 See Huizhao's 慧沼 (651–714) Quan fa putixin ji 勸發菩提心集 (Exhortation to cultivate the mind of enlightenment), in T45n1862_0394b06–0395a05. The Yuyenü jing on the ideal behavior of the daughter-in-law was also included in the exhortation. See T45n1862_0395a07–0395c11. Huizhao was a native Chinese monk.
29 See the Falun baochan 法輪寶懺 (Precious liturgical prayers of the Dharma Wheel), in X74n1499_0958c05–09 and X74n1499_0964c08. The Yuyenü jing and the Scripture of the Upāsaka Precepts were also included in the Falun baochen. See X74n1499_0954b03 and X74n1499_0958b09–10.
30 It appears that Buddhist scriptures that present an unflattering view of women were not popular in China like the Śrgalavadasūtra and its kin were. For instance, the Foshuo Anan tongxue jing 佛說阿難同學經 (Scripture on Ānanda and his classmate spoken by the Buddha), also translated by An Shigao, was nowhere to be found in any textual record other than five Buddhist catalogues and Huilin's Yiqie jing yinyi. It is noteworthy that the Indian Avalokiteśvara who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas in a male form underwent a sex change in China and became Bodhisattva Guanyin in a female body. This is not only unique in China but also in Buddhism as well.
31 HH the Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, Wisdom & Compassion (Singapore: Amitabha Buddhist Centre, 2009), 1–2.
32 Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, in T55n2145–0097c12.
33 T01n0016_0251b01–07. Translations of the Śrgalavadasūtra in this paper are all mine.
34 T01n0016_0251b14–22. For a detailed analysis of the wife in Buddhist scriptures, see I. B. Horner, Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen (Delhi: Motilai Banarsidass Publishers, 1989, first published in London, 1930), 35–71. It should be noted that much of the expectations (wifely obedience, devotion, and service, as well as the wife's eligibility for family inheritance) and indeed demands on the wife in Buddhist India were similar and even identical to those stipulated in Confucian China.
35 T01n0016_0251b07.
36 In ancient India, property might or might not be left to the daughter or the wife. See Horner, Women under Primitive Buddhism, 54–55.
37 T24n1488_1047b11–13.
38 T01n0026_0641a24.
39 T01n0017_0254a27. The son should also “give” (fenyu 分與) his good stuff to his friends and relatives. Here, yu clearly means “to give.” See T01n0016_0251b27.
40 T01n0001_0071c29.
41 T01n0026_0641a08.
42 A good example of such manipulation of Buddhist texts is the various translations of the five precepts as they were mapped with a different set of corresponding virtues in Confucian ethics. Sometimes, even the same translator rendered them differently in different contexts. See Foshuo Anan wenshi Fo jixiong jing佛說阿難問事佛吉凶經 (Scripture of Ānanda asking the fortune and misfortune of embracing Buddhism spoken by the Buddha), translated by An Shigao, in T14n0492a–0754a21–25, and Foshuo jiexiaozai jing 佛說戒消災經 (Scripture on dispelling disasters with the precepts spoken by the Buddha), translated by Zhi Qian 支謙 (fl. 220–50), in T24n1477_0945a19–21.
43 This is explicitly stated in the Sujātāsūtra in Dirghāgama16, though not in the Śrgalavadasūtra and the other two translations. See T01n0001_0072a04.
44 See T02n0142b_0865a21-b8. For a complete translation of the Yuye nü jing, see Lo, “Recovering a Buddhist Voice on Daughters-In-Law,” 347–50.
45 The six interpersonal relations in the family appear to be normal in ancient India as the Scripture of Upāsaka Precepts also mentions that a Buddhist layman should attend to them properly. And only when he pays homage to the six interpersonal relations can he increase his wealth and live a long life and take the upāsaka precepts. See T24n1488_1047c08–09.
46 See T01n0016_0251c15–16.
47 See T01n0016_0251c08–10.
48 Ying-shih Yu, “Individualism and the Neo-Taoist Movement in Wei-Chin China,” Individualism and Holism: Studies in Confucian and Taoist Values, edited by Donald Munro (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1985), 125–29.
49 See some examples of such behaviour in CitationXu Zhen'e, Shishuo xinyu jiaojian, ch. 35, 489–92, and Mather, trans., A New Account of Tales of the World, 484–88.
50 CitationYang Mingzhao, Baopuzi waipian jiaojian (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1996), 560–67.
51 Ibid., 616.
52 Gan Bao, “Jinji zonglun 晉紀總論” (Summary statements on the history of Jin) in CitationYan Kejun, Quan shanggu sandai Qin Han Sanguo Liuchao wen (Kyoto: Chūbun shuppansha, 1975), juan 127, vol. 3, 2192.
53 CitationWang Liqi, Yanshi jiaxun jijie, 25.
54 CitationWang Liqi, Yanshi jiaxun jijie, 56. It should be noted that Yan Zhitun also included a chapter on the Buddhist faith (“Guixin”) in his family instructions. He argued that Buddhism and Confucianism fundamentally formed one whole and that a person would be deluded if he embraced the latter yet abandoned the former. Naturally, he contended that it was not necessary to leave the household to practice Buddhism. See ibid., 339, 360.
55 For the historical circumstances and existential concerns surrounding the translation of the Yuyenü jing, see Yuet Keung Lo, “Filial Devotion for Women: A Buddhist Testimony from Third-Century China,” in Filial Piety in Chinese Thought and History, edited by Alan Chan and Sor-hoon Tan (London and New York: Routledge-Curzon, 2004), 71–90.
56 Lo, “Recovering a Buddhist Voice on Daughters-In-Law,” 329–35.
57 For example, the monk Huijian 慧簡 who translated the Sūtra of the Son of Sujātā actually served as the family teacher of Wang Jianwu 王建武 who was Governor of Jing 荊 Commandery. See Daoxuan, Xu Gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳 (Sequel to the lives of eminent monks), in T50n2060_0646b23–c06.
58 Seng You, Chu sanzang ji ji, T55n2145_0028a25. This scripture, in one scroll, was extracted from one of the Āgamas.
59 In one scroll. See T55n2145_0029b08. This scripture was actually bundled together with twenty-four other scriptures including Huijian's translation of the Sūtra of the Son of Sujātā (item 8 on our list). See T49n2034_0093a27–0093c08.
60 In one scroll. See T55n2145_0028b11.
61 In one scroll. See T55n2145_0027a27.
62 In one scroll. See T55n2145_0027a27.
63 In one scroll. See T55n2145_0027a27.
64 T55n2145_0025b26.
65 The scripture, in one scroll, was also known as Scripture on Filial Sons (Xiaozi jing孝子經). See T55n2145_0017c02.
66 See Yuet Keung Lo, “Conversion to Chastity: A Buddhist Catalyst in Early Imperial China,” Nannü, 10 (2008), 45–46.
67 Interestingly, the Foshuo Anan wenshi Fo jixiong jing another short scripture translated by An Shigao, explicitly explains how a lay person should practice Buddhism which allows marriage and burial—two of most fundamental rites in the Chinese way of life. See T14n0492, esp. T14n0492a–0753c17.
68 CitationWang Liqi, Yanshi jiaxun jijie, 37.
69 See CitationLou Yulie, compiled, Wang Bi ji jiaoshi (Collected annotations to Wang Bi's works), 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1980), 2583.
70 Takigawa Kametarō, Shiki kaichū kōshō (Taipei: Hongye shuju, 1977), 756.
71 Fan Ye, Hou Han shu (History of the Latter Han) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1973), 10.84.2788.
72 For an excellent study of Xun Yue, see Chi-yun Chen, Hsün Yüeh (A.D. 148–209): The Life and Reflections of an Early Medieval Confucian (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975).
73 Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 7.62.2052.
74 According to Zheng Xuan's 鄭玄 (127–200) commentary, qi 齊 (“equal”) may also read jiao 醮 (ritual toast) as a variant. See CitationSun Xidan, Liji jijie (Collected annotations of the Book of Rites) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1989), 2:707.
75 Sun Xidan, Liji jijie, 2:707–09. For further discussion, see CitationLao Yueqiang (Yuet Keung Lo), “Zhen shun: Liu Xiang Lienü zhuan zhong de qizi” (Rectitude and compliance: the wife in Liu Xiang's Lienü zhuan), in Qin Han sixiang wenhua yanjiu (Thought and culture in Qin-Han China), edited by Xiong Tieji and Zhao Guohua (Singapore: Hope Publishing House, 2005), 356–59.
76 It is worth noting that while the “Jiaotesheng” chapter emphasizes the priority of the parent-child relation as the foundation of ritual propriety, the “Neize” chapter of the Liji declares that ritual propriety begins with the strict distinction between the respective spheres of activities pertaining to the husband and wife.
77 Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 10.83.2768. Liang Hong and Meng Guang became a model for conjugal relation in later times.
78 Zhen is invariably translated as “chastity” in English scholarship, but it did not take on such meaning until around the sixth century. See Lo, “Conversion to Chastity,” 22–56, and Lao, “Zhen shun,” 355–75.
79 Virtually all studies on the virtue of zhen concerns female chastity (particularly widow chastity) without a cautionary note that it can mean “rectitude” that is not gender specific.
80 See Kang Senghui's translation of the Liudu jijing 六度集經 (Collection of scriptures on the Six Pāramitās), in T03n0152_0037a18–26, and the Foshuo xiaozi jing 佛說孝子經 (Scripture of the filial son spoken by the Buddha) from the Western Jin (translator's identity unknown), in T16n0687_0780b27–29.
81 For a most recent study of geyi, see Victor H. Mair, “What Is Geyi, After All?” in Philosophy and Religion in Early Medieval China, edited by Alan K. L. Chan and Yuet Keung Lo (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2011), 227–64. See also ibid., n. 49.
82 Numerous representative studies on geyi are discussed in Mair, “What Is Geyi, After All?”
83 Kumārajīva (344–413) was arguably the most influential and prolific translator of Buddhist texts in Chinese history, but his scholastic achievements paled in comparison to the numberless audience that his pubic homilies reached during his sojourn (401–13) in North China. We are told that during the reign (394–416) of Yao Xing 姚興, “nine out of ten households were converted to Buddhism” (事佛者十室而九矣). See CitationFang Xuanling et al., Jin shu (History of the Jin) (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), 117.10.2985. Indeed, evidence from Kumārajīva's preaching to a live audience shows that he was not so much keen on expounding Buddhist philosophy as introducing a way of life based on fundamental Buddhist ideas such as the Four Noble Truths. For a pioneering study of Kumārajīva's oral preaching, see Yuet Keung Lo, “Persuasion and Entertainment at Once: Kumārajīva's Buddhist Storytelling in His Commentary on the Vimalakīrti-sūtra,” Academia Sinica: Bulletin of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy, 21 (2002), 89–115.
84 Arthur F. Wright, “Biography of the Nun An Ling-Shou 安令首,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 15, no. 1 (June 1952), 193–96.
85 For instance, Nun An Lingshou's ordination was clearly mediated by the famous monk Fotu Cheng 佛圖澄, and he appealed to the Confucian ideals to persuade An's father. See Wright, “Biography of the Nun An Ling-Shou,” in Studies in Chinese Buddhism, 71.
86 See Yuet Keung Lo, “Confucius and His Community,” in Dao Companion to the Analects, edited by Amy Olberding (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer Academic Publishers, 2013), 81–117.
87 See, for example, some nuns who were revered by emperors from various dynasties in early medieval China in Nancy Schuster, “Striking A Balance: Women and Images of Women in Early Chinese Buddhism,” in Women, Religion, and Social Change, edited by Yvonne Yazbeck Haddad and Ellison Banks Findly (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1985), 94.
88 In rebuking Fu Yi's 傅奕 (555–639) attempts in 621 and 624 to condemn Buddhism, monk Minggai 明槩 claimed that everybody in his time could witness that men and women would encourage one another to leave the household life and that husbands and wives of aristocratic families would join the monastic life together. See Daoxuan, Guang Hongming ji, in T52n2103–0172c16–17. For an analysis of Fu Yi's proposal to extirpate Buddhism and his opponents' rebuttal, see Arthur F. Wright, “Fu I and the Rejection of Buddhism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 12, no. 1 (1951), 33–47.
89 CitationGao Shiyu, Tangdai funü (Women in Tang China), (Xi'an: Sanqin chubanshe, 1988), 136.
90 The impact of Buddhism on material life in China was tremendous and did not set off as many ideological debates as did the philosophical and political controversies. For an excellent study of the Buddhist influence on Chinese material life, see John Kieschnick, The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003).
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Yuet Keung Lo
Yuet Keung Lo is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore. He specializes in Chinese intellectual history and religions covering Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism and their interactions from the classical period to late imperial times. Recently he contributed a chapter on Pure Conversation and Dark Learning in Cambridge History of China, Vol. ii: Six Dynasties, edited by Albert Dien and Keith Knapp. He is currently completing a book on Buddhist influence on gendered virtues in early medieval China.
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