Mair 1989 Tang Transformation Texts

T'ang Transformation Texts
Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 28
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Victor H. Mair
Distributed by the HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and

London 1989
T'ang Transformation Texts
A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise

ofVernacular Fiction and Drama in China
Published by the COUNCIL ON EAST ASIAN STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY
©Copyright 1989 by
The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Printed in the United States of America
The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928

and headquartered at Harvard University, is a
foundation dedicated to the advancement of higher
education in the humanities and social sciences in
East and Southeast Asia. The Institute supports
advanced research at Harvard by faculty members of
certain Asian universities, and doctoral studies
at Harvard and other universities by junior faculty
at the same universities. It also supports East
Asian studies at Harvard through contributions
to the Harvard-Yenching Library and publication of
the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and books on
pre-modern East Asian history and literature.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Mair, Victor H., 1943-

T'ang transformation texts: a study of the
Buddhist contribution to the rise of vernacular
fiction and drama in China/ Victor H. Mair.
p. cm.-(Harvard-Yenching Institute
monograph series; 28)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-674-86815-3
I. Pien wen (Buddhist song-tales)-History
and criticism. 2. Chinese literature-Buddhist
influences. I. Title. II. Series.
PL2365.M37 1988
398.2'0951-dcl9 88-37893
CIP
A la memoire de Paul Pelliot,
sinologue hors pair
... The picture-story, which critics disregard and scholars scarcely
notice, has great influence at all times, perhaps even more than
written literature. More people will look at pictures than at books,
and, in addition, the picture-story appeals mainly to children and
the lower classes-that is, to the two groups most easily misguided
and most needing improvement.
Rodolphe Topffer,
"Essay on Physiognomy"
( 1845)
Tr. by E. Wiese,
Enter the Comics, p. 3
Preface
The research for this book began in the fall of 1967 when I read
three histories of Chinese literature written in English, those by Lai
Ming, Wu-chi Liu, and Ch'en Shou-yi. I came away from these
histories with the very powerful impression that the single most
important unresolved problem in the study of Chinese literature
was the derivation ofTun-huang pien-wen ~tJHit5c. Clearly these
were texts of extraordinary significance for the subsequent devel-
opment of popular literature in China. The discovery of the Tun-
huang texts, according to Paul Demieville ("Tun-huang Texts,"
p. 186), "has dated back by several centuries the origins of the
vernacular literature of China, which in some respects represents
one of the most fruitful and significant contributions to Chinese
culture in modern times." And yet it was puzzling that no one
seemed to know with any degree ofcertainty where they came from
or how they arose. Nor was there any agreement on the size of
the pien-wen corpus or the formal nature of the genre. Even more
bewildering was the fact that the very meaning of the word pien had
not been established. These unsettled issues relating to pien-wen
were so intriguing that I decided to make them the central focus
of my research over the next decade and more.
Among the questions to which this particular study addresses
itself are the following: What are the origins of pien-wen and its
various constituent elements (prosimetric form, relationship to
pictures, verse-introductory formula, and so forth)? What does
the word pien mean? Who were the performers of pien? How were
they performed? Who wrote down the pien-wen and why did they
do it? How many pien-wen are extant? What implications do pien-
wen have for the subsequent development of popular fiction and
drama?
ix
Preface
As will shortly become apparent to readers of this study, in

attempting to answer any of these questions, it is essential not to
overlook the fundamental role of Buddhism. Indeed, part of the
reason for my continuing interest in this subject is in response to
the challenge issued by E. Zurcher in the preface (p. xiii) to his
book called The Buddhist Conquest of China:
More attention could be paid to the way in which Buddhism, as a

vehicle of foreign literary influence, made an unprecedented impact on
Chinese secular literature. In this field, cases of successful penetration
(e.g. the absorption of Buddhist literary cliches, the earliest develop-
ment of the "prosimetric" style, the largely Buddhist origin of the genre
"edifying tales") are as notable as the cases of immunity, in which
Buddhist literary patterns failed to evoke a creative response (such as
epic poetry, unrhymed verse, and verbatim representation).
But, for various ideological, political, and patriotic reasons, the

possibility of significant Buddhist influence on the development of
pien-wen has frequently been denounced by scholars writing in the
past half-century. Thus it will be necessary to respond to a certain
number of issues that have been raised by them regarding the role
ofBuddhism in Chinese thought and life. Our aim will be always
to achieve a balanced view of the impact ofBuddhism on China, not
one that ascribes too much shaping effect to this foreign religion,
nor one that underestimates its uncanny ability to operate in
diverse cultural settings.
Although it is a duty of the literary historian to distinguish
between the two, both direct and indirect borrowings from the
Buddhist tradition constitute influence. During the late T'ang
period, Buddhism was so totally assimilated by the Chinese people
at large that they were more often than not unaware of its alien
origins. This fact alone makes the task of the literary historian
extremely difficult when he is attempting to trace the origins of
themes and forms in popular literature. For this reason, I shall pro-
ceed with caution and try to be as explicit as possible.
Since the reader of this monograph will more likely be the
student of Chinese literature than the Buddhologist, it is not as-
sumed that he or she will possess a background in Buddhist studies.
Hence, to accommodate those unfamiliar with Chinese Buddhism,
Preface
there are places where the student ofBuddhism is sure to feel that
the obvious is being stressed. My own lack of adequate knowledge
regarding Buddhism may be the cause of other regrettable defi-
Ciencies.
The problems of what pien is and what it means have not been
solved by those scholars who have confined themselves to Chinese
sources. In my opinion they never will be solved unless we begin
to look into Tibetan, Uighur, Sanskrit, and other sources. For
this reason, I have been so bold as to look at some non-Chinese
materials. Others may judge whether or not I have been amply re-
warded for my efforts. I have done so only because the need to
understand the meaning and history of pien is so compelling. So
as not to waste the time of my strictly Sinological readers, I have
made only minimal reference to non-Chinese materials in this
book. Those whose curiosity is piqued, however, are invited to peek
into my Painting and Performance, which gives a more complete ac-
count of many subjects only touched on here.
My boldness in encroaching upon fields in which I lack full
competence has been mitigated by the unreserved assistance of
numerous individuals. ~inasi Tekin's quick and expert responses
to my questions regarding Uighur texts are deeply appreciated.
Ahmet Evin, Erika Gilson, Margaret Feary, Francis Cleaves, and
KiJoong Song helped with Altaic languages in general. Mr. Song
was also exceptionally kind in helping me to gain access to Korean
sources. I am profoundly grateful for Jan N attier-Barbaro's patient
searching in the Tibetan canon for passages which I brought to
her from the Chinese versions. My good friend and former col-
league, Masatoshi N agatomi, explicated in minute detail a difficult
Tibetan text at my request and kept a sharp lookout for errors of
interpretation in matters Sanskritic and Buddhistic throughout.
Ludo Rocher graciously contributed his vast expertise in all areas
of lndology, and Peter Gaefike was always ready to share his
wide-ranging erudition. In spite of a busy schedule of graduate
studies, Scott Cremer never failed to answer my questions con-
cerning Indian language, literature, and philosophy. Similarly,
Hiroshi Kumamoto was able to provide expert guidance in
Khotanese matters. David U tz and Wilma Heston both read the
portions of this book that treat of Sogdian and Manichaean
Xl
Preface
matters. Any deficiencies in these areas are entirely the result of

my own inability to follow up completely on their good sugges-
tions. Charles Benoit generously answered several of my questions
about Sino-Vietnamese.
I am grateful to my former students Harry Kaplan and Masato
Nishimura for having verified most of the entries in the Chinese
and Japanese entries of the bibliography and to Heidi Mair and
James Dudley for assistance in verifying some of the other entries.
Thanks are due as well to Mira Mihelich for many kind favors. I
also profited greatly from my conversations with Tseng Yung-i of
Taiwan National University and Guan Dedong [Kuan Te-tung]
of Shantung University about Chinese popular literature.
Though I have only recently begun to meet some of them, I feel
a profound sense of respect and admiration toward the Japanese
scholars whose dedicated work has inspired me to attempt these
studies. Among these great students of popular Buddhist art
and literature are Naba Toshisada, Kawaguchi Hisao, Kanaoka
Shako, Iriya Yoshitaka, Akiyama Terukazu, Fujieda Aki~a, and
UmezuJiro.
Another scholar whose example has given me tremendous en-
couragement and whom I hold in the highest regard is Lien-shen
Yang. Even when he was not feeling well, Professor Yang gen-
erously consented to write the characters that grace the cover of
this book.
Heartfelt thanks are extended to Denis Mair and Andrew Jones
for converting a horribly messy handwritten manuscript into a
workable first typed draft. Without their assistance, the four type-
scripts that followed would not have been possible. Likewise, I
consider myself most fortunate in receiving the expert editorial
guidance of Florence Trefethen, who saw the book through the
final stages of publication. Ann Cheng magnanimously volun-
teered to help in the compilation of the index and in proofreading.
I should like to take this opportunity to register my gratitude
to the Harvard Graduate Society for a grant which helped to de-
fray the cost of preparing the manuscript of this book for publi-
cation, to the University of Pennsylvania Committee on Faculty
Grants and Awards for assistance in typing the final draft, and
to the American Council of Learned Societies for providing the
xii
Preface
generous support, in part financed by the National Endowment for

the Humanities, that enabled me to bring these protracted studies
to completion.
Many libraries have provided me with important materials
in the course of my research. I am particularly grateful to the
Trustees of the British Library and to the authorities of the Bib-
liotheque Nationale (Paris) for making available to me micro-
film and photographic copies of many Tun-huang manuscripts.
Thanks also are due to the Library of Congress for sending me
marvelously clear photostatic copies of the Sariputra pien-wen.
Robert Dunn, Senior Reference Librarian of the Chinese and
Korean Section, has been both prompt and thorough in response
to my questions. Howard Nelson, Assistant Keeper of the Depart-
ment of Oriental Manuscripts and Printed Books in the British
Library, obliged me by inspecting several Tun-huang manuscripts
there. The hospitality and assistance of the authorities of the fol-
lowing institutions during the period of travel and research carried
out in 1981 are deeply appreciated: Cornell University Library,
British Library, Bibliotheque Nationale, the archives of the
Institute of Asian Peoples (Academy of Sciences, USSR) in
Leningrad, Peking National Library, and the Peking University
Library. I must also register my gratitude to Eugene Eoyang and
Nick Koss of the University of Indiana, who enabled me to ob-
tain microfilm copies of many Tun-huang manuscripts. Nancy
Cheng and her staff of the University of Pennsylvania Library
East Asian Section have been prompt and efficient in respond-
ing to my requests. Most of all, it is to the staff of the Harvard-
Yenching Library, including Eugene Wu, George Potter, Ray
Lum, Deborah White, Ch'ien Ho, the late Larry Edsall, Pao-liang
Chu, Daisy Hu, Sungha Kim, Rin Paik, Yukiko Pluard, and
Toshiyuki Aoki, that I am in deepest debt. Without their services,
this study could not even have begun; without their help, it cer-
tainly could not have been finished.
I would, furthermore, like to thank the following individuals
who read this work in manuscript at various stages and who made
numerous useful suggestions: Piet van der Loon, Glen Dudbridge,
C. K. Wang, David Pollard, A. C. Graham, Timothy Barrett, and
K. P. K. Whitaker. Above all, I appreciate Patrick Hanan's un-
xiii
Preface
swerving insistence on quality, reliability, and civility. His "Dutch

uncle" advice has not always been easy to take, but it has con-
tributed greatly to making this a better book. Naturally, I alone
am responsible for all errors of omission and commission.
Finally, these studies would not have been possible without the
cooperation and understanding of my wife, Li-ching, and son,
Thomas. And, as always, the encouragement and inspiration
from my entire family in Ohio were essential in bringing them to
completion.
xiv
Contents
Preface IX
New Developments xvii

General Principles XXI
Chapter One Tun-huang and the Manuscripts

Appendix: The Szechwan Connection 7
Two The Corpus of pien-wen and Related Genres 9
Appendix: On Dating 33
Three The Meaning ofthe Termpien-wen 36
Four Form, Formula, and Features of
Transformations 73
Appendix: The Indian Hypothesis 106
Five Performers, Writers, and Copyists 110
Six Evidence for the Existence of
Transformation Performances 152
Abbreviations 171
Notes 177
Bibliography 219
Catalogues 220
Main Entries 223
Works Not Seen 275
Index 279
XV
New Developments
On 1 October 1988, when the page proofs of this book were being
sent to me for checking, I was in Lanchow, China, on my way back
to the United States after a month-long trip to archeological sites
and museums in the Soviet and Chinese parts of Central Asia. At
the Kansu Provincial Museum there, I discovered a painting from
Tun-huang which is of such extreme importance for this book that
I am compelled at this late date to add a few brief paragraphs
describing it.
The painting, finely drawn and beautifully colored, carries the
actual title "Transformation on the Siitra Spoken by the Buddha Con-
cerning Recompense to Parentsfor Their Great Kindness (Fo-shuo paofu-mu
en chung ching pien)" {~~¥10CBJ:}~UIH;ll~~. A lengthy inscription in
the middle of the bottom portion dates it to the 3rd year of the
Ch'un-hua ("Pure Transformation") w1t reign period of the
Northern Sung dynasty, that is 992. Above the inscription is a
precis of the siitra.
At first glance, the painting gives the appearance of a ma1Jqala
with a Buddha seated in the lotus posture occupying the central
position and surrounded by attendantBodhisattvas. There are also
several Bodhisattvas in a row along the top of the painting. Upon
closer inspection, however, it is revaled that, on either side of the
central assemblage, there are numerous scenes illustrating episodes
from the siitra in question. What is more, each of these scenes is
accompanied by a cartouche with an identifying label that ends
with the marker of narrative moment:" ... at the time when" .(shih
!f.!i). The bottom right corner presents a portrait of the Buddhist
monk to whose memory it was dedicated.
According to Museum authorities, the painting itself is kept in a
storeroom. Hence I was able to view only a large color photograph
xvii
New Developments
ofit on my hurried visit. What I saw convinces me that it richly de-

serves thorough research, not only by scholars versed in popular
Buddhist literature, but by art historians as well. For the moment,
we may observe that the painting is called a "transformation"
(pien), not a "transformation tableau" (pien-hsiang). It represents
one of the last certifiable references to pien in Chinese history. Study
of the format, identification of the various figures depicted, com-
parison with other T'ang and Sung paintings, its relationship to
the obscure reference in the biography of Hsuan-tsang discussed
on pp. 167-169, its connection to the illustrated siitra from Khara-
khoto described on pp. 85-86, analysis of its content vis-a-vis rele-
vant Tun-huang manuscripts, and translation of the inscriptions,
precis, and labels will require more intensive investigation. Yet,
even before these tasks are carried out, we may state with confi-
dence that this "Transformation on the Siitra Spoken by the Buddha
Concerning Recompense to Parents for Their Great Kindness" is of great
significance both for the history of Chinese literature and of Chinese
art.
On 4 November 1988, less than a week before I was set to return
the corrected proofs to the publisher, Terry Kleeman called to my
attention a passage in a book he himselfhad received from China
only that very day. Entitled Wu-chiin chih [Gazetteer ofSoochow pre-
fecture] ~ID5$ (n. p.: Kiangsu-sheng ku-chi ch'u-pan-she, 1986),
this work was originally completed by the noted Sung author Fan
Ch'eng-ta ffiijl(;:*: ( 1126-1193) during the last four years of his life.
In the 30th fascicle, the first portion of which deals with Taoist
structures, we find (p. 454) the following entry:
The Belvedere of Celestial Celebration, which lies in the southwest part
of Long Islet :[lt ?JH district, was founded during the Opened Prime ~ 5[;
reign period (22 December 713-9 February 742) of the T'ang dynasty.
Before being damaged in the wars, its buildings were most spacious and
beautiful. In 1146, the Prefect Wang Huan ::E~ had two of the veran-
das rebuilt. On their walls were painted a "Transformation Tableau on
the Salvation Scripture of the Numinous Jewel [Ling-pao tu-jen ching]" 1 ml!f
!ftAif~lHI!H§. He summoned artists to work on the landscapes, human
l. For a detailed study of this important text, see Michel Strickmann, "The
Longest Taoist Scripture," History of Religions 17.1:331-354 (August 1977).
xviii
New Developments
figures, buildings, and flora. Each specialized in a particular skill and

the tasks were assigned to them accordingly. The work was exceedingly
fine.
This record is valuable for a number of reasons. First, it was writ-
ten by a person who haile.d from the time and place in question and
therefore has a high degree of reliability. Furthermore, it provides
significant details concerning the cooperative method used to com-
plete the painting. Above all, it offers clear evidence that the Taoists
had accepted transformation tableaux as a part of their own reli-
gion and that they were active in sponsoring them as late as the
Southern Sung.
xix
General Principles
The problematic word pien ~ is herein consistently translated as

"transformation." The related expressions pien-wen ~)(, pien-
hsiang ~;f§, and pien-hsien ~m are translated respectively as
"transformation text," "transformation tableau," and "trans-
formational representation or manifestation." Pien alone may mean
"transformation (performance)," "transformation (text)," or
"transformation (tableau)." Its precise signification on any given
occurrence must be determined from context. The justification for
these translations will be presented at length in several chapters of
this book, but particularly in Chapter 3. When these terms are
simply ·transcribed in this study, it usually indicates the broad or
indeterminate interpretations placed upon them by the majority
of scholars. Transcription is also used in cases of erroneous expla-
nation. Th~ translated forms are generally employed when the
narrow definitions I propose in Chapter 2 are intended.
The systems of transliteration from such languages as Uighur,
Khotanese, and Tibetan not being uniform, there are conflicting
usages in various authorities whom I cite. Where there is a pos-
sibility of confusion, I have pointed out the necessary equivalences.
Unless otherwise indicated, citations from the standard dynastic
histories are to the Kaiming (KM) edition. A list of abbreviated
r~ferences may be found before the notes.
xxi
chapter one
Tun-huang and the Manuscripts
A little more than ten miles SSE of the city of Tun-huang ~fdj[
in the northwestern Chinese province of Kansu lies the Howling
Sands Hill ~11ld:P Jll. 1 At the foot of the hill is a Monastery of the
Three Realms (Triloka) =.w~ beside which are to be found many
conglomerate rock caves called the "Grottoes of Unsurpassed
Height" (Mo-kao k'u ~ ~ /i), popularly known as the "Caves of
the Thousand Buddhas" (Ch'ien-Fo tung -=f1~WJ]). It was here that
the manuscripts that form the major focus of this study were found.
The caves were visited by Aurel Stein in May 1907 and by Paul
Pelliot in February 1908. Both men recovered from Tun-huang
thousands of manuscripts which they took back, respectively, to
the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale, where they
are now housed. These are the two most important collections of
Tun-huang manuscripts in the world. Large numbers of manu-
scripts are also to be found in Russia and China. Smaller collec-
tions are owned by libraries in Taiwan and Japan. There are, in
addition, a few scattered manuscripts held by various individuals
and institutions in other countries. 2
The full story of the discovery, removal, and dispersion of the
manuscripts from the Tun-huang cave where they were found is
an interesting and complicated series of events which requires
separate treatment. 3 For the purposes of this study, it will be neces-
sary to make only some general observations about Tun-huang and
the hoard of manuscripts found there.
In the first place, it is incorrect to say, as many often do, that
Tun-huang was an isolated provincial town in terms of its relation
to China. It was actually-in terms of its relation to the larger
world-a most cosmopolitan city. Even the name Tun-huang
(archaic *d'uan-yuang) is the transcription of a foreign word,
which has not been positively identified. The Greek equivalent

(Ptolemaios, 6.16.6) is epoava and the Sogdian *fJruwiin or
*Jruwan (Jrw "n) .4 Bailey has recently suggested that the name
may derive from Iranian druviina ("a strong, secure place; a for-
tress").5 It is possible that the reconstructed aspiration in the pre-
Han period pronunciation of the name was originally meant to
represent the "r" of the initial consonant cluster. 6
Tun-huang was a thriving international community, a bustling
crossroads of cultural and commercial interchange. 7 Contacts with
the capital in Ch'ang-an :lit:ti: were frequent, both by govern-
mental and religious personages, as well as by merchants. 8 Admin-
istratively, Tun-huang was not a commandery (chiin W) under
the T'ang but was itself a district or sub-prefecture (hsien W*) and
served also as the seat of the prefecture (chou 1'!'1) of Sha 1:'P (that
is, the "Sandy" prefecture). 9
After a visit to Tun-huang, Joseph Needham was moved to
comment thus on the wall-paintings of the Caves of the Thousand
Buddhas: "These reflect the internationalism of the period by
showing monks and lay people sometimes with brown or even red
hair, and blue or green eyes, as well as occidental features." 10 It
needs only to be added that the Tun-huang wall-paintings also re-
flect the internationalism of the place.
Many of the most renowned Buddhist translators and pilgrims
stayed in Tun-huang for significant periods of time. Fa-hsien ~~
began his journey to the Buddhist holy land at Tun-huang. And
Hsuan-tsang ~~' on his return from India, remained there while
awaiting the Emperor Hsuan-tsung's ~* orders. Dharmarak~a
~lll (c. 230-308), was born there and was known as the "Bod-
hisattva from Tun-huang." Kumarajiva spent some time at Tun-
huang before traveling on to Ch'ang-an. Buddhist monks from
Persia, Bactria, India, Sogdia, Khotan, and numerous other places
would spend a period of time in Tun-huang acclimatizing them-
selves to China before proceeding on to the capital or elsewhere in
the heartland with their manuscripts and messages.
Except for certain intervals, such as that of the Tibetan oc-
cupation,11 when communication was impeded, there was con-
stant communication between Tun-huang and the rest of China
throughout most of the period from the Han to the T'ang. Hence
there were artistic and literary influences flowing in both direc-

tions. We know, for example, of a famous cleric named Yun-pien
~~ ("Cumulous Debater," d. 951 ), who had written poems for
geisha girls in Ch'ang-an and who, at the same time, had a pro-
found effect on the type of popular lectures delivered at Tun-
huang, where some ofhis personal documents were found.l 2 We
also know that pictures of the famous pilgrimage site Five Terraces
Mountain E.!l: W13 (in northeastern Shansi) were common at
Tun-huang/ 4 which indicates that pilgrims traveled back and
forth between these two sites and elsewhere in China.
Geographically, Tun-huang is situated at the crucial point in
western Kansu where the northern and southern trade routes to
Turkestan and western Asia branch out along the sides of the
Taklamakan desert. 15 These northern and southern arms of the
Silk Route, which skirted the Tarim basin, met at the Jade Gate
Pass .:I;: r~ IUJ, not far from Tun-huang. It is no wonder that Tun-
huang has been referred to as China's "throat," for through it
poured much from outside that nourished her. The "Biography of
P'ei Chi.i" ~?E {$. in the History of the Sui, citing the preface to his
Notes on Pictures of the Western Regions, describes the geographic and
strategic situation:
Altogether there are three ways that begin at Tun-huang and reach
to the Western Ocean .... Each ofthe various countries on each of these
three ways also has its own roads for communication north and south.
The Eastern Kingdom ofWomen 16 and the Brahman kingdoms in the
south, and so forth can reach everywhere by following where these
roads lead. Thus we know that, while Hami, Karakhojo, and Navapa
(Pidjan) are all gates to the Western Regions, they all converge on
Tun-huang, which is the location of their throat. 17
As Grousset has so aptly put it in terms of the transmission of

artistic motifs and techniques, "The culminating point of all these
Central-Asiatic influences, with what they contained of Indian
traditions or, through Indian Buddhism, ofGraeco-Buddhist and
lrano-Buddhist traditions, is to be found in Tun-huang." 18 The
languages alone (Chinese, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Syriac, Uighur,
Sogdian, Khotanese, Tocharian, and so forth) of the manuscripts
found at Tun-huang are a good indication of the international
flavor of the city. Truly, Tun-huang was a great meeting place be-
tween East and West.
Japanese scholars have been particularly fascinated by Tun-
huang, not only for its romantically exotic, desert setting, but more
so because it represents to them an almost tangible point of contact
between Western and Eastern civilization, between Buddhist and
Chinese art of all types, including literature. Many Japanese look
to Tun-huang as a crucible where important elements of their own
culture were forged. 19 There is even a recent best-selling novel on
Tun-huang written by Inoue Yasushi.
Though the preservation of the manuscripts may be considered
a miracle of sorts, it is no accident that they were preserved in Tun-
huang. This was an area which had a long history of Buddhist piety
and was closer to the source of Buddhism than any other part of
China. The geographic location, an imminent Tangut invasion,
the existence of a tightly knit, pious Buddhist community willing
to collect and store away the manuscripts, and the climate, which
is ideal for the preservation of paper and silk-all these factors con-
tributed to the survival of the Tun-huang manuscripts. Thus, al-
though I shall show that transformations (pien ~)were performed
throughout China, it is understandable why written transforma-
tion texts (pien-wen ~)C) happen to have been discovered at Tun-
huang rather than somewhere else.
While the exact date of the discovery of the manuscripts may
never be known, it seems certain that they were found sometime
around the turn of the century. All the dates proposed that deserve
serious consideration fall between the early summer of 1899 and
the early summer of 1900. 20 The story21 goes that a Taoist priest
named Wang Yuan-luX: !II~, who had taken up residence at the
Grottoes of Unsurpassed Height and appointed himself their
custodian, was sweeping away the dust in cave 163 (Pelliot
number; Chang Ta-ch'ien ~:k=f no. 151; Tun-huang Research
Institute no. 16; Shih Yen [Yai] .§!: :£ no. 40 I) when he felt a draft
coming from a crack in the wall on the right side near the entrance.
Upon breaking down the wall that had been filled in with bricks,
he found the hoard of manuscripts in the adjoining room (cave no.
17 according to the Tun-huang Research Institute system). It was,
as Kanaoka Shoko has written, a veritable "mountain of waste-
paper." 22 When Stein first saw the manuscripts in situ, he was

struck by how jumbled they were. 23 This may have been due to
Taoist priest Wang's handling of them. But, from both Stein's and
Pelliot's accounts, one gains the impression that the manuscripts
had originally been hastily deposited and that Wang had left most
of them undisturbed. It would seem that they had been placed in
the cave as protection from invaders.
Just as the exact date of the discovery of the manuscripts remains
unknown, so does that of the sealing up of the cave. Most author-
ities agree, however, that the manuscripts were sealed up around
the time of the Tangut (Hsi-hsia I§J[) invasions in 1035 or 1036.24
The last dated manuscripts are from before the beginning of the
eleventh century. And, even though the Tanguts occupied Tun-
huang for many years, not a single manuscript among those dis-
covered there is written in the Hsi-hsia language. At the other end
of the scale, the earliest dated manuscript is from the year 406. 25
The digging of the caves themselves did not begin until after the
middle of the fourth century.2s
Estimates of the total number of extant Tun-huang manuscripts
range between 20,000 and 40,000. It is fruitless to attempt at this
time an accurate accounting because we still do not know the
extent and provenance of the Russian holdings. According to
Men'shikov, 27 there are between 10,000 and 12,000 Tun-huang
manuscripts in Russia which were recovered by S. F. Ol'denburg.
But this figure seems rather high and is inflated by materials from
other places in Central Asia and by the separation of individual
manuscripts into several parts. At any rate, since a complete
catalog of the Russian holdings has never been published in any
language, it is still difficult to describe their precise natu.re and
quantity. 28 And the more than 8,000 manuscripts left in China are
still inadequately cataloged. 29 The difficulty in determining the
total number of manuscripts is further compounded by the fact
that, in many instances, what was once a single scroll has somehow
become disjoined so that one portion might be in England, say, and
another in China.
For social and literary historians, the most significant manu-
scripts found at Tun-huang are not official government docu-
ments; nor are they precious scriptures (although these too were
found in great numbers). They are notes, jottings scribblings, con-

tracts, lists, some records of petty bureaucrats and records relating
to the operation of monasteries and temples, circular notices of
clubs, memoranda, copies of vernacular and classical literature,
elementary textbooks, dream-divination manuals, and the like. 30
A single scroll might be composed of various scraps of paper pasted
together and could thus include passages from sutras, memoranda,
songs, and so forth. The fact that many of the manuscripts have
to do with inconsequential matters makes them all the more im-
portant to us now because of the rare glimpse they afford of the
daily life of the common man in China during the T'ang and the
Five Dynasties periods.
Of all the invaluable materials discovered at Tun-huang, the
most deserving of study by students of popular literature are a
group that may be designated as representing the genre called
"transformation texts" (pien-wen). In the three-quarters of a cen-
tury since their discovery by Stein and Pelliot and their introduc-
tion to the scholarly world by Kano Naoki, 31 the vicissitudes of
transformation texts have been manifold. Physically they have been
dispersed throughout the world, ~hich makes it somewhat difficult
to study them as a coherent body of materials. Even more trying
than the physical separation of the manuscripts is the disconcerting
lack of consensus among students of Chinese literature about the
exact nature and significance of these texts. The chief purposes of
this book are, first, to describe the pien-wen corpus and, second, to
define the genre together with its history.
Appendix
The Szechwan Connection
The discovery at Tun-huang of a significant number oftexts32 that orig-

inated in the Szechwan area is proof that there was a developed inter-
course between these two westernmost parts of China during the T'ang
period. The partially Szechwanese orientation of Tun-huang culture can
be demonstrated by examination of certain manuscripts. For example,
one of the Vimalakfrti siitra lecture manuscripts (P2292) was ostensibly
written in Szechwan and then taken to Tun-huang. 33 And the 8th line
ofP2721, a T'ang "textbook for children," 34 asks "What are the names
of the 'three rivers' :=::.JII?" [Answer:] "The Ch'in ~JII, the Lo m- )II, and
the Shu I) Jll." To anyone familiar with traditional Chinese geography,
this must seem a rather strange answer. For China as a whole, the "three
rivers" always referred to geographical features around Sian or in Central
China. The list of three rivers given here, however, would be meaningful
only for someone primarily familiar with the Tun-huang and Szechwan
regions, for they encompass an area roughly comprising the eastern part
ofKansu, central Shensi, and the northern part of Szechwan. They con-
stitute what I would like to refer to as the cultural "catchment basin"
represented in a majority ofTun-huang manuscripts. 35
The Tun-huang story of the Taoist wizard Y eh Ching-neng is full of
references to Szechwan (T223ff.). In the "Introduction" to my Tun-huang
Popular Narratives, I discuss the Szechwan connection in some detail, par-
ticularly as it relates to the story ofWu Tzu-hsu. In T alone, Szechwan
is often mentioned (for example, T267 .11, 420.3, and 422.8).
References to Szechwan are also frequent in the random groups of
practice characters which are found scattered over the Tun-huang
manuscripts. On P2249v, for example, all in one vertical line we read
"Eulogized by Tsang-ch'uan [Tibet-Szechwan?], greatly compassionate
sramal).a [monk] ofCh'eng-tu prefecture. The Tathagata approaches."
UX;'g~lff*~¥9/ r9 f~JII ~mUIJ*~· This is followed by more practice
Appendix
at writing titles, including those of textbooks for children such as Family

*
Teachings of the Grand Duke :;t:: 0 iZ and Important Instructions for Beginning
Students !m~~~JII. A volume of the letters of "Brahmaciirin" Wang
:E~;:t is also mentioned. 36
Recognition of the Tun-huang-Szechwan region as an area of cultural
coherence may help in the solution of certain problems in the history of
art and literature. For example, it was in these two places that the earliest
surviving lyric verse (tz'u ~ii]) was created. And the resemblances between
the narrative sculpture of Ta-tsu in Szechwan and the narrative wall-
paintings of the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas merit further scrutiny.
The whole question of regional cultures in China has barely been
broached except by Eberhard for the southeast.
chapter two
The Corpus of Pien-wen and
Related Genres
Our primary task is to delimit the corpus of pien-wen. In order to

do so, we must first distinguish it from other genres of popular lit-
erature that were discovered at Tun-huang and that were current
during the T'ang period.
The chaotic state of Tun-huang literary studies is reflected in
one scholar's list1 of synonyms for pien-wen: "Buddhist cantos" (Fo-
ch'ii {.*!IE), "sung texts" (ch'ang-wen PI§)(), "prosimetric texts"
(chiang-ch' ang-wen ~PI§ 3t), "tales of conditional origins" (yuan-ch'i
~lEg), "popular lectures" (su-chiang -ili-~), "turning" or "war-
bling" (chuan .), and "singing" (ch'ang P§l.). Aside from the fact
that fewer than half of these terms can be validated as contem-
poraneous designations for T'ang literary genres of any sort, they
certainly cannot all be said to mean the same thing as pien-wen.
To use the term pien-wen in such an imprecise and inclusive way is
strictly a modern proclivity.
Another unworkably broad categorization of pien-wen main-
tains2 that "siitra lectures" (chiang-eking-wen ~m3t), "lyric texts"
(tz'u-wen ~ii])(), "tales of conditional origins" (yuan [-ch'i] ~ [lEg]),
"rhapsodies" (fu P.Jit), "notes" (chi ~[.), "talks" (hua ~\5), "ac-
counts" (chuan ~), and "story roots" (hua-pen ~/.$;) are all sub-
categories within it! Surely it defies all logic to assert that, as a
group, these terms have any other relationship than the fact that
some of them designate types of popular literature which were
found at Tun-huang and are mostly Buddhist in inspiration. This
information alone is oflittle value to the literary historian.
One of the main reasons for this terminological morass has been
the tendency of scholars to include in the pien-wen category many
The Corpus of Pien-wen and Related Genres
other genres of popular literature simply because they were dis-

covered at Tun-huang. This ignores the fact that there was a rich
variety of literary forms current at Tun-huang during the T'ang
and Five Dynasties periods. It serves no worthwhile purpose to
lump them all together under the headingpien-wen,just as it would
not make good sense to call all of the paintings from Tun-huang
pien-hsiang ~;j:§. Indeed, the termpien-wen points to an even more
specific and identifiable corpus than does pien-hsiang. 3 The chal-
lenge we face is to determine, by observation, the identifying
characteristics of pien-wen that will allow us to distinguish it from
other genres of Tun-huang popular literature. Before this is accom-
plished, and so long as the nomenclature for various Tun-huang
literary genres remains in such utter chaos, it will be impossible to
discuss their interrelationships meaningfully.
The situation in which scholars of Tun-huang literature find
themselves is one where there is not even a modicum of consensus
on the basic issue of how many extant transformation texts there
are. J en Erh-pei4 speaks of there being close .to I 00 pien-wen.
Kanaoka Shoko says that there are 100 to 130, Chou Shao-liang
127. 5 In their prefatory notes (ifut{71J, p. 1) toT (Tun-huang pien-wen
chi), the editors state that they consider Record on Researches into
Spirits 1l iii$ ~c 6 and Biographies of Filial Sons $': T- ViJ to contain basic
material for pien-wen. This implies that they hold the other 177
manuscripts collected in T under 76 titles to be, in some' sense,
pien-wen proper. One scholar has recently mentioned 7 that there
are 8,102 pien-wen in the British Museum alone! He has obviously
defined pien-wen as "any manuscript recovered from Tun-huang."
A definition of this nature allows for such undiscriminatingly
broad inclusion that it is unusable and, hence, meaningless. Until
this sort offundamental issue is clarified-whether there are 80 or
800 or 8000 pien-wen-rational discourse on the subject is well-nigh
impossible.
Probably the first scholar to declare his dissatisfaction with the
terminological morass into which pien-wen had sunk so deeply was
U mezu Jiro in 1955. 8 Although he was severely handicapped by
the paucity of published materials when he began his studies,
U mezu nonetheless managed to make a number of valuable con-
tributions to Tun-huang studies, chief among them being his in-
10
sistence that no untitled Tun-huang text should be designated

a pien-wen unless it displayed certain basic features, such as an
obvious relationship to pictures. A little more than ten years
before, Hsiang Ta, in his "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao" [An examina-
tion of the popular lectures of the T'ang period], had already dis-
tinguished the basic features of chiang-ching-wen ("siitra lectures")
and had clearly seen that pien-wen and ya-tso-wen :j:lfl 1M)( ("seat-
settling texts") should be viewed as separate entities. Unfortu-
nately, this auspicious beginning seems to have gone unheeded
during the intervening years.
More recently, however, some scholars have shown an increas-
ingly acute awareness of the problem. Among others, Chou Shao-
liang·has made a plea for clearer delineations of the various genres
of popular literature during the T'ang period. 9 He maintains, 10 for
example, that the Tun-huang story ofWu Tzu-hsu should not be
considered a pien-wen. Though his reasoning differs from my own
objections to designating that and similar texts as pien-wen, I agree
with him wholeheartedly in decrying the imprecision with which
stories are often fitted to genres. Hrdlickova, too, has noted this de-
ficiency: "Above all, it has not yet been laid down with precision
which of the large body of Tun-huang texts can really be called
pien-wen, nor has the exact and exhaustive definition of this literary
genre been so far formulated." 11
Chiang Po-ch'ien takes the extreme position that we have no
way of knowing what pien-wen means; nor do we have the informa-
tion to determine whether it was a commonly recognized term
during the T'ang and Five Dynasties periods. 12 The situation is
not quite so hopeless as that, but Chiang's cautionary attitude is
welcome in the face of the usual indulgent application of the term.
As an example of the confused state in which Tun-huang lit-
erature studies find themselves, let us examine the "Story of Catch-
Tiger Han" (S2144). Its inclusion in T and scholarly discourse in
general imply that it is a type of pien-wen. Although the manuscript
lacks any title, this story is commonly referred to as ·a hua-pen
("story root" ~~.lt~/.$:).13 This is unfortunate, first, because it
is well known that the term hua-pen is it~elf among the most problem-
atic of designations employed in the study of Chinese popular lit-
erature and, second, to the extent that calling the story in question
11
a hua-pen implies anything, it suggests a generic relationship to

the indeterminate corpus of Sung and Yuan vernacular stories that
goes by that name. This assumption is so patently suspect that it
scarcely deserves discussion. The genesis of this designation of the
Catch-Tiger Han story as a hua-pen, however, is curious. The rea-
soning behind it is actually quite transparent. At the end of the
story, we find this sentence: "Since the illustrated booklet [hom-
onymous with hua-pen] has come to an end, [the text] as well is no
longer transcribed" :l:;;fs:re€~, .:MU!\'if)~. 14 The copyist had simply
decided not to write down any more of the text because he had
reached the final illustration. The accompanying illustrations to
which he refers were most likely in a separate booklet (as they are
described in the scene from the Tale of Genji where Ukon and
Nakanokimi comfort Ukifune) 15 or, less probably, at the top of the
pages of the text from which the copyist was working. Hence there
is no authority for identifying the Tun-huang story about Catch-
Tiger Han as a pien-wen or as a hua-pen.
The carelessness with which some modern scholars have named
various works of Tun-huang literature is conspicuous in the cir-
cumstance where a piece that-except for a closing eulogy sup-
posedly composed by Hsuan-tsung 1:*-is entirely prose (the
account of Chang Ling *4r and the wizard, Yeh Ching-neng:
S6836; T216-228) has been styled a "poem." It should be obvious
that the end-title of the manuscript "Yeh Ching-neng shih" ~~
ijl§ ~ refers only to the poem that appears at the end of the tale.
The inclusion in T of the story of the wizard Yeh Ching-neng im-
plies that it too is a pien-wen, a claim impossible to substantiate.
The same is true of many other texts in T, but I shall not discuss
each individually. Our task is to establish a positive set of standards
by which to determine what can be classed as pien-wen, rather than
to reject specific texts on a case-by-case basis.
To attack this nomenclatural problem, we might begin by say-
ing that there are presently operative at least five different defini-
tions of pien-wen, which result in corpora of five different orders of
magnitude. These I shall call "the narrowest definition," "the
narrow definition," "the broad definition," "the broadest defini-
tion," and "the meaninglessly broad definition." Starting with the
last, we may say that it is a definition that embraces all manuscripts
12
discovered at Tun-huang. Without further ado, we should discard

it forever!
A "broadest definition" of pien-wen includes any and all non-
canonical, non-classical, non-documentary16 texts discovered at
Tun-huang. In short, such a definition declares that any work of
popular literature, be it prose or poetry or a combination of both,
be it narrative or descriptive or lyrical, should be considered a pien-
wen. Since there is no conceivable justification for such a defini-
tion and since adherence to it would seriously impede the scientific
study of Chinese popular literature, it should likewise be discarded.
We must exercise careful judgement in criticizing the "broad def-
inition" ofpien-wen, for many responsible scholars have subscribed
to it in the past. The broad definition ofpien-wen comprises any and
all narrative popular literature from Tun-huang even if written
entirely in verse,l 7 plus popular religious expositions such as "seat-
settling texts" (ya-tso-wen ¥¥ g[ )(), chiang-ching-wen,yuan-ch'i, and,
in some cases, "hymns" (sung~), "eulogies" (tsan ~),and suites
of "cantos" (ch'ii r!E) as well. Throughout his book of studies on
Tun-huang lyrical airs, J en Erh-pei uses the terms pien and pien-wen
loosely to apply to a variety of grouped or linked verse. Surprising-
ly,Jen's usage is quite conscious in that he is aware of the difficulties
involved: "The meaning ofpien-wen has still not been clarified. My
opinion is that there is nothing wrong with approaching the term
strictly as a literary form: 'Anything which tells a story and is com-
posed of a combination of a variety of different verse forms and
spoken language, and which is for the use of a prosimetric per-
former (chiang-ch'ang-che ~PI§:i!f) may be viewed as pien-wen."' 18 Jen
goes on to enumerate some of the many genres of Tun-huang lit-
erature that he believes fall under the rubric of pien-wen, such as
ya-tso-wen andyuan-ch'i. For Jen, pien-wen is a basic literary form
(t'i fll) and there are numerous applications (yung .ffl) of that form.
He specifically warns his readers that it would be "obviously com-
mitting the error of being too literal-minded" if the designation
pien-wen were restricted only to those pieces that contain it in their
titles. I am not entirely convinced of the danger of such literal-
mindedness, particularly when faced with the massive confusion
resulting from the uncritical attitude advocated by Jen. What is
the value of a definition of pien-wen that includes all narrative lit-
13
erature from Tun-huang, regardless of whether it is in verse, in

prose, or is a combination of the two? 19
The broad definition (or rather set of broad definitions) is one
which normally results in a corpus of between 60 and 135 texts. 20
The fact that the lower and upper limits of this definition differ
so widely renders it suspect and, in the long run, unsatisfactory
for studies in Chinese popular literature. One thing must be rec-
ognized in regard to the broad definition of pien-wen: While it has
a certain limited application as a tool for literary analysis, it is
purely a modern scholarly convention that has no relationship
whatsoever to actual T'ang and Five Dynasties usage.
A narrow definition of pien-wen, which I hold ultimately to be
the only truly workable one, is arrived at by an attempt to under-
stand what contemporary users of the term meant by it.
The narrow definition, the content of which I shall give detailed
specifications for in the remainder of this chapter and in the follow-
ing chapter, results in a corpus ofless than 20 extant pien-wen manu-
scripts.21 The majority of these texts are specifically entitled pien or
pien-wen on the manuscripts. 22 A few others are included because
they share certain recognizable formal characteristics with the
majority of titled pien and pien-wen. There are several literary pieces
from Tun-huang that have the word pien in their titles but that do
not share the set of formal characteristics. A "narrowest definition"
of pien-wen would exclude these pieces. A more tolerant, yet still
narrow, definition would include them-but no others unless the
word pien occurs in their titles.
Of all the Tun-huang popular literary texts, none more clearly
qualifies as a pien-wen than that relating Mahamaudgalyayana's
rescue of his mother from the dark regions (hell). This is a text for
which there exist multiple related copies, most of which include
titles specifying the work as a pien-wen. The following is a list of the
relevant manuscripts and titles:
82614 Ta-mu-ch'ien-lien ming-chien chiu-mu pien-wen ping t'u i chiian ping

hsii *§ ljil;.if~rl3,;flcffl:~3tf!:ll!-~j:f:lf (head title) 23
Ta-mu-chien-lienpien-wenichiian 7c §!fl.if~)(-~ (end title).
P31 07 Ta-mu-ch'ien-lien ming-chien chiu-mu pien-wen i chiian ping hsu
*§ ljil;.if~rl3,;flcffl:~)(-~j:f:lf (head title).
14
P2319 Ta-mu-ch'ien-lien ming-chien chiu-mu pien-wen i chiian 7;: 13 fz; ~

~ri3,;J&ffl:~3t-~(head title).
Ta-mu-chien-lien pien-wen i chiian 7;: 13 !fl ~ ~ 3t- ~ (end
title).
P3485 Mu-lien pien-wen 13 ~~)( (head title).
PK876 Ta-mu-chien-lien pien-wen i chiian 7;: 13 !tl ~~ 3t- ~ (end
title).
It would be incorrect to refer to the account of Maudgalyayana

on PK2496 (T756-759; T 8 735-738) as a transformation text in
the narrow sense since it lacks the characteristic verse-introductory
formula 24 and, in many respects, more nearly resembles the anom-
alous "Eight Aspects pien" (PK3024) and "Destruction of the
Transformations ofDemons" (P2187). 25
Careful examination of these transformation texts on Maud-
galyayana reveals certain specific and consistently employed iden-
tifying characteristics. Chief among these are: a unique verse-
introductory (or pre-verse) formula, an episodic narrative progres-
sion, homogeneity oflanguage, an implicit or explicit relationship
to illustrations, and prosimetric structure. I shall discuss each of
these identifying characteristics at greater length in succeeding
chapters.
S5437 and a Peking University Library manuscript formerly be-
longing to Shao Hsun-mei B~ra-J~ both have as their head titles
"Transformation on the Han General Wang Ling" l'ilm-~~~.
The same title also occurs on the covers of the booklet P3627
(= P3867). P3627 .2 further has the following colophon: "Trans-
formation on Wang Ling [and His Role in] the Destruction ofCh'u
and the Rise of the Han [Dynasty] in th~ 8th Year of the Han, One
Layout. Inscribed by the Recording Officer Yen Wu-ch'eng 26
on the 16th day of the 8th month of the 4th year of the Heavenly
Blessing reign period [I October 939]." ~/\~~~H~l'i~:E~~
~. ::=Rwlii~ZB~/\JJ +~ 13 :fL § '§'~!lo/.JJ1l<:%Hc. The text includes the
verse-introductory formula ..
Another straightforward example is the account of the subduing
of demons (S5511 and the copy formerly in Hu Shih's possession
[originally a single manuscript]). It has the characteristic pro-
gression of the narrative, the ratio of prose to verse, the verse-
15
introductory formula, language, and so forth. Both the head title

and the end title read Hsiang-mo pien-wen i chiian ~[1~)(-:ft, but
the head title on S4398v reads Hsiang-mo pien i chiian ~II~- :ft,
which indicates that pien and pien-wen are interchangeable with
regard to written transformation texts. 27 Giles says28 that the title
on S4398v does not seem to relate to what follows. This is because
it includes only the introductory section of the text, and it is not
apparent from this section of the text what the main theme of the
story will be.
Although the Tun-huang prosimetric narrative ofWang Chao-
chiin .:E~;g- (P2553) lacks both head and end titles, it shares the
formal characteristics described above. Not only is its language
and proportion of prose to verse in perfect accord with certain texts
that bear contemporaneous titles or colophons identifying them as
pien-wen; it also has the verse-introductory formula (Tl00.15 incor-
rectly gives ~tf~; the manuscript reads ~tf~!l*Wt). But even
more revealing is the clear reference (Tl00.12) to the setting up
of more than one scroll (presumably ofillustrations) to accompany
the reading of the text. J:::ft.:tz:.~~. !lt.A r:ft. The "first scroll"
and the "second scroll" here cannot refer to the literary text itself,
which is manifestly on a singl~ scroll. And p'u ~'of course, is a com-
mon designation for a "layout" of a picture or a series ofpictures.
We can also deduce from this notation that the first picture scroll
referred to probably had more than one scene on it, since there
is more than one episode preceding this point in the text. Five
episodes follow the notation without mention of another picture
scroll, so we may assume that the second layout had at least five
scenes. Incidentally, the use of pictures here is not proof that the
text was meant for performance rather than private reading. We
know from the Gerlji monogatari scroll that there were separate pic-
ture books to accompany the reading ofwritten texts. The refer-
ence to illustrations can also be construed as part of the overall
attempt to provide a simulated context for the reader. 29
The Tun-huang story about Li Ling $~ kept in the Peking
Library, while it lacks a title, may confidently be referred to as a
pien-wen because of its similarity in language and, particularly, in
form to the majority of texts that bear that designation in titles or
colophons on the manuscript. The stories of Chang 1-ch'ao 5JUJ!j1l?Jl
16
(P2962) and Chang Huai-shen ~?'fi* (P3451) also fall into this
category.
The following group of pien-wen satisfy the narrowest definition
ofthe term:
1. "Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyayana's Rescue of His

Mother from the Dark Regions." 82614-Inventory 296 (here, and in
subsequent lists of manuscripts, the Inventory numbers follow the
hyphens), P3107-84, P2319-18, P3485-129, PK876-555, P4988v-
223, 83704-319, PK3789-563, PK4085-565. T714-744; r685-716.
The ultimate source for this transformation is Siitra of the Sacrificial
Feast for Hungry Ghosts Spoken by the Buddha 1~ ~~Mit@, of which the
authenticity is questioned. That is to say, it is presumably a "forged"
text that was not translated from an Indian source. Iwamoto Yutaka's
studies of this siitra show that it may have Central Asian antecedents.
The transformation text relates how young Mu-lien (Maudgal-
yayana) goes on a business trip. Not long after his return, his mother
passes away. After the customary three years of filial observations,
Mu-lien becomes a Buddhist monk. Having through religious prac-
tice achieved the fruits of arhatship (sainthood) and relying on the
Buddha's supernatural power, Mu-lien is able to go to heaven to see
his deceased father. But, when he asks his mother's whereabouts, he
discovers that she has been sent to hell for her greed and disrespect
shown to monks while she was alive.
Again relying on the Buddha's power, Mu-lien carries out an exten-
sive search for his mother in hell. After witnessing many grisly spec-
tacles of torture and suffering while bravely confronting various ogres
and monsters who act as wardens in the underworld, Mu-lien locates
his mother in the Avid hell. Though he knows that his mother is being
held in this most forbidding part of hell, it is impossible for him to see
her at once because the gates are securely closed to mere mortals.
Yet again, Mu-lien returns to the Buddha for assistance. He is given
a staff with which he is able to smash open the doors of the Avid hell.
Once inside, he systematically proceeds from cell to cell in search of his
mother. It is only when he reaches the seventh cell that he finally is
able to find her and witness the terrible suffering she is undergoing.
Deeply troubled, he offers to endure the punishment for his mother,
but this is not permitted by the chthonian authorities.
Once again, he beseeches the Buddha, whereupon the latter per-
sonally intercedes to obtain the release of all who have been consigned
17
to hell. However, because the sinful karmic burden ofMu-Iien's mother

is too great, she becomes a hungry ghost. Mu-Iien goes to Rajagrha to
beg for food. When he gives the food to his mother, her avarice causes
it to burst into flames as she is about to eat it. The same happens when
her son tries to help quench her thirst with water from the Ganges.
Mu-Iien returns to the Buddha one more time for help. He is advised
to stand before a stiipa in the city of Rajagrha on the I 5th day of the
7th month and to make an offering to the souls ofhungry ghosts. Only
then will their hunger be temporarily quelled. Mu-Iien obediently fol-
lows the Buddha's instructions but is still disappointed when he at-
tempts to make contact with his mother after she has eaten the sacri-
ficial food for hungry ghosts.
For the last time, Mu-lien goes back to the Buddha and is told that
his mother has been transformed into a black dog in Rajagrha. The
only way he can be reunited with her is to stand before a certain stiipa
in that city while reciting siitras for seven days and seven nights. This
he does, whereupon his mother finally is turned back into a human
being and is ultimately enabled to attain the joys of heaven.
2. "Transformation Text on the Subjugation ofDemons." S55 I I -375
and 593, S4398v-339, P4524-207. T361-389; T 3 ll3-141.
This transformation text describes the contest of supernatural
powers between Sariputra and Raudrak~a, the foremost of the six
heretical masters. It is based on a story from the lOth fascicle of the Siitra
qf the Wise and the Foolish i'£ ~ ~, which was compiled by Chinese monks
from materials gathered in Khotan.
There is a great Indian kingdom called Sravasti whose minister,
Sudatta, does not believe in the three jewels of Buddhism. He has an
unmarried son for whom he has dispatched an emissary to find a suit-
able match in another country. The emissary comes to a place where
he finds Ananda, a disciple of the Buddha, begging for food.Just at that
moment, a beautiful girl darts out of the house before which Andanda
is begging and bows respectfully to him. The emissary inquires of
the neighbors and is informed that she is the daughter of the Prime
Minister, Humi.
Later, when Sudatta himself returns to arrange the marriage, he
realizes through his acquaintance with Humi, who is a devout be-
liever, the sublime power of the Buddha. The Buddha has his disciple,
Sariputra, return to Sravasti with Sudatta. His instructions are to con-
struct a monastery there so that the Buddha might come to preach the
law.
18
Sariputra and Sudatta search diligently for a suitable site but are
unsuccessful until one day they journey to the south of the city and
come upon an extraordinarily pure and quiet location. Unfortunately,
the land belongs to the Heir Apparent. Sudatta goes to the Heir Ap-
parent and asks him to sell the land. The latter is unwilling to part with
such a premium property, but Sudatta tricks him into selling it by con-
vincing him that the area is haunted. The Prince agrees to complete
the transaction on condition that the buyer cover the entire ground
with gold. Sudatta presents himself as the buyer and, after a certain
amount of wrangling, so impresses the Crown Prince with his devotion
that the latter actually helps him to decorate the garden.
On their return from the garden, Sudatta and the Prince encounter
the six (heretical-to the Buddhists) masters. They are upset that the
Crown Prince has fallen under the influence of the Buddhists and com-
plain to the King of Sudatta's role in what they see as a plot against
the realm. The King has Sudatta and the Crown Prince brought be-
fore him. Sudatta takes advantage of the opportunity to praise the
Buddha, whereupon the King asks him whether the Buddha is a match
for the six masters? Sudatta replies that even the least of the Buddha's
disciples can stand up to them.
The King then authorizes a contest of magical powers between
Saripu tra and Raudrak~a, the chief of the six masters, declaring that
Sudatta will forfeit his life if Raudrak~a wins. But if Sariputra wins,
the King avers that he will convert to Buddhism. This sets the stage
for the exciting and vividly described contest between Sariputra and
Raudrak~a.
After half a dozen of his best creations are destroyed by Sariputra's
transformational manifestations, Raudrak~a admits defeat. The story
ends happily with everyone, including the six masters, acquiescing in
the superiority of the Buddha's power.
3. "Transformation on the Han General, Wang Ling." S5437-367,

P3627 (P3667)-147, Inventory 590 and 599. T36-47; r875-886.
The basis for this tale is a brief account of approximately 80 tetra-

graphs taken from the biography of Wang Ling in fascicle 40 of the
History qfthe Han Dynasty (Han shu, 40.460b). The author of the trans-
formation text has expanded this into a story that is approximately fifty
times the length of the original.
The transformation text relates how the Ch'u armies of Hsiang Yii
JJ:~ have repeatedly defeated the Han armies ofLiu Pang ~U#l:l. Two
19
adherents of Liu Pang, Wang Ling and Kuan Ying tf!~, request
permission to make a surprise attack on the enemy camp. This they
do with a small party under cover of night and succeed in killing
50,000 of the Ch'u troops and wounding 200,000. Hsiang Yii is enraged
and asks his advisers to come up with a plan for retaliation. He adopts
the proposal of Chung-li Mo fl!Uillt*, which is to go to Wang Ling's
hometown ofTea City (Ch'a-ch'eng) ~:!lit in Sui-chou ~1H to arrest
Wang Ling and, ifhe cannot be found there, to bring back his mother.
Wang Ling's mother is thus brought to the Ch'u encampment where
Hsiang Yii orders her to summon her son, but she refuses. She is then
tortured. In the meantime, Liu Pang wishes to send a dispatch to
Hsiang Yii, partly out of curiosity to learn Hsiang Yii's reaction to the
surprise attack of Wan~ Ling and Kuan Ying. A clever messenger by
the name ofLu Wan 1/iif takes the dispatch to the Ch'u encampment
and discovers that Wang Ling's mother is being held there. When he
returns to the Han encampment, he reports this to Liu Pang who, in
turn, informs Wang Ling. Wang Ling requests that Lu Wan be per-
mitted to go back with him to the Ch'u camp to seek the release of his
mother.
Upon reaching the dividing line between the two armies, Wang Ling
has Lu Wan enter the Ch'u camp first by himself. When Wang Ling's
mother hears that Lu Wan has returned, she is afraid Wang Ling will
soon come too. So she falsely promises to write a letter summoning her
son. This delights Hsiang Yii and he lends her his sword when she asks
for it. She does this under the pretense of wanting to cut off a lock of
her hair to enclose in the letter to her son, supposedly to make it more
convincing. Once she gets her hand on the sword, she commits suicide
in order to strengthen her son's resolve to serve the Han ruler.
Lu Wan reports the sad news of his mother's death to Wang Ling,
who is naturally deeply saddened. When Liu Pang learns of the right-
eous death ofWang Ling's mother, he orders that elaborate sacrifices
be carried out to honor her.
4. [Transformation Text on Wang Chao-chiin]. P2553-30. T98-107;
r9Il-920.
This is a version of a very popular legend with a basis in history (His-
tory of the Han Dynasry, 9.313c). The sorrowful tale ofWang Chao-chiin
was often recounted in poem, story, and drama both before and after
the time when the pien-wen was written. The pien-wen version occupies
an important place in the development of the tale from legendary his-
torical accounts to Yuan and Ming dramatic renditions.
20
The first scroll of this pien-wen relates how the heroine is married off
to a Hunnish chieftain as part of a deal to buy peace. Though the chief-
tain is attentive to her and does everything he can think of to make
her happy, she pines for her homeland.
The second scroll tells how the chieftain, upon seeing Chao-chiin
continually in tears, suggests that she go hunting with him. She ascends
a mountain and, as she gazes into the distance, naturally thinks of
home. Thereupon she falls prey to an illness from which she is unable
to recover. She enjoins the chieftain to report her death to the ruler of
China. The chieftain does so and buries her in great splendor.
5. [Transformation Text on Li Ling]. Inventory 587. T85-96, r893-

904.
This story ultimately derives from the well-known historical ac-

counts in the Records of the Grand Historian (Shih-chi ~~c), 109.243d and
History of the Han Dynasty. 54.49c-492b. Li Ling's captivity among the
Huns was a favorite topic of Tun-huang authors and was written up
in other forms beside the transformation text (for example, T848-850).
Against insuperable odds and after the most dogged resistance, Li
Ling is forced to surrender to the Huns. When he realizes there is no
more hope, Li Ling tells his remaining subordinates to return to China.
They are to report to the Emperor and to his mother that he did his
best, that he remains loyal, and that the "barbarian ants" should be
guarded against. He himselfis too ashamed to face his ruler. His fol-
lowers argue that there is nothing shameful in having been defeated
by a force twenty times the size of his own, especially when his pro-
visions and weapons have been exhausted. Furthermore, he has been
beaten only after having killed an enormous number of the Huns. But
Li Ling cannot be convinced; he finds it impossible to stand before the
Emperor. Burying his valuables and insignia so that they will not fall
into the hands of the enemy, he swears that he has not been disloyal
to the Chinese ruler.
The foe arrives and Li Ling is escorted to the chieftain's tent. Now
that he no longer has any heart to serve the Han Emperor, Li Ling de-
clares that he is willing to shift his allegiance. The chieftain upbraids
him for the incursions he has made and mentions the intransigence of
Su Wu J.*Ji;t, who has been sent off to a remote place to herd sheep.
The chieftain briefly recounts the history of the relationship between
the Chinese and his people. In this passage and elsewhere in the text,
the author anachronistically includes elements drawn from T'ang ex-
21
perience with the Eastern Turks. In obsequious terms, Li Ling throws

himself upon the mercy of the Hunnish chieftain and offers to serve
him. The chieftain is impressed with his peculiar combination ofhumil-
ity and bravery and awards him an official position among his advisers
and outfits him with a complete set of Hunnish clothing.
Of the 1,000 survivors from Li Ling's army, 400 make it back to the
Han court. The Emperor correctly surmises that Li Ling has been cap-
tured. He calls before him the historian Ssu-ma Ch'ien 1§1] .~ ~ and Li
Ling's wife and aged mother. He orders Ssu-ma Ch'ien to determine
from the color of the wife's and mother's faces whether Li Ling is alive
or dead. Having completed his physiognomical examination, Ssu-ma
Ch'ien declares that there is no aura of death on their faces and hence
that Li Ling is alive "among the barbarians." The Emperor is outraged
that a general of his would surrender to Huns and orders the execution
ofLi Ling's mother and wife. Recalling the illustrious contributions of
Li Ling's grandfather, Li Kuang * !J{, in fighting the Huns, Ssu-ma
Ch'ien begs the Emperor for clemency and offers himself as surety. The
Emperor thereupon releases the wife and mother.
The next year, China sends a force of 50,000 men under Kung-sun
Ao ~f*;IJ;( to seek the release ofLi Ling and Su Wu. Among Kung-sun
Ao's aides is a genyral by the name ofLi Hsu *~who had once been
defeated by the Huns and instructed them m tactics. The results are
devastating for Kung-sun Ao, whose forces are decimated by the skill-
ful Hun attack. The Chinese commander asks who is now in charge of
tactics in the Hun armies and Li Hsu declares that it is none other than
Li Ling. When Kung-sun reports to the Emperor this excuse for his
own failure, the Emperor is extremely angry. He has Ssu-ma Ch'ien
castrated and Li Ling's wife and mother suffer a bloody execution in
the horse-market. The sun and moon dim their light while branches
of trees snap and break in sympathy over this injustice.
The following year, an embassy led by Wang Chin-ch'ao ±~iji)j is
sent to the Huns to determine whether Li Ling is still alive. When Li
Ling receives a letter from Wang Chin-ch'ao that confirms the rumors
of his mother's death, he is grief-stricken. In a meeting with Wang
Chin-ch'ao, he insists that, though he has surrendered to the Huns,
in his heart he is still loyal to the Han Emperor. Wang Chin-ch'ao is
understanding, but can do nothing to assuage Li Ling's distress. Li
Ling reiterates that he surrendered against his will and that it was
always his intention to return to China. The transformation text ends
with Li Ling's ringing declaration that the Emperor has been unfair
to him. 30
22
6. [Transformation Text on Chang 1-ch'ao]. P2962-70. Tll4-117,

r931-936.
A contemporaneous tale of a local hero, this fragmentary account
relates the expulsion of the Tibetans from the area around Tun-huang.
An outstanding feature of this text is the vivid portrayal of the
battle scenes. The long pursuit of the fleeing Tibetan soldiers and the
triumphal return to Tun-huang of Chang 1-ch'ao's army are effec-
tively described. Another episode describes the punishment in the 1Oth
month of856 by Chang I-ch'ao ofbands ofUighurs and Tuyughuns
who had been marauding in !-chou ffl"1+1. The final episode of the frag~
ment details the disruption by dissident Uighurs of the attempted
investiture of a presumably friendly chieftain by a mission from the
T'ang court. A straggler from the mission reports this to Chang I-ch'ao
and he prepares to set out in pursuit of the offenders. Before he does
so, however, news comes on the 5th day of the 8th month in the year
857 that Uighurs have again attacked !-chou. The text breaks off at
this point.
7. [Transformation Text on Chang Huai-shen.] P3451-126. Tl21-
127; r941-947.
Another contemporaneous tale of a local hero, this fragmentary ac-
count relates the achievements of Chang Huai-shen, the nephew of
Chang I-ch'ao and his successor as leader of the "Returning-to-Righ-
teousness Army." Like the Chang I-ch'ao transformation text, it too
emphasizes the fighting spirit of the Chinese troops and their valor in
battle.
The tale begins by relating Chang Huai-shen's accomplishments in
subduing various Tibetan and Uighur groups in the vicinity of Tun-
huang. The Emperor is so impressed with Chang Huai-shen's contri-
butions to the enlargement of Chinese influence that he sends a mis-
sion of nine messengers, including three officials of relatively high
rank, to thank him for his services. When Chang Huai-shen reads the
Emperor's congratulatory letter, he faces east (toward the capital) and
weeps with gratitude. Together with the emissaries from the capital,
Chang Huai-shen worships an image of Hsuan-tsung ~* (r. 712-
756). Though Tun-huang has been cut off from the heartland for more
than a hundred years, the local Chinese authorities have kept this
portrait as evidence of their loyalty. The emissaries are deeply moved
by this evidence of the persistence of Chinese civilization amidst a sea
of "barbarians."
23
After several days of banqueting and celebrating, the mission must

return to the capital. But no sooner have the emissaries left the area
than the Uighurs revolt. Like ants, they have gathered by the shores
of a lake to the west ofTun-huang called West Paulownia (also men-
tioned as the site of a military encounter in the Chang I-ch'ao trans-
formation text) and Chang Huai-shen suspects they are getting ready
to wreak havoc on the Chinese. He decides to take swift and decisive
military action to forestall any such eventuality. After his crack troops
inflict much carnage upon the Uighurs, Chang Huai-shen returns
triumphantly to Tun-huang. The text ends with a panegyric recount-
ing of Chang Huai-shen's role in reopening the Kansu corridor to
Chinese influence.
Among those texts that include the word pien in their titles but
do not share the formal characteristics of the above works is the
"CausaP 1 Transformation on a Maiden in the Women's 32 Palace
of King Bimbisara [Named] 'Intends to Create Merit' Who Is
Reborn in Heaven for Having Given Her Support to a Stiipa."
i)iJ{!§U:b ,v.m :£5'8** :tn;JJ ~ ~~~:!; 1: 7Z 12§~ ~- The text presen-
ted by the T editors on T764-769 is actually a composite work.
The title and the first third of the account are from S349l v- 314
(the middle third is missing) and the last third is from P305l-79.
There are several curious features of this text which require men-
tion. First, it begins with the same "seat-settling text" as another
text in the same category, the "Destruction of the Transformations
ofDemons'' (P218 7-ll, T344-345 b). Second, the title is repeated
in abbreviated form, after the "seat-settling text" and a brief prose
bridge in praise of the reigning authorities, as "The Occasion 33 of
'Intends to Create Merit' Being Reborn in Heaven for Having
Given Her Support to a Stiipa" :;1)~~~~:!;1:7(~ without any
mention of pien or pien-wen. (Com pare the Huan-hsi kuo-wang yuan
discussed below.) Third, the distinctive verse-introductory for-
mula occurs only once (T767.12). Fourth, the verse in the first
third is a combination of hexasyllabic and heptasyllabic lines,
while that in the final third is a combination of pentasyllabic and
heptasyllabic lines (typical of the majority of pien-wen according
to a narrow definition). Fifth, the first part bears fewer vestigial
marks of descent from oral narrative than does the final part. On
the basis of all these features, I would refer to this work-certainly
24
as assembled by the T editors-as a "mixed" or "hybrid" trans-

formation text. Even the final one-third (from P3051) does not
share all of the formal characteristics.
Except for two short poems, 34 the Tun-huang story of the ex-
treme filial piety of the legendary Shun as a boy is written en-
tirely in prose. Unless one assumes that the verse has simply been
omitted, 35 this poses problems for a definition of pien or pien-wen
that specifies the prosimetric form as an essential characteristic.
The two manuscripts, S4654-354 and P2721-52, respectively,
have a head title and an end title which identify the story as Shun-
tzu pien i chiian ~ -T ~ -1{i and Shun-tzu chih-hsiao pien-wen i chiian
~-T3?:*=~)C-1{i. The text also lacks the pre-verse formula and
any other implicit or ostensible references to illustrations. The
language and style resemble less those of the majority of works I
have been considering than they do those of the wholly prose nar-
ratives such as the story ofCh'iu Hu f1\'M and Hui-yuan ~~(this
latter is simply designated on the manuscript [S2073-283] as a
"Tal~ [hua] of the Honorable [Hui-]yuan ofLu Mountain" ill/illl
~1}~15). 36 The Shun-tzu text differs so radically from the first
group ofpien-wen, in fact, that we are tempted to declare either that
it constitutes a case of mislabeling or that it represents a loose usage
of the term. 37
On both P3645-150 and S5547-382, the story of the Crown
Prince of the Liu house during the Former Han dynasty carries the
actual head title 1W~~U%'C::k-Tf!J. This title also occurs later on
P3645. 38 The designation as chuan fiJ seems proper, since this is a
wholly prose account of certain events surrounding the fall of the
Western Han dynasty at the hands ofWang Mang ::Ejf. Yet, after
several marginally related anecdotes, 39 an end title40 is given on
P3645 (~U%'C::k-T~-5fi) which identifies it as apien. Here, too, we
are dealing with an apparently loose application of the term. 41
Another text of this type deals with the eight aspects 42 of the
Buddha's life. On the back of PK3024-560 (the text occurs on
the front and in a seemingly different hand) are written the three
characters pa-hsiang pien /\ ;f§ ~. In spite of the reassurances of the
T editors (T342n 1), I am suspicious of the authenticity of such
titles written alone on the backs ofscrolls. 43 1t should be noted that
the author himself, in a discussion of the title ofhis work, does not
25
refer to it as apien (T342.5). The rather cryptic reference reads as

follows: "I have just44 spoken to you the 'Eight Manifestations of
the Tathagata' ~0*/\ffi 45 but could not exhaust its sources during
the 3rd month46 of autumn. Roughly according to the title, I have
revealed the subject and set forth its main points." The remainder
of the writing on the manuscript is a clear reference to a partic-
ular session at which this text was delivered (the sun is setting in
the west, the good audience has been seated for a long time, and
so forth). Even assuming that the three characters on the verso
are actually contemporaneous with the text on the recto, we can
only say that this text represents an unusual variant of the pien
genre. Like the abbreviated Maudgalyayana transformation text
(P2319), it frequently resorts to the formula "and so on and so
forth" 75;75;. It is also prosimetric, but the verse portions give
the impression of being greatly shortened. The usual verse-
introductory formula in this text is "At that time, what words did
he say?" '&~ Z.ffiJ, ill filJ ~ ~' or the temporal phrase alone. This
indicates an affinity with avadiina and nidiina47 rather than the first
list of pien-wen.
Similar to the so-called "Eight Aspects pien" on PK3024 is the
"Destruction of the Transformations ofDemons" Iii*. M~ -1{!; (end
title) on P2187-ll. Its head title reads "Seat-Settling Text for the
Defeat of the Transformations of Demons" ~-~ 48 :jlflg[j(. We
may discount the significance of the head title at once because
it refers only to the opening section and not to the main text. 49
Though the verse is not so compressed, it too occasionally invokes
the formula for abbreviation 75;75;. Likewise, its usual verse intro-
ductory formula is "At that time, what words did he say?." or varia-
tions thereof. A most intriguing feature of this work is that it is a
veritable hybrid combining the dramatic and narrative modes. On
the one hand, we frequently encounter such tags as "the damsel"
and "the Buddha" followed by direct discourse (usually in verse),
as though this text were meant to serve as the script of a play. On
the other hand, the voice of the storyteller persona is prominent
in the prose sections. 50
It would appear that, thus far in our examination of the pien-wen
corpus, we are dealing with two separate groups of texts. The first
group of 7 texts (20 manuscripts) fits a tighter or narrower clef-
26
inition which includes the following elements: a specific verse-

introductory formula, a connection with picture storytelling, 51
prosimetric form, heptasyllabic verse, vernacular language, and so
forth. About half of the 20 manuscripts in this group bear titles that
identify these stories as pien or pien-wen. In the second group of 5
texts (8 manuscripts), each lacks one or more of the above ele-
ments. At the same time, at least one manuscript for each of the
5 texts is designated as a pien or pien-wen, although most of. these
designations are questionable owing to their placement on the
manuscript, the fact that there are alternative titles, or for some
other reason. The first, larger group is coherent and distinctive;
the second, smaller group consists of texts that share no common
features aside from being labeled (albeit problematically) as pien
or pien-wen. Given these circumstances and the limited data avail-
able to us, it would seem that the safest procedure is to accept the
narrow set of criteria that applies to the first group as constituting
an operating definition for transformation texts. Even though it may
be argued that the term pien-wen also applies a bit more widely for
one reason or another, the narrow definition is a useful working
tool for purpose of description and analysis.
We may now turn to examine a number of other texts that have
been mistakenly identified as pien-wen, if we follow this operating
definition. The Tun-huang version of the Tung Yung j[?k story
(S2204) is written almost52 entirely in heptasyllabic verse. The T
editors suggest (Tll3n I) that, because of the strangely disjointed
nature (see, for example, Tlll.2-3) of the text, the prose sections
have been omitted from what may have originally been a prosi-
metric narrative. The language is also comparable to the verse por-
tions of the works that fit the operating definition. However, since
the manuscript shows on connection with and makes no reference
(implicit or otherwise) to pictures, it cannot-as it now stands-
properly be called a pien-wen.
The lack of the characteristic verse-introductory formula, the
occasional employment of verse other than heptasyllabic, the rel-
atively more polished style, the higher proportion of prose (for
example, Tl7.1-19.5 and the long section from T25.5 to the end),
and the comparatively frequent literary allusions (see the annota-
tions to my translation in Tun-huang Popular Narratives) all dis-
27
bar the Tun-huang story ofWu Tzu-hsu (P3213-l 00, S6331-428,

S328-241, and P2794-56) from qualification as a pien-wen53 ac-
cording to our working definition.
The Tun-huang prosimetric story ofMeng Chiang-nii ~~:tz"
(P5039-231), which lacks both head and end titles, in diction, style,
form, and tone is similar to the Wu Tzu-hsu story. It should not,
by any narrow definition ofthe genre, be referred to as apien-wen.
The story of the apprehension of Chi Pu 2f:i(p for his tirade
against Liu Pang ~U113, which the T editors label (T51.1) a chuan-
wen fJJ )(, should probably better be referred to as a "lyric text"
(tz'u-wen ~jij)Z:). The basis for the T editors' designation-although
they nowhere specify this-is probably S5441-370, which carries
the head title "Text of the Story of the Capture of Chi Pu in One
Scroll" ~2f:i(pfJJ)Z: -~. S5439-368 is a booklet with the end titles
"Song of Chi Pu in One Scroll" 2f;i(pl[X-~ and "Song ofChi Pu"
2f:;(pl[X. This alone makes clear that it is a song and not a prosi-
metric narrative. The contemporary designation applied to it on
several ofthe manuscripts (S2056v-282 [head title], P3386-118
[end title], P3697-157 [subtitle], and so forth; cf. T51.2 and 71.5)
is tz'u-wen. The author actually refers to himself as a "lyricist" (tz'u-
jen ~ji} A) at the end of the piece (T71.3). Given these contemporary
references to the work as belonging to the genre of tz'u-wen, plus
the fact that it is written entirely in verse (virtually54 all heptasyl-
labic), there is little justification for designating it as apien-wen.
Other texts that have been misrepresented as pien-wen are: the
brief story of the Crown Prince's attainment of the Way on P3496-
132 and PK8579-585 (primarily in verse with prose headings be-
ginning "at that time" used to introduce the giithiis [see T317-
318]), and different portions of the same story on S4480v-345,
S4128-330, S4633-352, S3096 (all entirely in prose, see T320ff); 55
PK833 (T761-762), an incredibly powerful expression ofpurga-
torial regret for misdeeds while living in which a preta ("hungry
ghost") flogs its own corpse; the fragmentary text on P3128-87 that
is unmistakably related both to the class of texts that use the for-
mula "What words did he say?" (see T814.10 and 815.1: ~tl~
"i§ ~ill) and that ends with the lecturer exhorting his auditors to
"come back early to listen the next morning when they hear the
bell"; a fragmentary Taoistic piece on sickness and death (S4327-
28
337; T817); and a piece, wholly in prose, about a monk named

Shan-hui (~/! Sadhumati [?]) (S3050-308; T819-820). 56
There are also several other Tun-huang genres that have been
confused withpien-wen. The most important is that ofsiitra lectures
(chiang-ching-wen ~~)().I have argued elsewhere57 on the neces-
sity of and means for separating these two genres. Neither should
be considered a subdivision of the other. Not only do they have
strikingly different forms; their social and performance contexts
are quite dissimilar.
The characteristics of the Tun-huang popular religious literary
. genre known as yuan-ch'i are determinable because at least one
manuscript (P2193-12) exists with this designation in the title, the
Maudgalyiiyanayuan-ch'i § ~!IH~ Jrn. It is more overtly moralistic than
pien-wen and lacks the verse-introductory formula. Su Ying-hui
states58 that pien-wen are amplifications of yuan-ch'i but offers no
evidence to support this claim. Yuan-ch'i means "(tale of) condi-
tional origin," "conditional causation," "co-dependent origina-
tion," or "conditioned co-arising." The Chinese expression derives
from Sanskrit pratztya-samutpanna, pratztya-samutpiida, pratyayaud-
bhava, and so forth. As literary genres, these texts are more prop-
erly referred to as avadiina and nidiina. 59
From the ending of the "Maudgalyayana Nidiina" (P2193), we
know that this type of popular religious narrative was presented
on the day before a siitra lecture:
Today I've proclaimed for you this matter,

Come early tomorrow morning to hear the real siitra. 60
This interpretation is reinforced by the ending of another, untitled,

avadiina or nidiina:
Stand before the steps with your palms joined together and take
a giitha,
Tomorrow when you hear the bell, come early to listen. 61
What the preacher might say the next morning during the reading
of the seat-settling text and before the actual siitra lecture is some-
thing like this:
29
This morning I intend to speak on this profound sutra;

I only wish that compassion will visit us here,
So that the sins of the audience who listen to the sutra will be
wiped clean. 62
Similar to theyuan-ch'i but more like certain siitra lectures than
like pien-wen is a text designated on the manuscript (split into a
fragment formerly owned by Lo Chen-yii and P3375v-ll5) as a
yuan ("occasion," pratyaya). This is the "Nidiina on the King of
Abhirati" ik!=l~lEE~ (end title, T780.14). It is noteworthy that
the same musical notations that mark the verse portions of this text
("cantillate" [yin !llf ], "slant" [ts'e {J!ij], "break" [tuan j!gf], and
so on) 63 also occur in one of the lectures on the Vimalakzrti siltra
(formerly in the possession ofLo Chen-yii-588, T634ff).
Another text with the same musical or prosodic notations is the
"Autumn Cantillation, One Text" ~lllf-*· The prose portions
occupy a minor percentage of this piece which is rather more de-
scriptive than narrative. In regard to the possible significance of
the notations, it should be remarked that there are repeated refer-
ences in this piece to giithii (~ "stanzas") and stotra (~ "eulogies"),
and that it is immediately preceded on the manuscript (P3618-
144) by a Sanskritic hymn. 64 • Hence, one possible assumption to
be made is that the notations are expressive of certain types oflndic
psalmody as rendered in the Chinese language. The respectful
references in Tun-huang popular religious texts to "Brahmanic
sounds" 5:t W I ~$; are frequent (for example, T504. 7, 605.2,
646.2, 652.4, and so on). It would seem that the Buddhist com-
munity there and elsewhere65 considered it a sacred language and
sought to mimic its intonations.
There can be no doubt that portions of siitra lecture services
were sung. Ryiikoku i!:fr University manuscript 021.1-26.1,
which has as its actual title "Causation and Occasion (Skt. hetu-
pratyaya, nidiina, or avadiina) ofPrince Siddharta's Cultivation of the
Way" 7ffi<.i¥::t:r~31!12Sl~ is a case in point. 66 It is interesting to
observe, in regard to the musical qualities of popular lectures,
that the following note is set off from the rest of the text almost
as though it were a series of directions:
In any event, the Master of the Law who gives lectures and holds dis-
cussions is rather like a music official ~'g. Each time, he must modu-
30
late the tunes to be used with lyrics ~li: lfll ~ii]. That which he pro-
nounced just now was the "Prince Siddhartha Seat-Settling Text." Let
us watch as the Master of the Law explains the meaning. 67
The musical ability of the assistant to the sutra lecturer is
brought out in the following portion of a lecture on the Amitabha-
siitra (P2955-69):
The cantor-acarya68 is a man of great virtue,
His tones are clear and he can modulate them;
With a pleasant sound, he descants gracefully in the kung and
shang modes,
Now I request him to sing aloud [the next passage from
the sii tra]. 69
Note that there is also every likelihood that the verse portions
of the oral antecedents of pien-wen were also sung in performance.
All the evidence provided by other Asian analogues and by study
of later historical developments deriving from pien-wen points to
this conclusion. It is well-known that heptasyllabic verse,7° which
is the typical pien-wen verse length, may be readily sung to canto
(ch'ii) and lyric meters (tz'u) by using such techniques as padding
words, repetition of syllables, and so on.
A key text for understanding the relationships among the vari-
ous popular Buddhist literary genres designated as pien,yuan,yin-
yuan, andyuan-ch'i is the series of related manuscripts (S45ll-347,
P3048-78, S2114v-286, P3592-139, and P2945v-68) which pre-
sent the story of the ugly girl who, because of her faith in the
Buddha, is transformed into a beautiful woman. In form, the text
as assembled by the T editors (T787-800) has a strong resemblance
to the so-called "Eight Aspects pien" and the "Destruction of the
Transformations ofDemons" discussed above. All three texts em-
ploy the verse-introductory formula "At that time, what words did
he say?" and the formula for abbreviation :z;;:z;;. The proportion
of verse to prose and the narrative style are also similar. The head
title on S45ll is "The Causation and Occasion ofVajra, the Ugly
Girl, One Text" i:~U~~IZSI~-;;js:, on S2ll4 is "The Occasion of
the Ugly Girl Vajra," ~~i:~U~, and on P3048 is "The Condi-
tional Origin of the Ugly Girl" ~~~E. The sources of the Tun-
huang story in The Sutra if One Hundred Occasions Ef ~ mand The
31
Siitra if the Treasures if Assorted Jewels ?itJf~~ are, respectively,

entitled "Occasion of the Ugly Daughter of King Prasenajit" ~;WI
!!LEft~~ and "Occasion of the Ugly Girl Raktika (or Retti [?])"
mm~i¥JHJl!~. 71 But here the appellationyuan ("occasion") is less a
literary designation than it is a doctrinal one. Hence, we may ob-
serve that, while the Tun-huang stories designated as yuan are
derived from the sections of the nidiina and avadiina (metaphorical,
illustrative) literature in the Mahayana canon dealing with causa-
tion, the term itselfbecomes fixed as a literary designation in Tun-
huang usage. The parallels with the doctrinal and literary signifi-
cations of pien are valuable in our attempts to understand how the
latter word functions in the milieu of Chinese popular and folk
Buddhism.
One last, but important, observation about the Tun-huang
story of the ugly girl which needs to be made is that, at the end
of P3048, the following six characters are found: ...C*?ffWtmm~.
Grammatically, this text breaks off in mid-sentence ("The trans-
formation of ugliness which was told above ... "). It is, therefore,
impossible to construe pien here as a generic designation. It refers,
rather, quite literally to the miraculous transformation of the ugly
girl into a beautiful woman (T798.lff).
The final category of Tun-huang popular literary texts to be
discussed is ya-tso-wen ;j:ljl ~ )( ("seat-settling text"). 72 82440-293
includes six different seat-settling texts, most with titles positively
identifying them as such. All end with a phrase indicating that they
are to be followed by the singing, with an attitude of reverence, of
the title of the siitra to be lectured on that day. Thus, it is virtually
certain thatya-tso-wen were meant primarily to function as a sort
of introit for religious services in which the main item was a siitra
lecture. The oral quality of these texts is obvious from such direc-
tions as "repeat" £~ (T830.15), "say aloud 'Bodhisattva Bud-
dhaputra'" ~ififii!Jll-=f (T829.4), and so forth. The existence of
numerous texts of a homogeneous nature and purpose having the
designation ya-tso-wen is adequate proof that it should be con-
sidered as a fixed, discrete genre ofT'ang period popular Buddhist
literature and not as a subtype of pien-wen.
32
Appendix
On Dating
Most of the dated transformation-text manuscripts bear colophons that

place them within the period of the Five Dynasties. These late dates for
the copying of the texts, in the majority of cases, have no bearing on the
question of when the various transformations themselves were originally
composed. The earliest transformation texts are datable by internal evi-
dence to the reign of Emperor Hsuan-tsung (712-756). 73 Several ex-
amples of the dating of the Tun-huang popular narratives are given here.
A few of the texts mentioned cannot be considered to be pien-wen accord-
ing to either the tight or the more lenient definition of the term. They are
included nonetheless because they bear certain affinities with pien-wen or
have frequently been confused with them.
On the basis of a place name ("the modern Ch'eng-fu district" 4-:!BX
)(W*~-ill.) in the Tun-huang Wu Tzu-hsu story, Hsieh Hai-p'ing dates
it to sometime between the years 676 and 712. 74 The latitude of the date
indicated by this place-name is actually much greater, namely 636-884
(based on the Tu shihfang-yil chiyao [Essentials of Geography for Reading the
Histories] U{~jJ~IUc~). There are other grounds, however, for dating
the story to the first quarter of the eighth century. 75 While this may be
true of the content of the story in its original recension, stylistically it is
a much more mature work and should probably be dated to the late ninth
or early tenth century. 76 Hence, I concur with Liu Hsiu-yeh who be-
lieves77 that the Wu Tzu-hsu story-as we now have it-was written later
in the T'ang period. The style is rather more literary than the normal
transformation text and the story reads somewhat like a classical tale
(ch' uan-ch' i).
Although the extant copy of the "Transformation Text on the Extreme
Filial Piety ofShun as a Boy" was written down during the Five Dynasties
period, its composition was probably originally T'ang. This may, in part,
be deduced from the list of books therein that the boy Shun was said to
33
Appendix
have read, a list that is compatible with the curriculum of classical studies
during the T'ang. The same conclusions may be drawn regarding the
Tun-huang story about Ch'iu Hu.
The "Destruction of the Transformations ofDemons" (P2187), in spite
of the 944 date in the colophon, must have originally been written during
the Later Liang f&~ (907-923). We can deduce this from the manner in
which that dynasty is referred to on T354.13.
Both from their manifestly topical nature and from internal evidence
(Tll5.9, 116.10, 117.2, 124.8ff), the composition ofthe transformation
texts on Chang 1-ch'ao and Chang Huai-shen can be dated respectively
to not long after approximately 85678 and 862 (probably sometime be-
tween 874 and 880). 79
The composition of the Wang Chao-chiin transformation text is
easily datable to approximately 775, since the heroine was given to the
"barbarian" chieftain in 33 B.C. 80 and died in 25 B.C. The text mentions
(Tl05.13) that a period of800 years had elapsed since then. 81 Although
we may assume that this is a round number, it does give us a fairly ac-
curate date for the Tun-huang story. The Wang Chao-chiin transforma-
tion text also contains names of cities and places that were current during
the Sui and T'ang. And the relations with the Turks described therein
are not so very different from those which existed around the early part
of the T'ang.
According to Nicole Vandier-Nicolas, the style of the illustrated scroll
of Siiriputra's magic contest with Raudriik~a (P4524) dates it to the
eighth or ninth century. 82 This is in conformity with our expectations of
when such a transformation scroll would have been current.
The interested reader should consult Lo Tsung-t'ao, Tun-huang chiang-
eking pien-wen yen-chiu, Chapter 5, for extensive discussion of the dates of
17 Tun-huang popular literary texts of various types. Kanaoka Sh6k6,
Tonko shutsudo bungaku mokuroku, provides basic information for each
datable manuscript included therein. It should be reiterated as a gen-
eral caveat for those who deal with Tun-huang texts that date of composi-
tion and date of copying are two entirely separate matters. The majority
of the dates that are determinable are of copying. In terms of literary
history, dates of composition, though harder to establish, are far more
important.
In general, we may aver that the narrowly defined group of trans-
formation texts were composed between the first quarter of the eighth
34
-- - - - - - - - ____ ____.
Appendix
century and the third quarter of the ninth century. The more broadly
defined list and related texts would stretch this period about a half-
century at both ends. Most of the extant manuscripts for both types
were copied during the Five Dynasties (roughly the first half of the tenth
century).
35
chapter three
The Meaning ofthe Termpien-wen
The meaning of the character pien in pien-wen, as distinct from the

delineation of the genre, is one of the most refractory problems in
the study of Chinese literature. There are almost as many defini-
tions as there are scholars studying the subject. The problem is only
exacerbated by the confusion over the corpus of pien-wen, as de-
scribed in the preceding chapter.
There is no point in reviewing systematically all the various
scholarly views on the meaning of the word pien because this has
already been done expertly by Kanaoka, 1 Hrdlickova.,Z and
Lanciotti. 3 But, in order to reveal certain currently held miscon-
ceptions concerning the nature of transformation texts, I shall refer
to representative opinions, paying particular attention to explana-
tions not treated in depth by Kanaoka, Hrdlickova, and Lanciotti.
I wish to emphasize that I mention and discuss these various ex-
planations not for the purpose of minimizing the contributions of
their authors but to make clear that the views of earlier scholars
have not been overlooked. The meaning ofthe termpien-wen is ob-
viously a very thorny problem. A satisfactory understanding can
be arrived at only by taking into account the full range of previous
scholarship.
Among the more common explanations of the meaning of pien
is that it has to do with the change from prose to prosimetric form. 4
The most that can be said for such an explanation is that it is
simple. A more bizarre explanation belonging to the same school
is the assertion that "because it was changed (pien ~) from oral to
written text (wen-t;;;u )(~),it was therefore called a 'changed text'
(pien-wen ~)()." 5 One scholar, considering the "change" to have
taken place in exactly the opposite direction, refers to pien-wen as
an "oralization" of a written tale, 6 a view that has no philological
36
The Meaning of the Termpien-wen
basis. A related view maintains that pien-wen got its name be-
cause it refers to a "change" from one literary form (for example,
Buddhist siitras or historical records) to another (the prosimetric). 7
These texts are also said to be called pien-wen because the original
siitras have been changed into popular lectures. 8 Similarly, ac-
cording to this opinion,pien-hsiang are siitras that have been turned
into paintings.
This brings us to the most frequently encountered explanation
of pien-wen-that it means "popularization." Cheng Chen-to was
the first to propose such an interpretation. In his Illustrated His-
tory if Chinese Literature, Cheng held that "pien-wen means almost the
same asyen-i ~~('extended interpretation,' 'historical romance').
That is to say, classical stories were retold and transformed ~1t
to make them more easily understood by the people." 9 This is but
a rewording of Cheng's earlier interpretation of pien as pien-keng
~ ~ .10 As a corollary, pien-hsiang would be a form for popularizing
the siitras by changing them into pictures. Elsewhere, 11 however,
Cheng seems to be saying something quite different when he de-
clares that pien-wen is the proper designation for the alternating style
and that siitra lectures (chiang-ching-wen) are a sub-category of it.
Cheng's views have been adopted by the majority of students
who have. written on the subject. 12 The chaos that such an explana-
tion can lead to is evident in the statement that "'Pien-wer/ is for
the purpose of popularizing the Buddhist siitras and changing (pien)
them into popular lectures (su-chiang %-~);this is the definition of
the word pien." 13 Pien-wen and su-chiang are two separate entities;
it is not easy to see how one could have become a part of the other.
Because it is too vague and philologically unsound, the explana-
tion14 that pien-wen are called such because they "evolved" (yen-
pien ~~)out ofthe siitras similarly cannot be accepted. A related
(but ultimately incomprehensible) view asserts that pien-wen means
"the altered form of a text" ()(139~~).1 5
It has been suggested that the name pien-wen "may derive
from the fact that they are made up of alternating verse and
prose." 16 But this is impossible because pien by itself never means
"alternating."
One student makes the far-fetched claim that pien ultimately
refers to the change oflndian Buddhist artistic models into Chinese
37
The Meaning of the Term pien-wen
onesP This causes him to assert that pien originally arose in the
Northern Wei, a claim for which there is no substantiation. 18 •
Falling into what I would call the "evasive school" of explana-
tion are those who translate pien-wen into a foreign language but,
in doing so, fail to illuminate it accurately. One such scholar says
that "technically the Chinese terms means literally, 'changed com-
position or writing,' indicating a slight deviation in the telling of a
story from the version recorded in a Buddhist sutra." 19 The same
scholar also referred to pien-wen as "revised versions." 20 And an-
other says that "These T'ang texts are so-called pien-wen; changed
texts, i.e. literary texts rendered in the colloquial language." 21
One of the most inventive attempts to explain the meaning of
pien-wen is Lo Tsung-t'ao's assertion 22 that it is derived from a
Six Dynasties technical term in music and in poetics that may be
rendered roughly as "variation" or "modification." 23 Lo's pro-
fessed intention in propounding this ingenious explanation is to
find a Chinese source for the word. But there are several flaws
in his argument, among them the fact that even the musical term
cannot be certified to be free of Indian influence. At the least,
we must admit that its origins are not well known. Secondly, Lo
fails to make any convincing connection between pien-ko ~lliX
("modified song") and pien-wen other than that they happen to
have the same morpheme in their names. Chou !-liang has dem-
onstrated the historical improbability of any connection between
these pien-ko in the balled tradition and pien-wen. 24 Tseng Yung-i
has cast further doubt on Lo's argument in a critical article. 25
Hsiang Ta had earlier made a suggestion similar to Lo Tsung-
t'ao's, though not with such conviction. 26 All the poems and
ballads that Hsiang cites in support of his suggestion use the
word pien in a musical sense (for example, the "Tzu-yeh Variation"
r~~ and the "Joyful Hearing Variation" ikllfl~ preserved in
the Collection of Ballad Poetry [Yueh:fu shih-chi ~fff~{j:~]). They
bear no resemblance, either in content or in structure, to any
of the known pien-wen. Most of the specific pieces Hsiang refers
to are actually nothing more than pentasyllabic quatrains. It is
difficult to see how there can be any significant evolutionary
relationship between these Six Dynasties "variations" and the
T'ang period Buddhist pien-wen.
38
On the basis of one newly proffered bit of evidence, two Soviet

scholars have recently once again argued for a purely Chinese
meaning for the term pien-wen. 27 They cite Kuo P'u's ~~~ (276-
324) gloss on the word chii-hsu as it is found in Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju's
W] .~ ;t§ ~Q (c. 179-117 B.C.) "Rhymeprose on the Imperial Hunt"
3Cr7hfitllli\. The gloss reads: ~§:Ll&:P!DJI:1It ~)Cii ~~.But surely
this usage has no bearing whatsoever on the expression pien-wen as
it is employed in the titles ofT'ang period popular literary texts.
N. Egami's serviceable translation should be adequate to establish
that the characters as used in Kuo P'u's gloss are functioning in a
quite different manner. "The chii-hsii is identical with the ch'iung-
ch'iung, these being different phrases and words used interchange-
ably."28 As I shall demonstrate below, only when the Buddhist
nuances of pien are taken into account can we make full sense of
the expressions pien-wen and pien-hsiang.
Sawada Mizuho maintained that pien had something to do with
Jiitaka stories, that is, stories of the Buddha's former lives. 29 His rea-
soning was that the Buddha had experienced many changes in his
former existence. I consider this a justifiable connection but an
unacceptable explanation of the meaning of the word pien.
One writer referred to pien-wen as "monastery chants and recita-
tions."30 This is an inaccurate description because it links these
texts too closely to religious establishments. Another has called
them "Buddhist narrative poems," 31 but this is surely wrong be-
cause pien-wen are not poems.
It has been fashionable, both in French and in English, 32 to refer
to pien-wen as "chantefables." This is actually not an attempt to
render pien, but to indicate the narrative form. Nevertheless, be-
cause the disadvantages of this common usage are legion, we
should perhaps reassess its appropriateness as a means of identify-
ing pien-wen. In the first place, there are numerous genres other
than pien-wen in Chinese literature that might qualify as "chante-
fables". Second, the French word properly refers to a unique speci-
men, Aucassin et Nicolette, although students of comparative litera-
ture have used the expression to designate any work that alter-
nates between verse and prose. Third, the word chantifable expresses
nothing of the semantic content of pien. And, fourth, it fails to
convey any idea of the place in the evolution of literary genres
39
occupied by pien-wen. We should strive to discover an English

equivalent that circumvents all of these drawbacks.
Pelliot's opinion on the meaning ofpien-wen is worth citing in its
entirety for its air of caution and uncertainty:
I doubt that pien-wen is "altered texts." Cf. the meaning ofpien and pien-
hsiang for the "scenes" illustrating episodes of Buddhist sutras, and the
Japanese use of the term hengo[henso?]. The Buddhist use is the most
ancient one, and may apply to "episodes" as a transitory aspect of a
permanent truth. But I am not prepared to express any positive view
on the point. In literature, could not pien have finally come to mean the
literary form of the tale, a mixture of written and popular language,
or of prose and verse? "Altered" seems to be misleading. Could not
"changing text" be adopted?33
It appears that Pelliot was tentatively on the same path of exegesis

as those who erroneously interpret pien to mean "alternating [be-
tween prose and verse portions]."
Waley's rendering ofpien-wen as "incident-text," 34 though help-
ful in that it directs attention to the content of these stories, is in-
ade_quate because it conveys next to nothing of what I shall show
to be the strong Buddhist connotations to the term.
De Visser translated Jodo henso ~ ±~;t§ as "Phases of (Ami-
tabha's) Pure Land." 35 More recently, Crump has referred to pien
in titles as "episodes" and pien-wen as "episode texts." 36 The de
Visser and Crump renderings provide some indication of the nar-
rative nature of the paintings and texts concerned but fail to
convey what I consider to be the actual semantic content of pien
Yii Chien-hua, in his annotations to A Record of Famous Painters
of Successive Dynasties, says that "to paint a story from the Buddhist
siitras as a picture is called pien." 37 More exact is Acker's com-
mentary on the same text:
The terms pien[sic] ~' pien-hsiang[sic] i:il!ffi, chfng-pien[sic] m!~ all

refer to paintings illustrating the paradises of particular Buddhas, par-
ticular hells, or as in the case of Vimalakirti some particular incident
or happening described in a siitra, all this in contradistinction to the
esoteric mal).<;lala which is a sort of representation of the whole universe,
40
its various Buddhas and divinities symbolizing different aspects of

existence. 38
This is in fundamental agreement with my notion that a pien is the

representation (whether verbal or pictorial or sculptural) of a narra-
tive moment or locus or a succession of narrative moments or loci.
So far as it goes, the formulation that "a pien-wen is the text for
a pien-hsiang" 39 is a correct explanation. But it does not indicate
that there is a distinction between oralpien and writtenpien[-wen].
Nor does this type of circular formulation indicate anything of the
Buddhist antecedents of the wordpien itsel£
I consider one of the most convincing interpretations ofpien-wen
to be Paul Demieville's rendering of pien as "scene." This inter-
pretation has the marvelous advantage of being directly applicable
both to pien-wen ("text of a scene") and to pien-hsiang ("figure[s]
of a scene"), 40 a mandatory requirement for any explanation of the
word. Demieville's rendering is also highly visual in its semantic
content, which fits bothpien-wen andpien-hsiang perfectly. The only
defect in this rendering is that it does not convey the necessary
Buddhist resonance.
A Uighur scholar who is also familiar with Chinese sources,
Annemarie von Gabain, holds that pien-wen and pien-hsiang have a
Central Asian origin (we shall see later that there is some validity
to this claim). She accurately renders the two terms in German as
Verwandlungsgeschichten and Darstellung der Verwandlungen. 41
Ono Genmyo, more than seventy years ago, had already pro-
vided a valuable discussion 42 of the meaning of pien in relation
to art. It would appear that few later scholars consulted his work.
Naba Toshisada was probably the first to declare43 thatpien (more
frequently) or pien-wen were the records of expanded expositions of
paintings that were sung and spoken. This discovery represented
a breakthrough in pien-wen studies for, as we shall see below in
Chapters 4 and 6, it is impossible to understand the true nature of
transformations without recognizing their essential relationship to
pictures. It was Umezu Jiro who established this relationship ir-
refutably and gave it a theoretical underpinning. His explanation
of pien as a Buddhist technical term meaning "a story as shown in
some concrete form like a picture" 44 has approximately the same
41
strengths and weaknesses as Demieville's. Shih Chih-ts'un Q8i: ~ tf

was also headed approximately in the right direction when he
said 45 that pien means "Chinese (?) painting" ill)g:J: and that it must
be a transcription of some foreign word.
One way to think of the termpien-wen is that it is an abbreviation
of pien-hsiang chih wen ~;tEl z )( ([explanatory] text for a trans-
formation tableau") .46 This is helpfully suggestive because it high-
lights the crucial relationship between pien-wen and pien-hsiang. But
it is an inadequate interpretation for two major reasons: The defi-
nition pien-hsiang chih wen is not validated in contemporaneous
sources, and it is not provable that any of the extant pien-wen were
ever actually intended for use in the oral explanation ofpien-hsiang. 47
The available evidence indicates that they were primarily intended
for private reading. The relationship between pien-wen and pien-
hsiang, as we shall see, is far more complicated than that expressed
by the formulation pien-hsiang chih wen.
To retreat one step further, according to Mochizuki, 48 pien-
hsiang means pien-hsien chih hsiang ~ffl.Z.ffi ("the appearance of
manifestation through transformation"). 49 While I have not seen
it so defined in T'ang texts, this is a useful way of approaching
the term. The Sanskrit equivalent of pien-hsiang in its original
sense ("having a transformed appearance; changed; altered") is
viparir;.ata, for which the Tibetan equivalent is rnam par gyur ba. 50
Pien-hsiang in the sense of "[artistic] representation of [a super-
natural] transformation" is a derivative and more specialized
application.
A number of scholars have attempted to interpret pien as
"strange", not as "transformation". In the opening pages51 of his
article entitled "Miscellaneous Notes from Readingpien-wen," Sun
K'ai-ti assembled an impressive array of occurrences (dating
mostly from the Six Dynasties through the Sung) of the word pien
where it clearly meant "strange, unusual, extraordinary." He con-
cluded that this was the sense of the word in the terms pien-wen and
pien-hsiang.]ames]. Y. Liu followed Sun in translating pien-wen as
"texts of (tales of) the unusual. " 52 Liu Ta-chieh has a similar under-
standing of the term. "Pien-wen," he states, "is also abbreviated as
pien. Pien means 'strange'; pien-wen thus means the prosimetric
recitation of a strange story." 53 And Prusek is in agreement
42
with this view when he renders pien-wen as "texts relating strange

incidents." 54
Many strange incidents mentioned in the Buddhist collection of
stories called Pearl Grove in the Garden ofDharma (Fa-yuan chu-lin i*~H:
~ ;f;t) are referred to as such and such a " [miraculous] transforma-
tion" (pien ~' pien-hua ~1t, or shen-pien /ii$~). 55 Some of these
events were taken from earlier collections such as Kan Pao's =fl!f
(fl. 318) Records of Researches into Spirits (Sou-shen chi ~ /ii$~c) but
were not there regularly designated as pien. Since Pearl Grove in the
Graden of Dharma was compiled by Tao-shih ~t!t in 668, it would
seem that around the beginning of the T'ang period Chinese
authors were becoming increasingly familiar with pien in the
sense of "strange incident" (more specifically, "supernatural
transformation").
Pien in the sense of "strange" appears to be a post-Buddhist
usage, that is, one not encountered until after the entry of Bud-
dhism into China. 56 But more thorough analysis is required be-
fore we may declare that pien-wen simply means "strange text" or
pien-hsiang "strange appearance" with no stronger Buddhistic
overtones.
It is necessary to recognize, in the first instance, that pien in the
sense of "unusual" or "strange" is itself an extension of the word
in its Buddhist technical sense of"transformation." To lay Chinese
unfamiliar with the finer points of technical usage but familiar
with basic Buddhist concepts which had been widely disseminated
throughout the populace by the middle of the Six Dynasties, it is
understandable that supernatural "transformation" or "trans-
mutation" (nirmiitza, paritziima, vikiira, vikrti, and so on) might be
interpreted as something "strange." This is especially true con-
sidering the widely differing philosophical presuppositions that
existed in pre-Buddhist China and in lndia. 57 In Buddhist philos-
ophy,pien may mean the actualization or realization of cognition,
hence creative mentation in the most concrete possible sense, or
even conjuration. We create the world as we are perceiving it. Con-
fronted with such an alien concept, it is not at all surprising that
many Chinese found it "strange." The T'ang Continued Biographies
of Eminent Monks *I rl1U fit~ has a curious story about ghosts "pro-
ducing various transformations" f'F~~m during the Liang pe-
43
riod (502-556). It also refers to their manifestations as "strange

transformations" t£ ~. ss
Before the introduction of Buddhism, the word pien in the
classical Chinese language meant "change," "evolution," "move-
ment," "modification," "alteration," "variation," and, as deriva-
tives of one or another of these meanings, "incident," "distur-
bance," "eclipse," "rebellion," and so on. 59 It was only after the
introduction ofBuddhism to China that the character also took on
the added meaning of "(supernatural) transformation" and the
secondarily derived notion of "strange (event)." Let us examine,
now, something of the history of the word pien, in order to see how
it was adapted to suit the purposes ofBuddhism.
The character pien seems not to have been found on oracle-bone
inscriptions or bronze inscriptions; hence it is of relatively late in-
vention. "The meaning of the drawing is uncertain, but it contains
two hanks of silk, and Hsu Shen [~Hl, in his etymological dic-
tionary, Shuo-wen chieh-t;:;u W;)(M* (A.D. 100)] said that it meant
'to bring into order,' as in spinning or reeling. The radical, placed
below, shows a hand holding a stick, signifying movement, ac-
tion." 60 Hsu Shen's explanation is most curious, since one of the
meanings of the character is "disorder" (that is, "change from the
norm"). It.is futile, however, to attempt to gain an understanding
of the etymology of this character from its shape in the stone in-
scriptions where it first appears around 320 B.C. For, both then
and now, the top part of the character has a primarily phonetic
value (Karlgren, GSR 178 *blwan, *bliwan, *mlwan, *slwan, *plian).
In pre-Buddhist usage, according to Manfred Porkert:
Hua 1t denotes a fundamental and essential change-a transformation.

However, sometimes one also encounters the word pien; denoting ex-
ternal, momentary, or apparent change. A locus classicus for this dis-
tinction is in the Kuan-tzu 'lf-T 49/270: 61 "The exemplary man (sheng-
jen) changes (pien) in accordance with the times without transforming
[the essence of his being]." ~ A~ ffij ~ ffff /1' 1t. This in turn permits us
to understand the passage in the Huang-ti nei-ching su-wen ~ iJW j7;_j ~* r.,,
66/583: 62 "When the beings take rise (sheng . .. ) , this is called hua (trans-
formation); when the beings have reached their full development (in
Chinese chi :ji "to arrive at the ridge or summit") [and consequently
have taken on a different appearance], this is called pien (change)."
44
1m~ IDlJ Z 1t, ¥J ~ IDlJ Z ~. The terms pien and hua seem to suggest the
idea of complementary antonyms [sic]. In the passage of the Su-wen
66/583 just quoted above where yin and yang are called the father and
mother of change and transformation (pien-hua), the compound pien-
hua may be understood as a composite of synonyms and therefore be
translated by "changes"; yet, on the other hand, the parallelism be-
tween yin/yang and pienfhua shows that pien and hua can be conceived
as the two aspects of an action polarized in turn-pien as its iterative,
active, hua as its perfective, structive aspect. 63
Joseph Needham also has a long and helpful disquisition 64 on
"Change, Transformation, and Relativity." It is evident, as Need-
ham says, that "there is no strict frontier between the words."
In certain cases, it may be necessary to render pre-Buddhist pien
as "change [leading to transformation]." For example, in the Book
of Change, we read:
Thus water and fire contribute together to the one object; thunder and
wind do not act contrary to each other; mountains and collections of
water interchange their influences. It is in this way that they are able
to change and transform ~1t, and to give completion to all things. 65
Yet in no case of which I am aware does the pre-Buddhist con-

cept ofpien mean or imply "transformation from nothing to some-
thing." Nor have I encountered it in the sense of"magically crea-
tive power to conjure." It refers rather to changes from one state
of being or matter to another; a thing becomes some other thing.
The pre-Buddhistpien never implies a discontinuity or break with
reality (illusion), which is the very essence ofnirmii1Ja. So resistant
was early Chinese philosophy to the notion of discontinuous met-
amorphosis that Kung-sun Lung-tzu ~f*~-T, in his chapter
entitled "On Comprehending 'Change'" mi~ffilO, actually makes
an elaborate attempt to disprove through logic the possibility of
transformation of entities and their constituent parts. 66
No proponent for an indigenous origin of pien as a performing
art has yet to mention a passage from the History ofthe Han, 67 where
the term occurs in a context of conjuration and theatricals. This
is from the biography of Chang Ch'ien ~~,the great explorer of
the Western Regions, and most likely refers to entertainments from
Central Asia. Hulsewe and Loewe suggest that the term might be
45
rendered as "theatrical scene, act." 68 A close examination of the

text, however, reveals that the correct translation is as follows:
"[Every] year [they] increased the varieties of the wrestling and
strange performances" jEj !:S; .:tJ ~ ~ :li ~. This is well within the ex-
pected pre-Buddhist range of meaning for the word.
Even where we are dealing in classical Chinese contexts with
change from one state to another, there is aiways an evolutionary
continuity as in this famous passage from the Chuang-t;:,u:
The seeds of things have mysterious workings. In the water they be-
come ~ Break Vine. On the edges of the water they become Frog's
Robe. If they sprout on the slopes, they become Hill Slippers. If Hill
Slippers get rich soil, they turn into~ Grow's Feet. The roots ofCrow's
Feet turn into maggots and their leaves turn into butterflies. Before
long the butterflies are transformed {t and turn into insects that live
under the stove; they look like snakes and their name is Ch'ii-t'o. After
a thousand days, the Ch'ii-t'o insects become birds called Dried Left-
over Bones. The saliva of the Dried Leftover Bones becomes Ssu-mi
bugs and the Ssu-mi bugs become Vinegar Eaters. 1-lo bugs are born
1=. from the Vinegar Eaters, and Huang-shuang bugs from Chiu-yu
bugs. Chiu-yu bugs are born from Mou-jui bugs and Mou-jui bugs are
born from Rot Grubs and Rot Grubs are born from Sheep's Groom.
Sheep's Groom couples with bamboo that has not sprouted for a long
while and produces 1=. Green Peace plants. Green Peace plants pro-
duce leopards and leopards produce horses and horses produce men.
Men in time return again to the mysterious workings. So all creatures
come out of the mysterious workings and go back into them again. 69
On the other hand, the post-Buddhist neo-Confucians had a clear
concept of discontinuities in the process of change. There is no mis-
taking Chu Hsi's (1130-1200) understanding of the difference be-
tween pien and hua because he repeats it so many times. Hua is
change viewed from an evolutionary point of view; pien is change
seen from a transformational vantage. 70
One T'ang author, who also had strong Buddhist predilections,
did grapple with the meaning of pien in the expression pien-
hsiang. That is the poet, Wang Wei ::Et.fE (701-761), who wrote a
"Eulogy on a Transformation [Tableau] of the Western Paradise
of Amitabha [Buddha] Painted on the Stiipa of the Temple of
Filiality and Duty by the Grand Secretary of the Imperial Chan-
46
cellery, Tou Shao, for His Deceased Younger Brother, [Tou I

)l~], the Late Husband of the Imperial Princes [Ch'ang-shan
~Jll], with Preface" MnJi:J:fjU;E~L:~(Jl(~.~:l:i~E\1-=f:f:~~~il
Jtgg1JIWJ5m!Yt:~~#Ff. 71 Wang must have recognized that he was
dealing with a difficult and unusual usage of the weird pien for, in
a preface that is nearly four times as long as the eulogy, he launches
into a discussion of the term. His explanation deserves our closest
scrutiny.
Wang begins by quoting from the Book ofChange: "[(The sage)
perceives how the union of] essence and breath form things, and
the [disappearance or] wandering away of the soul produces the
change [of their constitution]" Wf~ ~ ~. 72 Wang then quotes from
a "Biography" which, upon investigation, turns out to be that of
the Han Prince Yuan ofCh'u: "The vital energy of the soul reaches
everywhere" ~~J{U~"If'Z.. 73 This leads Wang to conclude:
"Thus do we know that the spirit is reborn" 74 I!ID~IJJil!ll!lF.l]l!1:~.
He then elaborates: "Supported by the Way/ 5 it is transformed
into a perfect body76 JtU~ffiU1>-!l.r and goes to a happy land." And,
in the eulogy itself, Wang speaks of "evolving through change"
)~ftfliHI and "ceaseless rebirth" 77 .-!lf"lf',~,. Eventually, it
is hoped that the deceased "will escape from the six paths of
reincarnation" 7 S Jm-5E"If'.~,.
In effect, Wang Wei connects pien with the revolution of the cycle
of metempsychosis (sa11JSiira-parivartana) and looks upon the par-
adise of Amitabha as a place where one can achieve a final trans-
figuration to a steady state of spiritual existence no longer subject
to the vagaries of saT{tsiira and the six paths of reincarnation. U nfor-
tunately, this explanation does not and cannot satisfy the use of the
word pien ( = pien-hsiang) in the title of his eulogy where it surely sig-
nifies a painting of the Western Paradise. There are many other
related expressions that refer to similar representations, for exam-
ple, ching-t'u pien-hsiang ~ ±~;f§, hsi-fang ching-t'u pien-hsiang gg1J
~ ±~;f§, ching-t'u man-t'u-lo ~ ±se~Ki, ching-t'u chuang-yen pien
~ ±itt.IHI!, and so on. It would appear that Wang, in spite of his
vast learning in Chinese texts (including Buddhist ones), was not
philologically equipped to deal with the fundamental concept be-
hind pien in the sense of "transformation scene or tableau." 79
Forced to rely on a largely irrelevant passage from the Book of
47
Change, together with all the materialist baggage of its exegetical

tradition, Wang Wei is led astray upon the paths of metempsy-
chosis. With the textual interpretation provided by the poet, it
is impossible to grasp the basic notion that paradises such as the
Western one are said to be "transformationally manifested by the
Buddha." ~1!11l?fi~.
If it is impossible to find pien in classical, pre-Buddhist texts with
the meaning that it carries in the terms pien-wen and pien-hsiang, we
must turn to examine Buddhist sources directly to see whether
there is any appropriate usage which might help to explain its
semantic content. Although he has not revealed the sources for his
conviction, Liu Ts'un-yan has stated that he knows "for certain
that the Chinese character ~ (pien) in the term ~)( (pien-wen)
originally meant shen-pien Iii$~ or supernatural powers as exhibited
in awe-inspiring miracles." 80 This identification of pien with the
obviously Buddhist shen-pien has led Kenneth Ch'en to call pien-wen
"texts of marvelous events" 81 (probably a rendering into English
of/ii$~2.)(). Lili Ch'en, likewise, seems to be accepting the same
interpretation when she defines pien-wen as "a narrative depicting
the marvelous incident of[such and such] .... " 82 Waley, too, may
once have entertained such an interpretation when he referred 83
to pien-wen as "wonder-writings."
Chou Shao-liang84 and Chou I-liang86 have also recognized that
the pien ofpien-wen means shen-pien ("miraculous transformation").
In the words of Chou Shao-liang: "'Pien-wen' take stories dealing
with miraculous transformations Iii$~ from the Buddhist siitras
and elaborate them into written works for the purpose of guiding
the common people and converting the masses." 86 He goes on to
say that, when one takes a miraculous transformational event from
a siitra and makes it into a picture, it is called pien-hsiang, and when
it is expressed in literary form, it is called pien-wen. As for the non-
Buddhist stories among the pien-wen, says Chou, their form is the
sam:e as that of the Buddhist pien-wen because they are modeled on
them. I believe that this analysis is essentially correct, with the
proviso that the sources of the "miraculous transformations" were
not necessarily restricted to the fixed corpus of Buddhist texts
but were also sometimes witnessed during individual religious ex-
perience. More specifically, Fu Yun-tzu connects 87 pien with the
48
"miraculous transformations" used by the Buddha in preaching

the law (Wl;¥1 [dhiirmi kathii] jji$~) that are so often mentioned in
the siitras.
Shen-pien may be used to render Sanskrit priitihiirya ("sham, illu-
sion, delusion, magic, jugglery, sorcery") ,88 rddhi ("supernatural
or magic power"), 89 vikurvar;a ("the ability to assume various
shapes"), 90 and so forth. Also note jji$~jf:~ rddhi-priitihiirya and
jji$ ~ ;f§ mahii-nimittar[l-priitihiiryam. Closely allied expressions in
Chinese Buddhist terminology include:
rddhi, rddhi-sampad, abhijflii ("supernatural knowledge");
vikurvii, vikurva7Ja (-priitihiirya), nirmita-adhi~lhiina
abhisamaya, rddhi-bala [BHS], rddhyiinubhiivena ("by
means of miraculous power");
iii$ 3m ~ {t rddhi-vikurvita, vikurviiT)a;
~ {t iii$ 3m nirmiiT)a-rddhi ("supernatural power of transformation,"
cf. T[3] l.l57a).91
Regardless of their knowledge of the various Sanskrit anteced-

ents which have become compressed in this term, it is clear enough
what Chinese Buddhist meant by shen-pien. Basically, it is a mira-
culous transformation (that is, appearance or manifestation) per-
formed by a Buddha or Bodhisattva for the edification of sentient
beings. Not only is the transformation in and ofitselfan impressive
display of the abilities of the enlightened one who performs it and
hence an effective device to encourage those who witness it to be
receptive to his teachings, but, for those whose wisdom is sufficiently
advanced, it is also a none-too-subtle affirmation of the illusory
nature of all existence. If the enlightened one can so effortlessly
produce such marvelous-but insubstantial-entities, there are
profound ontological implications which, being directly perceived,
need not be expressed verbally.
A very common trick for one possessed of such supernatural
powers is to rise up into space and hover there while causing water
and fire to issue from his body. This is exactly what Sariputra does
in the "Transformation Text on the Subduing of Demons" after
his defeat of Raudrak~a. These powers also enable their possessor
to cause flowers to rain down, the earth to shake, lightning to flash,
distant places to be illumined, and so on. The executor of shen-pien
49
can also change his own person into an infinite number of beings,
as does Monkey in his battles with the Heavenly Hosts in Journey
to the West. It should, too, be mentioned that most of these activities
are things that shamans do in performance. This will be of im-
portance later when we discuss the social position and identity of
those who were pien performers.
The motif of rising up into space and manifesting various (usu-
ally 18) manifestations is frequently encountered in Buddhist lit-
erature. For example, in the Asokariija-siltra (?) 1iiiJ W±. ~' 92 we read
the following: "Using his miraculous strength, 93 like a goose-king 94
flying up into space, in an instant the monk then rose up out of the
iron cauldron into space and manifested the 18 transformations."
And, in the Svagata story as told in Divyiivadiina, reference is made
to the "18 transformations or miraculous powers"+ i\~. Since
these are met so frequently in Buddhist canonical texts as well as
in popular literature, it is worth our while to study them in some
detail in order to gain a better understanding of the Buddhist no-
tion of transformational powers. Kenneth Ch'en has provided 95
the Chinese equivalents and English explanations of the Sanskrit
terms:
I. kampana ability to move any object, even the
worlds
2. jvalana ability to emit fire from body
3. spharana ability to emit light that can illu-
minate the innumerable worlds
4. vidarsana ability to cause beings in all the
gatis[states of sentient existence],
Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and devas,
to be seen
5. anyathi-bhava- ~~ ability to change the nature of an
kara1Ja object into something different
6. gamaniigamana 1±* abi1ity to go anywhere, through
the walls, mountains, water, air,
and so forth
7. samk~epa f{f; ability to roll anything, even the
Himalayas, into a minute size
8. prathana ffJ ability to enlarge minute objects to
gigantic proportions
50
9. sarva-rilpa- ability to store up swarms of

kiiya-pravesana people, mountains, or earth within
the body
I 0. sabhiigato- ability to enter any group, assume
pasankriinti their forms, shapes, and voices,
preach to them, then disappear
Il. iivirbhiiva ability to magnify body a thou-
sandfold
I2. tirobhiiva ability to disappear
I3. vasitva-karaT}a ability to cause living creatures to
become subject to his will
14. para-rddhy- ability to control the rddhi [super-
abhibhava natural power] ofthose below him
in rank
I5. pratibhiina- ability to equip sentient beings
diina with fluency in expression ·
16. smrti-diina ability to cause one who has for-
gotten the dharma to remember it
again
I 7. sukha-diina ability to bestow joy on list'eners
I8. rasmi-pramok~ana ability to send forth light to all
creatures in all worlds
The transformational powers on this list are many and varied. En-
countering these and other miraculous abilities ofBuddhist saints
for the first time must have been a heady experience.
The centrality of the concept of transformational manifestation
of illusory states of reality in Buddhist doctrine can be shown easily
by reference to several specific passages from the Chinese Tripi/aka.
In the short Siitra ofthe Former Lives of the Buddha SiTI)hacandra (?) §iji T
)1 {jl!l;;j;:1:J~, translated anonymously sometime between A.D. 350
and 431, there is a story96 set in the city ofRajagrha where Buddha
is at the head of a host of bhik~us and bodhisattvas. One of them,
named Vasumitra, roams around in the bamboo grove, frolicking
like an ape. He takes hold of a bell and puts on a dance-drama
f'f;J}l5,\i (na/a) ~.A crowd gathers to watch him, which spurs him
to greater heights. With an ape-like cry uttered from the top of
a tree where he has climbed, he summons 84,000 golden monkeys
and performs various transformational manifestations 1'ffifi~m
51
for the pleasure ofhis assembled audience. All of this hocus-pocus

is not only tolerated but is encouraged by the Buddha, for it puts
the crowd in a receptive mood to hear his doctrine.
The efficacy of thaumaturgy for conversion is a commonplace
in Buddhist books. In the words of the Divyiivadiina, "A magical feat
quickly wins over the minds of worldlings." 97 Wonder-working is
also effective in restoring the faith of errant souls. This is illustrated
by the story of the king in the Lotus Siitra98 whose two sons, Pure
Treasury~~ and Pure Eyes ~ ~' showed him all sorts of super-
natural transformations ffl.;fi;fijji$~ in order to pry him away
from his attachment to heretical teaching.
Piety, the transformation of a deity, and art which captures
it are all brought together in an anecdote recorded in A Buddhist
Gazetteer ~:itl!!}J~, compiled by Tao-hsuan m~ (596-667), foun-
der of the Vinaya sect: "Of old, there were two poor men, each of
whom donated one piece of gold toward the painting of an image
of the Buddha. They requested the appearance of a supernatural
transformation (~ffl.jji$~), whereupon the image appeared with
the body divided in two above the chest and joined as one
below." 99
A modern devotee has described his experience of witnessing the
appearance of Kuan-yin thus:
As though to illustrate the truth of divinity with innumerable aspects,
the Bodhisattva startled me by manifesting herself in a veritable whirl
of transformations, appearing now as Avalokita with eleven heads,
now as the mirror-bearing, many-armed Chen-T'i, now as the horse-
headed Hayagr!va, now as Tara, now as a terrifying wrathful-seeming
deity not unlike Yamantaka, the blue, bull-headed Conquereor of
Death, now as the handsome youth Manjusri-all of these alternating
with many unnameable forms, male and female, horrendous and sub-
lime, one merging into another like the changing patterns in a child's
kaleidoscopeP 00
The optical simile is particularly noteworthy.
There can be no doubt that one of the meanings ofpien is "con-
juration through transformation." Even today, pien hsi:fa ~~i'*
is a common way to refer to the performance of magic. 101 In
the Siikyamuni Genealogy ~:itl!!~, it is said of a tree that has been
conjured up, "This transformation (pien) was done/made by
52
Rauddik~a." Jlt~lJ~~!t~f'f. 102 It is highly significant that

similar language appears in the "Transformation Text on the
Subduing of Demons." 103 It is, further, demonstrable that pien in
such contexts stands for shen-pien. In a passage from the Pearl Grove
in the Garden tif Dharma (Fa-yuan chu-lin ~~~~1*) dealing with the
same matter (that of conjuration) in the very same story, we read:
"Then Sariputra and Raudrak~a each manifested supernatural
transformations" 4}ffl,jjl$~. 104 The received Chinese Buddhist
meaning of pien operative in such cases is "to make something
appear" or "to produce one thing from another." Compare the
cognate expressions ~f'F/ 05 ~1t, ~ffl,, 106 and so forth.
The building of the Jetavana garden and the contest of super-
natural powers between Sariputra and Raudrak~a, the subject of
the illustrated transformation scroll P4524, is one of the most fre-
quently depicted in Tun-huang wall-paintings. 107 The oldest of
these is in cave 9 of the Western Caves of the Thousand Buddhas
i§-=ff~1Jjjj and dates from the mid-sixth century. It also occurs at
the nearby Cliffs of the Ten Thousand Buddhas. ~1~il!9t,l 08 which
date from the ninth or tenth century or perhaps a little later. 109 The
canonical sources for the contest-none of which are in Pali-are
to be found in the Miilasarviistiviidavinayasanghabhedakavastu ;j:IL*W:
-W1fWI!llt~lfiHi~fi$ (T[1450]24.141aff), the Mahii-sammata-
siltra ~~J~HiiJ~~ (T[191]3.968ab), and the Siitra of the Wise
and the Foolish ~~~ (T[202]4.418b-420c). Comparison of the
sources with the account as depicted in Tun-huang art and pop-
ular literature reveals that a certain amount of adaptation and ex-
pansion has occurred in the latter. 110
In the story of the magic contest between Sariputra and
Raudrak~a as given in the Mahii-sammata-siltra, the heretics declare,
"We shall display our [ubiquitous] supernatural powers" :fjtffl.
jjl$ ~ •111 This indicates a kind ofloose equivalence between shen-pien
and shen-t'ung jjl$ ~.
A better understanding of the Buddhist meaning ofpien as "con-
juration," "illusory appearance," and so on can be gained from the
following extended passage taken from the Siitra tif the Wise and the
Foolish:
Among the Six Heterodox Teachers, there was a disciple named
Raudrak~a, who was well versed in the techniques of illusion >o&.
53
With an incantation, 112 he created ~ ('f before the great crowd a tree
that, of itself, grew to large size. Its shade covered the assembly; its
branches and leaves were luxuriant; its flowers and fruits were extra-
ordinary. The crowd of people all said, "This transformation ~ was
created {'f by Raudrak~a!" Then Sariputra, by means of his super-
natural power, created tJjji$3ij1:J{'f a whirlwind which blew so hard
that it uprooted the tree. The tree toppled to the ground and smashed
into tiny pieces of dust. The crowd of people all said, "Sariputra's the
winner! This time, Raudrak~a was no match for him!"
Again, with an incantation, he created a pond. On all four sides of
the pond were the seven types of jewels.l 13 In the middle of the water
were growing all sorts of flowers. The crowd of people all said, "This
is Raudrak~a's creation )ljf('F !"Then Sariputra magically created {t{'F
a great six-tusked white elephant. On each of its tusks there were seven
lotus blossoms and on each blossom was a jade girl. The elephant slowly
ambled over to the side of the pond and drew all the water into its
mouth causing the pond to disappear at once. The crowd of people all
said, "Sariputra's the winner! Raudrak~a's no match for him!"
Again he created {'f a mountain decorated with the seven types
of jewels. On it, there were springs and ponds, as well as trees and
bushes full of flowers and fruit. The crowd of people all said, "This is
Raudrak~a's creation {'f." Sariputra then immediately magically
created {t {'f a guardian spirit of irresistable strength. With his ada-
mantine mace, 114 the spirit pointed at the mountain from afar and it
was destroyed at once, leaving not a trace. Everyone in the assembly
said, "Sariputra's the winner. Raudrak~a's no match for him."
Again, he created the body of a dragon which had ten heads. From
space, it rained down all sorts ofjewels. Thunder and lightening shook
the earth, startling the great crowd. The crowd of people said, "This
too is Raudrak~a's creation {'f !" Sariputra then magically created a
golden-winged king of birds 115 which slashed, tore, and devoured it.
The crowd of people all said, "Sariputra's the winner! Raudrak~a's no
match for him!"
Again, he created a bull. Its body was tall and large; it was stout and
sturdy. With its thick hoofs and sharp horns, it scraped the ground and
bellowed loudly as it came racing forward. Then Sariputra magically
created a lion king which rent it to pieces and ate it. The crowd of
people exclaimed, "Sariputra's the winner! Raudrak~a's no match for
him!"
Again, he transformed his body into tl!!;l!t% ('f ayak,ra demon. Its size
was enormous; flames shot from its head. Its eyes were as red as blood;
54
its four teeth were long and sharp. Flames issuing from its mouth, it
bounded forward. Then Sariputra changed himself into !31t;l'!.;~i'!=
the Maharaja Vaisravai).a. Theyak,ra was terrified and wanted tore-
treat at once. Fire sprang up on all four sides so there was no place to
escape. Only on Sariputra's side it was cool and there was no fire. The
yak,ra submitted right away by throwing himself on the ground in an
attitude of profound reverence 116 and begging plaintively that his life
be spared. As soon as he felt shame, the fire disappeared. The crowd
cried out in unison, "Sariputra's the winner! Raudrak~a's no match for
him!"
Then Sariputra's body rose up into space and manifested the four
imposing forms of demeanor in walking, standing, sitting, and lying.
Water came forth from the upper part of his body and fire came forth
from the lower part. He sank down in the east, leapt up in the west;
sank down in the west, leapt up in the east. He sank down in the north,
leapt up in the south; sank down in the south, leapt up in the north.
Or, by manifesting ffl. his major body, he filled up all space and, then
again, he would manifest his minor body. Or he would divide his single
body into hundreds, thousands, millions, and trillions of bodies and
then once more make them into a single body. He would be in space
and then suddenly on the ground. He walked on the land as though it
were water and on the water as though it were land. When he finished
creating i'!= these transformations~' he returned with light steps 117 to
his original seat. Then, seeing his supernatural power, the great crowd
of the assembly rejoiced together. Sariputra then began at once to dis-
course on the dharma. us
Thus we see that the wonderful transformations created by Sari-

putra all serve as a prelude for religious instruction. This is a
commonplace in Buddhist texts, whether more popular, as here,
or more sophisticated, as with the Lotus Siitra.
The magic contest between the Tirthyas (heretics) and Sariputra
is also described in the Sanghabheda[ka] vastu of the Vinaya (stat-
utes) of the Miilasarvastivadins. Fortunately, the Sanskrit orig-
inal of the Sanghabheda [ka] vastu does exist and we can gain some
knowledge about the type of language involved in dealing with
transformational manifestations. Where the Chinese translation
by I-ching (A.D. 635-713) gives 7'1-~{t~-t.\iJ!~::E. ~;fU~{t~
:*:4:~.~. i{£21!t"Fft~rrn*· (T[l450]24.140c), the Sanskrit has
lena fataJfr~o niigo nirmita~; iiyu~matii fiiriputre1Ja garurf,a nirmita~,yeniisiiv
55
apahrta~. 119 The idea conveyed by both the Chinese and the San-
skrit is that the heretic conjured up a seven-headed dragon and
that this was destroyed by a roc-like bird conjured up by Sariputra.
The key word in the Sanskrit account is nirmita, which recurs re-
peatedly just as 1-t [1'F /~] does in the Chinese. Nirmita is the past
passive participle of nirminati which in BHS means "creates by
magic[al transformation]" 120 and goes back to the Sanskrit root
~. 121 1t[~/1'F] could mean either "created through trans-
formation" or "transformed themselves into." The corresponding
verb in the Sariputra transformation text is hua-ch'u 1t l±l, which
I have regularly translated as "conjure up" and which literally
means "transform out," that is, "produce through transforma-
tion." The nouns in both the Chinese canonical scripture and in
the transformation text referring to the transformational products
or creations ofSariputra and Raudrak~a are shen-pien jji$~ ("spir-
itual transformation"), shen-t'ung pien-hsien jji$~~m ("super-
natural transformational manifestation"), or simply pien.
The Buddha, deep in meditation, manifests many wonderful
apparitions in preparation for preaching the Lotus Sidra. Maitreya
Bodhisattva reflects on this: "0 how great a wonder does the
Tathagata display!" MahiinimittaT{l priitihiiryaT{l batedaT{l tathiigatena
krtam. 122 It is interesting to remark on how the various Chinese
translators of the Lotus interpreted this sentence. Dharmarak~a (c.
223-300), who translated it in the year 286 as the Cheng-fa-hua ching
lEi*¥~ gives "Now the World-Honored has attained the true,
correct understanding." A,~ i!t# ~Q* ~ fjj; ~IE~ .123 Kumarajiva
(344-413), who translated it in the year 406 as Miao-fa lien-hua
ching f&i*ji¥~, gives "Now does the World-Honored One
display an appearance so marvelous." 124 A,~i!t#ffl.jji$~;f§.125
Dharmagupta and jfianagupta, who rendered the text into Chi-
nese in the year 601, called it T'ien-p'in miao-fa lien-hua ching ~ 8bt&
l*jl¥~ and rendered the line in question exactly as Kumarajiva
did. 126 If it is possible to draw any conclusions from the chronology
and comparison of these and other translations, it is that the notion
ofpriitihiirya was not easily expressible in the Chinese language until
the meaning of pien had been sufficiently expanded to accommo-
date it.
56
Another passage from the Lotus Siitra brings together the notion
ofdramatic performance with that of transformational illusion and
therefore deserves our closest scrutiny. The Buddha is describing
to Mafijusri the proper conduct of a Bodhisattva-mahasattva.
There are certain types of people that he must avoid, including
wrestlers, vendors of pork, poulterers, deer-hunters, butchers,
actors, dancers, and so forth. 127 The Sanskrit compound expression
for the last two types mentioned is na/a nrttakan128 (from ~'
"to represent anything [dramatically]; perform; dance" and :.;;Ji,
"to act on the stage; represent; dance about") .129 Kumarajiva
renders 130 this as mm~~~~mz.~, which may be literally
Englished as "various kinds of transformational manifestation
performances [put on by] na/as [that is, dancers/actors], and so
forth." 131 Apparently, Kumarajiva understood nrtta to mean
something like pratiharya ("transformational appearance") for he
uses pien-hsien ~m, the usual translation for the latter Sanskrit
term, to render it. Even in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, acting is
sometimes thought to have a delusive nature. The Mahavyutpatti
(no. 2837) lists, under the heading miiyadaya& ("miiya [illusion],
etc."), the expression na/aranga&. This literally means "theatrical
stage" but it is used as a symbol of deceptive or illusory character. 132
We read, 133 for example, in the Sik~asamuccaya (quoting the Sagara-
matisiitra) that a Bodhisattva's speech should not be "fictitious" or,
more literally, "stage language" (na na/aranga-vacana&). Whereas
na{a and nrtta actually mean approximately the same thing
("actors and dancers"), Kumarajiva's translation functions partly
as a gloss intended to convey the implicit connotations of the San-
skrit terms and so seems to say more than the original. It is signif-
icant, none the less, that a connection has been made in a Chinese
Buddhist text between transformational manifestation and dra-
matic performance. This has a direct bearing on the nature of
Sino-Indian dramatic narrative.134
As to the use of supernatural transformations to convert infidels,
there is an interesting story in the Notes on Monasteries if Loyang. 135
A Serindian merchant brings a monk named Vairocana before the
King of Khotan. The monk asks the Buddha to send his disciple
Rahula there and the latter transforms himself into the Buddha in
57
mid-air. The King is so much impressed that he is immediately

converted. He proceeds to construct a temple in which he has
painted an image ofRahula.
A passage from Journey to the West shows how the later folk Bud-
dhist tradition took delight in the spectacular and dazzling qual-
ities of supernatural manifestations:
Seeing that the demon136 was becoming savage, Monkey now used the
method called Body Outside the Body. He plucked out a handful of
hairs, bit them into small pieces and then spat them out into the air,
crying "Change!"~. The fragments ofhair changed into several hun-
dred small monkeys, all pressing round in a throng. For you must know
that, when anyone becomes an Immortal, he can project his soul,
change his shape and perform all kinds of miracles. Monkey, since his
Illumination, could change every one of the 84,000 hairs of his body
into whatever he chose.l 3 7
In China, the Buddha's most noted disciples were Sariputra (for
his wisdom) and Maudgalyayana (for his magical abilities) in dis-
tinction to India where Ananda (for his extensive experience) was
the clear favorite. And, in the folk Buddhist traditions of China,
Maudgalyayana was even more popular than Sariputra, while the
latter was often himself depicted as something of a conjurer. One
of the reasons for Maudgalyayana's vast popularity in China, aside
from the fact that his story nicely complemented native teachings
on filial piety, is that he functioned as a sort of patron saint of pres-
tidigitators. For the populace, visual effects were more convincing
than doctrinal disquisitions.
It would be improper to discredit an Indian Buddhist origin for
the word pien on the grounds that not all pien-wen have Buddhist
themes. This is to ignore the obvious: pien-wen in China has a his-
tory of its own. It began as an Indo-Buddhist phenomenon but
gradually became secularized, first to the extent that the form
could be employed to tell non-Buddhist stories, and second to the
extent that the Buddhist-tinged name nearly dropped out of use
altogether though the form survived. 138 Because of the apparent
Buddhist origins ofpien-wen, we ought to seek to determine whether
there is an exactly corresponding term in Indian languages.
Hrdlickova's suggestion 139 that the pien ofpien-wen is the Chinese
equivalent ofSanskritpari~ama is not far from the mark. Pari~ama,
58
usually rendered in Chinese as-~. means "change" or "evolu-

tion." As a figure of speech, it expresses a feeling, emotion, inten-
tion, or thought that is actualized (brought into reality). 140 In
philosophy, it refers to the alteration from one condition or the
development into another. This constituted an essential element
in the teachings of the Dharmalak~ana school (l*;f§ or Pi~
Vijflanamatra[vada]; cittamatra), which held that all things are de-
pendent on mind-evolution, being neither real nor unreal in and
of themselves. We must ultimately reject pari7J.ama as the equivalent
of pien in pien-wen and pien-hsiang, however, for it never means, in
an active sense, "create the illusion or appearance of," "conjure
up," "manifestation of a divine being," and so on-all meanings
which pien in these contexts conveys.
Kuan Te-tung was of the opinion141 that pien is a translitera-
tion of ma7J.qala. Note also Dolby's translation 142 of pien-wen as
"Mandala texts," which shows that he accepts Kuan Te-tung's in-
terpretation of the expression. It is likely that Kuan was prompted
to make this equation between pien and ma7J.t/ala because of earlier
remarks such as that made by Nagasawa Kikuya: "It is said that
pien-wen originally specified the inscription on a ma7J.tfala." 143 Shio-
noya On had also declared that pien is probably a Buddhist term
and gone on to say that pien-hsiang is like ma1J4ala and pien-wen is
similar to the explanations which accompany a ma7J.qala. 144 Yet no
one has substantiated the equation between pien and ma7J.qala with
reference to any text or inscription. There are, furthermore, more
immediate objections which must be raised against it.
Because of the fact that it occurs in combination with wen and
hsiang and also because of other textual associations, it is evident
that pien in the contexts that concern us is being used for its se-
mantic content rather than employed for purposes of translitera-
tion. And, even if it were exceptionally so employed, it is highly
unlikely that it would simultaneously be used to convey a mean-
ing.145 But, on the assumption that it were being used to convey
a meaning, pien was already firmly established in the Buddhist
technical vocabulary as a translation for Sanskrit words that had
to do with supernatural transformation. It is almost inconceivable
that it would also be made to imply circularity, which is the root
meaning of ma7J.qala. Finally, there are numerous other standard
59
renderings of marpjala in Chinese (for example, ~ ~ii, ?fifE~,

mi ~ )1, and so on). It is virtually impossible that a totally unrelated
word such as pien would have been used only in the case of"*ma1J-
rfala text" and "*ma1Jrfala tableau."
We must also, in discussing the proposed equation between pien
and ma1Jrfala, point out that these terms refer to two largely separate
entities in Chinese Buddhist art. Art historians, however, have used
the two terms somewhat interchangeably. Close examination 146
of T'ang texts, however, reveals that Chinese Buddhist authors
normally tended to make a distinction between the two forms. We
cannot, of course, expect that the dividing line between ma1Jrfala
and pien-hsiang can ever be made completely clear for, in truth, the
two merge into each other. While the ma1Jrfala side of the scale is
more related to devotion, worship, ritual, and meditation, the pien
side has more to do with the illustration of narrative episodes,
whether individually or in series. A given painting may include ele-
ments of both and hence, to a greater or lesser degree, may fulfill
a dual function. A ma1Jrfala is primarily a place, site, location, arena,
or object used to assist in religiously oriented concentration which
leads to spiritual enlightenment. The Chinese translation, ll:!~
("way-arena," cf. "bema"), of Sanskrit bodhima1Jrfala is most re-
vealing in this regard. A religious pien, on the other hand, is pri-
marily intended to portray a scene or incident (or, more often, a
series of scenes and incidents) of didactic import. Hence we should
not confuse pien and ma1Jrfala, nor should we equate the two.
We may thus, in one sense, consider pien to be "the appearance,
manifestation, or realization of a deity in a narrative context."
This not only makes it qualitatively different from a ma1Jrfala, but
also from a plain hsiang ~ (pratiriipa, pratiriipaka, and so forth) or
ch'ii ~ll!i that is but an image of a deity. Presumably, the religious
pien storyteller was thought to be able to cause the epiphany of
a deity or deities in a narrative context. His counterparts, the
Indonesian dalang and the Rajasthani bhopo, at any rate, are cer-
tainly credited with such ability. 147
In discussing the possible Sanskrit antecedents of Chinese Bud-
dhist pien, it is necessary at this stage to issue a general caveat con-
cerning the equation ofBuddhist technical terms in different lan-
guages. As Regamey has shown very clearly, it is dangerous to
60
equate terms from Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese even when they
are found in parallel passages from the same text: "When, in two
parallel passages, two expressions are found which correspond with
each other in a sentence, these expressions are noted as equivalent
even when the proper meanings of those words have very little in
common. These discrepancies are interpreted as the result of the
artificial character of Buddhist translations and as a proof that
there existed no fixed Buddhist terminology in Chinese, whereas
they very often constitute divergencies made on purpose or simply
misreadings." 148 There is almost never an exact one-to-one cor-
respondence between a Chinese Buddhist translated text and its
original Sanskrit source, whereas it is often more nearly possible
to achieve approximate equivalence for many Tibetan translated
texts and their Sanskrit originals. A striking example of a com-
plete misunderstanding and mistranslation of an entire scripture
is entertainingly described by Brough in his "The Chinese Pseudo-
Translation of Arya-Siira's Jataka-miila." Even when a Sanskrit
original or a highly literal Tibetan translation exists with which to
check the Chinese, one should always offer equivalences of techni-
cal terms circumspectly and tentatively. There did exist a more or
less fixed Buddhist terminology in Chinese but it was naturally
Chinese first and Sanskritic only secondarily. Naturally it also
changed over tim.e so that, at different periods of history, the same
Sanskrit word or concept might be rendered by several Chinese
expressions.
The relationship between Chinese Buddhist and Sanskrit tech-
nical vocabulary is no simple matter. In some cases, there may be
equivalence between items (for example, M"!mltt;*-i and aviintara
["intermediate"]). In other cases, one Sanskrit word may be ren-
dered by many quite different Chinese expressions (e.g. •t.§. f!P.m
[or !W] ~. ~IJ{g [or-@] M"f!Jlllff. [or ~tor.~;}(], •tf!.M [or MJ M"~. ~
~l£3l, ·t.E!.ft~~. ~-@Mf!Jlllft;[Jf~], tun!~ and Tathagata ["Thus-
come," an epithet for a Buddha]). Some Chinese technical·
Buddhist terms may actually be a conflation of several nearly
synonymous Sanskrit terms (for example, ii and svabhiiva, prakrti,
pradhiina, and so forth). And many technical terms in Chinese Bud-
dhism have no analogues in Sanskrit (for example, Zen kOan 1}~).
I consider pien as an artistic or literary genre to be in the next-to-
61
last category, that is, although it has definite Sanskritic anteced-

ents, pien is not equal to any single Sanskrit word or term.
One of the very few texts in the Chinese Buddhist canon that
includes the word pien with the approximate meaning "picture
(of a transformational or supernatural event or deity)" is the
MiilasarviistiviidavinayakJ;udrakavastu :11! ;1j;: ~--j;JJ ~ {fBEf: ~ Jm ~
(text no. 1451 in T24). This text was translated in full by 1-ching
in the year 703 from manuscripts that he himselfhad brought back
from lndia. 149 The crucial passage 150 in which the important refer-
ence to pien occurs may be summarized as follows: After the elder,
Anathapil).Q.ika *~ 1JJl jjt :1!f, had completed the construction of the
Jetavana garden, he felt that it would be appropriate to decorate
the buildings with colorful paintings. And so he went to the
Buddha to ask his advice. The Buddha told him to follow his
own inclinations. Thereupon, he collected the necessary materials
for painting and called together artisans to carry out the work.
But, when the artisans asked him what they should paint and where,
Anathapil).Q.ika replied that he did not know and that he had better
go ask the Buddha again. The Buddha then proceeded to explain,
in precise detail, both the subject matter and the location of sug-
gested paintings.
In this context, the word pien occurs twice ( T24.283b, lines
3 and 8) with the probable meaning of "supernatural event(s)
[pictorially represented]." In its first occurrence, the suggested
painting is designated as a "pien of great supernatural power" -:k IIi$
~~. 151 Unfortunately, although numerous fragments of the San-
skrit Miilasarviistiviidavinaya survive, 152 there are none correspond-
ing to this passage. 153 The Tibetan version/ 54 however, which
dates to around the beginning of the ninth century, follows the ex-
tant Sanskrit fragments closely and may be considered a reliable
substitute for the lost portion of the original siitra.t 55 For "pien of
great supernatural power," the Tibetan here reads "a great cho-
hphrul," 156 which is a standard translation of Sanskrit priitihiirya (cf.
priitihiira, "magician") and rddhi. 157 The second occurrence of pien
is in the expression "pien ofhell" :ttl!~~- The Chinese expression
means "manifestation" or "representation" ~ [!!\'.] (Sanskritpriiti-
hiirya) of[the sufferings in] hell (Sanskrit naraka). Unexpectedly, the
Tibetan here reads dmyal-babai-rabs, which means "a hell family,"
62
that is, a "lineage" or "hierarchy" of the arrangement of hell. 158

It is impossible to determine, on the basis of available materials,
whether the Chinese or the Tibetan more accurately represents
the original Sanskrit. What matters is that we have been able to
identify in a Chinese siitra ultimately derived from a Sanskrit
source the word pien occurring with the probable meaning of
"[pictorial representation of] supernatural event(s)."
Chou I-liang, referring to the Chinese text, states 159 that this
seems not to be a normal Chinese usage of pien and suggests that
it has a Sanskrit antecedent. The word which he mentions as a pos-
sibility is citra ("picture" jt). This a commendable guess but one
which can be justified neither etymologically nor textually. Citra
also has the following meanings, which I give with their established
Chinese translations: "variegated" (f.!Ui[:lf'IPJ], ~M. ~~),
"strange" (if~), "wonderful" (:ffl"-t't, t&fS). These compounds
also give an indication of the types of Chinese translations nor-
mally used to render citra: citra-kiira ("painter" W: ffili), citra-kara
("painter" W:ll'C), citra-grha or citra-siilii ("a room painted with pic-
tures" W:~), citra-darsana ("variegated-eyed" ~l'UHi;fi$;), citra-
pa(a or citra-pa((a ("painting" :*W:, W:®!., ~ii\). 160 To the best of my
knowledge, citra was never translated into Chinese as pien.
Wu Hsiao-ling has a suggestion similar to Chou I-liang's. Wu
offers vicitra ("variegated," "brilliant") as the Sanskrit equivalent
ofpien. 161 He maintains that vicitraincludes the meanings "strange"
and "supernatural" and indeed it does. But I have not been
able to confirm that it occurs in contexts with the meaning "[pic-
torial representation of] supernatural/transformational [event (s) f
deities(s)]" which it must ifit is to match Chinese Buddhistpien
in the sense under discussion. Another interesting observation 162 by
Chou on the Mulasarviistiviidavinaya passage is that, since it refers
both to hsiang ®!. and pien ~' the two must be different. "It is prob-
able that the subject of a hsiang is a person while the subject of a
pien is an episode (lit. 'event' or 'matter' *)."This ties in very well
with my contention163 that pien by its very nature has narrative
qualities.
The longest passage in the Pali canon describing the construc-
tion and decoration oftheJetavana garden and monastery that I
have been able to locate is Cullavagga 6, 4.10:
63
Then the householder Aniithapi!].c;iika, thinking: "This Princejeta

is a distinguished, well-known man; surely the faith in this dhamma
and discipline ofwell-known men like this is very efficacious," made
over that open space to Princejeta. The Princejeta built a porch 164
on that open space. The householder Aniithapi!].Q.ika had dwelling-
places made, he had cells made ... porches ... attendance halls ... fire
halls ... huts for what is allowable ... privies ... places for pacing
up and down in ... halls in the places for pacing up and down in .. .
wells ... halls at the wells ... bathrooms ... halls in the bathrooms .. .
lotus ponds .... He had sheds made. 165
Nowhere is there a mention of pictures being painted; hence it is

impossible to make any claim about the Indic equivalent of pien
on the basis of this passage. The account as given by the Miilasar-
vastivadins has all the earmarks of a later elaboration of a canon-
icallegend.
In a discussion of the possible evolution within Buddhism of
carar;a citra ("rambling," "strolling," or "improvised pictures")
into wall-paintings, Barua cites a legend from the Divyavadiina166
which I have also been able to locate in the Chinese version of the
Miilasarviistivadavinaya. 167 The Buddha suggests that, in order for
the other disciples to become as effective preachers as Mahamaud-
galyayana, certain paintings should be affixed to the monastery
where they dwelled. (One wonders whether Mahamaudgalyayana
may not himself have used pictures in his preaching. At any rate,
his ability to conjure images is undisputed, since he was preeminent
among the Buddha's disciples for his magical powers jjl$~~-.)
The wheel oflife with five divisions should be represented on the door-
way (of the Ve!].uvana monastery), showing the five destinies of men,
namely, those typified by the infernal creatures, the brute, the departed
spirits, the gods and the human beings. In the lowest division are
to be shown the infernal creatures, the brute world and the departed
spirits; in the upper division the gods, men and the four continents
(Pilrvavideha, Aparagodiiniya, Uttaraku and Jambudvipa); in the
middle parts Passion, Hatred, and Delusion,- Passion in the form of
a pidgeon, Hatred in that of a serpent, Delusion in that of a boar, as
well as the Buddha-image, the circle ofNirviii].a, and the chance-born
beings, the last as rising and falling in the form of the rope-and-bucket
of a well; while surrounding all is to be engraved the Buddhist Wheel
64
of Life, divided into 12 segments and revolving forwards and back-

wards. The representations must set forth concrete examples of the dif-
ferent ways and actions leading persons along these destinies. The
Wheel of Life must be accompanied by the inscription recording the
two verses urging-
"Proceed, 0 man, come out and flock to Buddha's standard,

Shatter Death's legion, as elephant tramples house of reed,
not hard." 168
Where the Sanskrit text has kiirayitavyam or kartavyii (literally,

"what has to be done," translated by Barua as "represented,"
"shown," and so forth), the Chinese gives hua It ("paint"). And,
where the Chinese text, apparently for clarity's sake, is compelled
to use hsiang ~ ("image"), hsiang ;f§ ("appearance") and hsing ~
("form"), the Sanskrit omits similar expressions altogether. In
spite of the obvious similarity to the decorations stipulated for
the J etavana monastery in the Miilasarviistiviidavinayak~udrakavastu
where the word pien ~ does occur with the meaning "transforma-
tional (representation)," it is totally absent from this passage.
After an extensive search, I have not been able to discover in any
Indian language, ancient or modern, an expression that cor-
responds exactly to the Chinese "pien-wen." Though pien surely
means "transformation (al manifestation)" in the sense of "(pic-
torial) representation," it does not equal faubhika, yamapa{a,
mankha, or any of the many other words in Indian languages for
picture storytelling. 169 The conclusion that I, therefore, have been
forced to reach is that the Chinese, when confronted with these
mysterious transformational shadows, coined the expression them-
selves. But, in so doing, they chose a Buddhist technical term of
respectable pedigree, one already established as a translation of
nirmii1Ja, priitihiirya, and related concepts. The Chinese Buddhist
technical term pien, which is markedly different from earlier usages
of the graph in classical contexts, would seem to be a conflation of
a number of Indian Buddhist concepts. We may not say that it
is exactly equivalent to any single Sanskrit term. The passage of
Buddhism through Central Asia alone means that, in many cases,
certain residues of languages there would have become attached
to the technical vocabulary that was transmitted to China. 170 Pien-
65
wen is thus the embodiment of an intercultural nexus: It is neither

simply Indian nor Chinese, yet it is paradoxically both Indian and
Chinese.
Having established that pien in the terms pien-wen and pien-hsiang

means "transformation," I shall now proceed with a general discus-
sion of Buddhist ideas of transformation in order to put these two
.literary and artistic genres in a larger context. For someone totally
unacquainted with Buddhist metaphysics, the concept of trans-
formation here referred to may, perhaps, be crudely characterized
as "realization" in the musical sense that one begins with the mere
idea of a melody and actualizes it in performance. Similarly, in
Buddhist philosophy, the mind conceives of something and then,
through cognition, brings it into (illusory) being.
Conze's analysis of the use of magic sounds in Tantrism is help-
ful in understanding how visualization (which is what a pien
performance attempts to achieve) may be accomplished through
pictures:
Each word can be analyzed into its syllables, and according to the
Tantra, different syllables not only correspond to different spiritual
forces or deities, but a syllable, or letter, can be used to conjure up a
deity, and therefore it can, in a sense, be called the "germ" ofthat deity,
just as a grain of wheat contains the plant in itself. It seems logical to
assume that if one can, as the first step, dissolve oneselfinto emptiness
through concentrated thought, then it must also be possible to conjure
up from emptiness the entire world of phenomena. With the help of cer-
tain sounds-such as AM, HUM, SV AHA-one does actually create
the deities out of the void. 171
The ability to achieve these feats is premised upon the basic

Indian idea that all phenomenal existence is an illusion. A most
sustained and revealing example of the Buddhist understanding
of the illusory nature of all dharmas may be found in the Bhad-
ramiiyiikiiral!Yiikara?Ja, The Prophecy Concerning the Illusionist Bhadra.
The translators mentioned in the Tibetan colophon, Jinamitra
Prajfiavarma and Ye-ses-sde, worked in the ninth century. 172
Regamey refers to this text as "the Sanskrit version." 173 There
are two available Chinese translations of this work which I shall
66
refer to in the notes as Ch. 1 and Ch. 2. The first translation, attrib-
uted to Dharmarak~a (fl. 266-300), is called (Fo-shuo) huan-shih
jen-hsien ching (1911 IDl) }0 ± t: R ~ .174 It is usually preferable for its
understanding of the original but has occasional gross errors. The
second Chinese translation was done by Bodhiruci sometime be-
tween 693-713. It is called Shou huan-shih Pa-t' o-lo chi hui ~ :lO ffili ~
lft*lt~2if. 175 It is generally laconic but sometimes provides quite
intelligent interpretations. There also exist a Pali and a Khotanese
version of the tale. 17 6
The Bhadramiiyiikiiravyiikara7Ja is the 21st of the 49 Mahayana
texts included in the Ratnakiita section of the Tripitaka. It is a de-
scription of a magic contest between a famous conjurer named
Bhadra and the Buddha himself, who engages in the contest in
order to convert his opponent. Bhadra seeks to embarrass the Bud-
dha by having him attend a magnificent banquet complete with
splendid trappings and trimmings that is situated on a garbage
dump. After decisively defeating Bhadra, in the first instance, by
causing the creation of an even more magnificent courtyard and
banquet attended by 30,000 gods led by Sakra and, in the second,
by not allowing Bhadra to withdraw his illusory creation when he
realizes his error, the Buddha then seizes upon this opportunity to
teach that the world is but an illusion:
"The enjoyments (upabhoga) and gains (paribhoga) of all beings,

Bhadra, are created by the magic of the deed (karmamqyii), this order
of monks is created by the magic of the Dharma (dharmamqyii). I am
created by the magic ofwisdom (fiiiinamqyii), the Universe containing
three thousand thousands of worlds is created by the magic of all the
productions (abhini~patti, abhinirvrtti); and the entire reality (sarve
dharmab) is created by the magic of the complex of conditions
(pratyayasaT(lbhara)." 177
In the end, Bhadra is thoroughly convinced that all is "universal

Illusion." 178 The same vision of the world as a magic show or
series of conjuror's tricks is repeated as an extended parable in the
Kiilakiiriima Sutta.l79
An individual who is thoroughly enlightened about the
true nature of the world possesses an abundance of impressive
abilities. As examples of the various magical powers it was thought
67
those who had achieved the higher levels of meditation were

capable of exercising, I cite the following from Buddhagho~a's
Visuddhimagga (xii):
I. The magical power of sustained resolution
a. Having been one, he becomes many; having been many, he
becomes one.
b. He becomes visible or invisible.
c. Right through a wall, a rampart, or a hill he glides unimpeded,
as though through empty space.
d. He dives into the earth and out of it.
e. He walks on water without sinking into it.
f. Cross-legged he floats along like a bird on the wing.
g. Even the sun and the moon, powerful and mighty though they
be, he touches and strokes with his hands.
h. Even as far as the world ofBrahma he has power over his body.
2. The power of miraculous transformation.
3. The power of producing mind-made bodies. 180
The Buddha himself is naturally thought to possess such abil-

ities. According to Conze:
In the Hinayana, already, the Buddha was credited with the mirac-
ulous power of conjuring up an appearance of himself, a "nimitta··
Buddha," which preached elsewhere, while he went begging. The
Hindu Gods also had such powers. So we read in the Digha Nikaya.
that Brahma Sahampati, when he appears in the assembly of the "Gods
qf the Thirty-three," manifests himself in a material body. "For his shape,
as it naturally is, is unbearable to the sight qf these Gods." 18 1
It is significant that so many Indian words dealing with super-

natural manifestation were rendered in Chinese by expressions
employing various combinations of pien. Closely related words
(although they come from entirely different Sanskrit roots) in this
complex of meanings are pien-hua ~1t (nirmii.r;.a, "transforma-
tion"), pien-hsien ~ m, (prii.tihii.rya, "manifestation"), pien-hsiang
~;f§ (viparir;.ata, "changed aspect"), shen-pien Iii$~ (prii.tihii.rya or
vikurvita, "spiritual/supernatural transformation/manifestation"),
plain pien ~ (vikrti or vyakta, "something manifested through trans-
formation"), and the Chinese Buddhist expression pien-hua ~50
(*nirmii.r;.a-mqyii.[?], "transformational illusion"). 182
68
It is not surprising that transformation and illusion would ulti-

mately be combined in Chinese literature to form a single expres-
sion. In the "Rhapsody on the Lamps of the Pagoda in the Center
of the Ou ~ River" 183 IT.•L'~(=:!iH~llli\ by the Ming writer
Wang Kuang-yun :±. ~fi, it is said that the lamps display "multi-
colored184 spiritual evocations through transformational illusion,
emit manifold emblazonry185 that soars on high." jjl!jl:E ~:In~ :KJ,
!\W-tl!fffii!lll!. 186 These lines are embedded in the very center of a
text that is heavily laden with crystalline and vitreous images, with
lightning, rainbows, flickering flames, shadows, reflections, and
other optical phenomena, as well as with manifestations of the
Buddha. This complex of images and concepts is consonant with
other Indian-influenced religio-literary traditions throughout
Asia.
The notion of transformational manifestation is so pervasive in
Buddhist thought that it can scarcely be overstressed. In the Lotus
Sii,tra, we read of the three transformations of the Buddha-realm
(san-pien t'u-t'ien :::::.~ ± EB) by Sakyamuni on Vulture Peak: the rev-
elation of the world, the vast extension of that world, and a still
vaster extension. For this and similar reasons, the Buddha is some-
times thought of as the "Great Magician"; one might almost say
that his is the greatest illustrated story being performed. And he
seems to do this, at times, out of sheer pleasure or sport (vikrfqita
~~ [jjl!jl3m] or jjl$~). The transformations of the Bhutatathata
J.ij; ~[], in fact, are so unlimited as to be inconceivable (acinrya-
pari1Jiiminf :If',~,~~). For purposes of propagating the Buddha-
truth, he is able to assume any sort of metamorphic body
(nirmii1Ja-kiiya 1-t~ or ~1-t~ or 1.1!!1-t~, the third of the "three
bodies," trikiiya := ~).
It is more than a passing curiosity that both the Chinese and the
Tibetan Buddhists chose what was etymologically the very same
word to stand for the complex of concepts in Sanskrit that have
to do with illusory transformation. That is, as Simon has pointed
out,187 Tibetan sprul ("to juggle [that is, perform tricks of illusion],
change") and Chinese biann [pien] (Karlgren, GSR, p. 67, no. 178,
o: *plianfpiiin-) are essentially the same word.
RolfStein's analysis 188 of a cluster of words in Tibetan all center-
ing on the concept of transformation is helpful in understanding
69
the relationship between illusion and creation. He mentions the

binomes rju-'phrull 89 (where rju is related to rjun "dream"), cho-
'phrul (the meaning of cho is uncertain but it probably has to do with
engenderment or production) and sgyu-'phrul ( = Skt. miiya or "illu-
sion") .1 90 The common element in all these binomes is the noun
or adjective 'phrul ("[having] magical/supernatural/transforming
ability"). The causative of 'phrul is sprul ("to change [the subject
itself or anything or anyone] into [something else]"; "to emanate";
"to produce the appearances or illusions of [corresponding sub-
stantives]"). What is most revealing is that Tibetan sprul in all of
these cases means exactly the same as Chinese pien! Rolf Stein ex-
patiates191 on Walter Simon's proposal that sprul and pien be con-
sidered as both equivalent and etymologically related in these two
Sino-Tibetan languages. They each have approximately the same
range of pre-Buddhist meaning and, more curious still, were uti-
lized by Tibetan and Chinese respectively to cover virtually iden-
tical sets of technical vocabulary. Both sprul-sku and pien-hua shen
~1t:!:1!', for example, mean nirmii?J.a-kiiya ("transformation body").
There is a group of Chinese terms centering on Sanskrit prati-
bimba ("image") that express the notion of shadows or reflections
without any true existence. These areying-hsiang ~{& ("shadow-
image"), ching-hsiang ~ {&("image in a mirror"), and se-hsiang fS {&
('image of a form [rupa]"). Two other related expressions areying-
hsien ~;rn, ("the epiphany or manifestation of the shadow," that is,
"the temporal Buddha") andying-fang ~~("a hall where there
are images, pictures, or objects of worship"). In all of these expres-
sions, we see the concatenation of shadow, manifestation, and
representation of a deity.
It is most thought-provoking that several medieval (late Six
Dynasties through Liao) orthographies of the word pien include the
shan ~ radical (no. 59) which is a component in many characters
expressing reflection or shimmering brilliance. Those unusual
forms of pien that I have culled from various sources192 include !lit,
~~ (=!It~ or~),~' and !lit. It appears thatpien, for a certain period
which coincides' roughly with the time when pien-hsiang and pien-
wen were current, was understood by some as a visual or optical
phenomenon. What is perhaps even more interesting is that there
exist two characters with the radical ~ (~~(pronounced :IJ*WJ
70
and ~ [pronounced the same as #] ), the meaning of which is not

known but which may well have some relationship to the Buddha
since the phonetic element in each case was used to transcribe the
sound of his name into Chinese.
The following group ofSogdian words (except for three or four
ofManichaean origin, all are from Buddhist texts) also indicates
a close connection between transformational manifestation and
visual phenomena: p1J'yskyn or p()'stkyn ("apparent," "appear spon-
taneously"), p1J'ys ("appear," "[to] show"), 'ndys- ("[to] show"),
'n1Jysn ("reflection"), flys ("vision"), P1J'yp(') ("radiance, bril-
liance"), 'P1J'ys ("appearance, apparition, vision," used to trans-
late Chineseying where it equals Sanskrit chaya with the meaning
"shadow, silhouette, form, image"; cf. Parthian ,.bdys- ["show"];
parallel to prysnh, nysnh, and 'ysnyrk; the latter glossed in Middle
Persian as nfsan["sign, mark"], c£ hsiang ;f§ with the meaning of
Sanskrit lak~a1J.a or nimitta) 193 'P1J'ymtyh ("transformation, magic,"
used to translate Chinese hua 1t with the meaning of Sanskrit
nirmita which is also rendered in Chinese by such relevant expres-
sions as hsien-hua ffl.1t ["appear through transformation"],ying-hua
~1t ["responsive transformation"],ju-huan ~Q}O ["as though an
illusion"], and, of course, pien-hua ~1t ["transformation"]). Bud-
dhist Sogdian was current during approximately the same period
of time as w.ere transformations in China.
When discussing shadow-play traditions in other societies, for
comparative purposes, we should keep in mind all of the nuances
of the Chinese wordpien. An early word for shadow-play in Arabic,
for example, sha'wafi.a, has a strikingly similar range of meaning
with Buddhist pien: "fascination (s); a kind of play; legerdemain,
or sleight-of-hand; making a thing to appear different from what
it really is; showing a man what has no real existence; making what
is false assume the form of what is true." 194 Not only are these
meanings reminiscent of Buddhist pien; they recall even more the
Indian concept of maya that lies in the ontological background of
pien. It is equally interesting to note that another Arabic word for
"shadow-play" and "magic lantern," khayal, primarily signifies
"imagination, shadow, phantom." 195 In examining the evolution
of picture storytelling into shadow and puppet plays that seems to
have taken place in India, Indonesia, China, and elsewhere, it will
71
be helpful to recall these fundamental affinities and resemblances

between illusion, transformation, and the power of creative
imagination. 196
For China, the concatenation of illusory transformation, optical
phenomena,1 97 and outlawed or suspect (to the establishment)
popular religious movements can be seen as far back as the Sui
period:
In the year613, when the Emperor (Yang-ti :1.$}"/jj=) was at Kao-yang
~~, 198 there was a man from T'ang }j district, 199 Sung Tzu-hsien
SK-T~, who was good at illusory arts. Every night there was a glow
oflight from the second floor of his apartments. Through transforma-
tion, he could make an image 200 of the Buddha fjg ~ f'F ffll ~ and styled
hifnself"Maitreya Appearing in the World." 201 He would hang a large
mirror in his hall and would depict on plain paper snakes, beasts, and
even human figures. When people came there to worship, he would turn
the mirror sideways causing shapes of future rebirths 202 to be seen or
projecting the images of snakes on the plain paper. Tzu-hsien would
abruptly tell them that this was sinful karma.
This account in the Sui History 203 goes on to relate how, through
worship centered on this optical chicanery, Sung incited large
numbers of his followers to take part in a design against the
Emperor. The plot leaked out, however, and government forces
were sent to subdue the rebels, not without first having to penetrate
an imaginary ring of fire that Sung had magically created to pro-
tect himself.
In spite of the fact that this account reeks of Confucian prejudice
and distortion, it affords us a glimpse of the power of alleged trans-
formational manifestations. This account also adumbrates the
social status of an early religious movement that relied on trans-
formational illusions to rally the populace. It is no wonder that the
establishment would seek to suppress such movements and that
orthodox Buddhists (who were usually part of the establishment
or, except in times of widespread anti-Buddhist persecution, were
at least on the fringes of it) would make strenuous efforts to dis-
sociate themselves from all such activities. As we shall see in the
latter part of Chapter 6, all these facets ofpien came together in con-
junction with Manichaean cults.
72
chapter four
Form, Formula, and Features of
Transformations
In Chapter 2, we considered the question ofhow many extant pien-

wen there are. This involved distinguishing pien-wen from other
types ofTun-huang popular literature. In so doing, certain iden-
tifying features of pien-wen were mentioned, such as the pre-verse
formula, the prosimetric form, and a necessary relationship to il-
lustrations. This chapter will describe these features and their func-
tions in detail.
The basic transformation-text verse-introductory formula may
be conceived of as "[Please look for a moment at the] place [where]
x [occurs]. How [should I] present [it]?" [£1.~]1 x'~. E~ 2 llllt
[Wt;]? 3 The best way to begin our investigation of this formula is
with a discussion of the origins of the word ch'u as it is used here. I
should preface my remarks with mention of the recent discovery
of the existence of virtually the same formula in an Indian picture-
storytelling genre known as par vacarJO. Because the Indian tradition
is still a living oral performing art, the formula does not occur
with such obligatory regularity as in pien-wen, nor is it of such a
standardized form. The resemblance between the pien-wen and par
vaca7J.O pre-verse formulas suggests that they serve the same pur-
pose, function in a virtually identical fashion, and are almost cer-
tainly related to each other through some common ancestor. 4
There is compelling evidence that the use of the word ch'u in the
verse-introductory formula is linked to inscriptions on paintings
identifying individual scenes. Several occurrences of ch'u at the end
of a narrative label on the Tun-huang wall-paintings have been
mentioned by Kawaguchi Hisao. He has recorded 5 two inscrip-
tions from cartouches of a wall painting depicting scenes from the
73
Form, Formula, and Features ofTransformations
Buddha's life that are on the east wall of Tun-huang cave 102 (Pel-
liot number; Tun-huang Institute no. 76): "The place where the
Crown Prince, in the Himalayas, has his hair shaved off" :i:-=f
~ !111!- ~ Wl; and "The place where he bathes in the river with lotuses
(?)growing out of the mud" V63l( --rl ? )iOI ~f.§ W!;. I recorded the
following inscriptions from the right portion (at the top) of the east
wall of the same cave during my 1981 summer trip to Tun-huang:
The place where he bathes in the Hirai).yavati River.
J\l.~ (=m!)~f!iJ~¥tl-: (probably the same as Kawaguchi's second
inscription).
The place where the Crown Prince undergoes six years of austerities.
:t:-=f:t;;~:g::rr:
The place in the Himalayas where the Crown Prince cuts off his hair
[and becomes a monk] (the same as Kawaguchi's first inscription).
:;t-T~!llii~~
The place where he teaches and converts five brothers.

~{t~;f;E.A.:
(The place where] the Crown Prince crosses the city wall in the middle
of the night.
:;t\:=f13(~illii:!Bt (no ch'u)
I also spotted in the lower left corner of the north wall of cave 17
bis (Pelliot number, 156 in the Tun-huang Institute numbering
system; dating from the late T'ang) these three characters: ~~~Wl;
("The place where [it?] is flying and singing.") 6 The west wall of
cave 117 (Tun-huang Institute no. 61; a Sung painting) depicts
the miraculous events associated with Maiijusri at Five Terraces
Mountain (Wu-t'ai shan :li~!ll, Paiicasir~a or Paiicasikha). One
of the cartouches reads: "The place where a golden bridge is made
to appear through transformation." 1t4:~ (= ;jl }!~,m ( = Wl;). 7
A cartouche on a ceiling painting in the corridor of cave 108
(Tun-huang Institute number, late T'ang [?]) bears the following
inscription: "This is the place where the Dharma Master T'an-yen
went into reclusion at the Mountain (that is, Monastery) of One
Hundred Ladders (in Khotan)." Jit~sm !ll~r!lffi!il\iW!;. 8 It is un-
likely that ch'u here specifies the actual location where T'an-yen
was a recluse because "Mountain of One Hundred Ladders" tells
74
us that. Hence ch'u must be functioning in a more abstract way.

As we shall see momentarily, its purpose in such situations is to de-
signate an event in a narrative sequence.
Tun-huang manuscript P3317 confirms this interpretation of
ch'u ("place") functioning as a market of narrative locus. It is a list
of 118 events in the Buddha's life based on nidiinas from the third
*
and following fascicles of the Buddhacarita f!lll fi ~ ~ ~ ~ :=: 1{ff;
B(-+ tJ)r~/Eg'F.\j -T § ~. These short tags, averaging approxi-
mately ten characters in length, each end in the word "place"
(ch'u). They would have been suitable for cartouches on a trans-
formation tableau or for the first part of pre-verse formulas in a
transformation text dealing with the life of the Buddha. They are
written in an undistinguished hand.
S6320 is a long strip of paper with an inscription honoring
Vaisraval)a ll!lt1d;- r~ and Dh:rtara~tra (?) ft ~ 3Z. that ends in ch'u.
It is probably a label for a painting, a statue, or a temporary altar.
A wood-block print text from Kiangsu, 9 dating to c. 1104 and
entitled Dhiira7Jf siitra rt:*i!t:.~, includes illustrations. Among the
inscriptions for these illustrations is the following: "This is the place
where the official borrows money from the Abbot of the Monastery
of Pervading Light and the Abbot orders the little monk to divide
it up and give it to him." 'ff Ai\E~:J't~:i:ftat ~:i:% 1J'~fE;]:B
{t~.
A set of transformation tableaux illustrating the Lotus Siitra, 10
probably dating from the end of the Northern Sung or the begin-
ning of the Southern Sung, has cartouches with inscriptions de-
scribing the events depicted; one of these ends with the word ch'u.
Kameta Tsutomu has compiled a list11 of the identifying inscrip-
tions of scenes on Japanese narrative picture scrolls depicting the
founding of the Avatam~a ["Garland"] school of Buddhism ~ ~
~!g. Many of these inscriptions end with the word tokoro C: ;:: G
("place").l 2 Some of the scrolls date from the early thirteenth
century (c. 1227-1231).
There is preserved in japan an important illustrated scroll en-
titled Bussetsu Mokuren kyiibo kyo [Siitra on Maudgalyiiyana's Saving of
His Mother] f!llliDl § ~;j:J(£3:~.1 3 A colophon at the end states that
it is a reprint of the same type of scripture printed in the 5th month
of 1251 in Yuan China.14 The reprinting itself was undertaken
75
on a date equivalent to 15July 1346 in Kyoto. The scroll has the

format of a fully illustrated plain tale (ch'iian-hsiang p'ing-hua itffi
zp. ~',§) with pictures on the top and a popularized version of the
scripture on the bottom. We should also note that the scroll dates
from the same period as that of the greatest popularity ofp'ing-hua
("plain tales" or "expository tales" ~lf ~IS). It is, furthermore, not
insignificant that the subject of this scroll is also the most popular
of all Tun-huang transformation texts. What is particularly in-
teresting about this scroll, however, is that there are cartouches on
the pictures and that the inscriptions therein usually consist of
a short description of the scene depicted that ends with the word
tokoro jl! (~"place"). For example, "The place where prepara-
tions are made for the Feast of Hungry Ghosts" ~~M @:)(!! and
"The place where Maudgalyayana's mother receives the precepts
in front ofthe Buddha and is reborn in heaven" EI31£J:Hf91liW~
jJX: ~1:. ::R j/1, and so on. Surely this usage has a direct relationship to
the ch'u in the verse-introductory formula of transformation texts. 15
Even more revealing is what happened to this market of narra-
tive locus in later Japanese popular fiction. There is a genre of
storybooks for women and children known as otogi zoshi :i'J{Vj]:/ijt =f
that is closely linked to a tradition of picture recitation. One such
story is entitled "Shichinin bikuni [Seven nuns]" -GA.Jt£i:fB. 16 In
the 1635 edition of this story, the following statement occurs just
before an illustration: "This is the place (tokoro) where they set off
for an unknown destination with the young master Fujiwara, 12
years of age, at the head of their party." The 1682 version elim-
inates the direct linkage between text and picture by omitting the
word tokoroP The number of pictures in the latter text was also
reduced and later storybooks would forgo them entirely. This is but
one item of specific evidence demonstrating how popular written
narratives gradually grew out of a tradition of picture recitation.
An anonymous twelfth-century narrative hand scroll in the
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art is entitled "Picture of
[Chao Yi.i's] Pacification of the Barbarians South ofLu" 7ji¥Jzp.
~11!. 18 The various scenes are labeled thus: "This section depicts
the matter of X" Jlt~:l: X*· Here shih *
functions in a similar
fashion to ch'u in Buddhist paintings by marking a discrete narra-
tive event depicted as part of a series.
76
An illustrated Pulsifl Amita-gyifng 1$Wl:Mfi~~' published in

Korean in 15 72, consists of pages that are one-half picture and one-
half text, very much in the fashion of printed plain or expository
tales (p'ing-hua). Each picture has an inscription which describes
its contents and ends with the word l!)liiha Jl±~. Hence, "[This is]
the spiritually adorned scene in which X [happens]." In this case,
l!Jiiiha is used in the same way as ch'u (tokoro) on Buddhist narrative
paintings in China and in Japan.
In the "Transformation on the Han General, Wang Ling,"
there is an extremely important textual problem relating to the
meanings of pien and ch'u which must be discussed in depth. This
occurs on T36.11. I will first translate the passage following the
Peking University Library manuscript (p. 9, lines 3-4) formerly
owned by Shao Hsun-mei: "[This is] the place where the two
generals took leave of the king and went to destroy the encamp-
ment. From this picture [lit. 'layout' or 'spread'] is thence the be-
ginning [following the unannounced emendation of the T editors;
the manuscript has 'division'] of the transformation." *1-~ 3::: j! =
1±1iff~ (=:g) ~iftJit-~j!~~t)J (Tun-huang orthographical
form of -wl-+ W [?] ) . S543 7 has " ... the place where they destroy
the encampment. With this one turn [of the picture scroll] is thence
the beginning of the transformation." wr:g ~iftJit-ifli ( M)j!~ =
~W. P3627 has" ... a layout of the place where they destroy the
encampment is thence the beginning of the place (- transforma-
tion)."1iff:g~-~j!~~(-~)W. Comparison of the three ver-
sions leads me to the conclusion that there was some semantic
overlap between ch'u and pien, because they cannot be confused
orthographically or phonically. 19 This overlap, plus the simulta-
neous occurrence of p'u ~ ("pictorial/illustrative layout/spread")
in the same sentence, offers strong supporting evidence for my con-
tention that both ch'u and pien have intimately to do with pictures.
The fact that the end title ofP3867 (T4 7.2) also includes the word
p'u in combination with pien is further evidence of this connection. 20
In cases where the word "look" (k'an !If) precedes it, ch'u in the
transformation-text pre-verse formula cannot but be considered as
a (vestigial) reference to a picture or, perhaps more accurately, a
part of or a point on a picture. For a reader ofwritten transforma-
tion texts without accompanying picture scrolls, the simulated
77
context would have evoked the meaning "place [on a painting],"

hence " [visualized] scene." But the extended meaning comes
simply to be "place or point in a narrative context." The shift to
a temporal signification is evident.
That the notion "place" in narrative contexts can have a tem-
poral meaning is also known from the fact thatJapanese tokoro ~
has both spatial and temporal facets. In Japanese "epistolary
style" (sorobun f~X:) and in certain other styles, tokoro has a very
intriguing sequential usage. Since at least the year I 016 it has been
employed as a conjunction which serves to connect the narration
of a given clause with its succeeding clause. 21 The Manchu word
ba ("place") has also developed many similar idiomatic usages,
among them that of "when." 22 The development of this usage of
tokoro and ba seems to have been as follows: "at the [narrative] locus
where X happened" > "at the [narrative] moment when X hap-
pened" > "after/when X happened, then Y occurred." The first
stage resembles very much the transformation text usage of ch'u as
a narrative sequential marker and might conceivably have been
influenced by it.
About the same time as this usage of tokoro arose in Japan, ch'u
in China also begins to function as a mark of narrative sequence
in the written, colloquial language. This is evident from Zen his-
torical records and dialogues as well as from such nco-Confucian
texts as the Classified Conversations of Chu Hsi. 23 That this peculiar
usage of ch'u and tokoro as narrative sequential marks developed in
a popular Buddhist environment seems obvious. For ch'u in Tun-
huang texts other than pien-wen with the denotation "locus (here,
of course, not pictorially illustrated)" but still with a temporal or
sequential connotation, see T44l.l 0, 525.12, 623.11, 652.15 [in the
past], and so on.
This usage of ch'u in the sense of "time when" also occurs spo-
radically in shih ~:f poetry as early as the middle of the eighth
century. 24 It becomes even more frequent in Sung lyric meters (tz'u
~ii]) and Yuan drama. It may be noted that the first appearance
of this usage in poetry follows upon its introduction in Buddhist
narrative contexts. Some poems even replicate the pairing of shih
("time when") and ch'u found in Tun-huang wall-paintings.
In the Sik~iisamuccaya, compiled by San tid eva during the seventh
78
Form, Formula, and Features of Transformations
century, 25 there are two occurrences26 of the word vi{hapana, which

may be of value in explaining the connection between illusory
creation (that is, representation) and place (locus). In both in-
stances,27 Sanskrit miiyii is rendered in Chinese by Dharmakirti as
}!.J{t and vi{hapana as JJili;. As such, I believe that Edgerton is justified
in rendering vi{hapana in BHS as ''fixation, establishment, creation, mak-
ing; especially with implication of something illusory and fleeting."
Significantly, vi{hapana has also been expressed in Chinese as
"transformational manifestation" (pien-hsien ~HJ!). This is helpful
in our efforts to understand the original meaning of ch'u in the pien-
wen pre-verse formula. I should also point out that there is a direct
parallel between this transformational aspect of ch'u in the pien-
wen formula and the notion of "place" that occurs in the Indian
par vacal}O verse-introductory formula mentioned at the beginning
of this chapter.
Pien and ch'u repeatedly recur as linked philosophical terms
in Hsuan-tsang's ~~ (594-664) translation of Vasubandhu's
Vijiiaptimiitratiisiddhi [ ViT{lsatikii] ( Wei-shih erh-shih lun II£~= T IDfti;
The Treatise in Twenty Stanzas on Representation Only.) 28 They usually
stand respectively for paril}iima ("transformation") and iiyatana
("abiding place") in the original Sanskrit text. Ayatana is under-
stood as the result or impression of the transformational process.
The variations of the pre-verse formula in the "Transformation
on the Han General, Wang Ling" (T38.1 0 ... JJili; ~ [carefullyJ
~ll*Wt; 39.11-12 f(ff [and] ~lli$ 29 Wt;;41.3 JJ~Zi;tf~ [how] ll*Wt;;
42.4-5 ~[thereupon] ~ll*Wt; 43.6 tf~ll*Wt; 45.10 rm~lli$Wt;; and
46.12 JJili; tf~ ll* Wt;) 30 allow us to conclude that the actual inter-
rogatory force of the formula is almost nil. Compare also T99.15
•.• Wli;;f;f ["there is," but perhaps an orthographical error for tf]
~ ll* of the Wang Chao-chiin transformation text. It is at most a
perfunctory utterance that probably derives from such storyteller's
phrases as "How should I put it?" "How does it go?" or "This is
how it goes."
An interesting variant of the pien-wen pre-verse formula is to
be found in a fragmentary manuscript dealing with the Crown
Prince's (that is, the Buddha's) achievement of the Way that is kept
in the Nara Art Museum ~~~~jog. 31 It is not certain that this
manuscript is from Tun-huang but it does bear a strong resem-
79
blance to many texts recovered there. The formula in question

reads thus: "How can it be explained? [This is] the place where
the seer examines him for the auspicious marks of a Buddha."
:f!iM(-fiiJ)MN? f!l!A2:i;f§~. 32 Notice how it presents a curious
reversal of the usual pien-wen verse-introductory formula.
It is apparent that ch'u, both at the end of inscriptions on paint-
ings and in the transformation-text verse-introductory formula,
means approximately " [narrative] locus [pictorially represented
or visualized]." This interpretation is substantiated by the fre-
quently encountered parallel, Buddhist usage in texts and on
paintings of shih ffif as "[narrative] moment [pictorially repre-
sented or visualized]." 33
The expression "the time when ... " (shih) is often used in in-
scriptions. For example, in cave 106 (Tun-huang Institute no. 72),
there are scenes from the Mahasattva Jataka. One of the inscrip-
tions reads: "At that time [lit., The time when at that time!],
[Maha] sattva decided to sacrifice himself and, unhesitatingly, re-
moved his clothing and hung it on the branch of a tree." f:r\ ffif ifi :W
~5Efi%'!trm4!\li~'tm.li!Plffi::&~llm:tEt1ft;Dz:ffif. Note what appears to be
a redundancy of shih. I believe, however, that in the second oc-
currence it is functioning as a quasi-ablative grammatical inflec-
tion. "The place where ... " (ch'u) in similar inscriptions can be
considered the same sort of device used as a quasi-locative. This is
a resourceful invention that has other parallels in the development
of the Chinese language under the impact of Sanskritically ex-
pressed Buddhism. 3 4
In cave 9 ofthe Western Caves ofthe Thousand Buddhas lffl=f'
1~~, in the middle of the right wall on the south side, there is a
painting of the biography of the Buddha in a former life as Samaka
0~!1. This cave includes paintings from the early T'ang, Sung, and
Uighur periods as well as the only Sui painting ofSariputra's con-
test with the Six Heretics. Samaka was "a bodhisattva born to a
blind couple, clad in deerskin, slain by the king in hunting, restored
to life and to his blind parents by the gods." 35 An inscription on
the painting reads 36 as follows: "Samaka led his blind father and
mother .... [This is] the time when he made a grass hut and picked
sweet fruits to nourish his parents." D~rlm-'i~L5CffJ: .... f'f1\t~tlHI
1\t~~x affif.
80
Many other examples37 of shih being used as a mark of narrative

moment can be found at Tun-huang. On the east wall of cave 10,
there are altogether 11 panels which illustrate the story of the con-
struction of the Jetavana Garden. Each of the panels bears an
inscription that ends with the marker shih. The first panel, for
example, reads as follows: "The time when the elder Sudatta
took leave of the Buddha and was.~~out to go towards the city of
Sravasti to P.~ild a monastery, and the Buddha t_?_l? Sariputra
to construct the monastery with Su9-.~tta so he took leave of the
Buddha." ~~:R1lffi¥191! ~ rPJ~filjl2)g lli] rrJ~, 1911 ~ ~fU~;Jt
~ ~ 91~(--~)rrJ~, !m191!Z.M.f. 38 In cave 98 there are even
more detailed inscriptions of the magic contest: "The time when
the heretic, Raudrak~a, produced through transformation a great
tree and asked Sariputra how many leaves it had and how deep
its roots were." 7H![ ~ Jlf. ~~1'F* ~r"'~ ~ fU ~;It~!& ;lt;fR ~ ~ Si3=.
"The time when Sariputra, after having answered how many
leaves there were, conjures a great snake which pulls up the tree."
~fU~~~l&~, 1t1'F=*~'tW:~M.f. "The time when the Wind
Spirit angrily releases his wind to blow at Raudrak~a." J\,jji$~
(-~? )~:Jil(:J\.~~Jlf.~M.f. "The time when the heretics, blown
by the Wind, anxiously cover their faces." ?i-31HSlJ\.~~~OOM.i',
and so on. 39 In each case, the inscription ends with the narrative
sequence mark shih. 40 Although I have translated this as "the time
when" in English, the sense of this mark is actually far less explicit.
In an almost nonverbal way, it means, rather, something like "X
[sequential event which occurred at a given] time [is here depicted/
explained]." When similar inscriptions bear the narrative sequence
mark ch'71-, we should interpret thus: "X [sequential event which
occurred at a given] place [is here depicted/explained]." The italicized
words represent the primarily implicit semantic content of M.f and
~-The "event" portrayed may not be simply a single incident but
may actually consist of several disparate incidents compressed into
a larger entity. The given "time" and "place" are hence cor-
respondingly stretched to include the total span of durational or
spatial occurrence.
One of the most interesting wall-paintings with inscriptions of
this type is to be found in cave 128 at Tun-huang. It is rather large
and dates from the "high" T'ang period. On the north wall, there
81
is a series of narrative paintings, one of which is about Chang

Ch'ien's ~~ mission to the Western Regions during the reign of
Han Wu-ti (140-87 B.C.). The inscriptions read as follows:
The time during the former Han when Chung-tsung (!) obtained a
golden man 41 but no one knew its nam~, so he sent the Marquis of Ex-
tensive Vision, Chang Ch'ien, to [the kmj?;~ 0m] ofFer [g~~~a ] 42 in the
Western Regions to inquire about its [that is, the Buddha's] name.
The time when the Martial Emperor (Wu-ti) of the Han led his hosts
to punish the Huns and obtained two golden men that were more than
ten feet tall; he had them placed in the Sweet Springs Palace; the
Emperor considered them to be great deities and often went to worship
them. 43
An unusual usage of the narrative sequence mark shih may be
seen in cave 300 at Tun-huang. Here we find 44 portraits of dev-
otees, each with identifying inscriptions that end in shih. This usage
seems to transcend both the primary meaning ("time") and sec-
ondary significance ("narrative moment") of shih; it appears,
rather, to have evolved to the point that it functions here simply
as a tag to end the inscription.
An anonymous eighth-century silk banner (36.8 x 17.6 cm) 45
from Tun-huang preserved in the British Museum depicting scenes
from the life of the Buddha also employs the narrative sequence
mark shih. Altogether, there should be four scenes of the Crown
Prince going out of the palace gates on his white horse and observ-
ing an old man, a sick person, a corpse, and a monk (bhik~u). Only
the first two survive. Of these I translate the first as an example of
the usage of shih in the inscriptions of such banners: "[This is the]
time [in the narrative sequence which depicts] that time46 [when
the] Crown Prince 47 went forth from the east gate of the city-wall
and, seeing an elderly man, asked about the primary and sec-
ondary causes 48 [of old age.]" lfi~:k-=fl±l~*r~lli.~Ar~=~~!ZSI~~·
The second inscription has an identical form.
At Haystack Mountain ~:{Jt ill, near the town ofT'ien-shui 7( 7.]\.
in southeast Kansu province, 49 I did not discover a single instance
of pien as a generic term in all the inscriptions affixed to the wall-
paintings there. Nor did I observe any occurrences of ch'u as a
marker of narrative locus. I did, however, note 19 instances (caves
82
126, 127, and 160) where shih serves as a marker of narrative mo-
ment and 15 instances (cave 110) where it functions simply as a
tag to end inscriptions designating donors and devotees. Given the
dates of these wall-paintings (mostly Northern Wei, 386-534),
such findings are not surprising.
The same shih occurs at the end of a fragmentary explanatory
inscription on a silk drawing 50 of the Buddha recovered from
Toyuk in Central Asia. It is impossible to determine with absolute
certainty whether this represents a borrowing of a device that
had developed in China proper or a Chinese adaptation in areas
bordering on Central Asia ofSanskritic, Iranian, or Turkic narra-
tive inscriptions. The generally earlier date of the Central Asian
inscriptions, the fact that Buddhist art and literature entered
China from the west, apd other evidence that I present in the
chapter of Painting and Performance dealing with Central Asian in-
fluence on pien storytelling all point to the latter possibility as being
the more likely of the two.
The use of shih as a narrative sequence mark can also be found
in manuscripts. S4527 has a description of the contest between
Sariputra and the six heretics in which individual narrative
moments are marked shih, for example: "The time when the wind
breaks the strings of the canopy and the heretics try to tie them
down" !3i.'.!XiJltU~~~. 7'H1HillW\~~. "The time when the wind is
about to blow the canopy over and the heretics take a ladder
and think what to do" l3i.'.!X~~~W\~J. 7'1-illlm:m~~. and so on.
This is probably a list of scenes that are keyed to a set of narrative
illustrations.
A set of inscriptions on a wall-painting in cave 76 (Sung period)
at Tun-huang attests to the functional relatedness of ch'u and shih.
At the bottom left of the east wall may be found the following in-
scription: "The time when the five mendicant monks [ bhik~u] listen
to the preaching [that is, the turning of the Wheel of the Law or
dharma-cakra] of the Four Noble Truths [catvari arya-saryam]" 1L..It
Jillfl gg~t*tffil~. As noted aboye on p. 74, at least three other in-
scriptions on the same wall end in ch'u. Here it is clear that shih
and ch'u have coalesced into an identical usage, that of marking an
event in a narrative sequence. 5 1
It is thought-provoking to consider that the episodes in the
83
"Siitra of the Crown Prince's Attainment of the Way" ::trJPtm~

are labeled on P2299 as "Such-and-such an appearance (hsiang
:t§)." 52 When we remember that these very scenes were acted
out by a troupe of dancers (as is evident from S2440v); 53 when we
recall that 11 out of the 15 extant chapter titles of the Tale Interspersed
with Poetry on Tripi{aka of the Great Tang Dynasty Retrieving the
Buddhist Sutras ::kJllf=:JGI&~~=¥~1S are labeled as ch'u ("narrative
locus"); 54 and when we reflect on the genetic relationship between
pien-wen with its succession of ch'u and pien-hsiang with its succession
of shih ("moments")-we can see that hsiang in some cases may
refer to the episodes of a narrative dramatically represented, just
as ch'u and shih may refer to the episodes of a narrative pictorially,
sculpturally, or verbally represented.
At Bharhut (in India), many of the sculptures have identifying
labels inscribed on them. Yet, as Barua tells us:
The Barhut artists were not very judicious in their use of the labels. For
in the same row of[c]oping-panels one finds that, if a scene in one panel
is inscribed, the one in the next panel is not .... And yet in reviewing
the sculptures ... one is apt to feel that in theory all were intended to
be labeled, the omissions being due to oversight or negligence on the
part of the artists. Thus, if the Barhut examples are worth ... anything,
they seem to indicate a transitional stage when the practice oflabeling
the sculptures became optional. 55
Bharhut is fairly early (third-second century B.C.). Later, it be-
came the custom not to affix labels to Buddhist sculptures and fres-
coes such as at Bodh Gaya, Sand, Mathura, Taxila, Amaravati,
Sarnath, Karle, and AjaQ.ta.
Of the narrative statuary at Bharhut that is provided with labels
describing the scene depicted, we find, for example, that a medal-
lion carving is labeled with the words "AnathapiQ.c;lika dedicates
Princejeta's Garden after purchasing it with a layer of crores [ten
million piece of gold]" Jetavana Anadhapetfiko deli ko{isar[lthatena
Keto. 5 6 A small coping-panel reads "The Jataka-scene relating to
Mahadeva." Maghiideviya-Jiitakar[l. 57 And a small bas-reliefhas the
tag "A Jataka-episode of the Kinnaras." Kir[lnara -Jiitakar[l. 58
Nowhere in any of these inscriptions known to me do we find
a word like "the place [where] ... " (ch'u ~) 59 or "the time
[when] ... (shih ffilf). My inclination, as expressed less explicitly
84
above, is to believe that these latter are Chinese inventions and that
they were intended: ( 1) to approximate, respectively, the locative
and ablative cases in inflected Buddhist languages, and (2) to de-
signate narrative moment and locus.
I am here making no claims about the handling of Sanskritic
case endings in the scriptural tradition because the usage of shih
and ch'u under discussion would have arisen in the popular realm.
Among the texts discovered by Kozlov at Kharakhoto was a Fo-
shuo pao fu-mu en chung ching [Siitra spoken by the Buddha concern-
ing recompense to parents for their great kindness] 1~ID=t¥1Ut£3:,1@},
m~. 60 This is an apocryphal siitra, printed xylographically, that
dates from the beginning of the twelfth century. Preceding the
fragmentary text is an illustration which represents the deeds of a
filial son performed for the benefit of his parents. The various
scenes are labeled with inscriptions t~at constitute revealing evi-
dence of the deterioration of the understanding of the meaning of
the word ch'u. On the right side of the illustration are seven inscrip-
tions that read as follows:
The place where he circumambulates Mount Sumeru for his parents.
~ [:5<: ffl:~] ~fi Wli§
The place where he slices off some ofhis flesh for his parents.
~ :5<: m: ~u ~ z Jt1
The place where he gouges out his eyes for his parents.
~ :5<: ffl: ~U lllHIW z Jt1
The place where he cuts out his heart and liver for his parents.
~ :5<: m: ~u .c., llf z Jt1
The place where he smashes his bones for his parents.
~:5<:ffl:tritli§
The place where he submits to the wheel of swords for his parents.
~:5<:ffl:~7J~Z.Jt1
The place where he swallows iron pellets for his parents.
~3<:m:B=~J1.zJt1
On the left side, the inscriptions read as follows:
Receiving and observing for his parents the precept (Sfla) concerning
sacrifice.
~:5(ffl:~~~fflt
85
Worshiping the Three jewels (triratna) for his parents.

~Y:ffl:~~=:}f
Dispensing alms and doing good works for his parents.
~ Y: ffl: ;fp jj(g ~ ilil!l
Copying out scriptures for his parents.

~Y:ffl:tl~~:!l!!:
Reciting the scriptures for his parents.
~Y:ffl:MUm~:!J!J.
Seeking forgiveness for the wrongdoing of his parents.
~ Y: ffl:~ ffUIHt
It would appear that late Sung artists had partially forgotton the
significance of the marker, ch'u, retaining it vestigially only in con-
nection with specific scenes of suffering in hell. This is not surpris-
ing, since the Maudgalyayana story was by far the most popular
transformation text and would have linked the usage of ch'u more
or less permanently in the minds of those who were familiar with it.
We must now consider the difficult question of whether or not
the pre-verse formula in transformation texts should be counted as
straightforward evidence of orality. On the one hand, such a for-
mula is ostensibly less straightforward than the direct addresses to
the audience which we encounter so frequently in some of the siltra
lectures. On the other hand, it would appear that the pre-verse
formula is an attempt to convey the impression of an oral context,
hence the transformation texts may, to greater or lesser degree, be
said to derive from oral literature. In considering the degree of
orality of a given transformation text, it is necessary to examine it
on the basis of the following criteria: frequency of corrections, de-
letions, additions, and so on; whether these are by the original
scribe or by others; indications of immediacy; gaps in the text; im-
perfect rhyme patterns; lines obviously missing from the verse sec-
tions; poor or hurried quality of the calligraphy; irregular spacing
oflines; illogical sentences and passages; non sequiturs; needless rep-
etitions; lack of a colophon stating that the text is a copy; and so
on. I have already discussed the significance of revisions of a text
by subsequent hands.s1
The most obvious evidence of immediacy in transformation texts
86
in general would seem to be the verse-introductory formula. Of the

many variations of this formula, I consider the extended forms
("Look at the place where X occurs; how shall [!]explain it?") to
be relatively stronger evidence of close relationship to a spoken pre-
sentation. But this a very complicated issue and I shall return to it
later. Gaps in the text indicate either that the recorder fell behind
in his transcription, that he (or they) had faulty recollection of the
oral event, or simply sheer negligence on the part of the copyist.
The same holds for imperfect rhyme sequence, missing verse, il-
logical passages, false starts, and other comparable features. As for
the presence of a colophon stating that the manuscript is a "copy"
of a given text, this is direct proof that there must have been at least
one other intermediate written stage between the oral event (s) and
the manuscript in question. It is logical to assume that there would
be a tendency for all but one of these criteria gradually to be refined
out of a text with each successive copying and rewriting. The nearer
an orally derived text is to its source of inspiration, the more fluid
and unstable it will be because the oral exemplar changes with each
retelling. Conversely, a text that has been written, rewritten, and
copied several times gradually takes on a fixed form. The exception,
as we shall see, is the. pre-verse formula which would, after regu-
larization, be retained as a conscious attempt to maintain the
appearance of orality.
No one of the criteria mentioned in the previous paragraph by
itself may be taken as evidence of orality. If, however, a large
number of these features are discovered in a given text, the prob-
ability of closeness to an oral event is enhanced. Judged by these
standards, none of the transformation-text manuscripts I have
examined approach the less sophisticated siitra lectures as being
demonstrably derived from or related to an oral setting. Indeed,
some of the transformation texts are rather well written and vir-
tually free of revisions. Texts such as the Tun-huang Wu Tzu-hsu
story or the "Tale of the Honorable [Hui- Jyuan ofLu Mountain"
ill! W~0~1§, 62 again judged by these standards, are even further
removed from the original oral event(s) which, presumably, were
their inspiration, though they may only have existed as written
texts from their very beginning.
The overall impression one gains from the available data is that
87
the majority of transformation texts, evolutionally speaking, were

already several generations removed from the seminal oral per-
formances that led to their birth. Conversely, the less sophisticated
siitra lectures have all the earmarks of being in the first generation
of descendants from their original oral parent(s). Few Tun-huang
manuscripts of popular literature that I have examined rival
Taiwan 32 63 in respect to outright messiness. It is also significant
that the quotative formula ("Please sing" or "Now I shall begin
singing") appears only infrequently in the less sophisticated siitra
lectures, whereas it occurs with fixed regularity in the more
polished ones. Likewise, I have deep reluctance to admit the
transformation-text verse-introductory formula as evidence of
direct derivation from oral performance on the grounds that it is
too obligatory. No other form of storytelling with pictures any-
where in the world that I am aware of employs this kind offormula
with such .fixed regularity. The very fact that it is required with such
constancy smacks ofliterary convention rather than oral improvi-
sation. This is not to deny, however, that the verse-.introductory
formula in all likelihood is a reflection and stylization of actual
phrases customarily but not compulsorily employed by picture
storytellers. Storytellers' phrases in Ming and Ch'ing vernacular
short stories, even more so than the verse-introductory formula
of transformation texts and the quotation formula of the more
polished siitra lectures, are stereotypic. In the very conscious effort
to convey immediacy through these and other devices which con-
stitute the "simulated context," the true nature of such late stories
as written literature is revealed.
The second of the chief identifying features of pien-wen is their

prosimetric arrangement. The typical form of Tun-huang trans-
formation texts consists of an alternation between prose and verse
sections. There may be variations among different texts in the pro-
portion of verse to prose and in the manner in which they are em-
ployed. For example, in the Maudgalyayana transformation, there
are more verse lines than prose lines. The prose portions introduce
the basic substance of the story, whereas the verse repeats and ex-
pands, emphasizing salient details. By contrast, the prose portions
of the Sariputra transformation take on much greater prominence
88
in relation to the verse, while in the Li Ling transformation there

is a fairly even balance. The Wang Ling transformation at times
uses the verse to carry a large amount of the narrational burden
but at other times relegates it virtually to a minor role of recapit-
ulation or comment. The same may be said of the prose portions
in the Wang Chao-chiin transformation. But, regardless of the
amount of prose and verse in the various Tun-huang texts and the
nature of the relationship between them, prosimetric alternation
is characteristic of most works labeled pien-wen. What is perhaps
more important is that this form is also characteristic of many other
popular literary genres that appear in China after transformation
texts. It must be reiterated that the prosimetric form did not enter
China solely in the guise of pien-wen. There were numerous other
genres of Buddhist literature, both classical and vernacular, that
used the typical Indian alternation between prose and verse. These
genres began to enter China as early as the second century and had
an impact on various levels of culture.
I have decided to follow the Prague school of Sinology in using
the English word "prosimetric(al)" rather than the French chante-
fable. In the first place, although students of comparative literature
have used the latter word to refer to any narrative work that alter-
nates between verse and prose, it originally signified a specific type
of medieval French narrative. In fact, the term occurs only once
in medieval French literature, at the end of the thirteenth-century
Aucassin et Nicolette: "No chantefable prent fin" (Our chantefable
comes to an end). It apparently means "[piece to] sing-speak" and
derives from the nominal form of the Middle French verbs canter
("to sing") andfabler ("to relate"). 64 On the other hand, "prosi-
metric" has a known Latin derivation (prosimetricus) that fits the
purpose for which we intend to use it. And, while obsolete for
the last 300 years, it was long ago adopted into the English lan-
guage. According to Thomas Blount's Glossographia ( 1656), "prosi-
metrical" means "consisting partly of Prose, partly of Meeter or
Verse." 65 The alternation ofprose and verse may be referred to in
Sanskrit as misrakam ("mixed; not prose; various; manifold"). 66 In
Tibetan, the equivalent of misrakam is spel-ma. 67 This term is in-
accurately and misleadingly translated in the Chinese section of
the Mahiivyutpatti (no. 1456) as "long and short lines" :flt9& 1U, that
89
is, "lyric verse" ~ii.]. 68 Campil, a term of obscure origins dating from
the tenth century A.D., was used by Dal).Qin in Kauyadarsa (i. 31 )69
to designate the alternating prose and verse form of narrative. But
the alternation of prose and verse in Indian narration is so per-
vasive that rarely do literary critics find it necessary to give it a
special name.
One other preliminary observation regarding my use of the
word "prosimetric" needs to be made. While it is permissible to
describe pien-wen as prosimetric in form, it must be emphasized that
this in no sense is a translation of the term itself. I have discussed
the problem of the meaning of pien-wen as "transformation text"
at length in Chapters 2 and 3.
The first problem concerning the prosimetric narrative form is,
naturally, its origin. Careful consideration of the available evi-
dence leads to the conclusion that it was not present in Chinese lit-
erature before the introduction ofBuddhism. But the issue of the
origins of the prosimetric form in China has been so hotly debated
that we cannot ignore the counterclaims of those who insist that
it has a native source. I shall begin by reviewing their arguments.
Though half-a-century ago Buddhist importation was con-
sidered to be the most reasonable explanation for the sudden and
unprecedented appearance of extended prosimetric narrative dur-
ing the T'ang period, some later scholars have begun to disavow
all possibility of Buddhist influence. As a result, various theories
have been propounded to account for the native origins of the
prosimetric form. Thus Lu K'an-ju, while taking Hu Shih to task
for having suggested 70 a Buddhist origin for the prosimetric form,
namcs 71 the Book rif Change £ ~, Conversations rif the States mill~' the
pre-Ch'in philosophers, and the metrical tz'u-fu if lti\ 72 as prosi-
metric in form. In fact, says Lu, every period of Chinese history
had this form. Yet examination reveals that none of the works
mentioned by him bears any resemblance to prosimetric narrative.
Lu also inexplicably mentions several Sung-period popular per-
forming arts (for example, the medley and "The Pedlar") as prosi-
metric genres having no possible connection with Buddhist gathii.
As a matter of fact, there is definite, contemporaneous proof that
the verse portions of transformation texts (which preceded the Sung
dynasty!) were referred to by the same name (gathii) as those in
90
siitras. This proofis found in a note which follows the title ofP2319,
"Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyayana Rescues His
Mother from the Nether World." This is an abbreviated version
of the story, and the purpose of the note is to explain one way in
which the abbreviations are consistently made. "Each of the verses
(giithii) [is cut short] after two or three lines by the notation 'and
so on and so forth."' ;It -m -T 4~H&z 73 :=. jipj 1:i] 1~ :Z3: ~ ~.
But it was Ch'eng 1-chung who mounted 74 the most serious and
concentrated challenge against the Indian origins of prosimetric
narrative:
We do not at all reject cultures that come from abroad, but rather all
along have constructively and creatively absorbed the strengths and
special features of foreign cultures. But the culture of our race has its
own traditions; all influences from abroad must combine with the
traditions of the race before they can produce a beneficial result. This
literary form, pien-wen, is mainly composed of parallel prose and hepta-
syllabic poetry which are determined by the special feat~res of the Han
[Chinese] language. Is it possible that this most authentic form of the
people could have been transmitted from India?! The origins of pien-
wen as a type ofprosimetric literature can be found far back in theju
lti\ of ancient times. 75
Ch'eng confuses the separate components (prose and verse) of the

prosimetric form with the combined form itself. The highly specu-
lative nature ofhis reference tofu ("rhapsody" or "rhyme-prose")
is also obvious when, in listing a long series of ancientfu titles, he
says that they were "perhaps" ("maybe," "likely," "possibly")
narratives in direct discourse. A look at the citedfu shows that they
are largely ornate and embellished examples of parallel prose, are
not primarily narrative but descriptive, and contain no extensive
dialogue. In short, they do not resemble transformation texts in
form, content, or style. Ch'eng is even less sure ofhimselfwhen dis-
cussing later tsa-fu ("miscellaneous rhapsodies" ~llJil;;), which he
says he "feels" had a close relationship to pien-wen. 76 This attempt
by Ch'eng to find a thoroughly Chinese pedigree for transforma-
tion texts is not convincing. The tsa-ju he cites (by Ts'ai Yung ~ ~
[ 133-192] and Chao I 111! i: [ft. 178]) are mostly quadrisyllabic
with a Ch'u style song or pentasyllabic poem appended at their
91
end. In any case, it is puzzling that Ch'eng claims a basic prosi-

metrical structure for these pieces. His argument becomes even less
satisfactory when, advancing forward in time, he declares that
the minor ju of Six Dynasties authors resemble pien-wen still more
closely. He cites Yii Hsin's ~m (513-581) "Spring Rhapsody,"
but examination reveals that it is constructed offour-six (parallel)
prose with a heptasyllabic poem tacked on at beginning and end.
When tested, Ch'eng's fragile but influential hypothesis con-
cerning the structural affinities ofju and pien-wen collapses in toto.
It is well known that the narrative element infu is scanty. Its most
characteristic use is for long and elaborate descriptive pieces, such
as those that describe imperial hunts, capitals, natural and urban
scenery, and sometimes for philosophical reflection or discourse.
Another weak point in Ch'eng's argument centers on the fact that
all of the Ju that he cites, even the ancient ones, were written by
well-known literati. This contradicts his own later stress77 on pien-
wen as coming from the people. Finally, as a self-contained spec-
imen of Ch'eng's erroneous premises, I quote the following sen-
tence: "The main reason for saying that pien-wen came from India
is that they elaborate stories from the Buddhist siitras and, since
Buddhism comes from India, pien-wen too can only come from
India." 78
Su Ying-hui's attempts 79 to establish fu as the progenitor of
pien-wen fare no better when submitted to critical analysis. His
argument is replete with contradictions, such as when he declares
within the space of two lines that, on the one hand, the origins of
pien-wen are "very early" and, on the other, that [T'ang?] monks
are to be given credit for spreading this "new literary fonn." Su
even goes so far as to invent a hypothetical "folk" fu from the Han
and Wei periods as the putative ancestor ofpien-wen.
An even more strained attempt to find a Chinese origin for the
prosimetric form is that ofYang Yin-shen, 80 who adduced tomb
epitaphs and obituaries as the native forerunners of the combina-
tion of prose and verse characteristic of pien-wen. Aside from the
obvious facts that these were always in classical Chinese, did not
alternate between prose and verse, and were not intended to be
narratives, Yang's deduction is irrelevant to a discussion of the
origins of pien-wen except to say that the Chinese literary environ-
92
ment, of which tomb epitaphs and obituaries were a part, was not
predisposed to the rejection of the Buddhist innovation or, more
precisely and positively, to the importation of the prosimetric
narrative form. As a matter of fact, beyondfu ("rhymeprose" or
"rhapsody"), it is easy to name many other genres of early Chinese
literature that either stand midway between prose and verse or
mingle the two in various ways: chen ~ ("admonition"), ming
~ ("commemorative inscription"), sung ~ ("ode"), tsan •
("eulogy"), lei ~ ("obituary"), tiao ~ ("condolence"), and chi-
wen~)( ("sacrificial text"), to name only a few. Strangely, none
of the proponents for a Chinese source for the prosimetric form
have mentioned these genres. Yet inspection of typical examples
reveals that it would be to no avail anyway because they simply
were not used to advance a narrative through alternation of prose
and verse sections the way genuine prosimetric literature does.
Two additional sources for a native prosimetric tradition have
been adduced by Chang Hung-hsun. 81 The first is the Spring and
Autumn Annals q[Wu and Yueh (Wu Yueh ch'un-ch'iu). Chang claims
that it stands as an example of early prosimetric storytelling. The
latter claim (that it is an example of early storytelling) cannot be
tested, and the former (that it is prosimetric) cannot be sustained
because the verses in this historical narrative are short, occur only
very sporadically, and do not carry the narrative.
Chang's second hypothetical proof of an early prosimetric tradi-
tion in China is taken from the first chapter of the Biographies of
Illustrious Women. Here we find the statement "Of old, when a
woman was pregnant... , at night they would have a blind [enter-
tainer] recite poetry and tell of proper matters." if~ t$ A Mf -T ...
13(JtiJ%1f~~iliiE$. 82 Chang suggests that this refers to a prosi-
metric performance, but such an interpretation is not justified on
the basis of the cited passage alone, and no ancillary evidence is
forthcoming.
As a specimen of the confusion that results from insisting upon
a wholly native Chinese source for the prosimetric form, I cite A
History q[Chinese Folk-Literature collectively written by the students
of the class of 1955 of the Chinese Department at Peking Normal
University. They begin their discussion of the subject by stating,
"We believe that the prosimetric form did not begin with pien-wen
93
but that it had its own source of development in China." 83 As

examples of these Chinese "sources," they mention "Southeast-
ward Flies the Peacock" :fl""fJttm~ and the "Ballad ofMuklan"
*M~.
Aside from the fact that the quoted statement implicitly accepts
the foreign origins ofpien-wen, what are its merits? In the first place,
no responsible scholar would say that the origin of the prosimetric
form in China was pien-wen alone. The importation of this new form
into China was a highly complicated process which involved,
among other elements, the translation of siitras and the oral per-
formance offolk narratives. The students of the class of 1955 have
here called upon a straw man whose claims-and hence their
counterargument-must be disqualified. Second, "Southeast-
ward Flies the Peacock" and "Ballad ofMuklan" are pentasyllabic
narrative poems (which themselves are not entirely free of the
suspicion of foreign influence) and hence have no direct bearing
on the question of the importation of the prosimetric form per se
into China.
Perhaps sensing the weakness of their argument, the students of
the class of 1955 then proceed to withdraw ~ nd make a more equiv-
ocal statement about the possibility oflndian influence:
In the process of the development from verse to the combination of

prose and verse, we do not at all deny that the form oflndian Buddhist
prosimetric sutra lectures which use verse and prose side by side had
a certain influence, but this influence could take effect only upon a pre-
existent Chinese foundation .... 84
If by "pre-existent Chinese foundation" the authors mean "the

Chinese languages and their inherent stylistic capabilities," no one
can take exception to this statement.
If the various proposals for a Chinese source of the prosimetric
form do not stand up under scrutiny, what may be said of those
that suggest an Indian origin? Not surprisingly, they fare much
better. The prosimetric form is so common a characteristic of San-
skrit siitras and their Chinese translations that it would be tedious
to list all examples. Chinese scholars working on pien-wen in the
second quarter of this century were well aware of this, and it is only
natural that they should have made a connection between the two.
94
Thus Cheng Chen-to, noting that the alternation of verse and

prose for narrative purposes was absent in Chinese literature before
the T'ang period, declared 85 that the most workable hypothesis for
the introduction of this new form was that it entered in the wake
of the translation of Buddhist literature. Liang Ch'i-ch'ao had
earlier noted the unique Indian proclivity for the alternate use of
prose and verse in his study of the relationship between Buddhist
translations and Chinese literature. The prosimetric form is as
characteristic of Indian Buddhist literature as parallel prose is of
Chinese classical literature. In adapting the foreign form to their
own needs, the Chinese fused these two originally disparate literary
modes into a new one.
There can be little objection to Cheng Chen-to's statement
that "the origins of pien-wen definitely cannot be found in native
[Chinese] writings." 86 In discussing the mysteriously sudden ap-
pearance of the prosimetric form in Chinese literature, Cheng
Chen-to has offered these eminently sensible words of advice: "But
a new literary form certainly cannot just fall from the clear blue
sky; if it is not the creation of a native genius, then it must be the
importation of foreign influence." 87
Hsiang Ta, in his study entitled "On Buddhist Cantos of the
T'ang Period" (Lun T'ang-tai :to-ch'ii ~lfliil!fft{~lli!), 88 has tenta-
tively established the nature of the foreign influence which was
operative in the development of Tun-huang popular literature.
Ch'en Kuo-ning holds that the form ofpien-wen was imported from
India and cites89 the Jiitaka-miilii of Asvagho~a ( ~ Aryasiira) as an·
example of its early use for narrative purposes there.
In an attempt to explain the origins of prosimetric literature
in China, Hrdlickova has focused on the translation of Buddhist
siitras: "Ifwe want to gain a proper understanding of[the] devel-
opment ofshuo-ch' ang wen-hsue [h], we have to go back to the transla-
tions of Buddhist siitras in Chinese, in which prosimetric form
appears for the first time in Chinese literature." 90 Hrdlickova is
able to offer unimpeachable evidence that the written prosimetric
form was, indeed, introduced from India through the medium of
Buddhas siitras. Hrdlickova's article 91 has shown that the transla-
tion of Buddhist literature was the genesis of the prosimetric form
in China. Even though a whole cache oflate Han or Six Dynasties
95
prosimetric narratives might one day be discovered (granted this

is virtually an impossibility given the preponderant shape of the
development of Chinese narrative), it would still not obviate Bud-
dhist influence. All that needs to be added to what Hrdlickova has
written is the qualification that prosimetric literature was in all
probability also concurrently being introduced to China in the oral
realm. There is, however, no convincing way to demonstrate this
conclusively for the time before the T'ang period.
In an important but almost wholly ignored article, Chi Hsien-
lin has specified the possibility of Tocharian texts having func-
tioned as an intermediary stage in the introduction of the prosi-
metric form to China:
This form is not of Chinese but of Indian origin. The Mahavastu and
the Lalitavistara are among the many works written in this style. The
Pancatantra is also in verse and prose.
China had access to this form through translations ofBuddhist scrip-
tures and through the ancient languages of Central Asia. Several
versions of the tale of the carpenter and painter exist in Chinese transla-
tions ofsutras, all of them in prose; but in ancient Tocharian the same
story is in verse and prose. As ancient Tocharian served as a bridge
between China and India, it may also have been instrumental in in-
troducing this genre to China.92
Chi's suggestion leads us directly back to India and a discussion
of the origins, place, and function of the prosimetric form there.
Pischel has outlined the typical form oflndian narrative litera-
ture as having verse of a fixed character and prose that functions
primarily as interstitial connective between the separate units of
verse:
The hymns in dialogue of the ~gveda and other works also, as the
Suparl}.iidhyiiya, are almost incomprehensible in the form in which
they have come down to us. The connection between the separate
verses is very loose, often quite impossible to discover. To understand
it we need a connecting text, which in some cases is given in prose by
the Briihmal}.as, works explanatory of the Vedas. Later works, such as
the Mahiibhiirata and the Pudil}.as, sometimes contain the entire nar-
rative, but then often in a very different form. On the ground of similar
cases in lris,h literature, Windisch first threw out [i.e., advanced] the
96
suggestion that originally only the verses were unchangeable, and that
the reciters connected them by means of prose narrations. This view
is undoubtedly correct. It is borne out by the name of the rhapsodist
granthika, i.e., joiner or connector. The prose narrations were in general
rigidly fixed only as regards their contents; their development in de-
tail was left to the judgment of the rhapsodist. Originally it was pre-
cisely the same with drama. The classical drama oflndia has a peculiar
construction, the prose being continually interrupted by stanzas in
various metres. Such stanzas in pre-classical times formed the "fixed
capital" of the player. As regards the prose the greatest freedom was
left to him. This is the case up to the present day in the popular plays.
Popular plays have never been written down in India. The manager
gives his actors a short summary of the contents of the piece they are
to act, and leaves the development of it to their talent for improvisa-
tion. We have literary imitations of popular plays in Bengal and Nepal,
all of which have the same characteristics. The verses are fixed: only
suggestions are given for the prose, and these in the Nepali pieces are
in the dialects of the country. 93
Thus we see that, from the earliest known and most sacred lit-
erature of the Indian people down to more recent and popular
entertainments, it has always been the verse portions of a literary
work that are relatively fixed and the interjacent prose passages
that are more fluid. 94
Gokuldas De has shown95 conclusively that the original form
of the Jataka consisted of a verse or verses embodying some episode
from the Buddha's past lives. The moral of the episode was implicit
in the verse but was made more apparent through the addition
of a prose narrative that varied according to circumstances. As a
collection of selected verses, the Jataka go back approximately to
the time of the Buddha. In many instances, however, they have
adopted and adapted stories current before the Buddha's birth.
In the long tradition of the creation and transmission of the
stories about the Buddha's former births in the Jataka, there are
many phases that are instructive for students of transformation
texts. One of the most important conclusions of scholars concern-
ing this rich body of stories composed of various combinations of
prose and verse is that the verse portions have always been the most
97
stable parts. Ratilal Mehta has reviewed the scholarship on the

subject and gives the following synoptic explanation:
Originally both prose and verse ofthe]iitakas came down orally; but
naturally the prose had a less stable form than the verse, being more
exposed to changes and enlargements, so that when the canon was
composed, and subsequently when it was written down, in the lst cen-
tury B.C.... only the verses retained their original form, whereas the
rendering of the prose was at first entrusted to the reciters who could
recite the verses more faithfully than the prose, and it was only at a later
period committed to writing by Commentators. 96
Hence, there is nothing mysterious about the manner in which folk

literature is composed:
Authors of folklore have always remained anonymous: the story orig-
inates in the mind of one man: he composes the verses and puts them
afloat among the folk: in course of time these verses become the
common possession of the whole folk: the verses are thus preserved,
with very rare modifications: the prose which is only a commentary on
these verses changes from mouth to mouth, until it settles in the form
in which it is finally committed to writing. This is, in general, the life-
story of a folk-tale. The same can be said with regard to the ]iitaka
stories. 97
Likewise, a similar process of birth and growth can be imagined

for transformations and transformation texts. In this regard, it is
significant that only the verses are written on the back of the il-
lustrated Sariputra scroll (P4524). It is the verses that are the cen-
tral, st.able core of a prosimetric folk narrative in the Indian tradi-
tion and in other Asian traditions influenced by it. In modern
times, many Chinese storytellers still insist that "the song" is in-
violate and cannot be changed. 9 B
The relationship between the transformation text and ]iitaka
traditions is not simply one of parallels and correspondences re-
garding the development of the prosimetric form. These two tradi-
tions must also be considered as related because they were both
Buddhist teaching devices and both were illustrated with pictures.
The ]iitaka, already in the third and second centuries B.C., were
portrayed in the bas-reliefs on the stone walls of Bharhut and
98
Safichi, in the second century A.D. at Amaravati and at Ajal).ta.

Fa-hsien, in the fifth century, saw 500 Jataka represented by figures
at Abhayagiri in Ceylon and Hsuan-tsang saw them depicted
on many stupas during his pilgrimage to India. The Jiitaka
were also an important source of imagery for the wall-paintings
at Tun-huang.
The third of the chief identifying characteristics of pien-wen is

a close connection with illustrations. The very nature of the first
identifying characteristic, the pre-verse formula, discussed at
length at the beginning of this chapter, points to this relation-
ship. But there are many other items of evidence which can be
adduced, 99 including some of the contemporaneous literary refer-
ences I cite in Chapter 6. By no means do I wish to rule out the
possibility that pictures could also have been used in conjunction
with siitra lectures and other evangelistic performances by monks.
What I emphasize is that the use of pictures was mandatory for the
folk, oral antecedents of transformation texts in the strictest or
narrowest sense. As so aptly put by Kanaoka Shoko, "pien-wen can-
not exist apart from pictures." 1oo
The illustrated scroll (P4524) of Sariputra's contest of super-
natural powers with Raudrak~a is the most important item of
primary evidence for the organic connection between genuine pien-
wen and pictures. 101 In the first place, the very story ofSariputra's
contest 102 with the Six Heretics is perfect material for the trans-
formation text par excellence. For the business of both the contest and
the genre is to create illusory objects and states of being. We should
note, parenthetically, that there is a long Indian tradition of intel-
lectual and religious debates' being described in terms of contests
of supernatural feats or accompanied by them. 103 The theme of
an opponent's pitting his magical co11jurations against those of an-
other is frequent in later Chinese popular literature as well.l 04
The six scenes 105 represented on the illustrated Sariputra scroll
perfectly correspond to the incidents narrated in the matching
transformation text (part on S55ll and part formerly in Hu Shih's
possession, also S4398, P4615, and a copy formerly owned by
Lo Chen-yii):
99
Six Heretics Sariputra

mountain warrior (vajrapar;i) with club
water buffalo lion
Conjuration pond white elephant
poisonous dragon gold-winged bird (garurfa)
yellow-headed ghost Vaisraval)a Maharaja
tree wind
Needless to say, Sariputra beats his rival in this unfairly organized

contest. Since he is always permitted to "go" second (and last), it
is easy for him to top anything his frustrated opponent can pro-
duce. The verses on the back of the scroll are virtually identical to
those in the corresponding sections of the transformation text. It
is also noteworthy that they are different from any verses in the
canonical source of the story, "Sudatta Builds a Monastery" ~~
)EgrrJ~ in the tenth fascicle of the Siltra of the Wise and the Foolish
Jf ~~. This would seem to indicate that they have an indepen-
dent, perhaps folk, origin. Be that as it may, if anything were to
be written on a performance scroll, it is understandable that it
would be the verses. This we already know from the whole prosi-
metric tradition in India where the verses are relatively fixed and
the prose passages tend to be improvised anew with each session.
The language of the cartouches on the wall-paintings at the back
of Tun-huang cave 146 correspond rather closely to that in the
"Transformation Text on the Subjugation of Demons" ~!!!~)(
which relates the magic contest between Sariputra and Rau-
drak~a.l06 It would appear that the cartouches and the text are
related by more than the fact that they have the same story. The
common ground to which I refer is the intimate connection which
both have with transformation illustrations.
The very title ofS2614 (dated 921) is proof of the close connec-
tion between transformation texts and pictures: "Transformation
Text on Mahamaudgalyayana's Rescue of His Mother from the
Dark Regions, With Pictures, One Scroll, With Preface" § ijil; *
100
~ ~ rl'l, ;f!c £:1: ~ 3t ~- 5{f # rr;. The two characters for "with pic-
tures" have been marked out with ink. Since there are no pictures
anywhere on S2614, it is puzzling to consi_der what may have been
the actual relationship of the missing illustrations to the text. It is
conceivable that it was originally intended to paint the pictures on
the so-called verso of the scroll but that, for lack offunds, inability
to locate a suitable artist, or for some other reason, the work
was never completed. This seems unlikely, however, for at least two
reasons. The first is that the writing on the nominal verso of the
scroll, which consists oflists of monks in various Tun-huang mon-
asteries, appears from examination of its placement to have been
written prior to the transformation text. Hence, there never would
have been any space available on the alleged verso for the pictures.
The second is that the transformation text, being complete with
both prose and verse, must have been intended for reading rather
than for oral presentation. This is in contrast to 'the illustrated
Sariputra scroll (P4524), which has pictures on the front and verses
only on the back. Just as with the S5511-Hu Shih Sariputra trans-
formation text, one simply would not expect to find pictures on the
back of a scroll intended for private reading instead ofpublic per-
formance. Though the manuscript lacks the pictures, it does not
lack the preface which, apparently, extends from the beginning up
to "Long ago, when the Buddha was in the world .... " 107
Although the pictures that were intended to accompany S2614
have long since become separated from it or were, perhaps, never
executed, we are obliged to take the words in the title ("With
Pictures")· at face value. If we do, it is inevitable that we ask our-
selves such questions as who purchased and owned these scrolls?
For what purpose did they want them? In this regard, it is possible
to detect a parallel with certain later illustrated texts derived from
oral performance. What, for example is the raison d' etre for the Ming
dynasty Playscript about Maudgalyiiyana Rescuing His Mother and Ex-
horting Her to Goodness? 108 Surely actors would not require such a~
elaborately designed and profusely illustrated script? The pictures,
together with the text, can most plausibly be explained as serving
the purpose of reminding the reader what a real performance
of the play was like. The printed version allowed the owner of the
Playscript about Maudgalyiiyana Rescuing His Mother and Exhorting Her
101
to Goodness to reanimate his recollection of the words and move-

ments of the players or to imagine what they might be-and in the
convenient privacy of his home, at that. The demand for written
transformation texts with pictures such as S2614 might be ex-
plained similarly.
That S2614 was intended for reading rather than for perfor-
mance is partially evident, as I have said, from the inclusion of the
prose passages together with the verse passages. The conclusion
which would appear inescapable is that a separate scroll of pictures
was produced (or there were plans for such a scroll) for the con-
venience and delectation of the reader of the transformation text
(hence the words "With Pictures" in the title) but that it was sub-
sequently lost or never procured (hence the inking out). A passage
from The Tale oJGenji amply demonstrates that picture books were
used in conjunction with private reading of fiction during the late
Heian (late ninth to twelfth centuries):
The princess took out illustrations to old romances, which they

examined while Ukon 109 read from the texts. Absorbed now in the
pictures and facing her sister in the lamplight, Ukifune 110 had a del-
icate, girlish beauty that was perfection of its kind. The quiet elegance
of the face, with a slight glow about the eyes and at the forehead, was
so like Oigimilll that Nakanokimi herself was paying little attention
to the pictures.n2
This scene, as portrayed on the Tale of Genji Picture Scroll (Genji

Monogatari emaki ~.B;;¥!J~*i~), vividly and accurately depicts
how picture scrolls or books might be used privately for entertain-
ment in conjunction with a separate written text. 113
A tenth-century collection of Buddhist stories entitled Sanboe
(kotoba) [(Explanations of the) pictures of the three jewels] :=:}If
*i ( ~iij) provides further confirmation of this practice in medieval
Japan. In his introduction, the author, Minamotono Tamenori,
says that he composed the book in order to console an unhappy
princess. He states that the book was meant to explain the mean-
ings of picture-scrolls illustrating the stories.l 14
It is important to note, in connection with the problem of the
title of S2614, the title given on P31 07 which is "Transformation
Text on Mahamaudgalyayana's Rescue of His Mother from the
102
Dark Regions, One Scroll, With Preface"*§ ijit;~~FI39~£3:~3t

-1t f!: If:.' The resemblance is unmistakable. Although only the
beginning of P31 07 is preserved, it is clear that it belongs to pre-
cisely the same lineage of copies as S2614. But there is no mention
of pictures, neither in the title nor in the text. The conclusion that
must be drawn is that pictures were not originally intended to
be a part of this class of manuscript. The pictures mentioned in
the title ofS2614 would have been produced independently of the
transformation text and were thus liable to become separated from
it. The back ofP3107 carries the notation "Transformation Text
on Mahamaudgalyayana; One Scroll. Preciou~ Preserve." 115
Another manuscript of the Mahamaudgalyayana transforma-
tion, PK876, has blank spaces alternating with portions of the
text.l 16 These appear to have been intended for pictures that the
owner of the scroll was unable to procure. If such be the case, it
would indicate even more forcefully than does S2614 that there
was a desire on the part of some transformation readers to look at
both text and pictures. The illustrated transformation manque on
PK876 would have had its pictures facing the reader, an unsuit-
able placement for performance.
One rather important Tun-huang manuscript which appears
not to have been mentioned previously in discussions ofpien-wen and
pien-hsiang is the fragmentary P5019. The verso is a crudely drawn
picture. On the right side is a person carrying a back pack. His
hands are raised to support the straps of the pack. It appears that
the pack is quite heavy. He is shown leaving through the gate of
a (city? courtyard? defense?) wall on top of which is a tiny flag.
Another similarly equipped figure is entering the gate from the left.
At the bottom left there is a structure that seems to be in the process
of construction. Perhaps the men are carrying stones to build the
uncompleted wall. The picture continues on toward both the left
and right before the fragment breaks off. The recto, which may
well be the corresponding text for the pictures (cf. the format of
P4524), is written in heptasyllabic verse but also includes several
lines with four syllables. Since this text specifically mentions the
"King ofCh'in" ~ ::E and his mass conscription of workers to build
the Great Wall as protection against the "barbarian" nomads, it
is possible that this is part of a transformation dealing with Meng
103
Chiang-nii i&~3l:, although neither she nor her husband, Ch'i

Liang ;j£~, is mentioned by name in it. The text deals mainly
with the sufferings and sorrows of the workers. The geographical
locations mentioned in it arc compatible with the story of Meng
Chiang-nii. It should be recalled that the fragment (P5039) of the
Meng Chiang-nii story printed in T32-35 is not a pien-wen in
the narrowest sense that I have given the word because it lacks the
verse-introductory formula_II7
At the beginning of S5511 (the opening part of the "Trans-
formation Text on the Subduing ofDemons"), there is a drawing
of a man holding a pole with a larger object attached to the end of
it, perhaps a banner or a fan or large drum-beater. 118 The picture
is unmistakably drawn on a separate piece of paper that was later
joined to the beginning of the text fragment. Perhaps the drawing
may originally have come from a narrative picture scroll. Hence,
it is conceivable that the individual responsible for pasting this
picture to the beginning of S5511 had obtained a set of illustra-
tions for the "Transformation Text on the Subduing of Demons"
and that he had intended to cut them up and splice them into the
text itself at appropriate intervals. 119 That this never actually
happened is obvious from the fact that the manuscript formerly in
Hu Shih's possession, which takes up where S55llleaves off (and
is actually part of the same original manuscript), shows no traces
of pictures throughout its entire length. The tear that caused these
two parts of what should be a single manuscript to become sepa-
rated may in some way be related to the attempt to join the pictures
to it. There are two additional facts about the surviving picture
fragment that require attention. The first is that it is torn off ~on
the right side) close to where it joins the text (on the left side). The
second is that the picture faces the reader. This latter fact is par-
ticularly significant since it means that the fragmentary scroll as
it is now constructed was probably not intended for performance
before an audience but for individual or, at most, intimate group
viewing.
I have so far not been able to discover any hard and fast pictorial
evidence of transformation performances during the T'ang period.
Among the more tantalizing bits of evidence encountered is from
Tun-huang cave 70 (Pelliot number; Tun-huang Institute 217) in
104
the middle section at the bottom of the left wall.l 20 During a trip
to Tun-huang in September 1985, I examined closely the figures
of several men on this section who are holding up scrolls. At least
two of these scrolls appear to have designs on the verso side, par-
ticularly that of the man under the tree facing left. It is of the
utmost importance to know whether this impression is corrob-
orated by similar scenes elsewhere. Scholars who have ready access
to all of the Tun-huang caves would be performing a great service
if they closely examined the paintings of this cave and other caves
for evidence of storytelling and lecturing. Let us hope that all
of the inscriptions in the cartouches at Tun-huang and other cave
sites in China will be recorded accurately and quickly before they
vanish forever .121
105
Appendix
The Indian Hypothesis
Many of the most characteristic features of pien-wen discussed thus far in

our presentation seem to point to an Indian (or partially Indian) origin
for the genre. These include the Buddhist content of the earliest examples
(Chapter 2), the meaning of the term pien itself( Chapter 3), and the prosi-
metric form of the texts (Chapter 4). Perhaps these apparent affinities are
only accidental and should therefore be discounted out of hand. After all,
the concept of cultural diffusion has fallen into disrepute of late, and
we would be well advised to steer clear of any hint of borrowing unless
there is ironclad evidence to demonstrate that it actually exists. Yet,
even though the above-mentioned grounds for an Indian background
may be only circumstantial, they certainly loom large enough to invite
consideration.
When we examine the fourth characteristic feature ofpien-wen (its rela-
tionship to pictures), however, we find ourselves confronted once again
with signs oflndian antecedents. In pursuing the forerunners of Chinese
picture storytelling, the investigator is inexorably drawn to India, even
against his own will. The case for some sort of Indian influence on the
development ofpien as a type of picture storytelling actually almost builds
itself. The evidence that has accumulated is massive and can no longer
be ignored. Since there is far too much of it to offer in the present mono-
graph, I shall content myselfhere with a brief resume of some of the more
salient points. For a full, documented treatment of all of the subjects
touched upon in the remainder of this appendix, the reader is invited to
examine the author's Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation, Its
Indian Genesis, and Analogues Elsewhere.
What is the origin of the "Indian hypothesis"? Put simply, it would
appear to be the inevitable result of attempting to trace back in time and
space the Chinese tradition of picture recitation. That there existed such
a tradition can no longer be denied. One of the most surprising discoveries
106
Appendix
in this regard is the fact that pao-chiian jf 1(!: ("treasure scroll") performers
from the Ming to the middle of this century often used pictures to illus-
trate their narratives. There are hard data as well for picture storytelling
during the Sung and Yuan periods. The representative T'ang genre of
picture recitation (chuan-pien ~~) was indubitably the oral predecessor
of the pien-wen. If we attempt to find the forerunners of oral pien picture
recitations, however, we are drawn to Central Asia. No clear-cut proof
of a pre-T'ang Chinese tradition of picture recitation has yet been ad-
duced, although vague, speculative attempts have been made to link the
T'ang tradition to pictures associated with the Classic ofMountains and Seas
(Shan-hai ching !lJ#lHI!l!) and the Songs of the South (Ch'u-tz'u ~~). The
Central Asian data, on the other hand, are unassailable. There are,
in fact, several graphic depictions of picture recitation among the wall-
paintings at Kyzil in Eastern Turkestan.
The problem with the Central Asian evidence is that most of it points
back to India. Much as we might wish to avoid following the trail of
pien-wen to the land of the Buddha, that is where it leads us. Once we have
arrived in India, the manifestations of picture recitation are simply over-
whelming. There are frequent references to a wide variety of picture
reciters in religious scriptures, political and grammatical treatises, novels,
plays, and commentaries that date back as far as the fifth century B.C.
The p~cture reciter was such a common figure in the early Indian land-
scape that this was a favorite disguise of spies.
The picture showman has thrived throughout Indian history. We are
fortunate in possessing extremely detailed ethnographic descriptions of
these performers for the last hundred years. I might add that they are still
active in various parts of the subcontinent and that extensive video re-
cordings have been made of their performances. We know the social
(namely, low), economic (poor), and religious (lay) status oflndian pic-
ture reciters. We have precise information about their mode and range
of activity, their relationship to the painters of the scrolls they used, and
the manner in which they learned their trade. More important, we have
learned that they are normally illiterate, that the shape of their narra-
tives is determined by various oral and pictorial formulaic devices, and
that printed versions of their tales are the products of local scribes and
publishers. All of this rich body of data either corroborates our sketchy
understanding of oral transformation performers or, if we accept the
Indian hypothesis and apply it judiciously, helps to flesh it out.
107
Appendix
One way to test the hypothesis is to find out whether Indian picture
storytelling traditions were transmitted to other areas of the world and,
if so, whether there are any obvious analogies between T'ang-period oral
pien and these transplanted traditions. It turns out that, here again, the
hypothesis would appear to be confirmed.
The Indonesian term for nearly all types of dramatic representation is
wayang. Without delving into the striking etymological resemblances be-
tween this word and pien, let me say simply that one type of wayang,
namely wayang heber, corresponds almost exactly to what we can glean
from the historical a.nd archeological record about oral pien. In fact,
wayang heber scrolls closely resemble, in size, shape, and arrangement
of scenes, the sole surviving transformation picture scroll (P4524). Most
competent authorities agree that heber is the earliest type of wayang and
that it may date back to approximately the T'ang period. All of these re-
semblances are striking enough, but we could dismiss them if we chose
to on the grounds that that is all they are-adventitious similarities.
What we cannot dismiss so lightly, however, is the testimony of two
trustworthy early Ming travelers to java who witnessed wayang heber per-
formances and stated that they were "exactly like ... p'ing-hua ('plain
tales' or 'expository tales')." This would seem to indicate, first of all, that
certain oral p'ing-hua (in particular, those that were presumably the fore-
runners of the Yuan period illustrated printed texts also styled p'ing-hua)
may have employed pictures and, second, that they may be connected
in some fashion with oral pien.
There is strong evidence to indicate that Indian picture storytelling
traditions also traveled west to Persia. The same word parda (=Sanskrit
pat) was used in Iran to designate the painting used by the storyteller to
illustrate his tale. Even more convincing is the fact that Iranian picture
storytellers customarily prefaced their performances with an "Indian raga
(rak i-hindf)." I have also succeeded in identifying early picture storytell-
ing traditions in Egypt, Turkey, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany,
and most other European countries. The chronology of the earliest his-
torical records of picture storytelling in these countries would appear to
vouch for a gradual spread westward out of India and then northward
into Europe.
Many of the West Asian and European traditions of picture recitations
show striking parallels to what we have been able to piece together about
pien. Here I mention only that the Chinese picture storyteller's "Please
108
Appendix
look at the place ... " (Ch'ieh k'an ... ch'u) is echoed around the world and
all seem to go back to an Indic "dekhii ... parafml."
The Indian hypothesis is advanced solely because no more convincing

explanation for the sudden appearance of transformations during the
T'ang period has been forthcoming. We must emphasize that it remains
a working hypothesis and is meant to be neither more nor less than that.
We have not been able to establish any definite textual or archeological
connection between pien-wen and a specific Indian example of picture re-
citation during the T'ang period or just before it. And yet there is a large
body of evidence that points toward some sort oflinkage between the oral
antecedents of pien and Indian picture storytelling. Given the nature of
the materials we are dealing with and barring any spectacular new finds
that would reverse the presently perceived configuration of the develop-
ment of pien-wen, the Indian hypothesis is a compelling argument. Since
the form, early content, name, and structural rationale of pien-wen all
show signs oflndian influence, it seems logical to conclude that the genre
as a whole may have arisen through contact with lndic sources. This does
not mean that pien-wen were imported lock, stock, and barrel from India.
Considering that India and China are separated by thousands of miles
of deserts, jungles, mountains, an'd oceans, such a conclusion would be
absurd. The very fact that pien-wen are written in Chinese belies a total
Indian source for the genre. All that the Indian hypothesis argues for
is the recognition that inputs from the South Asian subcontinent were
partly, perhaps fundamentally, responsible for the rise of pien-wen.
109
chapter five
Performers, Writers, and Copyists
One problem concerning Tun-huang popular literature that has

most intrigued scholars is to what degree it has an oral provenance.
Since the performers and scribes neglected to leave an explicit rec-
ord of how they worked, we shall never be able to say with cer-
tainty exactly what process of transcription was involved. But there
is much that can be inferred from the Tun-huang manuscripts
themselves and from parallel cases in other literatures where we do
have fuller evidence.
There are at least the following possibilities which might serve
to explain how and why transformation texts came to be written
down:
1. They were promptbooks, aides-memoire, or scripts copied by the

storytellers themselves for use in performance.
2. They were composed by someone else for the storyteller to deliver.
3. They were essentially apprentice's notes, hence they were intended
for professional training purposes.
4. They were taken down during performance by an auditor (or
auditors) for personal use or for someone else who wished to have a
record of the performance.
5. An auditor wrote out the story from memory after an individual
performance-again, for his own use or for someone who engaged him
specifically for that purpose.
6. Though obviously a product of an oral ambiance, transformation
texts are, strictly speaking, written literature, conceived, executed, and
enjoyed in the study.
In order to determine which of these possibilities is the most likely,
110
let us turn to some general observations, drawn from various tradi-

tions of storytelling and drama around the world, on the relation-
ship between oral performance and written text.
A written text may grow up in the milieu of oral literature and
be thoroughly imbued with its spirit. But it has not been demon-
strated that performers of oral literature in China or elsewhere ever
restricted themselves to exact reproduction of any given text. For,
in the first place, no text can possibly prescribe all of the sound ef-
fects, gestures, asides, and so on, that are the stock in trade of even
the least skillful performer. Judging from the evidence provided
by numerous other Asian traditions of storytelling with pictures
and of its cousin, the shadow-play, 1 the transformation performer
would probably not have relied on a text. Those responsible for the
writing of texts are most often members of the audience. Those who
transcribe oral folk literature and thus begin the process of trans-
forming it into popular written literature are very seldom the
performers of oral literature themselves. The performers, in the
majority of traditions that I have investigated, are generally func-
tionally illiterate. As Barbara Ruch states, "Oral literature usually
implies illiteracy on the part of the producer of a story, on the part
ofthe audience, or both." 2 In the vast majority of oral traditions,
transcription is perforce done by semi-literate or literate affi-
cionados and merchant-purveyors of commercial texts.
Waley has offered the following cautionary note in regard to the
relationship between the oral and written traditions:
We must not ... in dealing with societies where both exist, attempt
to make too sharp a distinction between the two. Wherever texts exist
at all, even if they are accessible only to a small minority, the two sorts
rif tradition are bound to infiltrate one another. A Mongol peasant who tells
the story of Buddha's life may have learnt most of the episodes orally
from other members of the tribe, who also learnt most of them orally.
But he may very well have learnt other episodes from a Lama who
has read them in a book. And the same Lama, should he write a book,
would be likely enough to incorporate in his story folk-lore elements
belonging to an oral tradition. A Majorcan peasant who tells one
stories about the Moors has probably never read a book about the
Moors or, indeed, any book at all. But much of what he tells could ulti-
mately be traced to printed texts. 3
Ill
In a discussion of the relation between folk storytellers and in-

dividuals who were capable of writing down stories to be read,
Hrdlickova makes clear the vitally creative role of the former:
Especially in the towns, the relations between folk storytellers and lit-
erati were often very close, so that the work of the latter also exercised
its influence on this branch of folk art, especially as regards subject-
matter. Certainly, however, it would be a mistake to take as a starting-
point for the study of the storytellers' material only a knowledge of
literary fixed productions and assume that these works were written for
the use of storytellers who memorized them and modified them only
in unsubstantial details. Such a conception would imply that the true
creators were, above all, the authors of these texts, who alone were able
to give the story content and shape, while the storytellers' contribution
was of secondary importance. Ifwe penetrate more deeply into the true
character of the storytelling art and make a closer acquaintance with
the methods of training its practitioners, we realize that the direction
of the process was reversed-that folk artists were not dependent on
written texts, but rather the contrary was true, and that in this excep-
tionally strong stream of folk creation are to be found the origins of
those works which today, although denied recognition by the literati
in the past, form an integral and valuable part of Chinese literature. 4
Amin Sweeny, who has studied the Malay shadow-play exhaus-
tively, discovered that performers very rarely use written texts.
And, even in the uncommon cases when they do, these texts are
by no means in such a state that someone else could read them as
a finished narrative:
There are perhaps 5% of Wayang Siam dalangs who possess written
records of part of their repertoire. 5 These manuscripts were all made
by the owners themselves, and their sources were almost entirely oral.
In all cases examined, dalangs owning such writings hand down their
repertoire in oral form and the written record appears to be more for
the dalang's personal reference than for the benefit of pupils although
there is the possibility of a pupil being allowed to copy them. 6 Further,
in half the manuscripts examined, the writing was so hurried and so many details
lift to memory, that there would be little chance [for] arryone but the owner of
finding them completely comprehensible. There is, moreover, no known tradi-
tion of writings being handed down from teacher to pupil, and the fact
that a majority of dalangs are illiterate or semi-illiterate seems to
account for this .... 7
112
H. I. R. Hinzler carried out an intensive study of the perfor-

mance techniques of one high-prestige Indonesian dalang (shadow-
play performer). Several very significant facts emerge from this
study. In the first place, although the dalang was partially literate
and could note down portions ofOldJavanese texts that were suit-
. able for use in his plays, he never consulted his notes before-much
less during-a performance. He learned his pla_ys by oral transmis-
sion largely from his teacher. While the dalang also made reference
to stories contained in Sanskrit texts, his knowledge of these stories
was derived from oral sources, and he never wrote them down.
Most remarkable of all, according to Hinzler, "The dalang was
surprised to hear the recording [of his performance]. He could not
imagine or remember that he had spoken all these words. He was
not even able to fill in the unintelligible passages." 8 The reason he
could not do so was that he was supposedly possessed during per-
formance. Ironically, the dalang's son (who was also his apprentice)
could fill in most of the gaps. In the end, however, there remained
passages that it was impossible to transcribe.
Choe Sang-su has pointed out9 that Korean puppet players are
usually farmers or part-time farmers. It is unlikely that, in pre-
modern times, such individuals would have attained sufficient lit-
eracy to compose texts based on their performances that would be
satisfying to an audience of readers. Some few Peking shadow-play
performers do possess rudimentary scripts, while others transmit
their stories only orally.Io
Until very recently, performers ofChinese folk theater normally
did not use scripts. Occasionally there did exist texts of some of
the plays they presented, but these were written down by "play
enthusiasts" or "fans" (hsi-mi l.llt~), not by the actors themselves.
The transcription, if that is what it should be called, occurred after
the performance and was done by partially literate individuals
who were not members of the elite segments of society. The elite,
as a matter of fact, tended scrupulously to avoid attendance at such
folk plays (in distinction to more formal performances put on by
prestige troupes). Much more rarely, the texts may have been
dictated by the actors to the same sort of scribe who would tran-
scribe them from memory after performance. Naturally, a text
taken down from dictation would more closely resemble what
113
really occurs on the stage than one dependent on the recall of the
scribe. But neither method would be completely faithful to the
plays as given in live performance.U
The fullest historical account of the use of written materials in
connection with Indonesian wayang plays 12 is that of Pigeaud.
Several of the points he makes correspond exactly to what is known
of traditions elsewhere in Asia:
Probably Javanese wayaiJ play performers relied on orally transmitted

tradition for the contents of their plays up to the beginning of the
renaissance of classical letters in the eighteenth century. Some men of
letters perhaps borrowed plots from the Serat Kal}.<;la compendiums in
order to make new plays. But then, the Serat Kal}.<;la tales themselves
were based on ancient tradition of professional story-tellers and wayaiJ
play performers.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Javanese dalaiJs became
familiar with the use of books containing concise prose notes on the
plots ofwayaiJ plays. Such books were called pakems, manuals. In many
cases the notes were so concise as to be almost incomprehensible for out-
siders. In the middle of the nineteenth century some wayaiJ pakems were
amplified and worked into prose tales, sometimes even containing texts
of the conversation of the personages. Lastly, some complete texts of
wayal) plays were written.l3
But Pigeaud does not indicate that they were written by the per-
formers themselves. That would be highly unlikely, since most of
them were illiterate or only partially literate. Indeed, two para-
graphs later, Pigeaud mentions the important role of Dutch
scholars in encouraging Javanese authors to write about wayang:
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries much attention has been

given by Dutch scholars to wayaiJ art and wayaiJ literature. They
rightly considered the wayal) as one of the most important features
of Javanese culture, leaving its mark in all domains of Javanese life.
Therefore Dutch scholars stimulated Javanese authors to write trea-
tises on the art of the wayaiJ play performer. No doubt the interest
shown by nineteenth and twentieth-century Dutch scholars was in-
strumental in enlarging Javanese literature on wayaiJ. 14
I suspect that the Dutch scholarly activity was one of the chief
reasons why the pakems (handbooks) and lakons (play plots) came
114
to be written down in a form accessible to individuals other than

the dalangs themselves.
In discussing the subject of the evolution of folk and popular
literature from oral to written forms, we must ask some basic ques-
tions about the motives of the individuals responsible for this tran-
sition. Did the performers themselves feel a need for something
written to serve as a reminder of the contents of the stories they
told? Would they have been interested in the printing and publish-
ing of their stories? But, if the answers to these two questions are
negative (as we shall see they generally are), who then was respon-
sible? And why did they wish to transcribe the storytellers' wares?
A brief, but important, study of this problem may be found in
Ssu Su's "Do Storytellers Have Promptbooks?" 15 The majority of
performers interviewed by Ssu over a period of several years
informed him that they transmitted their stories (including words,
modulations ofvoice, gestures, expressions, and so on) orally and
that they did not make use of promptbooks. But they also admitted
that occasionally some parts of their stories had written texts and
that these were usually the verse sections (N .B.). The storytellers
stressed that the verses had to be memorized perfectly-not a word
was to be changed. On the other hand, they allowed themselves
much more flexibility in the spoken prose sections. This is in perfect
agreement with historical experience and practice in the Indian
prosimetric storytelling traditions.
According to Ssu Su, in cases where there were partial prompt-
books, they were usually hand-copied by the performer himself on
account books, scraps of paper, and so on:
Because of the limitations of their cultural level, miswritten characters,
wrong characters, and displaced characters as well as sentences that are
ungrammatical or illogical are exceedingly numerous. Add to this the
messy handwriting and it all makes it difficult to finish reading such
texts. 16
These conditions naturally contributed to keeping each storytell-

ing tradition a secret known fully only to the performers them-
selves. But this was precisely what the storytellers wanted.
Some of the promptbooks seen by Ssu Su simply mentioned
chapter headings and the main incidents within each. Never were
115
directions for gestures, music, and so on described in detail. If there

were any attempts to do so, they were always greatly simplified and
abbreviated, perhaps because of the limitations of literacy. Only
rarely did these promptbooks follow an established written text
such as Lo Kuan-chung's *i1t9=t (Yuan period) Romance of the
Three Kingdoms=~~~~-
One other point stressed by Ssu Su is that, if they ever did note
anything down in written form, the storytellers guarded it jealously
and even denied outright that it existed. This is in harmony with
what is known of storytellers the world over, including German
Biinkelsiinger ("bench-singers") and puppeteers. The last thing a
performer wanted to see was his secretly transmitted tradition
made public, since such an exposure threatened his capacity to
earn an income from it. Those who wished to have the texts copied
down and distributed were entrepreneurs outside the group of
storytellers themselves. The ironic fact is that the demand for
written forms of storytellers' narratives comes chiefly from those
who are fond of the stories but desire a more permanent record
than can be gained by attendance at an actual performance. Ruth
Sawyer, a master storyteller in her own right, explains that "there
is a kind of death to every story when it leaves the speaker and
becomes impaled for all time on clay tablets or the written and
printed page." 17 It is no wonder that traditional oral performers
were unwilling to have their stories transcribed or recorded. Their
very livelihood was at stake. All of this has a bearing both on the
reasons for the appearance of transformation texts and the rapid
disappearance of the form in the Sung period. 18
The commercial motivation for the writing down of oral and
vocal performances by scribes is convincingly established by
Catherine Stevens in her study of Peking drumsinging (ching-yun
ta-ku Ji0Ht:k:gz). 19 Enterprising businessmen would transcribe a
given performance, then sell or rent their hand-copied manuscripts at
temple fairs. 20 These texts were made without the consent and per-
haps even without the knowledge of the drumsingers themselves.
The simple fact that there was an economic demand for such texts
brought them into existence, not any authorial urge on the part
of the drumsingers. Certainly their own instincts would have pre-
cluded, if not prohibited, any attempt to publish their most private
116
property. Pischel notes 21 that early German itinerant puppet

troupes took oaths among themselves never to write down a word
of their plays lest they fall into alien hands. The Rajasthani bhopo
(picture storytellers) and par painters, too, are highly secretive
about the transmission of their traditions and craft. 22 To make
their unique performances accessible in written form to large
numbers of potential paying customers would be, in some measure,
"to break their rice-bowl." But, no matter how threatening such
unauthorized transcription and copying may have been, the
singers were defenseless against the indefatigable efforts of the
merchants to make a profit on their wares. Indeed, merchants dis-
played considerable competitive acumen in searching out the most
entertaining stories, revising them, and hawking their finished
product. Stevens mentions one famous individual who was active
for a very long period of time beginning in the late eighteenth
century named "Hundred-book Chang" (she refers to him as
"Omnibus Chang").
In special cases, however, it would appear that ballad-singers
and picture storytellers were themselves sometimes involved in the
sale of printed materials relating to their performances. The com-
mercial aspect of Japanese etoki ("picture explanation"), for
example, is instructive for the study of picture storytelling else-
where. The Kumano bikuni (so-called "nuns") would often carry
extra copies of the pictures they explained as a way to make money.
What is even more interesting is that they sometimes also sold
booklets that consisted of simplified written versions of their oral
narratives. Ruch's remarks23 on the commercial activities of etoki
correspond to what Brednich has to say 24 about the German
Biinkelsiinger (more precisely, their forerunners) who supported
themselves by the sale of newspaperlike broadsheets, or Archer25
about the Bengali pa~uii ("picture reciters") whose crude mytho-
logical scenes were purchased in the thousands by pilgrims, espe-
cially from stalls near the shrine ofKalighat. Yet, in no case known
to me were storytellers engaged in the sale of the complete texts of
their performances. Usually what they purveyed, if anything, were
the barest outlines of their stories or perhaps just some of the song
verses, or maybe a picture of one of the major episodes. This actually
served to attract listeners who might want to hear the full versions.
117
Regardless of who exactly was responsible for doing the work of

publication and making the sales, we are probably justified in
postulating that the rise of printed popular literature in the Sung
period had its roots in a similar combination of entertainment and
commercial impulses.
The Record of the Retrieval of Siltras by the Tripi{aka Dharma-Master
of the Great T' ang Dynasty ( Ta T' ang San-tsang Fa-shih ch'ii-ching chi
:kll!f~iGJI!ffilil&~~a), for example, was "Printed by the Chang
Family of the Central Entertainment District" 9=tJLr~%'Hfl. 26 In
his preface to the text, Wang Kuo-wei held that this is proof that
it originated in Hangchow. There was, indeed, during the Sung
period, a Hangchow Central Bazaar or Entertainment District as
well as a bookseller surnamed Chang. 27 Priisek, however, is skep-
tical and reminds 28 us that other cities had Central bazaars and
that Chang was a very common surname. But, no matter which
city this work was printed in, we at least learn from its colophon
that there were printers active in the same quarters where story-
tellers told their stories. This is confirmed by a Ming writer, Y eh
Sheng, who has noted 29 the commercial incentives for.gathering
and publishing pictures and texts related to popular entertainment.
Korean p'ansori 30 are performed by kwangdae, who alternate
between sung (ch'ang) and spoken (aniri) passages. They do not
employ pictures, but these storytellers-who are accompanied
by a single drummer-often employ gestures, which makes the
performance, like transformations, intermediate between oral
narrative and drama. The kwangdae are interesting for our present
purposes because of the fact that, although they did have some
mnemonic aids of their own, the p'ansori texts that were printed
and sold to the public were written by outsiders of the kwangdae's
profession.
One final note on the subject of who is responsible for writing
down stories that were originally orally performed. Blindness has
often been a trait of performers of oral literature throughout the
world. The greatest bard of antiquity, Homer, is commonly sup-
posed to have been sightless. Blindness was a mark of singers in
many parts of medieval Europe. 31 This was certainly true as well
of biwa (balloon guitar) singers in old Japan and erh-hu (two-
stringed fiddle) storytellers in Ch'ing-period China. 32 Even today,
118
many Cantonese ballad-singers and storytellers are blind. 33 A

printed text would obviously have little significance for them. And
yet their ballads and stories have come to be written down-by
fans, by publishers, and by scholars.
In addressing the problem of the reason for the existence of the

transformation-text manuscripts, we must not discount the pos-
sibility that they represent various points of development on a con-
tinuum ranging from oral to written. It would seem to be incon-
testable that transformation texts bear some relationship, however
tenuous, to oral performances. Though highly imaginative, by and
large transformation texts show a low level of literary polish.
The frequent occurrence of homophonic error is an indication
(though by on means proof) that the individuals who wrote down
the transformation texts were more strongly influenced by oral ren-
ditions of stories than by written ones. Countless examples could
be cited to indicate that the sound rather than the shape of a given
character was usually uppermost in the mind of the scribe.34 But
how, then, are the less frequent orthographic errors to be ex-
plained? In the first place, the individuals who transcribed the
transformation texts and other types of Tun-huang popular lit-
erature were obviously at least partially literate. Hence it is not
unlikely that a scribe who had heard a given piece performed a
number of times might also have read various popular and classical
versions of the same story. As such, he would also have had in
mind-even when transcribing what he may have considered
to be a unique performance-certain visual recollections of the
various texts relating to the story he had previously encountered.
Total recall of a given performance, even one that the transcriber
heard only moments before he began to write it down, is impos-
sible. There are simply too many small details and happenings
involved in a three- or four-hour performance for a transcriber
to catch everything. Inasmuch as there were no developed steno-
graphic,35 mechanical, or electronic means available to make a
verbatim transcription of any single performance, it was inevitable
that written versions would be composite in nature because all pre-
vious encounters with the story at hand-whether oral or written
-would be operative, to greater or lesser degree, in the mind of
119
the transcriber. Therefore, it may be concluded that not one of

the Tun-huang manuscripts of popular narratives accurately re-
presents any single performance. I say this in spite of the fact that
there are remarks recorded on some of the manuscripts that are
ostensibly directed to an actual audience.
It is important, in this connection, to recall Patrick Hanan's
concept of"simulated context." After a series ofstudies36 in which
he demonstrated that the corpus of extant vernacular short stories
from the Ch'ing period and earlier are primarily written liter-
ature,37 Hanan went on to account for the apparent marks of
orality that many of these stories bear. His definition of this concept
is as follows:
"Simulated context" means the context or situation in which a piece

of fiction claims to be transmitted. In Chinese vernacular fiction, of
course, the simulacrum is that of the oral storyteller addressing his
audience, a pretense in which the author and reader happily acquiesce
in order that the fiction can be communicated. 38
More specifically, "simulated context" refers to the phrases, de-

vices, and techniques employed by an author or editor of vernac-
ular short stories to create the atmosphere of a storytelling event.
Thus, many vestiges of orality in fiction dating from the Sung
through Ch'ing were shown to be part of the craft of the authors,
who were attempting, whether consciously or unconsciously, to
create the semblance of oral literature. The conventions of this
craft required that certain formulaic expressions be employed
which had all the appearance of deriving directly from oral per-
formance. But it must be emphasized that, in the rare instances
where outsiders have been privileged to examine the few genuine
promptbooks of practicing storytellers (be they from Africa, Persia,
Indonesia, or twentieth-century China) that do exist, the formu-
laic expressions are among the first elements to be left out. Such
expressions serve no purpose when it comes to reminding the per-
former of the content of the tale he is about to perform (the performer
has very different types of devices for that function). They operate,
rather, in an automatic fashion as transitions to punctuate the
performance, largely for the audience. They occur as reflex actions
120
of the teller in performance, much as a hornist knows by instinct

and practice where to breathe in a piece of music without marking
the places or as a coloratura soprano knows by training and talent
how to embellish a passage without specifying the notes ahead of
time. The existence of numerous transparently formulaic expres-
sions in a short story may be regarded as an indication that the work
was intended for a reader and not for a performer. A performer
would not need such markers; indeed, he would find them to be
an encumbrance. On the other hand, an author who was at-
tempting to duplicate or simuiate a performance for a reader
would regard them as essential.
This is not, of course, to deny that-in an evolutionary or devel-
opmental sense-there is a meaningful connection to be made
between these vestiges of orality and their origin in actual storytell-
ing. It is, in fact, one of the major purposes of this study to push
back the limits ofvernacular fiction to the time when it merges with
the performing arts from which it was born. Needless to say, story-
telling has continued in China up to the present day, and it is clear
that authors of fiction from all periods have relied upon it as a rich
source of themes, motifs, language, and even formulaic expres-
sions. However, as I have pointed out before, formulaic language
does not necessarily imply orality. Buddhist sutras are highly for-
mulaic, as are Ming and Ch'ing novels, but these are clearly
written forms ofliterature. It would seem, rather, that obvious and
recurrent formulaic expressions in written texts are ipso facto at-
tempts to recapture a lost orality, that is, they are evidences of
secondary orality.
To return to the reasons for the existence of popular narrative
literature among the Tun-huang manuscripts, except for P4524
(the illustrated Sariputra scroll) which was probably the property
of a performer, it was written down for the purpose ofbeing read-
not necessarily by the larger public-just as were the later short
stories. The common designation of the group of texts we are study-
ing, after all, is pien-wen; surely wen is meant to refer to a category
of written literature. What appear to be obvious evidences of
orality are attributes of an effort to create a simulated context.
Yet it must be conceded that the greater frequency ofhomophonic
121
errors over orthographic errors indicates that certain of the trans-

formation texts may be closer to spoken literature than to written
literature. 39
Another important type of evidence which indicates how closely
these texts are related to the performing arts is the existence, in
many cases, ofmultiple<:opies of the same story. While these copies
may differ in details, when there is sufficient correspondence on the
grosser aspect it is possible immediately to recognize individual
manuscripts as variants of a single, basic tale. The most compelling
explanation for this phenomenon is that there was a circumscribed
body of tales which was standard fare for the transformation per-
formers, but that these tales would be modified slightly with each
telling and with each teller. Someone who assumed the task of pre-
paring a written version would have been exposed to the stuff of
that tale on countless occasions during his life. He may have heard
it (or parts of it) from his uncle or mother, older brother or sister,
friend or acquaintance, not to mention the numerous storytellers
who would have recounted it for him.
It is well known that many storytellers and, indeed, many genres
of storytelling have a repertoire consisting solely of one item, the
Mongolian tale of Gesar40 being a good example. Under such cir-
cumstances, it is the business of the storyteller to rework, recapture,
and revivify the basic stuff of the story. To depart too far from the
conventional mode of presentation would bring censure rather
than praise. A scribe who transcribes what he may consider to be
a unique performance is, in actuality, transcribing a tradition,
a tradition that has been homogenized, digested, and assimilated
through long practice on the part of the storyteller and his com-
rades and through repeated exposure on the part of the scribe. The
tale belongs to no one, and there are no totally unique perfor-
mances. Though a given performer may be especially renowned
for his renditions of a particular tale, that tale is by no means his
personal property. Afficionados of Peking opera are alert to spot,
and criticize, singers who render a passage in an unconventional
way. Complaints such as "That's not the way it's supposed to be
sung!" are heard far more frequently than comments to the effect
that "This is really an interesting and unusual new way to sing it!"
Where there are multiple copies of the same transformation, we
122
are not permitted to conclude for certain that any one of these is
the original and that the others have been taken from it. So long
as there are a substantial number of phonetic errors, we must as-
sume that the transcriber had in mind (chiefly derived from oral
renditions) the sound of the story as well as its shape (stylized
in various written versions). 41 However, even when there are
phonetic, orthographic, and other differences between two manu-
scripts (such as between the Maudgalyayana story on S2614 and
on P3485), it is still possible to identify them as representations of
the same basic tradition. This is possible because, in spite of the dif-
ferences, it is clear that the intention of the individuals responsible
for the manuscripts was to relate the same story in approximately
the same way. For this reason, the editors ofT relied on no less than
nine different manuscripts in establishing the recension of the
Maudgalyayana transformation text given on pages 714-744.
There are legitimate complaints that such an editorial policy offers
scholars only composite texts and that any serious research still re-
quires that the originals themselves be consulted. 42 But, in another
sense, there is some justification for emphasizing that the authors
or scribes of all nine manuscripts were attempting to record the
same basic story and, therefore, that the similarities are more
important than the differences. Where the variants are few in
number, it is even possible that one copyist was working from the
text of another.
On the other hand, although they deal with the same subject,
it is impossible to collate P2193 (T701-712) and PK2496 (T756-
759) with the group of nine manuscripts referred to above, for it
is apparent that the differences are greater than the similarities.
Indeed, these two manuscripts represent separate traditions,
P2193 being a highly moralistic retribution story (that is, a "tale
of conditioned origins" yuan-ch'i) focusing on Maudgalyayana's
mother and PK2496 (mislabeled by the T editors as a pien-wen)
being a straightforward exposition of the Maudgalyayana story
written in a rather prosaic fashion.
Having discussed the complicated relatedness of multiple copies
of the same transformation text, I should like now to consider some
possible reasons for their differences. The copies are never iden-
tical, there being always at least some minor variations among the
123
individual manuscripts. Occasionally, there may even be changes

in the basic structure of the narrative. It has been asserted 43 that
the existence of multiple copies of a given pien-wen is proof that they
were written down for professional use. This is not necessarily true,
since the demand for written versions of favorite oral narratives
would be far greater and would more readily account for numerous
copies of the same transformation text were that demand to have
originated from potential readers rather than potential per-
formers. Just at the time the transformation texts were being
written down, marginally or newly literate and affluent social
groups, such as the Buddhist laity and merchants, were beginning
to come into prominence. The difference (often negligible) from
manuscript to manuscript may be attributable to the facts that the
scribes and copyists were not themselves professionals, that they
were influenced by repeated (but not identical) performances,
and that there was bound to be a certain amount of variation be-
cause these are handwritten, not printed, texts with which we are
dealing.
It is highly doubtful that P2319, an abridged Maudgalyayana
transformation text, could ever have been intended for perfor-
mance. For it is the verse portions that have been consistently
reduced in length from what they are in 82614. Below the title of
P2319, we find the following remark: "Each of the verses (gatha)
[is cut short] after two or three lines by the notation 'and so forth
and so on."' ~~-T1~H\1~ 44 :=:.m1U:f~:L; ~ ::JJ1,:. Yet the verse, as we
have seen, was the most important element of the narrative for
the performer. The P2319 transformation text on Maudgalyayana
thus stands at a curiously opposite pole from the P4524 transforma-
tion text on Sariputra, which gives only the verse portion on the
verso of the illustrations. Various techniques are used to ab-
breviate the prose portions ofP2319 as well. 45 For example, when
Maudgalyayana arrives at the Avid hell, P2319 declares that "the
horrors therein cannot be fully described" Jlt9=t~$W;/fi'iJ!I. But
S2614 proceeds to attempt the impossible:
Swords and lances bristled in ranks, knives and spears clustered in
rows. Sword-trees reached upward for a thousand fathoms with a clat-
tering flourish as their needle-sharp points brushed together. Knife-
mountains soared ten-thousand rod~ in a chaotic jumble of intercon-
124
necting cliffs and crags. Fierce fires throbbed, seeming to leap about
the entire sky with a thundrous roar. Sword-wheels whirled, seeming
to brush the earth with the dust of starry brightness. Iron snakes
belched fire, their scales bristling on all sides. Copper dogs breathed
smoke, barking impetuously in every direction. Metal thorns de-
scended chaotically from mid-air, piercing the chests of the men. Awls
and augurs flew by every which way, gouging the backs of the women.
Iron rakes flailed at their eyes, causing red blood to flow to the west.
Copper pitchforks jabbed at their loins until white fat oozed to the east.
Thereupon, they were made [to c~~'fl up] the knife mountains and
enter the furnace coals. Their skulls were smashed to bits, their bones
and flesh decomposed; tendons and skin snapped, liver and gall broke.
Ground flesh spurted and splattered beyond the four gates; congealed
blood drenched and drooked the pathways which run through the
black clods of hell. With wailing voices, they called out to Heaven-
moan, groan. The [r~.<l:r] of thunder [sh.<l;~es J the earth-rumble,
bumble. Up above are clouds and smoke which tumble-jumble; down
below are iron spears which jangle-tangle. Goblins with arrows for
feathers chattered-scattered; birds with copper beaks wildly-widely
called. There were more than several ten-thousands of gaolers and all
were ox-headed and horse-faced.
All of this vivid and gory detail is omitted from P2319.
There are at least two possibilities that might account for why
P2319 is so scaled down, particularly in the verse. The prospective
owner of the scroll may not have been willing or able to pay a
copyist to reproduce the entire transformation text but still was
attracted enough by .it to want something more permanent than
the performances themselves. The writing, while fairly neat and
done on lightly ruled paper, is somewhat hurried. And there are
a noticeable number of additions to the text, which seems to indi-
cate that the owner of the scroll or his friends supplemented from
their own recollection certain details that the scribe had omitted.
The other possibility that comes to mind is that the prospec-
tive owner may previously have managed somehow to obtain
a scroll, illustrated perhaps, of the verse portions of the trans-
formation text and now wished to complement this with the prose
portions. This is rather doubtful, however, for several reasons. In
the first place, if the prospective owner of P2319 were primarily
interested in obtaining the prose complement, would he allow a
125
drastic reduction in the scope of the prose itself? Second, it is most

unlikely that any performer would have been willing to part with
an illustrated scroll of the P4524 type that bore only the verse. Such
scrolls, as is clear from the Indonesian and Indian evidence, were
jealously guarded by the performers, who handed them down from
generation to generation. This may also account for the crossing
out of "With Pictures" in the title of S2614; they were simply
unavailable. 46 In any case, P2319 gives the distinct impression 47
of having been copied from another written text that was itself
already at some remove from the oral realm.
We are particularly fortunate in knowing the names of two indi-
viduals associated with the most important manuscript (S2614) of
the Maudgalyayana transformation text. Both names occur at the
end of the manuscript, one in the colophon and the other, by an-
other hand, separately. The colophon reads:
Written on the 16th day of the 4th month in the 7th (hsin-ssu) year of
the Pure and Bright (Chen-ming) reign period by a lay student ~N~
ofthe Pure Land Monastery, Hsueh An-chiin 5~(:t()~.
The date given is in accordance with A.D. 26 May 921. Below that
we read ~.1Hltldl3ti!f, which Giles 48 takes to mean "Composition by
Chang Pao-ta." Does Giles mean to imply by this that Chang
Pao-ta was the author of the Maudgalyayana transformation
text? From what is known of the tradition of oral performance as-
sociated with the pien-wen, we may safely rule out such a possibility.
Furthermore, wen-shu 3ti!f cannot mean what Giles says it does.
The expression has nothing to do with authorship. It means,
rather, "document; official dispatch; secretary who writes such a
dispatch; archives; and so forth." Hence we must understand that
Chang Pao-ta is the keeper or owner of the manuscript which was
copied by Hsueh An-chiin. That is to say, S2614 was originally
"Chang Pao-ta's book."
I have been unable to discover any additional references to
Chang Pao-ta in the Tun-huang manuscripts. Hsueh An-chiin's
name, however, occurs on at least two other manuscripts. One is
P2054, a "General Exhortation to the Four Orders 49 to Cultivate
and Practice the Way According to the Doctrine Following the
Hours of the Day" +=~~lbi2B~~~~ff by Chih-yen ~Utt·
126
The colophon states that it was

transcribed if by the student ~-T- Hsueh An-chiin on 17th day of
the 5th month in the 2nd (chia-shen) year of the Equiluminous (T'ung-
kuang) reign period [21 July 924]. The faithful disciple, Li Chi-shun
*'i!f)l[t{, was responsible for this recitation to encourage goodness. 50
It may be that Hsueh An-chiin and Li Chi-shun collaborated
in the preparation of this manuscript, the latter reciting and the
former copying down. In any event, it is valuable to know what
other types of manuscripts Hsueh was involved in copying and
also to know that, though he was a secular student in a Buddhist
monastery, he associated with the declared faithful.
Hsueh An-chiin is also mentioned twice in the colophon of
PK8668, which is an exhortation to observe the precepts. 51 Al-
though Hsueh An-chiin is not here identified as a lay student study-
ing at the Pure Land Monastery, the two individuals with whom
he is associated in this colophon are so identified. The manuscript,
dated the 21st of the lst month (equivalent to 13 February 920),
would appear to have been for Hsueh An-chiin's personal use
:fL ( = tL?) ffl.
I have dwelt at length on Hsueh An-chiin because I believe it
is important, in order to understand why transformation texts
came to be written down, to know as much as possible about those
who are in any way associated with these manuscripts. In the case
of the Maudgalyayana transformation text on S2614, it is signif-
icant that the manuscript was transcribed by a lay student in a
Tun-huang monastery and owned by someone who, to judge from
his name, was probably also a layman.
Another transformation text that was definitely copied by a lay
student is that on the Han general Wang Ling 3:~. 52 Thus we
see that students were involved in copying transformation texts on
both secular and religious subjects.
At least one extant transformation text was copied by a lay
student for pietistic reasons. This is the PK876 fragment of the
Maudgalyayana transformation text of which the colophon reads
as follows:
On the 5th day of the intercalary 6th [sic] 53 month in the 2nd, ting-ch'ou,
year of the National Rebirth ofPeace and Prosperity (T'ai-p'ing hsing-
127
kuo) reign period [that is, 22 August 977], the lay student Yang Yuan-
shou54 of the Manifest Virtue Temple, having pondered the matter by
himself, made a vow to create blessings by writing in full this Trans-
formation on Maudgalyiiyana in one scroll. It is his determination that, in
the future, together with Sakyamuni Buddha, 55 he shall be reborn 56 a
Buddha once57 he encounters Maitreya. 58 If, later, there are indi-
viduals59 who, t;xpressing a similar faith, 60 write out in full the Trans-
formation on Maudgalyiiyana, and similarly maintain the power of their
vow, 61 they will avoid falling upon the three 62 paths 63 ofhell.
It is especially interesting to note that Yang Yuan-shou not only
decided to copy the Transformation on Maudgalyiiyana for his own
spiritual welfare but exhorted others to do so. This same name,
Yang Yuan-shou, also appears in a circular of a lay religious as-
sociation (S5631) dated in accordance with 8 February 980 (?) 64
as that of"announcements secretary" $liJitf:'§".
Two of the manuscripts (in booklet form) of the "Transforma-
tion of the Han General Wang Ling" bear inscriptions mentioning
petty government officials. The colophon ofP3627 .1 was inscribed
on the 16th day of the 8th month in the 4th year of the Heavenly
Blessing reign period (in accordance with 1 October 939) by
the Recording Officer, Yen Wu-ch'eng ::fL 13 'gl'gJ/fkJ}ilt. Yen Wu-
ch'eng's name also appears on P3272v in connection with the title
of"emissary" {Jl!!i][. He delivered a letter concerning banditry and
theft in a ting-mao year (907 ?) to a responsible official. The cover
and two otherwise empty pages of the manuscript formerly owned
by Shao Hsun-mei B~ 7fij ~ and now kept in the library of Peking
University bear several notations written in a different hand from
the text. These are as follows:
I. The 9th month of the hsin-ssu year (A.D. 921?).
2. The 3rd year of the National Rebirth ofPeace and Prosperity (T'ai-
p'ing hsing-kuo) reign period (A.D. 978). So Ch'ing-tzu wUJ!l·-=f.
3. Inscribed by So Ch'ing-tzu, lay student of the Recording Officer
::fL § '§ ~{± N~. 65 If, later, someone should read this aloud, please do
not find fault.&&
It is obvious that So Ch'ing-tzu expected others, who would
have their own opinions on what was the correct story, to read his
manuscript.
128
It is noteworthy that several of these manuscripts bear colo-

phons that refer to the position of "recording officer," "biblio-
graphic secretary," or "archivist" (k'ung-mu kuan :JL §'§or a varia-
tion thereof). 67 We may not assume, however, that holders of this
position in Tun-huang were appointed by the central government
of even that their duties were identical to central-government ap-
pointees. In two instances, the title occurs in close association with
the standard designation of a lay student resident in a Buddhist
monastery (hsueh-shih lang !Jtt:N~). It is likely that this was a local
appointment and that the authorities in Tun-huang borrowed the
nomenclature of the central government. 68
Another secular piece, copied by an official surnamed So, is the
"Names of the Hundred Birds" 13.~15 (S3835). This manuscript
is dated to the 12th month of a keng:Jin year (A.D. 930?) and signed
by the ChiefEscort So Pu-tzu ¥J!~~PG-T.
On the back of P3485 ("Maudgalyayana Transformation
Text") is a notation that this manuscript was "recorded by Chang
Ta-ch'ing" ~:k!JHC.. We are most fortunate in having been able
to identify the same name on another Tun-huang manuscript,
S367, which consists of topographical and historical notes on cities
in Turkestan under Chinese influence. The colophon to S367
reads:
On the 25th day of the 12th moon of the 1st year of the Luminous Be-
ginning (Kuang-ch'i) reign period [2 February 886], when the An-
wei-shih-fu [Assistant Commissioner] ofLing-chou, Minister of State,
arrived with his suite at the chou, Chang Ta-ch'ing, in attendance on
the Assistant Commissioner, made a copy of this document to serve as
a record. 69
This information is important in that it helps give some idea of the

status of one more individual who may have been responsible for
the writing down of a transformation text, and also because it pro-
vides an approximate date for the time when it was copied.
Two manuscripts on religious subjects not belonging to the
transformation-text genre are a lecture on the Siitra of Deep Grati-
tude to Parents :5CBJ:}~,;m~ (P2418) and the "Conditional Origins
(Nidana) of Maudgalyayana" § ~l!H~E (P2193). Both bear the
names of individuals who are clearly not lay Buddhists nor secular
129
students. The latter has an inscription which states that it is a true

copy of Chieh-tao ("Way of Differentiation [dhatu]") 3'1!-~.0:ii:
::;$:~[!.70 The former was copied on the 7th day of the 8th month of
the 2nd year of the Heavenly Completion (T'ien-ch'eng) reign
period (5 September 927) by I-chueh -Z; ("Once Awakened").
A note that immediately precedes the inscription reads "To In-
struct [Cf. Skt. parik$eptr (instructor)] the Populace, the Sixth"
li*%-~:A.
A semi-vernacular narrative (S548v) ofPrince Siddhartha's at-
tainment of the Way has the following colophon:
On the 19th day of the 8th moon in the chia-wu year, the 5th of the Ex-
tended Resurgence (Ch'ang-hsing) reign period [30 September 934],
the monk Hung-fu of the Lotus Platform (Lotus Throne) Monastery
recorded the copying of the foregoing. Kept for reading and recitation
by the monk Hui-ting. His friends are asked not to take it away. :Jjt~
ffi:¥-Et' q:~,, f:l-t-n s ~!f~fi~ililil~~i:!mVL fi;!;/Eil!!(for ~?) ;t
~~m. ~OA/1'1&. 71
This would seem to be fair indication that at least some Tun-huang

manuscripts were passed around for reading by others than the
owner himself.
Another religious piece (S 1, see also P3361), the "Seat-Settling
Text by the Late, Great Teacher Yuan-chien ('Full-Orbed
Mirror') on the Twenty-four Exemplars ofFiliality," which con-
sists of I 07 heptasyllabic lines, was composed by the Recipient of
the Purple, 72 Yun-pien ("Cumulous Debater"), the Great Master
of the Full-Orbed Mirror, Recorder of Monks 73 from the Right
Side of the Thoroughfare. Yun-pien is known to have died in the
year 951 74 and to have spent some time in Lo-yang where he wrote
poems in the company of geishas. 75 In all likelihood, though not
named, Yun-pien is also responsible for the "Seat-Settling Text by
the Great Teacher, Recorder of Monks from the Right Side of the
Thoroughfare" (S3 728). 76
It would be pointless to give here an exhaustive list 77 of all the
names associated with these manuscripts for, already, a definite
pattern has emerged. The overall impression one gets from review-
ing the information available on the individuals mentioned in the
various colophons and inscriptions is that many of the transforma-
130
tion texts were copied by a body of lay students 78 who had not
yet passed their examinations and who were enamored of popular
storytelling. Some considered it an act of piety to have reli-
gious stories copied out, even though these were decidedly non-
canonical. On the other hand, canonical texts and lectures on them
tended to be copied by individuals who were more directly af-
filiated with the Buddhist faith. In no case is the name of the author
of a transformation text known to us for certain. 79 Nor is it likely
that any should be, because the oral and collective nature of com-
position would militate against any single person's being de-
signated the creator of a given transformation text.
In general, we may observe that genuine transformation texts,
regardless of the subject matter, exist in manuscripts that were
copied by lay students or other lay persons. The same holds true for
other types of popular narratives that do not deal with religious
subjects. But siitra lectures and popular narratives with a pro-
nounced religious content that are not transformation texts tend
to be associated with monks and others who have taken obviously
religious names. 80 Monks might, however, occasionally be in-
volved in the transcription of secular (mostly non-narrative) lit-
erature. P3579.2, for instance, is a collection of poems by Po Chii-i
and others. Dated the 20th day of the 2nd month of the year 877,
it was copied by a monk of the Ling-t'u Monastery ilflim~ .f::tJi%;.
While searching for any bit ofinformation regarding the copyists
of the Tun-huang popular narratives, I was led to the registers of
monks and nuns affiliated with the monasteries and nunneries of
that area. 81 Although some of the same monasteries and nunneries
appear in the registers as in the colophons of the popular narrative
manuscripts, in no case has it been possible to identify individuals
listed in the registers with those monks who were responsible for
copying various manuscripts of popular literature. This may be at-
tributable to the fact that the registers and the manuscripts date
from different eras. But it may also partly be due to the diverse
geographic origin of the manuscripts and their copyists.
The colophons to various Tun-huang manuscripts reveal many
other interesting facts about who did the copying, how they did
*
it, and for what purpose. P2825, for example, is a copy of the Family
Instructions of the Grand Duke ( T ai-kung chia-chiao :;:t 1} ~). The
131
colophon, written on the 15th day of the 1st month of the year 850,
states that the text was "read by the student Sung Wen-hsien and
written by An Wen-te" ~1:_;;K)(I{ij'(1()(~~. This indicates
that oral'transcription was involved in the writing of this text and,
thus, that a high incidence of purely homophonic errors cannot be
ruled out even if an already existing copy was utilized.
Several colophons in the corpus of Tun-huang popular litera-
ture are charged with a vivid sense of immediacy. The "Destruc-
tion of the Transformations of Demons" 82 (P2187) bears the
following:
On the lOth day of the 11th month in the 9th year of the Heavenly
Blessing (T'ien-fu) reign period (28 November 944], blowing on my
brush which had frozen from the cold, I write this inscription. 83
Written by the Buddhist framaT)a of the Dharma and Vinaya, Yuan-
jung ("Vow-splendid"), 84 who resides in the Pure Land Monastery.
At the end of the lecture on the Vajracchedikaprajfiiipiiramitii-siitra

(P2133v):
Copied behind the refectory on the X day of the 1st month in the 6th
year of the True Brightness (Chen-ming) reign period [920]. Ch'ing-
mi85 ("Pure-esotericism") has accordingly inscribed it. 86
The colophon of the transformation text on Sariputra's subdu-
ing of demons, though it includes no name, helps to elucidate the
fact that this type of literature was collectively inspired, performed,
transcribed, and revised: "If anyone who reads this sees a part that
is incorrect, I pray that he will correct it forthwith." 87 It would
have been impossible for others to make the corrections here in-
vited if the story, as transcribed, did not have broad currency. This
particular colophon is also one of the grounds for my belief that
transformation texts were meant to be passed around and read.
The last line of the story of the capture of Chi Pu reads: "All that
I have said is written up in the History of the Han; Do not say that
the lyricist has sung untruly." (T71.4) A fully satisfying inter-
pretation of this line is difficult to achieve. It does indicate, how-
ever, that this text-not a pien-wen-had some connection with an
oral rendition and was written down by someone who was aware
of the classical source of the story.
132
"The Story of the Crown Prince of the House ofLiu during the
Former Han" (P3645) seems to have been written by a moderately
educated individual. Several times, classical texts are quoted and
the language tends more to the literary than most Tun-huang
popular narratives.
It is virtually certain that the P2794v manuscript of the Wu Tzu-
hsu story was copied from another written text by someone who
was only partially literate. Ungrammatical sentences and mis-
written characters abound. There are many instances where the
copyist jumps from the middle of one sentence to the middle of an-
other without making any adjustments or indications in his writing
(for example, from T8.10.4 to 8.12.11 and from 16.2.3 to 16.2.25,
{;). A probable explanation for this is that his eye skipped ahead.
Elsewhere, the manuscript is garbled and repetitive, the work of
a negligent or inexperienced copyist. The interspersed practice
characters indicate that the latter is the more likely case. 88
One of the lectures on the Vimalakfrti-nirdefa siitra (P2292) bears
the following informative colophons:
On the 9th day of the 8th month in the lOth year 89 of the Broad
Governance (Kuang-cheng) reign period [25 September 947], I wrote
down this manuscript of the twentieth scroll at the Zen Temple of
Serene Truth in West Szechwan [?]. 90 Just as I finished the writing, it
became dark. I don't know how I'll get back to my village.
Now 48 years old, I am holding a lecture at Ying 91 -ming ("Respon-
sive Brightness") Monastery in the prefecture. It is exceedingly hot. 92
It would appear that this manuscript was for the personal use,
in worship services, of the owner. The second colophon refers to a
specific time and place when the contents of the scroll were pre-
sented to an audience. The mention of the age of the writer of the
colophon, in particular, gives one the impression that the manu-
script was a private possession. And the remark about the heat
vividly conveys a sense of immediacy to the lecture itself.
The "Causal 93 Transformation on a Maiden in the Women's
Palace ofKing Bimbisara [Named] 'Intends to Create Merit' Who
Is Reborn in Heaven for Having Given Her Support to a Stii.pa"
(P3051) has the longest colophon of all the Tun-huang popular
narratives. Not only does it tell the names ofboth the author94 and
133
the copyist; it gives explicit reasons why the former undertook to

compose it:
The Law of the Buddha is broad, its power of salvation boundless.
Whosoever pursues the Way with all his heart will certainly reap a
reward. But I, Pao-hsuan ("Protector-proclaimer") f*~, among those
who adhere to the gate ofimmateriality, 95 am oflittle art and, within
the Brahmanic temples, am barren of talent. I am indisposed to a
thorough understanding of the teaching of the siitras and, in philo-
sophical discussions, 96 lack penetrating knowledge. I have impulsively
demonstrated my shortsightedness by piecing together the reasoning
of esotericism. Not fearful of shame, I have gathered 97 these very pro-
found parables of causation. 9 s
Personally inscribed by the Zen monk, Fa-pao ("Dharma-
protector") of the Three Realms 99 Monastery on the 20th day of the
4th month in the 3rd (kuei-ch'ou) year of the Broad Docility (Kuang-
shun) reign period ofthe Great Chou dynasty [4June 953].
Other manuscripts from the same monastery that were written at
approximately the same time are: "Nidana on the King of Abhirati
(?)" lk~OOQ±~ (P3375v), which bears an inscription written by
the Monk Chieh-ching ("Preceptively Pure") on the 6th day of the
7th100 month of an i-mao year (27 July 955?); and copies ofletters
between the famous Western Han captives of the Huns, Li Ling
<$~and Su Wu l*:JEI:; (Sl73), by Chang Ying-chiin ~;!R:%:e, a lay
student ~±N~, dated in accordance with 19 July 975.
The survey of this second group of colophons on manuscripts of
Tun-huang popular literature confirms the pattern we saw emerg-
ing from examination of the first and from other types of evidence.
To wit, overtly religious texts such as siitra lectures seem to have
been written, copied, and owned by individuals who employed
them in connection with actual worship service. The individuals
involved tend, furthermore, to be professional religieux. Trans-
formation texts and other genres ofTun-huang popular narratives,
on the other hand, appear to represent an early stage in the devel-
opment of the written story that was meant for reading but that
ultimately derived from an oral context. Those involved in the
production of such texts are largely local, lay intelligentsia who
might, however, display a personal predilection for Buddhism.
134
During his travels to India (672 et seq.), the famous pilgrim 1-

ching observed that there were two categories of non-clerical
pupils in the Buddhist monasteries, the miinava, who studied chiefly
Buddhist works and who wished themselves eventually to become
monks, and the brahmaciirin, who pursued secular studies and
had no intention of changing their way of life.l 01 "In the mon-
asteries oflndia there are many 'students' who are entrusted to the
Bhikshus and instructed by them in secular literature." 102 There
is no reason why a similar system of education should not have been
transferred to Buddhist monasteries in China. Indeed, Zurcher
gives103 evidence that, already in the fourth century, the monastery
hq.d developed the secondary function of an institute of secular
learning and education. And it is known for a fact that many lay
students during the T'ang period repaired to Buddhist precincts
to pursue their secular studies.
This practice of pursuing a secular course of studies in the mon-
asteries was most popular after the K'ai-yuan ("Epochal Begin-
ning") reign period (December 713-February 742). 104 Tun-
huang was one of the favorite places for students to gather. 105 The
frequent occurrence in the Tun-huang manuscripts of such terms
as hsueh-shih ~ffili ("Instructor"), hsueh-lang ~NB, hsueh-shih-lang
~± (or{±) NB, and hsueh-sheng ~1: (the last three terms all desig-
nating student status) attests to this.l 06 The famous rescuer of
Tun-huang from the clutches of the Tibetans, Chang 1-ch'ao,
was himself such a student. P3620 includes an untitled song and
the following colophon: "The 25th day ofthe 3rd month of815 (or
827). Written by the student, Chang 1-ch'ao" *:¥=::}] .::.+E B
~1: 51~ r.®J23.107
Although Chang 1-ch'ao was not awarded his own full bio-
graphy in either of the two T'ang histories, 108 enough has been
gleaned from various sources to allow Lo Chen-yi.i 109 and Hsiang
Ta110 to compile extensive biographical accounts ofhim. Chang 1-
ch'ao's most famous exploit is the expulsion of the Tibetans from
the Kansu corridor. Tun-huang had fallen to them in the year 781.
An early, brief account of Chang 1-ch'ao's recapture ofTun-huang
from the Tibetans in 848 may be found on S3329. 111 Chang prof-
ited from internal dissension amounting to civil war which had
135
erupted among the Tibetans after the death of their king, Glail
Darma in 842. 112 In the same year that he recaptured Tun-huang,
he founded the "Returning-to-Righteousness Army" (Kuei-i chiin
~~-),which remained the main force in the area until the ar-
rival of the Tanguts sometime around 1030. 113 For his services,
Chang was greatly honored by the central government and re-
vered by the local Chinese populace. We know from S3329 that,
after his military successes, Chang immediately sent a report to
the Emperor in Ch'ang-an by one Kao Chin-ta ~~~and some
others. Thereupon the Emperor awarded Chang the title of Pre-
sident of the Ministry ofWar and conferred upon him a marquisate
with the rank of 10,000 households t'l~-ImfEJ:JUt.P~. 114 He then
served for a time as the military governor of the Ho-hsi region f!iJ iffi
ff!JJt-ue:. In 867, Chang himselfwent to Ch'ang-an and died there
in 872. Among his posthumous titles is that ofHonorary President
of the Ministry of Officials and Marquis of Ho-hsi with 10,000
households 1ft {5(:j!-$ fEj jtf!iJ iffi;§t p ~ .11s
Chang I-ch'ao was himself an enthusiastic supporter of Bud-
dhism. We have already seen how he must have pursued some of
his early studies in a monastery under the tutelage of monks. In
860, he dedicated cave 156 (Pelliot no. 17 his) at Tun-huang. Paeans
of praise are heaped upon him in the "Destruction of the Trans-
formations ofDemons" (T345.9, 345.11, 354.13, and 355.8). We
know that, in the 3rd month of the year 863, he presented to the
Emperor an exegetical work written by a monk named "Dharma-
faith" (Fa-hsin ¥*Fa) from the area which he governed. 116 The
noted Tun-huang clerical leader "Enlightenment-truth" (Wu-
chen •fg ~) wrote two series of poems, "Passing of the Five
Watches" (wu-keng chuan :li]fili$) and "The Twelve Hours" (shih-
erh shih +=lffl:) to praise him. 117 It is not at all surprising, then,
to discover that Chang had been a lay student in one of the Tun-
huang monasteries as ~youth.
The educational establishment at Tun-huang was far more
elaborate than the terms hsueh-shih, hsueh-lang, and so on alone can
convey and included, as well, various professorial, administrative,
and examinational authorities. 118 As I have demonstrated earlier
in this chapter and more fully in my article on "The Making of
Written Vernacular Narrative," many of the manuscripts contain-
136
ing popular literature recovered from Tun-huang were copied by

individuals from these circles. Buddhist monasteries in Central
Asia were likewise centers of education, both theological and
secular; 119 it is probable that the Indian educational patterns were
transmitted through this area into China.
In China proper, the schools sponsored by Buddhist monasteries
(ssu-hsueh f.£.~) were essentially private academies (ssu-shu
f.£.~) .120 The studies undertaken there were by no means restricted
to Buddhist subjects and might be entirely secular in nature:
In the 4th month of the year 831, I pursued my studies at Hui-shan
("Grace Mountain") Monastery121 and remained there for three years.
Those works which I recited include: The Tso Chronicle of the Spring and
Autumn Period, The Odes, The Changes, Ssu-ma Ch'ien's and Pan Ku's
histories, "Encountering Sorrow" by Ch'ii Yuan, Chuang-tzu, Han:fei-
tzu, letters, notes, and several hundred poetical compositions.l22
In the Tun-huang story of Ch'iu Hu (Sl33), when the anti-
hero takes leave ofhis wife to go into the mountains in preparation
for becoming an official, the books he takes with him are the follow-
ing (note the order listed): the Classic of Filial Piety, the Analects,
the Book of History, the Chronicle of Tso, the Kung-yang and Ku-liang
[Chronicles of the Spring and Autumn period], the Mao [recension
of the] Odes, the Records of Ritual, the Chuang-tzu, and the Literary
Selections [Wen-hsuan] (T155.6). Since the Wen-hsuan is included in
this list, the Tun-huang story ofCh'iu Hu must have been written
later than the first quarter of the sixth century, when Hsiao T'ung
~Me (501-531) compiled it. Ch'iu Hu actually receives his learn-
ing at the hands of old Taoist adepts who are "well-versed in the
Nine Classics and understand clearly the Seven Bibliographies". It
would have been anachronistic to have Ch'iu Hu study with Bud-
dhist savants, since he was a man ofLu ~'and his story was first
written down during the Han dynasty. We may understand this
as partially indicative of the T'ang popular (the manuscript is
rather poorly written anc! replete with errors) conception ofliterati
education.
The Tun-huang story of Shun as a boy has the hero study first
the Analects ~Jfij~ and the Classic of Filial Piety :!¥: ~' then the Mao
[recension of the] Odes =§ ~ and the Records of Ritual Iii ~a (T 131.8
and 132.5).
137
In a discussion of preaching (ch' ang-tao P~ $) from Chapter 13

of the Biographies ofEminent Monks by Hui-chiao ~~'the following
suggestions to utilize different approaches for different audiences
may be found:
As for the first five groups, 123 it is necessary to speak incisively of im-
permanence124 and to discourse trenchantly of repentance. 125 For126
rulers and elders 127 it is necessary to cite popular allusions and inter-
weave set phrases. For the numerous mass of commoners, it is necessary
to point to events and construct shapes, to speak directly of what is
seen and heard. For mountain folk and desert dwellers, it is necessary
to use neighborly words and reproach with terms of guilt. When each
of these variations~~ arises from the situation at hand, it may be said
that one knows both the time and the audience. 128
The pedagogical idea being conveyed here is that the method of

preaching should be suited to the person to whom it is directed.
This is actually an explicit advocacy of the concept ofupaya ("skill-
in-means").
An awareness on the part ofT'ang-period Buddhist teachers of
differing levels of literacy and their attempts to alleviate the dif-
ficulties of those with minimum proficiency is evident from such
documents as S2577. 129 The main contents of this manuscript con-
sist of the eighth scroll of the Lotus Sutra. But the manuscript also
bears an extremely interesting and enlightening note:
For beginning readers of this siitra who do not recognize sentences,

Jl 30 have punctuated it, though I have paid no attention to paragraphs;
nor have I mentioned the beginning and end of sections. Most of the
sentences consist of four characters. I only punctuate those sentences
that have other than four characters. But, for those sentences that have
four characters, I never add punctuation. Passages that are set off and
the ends of lines are also used to distinguish new sentences. 131 In this
fashion, too, separate distinctions have been made. Those who see
this later, please do not blame me for 132 mispunctuation with vermilion
[re]marks.
The author's final sentence indicates that some manuscripts would

be passed around to an indeterminate number of readers. Com-
pare the similar remarks at the end of S548v (on Prince Sid-
dhartha's attainment of the Way) and the Peking University
138
Library manuscript formerly owned by Shao Hsun-mei ("Trans-

formation on the Han General Wang Ling").1aa
From P2249v, 134 we know that even someone who was newly or
partially literate would try his best to write the names ofBuddhist
saints who figured prominently in the transformation texts. The
first line of a set of practice characters on this manuscript is
"Mahamahamahamahamahamaudgalyayana, first in superna-
tural [abilities]" ***** § ~L~/il$ (sic) ~-. Several lines
later, g'iiin ljiL (that is, ga) is written five times in a row. And,
again, "Mahamaudgalyayana, first in supernatural abilities" § *
ljiL~/il$~~-. Other practice titles given are those of the writings
of Brahmacarin W ang135 X:~~ 11 ~ and of the famous book of
homilies called "Family Instructions of the Grand Duke" :k0
*~ (three times).
Inside a statue of the influential Tun-huang monk, Hung-pien
~';!, a bag containing his ashes was discovered. It was wrapped
in crude paper on which were written a child's practice writing in
a mediocre hand together with a teacher's comments.l 36
Other evidence of more widespread low-level literacy in the
T'ang than we are wont to assume comes from the Arab travel ac-
count entitled 'A{Jbiir a,r-$fn wa l-Hind, written in 851. In it we
learn that "Poor or rich, small or great, all the Chinese learn to
trace out the characters and to write." And "In each town there
is a school and a schoolmaster to instruct the poor and their chil-
dren; [these schoolmasters] are provided for by funds from the
Treasury." 137 While the unwieldiness of the Chinese writing sys-
tem prevented all but a very small precentage of individuals from
attaining mastery of the written language, the contemporaneous
evidence I have adduced indicates that there were various levels
ofliteracy, ranging from those who could not even write their own
names, through those who recognized a few graphs, to those who
could read and write several hundred of them with difficulty,
and so on. We may thus assume that an incipient reading public
for popular literary texts existed during at least the latter part of
the T'ang. This would have constitut.ed a powerful stimulus for the
copying of such texts. It would also have served as a harbinger of
the full flowering of popular printed literature during the Sung and
later periods.
139
Having gained some idea of who wrote down the transformation

texts and who might have read them, we must now attempt to
determine what type of individuals performed the transformations
that served as their inspiration. We may begin by a discussion of
what is known of the modus operandi et vivendi.
One of the most commonly held misconceptions about trans-
formation texts is that they were the texts, records, promptbooks,
or aides-memoire used in connection with actual oral delivery. The
usual formulation is that "transformation texts are the hua-pen ~*
(or ti-pen ~1.$:) for popular lectures fG 'i!'f." 138 Not only does this fly
in the face of all that we know about the techniques and methods
of storytellers generally, which are observable in many countries
today or are ascertainable through examination of historical doc-
uments; it is simply not borne out by scrutiny of the Tun-huang
transformation-text manuscripts themselves, nor is it supported
by any other Chinese source known to me. Any formulation that
posits the employment of transformation texts in popular lectures
(that is, lectures for laymen given by monks) is perforce made
suspect by the fact that the former often have an entirely secular
theme while the purpose of the latter was obviously religious. The
contention that secular stories were told by properly ordained
monks to attract audiences for their sermons is not convincing. No
one has yet demonstrated satisfactorily that sucli a practice ever
occurred in the T'ang period.
In his article called "An Informal Talk on the Origins of pien-
wen" (Man-t'an pien-wen te ch'i-yuan), Chou Shu-chia delves into
the Biographies of Eminent Monks (Kao-seng chuan. ~ffiH$) in an at-
tempt to find the roots of siitra lectures. But it is necessary to reit-
erate that there is no demonstrable direct relationship, much less
equivalence, between siitra lectures and transformation texts (or
rather their oral predecessors). Furthermore, the individuals who
presented these two types of oral literature were of entirely dif-
ferent social and religious status. The men who were included in
the Biographies· of Eminent Monks were ordained; the tellers of trans-
formations were folk entertainers and lay devotees who had no
recognized status in the Buddhist ecclesia. The relationship
between lay transformation performer and ordained siitra lec-
turer bears many striking parallels to that between the red-head
140
(Ja-shih r!ffili) and black-head (tao-shih 31!ffili) priests of the Taoist

tradition. 139
It has, nonetheless, been repeatedly asserted by numerous
students of Chinese popular literature that eminent Buddhist
monks were involved in popular lectures, and the leap is then made
from this to the further (and untenable) assertion that those who
gave popular lectures also performed transformations. The first as-
sertion deserves serious consideration because known Buddhist
pedagogical practices during the T'ang period would have en-
couraged it; the second is unacceptable because there simply has
been no satisfactory proof adduced to support it. Both assertions
center around the person(s) of Wen-shu )(~ andfor Wen-hsu
)(i~. I advisedly write "andfor" because it has never been shown
that Wen-shu and Wen-hsu are the same individual, as has fre-
quently been alleged. Without doubt, by far the most crucial pas-
sage for those who wish to connect Wen-hsu andfor Wen-shu with
transformation performances is the following from the T'ang author
Chao Lin's Record rif Tales if Causation:
There was a monk, Wen-shu, who held public talks for large crowds.
He made a pretense oflecturing on the scriptures but it was all licen-
tiousness and crudity. Dissolute persons egged him on and supported
him. Doltish men and loose women liked to listen to him. The auditors
packed themselves in. The temples respected and honored him, call-
ing him a reverend.l 40 The schools, 141 in imitation of his tunes, made
songs and cantos. The common lot is easily tempted, but those Buddhists
who know the truth and are versed in literature thoroughly despise
him.l42
In the first place, there is no reference in this passage to transforma-

tions. Second, it seems obvious that this man, Wen-shu, is not por-
trayed as a genuine monk but that he is held by Chao Lin to be
an impostor. Third, competent Buddhists themselves rejected him.
It is essential that all three of these points be kept in mind as we
survey some of the other important sources on Wen-shu and/or
Wen-hsu.
The next item of evidence is taken from Tuan An-chieh's Miscel-
laneous Register rif Ballads, under the heading that deals with the
lyric meter (tz'u-tiao ~~~) "Wen-hsu-tzu" )(t~ f:
141
During the Ch'ang-ch'ing ("Lasting Celebration") reign period [821-

824], there was a monk, Wen-hsu, who gave popular lectures (su-
chiang) and was a talented reader ofsiitras. His lilting voice ~tirred the
villagers. The musician, Huang Mi-fan ~;)j(:fi ["Yellow Rice"?],
composed this tune on the basis of his intonation in the recitation of
Avaloki tesvara. 143
The attitude ofTuan An-chieh toward Wen-hsu is so diametrically

opposed to that of Chao Lin toward Wen-shu that we can scarcely
believe them to be the same individual, unless we assume an ex-
tremely high degree of subjectivity on the part of the two observers.
The fact that the tunes of both were adopted by musicians may,
however, lead some to equate the two individuals. I, person-
ally, am not so inclined because of other data available for our
consideration.
According to Chang Yen-yuan's A Record qf Famous Paintings qf
Successive Dynasties, at the Bodhi Temple in Ch'ang-an, "On the
east wall of the Buddha hall, there is a Bodhisattva who turns his
eyes to look at people M 13 /illi)\. 144 The Dharma Master Wen-hsu,
for no reason at all, had an artisan lay on colors and so spoil it." 145
These two sentences by no means warrant the identification of
Wen-hsu as an explainer of transformation tableaux. In fact, Tuan
Ch'eng-shih, who also records this incident in his .Notes on Mona-
steries and Stiipas/ 46 specifically identifies Wen-hsu as a "monk who
gave popular lectures" m.~fi (which tallies with what Tuan
An-chieh says of him), not a transformation performer. Ono
Katsutoshi, in his annotations to the passage in question, has the
following note:
The Hsueh Chin Tao ruan edition and the Chin Tai Pi Shu edition both
have )l:i~ Wen-hsu, whereas the Wang Shih Shu Hua ruan edition and
Tuan Ch'eng-shih's (f.lt.QX;~?-863) Sze Ta Chi ~~~~ (Chi-ku-ko
edition) give his names as Wen-shu )1:~.147
Ono goes on to quote from an entry in Ennin's Diary for the 9th day
of the lst month in the year 841. I here offer the translation (with
a slight modification) of the relevant portions by Reischauer:
An Imperial order was sent to seven monasteries in the left and right
streets to hold lectures for laymen m.~. Three of the places [are]
142
in the right streets: the Hui-ch'ang-ssu had Wen-hsii )0~ Fa-shih,

who is a Court Priest, a Debater of the Three Teachings, a Reverence
Granted the Purple, and a Personal Attendant Priest, lecture on the
Lotus Sutra. He was the foremost Priest to give lectures for laymen in
the city. I have not yet obtained the names oflecturers at the Hui-jih-
ssu ~ 13 ~ and the Ch'ung-fu-ssu ~i!il!l~.l4S
The very high status and great dignity ofWen-hsu are thus con-
firmed by Ennin, one of the most serious and reliable reporters of
the religious scene during the T'-ang period. His observations are
supported by other evidence.
Both the Extensive Register of Great Tranquility and Diifuse Notes
from the Ward ofBlue-Green Fowl quote a passage from Mr. Lu's Mis-
cellaneous Talks (Lu Shih tsa-shuo ll!.a;;~IDt) about Wen-hsu. 149 It is
clear from this account that the Dharma Master of great virtue
(bhadanta), Wen-hsu, was a man of high rank and esteem, for
he had won admittance to the palace. He committed an offense,
however, and was banished. When this happened, his disciples
gathered up his books and continued to lecture in the manner for
whichhewasfamous. The Emperor Wen-tsung 3t* (r. 827-840),
who was something of a m~sician himself, adopted Wen-hsu's
"sound" as a canto and called it "The Master Wen-hsu" 3ti£Ff.
This account is in substantial agreement with that given 150 for the
origin of the lyric meter of the same title in the Miscellaneous Register
of Ballads.
Unfortunately, the problem of Wen-shu and/or Wen-hsu 151 is
compounded by the fact that, if they were indeed two different
individuals, they must have been contemporaries or near-
contemporaries.152 And the problem is further exacerbated by
the anti-Buddhist bias ofHu San-hsing's commentary to the Com-
prehensive Mirror for Aid in Government. Ssu-ma Kuang had written
under the chi-mao day of the 6th month of the year 826 that "the
Emperor paid a visit to the Temple ofNascent Blessings (~i!illl~
[in Cultivation of Virtue Ward 11M~tJi]) to watch the sramat}a
Wen-hsu give a popular lecture." 153 Under the year 826, the
Unified Chronology of the Buddhist Patriarchate f~ iil!LtiiUc (ch. 42) has
this entry: "The Emperor paid a visit to the Temple of Nascent
Blessings to watch the sramatJ.a Wen-hsu )(~ lecture on a siltra.
The Emperor declared that he was good." 154 Hu's comment on
143
this event belittles Buddhist evangelism to such a degree that even

the sober and well-intentioned discussion of the doctrine is made
to have a base purpose: "When the Buddhists preach, it is in the
category of talking about emptiness, but the popular lectures can-
not elaborate the meaning of emptiness. All they do is make the
people happy and then invite donations." Hu, writing approxi-
mately 500 years after the historical event, displays here not
his knowledge but his prejudices. Still, his words carried in-
fluence and anyone reading about Wen-hsu with Hu's com-
mentary as a guide would tend to think that the eminent monk was
quite unscrupulous.
This is a crucial issue (namely, whether Wen-hsu is Wen-shu),
for upon it hinges so much of the argument that eminent monks
were involved in supposedly disreputable transformation perfor-
mances. Naba Toshisada made a thorough study 155 of the relevant
materials and came to the conclusion that it is likely that Wen-hsu
was the famous monk who gave lectures for laymen and Wen-shu
the entertainer who regaled mixed audiences with suggestive
songs. On the basis of presently available evidence, it is not valid
to claim with any certitude that Wen-hsu told risque stories in the
presence of mixed crowds. Nor is it possible to say with any as-
surance that Wen-shu, who did tell such stories, was an eminent
monk who lectured before emperors. Above all, there is not a shred
of evidence linking either Wen-shu or Wen-hsu-whoever they
might have been-to the performance of transformations. Even
supposing that Wen-hsu and Wen-shu were the same person, the
whole issue may actually be said to be irrelevant to the study
of transformation performances and transformation texts, since
neither Wen-hsu nor Wen-shu can be shown to have had any con-
nection with these forms of oral and popular literature. I have dis-
cussed the issue at such length only because it is taken for granted
by most students of Chinese popular literature that he/they did.
The possibility of confusion between monk and picture story-
teller is, however, a real one and is partly due to the desire of the
storyteller to be granted a higher degree of respectability than his
profession is customarily accorded. For an example from a later
period, the "Taoist storyteller," T'an Erh-yin ~-m'W, in The Gal-
lant Maid (Erh-niiying-hsiung chuan .7C :9::.!Jtt${JJi) by Wen K'ang ;i(E}t
144
(ft. 1868) only pretends to be a priest. He actually has no creden-

tials as a Taoist but is simply a storyteller (though one with a very
checkered past) who dresses up like a priest because that is a cus-
tomary garb for the profession he has assumed. In India, beggars
of various sorts who carry about a religious icon and tell stories
concerning it often attempt to pass themselves off as holy men or
women. For example, Haraprasad Sastri, writing sometime before
1911, stated that "The so-called Brahmins who beg with the image
of Sitala in their hands and come from Howrah and Midnapore
districts are all Dharmagharia yogis." 156 A Soochow t'an-t;:;'u
("strum lyric") performer, Yang Pin-kuei, has his main character,
a fortuneteller, come on "in the garb of a Taoist priest." It is clear
that this is only a guise. 157 A comparable phenomenon in medieval
Japan has caused some confusion regarding the social status of etoki
(picture storytellers). For similar reasons, modern interpreters
of T'ang transformation performers have consistently, but erro-
neously, referred to them as monks. If they were "monks," they
were so only in a highly qualified sense. 158
On the verso of PK2496 is a list of sums received by monks in
payment for certain chanting which they had done. Because the
recto of the scroll is a fragment of a prosimetric vernacular narra-
tive (not a transformation text) about Maudgalyayana rescuing
his mother, Jaworski reasons as follows:
Nous pouvons en deduire que les donateurs, payant les frais des messes
et d'offrandes pour le repos des ames en peine, demandaient egalement
aux moines !'execution des pien-wen, comme de nos jours encore,
ils engagent des troupes d'acteurs pour donner des representations
theatrales. Pendant l'ete 1935 j'ai eu I' occasion, a Harbin, d'assister a
une representation de Mou lien kieou mou hi [13 ~J.l&£3:/ilG], donnee aux
frais d'un riche marchand pendant la !ete d'Avalambana.l5 9
As I have often pointed out elsewhere in this study, 160 there is no

hard-and-fast evidence that it was actual monks who were the per-
formers of transformations. The contents of the recto and verso
ofPK2496, as is usual with Tun-huang manuscripts, bear no neces-
sary relationship to each other. Furthermore, we know that funeral
dramas in many parts ofTaiwan are not normally performed by
genuine (in the sense of "ecclesiastically ordained") monks or
145
priests but by actors who, admittedly, sometimes pass themselves

off as quasi monks or para-priests. Laurence Thompson refers
to one such troupe as "actors who specialize in funeral rituals
playing the roles of ordained Buddhists and various supernatural
characters at a country wake." 161 He calls such actors "priests" (in
quotes), not simply priests. This assessment is supported by Susan
Naquin's study oflate Ch'ing and early Republican period funeral
ritual in North China. 162 Among the list ofvarious professionals
who participated in funerals, she includes opera troupes, acrobats,
and storytellers. Priests and their lay assistants are involved in
liturgically oriented rituals carried out at memorial services (fa-
shih hsi i**!.llt) that may display some theatrical features. But
proto-dramatic performances (such as the Taiwanese Hoklo Khan-
bOng-koa *L:lBX) and full-fledged drama such as the various
Maudgalyayana plays put on in conjunction with funerals are pre-
sented by amateur players or professional acting troupes. 163 Gary
Seaman refers to this type of service as "drama-cum-ritual." 164
Jaworski's own experience in China -indeed, his own statement
here-should have alerted him to the fact that religious entertain-
ment, like religious art, is most often provided by laymen whose
professional or semi-professional occupation it is, rather than by
monks or priests. Put differently, it might be said that religious
entertainers-in distinction to ordained experts in charge of
formal, doctrinal instruction and ritual-are neither members of
religious orders nor of the priesthood. This does not preclude their
associating very closely with monks or priests. It is plain in Taiwan
today, for example, that the two types of individuals-the pro-
fessional religious and the lay devotee-work closely together at
many points of contact with the people. We may observe, as has
Hans-Dieter Evers 165 for Ceylon, that each social stratum except
the very lowest has its own type of religious specialist, "the Bhikku
(buddhist monk), the Kapurala (in Ceylon sometimes called
'peoples' priest'), and the Edura ('exorcist')." It is only the first,
however, for whom there are standards of ordination that are ac-
ceptable to the establishment.
The most thorough study of Chinese funeral performers is that
of Gary Seaman, who has written extensively and made several
films 166 about troupes in the Taiwanese town of Puli and villages
146
in its surrounding basin. The Taiwanese word for the actors in

these funeral dramas is sai-kong gffi~, which in this context means
roughly something like "master of ceremonies." The funerals in the
Puli basin are almost exclusively in the Buddhist tradition. While
it would be possible to hire in Taoist ritual experts from Hsinchu,
Taipei, or other places where they are active, these individuals are
seldom seen around Puli.
Among the Puli Buddhists there are two ritual traditions,
the Lunghua ~~ ("Dragon Flower") and the Sabun 19;- F~
("Sramaz::ta"). Funeral dramas by groups using the Dragon
Flower ritual tradition are performed by professional actors, that
is, they have not undertaken vows of abstention from lay or secular
life which would distinguish them from the rest of the populace.
Their only distinction is the ability to perform the rituals and read
the texts of the Dragon Flower Tradition. About a half-dozen of
these men are well known enough for their abilities in this regard
to have established their own toa J;J ("altar"). By doing so, they
have pr9claimed that they will undertake, for a fee, to organize an
entire funeral for a client family. Their entrepreneurial skills are
much more important in this matter than are their ritual abilities
or knowledge, for they can always hire other people who have such
knowledge and ability but who lack the business sense, connec-
tions, or paraphernalia to organize a funeral. Individuals of the
Sabun tradition do organize funerals, and· they are usually rec-
ognizable as celibate Buddhist monks and nuns from the surround-
ing Buddhist temples or alternatively members of the various "at-
home" Buddhist sects in the area who have families but who have
undertaken to live up to some of the prohibitions of the sangha
rules.
Nearly all of the Dragon Flower groups perform funerals as a
supplementary profession. Only about a half-dozen who have their
own ritual paraphernalia and who make it a point to operate as
organizers clearly depend in large part for their livelihood on the
funeral business. As groups or as individuals, these funeral profes-
sionals will travel wherever the price is right or where there is a
demand for their services, but the constraints of demand and social
networks usually keep those from Puli operating within the Puli
basin.
147
The social status of the sai-kung is rather poor. 167 A typical insult
hurled in their direction is that they "eat the rice of the dead,"
meaning primarily that they make their living off the misfortunes
of others. There is also much unseemly competition for the ·"con-
tracts" to perform funerals, which involves waiting around for
someone who is terminally ill to die. This disreputability does not
necessarily extend to the monks of the Sabun tradition, since they
(in Puli, at least) apparently do not seek out mortuary business but
do perform funerals at the special request of the bereaved family.
Hence we find that, while the Dragon Flower specialists who put
on funeral dramas may on the surface appear to be monks, they are
actually professionals whom local inhabitants readily distinguish
from true monks and nuns.
Returning to the T'ang period, in order to differentiate clearly
between transformations and formal religious discourse held by
monks for lay audiences, we must study the latter in some detail.
The term "popular lecture" (su-chiang Mt ~) appears 168 for the first
time in the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (Hsu Kao-seng
chuan .J';§ijfi{i!J), compiled by Tao-hsuan (596-667) in the year
645. In 629, Shan-fu ~f:;k:, a future monk, had been introduced to
a Confucian academy by the Prefect of Ch'ang-chou (in modern
Kiangsu). But he was always out listening to "popular lectures"
during the day and reflecting on Buddhist doctrine during the
evening. For this he was reprimanded by the learned doctors (Po-
shih if±) who were his teachers.
There is no lack of primary sources for the study of the precise
nature and content of popular lectures. P3849v contains two
texts169 which outline the steps for carrying out a popular lecture
(the words su-chiang actually occur in the first of the two} service
which focuses on a Vimalakfrti Siitra lecture. The service, which
is conducted chiefly by a Master of the Dharma (fa-shih l*ffi!i),
begins with a recitation of the "Sanskrit" (fan jt). The Bod-
hisattva is invoked twice and then the "seat-settling [text]" (ya-
tso :jljl~) is chanted. Various stages of the siitra lecture itself
are described, including an "ornamentation" (chuang-yen l!±~,
alar{lkiiraka) and the invocation of the Buddha. After the siitra
lecture is finished, the ten "perfections" (shih po-lo-mi-to -t-i&Ni
~ ~' paramita) are explained. Hymns ·praising the Buddha are
148
chanted and vows are made. The Buddha is once again invoked
and vows are made to transfer the merit of the service to others,
after which the congregation disperses. P3770 170 carries the ac-
tual title "Text for the Ornamentation and Transfer of Merit
(parit;iimana) of a Popular Lecture" m ~IUf mUm rP1 3t. S441 7 also
gives the order of service for popular lectures. In the third section
of fascicle 3 of Yuan Chao's 5f;Jl!& (1048-1116) 171 "Records of
Copied Materials to Aid in Behaving according to the Four-Fold
Vinaya" 12:9 7Hfrr*¥.P~f-\f~[l entitled "Chapter on Explaining to
and Leading the Common People" ~~m~, 172 lectures for lay-
men are also described in terms similar to those of the Tun-huang
orders of service. The Taoists, finding these methods of religious
instruction effective, borrowed them from the Buddhists and used
them for their own purposes.t7a
From an examination of these primary texts and other sources,
it becomes clear that su-chiang ("popular lecture") is the name for
a religious service that may include various types of liturgical and
exegetical texts (such as invocations and siitra lectures) but not
transformation texts. This is further evidence that the individuals
responsible for the performance of transformations and those re-
sponsible for holding religious services were distinct.
After intensive investigation174 of the subject, Fukui Fumimasa-
Bunga concluded that the practice of popular lectures (su-chiang)
has an Indian origin. Indeed, even though Buddhist services were
held in Chinese, there was still an effort to maintain an Indian aura
about them. On P3334, for example, there is an inscription that
accompanies a "Preaching Text for Sravakas" ~00 p~~( = m)3t.
One line in the inscription says that "the master of precepts who
[sings] Indian [style] sounds mounts the high platform" J:t{f1JX:Iffi!i
:rt f.ij ~-
It is more in agreement with the chronological and evolutionary
development of Chinese popular literature to say that the historical
and other non-Buddhist transformation texts were an extension of .
a religious form into the secular realm than to say that Buddhist
priests consciously used secular storytelling as a drawing card for
their religious lectures. What evidence is available points to lay
performance of religious transformations and to their early secu-
larization, a widening out into a larger public for performance by
149
individuals who were entertainers rather than monks. By "early,"

I mean that the evidence for the broad currency of secular trans-
formations in China shows that they appeared no later than
seventy-five years after religious transformations (both in the
eighth century). Hence, the "drawing-card" assertion is strictly
hypothetical. We should, therefore, dispense with the notion that
Buddhist monks told risque stories to pack in their audiences and
then blithely switched to more pious subjects. There may well have
been, as certain Confucian critics claimed, "monks" who told off-
color stories, "priests" who were acclaimed for their musical talent,
and entertainers who told captivating tales about religious sub-
jects. But it is essential that none of these be confused with Buddhist
evangelists and lecturers whose purpose, first and foremost, was
to convey the substance of Buddhist doctrine. The ends of their
evangelism/entertainment ought to be recognized for what they
were. Or, to put it differently, exceptions should not be made the
rule.
The section on evangelism (ch'ang-tao PI§$) in Hui-chiao's
(497-554) Biographies of Eminent Monks r'iijfif$} provides ample
documentation of the dedicated purpose ofBuddhist preachers to
discount decisively any rumor of their rampant impropriety. What
all of this leads to is the recognition that entertainment and evange-
lism were two separate activities pursued by two different groups.
Naturally, an evangelist might be somewhat entertaining in his
presentation and an entertainer might effectively convey some reli-
gious truth. Though the dividing line was, at times, rather hazy
(especially when the entertainer purposely affected some traits of
the evangelist), these were essentially separate professions.
There were, admittedly, monks called Populace-Converting
Dharma Masters 1tili-l*ffili, who specialized in preaching to the
common folk, and "traveling monks and nuns" ng: [ fj }flit, who
went from village to village preaching. Yet, here again, we should
be wary of equating either of these two types with popular enter-
tainers. The former usually restricted themselves to the exposition
of sutras and the latter were limited in their activity by strict
government regulation.l75
It is noteworthy that, in the Biographies of Eminent Monks, which
contains accounts of the lives of nearly 500 monks, I have not been
!50
able to uncover a single mention of pien or pien-wen. This implies

that either: (I) pien-wen (or its oral precursors) had not developed
by the Liang period; or (2) pien was not performed by eminent
monks. Actually, both of these statements are probably true. It is
not possible to document the existence of transformation per-
formances and texts before the T'ang period; nor is there any proof
that, even in the T'ang, eminent monks were responsible for them.
Similarly, I have not come across any reference to pien-wen as a
genre in the various continuations of the Biographies qf Eminent
Monks for later dynasties.
Further, with regard to the social status of transformation texts,
nowhere in my reading of the Chinese Tripitaka 176 do I ever recall
having encountered the genre term pien-wen. Since the phenomena
is Buddhistic and was demonstrably widely current during the
T'ang period, 177 we are forced to conclude that it had no canonical
or scriptural status and that, being a product offolk and popular
cultures, it was ignored by the elite monks who compiled and
edited the canon and the various individual texts that constitute
it. And yet we cannot ignore the fact that pien performances began
as folk, religious entertainment of a q uin tessen tially Indo-Buddhist
kind.
151
chapter six
Evidence for the Existence of
Transformation Performances
There are two contemporaneous references to transformations in

the T'ang period that have been cited by most competent au-
thorities on the subject. The first is a poem by Chi Shih-lao 15 l5!li ~
entitled "Watching the Girl from Shu Perform 1 the 'Transforma-
tion on Wang Chao-chiin' f3B;g'~."
Before this charming woman donned her pomegranate skirt,

Her home, she says, was by the bank of the Brocade River; 2
Her red lips know how to unravel events of a thousand years,
Her clear word mixed with sighs tell a tale of autumn sorrows. 3
Where her penciled eyebrows join, there seems the southern
moon of Ch'u,
But when she opens her picture scroll, there are clouds beyond
the northern passes;
Having told fully the regrets of the fair lady in those days of yore,
Her thoughts turn from Chao-chiin to her countrywoman
Wen-chiin. 4
Although we do not know the details of Chi Shih-lao's life, this
poem most likely was written in the middle or late T'ang, as were
the majority of poems in Wei Hu's collection where it appears. It
certainly dates from before the early tenth century when Wei com-
pleted his compilation.
The poem describes the performance of a transformation on
the story of Wang Chao-chiin by a female entertainer from the
Szechwan area. The details of Chao-chiin's selection as a palace
beauty during the reign of Yuan-ti (48-33 B.C.) and her sub-
sequent fate of being given to the Hunnish chieftain to procure
152
Evidence for the Existence of Transformation Performances
peace are well known and need not detain us here. Nor need we
dwell on the checkered love ofSsu-ma Hsiang-ju ~ Ji!H§ ~rl (d. 118
B.C.) and Cho Wen-chiin lji)(~ (also from the Szechwan area)
in the last line which is, after all, only a way of saying that, having
finished her performance, the girl thinks of her own plight. What
is important for our purposes is the wealth of significant primary
data concerning the nature of transformation performances that
can be gleaned from the poem. In the specific instance here re-
corded, it is noteworthy that there is but a single performer and
that the performer is a woman. It is also essential to note that she
is not a Buddhist religieuse, but a professional, secular entertainer.
That she is from Szechwan may also be significant in terms of
the connection which that area had to Tun-huang and thence to
Central Asia (see the "Appendix" to Chapter I). She would appear
to be wearing a distinctively colored dress. Her most important
piece of equipment is a picture scroll, although we cannot tell
whether it is hand-held or placed in a stationary position during
performance. At any rate, this corroborates the other evidence I
have assembled in this study which demonstrates that transforma-
tion performances utilized narrative picture scrolls.
Since there exists a Tun-huang transformation text on Wang
Chao-chiin (P2553), 5 this poem also raises the fundamental·ques-
tion of the relationship between orally performed transformation
and written transformation text. While there may have been verses
or other prompt-words written on the back of her scroll as with
P4524 (the illustrated Sariputra transformation) and P50 19
(Meng Chiang-nii transformation[?]), it is doubtful that a singing-
girl from the banks of the Brocade River in Szechwan could have
written her own text. Be that as it may, the emphasis in this poem
is on the visual aspects of the performance (the beauty of the per-
former, the scenes depicted on the scroll and her ability to bring
them to life) as well as the aural ones (her sandalwood-shaded lips
"tell fully" the tale of the heroine). The people attending this per-
formance, including Chi Shih-lao, obviously are enjoying a multi-
media event; they have not come to witness a reading.
The extant transformation text on Wang Chao-chiin can be
dated confidently on the basis of internal evidence 6 to the late
eighth or early ninth century. 7 Nemoto Makoto has attempted to
153
show that it was written down sometime between 772 and 780.~
In any case, oral transformations of the type described by Chi
Shih-lao surely were the forerunners of the written transformation
text that has come down to us. Since the written transformation
text on Wang Chao-chiin may be from a slightly earlier time than
that of Chi Shih-lao's poem, it is evident that the transition from
oral performance to written text did not immediately lead to the
demise of the former. It seems, rather, that both types could
exist simultaneously for a time, although the oral performance is
manifestly primary.
There are additional grounds for holding that entertainers from
the Yunnan-Szechwan area who specialized in the Wang Chao-
chiin story were active throughout China before the transforma-
tion text came to be written down. A poem by Wang Chien :E~
(Advanced Scholar c. 775) called "Watching the Szechwanese
Entertain-er" WBI t(5Z 9 begins "As she is about to tell the story of
Chao-chiin, she knits her penciled brows" (cf. line 5 of the Chi
Shih-lao poem) and ends with an appreciative youth in the audi-
ence throwing her money and shouting "Bravo! Bravo!" I have
translated man If (usually "southern barbarian") as "Szechwa-
nese" (coming from Szechwan) on the basis of Chang T'ai-yen's
explanation 10 of the usage of the word in the Szechwan area.
Yunnan was called by the inhabitants of Szechwan man-ti fi:ttl!
("southern barbarian land"), and maids in Szechwan, possibly
because many of them had Yunnanese tribal backgrounds, were
referred to simply as man m,
while males slaves were called man-nan
fi !f.} ("southern barbarian men"). The appellation is patently
derogatory in a social-class sense and was applied even to individuals
oflow status who did not come from Yunnan. Unfortunately, Wang
Chien's short poem focuses on the singing ability of his performer
and makes no mention of a painted scroll or of transformations.
Still another piece of contemporaneous evidence regarding the
Ming-chiin (that is, Chao-chiin) transformation may be found in
a poem by Li Ho (790-816) about the beauty and talent of a girl
surnamed Cheng. She had been a singing-girl who came to Loyang
and became so admired there that a scion of the noble Hsu family
took her as his favorite. Li Ho wrote a poem for her entitled "A
Song for the Young Gentleman Hsu's Lovely Lady Cheng" ~q:.z:
154
-=f~t@:iifX. The penultimate quatrain of the poem has been trans-

lated by Frodsham as follows:
On a long scroll of costly paper,

The ballad ofMing-chiin.
Gliding from note to note, her song
Pierced the sapphire clouds
Vanity-patches on her cheeks,
She trod the eastern road-
Now the long-browed girls of the gay quarters
See very few guests. 11
~~JU~~!lJHg
fi~~~tfH!Il~~
13 {:E 1H§ ?101011
i!ll~~m!~'J!A
Although the girl Cheng is not here said to have "penciled brows"
as were the performers in the poems by Chi Shih-lao and Wang
Chien, it is significant that she is able to attract the patrons of the
"long-brows." But the key words, for the purpose of our discussion,
are those of the first line: ch'angfan Shu-chih chiian Ming-chiin. Frod-
- sham follows Saito and Suzuki12 in understanding this to refer to
ayueh--fu ("Music Bureau") ballad. However, such an understand-
ing presents the seemingly insuperable difficulty of there being no
verb in the entire line. Numerous other interpretations have been
put forward to explain this line. Wang Ch'i (fl. 1758) believed that
it refers to the lady Cheng's artistic talent while the succeeding line
refers to her singing abilities. 13 But since she was an entertainer,
there is no necessary reason to assume that she was accomplished
in painting. Furthermore, nowhere else do we find that Cheng was
good at painting. Indeed, the line in question can only yield such
a meaning after a certain amount of violence has been done to it.
Wu Cheng-tzu (Sung) states simply that I] is equivalent to :j:,
"a time, a turn" (by which he must mean ljJI or tili, "pennant,
streamer, banner") and hence that ch'angfan means ffi:~j, "a long
strip." 14 Yet this does not really explain the line. Y ao Wen-hsieh
seems to indicate that Ming-chiin refers to a melody (ch'ii at!) and
fan to the singing of it. 15 This, however, strays too far from the
155
original wording of the line. Ch'ien Yin-kuang ~ iJ\ :J't felt that the
line "appears to mean that, for long periods of time, she would
spread out for her enjoyment the picture ofMing-chiin" fW,tJ OO;et
!II:R:fE.:f.Jj;:§ii;:ft. 16 This interpretation commendably makes men-
tion of a picture but incorrectly has the line signify a pastime of
Cheng rather than her renowned ability to entertain. Ch'iu Chi-
chen li:~ jl'{ claimed that ch'angfan Shu-chih means "record a tune"
JIJW!i< fltl-1:!1 and that chiian Ming-chiin means "to be written inside a
booklet" lf:lnM j7g 17 but, given the usual semantic content of the
words in question, this flies in the face of all logic.
It has been necessary to treat the commentaries to this single line
of poetry by Li Ho at such exhaustive length to discover whether
any of them point to a performance of song in which illustrative
pictures are employed. It would appear that none have interpreted
the line in this fashion. Yet, given the more explicit reference to
such renditions discussed above in connection with the Chi Shih-
lao poem and the very words of the line itself, 18 the conclusion that
Li Ho is here describing Cheng's use of transformation pictures
seems almost unavoidable. Thus the line should be interpreted
"She unrolls the long strip of Szechwan paper, spinning a tale of
Ming-chiin" 19 or some such.
The second important contemporaneous reference to trans-
formations in the T'ang that has frequently been cited by students
of the subject is an exchange of repartee between Po Chii-i (772-
846) and another poet, Chang Hu ~lili5. It appears, among other
places, in two T'ang sources and one encyclopedia. 20 The dif-
ferences among the three texts raise some very significant questions
that have hitherto been overlooked. I shall translate the relevant
portion of the passage as it is recorded in the Extensive Register of
Great Tranquility ( T'ai-p'ing kuang-chi) and compare it with the
other two texts.
Po Chii-i assumed the position of Governor of Soochow some-
time after the latter part of the 3rd month in the year 825. 21 Chang
Hu, whom he had never met before, came to visit him.
Po said, "I have long admired your excellent reputation and recall
your poem oflegal interrogation." 22
Surprised, Hu asked, "To which poem are you referring?"
Po replied: "'Where was the belt inlaid with mandarin ducks
156
thrown?/ To whom 23 was the gauze blouse decorated with peacocks

given?' 24 If these are not legal interrogations, what are they?"
Chang nodded and smiled faintly. Then he looked up and answered,
"And I recall your 'Maudgalyayana Transformation.'"
"What?" asked Po Chii-i.
Chang replied: "'Above he traveled to the end of the blue heavens,
below he went to the Yellow Springs,/ But in neither of these bound-
less places did he find her." 25 If these are not lines from the 'Maud-
galyayana Transformation,' what are they?" 26 Whereupon together
they had a joyful banquet to end the day.
The anecdote as related in the Extensive Register of Great Tranquility

and in Topical Poetry ( Pen-shih shih) differs only in minor details.
The T'ang Gleanings ( T'ang chih-yen) account differs radically from
both of these and deserves separate translation for purposes of
comparison:
The retired scholar Chang recalled a "Silkworm Thorn Branch27

Poem" ofhis, saying:" 'Where was the belt inlaid with mandarin ducks
thrown?/ To whom was the gauze blouse decorated with peacocks
given?'"
Po Chii-i called these lines "legal interrogations.'' 28
Chang Hu got back at him, saying: "I'm guilty of the 'legal inter-
rogations' charge and I don't deny it. But you, too, have your
Maudgalyiiyana Siitra. The words of your 'Song of Lasting Sorrow'
[written in 806] go like this: 'Above he traveled to the end of the blue
heavens, below he went to the Yellow Springs,/ But in neither of these
boundless places did he find her.' Do you mean to say that this is not
about Maudgalyayana looking for his mother?"
We must first ask why T'ang Gleanings, which the Extensive
Register of Great Tranquility declares itself to be citing, has
Maudgalyiiyana siitra § 3!!Hill~ and "Maudgalyayana looking for his
mother" instead of"Maudgalyayana Transformation" §~~.A
probable answer to this question can be arrived at by making an
examination of some of the various editions of Tang Gleanings avail-
able to us. The Ya-yii t'ang ts'ung-shu [Collectanea from the Hall of
Elegant Rain] ~fHru~:ltle (1756) version 29 has "Maudgalyayana
Transformation" and "Maudgalyayana looking for his mother" at
the two crucial points mentioned above. The Hsiao-yuan ts'ung-shu
[Whistling Garden collectanea] IJI!m:ltle (1883) version 30 follows
157
Evidence for the Existence ofTransformation Performances
the Hall ofElegant Rain text. The Hsueh-chin f ao:Juan [Seek the source
of the ford oflearning] ~it t-1"~ version 31 edited by Chang Hai-
p'eng *WIDi~ (1755-1816), however, is the same as that of the
modern edition I have used. Both SPPY and TsSCC also follow the
Seek the Source version. The explanation that comes to mind for why
some editions retained "Maudgalyayana Transformation" and
others did not is this: Faced with a word they did not understand,
some editors simply exchanged it for one they did, while others left
the text intact.
In spite of the textual differences involved, what does this anec-
dote tell us about the nature and history of transformation texts?
First, it is significant that two highly educated poets would be so
thoroughly familiar with the Maudgalyayana transformation as to
use it comfortably for the substance of a joke. We have, however,
no definite way to discover whether their acquaintanceship with
the Maudgalyayana transformation was made through personal
observance of oral performances or through reading of written
texts. My own inclination is that they acquired knowledge of trans-
formations primarily through attendance at actual performances.
Whatever the case may be, it is certain that there were in the early
ninth century traditions of transformation stories sufficiently
solidified as to be quotable. Second, this incident occurred in Soo-
chow in the year 825, indicating that transformations were well
established throughout much of China before that time. The time-
frame squares well with other available data regarding the period
of currency of transformations. Third, transformations were such
common currency that they could be considered on the same level
as "legal interrogations."
Wang Shih-chen :±. t!t j{ ( 1634-1 711), the early Ch'ing poetry
critic, knew of the anecdote concerning Po Chii-i. Without com-
prehending exactly the meaning of "Maudgalyayana Transfor-
mation," he was astute enough to realize that it was derogatory
if applied to someone's poetry l!l!l:;!l!:~~. ~Zil\~Z.~.a2
Kuo Shih ~~ (T'ang), in his Unofficial Biography of Kao Li-
shih,33 offers a very interesting account which proves that trans-
formations were performed even for the Emperor himself. The
context of the account is determined by Kao Li-shih's efforts to
relieve Hsuan-tsung's 1.:'* boredom after he returned-without
158
his beloved "Honored Consort" Yang ;J:Jb:Jt~E (719-756)-to

Ch'ang-an from his disastrous flight to the Szechwan area. The
time of this account is approximately the year 760:
Every day, the ex-Emperor and Kao would personally oversee the
sweeping out of the courtyard, the cutting of the grass, and the trim-
ming of the shrubs. Or there would be siitra lectures, discussions of
doctrine, 34 performances of transformations Q 35 ~. and storytelling
~~. 36 Although these were far from being proper literature, it was
hoped that, in the end, they would cheer His Highness's feelings.
What is most striking about this account is the forthright recogni-

tion that the products of popular culture might very well be useful
and appealing to members of the ranks of elite society. The rather
early date (in terms of the verifiable development of transformation
performances and transformation texts), as well as the fact that
Kao Li-shih was a devout Buddhist (note that two of the other
three genres mentioned are explicitly Buddhist), should not be
overlooked in attempts to interpret this passage.
In the Extensive Register qfGreat Tranquility, 37 there is recorded an
extraordinarily graphic description of the drawing power of trans-
formation performances. This account is extremely valuable for
historians of Chinese folk culture because it not only gives an indi-
cation of the types ofindividuals who flocked to these performances
but the sometimes nefarious motivation of those who sponsored
them:
... When Yang Kuo-chung t\bi~L'i!;', (d. 756) was Military Governor
of Chien-nan AAIJ 1¥J, 38 he summoned envoys to go the long distance to
Lu-nan fO! 1¥J. 39 Provisions were few and the road was dangerous; often
none would return. His Chien-nan operatives each year would order
Sung Yii ;;K~ and Wei Huan ]jt{i, as imperial representatives, to com-
pel the prefects and district magistrates to levy troops. The men knew
they would surely die, so the prefects and district magistrates could
not fulfill the commands. Therefore, they resorted to a stratagem
whereby, under false pretenses, they would order monks to hold a
vegetarian feast or perform 40 transformations along important roads.
~'ffl 41 fi~*f. :slG=f~nQ~. They would bind those among the
crowd who were without relatives or were poor and put them in a secret
room. Then they would issue them coarsely made clothes and, having
159
formed them into ranks wearing cangues, would quickly send them off
to the campaigns.
This passage tells us several important things about transforma-

tions. First, it once again corroborates the Szechwan connection I
have repeatedly stressed. Second, it shows that this form of enter-
tainment was presented not in temples but on public thoroughfares.
Third, we learn that it was enormously popular; it was a type of
performance that even the poorest people would flock to. Fourth,
we find that transformations were probably perceived as Bud-
dhistic (though of a suspect sort) by the people. Fifth, the attrac-
tion of transformations was well enough known to the authorities
that they chose to exploit it to their own ends.
Hsueh Chao-yun, in his Biographies rif Illusionists, 42 has a story
about one "Graduate Li" **?·
Li is chided by a monk who says,
among other things, "How can you expect anything good of those
who hanker after tavern banners and play around at transforma-
tion arenas (wan pien-ch'ang ~~:ll!i )?"I have not seen attested else-
where the phrase wan pien-ch'ang and am uncertain of its exact
meaning. But the fact that it occurs in a story dealing with illu-
sionism opens up the possibility that it may point to the existence
of localized centers where transformations (but perhaps it refers
more generally to illusionary tricks of magic) were regularly per-
formed during the T'ang. If this is what it actually means, it is sig-
nificant that a monk has spoken ill of such places. Siitra lectures,
by contrast, were delivered in the "lecture courts"~~ of temples
and monks encouraged Buddhist laymen to go to them often. 43
In his Miscellany of Rarities, Tuan Ch'eng-shih records an ac-
count of a strange happening that makes a connection between
illusionism and a specific transformation tableau:
During the Great Calendar reign period (766-779), there was a

magician who .came from the south and stopped at Bald Mountain
Monastery. He was fond of wine and, before long, became a bit
intoxicated.
Because of a major vegetarian feast that was being held in the mon-
astery, several thousand people had gathered. Suddenly, the magician
said, "I have a trick that can take the place of the pleasure afforded
from 'Pebble Toss.'" Whereupon he mixed up some colors in a vessel.
160
He pranced about and rubbed his eyes. Slowly he muttered several

dozen words of incantation. Then he sipped up the liquid and spat it
out repeatedly on the wall, thus creating a "Transformation Tableau
of Visiting Vimalaki:rti in His Illness."*ft~F..~~~;j:§. The many colors
stood out as though freshly painted. It was more than a half a day be-
fore the colors gradually began to fade. By evening they had all dis-
appeared except for a flower on Sariputra's silken cap that had been
decorated with chrysanthemums. After two days it was still there. 44
It is noteworthy that the magician who creates this spectacular
transformation of Vimalakirti comes from outside the monastery
and is not a Buddhist monk.
Another item of evidence for the broad circulation of trans-
formations in China is that a line from the verse portion of the
Maudgalyayana transformation was quoted verbatim in the re-
corded sayings of a Zen master. 45 .
The disputable piety of"monks" who were overly fond of trans-
formations is plain from the following incident, which probably
happened c. 947:
"DeafMonk" Li
There was a monk of Later Shu times (925-965) named Tz'u-yuan

~~and surnamed Li <$who was from the Monastery (iiriima) of the
Three Sages in Kuang-tu District !J'fM~W* [southeast of modern Hua-
yang District ¥~W* in Szechwan]. He had a slight amount oflearning
[or "was slightly literate" f.i1i3t/¥] but could memorize and recite a
lot. His master, called Ssu-chien .~,~.was a stupid person. Tz'u-yuan
often belittled his teacher by saying, "What a pity that I am a disciple
of this monk!" Whether sitting or walking, he was always mumbling
the "Transformation on Madame Spirit of the Earth" 115 ±x.A.~.
The master would try to stop him but that would only make him do it
all the more. He was completely unsupportive of his master.
One day, while he was loudly performing [literally, "turning" or
"warbling"] the transformation-~. a hand came out of nowhere and
cuffed him on the ear so that he became deaf. For more than twenty
years, until the "Incipient Treasure" reign period (968-976) of the
present (Sung) dynasty, he stayed in the Well of Righteousness
Monastery in Ch'eng-tu.46
After this decisive supernal punishment for his transgressions,
Tz'u-yuan is unlikely to have continued "turning" transformations.
161
Ifhe had, in all probability he would not have been permitted to

continue to stay in a monastery for the next twenty years ofhis life.
About 150 years later, the still-suspect text was no longer called
a "transformation" but simply a "lyric":
The Disrespectfulness of the

"Lyric on the Spirit of the Earth"
16" ± ~ii] iff ft
Shao Yen B~lrr, style Chung-ch'ang {lj:tl§, was a man of Chin-ling
[Nanking]. He was sincere and fond of learning, never wearying of it
his whole life long. On 4 June Ill 0 at the age of 82, he passed away
without an illness. One day not long before his end, he looked at his
nephew, Huang Tzu-wen ~-=f)(, and said: "Your old uncle will bid
you farewell tomorrow. On a night in the past, I dreamed that a person
in yellow clothing [that is, a monk or a priest] summoned me to a
government office. The attendants were stern. Leaning on the table
as he sat, a man with cap and robe like that of a king said to me, 'The
"Lyric on the Spirit of the Earth" transmitted in the world is too dis-
respectful. Why do you keep a copy of it?' Whereupon he ordered the
person in yellow clothing to lead me past several city gates. We stopped
at a palace and I turned my head to look at it. Its gold and jade hall-
ways were captivating but they were silent; no human voices were
heard there. In a moment, someone suddenly called out 'Shao Yen'
from amidst the curtains. 'The Emperor orders that, for you to have
a perfect form, you must extirpate the "Lyric on the Spirit of the
Earth" which has been transmitted in the world. How will you accom-
plish that?' I responded by saying that those who transmit it should die.
The one who called out to me replied, 'All right.' And so I assumed
my duties that very day. Having received the order, I went out the
door. I stumbled and awoke. What I had dreamed was extremely clear.
Now I want the members of my family and you, my nephew, to know
that this lyric may no longer be transmitted. Remember it! Remember
it!"
Tzu-wen did not really believe him. The next day before dawn, he
went to see his uncle. "Ncphew,just listen long enough to hear this ode
of mine," Yen said to Tzu-wcn. Thereupon he raised his voice and sang
aloud:
"Although everything is over now,

What use to repeat it whenever you meet someone?
162
This morning I shake my sleeve with displeasure,

I have to catch the wheel of a bright moon."
He died as soon as he finished these words.
Tzu-wen is my niece's husband. I used to go on outings with Yen. 47
A widespread cult, complete with images and shrines, developed

around the figure of "Madame Spirit of the Earth." This in itself
was sufficient to evoke the wrath of the Confucian watchdogs of
culture. Even worse was the blasphemous nature of the central cult
figure. In the first place, she represented a sort of transvestitism of
a respectable deity. Furthermore, she had the audacity to "seduce"
a human being named Wei An-tao ]it:t(~. When he took her
home as his wife, so the story goes, Wei's parents were displeased.
They hired two monks and a Taoist priest to exorcise her but she
would not bow to them. Finally, the father ordered An-tao to get
rid of her. She obliged him by leaving and taking An-tao with her
to the realm of spirits.
It is clear from all of this that Madame Spirit of the Earth was
considered by the guardians of propriety to be an unwelcome aber-
ration. Other, more brutally male-chauvinist types thought that
she could be used to attack their nemesis, Empress Wu:
Upon first reading the Tale of Madame Spirit of the Earth )§"±*:Aft
written by people of the T'ang, 48 I detested its slanderous disrespectful-
ness. When I saw Ch'en Shih-tao's llllillffi~ (1053-1101) remarks in his
Poetry Talks to the effect that" ... the people ofthe T'ang recorded the
story of [Madame] Spirit of the Earth in order to ridicule Empress
Wu," I said that Empress Wu was not worth ridiculing. And to use the
Spirit of the Earth for this purpose was simply being too blasphemous.
Later incorrigibles proceeded to put the story to music [referring to the
"Lyric on the Spirit of the Earth"] with the result that ignoramuses
took it to be true. 49
Since neither the "Transformation on Madame Spirit of the

Earth" nor the "Lyric on the Spirit of the Earth" has survived
(small wonder!), it is impossible to determine what the relationship
between the two of them was or how they compared to the classical
Tale of Madame Spirit of the Earth. For stylistic reasons, the last may
have been somewhat less objectionable than the other two forms
of the story, which would help to account for its preservation in
163
the face of their loss. In any case, if these remarks of three Sung
scholars are an indication of the moral outrage and cultural in-
dignation surrounding the subject of a single mid-tenth-century
transformation, it is not surprising that, by the eleventh century-
when neo-Confucian rectitude was coming into full swing-, the
genre shoul<;l have become well-nigh extinct.
A final literary reference to transformations is to be found under
the year 694 of the Unified Chronology of the Buddhist Patriarchate {5illill3.
$1f~a, ch. 39, 50 where there occurs a note that includes a most im-
portant citation from the Orthodox Line of Siikyamuni's School ~r~
IE$i't. 51 The latter text was initially published in the first quarter
of the thirteenth century by Wu K'o-chi ~R: B and completed
in 1237 or soon thereafter by a monk named Tsung-chien *it
ofLiang-chu Efm. The note in question was prompted by the men-
tion of the arrival at Wu Tse-t'ien's ~Jtlj::;R (Empress Wu, 624-
705) court of a Persian bishop (Piu:Jt-ta-d'an m~~' Sogdian
[A]fliidiin) 52 named Mihr-Ormuzd ~.~&~ 53 who brought with
him the apocryphal (read "Manichaean") siitra called Scripture of
the Two Principles=*~· The scripture was obviously uncanonical
to the editor of the Unified Chronology, Chih-p'an ;:t~, a T'ien-t'ai
monk. Tsung-chien, the author of the note under discussion, here
and elsewhere54 displays an acute awareness of what he believes
properly within Buddhism and what not. The note is rather difficult
to understand 55 in all its details, but the general import should be
comprehensible from the following crude translation: 56
[The monk from] Liang-chu said: "In accordance with the laws of
our dynasty, 'all those who propagate and practice the Scripture of the
Two Principles and other baseless scriptures not included in the Tripi(aka
in order to confuse the people shall be convicted of heresy.' That which
is called the Two Principles57 [is the scripture of Manichaeism, accord-
ing to which] men and women need not marry, one does not speak dur-
ing mutual undertakings, one does not take medicine when ill, the dead
should be buried naked, and so forth. By 'baseless scriptures' is meant
Buddha, Master of the Heart; [The Scripture of] Crying and Tears Spoken by
the Buddha; Scripture of the Appearance of the Greater and Lesser Kings if
Light58 in the World upon the Opening ofthe Origin ~ 5[;; Traniformation Text
on the Embracement of the Earth59 1'&ttll.~3t; Discussion on Equivalence
with Heaven; Canto on the Fifth Envoy [of Light], 60 and the like ....
164
The note continues with an exposition of the confusing similarities

in both doctrine and practice that debased Manichaeism holds
with Buddhism. On the basis of this note, we may observe that,
around the year 1237, transformation texts (such as were known
at that time) were identified as heretically (to the Buddhists)
Manichaean. What is worse, this was Buddhicized Manichaeism
and, hence, the distinction between it and Buddhism was insuf-
ficiently marked for the comfort of purists such as Tsung-chien. It
also was a source of trouble for the Buddhists, since the lack of a
clear-cut distinction between the two religions caused proscrip-
tions and persecutions ofManichaeism to spill over into the Bud-
dhist camp. 61 It was, therefore, in the vital self-interest of orthodox
Buddhists to delineate as sharply as possible the dividing line be-
tween themselves and Manichaeans. For this very reason, a siitra
lecturer (T464.10 and 12) criticizes Persians (that is Nestorianism),
Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism. He is at pains to make explicit
the distinction between Buddhism and other religions that entered
China from the West. This mention of the "Transformation
Text on the Embracement of the Earth" in the Orthodox Line rif
Siikyamuni's School is the last known textual reference to pien-wen
until the twentieth century, when transformation texts were redis-
covered and written about.
The perceived (to the Confucians and establishment Buddhists)
cultic associations of the "Transformation Text on the Embrace-
ment of the Earth" and related scriptures is evident from a remark-
able memorandum submitted by Wang Chih :£11{ (Advanced
Scholar 1160, d. 1188).1t is entitled "Notes for a Discussion on the
Suppression ofBandits"glfij~~~ 62 and proposes strategies for the
arrest of a group known as "Vegetarian Servants of the Devil" ~ ~
*R 63 This was a so-called heretical cult that has .usually been
identified as a branch of Manichaeism. Like other underground
sects ofManichaeism that came into existence after the severe sup-
pression of 842, it borrowed heavily from popular Buddhist con-
cepts, ritual, and terminology. With minor variations, it gives the
identical list of unauthorized scriptures as that supplied by Tsung-
chien in the Orthodox Line rif Sakyamuni's School. The most likely
explanation for this agreement is that Tsung-chien relied on Wang
Chih's memorandum as source material for his own work. Be that
165
as it may, there can be little doubt that, by the end .of the Northern
Sung,pien-wen (at least one in particular) were well beyond the pale
of acceptability to the arbiters of culture. To those in positions of
authority, the milieu of pien-wen bespoke subversion, heresy, and
banditry. While from our vantage point we may view the matter
otherwise, such power politics of the post-T'ang period doubtlessly
goes a long way to explain the swift disappearance of pien-wen (if
only in name) from the scene at that time. While T'ang society was
much more open, repressive trends directed against popular cul-
ture existed even then. Put simply, had it not been for the nearly
miraculous preservation of the Tun-huang manuscripts, pien-
wen-like so much of popular culture-would virtually have "dis-
appeared" from the T'ang historical record as well as from that of
the Sung and later periods.
It is, however, curious that the term pien-wen appears to have
survived in the realm oforal entertainment even into the beginning
of the twentieth century. In old Peking, there was an entertain-
ment center called the Nan-fang chi-yuan ffi:JJ!Sl~ that sup-
posedly featured performers from the southern part of China. To
judge from the center's name (it means "Southern Brothel"), the
social status of the performers was low and it is probable that-like
some of the Kumano bikuni 64 -they performed other services than
singing. What is most interesting about their performance of"trea-
sure scrolls". (pao-chiian Jf ~) is that it was called "proclaiming
scrolls" (hsuan chiian ~~)in the south and "singing transformation
texts" (ch'angpien-wen P~~)() in the north. 65 How this latter name
survived from the Five Dynasties to the twentieth century remains
a mystery, since it is mentioned-so far as I know-only twice 66
in texts produced during the interim. This demonstrates that writ-
ten records are inadequate in their description of popular culture
for pre-modern times. The connection between pien-wen and pao-
chiian is also noteworthy. It is, furthermore, significant that early
twentieth-century "treasure scrolls," whose Ming and Ch'ing ori-
gins we know to have been popular Buddhist in nature, were some-
times situated in the demimonde. This was true even when they
were referred to in the north as "siitras of ['monks' who sponsor]
vegetarian feasts" or, more literally, "siitras of [monks] on call"
(ying-fu [-seng] ching !litl [ fi'] ~).
166
Recently another alleged T'ang reference to pien-wen has been

uncovered 67 in the 9th fascicle of the biography of the famous pil-
grim to India, Hsuan-tsang, and much has been made of it. There
are, however, a number of dubious aspects concerning this refer-
ence that deserve the most serious and careful scrutiny. It is the
Korean wood-block edition of 1245 68 that forms the basis of the
text cited from T50(2053).272b and reads as follows: "On 26
December 656 ... , the Master of the Dharma (that is, Hsuan-
tsang) ... memorialized [the Throne], saying: 'With all deference,
I present a gold-lettered copy of the Prajfiii[-piiramitii]-hrdaya siitra
in one fascicle together with its case and a "Transformation on the
Siitra of Recompense for Kindness, One Set.""' 1Uf5t~ ... +=J:l
Ii
El ... ¥*ffi!i ••. ~13 :$!U&~~*Jigt:::Ef,c_,,~-~#N&, ¥[i}~J~~-$.s9
Hui-li, who composed the first five fascicles of the biography, died
around 670 or shortly thereafter, while Yen-ts'ung, who was re-
sponsible for the final five fascicles, did not complete them until688,
more than twenty years after Hsuan-tsang's death. 70
Upon examination of the manuscript of the earliest extant edi-
tion of the biography, dated 1021 and preserved in the Nanto
(Nara) Kofukuji i¥J:M~-ililB~, we discover that pien is missing from
the text, 71 hence "and one copy of the Siitra of Recompensefor Kind-
ness." A Uighur translation ofHsuan-tsang's biography was made
during the first quarter of the tenth century. Unfortunately, due
to the greed of an unscrupulous Chinese manuscript dealer in
Urumchi, the only copy that appears to have survived to this cen-
tury was torn apart and sold off in bits and pieces to maximize
profits. Hence we are unable at the present time to locate the
precise page on which the disputed title occurs. 72
Even assuming that the pien was really in Hui-li's and Yen-
ts'ung's original biography (which we have now seen to be some-
what doubtful), there are still problems surrounding its occurrence
in this context. In the first place, the numerary adjunct (measure
word or classifier) pu $is a normal usage when referring to siitras,
but I have never seen it connected to pien. The only measure word
regularly applied to pien in the sense of a written text is chiian ~
(hence XX pien[-wen] i chiian-"such-and-such a transformation
[text] in one scroll"). The usual measure word applied to pien
in the sense of a picture or sculpture is p'u ~ (hence XX pien
167
[-hsiang] i p'u-"such-and-such a transformation [tableau] in one

layout").
Another irregularity of the title given in the T version ofHsuan-
tsang's biography is the appearance together of ching and pien.
Nowhere else does this juxtaposition occur with reference to a writ-
ten text, only as a designation for a work of art, such as several wall-
paintings at Tun-huang. Because the expression XX ching-pien i pu
is so unusual, our skepticism over the interlinear no hen (see note
71) on the Kofukuji version deepens.
The question then arises whether the putative "(Transforma-
tion on the) Siitra of Recompense for Kindness, One Set" might pos-
sibly bear some relationship to F96 ("Inventory" 440), the "Record
of a Pair of Kindnesses" (Shuang en chi Ji ,~&,~c) preserved in Lenin-
grad. This text is clearly based, at least partially, on the Siitra rif
Recompensefor Kindness (for example, r62.8a and 64.7). Although
not typical in all respects, the "Record of a Pair of Kindnesses" is
easily identifiable, both by its form and its contents, as a type
of siitra lecture text (chiang-ching-wen). Any attempt to identify
it as a transformation text is hazardous, and efforts to equate it
with the problematic title in Hsuan-tsang's biography are sheer
speculation.
Since there are so many questions surrounding this highly
atypical appearance of pien in Hsuan-tsang's biography, it would
seem that the wisest course of action would be to refrain from con-
structing any elaborate theories based upon it. Until further evi-
dence of a more definite kind can be adduced either to corroborate
or disqualify it, all that we can do is simply record-albeit with a
healthy dose of skepticism-this lone occurrence ofpien in connec-
tion with an elite monk. If it were not for the anomalous i pu as a
numerary adjunct, we might simply identify the Pao-en ching pien
as a work of art, in which case this occurrence would not be al-
together unusual, since pien [-hsiang] ("transformation [tableaux]")
were indeed mentioned in a variety ofT'ang texts. 73 Finally, since
the Pao-en ching pien i pu occurs in the overall context of "imple-
ments of the faith" ,ili J!, presented to the Throne, which included
such things as a gold-lettered siitra, a monk's robe, and other fine
objects, it seems highly improbable that a vernacular lecture for
laymen would have been a part of the gift. All of the extant trans-
168
formation and sutra lecture texts are of a much inferior quality (in
terms of paper, calligraphy, language usage, and style) when com-
pared with the sort of scriptures and commentaries suitable for
formal presentation to the Throne. What is more, transformation
texts and siitra lecture texts are nowhere else recorded as constitut-
ing "implements of the faith," whereas transformation tableaux
were common fixtures for even highly placed monks and officials
with Buddhist inclinations. Regardless, we certainly do not now
have sufficient data to draw any meaningful conclusions concern-
ing either transformation texts (pien-wen) or siitra lectures (chiang-
ching-wen) from the unusual title "(Transformation on the) Siitra
of Recompense for Kindness, One Set."
The unfortunate paucity of references to transformation texts in
pre-modern sources has led occasionally, perhaps out of wishful
thinking, to scholars' finding them where they do not actually
exist. An example of such a spurious reference is Yang Yin-shen's
quotation 74 of the Ming writer Tsang Mou-hsun's !iilX~fm (Ad-
vanced Scholar 1580) preface (c. 1619) to his edition of Records of
Transcendent Wandering and Dream Wandering (Hsien-yu meng-yu erh lu
fU!!#f~!#f=&(fc) attributed to the late Yuan author Yang Wei-chen
:mt.lHJl! (1296-1370). The quotation is taken out of context so as
to make it appear that Tsang is identifying "strum lyrics" (t'an-tz'u
~~ii]) as a type ofpien-wen: "As for strum-lyricists, they are mostly
blind men who beat the rhythm with a small drum as they recite
and sing ~PI§ at the Nine Crossroads and the Three Markets.
There are also women with stringed instruments. It is likely that
this is the last [representative of] pien." But Tsang was discussing
a series oflinked changes in literary form. Pien ought here to be inter-
preted as "change," not "transformation" in the sense of the name
of a genre. Thus Tsang meant to say that strum lyrics were the
"most recent" or "latest" development in a long line of evolution
passing through the odes (feng J\. andya !ft) to the ballads (yueh-Ju
~Jf-f), lyrics (tz'u ~ii]), and cantos (ch'ii Jtil). The statement7 5 has no
bearing on the history of transformation texts.
Another example of a spurious contemporaneous reference to
pien-wen was made by Ch'iu Chen-ching when he cited 76 a "Flood
pien" **~ by Huang-fu Sung~ ffi:f0 supposedly mentioned in
ch. 10 of Tang Gleanings !l!'f:!!1f- i§. None of the half-dozen editions
169
of the work that I have checked, however, have this title. The piece
by Huang-fu Sung was, rather, a "Critique of [the Handling of]
the Flood" :;k:7](~.J$.
In spite of the fact that there are only a mere handful of refer-
ences to transformations in contemporaneous literature (the pau-
city is attributable to the low social status of the genre), we have
learned a great deal from them. We know that transformations
were performed in secular settings by professional entertainers,
some of whom were women. Picture scrolls were an important part
of the performance. Distinguished poets were familiar with trans-
formations and referred to them to make fun of each other. High-
ranking officials and even emperors enjoyed transformation per-
formances, in spite of the fact that they were not "proper litera-
ture." Transformations had tremendous crowd-drawing power in
spite of the fact that they were denounced by righteous monks. This
may be due in part to the perceived cultic, risque, and magical or
illusionary qualities of some performances and derivative texts.
All of these findings and others presented in this chapter are in
basic conformity with what we know about transformations from
internal examination 77 and by comparative study of parallel and
related traditions elsewhere. 78 In sum, transformations were a form
of Buddhist-influenced prosimetric storytelling (normally asso-
ciated with pictures) that enjoyed broad currency, particularly
among the lower strata of society, from the middle of the T'ang
period to its end.79
170
Abbreviations Used in the Notes and
Bibliography
AKPAW Abhandlungen der Koniglich Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaflen.
AM Asia Major.
Arch Or Archiv Orienttiln£.
BBK Bukkyo bungaku kenkyii [Studies on Buddhist Literature] {!Ill~)(~

liFf~. For publication information on individual volumes, see
under Bukkyo bungaku kenkyii kai.
BCL Fo-chiao yii Chung-kuo wen-hsueh [Buddhism and Chinese literature]

{!Ill~~ r:p ~ )( ~- Hsien-tai Fo-chiao hsueh-shu ts'ung-k'an
[Modern studies of Buddhism] ffl.~{!lll~~miHilfU, 19 (Series 2,
no. 9). Taipei: Ta-ch'eng wen-hua ch'u-pan-she, 1978.
BEFEO Bulletin de l' Ecole Franfaise d' Extreme-Orient.
BHS Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. See under Edgerton.
BK BiJutsu kenkyii (Journal of Art Studies) ~Hf.jliff~.
BMFEA Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities.
BS Bukkyo shigaku (The Journal of the History of Buddhism) {!Ill~

£!:~.
BSOAS Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
BSOS Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies.
BSS Kuo-hsueh chi-pen ts'ung-shu (Basic Sinological series) ~~£

*jilfl. Chinese texts published by the Commercial Press of
Shanghai.
171
Abbreviations Used in the Notes and Bibliography
CBH Chiigoku bungaku hO (Journal of Chinese literature) r:f:ll2\ll3t~$.
CH Chung-hua shu-chii typeset and punctuated edition of the stan-

dard, dynastic histories.
CKYW Chung-kuoyii-wen [Chinese language] r:f:ll2\ll~)C.
CTW Tung Kao j[ffi!i (1740-1818), et al., ed. Ch'in-tingch'iian Tang wen
[Imperially commissioned complete prose of the T'ang] ~5:E~
~)C. Taipei: Hui-wen shu-chii, 1961. Photocopy of 1814 ed.
crrr Chung-yangyen-chiu-yuan li-shihyii-yen yen-chiu-so chi-k' an (Bulletin of

the Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica) r:f:l:9c
Wf~JffG!i\I~~§Wf~I'JT~flj.
D Numbered manuscripts in the Dun'-khuanskogo Fonda at the

lnstituta Narodov Azii, Leningrad.
F Numbered Flug manuscripts at the lnstituta Narodov Azii,

Leningrad.
GSR Karlgren Bernhard. Grammata Serica Recensa. Reprinted in 1972

from Bulletin of the Museum ofFar Eastern Antiquities 29. Stockholm,
1957.
H]AS Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies.

HSYP Hsiao-shuo yueh-pao (The Short Story Magazine) 'J' 1li/; .FJ $_.
HT Hsiang Ta l<iJ ~. Tang-tai Ch'ang-anyii Hsi-yii wen-ming [Ch'ang-
an during the T'ang period and the civilization of the western
regions] ll!ff;::llt:t(Jifi!gg~)C~. Peking: Sheng-huo, tu-shu, hsin-
chih san-lien shu-tien, 1957. This is a greatly expanded andre-
vised version of Hsiang's work of the same title which appeared
as No. 2 in the Yen-ching hsueh-pao chuan-hao [Special issues of
the learned journal ofYenching University] ~ Jj( ~ $:(i ~ series.
Peiping: Harvard-Yenching Institute at Yenching University,
1933.
HTFH Hsien-tai Fo-hsueh (Modern Buddhism) m,~{ijjl~.
"Inventory" Victor H. Mair. "Lay Students and the Making of Written Ver-
nacular Narrative: An Inventory of Tun-huang Manuscripts."
CHINOPERLPapers 10:5-96 (1981).
172
]A Journal Asiatique.
JAOS Journal of the American Oriental Society.
]AS Journal of Asian Studies.
JRAS Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.
KDHR Kanazawa daigaku Mbungakubu ronshii, bungaku hen (Studies andEs-

says by the Faculty ofLaw and Literature, Kanazawa University,
Literature) 3'6:7$:*:"'?!)(~ffiHilli~, )(~~.
KITLV Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde.
KKK Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to KanshO [Japanese literature: Interpreta-

c
tion and appreciation] rniD)("'fg¥~ ~jt 47.11 (October 1982).
Special edition on "Etoki: Ima kokubungaku no chikei o terasu"
[Painting recitation: Now shedding light on the horizons of
Japanese literature] Ml/M il<-P ;l; rniD)(~O)J.1B7f* '1i: 1\li\ i? -t.
KM K'ai-ming shu-tien reduced format edition of the standard, dy-

nastic histories.
LitHer Wen-lisueh i-ch'an [Literary heritage] )l::~~gg. Section of the

Kuang-mingjih-pao (Kuang-ming Daily) .>Jt !!)1 B ¥a.
LitHer, Wen-hsueh i-ch'an tseng-k'an [Literary heritage, supplements] )("'

Suppl. ~ggJiflj.
LWL Chou Shao-liang f,!i]if-itlli: and Pai Hua-wen ~{t,)(, eds. Tun-
huang pien-wen lun-wen lu [Papers on Tun-huangpien-wen] ~;l;lil~
)l::ffi1i)(~. 2 vols. Shanghai: Ku-chi ch'u-pan-she, 1982.
MSI Saiiki bunka kenkyii (Monumenta Serindica) [Studies on the culture

of the western regions] iffl .lg1( )I: {t.Wf ~. 6 vo1s. Kyo to: Hozokan,
1958-1963.
NT N aha Toshisada Y{l ¥J!l flj j{. Todai shakai bunka ski kenkyii (His-
torical Studies on the Society and Culture ofT'ang China) ng:~
iitl: W,t)( ft.~ Wf~. Toyogaku sosho (Oriental Studies Library)
*f$ ~:itti! 8. Tokyo: Sobunsha, 1974.
p Numbered Pelliot manuscripts from Tun-huang in the Biblio-

theque Nationale, Paris.
173
PekCat Shang-wu yin-shu-kuan (Commercial Press) )UjJ%~P~i!1!, ed.

Tun-huang i-shu tsung-mu SD:Jin [Index and general catalog of pre-
served manuscripts from Tun-huang] !ilcJ;\]Hifl:i!U~ § %91. Pe-
king: Commercial Press, 1962. Revised ed., Peking: Chung-hua
shu-chii, 1983.
PK Numbered manuscripts from Tun-huang in the Peking National

Library.
RK Rekishi Chiri [History and geography] ffl~:tt!O~!l..
s Numbered Stein manuscripts from Tun-huang in the British

Library, London.
SCD Shanghai Chung:Jangjih-pao (Shanghai Central Daily News) J:w

l'j:l;k; El *·
SCWK Shih-chieh wen-k'u [World library] tlt:!l'f!.3tJ!¥.
SH William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous. A Dictionary of

Chinese Buddhist Terms with Sanskrit and English Equivalents and a
Sanskrit-Pali Index. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co.,
1937.
Shi Shirin (Journal of History) ~;f,j(.
Shina Shinagaku [Sinology] 5i: jjji ~.
SPPY Ssu-pu pei:JaO [Essential works of the four categories of literature]

IZ!3 ffll(ijjj ~.Elegant, Sung-style typeset editions of Chinese classics
published by Chung-hua shu-chii in Shanghai, 1927-1937.
Taipei rpt., 1966.
SPTK Ssu-pu ts'ung-k'an [Collection of republished works from the four

categories of literature] IZ!]ffllm:f!J. Facsimile reproductions of
Chinese classics published by the Commercial Press in Shanghai,
1919-1936.
SWH Su-wen-hsueh [Popular literature] {fl. 3t !J.
T Wang Chung-min ±:it~, Wang Ch'ing-shu ±~;jjR, HsiangTa

[PJ.li, Chou !-liang Jilll-~, Ch'i-kung P.!f~J, and Tseng !-kung
iif~~, eds. Tun-huang pien-wen chi [Collection of pien-wen from
Tun-huang] ~J;ljl~3(:~. 2 vols. Peking: Jen-min wen-hsueh
ch'u-pan-she, 1957. The form of citation for this collection is T
page. line, e.g. T365.7.
174
T• Pan Chung-kwei [P'an Ch'ung-kuei] ~:iJlL ed. Tun-huang pien-

wen chi hsin shu [New collection of Tun-huang pien-wen] !I.Xm~
3'i:JfHJT'il, Tun-huang-hsueh ts'ung-shu (Tunhuangology series)
~H!l!&}.H~'il 6. 2 vols. Taipei: Chung-kuo wen-hua ta-hsueh
Chung-wen yen-chiu-so, I 983- I 984.
T Takakusu Junjiro jl1ijtrij]IW{(}(m~ and Watanabe Kaigyoku mtii

$11!!., eds. TaishO shinshii Daizokyo (The Tripitaka in Chinese) *IE
~~ *~~- 100 vols. Tokyo: The Taisho lssai-kyo Kanko Kwai,
I 922- I 934. Individual works from this collection are not listed
separately in the bibliography. The form of citation is T (number
of work) volume of TaishO shinshii Daizokyo. page and section of
page from same, e.g. T(9)4.433c.
TCC Sun K'ai-ti f*f'~~- Ts'ang-chou chi [The collected works of

Ts'ang-chou]. Peking. Chung-hua shu-chu, 1965.
TCTC Ssu-ma Kuang '1'11m:J't (1019-1086). Tzu-chih t'ung-chien [Com-

prehensive mirror for aid in government] ~l'El ~!l.lii, annot. Hu
San-hsing i'iJ:j ::=::.1£ (1230-1287). 4 vols. Peking: Ku-chi ch'u-pan-
she, 1957, second printing. 1956, first printing in 10 vols.
TCTKP Tien-chin ta-kung pao (Tientsin !'Impartial) :;Rlf:*0¥a.
TGK TohO gakuho (Kyo to) (Journal of Oriental Studies) *1i ~¥a.
Tiger Kawaguchi Hisao Jll IJ ~ 1$. Saiiki no lora [Tiger of the western
regions] l!!i~ 0) .f.IE. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1974.
TLTC Ta-lu tsa-chih (The Continent Magazine) *l!t~&rr..
TP Toung Pao.
TSCK Tu-shu chou-k'an [Book weekly] i!:&]!] fU.
TsSCC Ts'ung-shu chi-ch'eng ch'u-pien [Compilation of collectanea, first

series] 1!~H£H~Jil<;:fl]~. WangYun-wu ::E~:li,chiefed. Shanghai:
Commercial Press, 1935-1940. Typeset and photo-reproduced
editions of Chinese texts in 3,464 ts'e; not finished.
TTTS Ch'en Lien-t'ang ll!RM~ (Ch'ing), ed. Tang-tai ts'ung-shu [T'ang

dynasty collectanea] J!tfl;;~i]:. Shanghai: Chin-chang t'u-shu-
chu, 1921 [?]),lithograph.
175
Wen-hsuan Hsiao T'ung iltfitifE (50! -53 I), ed. Wen-hsuan (Literary selections]
)(~.Taipei:1-wen yin-shu-kuan rpt. of the 1809 recutting of the
Sung Ch'un-hsi (1174- I 189) wood-block edition.
WFC Wang Fu-ch'iian iftl~. Chung-kuo wen-hsuehyen-chiu i-ts'ung [Col-

lection of translations of studies on Chinese literature] 9=t OOl! )C ~
!ifF~~~· Shanghai: Pei-hsin shu-chii, 1930.
WW-TH Wen-wu ts'an-k'ao t;;;u-liao (Materials for the study of cultural arti-
facts] )1:40~~~*4 2.4and5 (1951). Tun-huangwen-wuchan-
lan t'e-k'an [Special number for the exhibition of cultural artifacts
from Tun-huang] ~~)C40~.'Jl~1U A, B.
WWTKL Wen-wu ts'an-k'ao t;;;u-liao (Research material on cultural artifacts]

)1:40~~~*'~-·
Nakano Tatsuei i:f:t!Y~~' et al., comps. Dai Nippon ;;;oku ;;;okyo

(Great Japanese continuation of the Tripitaka] *
8 /.$:~it~.
750 vols. Kyoto: Kyoto z6ky6 shoin, 1905-1912. Individual
works from this collection are not listed in the bibliography. The
form of citation is Z division il!lt. case ~. fascicle ;llll-. page,
e.g. Zl.87 .4.302b.
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschajt.
176
Notes
CHAPTER ONE
1. Also referred to in English as Whistling or Whispering Sands Hill.

2. For a rough count of the extant manuscripts, see the first appendix to my
"Lay Students and the Making of Written Vernacular Narrative: An Inventory
of Tun-huang Manuscripts," hereafter referred to as "Inventory." When I visited
Tun-huang for the first time in the summer of 1981, the director of the research
institute at the Grottoes of Unsurpassed Height, Ch'ang Shu-hung 'ffiil~, told
me that, during construction in 1945, some new manuscripts came to light. There
are in this group approximately 300 items, of which 86 are scrolls. These newly
discovered manuscripts, which are all siitras, are kept in the research institute at
the Grottoes ofUnsurpassed Height. They had been sealed in the belly of an earth
god (fu-ti p'u-sa ±:tt!fffifi) by the Taoist caretaker of the caves bifore his discovery
of the major cache of manuscripts in cave 17 (Tun-huang Institute number). Accord-
ing to Ch'ang, this proves that manuscripts were preserved at Tun-huang in more
than one location.
3. For a summary of the discovery, disposition, and significance of the
Tun-huang manuscripts, see Denis Twitchett, "Chinese Social History from the
Seventh to Tenth Centuries."
4. See Paolo Daffim1, "L'ltinerario di Hui Sheng," Appendix 1 (pp. 259-
260), especially p. 260n4, which cites the extensive scholarship on this name. Also
see H. W. Bailey, "Ttaugara," p. 893, who suggests a possible Tocharian origin,
and Ikeda On, "Tonko," p. 194. In her Einjiihrung in die Z,entralasienkunde, von
Gabain gives Droana as the name for Tun-huang.
5. Harold Bailey, The Culture of the Sakas, p. 20n46. Attempts by Chinese com-
mentators, such as Ying Shao J!!!BJ.J (second century), to explicate Tun-huang lit-
erally as "Great Splendor" (Han History 28B.425c) or the like should be dismissed
as folk etymologies similar to explanations of Fo (short for Fo-t'o {~rt; [ancient
b'iu<~t-d'ii], i.e. "Buddha") as "perverse, contrary." The latter interpretation of
Fo was advocated by the sixth-century anti-Buddhist polemicist, Hsun Chi 1ifi~
(see T52[2031].129b). More recently, Feng Ch'eng-chiin (Hsi")lii ti-ming, p. 23),
has suggested that Daxata "from an old Greek geography" may refer to Tun-
huang. I have been able to find this name in Ptolemy (6.16.8), but its location,
174° /39°40' by the Greek geographer's reckoning, puts it much farther south
177
Notes Pages 2-4
than Throana, which Ptolemy gives as located at 174°40'/47°40', precisely where

we would expect to find Tun-huang on his map. What is more, the last syllable
of the name makes it seem rather improbable as a source for the transcription of
Tun-huang (if that is what Feng had in mind).
6. John Brough, "Nugae Indo-Sericae," p. 82, however, has "r" devolving
into "n" of the Chinese name.
7. For example, some Tun-huang manuscripts that refer to Khotan include
the following: S5659, S655lv, P2022 etseq., P2647, P2812, P2826, P2889, P3151,
P3184v, P3397, P5535, Fl91, Dl502b, Dl265 and 1457, D2143, D2149v, and
Dl074. Manuscripts that mention Uighurs, to name only a few, include P2992v,
P3016v, P3028, and P3077v. Uighur, Khotanese, and Tibetan writing occurs
separately on Tun-huang manuscripts and in combination with Chinese.
8. There are many evidences in the Tun-huang manuscripts of frequent con-
tact with other parts of China. PK6836 (copied in the year 630), S523, and S3870
are siitras from Ch'ang-an; S996 is a siitra copied in the year 479 in Lo-yang;
S2140 is a list of Buddhist works from Ch'ang-an; S8101 is a calendar from
Ch'ang-an; P3629 is a letter from the Fukien area; and so forth.
9. Demieville, tr., Le concile, p. 308n. For a sketch of the geography and history
ofTun-huang, see Kanaoka Sh6k6, TonkOno bungaku, Ch. 1 (pp. 3-23). Also c£
L. I. Cuguevskii, "Touen-houang du VIlle au Xe siecle," for the history of Tun-
huang during the period when the pien-wen were written.
· 10. Science and Civilisation I, 126.
11. Tun-huang was occupied by the Tibetans in 781 and freed from their con-
trol by Chang 1-ch'ao iJl~il in 848. See Fujieda Akira, "Toban shihai-ki no
Tonk6," p. 199. For a detailed chronology of the history of Tun-huang, see
"Tonko Bukkyoshi nenpyo," by Yoshimura Shiiki, et al. Convenient and acces-
sible chronological information concerning Tun-huang is available in Kanaoka
Sh6k6, TonkO no minshii, pp. 359-365. Also see A. R6na-tas, "A Brief Note on the
Chronology of the Tun-huang collections."
12. His will is given on S4427. For information on Yun-pien, see Kanaoka
Sh6k6, TonkO no minshii, p. 167.
13. Paficasirsa or Paficasikha.
14. See SuPai, "Tun-huang Mo-kao-k'u chung te 'Wu-t'ai-shan t'u,'" espe-
cially pp. 53ff.
15. See Richard Aldrich, "Tun-huang: The Rise of the Kansu Port."
16. The History of the Northern Dynasties, which also records (CH, 1389) this
same passage, has here "the Kingdom of An" (:tc instead of 31;).
17. CH, 15 79-1580; KM, 67 .2507b.
18. Chinese Art and Culture, p. 221.
19. See, for example, Kanaoka Sh6k6, TonkOno minshii, p. 29; Nakano Miyoko,
TonkO monogatari; and numerous articles by Kawaguchi Hisao.
20. See Fu Chen-lun, "Tun-huang Ch'ien-fo-tung wen-wu fa-hsien te
ching-kuo."
21. Many of the relevant materials regarding the discovery of the manuscripts
have been conveniently assembled in a chronological narrative by Eugene
178
Pages 5-7 Notes
Eo yang in "The Historical Context for the Tun-huang pien-wen." The first-hand
description of Stein may be found in Serindia II, xxi-xxii, and Ruins of Desert
Cathay I, 166-194, 211-219, especially 217-218. Pelliot's account may be found
in his "Une bibliotheque medievale." See also, for the discovery of the manu-
scripts, the accounts given in Kanaoka Shoko, Tonko no bungaku, Chapter 2
(pp. 24-45); Kanaoka Shoko, Tonko no minshii, pp. 23-24, 56-63; and Kanda
Kiichiro, Tonko-gaku gojii nen, passim.
22. Tonkono bungaku, p. 67.
23. On Ancient Central Asian Tracks, pp. 203, 205, 206.
24. Pelliot, "Une bibliotheque medievale," p. 506; Su Ying-hui, "Pa Hei-
ch'eng so ch'u Hsi-hsia shih hsieh-pen"; Saeki, Nestorian Documents, p. 253; Weng
T'ung-wen, "Tun-huang shih-shih feng-pi nien-tai chih mi." An alternative ex-
planation, which minimizes the role of the Tanguts, is that the handwritten scrolls
were discarded upon development of wood-block printing and thread-bound
book format. The latter two developments, according to this explanation which
is common among Japanese authorities, would have made manuscript scrolls
obsolete because such innovations afforded greater reliability and ease of usage.
25. Lionel Giles in Stein, Serindia II, 82ln2a.
26. Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture, p. 222, gives the year 366 for the digging
of the first cave. Most scholars hold that the caves were begun in 353.
27. Introduction to Opisanie Kitaiskikh Rukopisei, Dun' -khuanskogo fonda II, 5,
and "Izuchenie Drevnekitaiskikh Pis'menn'ikh Pamyatnikov," p. 59.
28. When I visited Leningrad in the summer of 1981, the authorities of the
Library of the Institute of Asian Peoples (Academy of Sciences) kindly granted
me access to their collection of Tun-huang manuscripts. While there, I examined
several hundred items and wish to express publicly my deep gratitude for this rare
opportunity afforded me. Professor Lev Men'shikov generously allowed me to use
a draft catalog for 3,000 entries not included in Opisanie kitaiskikh rukopisei and a
preliminary index of an additional4,000 manuscripts, both of which were pre-
pared by him and his colleagues.
29. During my visit to China in the summer of 1981, the authorities of Peking
National Library informed me that there are plans to make a descriptive catalog
of the Tun-huang manuscripts in the rare-book collection. I was told the same
at the library of Peking University for the manuscripts that are kept there. I was
privileged at both libraries to see all of the manuscripts that I requested.
30. For a good general introduction to the manuscripts, see Fujieda Akira,
"The Tun-huang Manuscripts" in Zinbun and "The Tun-huang Manuscripts"
in Essays on the Sources for Chinese History.
31. "Shina zokubungaku shi kenkyii no zairyo."
32. See Chen Tsu-lung, "Chung-shih Tun-huang yii Ch'eng-tu chih chien te
chiao-t'ung lu-hsien," pp. 80-83, and Hsiang Ta, "Lun T'ang-tai Fo-ch'ii,"
p. 1587b. My impression is that some Indian influence passed directly to Tun-
huang from Szechwan without first going through Central Asia. See .Chang Yi,
"West Szechwan and East India," pp. 8-9, who documents travel between
Szechwan and Kansu, and Chen Chien, "Preliminary Research on the Ancient
179
Notes Pages 7-9
Passage to India," who documents early intercourse with India through Burma,
Yunnan, Szechwan, and thence to Shensi. This route flourished particularly
during the T'ang. On popular Buddhism in the Szechwan area during the T'ang
period, see Fujii Kiyoshi, "Todai Shoku chiho ni okcru shomin to Bukkyo." On
the general cultural history of the city of Ch'eng-tu in Szechwan, sec Naba
Toshisada, "Bunka-shijo yori kansatsu suru Shisensho Scito."
33. See my discussion of the co~ophons of this manuscript on p. 133. The crucial
issue is that, where the T editors (T618.12) and the T" editor (T"33'5.15) read
Hsi-ch'uan f§JII (in modern Szechwan), Kanaoka Shoko (Tonko no bungaku,
p. 181) gives Hsi-chou fl!i1"'1 (in modern Sinkiang). My own reading ("Inven-
tory," item 15) agrees with that of the T and T" editors. Cf. T420.3, where there
is a parallel reference to Tung-ch'uan J1.1:JII and Hsi-shu f§ ~ which surely must
indicate the eastern and western parts of Szechwan. Other Tun-huang manu-
scripts that originated in the Szechwan area or have some connection with it in-
clude S5444 (colophon dated 905), S4540.1 (905), S5534 (905), S5451 (906),
S5544.1, S5669 (906), S5965 (905), and S6726 (926) (all the preceding arc hand-
written copies of the printed editions of the Vajracchedikii-praji'iiipiiramitii-siltra in 32
sections that had been made in West Szechwan [Hsi-ch'uan f§ Jll] by the Kuo
family~*) and printed document number 10 of the Stein collection, a calendar
printed by the family of Fan Shang ~jt ofCh'eng-tu $;'/;!~in Hsi-ch'uan f§JII,
province of Chien-nan AAUffi. Also sec PK6499, PK2062v, S6836, S8100, P2003,
P2094, P2249v, P2292, P2816, P2876 (943), P3398.1 (943), P3493 (943),
P3649 (names three rivers in Szechwan), P3761, D700, D2776, San 262, and
Dll051Bv(?).
34. See Naba Toshisada, "To shohon zassho ko," p. 226.
35. This is not to deny that the inhabitants of Tun-huang were in direct con-
tact with other, more easterly, places such as Five Terraces Mountain (Wu-t'ai
shan li\!HLJ), Ch'ang-an, and Korea. It is interesting to note that there even
seems to have been some sort of contact between Tun-huang and the distant Wen-
chow il\V+I (in Chekiang). S4487 is "An Account ofRcpcntcnce and Elimination
ofSin through the Suvarr;a-prabhiisa-siltrii." ~fflfl1lUf!:iil::Jit~JJH~fiJJ. It relates to an
official ofWen-chou named Chang Chii-tao ~Ji!i:m. This is most suggestive, for
Wen-chou is known for being perhaps the most important coastal point of entry
for Indian influence that came to China by way of the sea.
36. For someone newly or partially literate, the fascination with and necessity
to practice characters is readily understandable. On the first page inside the front
cover of a handwritten shadow-play script owned by Harvard University, there
is a series of practice characters ( 9 :;,, etc.) reminiscent of similar exercises on
many Tun-huang manuscripts. Harvard-Ycnching Library catalog number
T5722f4622, ts'e 23, Borrowing the Barbarian Coiffure (Chieh ti chi f~3j(~).
CHAPTER TWO
I. Kaji Tetsujo, "Zoku-bungaku," pp. 102-103.
2. Yu Tien-ts'ung, "Su-chiang yii picn-wcn," p. 12. Ch'cn Kuo-ning, Tun-
180
Pages 10-14 Notes
huang pi-hua Po-hsiang t'u yen-chiu, p. 29, also posits yuan-ch'i, "seat-settling texts"
(ya-tso-wen), etc., as types of pien-wen.
3. For a full account of pien-hsiang, see my article entitled "Records of Trans-
formation Tableaux."
4. Jen Pan-t'ang, T'ang hsi-nung, p. 51.
5. For both these opinions, see Kanaoka, "Mokuren henbun," pp. 133,
139n2.
6. In spite of this minimal caution cxcercised by the T editors, Tochio
Takcshi, "Tonko henbun ... no hikaku," p. 91, persisted in referring to a mys-
terious *Pien-wen sou-shen chi ~ 3t i5Jl iii$ ~2.
7. Leong Weng Kee, "Pien-hsiang yii ch'a-t'u hua-pen," p. 8.
8. "Hen to hcnbun."
9. In his "T'an T'ang-tai min-chien wen-hsueh."
10. Ibid. p. 77.
11. "Some Questions," p. 212.
12. "Ts'ung pien-wen tao ta-ku, pao-chiian, yii t'an-tz'u" (From pien-wen to
ta-ku, pao-chiian, and t'an-tz'u] ~~?JtjiJ-J\.n1!f {{f; ~~ ~ii], in Hsiao-shuoyii hsi-chii,
pp. 90-97 (p. 91).
13. Tl96-206.
14. This appears to say "There have been no omissions in copying" or "There
has been no plundering," but I have interpreted it as given in the translation be-
cause the manuscript itself is obviously not illustrated (i.e., it must be referring to
a separate scroll or booklet) and because I think ~ liak may be a mistake for
~ liwok.
15. Sec Chapter 4 near the end (at notes 109 ff).
16. By "documents" I mean deeds, loans, contracts, registers, lists of names of
property, etc.
17. As, for example, the narrative verses on Tung Yung (S2204; T109-113),
the story in verse about Chi Pu (P3697 and other manuscripts; T51-71), etc.
18. Tun-huang ch'ii ch'u-t'an, p. 300.
19. Sec alsojen's preface, p. 3.
20. Approximately 180 texts, if we count individual manuscripts rather than
separate titles. J en's ready acceptance of numerous verse forms would raise this
number to at least two or three times higher.
21. The number varies depending on whether one is willing to count multiple
copies of the same text as separate transformations. A listing of the manuscripts
in the "narrow" corpus will be given in the middle of this chapter.
22. For a list, see Kanaoka, "On the Word 'Pien'" and my translation ofPai
Hua-wcn, "What Is 'pien-wen'?" I touch on all of these titled pien or pien-wen in
this chapter and in "Inventory." Attempts to discern a consistent distinction in
T'ang usage of these two designations (pi en and pien-wen), with regard to specific
written texts from Tun-huang, arc doomed to failure. It is obvious, however, that
the first designation may also be used in reference to oral performances, artistic
representations, and the epiphanies that serve as their inspiration, while the
second designation can be used only in reference to a written text.
181
Notes Pages 14-26
23. For a discussion of this title, see below, pp. IOOff.

24. Fully discussed in Chapter 4 below and in Tun-huang Popular Narratives,
"Appendix."
25. For a discussion of these texts, see pp. 25-26.
26. The character ~ ends one line and 1iX: begins the next. It is possible
(though highly unlikely) that JiX: is not part of the man's name as indicated by
the T editors and my translation but that it refers to the completion of the
copies.
27. Naturally, we would not expect that the antecedent oral performances
could have been called pien-wen.
28. Catalogue, p. 248.
29. For a discussion of this concept, see pp. 120-121.
30. I have summarized this transformation text at greater length than the
others because it is less well known.
31. Nidiina or hetupraryaya.
32. In the text (T768.15, T769.2) II§" ( = f~) is missing. At T765.6, before the
start of the story proper, there is reference to an "inner palace" f]'g.
33. Nidiina or praryaya.
34. It is noteworthy that both appear verbatim in the Tun-huang manuscript
collections of stories on filial piety (T902.6-1 0).
35. See Pai Hua-wen, "What Is 'pien-wen'?'' pp. 512-513.
36. But compare the so-called "Tale of the Bombast of the Teacher of Teachers
(?)" ffiliffiliMtlj'g~ (on S4327-337) which does include some verse. The title, how-
ever, has been taken from within the text and does not stand at the beginning or
end of the piece. See "Inventory," item 337.
37. A less plausible explanation is that the term pien in the title of the Shun-tzu
piece is being used in the sense of"wonder, miracle." According to this explana-
tion, pien could then be taken as referring to the miraculous ways in which the
boy Shun is rescued from the nefarious machinations of his stepmother (Tl31. 7-
8; 132.5 [note the use of the word hua {t]; 133.1 [note the use of the word
pien]; 133.6-7) and the wondrous manner in which he cures his fatherofblindness
(T134.1).
38. See "Inventory," item 150.
39. On these anecdotes and their presumed relationship to the main story, see
Eoyang's extensive discussion in "Word ofMouth," pp. 91-114.
40. The manuscript itself, however, does not stop here.
41. Like the pien about Shun-tzu, this brief story is replete with miraculous
happenings (T 160.7-8, 161.6, 161.7-10, and 161.12). Similarly, these may ac-
count for the seemingly anomalous generic designation as pien.
42. SH, p. 38.
43. See my discussion of one such title for the Wu Tzu-hsu story in "In-
ventory," item 241.
44. See Chiang Li-hung, Tun-huang pien-wen tz:.u-i t'ung-shih, pp. 177-178.
45. It is not certain whether this is meant to be construed as a title.
46. Three months?
182
Pages 26-29 Notes
47. Discussed in the introductory section of"lnventory."

48. The T editors (T344.2 and 355n1) incorrectly insert the character iii$
after~-
49. See the discussion of this opening section in "Inventory," item 11.
50. Again, it is possible that the word pien in the titles of both these works (the
"Eight Aspects" and the "Destruction of Demons") refers less to a literary classi-
fication than to the supernatural happenings recorded therein. Such occurrences
are particularly prominent in the latter text (e.g., T349.2ff, 352.14ff, and 353. 7ff)
but are also found in the former (e.g., T333.9ff) and, indeed, Buddhist doctrine
holds the worldly existence of all Buddhas to be a series of"transformations."
It is conceivable, then, to think of the pien in the titles of the special group of
texts under discussion as referring generally to the "unusual" or "strange" in-
cidents that occur in the stories themselves rather than as a formal, generic de-
signation. This is certainly possible in the case of the story of Shun as a boy and
the Crown Prince of the Liu house during the Former Han dynasty. As for
the title of the tale of the maiden in the women's palace of King Bimbisara, it is
plausible to explain pien as referring to the actual transformations of the young
lady that take place therein. Admittedly, there is no hard and fast line between
pien in the sense of "unusual or strange incident" and in the generic sense of
"transformation," for both usages ultimately derive from the same Buddhistic
notions (to be discussed in detail in the next chapter).
51. The connection between transformations and pictures will be documented
fully in Chapters 4 and 6.
52. Note that Tu Ying-t'ao's H*JU!i!J edition of the text in Tung Yung ch'en hsiang
ho-chi 'i:?km~~~ (Shanghai, 1957), pp. 5-7, has :f*~r for tl~ (Tlll.l3).
53. The authors of a recent history of Chinese fiction published in the People's
Republic also deny that the Wu Tzu-hsu story is a pien-wen. They refer to it,
rather, as being in form "closer to the early hua-pen" ~jli:i.f;: (story roots). See Pei-
ching ta-hsueh chung-wen hsi, Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih, p. 57.
54. Except T69.14; but see T83n168.
55. It is instructive to compare these mislabeled "pien-wen" with P2999-75
which bears the title "Siitra of the Crown Prince's Attainment of the Way, One
Scroll" :::tr!Ptili~~~ (T296.11). The related text on S4626-351 is actually
a seat-settling text (see '1'287.13, 301n1, 823, and 830).
56. In the Russian catalog of Tun-huang manuscripts, there is not a single text
among the 25 placed in the category of pien-wen that, according to a narrow defini-
tion of the genre, can legitimately be called by that name. See Men'shikov, eta!.,
Opisanie Kitaiskikh I, 5 79-585 (nos. 1470-1482) and II, 499-506 (nos. 2861-
2872). There may, however, be other genuine pien-wen in Russia, in China, or in
private collections elsewhere that have not been publicly described adequately
and of which I am, therefore, unaware. All of the extant pien-wen that I know of
have been listed in this chapter. For a recent addition to the corpus, see "In-
ventory," item 599, and Mair, "A Newly Identified Fragment." It is also not im-
possible that future archeological discoveries might yield additional manuscripts.
More Buddhist texts were recently found in a tomb in Chiang-yin ti~ county
183
Notes Pages 29-32
(near the Yangtze River), Kiangsu province. Preliminary reports (China Daily,
1.54 [13 August 1981]) indicate, however, that these are mostly scriptures and
date from the Northern Sung.
57. E.g. "Inventory," p. 5; "Oral and Written Aspects of Chinese Sutra Lec-
tures"; and Chapter 5 below.
58. Tun-huang hsueh kai-yao, p. 55.
59. The causal matrix which gives rise to events and things. See Shoson
Miyamoto, "A Reappraisal of Prati:tya-samutpada," in Yamaguchi [Susumu]
Hakushi kanreki kinen. From as early as the sixth century, prefaces to Buddhist
treatises were called yuan-ch'i or yin-yuan ~ ~ (reason for writing). As a literary
genre, it comes to mean approximately "legend (of a founder or saint, etc.)."
60. T712.13.
61. T816.2.
62. T824.ll.
63. See P3375v and two manuscripts in the Shanghai Museum, one of which
has marginal notations written in red.
64. See T813nl and "Inventory," item 144.
65. Such references also often occur in T'ang poems.
66. See Naba Toshisada, "Shidda taishi shudo innen kaisetsu." Also see MSI
I, 240c.
67. This same note occurs near the beginning ofS37ll v-320. I have also con-
sulted this m,anuscript in making the translation.
68. C£ T697.5.
69. T481.4-5; c£ T484.4. For other evidence of music in siitra lectures, see
T485.ll, 15, and 16; 482.2 ("intone"~); 484.5 ("What follows is the singing of
the siitra" Jlt""fPI§~) and, by contrast, 483.6 ("What follows is to be spoken"
rltrr:!:t3i).
70. This is true, as well, to a lesser degree, ofpentasyllabic, decasyllabic, and
other lengths of verse. There is also the technique of intoning verse described by
John Bishop in his "Prosodic Elements in T'ang Poetry," pp. 52-53: " ... the
prominence of the tonal pattern seems to have led to a technique by which lyric
poems were chanted, the emphasizing of the tone of each word producing a
definite, though limited melodic line."
71. In the Siitra of the Wise and the Foolish ~ ~ ~, the story is called "Vajra,
the Daughter of King Prasenajit" r&::Jtii M:::E ~~~U. All these references are from
T80 In I. Also see Lo Tsung-t'ao, Tun-huang chiang-eking pien-wen yen-chiu, pp. 322-
332.
72. My translation of this term is an attempt to render the content of its mean-
ing as explained by Hsiang Ta, "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," p. 305. I do not, how-
ever, agree with Hsiang that a ya-tso-wen was meant to "adumbrate an entire
scripture." See also Sun K'ai-ti, "T'ang-tai su-chiang kuei-fan," p. 52, who ex-
plains the term as meaning to settle (literally "press") in their seats all those in
attendance. :JI!l~NP~~~Z.It ~NPIZB~Z.~. C£ KanaokaShoko, "Ozako,"
and Kaji Tetsujo, "Zoku-bungaku," p. 119, who cites S4417-340 (an order of
184
Pages 33-37 Notes
service for a popular lecture ili-~fi~): "Having spoken [the part] which settled
them in their seats" ID't:f!ll gg T. Note the use of the quasi-perfective ending.
73. See my "Introduction" to Tun-huang Popular Narratives and cf. Kenneth
Ch'en, Buddhism in China, p. 289.
74. Chiang-shih-hsing chih pien-wenyen-chiu, pp. 2, 34.
75. See the "Introduction" to my Tun-huang Popular Narratives.
76. For a detailed study of the sources of the Tun-huang Wu Tzu-hsu story,
see Hsieh Hai-p'ing, Chiang-shih-hsing chih pien-wen yen-chiu, pp. 19-34.
77. In Wang Chung-min, Tun-huang ku-chi hsu-lu, p. 336; also see Liu's original
article on the subject in Tien-chin ta-kung pao.
78. Hsieh Hai-p'ing dates the Chang 1-ch'ao transformation text to sometime
between the years 856-873. Chiang-shihhsing chihpien-wenyen-chiu, p. 3. For a study
of the historical materials related in the Chang 1-ch'ao transformation text, see
ibid., pp. 81-88.
79. For some evidence concerning the dating of the Chang Huai-shen trans-
formation text, see Tl28nl.
80. See History of the Han Dynasry (CH), p. 3803.
81. Cf. Nemoto Makoto, "0 Sho-kun henbun no seiritsu nendai ko."
82. Siiriputra et les six maftres, p. l. .
CHAPTER THREE
l. "On the Word 'Pien."'

2. "Some Questions Connected with Tun-huang pien-wen."
3. "Alcune osservazioni terminologiche sui bianwen."
4. This notion is propounded in almost identical language ( [ 'E :If;:]
~JiX)(~1tilii*[tB]J5JTJ;.).Z~;m~~)() by Lao Kan, "Tun-huang chi Tun-
huang te hsin shih-liao," p. 52, and Su Ying-hui, Tun-huang lun-chi, pp. 46-47.
The fallacy of Lao's reasoning is clinched by the fact that, in his previous sentence,
he had declared that pien-wen are called what they are because they have been
transformed from canonical or classical literature into something more acce~sible
to the common people. It is inconceivable that pien could stand for two such dif-
ferent ideas at one and the same time.
5. Yang Chia-lo, Hsiao-shuoyii chiang-ch'ang wen-hsueh I, 7.
6. Eugene Eoyang, "Word of Mouth," p. 50, and cf. pp. 167, 212.
7. Chou Shao-liang, "T'an T'ang-tai min-chien wen-hsueh," p. 75.
8. Kuan Te-tung, "T'an 'pien-wen'," pp. 199, 201.
9. Ch'a-t'u pen Chung-kuo wen-hsueh shih, p. 449. Cf. Jaworski, "Notes sur
l'ancienne litterature populaire en Chine," p. 184.
10. Chung-kuo su-wen-hsueh shih I, 190.
11. Ch'a-t'u pen Chung-kuo wen-hsueh shih, p. 451.
12. For example, Fujino Iwatomo, Chiigoku no bungaku to rei;:.oku, p. 164; Yang
Yin-shen, Chung-kuo su-wen-hsueh, p. 93. A typical formulation of this view is that
185
Notes Pages 37-38
given by Ch'iu Chen-ching in his Tun-huang pien-wen shu-lun, p. I 9 (copied almost

m
verbatim from T;;.'u-hai [Sea of Phrases] 71\j:, yu 63 [p. 2709] ): "'Pien-wen' means
to alter ~ £ the original text )!:. of a Buddhist siitra or an indigenous Chinese
story and, furthermore, to expand and elaborate upon it, causing it to be changed
iii! into a popular, vivid lay lecture."
13. Shih Wei-liang, Yin-yueh hsiang li-shih ch'iu cheng, p. 18. Meng Yao (Yang
Tsung-chen), Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih I, I 10 offers a similar explanation.
14. Wang P'ci-lun, Hsi-clz'ii t;;.'u-tien, p. 641.
15. Ku Huai, "Ta-chung wen-i yii k'ou-yii-shih," p. 13.
16. Werner Eichhorn, Chinese Civilization (New York: Praeger, 1969), p. 224.
I 7. Kaji Tetsujo, "Zoku-bungaku," p. 105.
I 8. Hattori Katsuhiko, who made a very careful study of the relevant Chinese
sources, mentions singing, music, acrobatics, dancing, all sorts of conjuring, and
magic during the Northern Wei, particularly as they reveal foreign influence. But
nowhere does·he mention storytelling with pictures or pien. See his Hokugi Rakuyo
no shakai to bunka, especially Chapter I (pp. I 43- I 87) of the second section ("Cul-
ture" [Bunka hen )l:.{tmi] ), entitled "Court Plays and Entertainments in Loyang
during the Northern Wei" (Hokugi Rakuyo ni okeru kyiitei hyakugi to so no geino
::tt~HH~ 1: :lo' It G ','?; Jns Ja c i 0)~1J§) and Chapter5 (pp. 232-283) of the
third section ("Buddhism and c·ulturc in Loyang during the Northern Wei"
[Hokugi Rakuyo no Bukk yo to bunka ::tt;?J.?-M~ 0) f?Ux c )C {I:]), entitled "Bud-
dhism in Loyang during the Northern Wei and Amusements and Entertainments"
(Hokugi Rakuyo ni okeru Bukkyo to goraku geino ::tt;?J.?1H~ 1: :lo' It G {?!;~ c ~
~~ll~). See also Hattori's Zoku Hokugi Rakuyo no shakai to bunka.
19. Ch'en Shou-yi, Chinese Literature, p. 323. Brown, "From Sutra to Pien-
wen," p. 71, subscribes to a similar view.
20. Ch'en Shou-yi, p. 182.
2 I. Gerty Kallgren, "Studies in Sung Time Colloquial," p. 6.
22. "Pien-ko, pien-hsiang, yii picn-wen," p. 75.
23. Rulan Pian, in conversation, informed me that pien occurs in musical
usage (-iii!) with a meaning that might be translated as "realization" or
"rendering." Adele Rickett has called to my attention the usc of pien in criticism
of the Book of Poetry to contrast with cheng IE (poems supposedly dealing with
periods of good governance). Cf. James Liu, Chinese Theories rif Literature, pp. 64-
65, 120. It is intriguing thatpien had not taken on this pejorative sense until the
later Han period. Sec Maureen Robertson, "Pcriodization in the Arts," p. 8.
There is only a remotely conceivable connection between pien as found in musical
usage or in literary criticism and the Buddhist world of pien-wen and pien-hsiang.
The two characters for pien-wen occur next to each other at the beginning of
the 29th chapter of Liu Hsieh's jlj ru_t (465-522) Wen-hsin tiao-lung [The literary
mind and ornate rhetoric] )l:_{.,Jllf~im. This chapter, the title of which is "T'ung-
pien" [The unvarying and the varying] jjfj~, has been studied exhaustively by
Ferenc Tokei, Genre Theory in China, pp. 135-163. Liu Hsieh was himself a Bud-
dhist, and a great deal of Buddhist ontology worked its way into the Literary Mind.
He explicitly mentions prajfiii ("transcendental wisdom") in Chapter 18, and
186
Pages 38-41 Notes
there are many other evidences of Buddhist philosophical underpinnings, as has

been demonstrated by Leei Shih, Wen-hsin tiao-lungyuan-taoyii Fo-tao shu-cheng (A
comparative study). But Liu's understanding of pien is strictly classical and is
founded squarely on its usage in the "Appended Explanations" of the Book of
Change. Hence, when he speaks of pien-wen chih shu ~ xz IDt ("the art/technique
by which a literary work is rendered an [individual] variant [of the genre, t'i
!If]"), there is no question of wholly new transformational creation in the Indian
sense but only of modification of a pre-existent entity. This is in conformity with
our expectations of the general level of understanding of Buddhist notions of trans-
formation in China even so late as this period. It would seem that other Buddhist
concepts, such as "emptiness" (fiinyatii), "extinction" (niruii(la), and so on, were
more easily comprehended because there were similar Taoist concepts (wu m,
absorption into the Tao 31;[, etc.). This also helps to account for the persistent
Chinese interpretation of Buddhist pien as "strange" until well into the T'ang
period and, in many cases, even after that time.
In a letter to Hui-sheng ~li:~ 1}, the T'ang literary critic Ssu-k'ung T'u
1§'] Qml] (837 -908) also juxtaposed the graphs pien and wen. Read in context, how-
ever, we see that he was actually discussing a "change in the quality of writing"
~X~ since the time of the sages. He was not referring to transformation texts.
Ch'in-ting ch'iian Tang wen, Vol. 163, 807.6a. Called to my attention by Andrew
Jones.
24. "Tu T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," p. 381.
25. "Kuan-yii pien-wen te t'i-ming," pp. 196-197, 214-215.
26. "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," pp. 310-312. .
27. A. N. Zhclokhovtsev and Yu L. Krol', "Ob Etimologii i Znachenii Ter-
mina Byanven'," especially pp. 141-142.
28. "The K'uai-t'i," pp. 113-114.
29. Jigoku-hen, p. 150.
30. H. C. Chang, Chinese Literature, p. 23.
31. Shao Hung, Tun-huang shih-shih chiang-ching-wen yen-chiu, p. 1 of the
English summary.
32. E.g. Chen Tsu-lung, La uie ei les oeuvres, p. 57; Li-li Ch'en, "Pien-wen
Chan tefable."
33. As cited by Prusek, "Researches into the Beginning of the Popular
Chinese Novel," p. 104nl.
34. Ballads and Stories, p. 246.
35. Ancient Buddhism in Japan I, 328.
36. "Dans en ecran de radar," pp. 482ff.
37. Li-tai ming-hua chi, p. 60.
38. Some Tang and Pre- Tang Texts on Chinese Painting I, 257n3.
39. Chou 1-liang, "Tu T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," pp. 380-381. Those who
would agree with Chou include Tanaka Ichimatsu, Emakimono, p. 3, and Kuan
Te-tung, "Lueh shuo 'pien' tzu te lai-yuan," p. 2.
40. "Tun-huang Texts," p. 186. The French equivalents may be found in
"Les debuts," p. 569: "les 'scenes,"' "les 'scenes' litteraires," and "les 'scenes'
187
Notes Pages 41-43
figurees." Demieville's remarks on this subject in his review article "Manuscrits

chinois de Touen-houang a Leningrad," p. 373nl, are also helpful: "Men'sikov
( [Byan'ven' o Veimotsze,] p. 28, n. 50) incline a adopter !'interpretation de Souen
K'ai-ti: pien, '(evenement] insolite, miraculeux,' qui me parait tres discutable; mes
propres recherches sur l'emploi de ce terme dans uncertain nombre de contextes
varies m'ont conduit a le traduire simplement par 'scene.' Je suis par contre
d'accord pour reconnaitre avec Men'sikov (pp. 23-24) que Ia forme de chante-
fable (prose et verse), qui devait connaitre une telle fortune en Chine, est un
emprunt a l'lnde a travers les traductions de textes bouddhiques." Demieville's
fullest remarks on the meaning of pien, probably the most perceptive statements
on the subject to date, may be found in his review of Men'shikov and Zograf,
Bjan'ven' o vozdaijanii, pp. 166-169. Knechtges shows his usual good sense by
endorsing them in his review ofjenner, Memories of Loyang, p. 348.
41. Einfiihrung, p. 76.
42. Bukkyo no bijutsu oyobi rekishi, pp. 866ff.
43. "Zokko to henbun," pp. 427, 429.
44. "Hen to henbun," p. 224.
45. Cited in Hsiang Ta, "Kuan-yii 'Su-chiang k'ao' tsai shuo chi chii hua fu-
chi.''
46. Chou 1-liang, "Tun-huang pi-hua yii Fo-ching," p. 105.
47. See my "Records ofTransformation Tableaux."
48. Bukkyo daijiten, 5.4534c-4535a.
49. Or "characteristic mark or distinguishing sign (nimittam or lak~aiJa) made
apparent through transformation." There are good grounds for this assertion in
the earliest available textual references to pien as pictorial representation of Bud-
dhist subjects. See my "Records ofTransformation Tableaux."
50. The Sanskrit equivalent of mam pa(r) by itself is iikiira ("outward ap-
pearance" "shape," "form"). Cf. Tibetan los-skui rmim-par "gyur-ba ("to appear
in a misty form"). Seejaschke, Dictionary, p. 313b, no. 5.
51. "Tu pien-wen tsa-chih," TCC, pp. 61-64.
52. The Chinese Knight-Errant, pp. 100, 210-211.
53. Chung-kuo wen-hsueh fa-chan shih, Vol. II, "Pien-wen te lai-yuan [The
origins ofpien-wen]" ~3ttB*mi, p. 395.
54. "Urban Centers," p. 262. Prusek may be relying here on the interpretation
of Sun K'ai-ti, for which see above at note 51. Earlier, however, Prusek followed
Pelliot closely when he referred to pien-wen as "changed texts." See "The Narrators
ofBuddhist Scriptures,'' p. 378.
55. See T(2122) 53.530a-533a and 769a.
56. Sun erroneously cites a passage from the biography ofFan Sui mllfE~ in
the 79th fascicle of the Records of the Grand Historian. As Sun himself admits, 1U] :lR
l:ffPJ~? means no more than "What is going on (i.e., What change is there) east
of the passes?" There need be no mention of "strangeness" in this case. It is
doubtful whether pien in such late first-century productions as Pan Ku's (32-
92) Universal Discussions at White Tiger Lodge (Pai-hu t'ung-i ~ J}E. 3iU~ A.D. 79,
188
Pages 43-47 Notes
BSS, 6.221) and Chang Heng's 5l~ (78-139) "Rhapsody on the Western
Capital" (Hsi-ching fu iffi}j(I!Ji\:, A.D. 107, Wen-hsuan, 2.5b) really meant ch'i {if
("strange"), although T'ang commentators occasionally offered such an inter-
pretation. At this early period in the Buddhist-influenced evolution of the word,
it is unlikely that pien meant much more than "unusual."
57. See Mair, "Ontological Presuppositions."
58. T(2060)50.658a; cf. T(2064)50.974c.
59. Sec, for example, the vocabularies in the backs of the individual volumes
of James Legge's The Chinese Classics. The Great Chung Hwa Dictionary of Single
Characters lists 28 meanings for pien, only 2 of which (numbers 8 and 13) may show
some Buddhist influence and none of which are suitable as explanations for the
pien of pien-wen or pien-hsiang. See Chung-hua ta t;:u-tien, p. 2375.3-2376.1 (shen
213.3-214.1).
60. Joseph Needham, Science and Civilisation II, 220n7.
61. Peking: Chung Hwa Book Co., 1954.
62. Candid Questions in the Inner Classic of the Yellow Sovereign in 1-pu ch'iian-lu
[Complete corpus of medical texts] Uf:tllii~:~ ed. (Peking: People's Hygiene
Press, 1956).
63. The Theoretical Foundations of Chinese Medicine, pp. 15-16.
64. Science and Civilisation II, 74ff. The quotation is from p. 74.
65. James Legge, tr., Z. D. Sung, ed., The Text of Yi King, p. 345.
66. P'ang P'u, ed., Kung-sun lung-tzu, pp. 26ff.
67. Han shu, 61.510b.
68. China in Central Asia, p. 225 and note 852.
69. Watson, pp. 195-196; Chinese text in A Concordance to Chuang Tzu, pp. 47-
48 ( 18.41-46). Isabelle Robinet, "Metamorphosis and Deliverance," thoroughly
documents my contention that the early Taoist concept of pien-hua presented no
ontological discontinuities. Jing Wang, "The Mythology of Stone," section 2
("Nii-kua and Stone") collects passages from several early texts that refer to the
ability of the goddess N ii-wa to create through metamorphosis (hua 1t). All of
the texts cited are products of Han redaction and none are entirely free of prob-
able or at least possible Indian contamination. Even if they are free of such in-
fluence, the metamorphoses described are not the nirmii(la-type transformations
from nothing or from mind specified by Buddhist pien.
70. See, for example, Chu-t;:uyii-lei, 75.9b (p. 3078): "To evolve is to begin
gradually to change; the point at which there is division [i.e., when the evolving
thing becomes something else-note Chu Hsi's use of ch'u as a sequence marker]
is transformation." {t;!!ill\liill\li.~lm$;; :il\lf!ll!!;{il!R::~. Cf. P2940, a commentary
on an unspecified Buddhist text by an unknown author, where the term pien-i
~~ is explained as follows: "pien means 'change', i means 'vary"' ~~[)$(~.
~ ;f!~ ~. D48, an original Chinese Buddhist text on supreme bodhi or enlighten-
ment (ta-chueh :k!Jit), defines pien-hua as "the constant of heaven and earth"
z
fJ!Ht ;f! ::R :tt£ 'if,".
189
Notes Pages 47-49
71. Wang ru-ch'eng chi chien-chu II, 375-378. First cited by Jao Tsung-i in
"Ts'ung 'Shan pien' lun pien-wen," p. 635. Wang also has a "Eulogy on a Trans-
formation Painting of a Western Paradise, with Preface" fl!L1J~Itm:f:f:Ff. Wang
ru-ch'eng chi chien-chu, pp. 367-372.
72. Modified slightly from Legge, The Text ofri King, p. 278. Wang cites only
the four Chinese graphs I have given. There is no point in referring to T'ang or
other commentators of the Book of Change on this passage for they were not, like
Wang Wei, engaged in a discussion ofpien as it occurs in the expressions pien-hsiang
or pien-wen.
73. ~ 5C ::E fili, Han shu, p. 452c. This in turn may be traced back to the Records
of Ritual: "The flesh and bones revert to the soil-that is one's allotted span. As
for the vital energy of the soul, it reaches everywhere, it reaches everywhere." Li
chi, in Shih-san eking chu-shu, l0.19b (p. 195a).
74. Paunar-bhauiki.
75. ~marga.
76. Cf. t!>-lltR milrtimat (incarnate).
77. Afraya-pariurtti.
78. The six conditions of sentient existence which one· must transcend to
achieve holy rebirth. They are existence in one of the hells, as a hungry ghost, as
an animal, as a malevolent native spirit, as a human, or as a deva (celestial).
79. For an elaborate demonstration of this meaning of pien in titles of paint-
ings, see my "Records of Transformation Tableaux." It is not surprising that
Wang Wei would be unable to deal with Sanskrit terminology directly. As van
Gulik has forcefully demonstrated in Siddham, even learned Chinese Buddhist
monks (except for a very few rare individuals who had been to India) were not
conversant with Indic languages. Translations from Sanskrit and Pali were done
almost exclusively by Indian or Central Asian monks, often working with Chinese
collaborators who were responsible for the final product.
80. Chinese Popular Fiction in Two London Libraries, p. 20. Other scholars,
including Nomura Yosho, "Tonko henbun ni miru Daiba-bon no keitai,"
p. 308, have accepted pien as meaning essentially shen-pien; no one, to the best of
my knowledge, has demonstrated this identification by reference to specific
texts.
81. Transformation of Buddhism, pp. 25, 252; Buddhism in China, pp. 287-290;
"Filial Piety in Chinese Buddhism," p. 91. H. G. Quaritch Wales gives the same
rendering in his The Indiani;:,ation of China, p. 83.
82. "Pien-wen Chantefable," p. 256n5.
83. Preface to Basil Gray, Buddhist Cave Paintings, p. 14.
84. Tun-huang pien-wen hui-lu, p. x.
85. "Tu T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," pp. 381-383. In one of his later state-
ments on the subject, Sun K'ai-ti also seems to have accepted that the pien ofpien-
wen'derived from shen-pien Cf. "Tu pien-wen erh tse," in LWL, pp. 239ff.
86. Tun-huang pien-wen hui-lu, preface, pp. x-xi.
87. "Kuan-yii p'o-mo pien-wen," p. 13.
88. BHS, p. 392b. Nakamura, Bukkyogo daijiten, p. 1215b, says that pratihiirya
190
Pages 49-53 Notes
(also written as ~1t or ~ffl, in Chinese) are transformational appearances. They

are the miracles by which the Buddha ravishes the spirits of men in order to
convert them.
89. BHS, p. 151.
90. Nakamura, p. 795bc, and Mochizuki, pp. 2090b-209la.
91. We should also bear in mind, when we discuss later the rapprochement of
Buddhism and Manichaeism during the T'ang period and the possible effect this
had on storytelling with pictures, that the Manichaeans borrowed heavily from
Buddhist notions of transformational manifestation. See, for example, Chavannes
and Pelliot, "Un traite manicheen," pp. 608, col. 3-11, and p. 553: "grace a sa
penetration surnaturelle, produit par transformation la liberte d'etre invisible ou
m
visible." iii$ 3m [abhijna] ~ 1tll@ 13 tE.
92. Tr. Sanghavara (?). T(2043)50.134b.
93. IJ.ddhy (-abhisan;zskara); anubhava; prabhava; abhiJnana.
94. RaJa-haTJISa.
95. "A Study of the Sviigat~ Story," HJAS, pp. 298-299n233. Cf. Unrai
Wogihara, Bodhisattvabhiimi, pp. 58-63 and T(1579)30.49lc-493.
96. T(176)3.443c.
97. Cowell and Neil, ed., p. 192, 1.8, p. 313, 1.15: "acuprithagjanasya riddhir
avarjanakarf;" p. 133, 1.9: "acu prithagjanavarjanakarf riddhir. Quoted by Ch'en,
Chinese Transformation, p. 272.
98. T(262)9.60a.
99. T(2088) 51.954c-955a.
100. Blofeld, Bodhisattva of Compassion, pp. 139-140. Blofeld's transcriptions of
Chinese and Sanskrit have not been normalized.
1.01. Wang Chi-Ian, Chung-kuo min-chien i-shu, pp. 196ff.
102. T(2040)50.65b. This text was written by Seng-yu fi{t (fl. 482-518).
The same passage also speaks of "manifesting" (hsien ffl,) a "transformation"
(pien) and Raudriik~a is said to be good at "illusionism" (huan-shu :!G~j). Another
passage in the same text ( T50.8lc) says of a blind musician who played a stringed
*
instrument that he possessed extraordinary ability as an entertainer {illlr;+~
{5Z ~ 3!$~. The mention of"sixty-four entertainers' transformations" indicates
that, by the time of Seng-yu, pien had already acquired the meaning of "tech-
nique" or "trick."
103. T383.13 and 15, 386.16, 388.5, etc.
104. T(2122)53.592a.
I 05. This is a precise rendering of Sanskrit nir- ~' "to make [manifest
through] transformation." Nakamura, p. l215c.
106. Pratiharya, "to [make] manifest through transformation." The entire
complex of Buddhist technical terms dealing with transformational manifestation
(pien ~' hsiang ;j:§, hsien ffl,, pien-hsien ~ffl,, and so forth) may be found in an
unidentified manuscript of the collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (New
York), said to date from the T' ang period. See An Exhibition of Chinese and Korean
Siitra Manuscripts from the Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth (Hong Kong: Fine
Arts Department, University of Hong Kong, 1987), no. 33 on p. 46.
191
Notes Pages 53-57
107. Cave numbers (Pelliot system) 8, 138, 74, 63, 118, 52, 167, and 149. See
J. Leroy Davidson, The Lotus Sutra in Chinese Art, p. 91 and plates 36-37.
108. MSI, Vol. III, fig. 245 (cave 2).
109. Sec Grousset, Chinese Art and Culture, p. 230. Altogether, Chin Wei-no
("Tun-huang pi-hua Ch'i-yuan chi-t'u k'ao," p. 13) lists 19 different cave-walls
at Tun-huang and in the surrounding area that depict these scenes.
110. S4257 .2 is a list of happenings that were regularly included in depictions
of the scenes where Sariputra causes the wind to blow down Raudrak~a's canopy.
There are several errors in this list as it is printed by the editors of PekCat, p. 196:
in the 2nd, 4th, and 6th lines, lf!f should come before the commas; in the 4th line,
after~' the two characters 1!11./\ (ui) are missing; in the 6th line, the missing
character is Jl,; and in the last line }.. ( [cause] to enter) should be added after 7J\..
Ill. T(l91)3.968a.
112. Dhariini or mantra.
113. Sapta ratna.
114. Vajra.
115. The garutja.
116. That is, with the knees, elbows, and head touching the ground.
II 7. JilW-+ l1illi. ijil~ JE stands for rddhipiida or rddhi-siik$iit-kriyii.
118. Hsien-yii eking, T(202}4.420b.
119. Pp. 174-177 in the Gilgit ms. text as edited by Raniero Gnoli. Compare
with the passage from the Siitra of the Wise and the Foolish translated above on
pp. 53-55, which describes the same contest.
120. Cf. Edgerton, BHS, p. 302b.
121. See Mair, "Ontological Presuppositions."
122. Kern and Nanjio, eds., p. 8. A line from Yuan Chen's (Collected Works,
13.6b) "Poem on Great Cloud Monastery" :k~~~ reveals the close relation-
ship between exposition of the sutras and spiritual manifestation: "While listening
to the sutras, spirits appear;/ While reciting the gathas, birds gather in great
profusion."
123. T(263)9.63c.
124. Kato eta!., trs., The Threifold LotusSutra, p. 34. Hurvitz's rendering (Scrip-
ture if the Lotus Blossom if the Fine Dharma, p. 4) of Kumarajiva is "Now ... the
World-Honored One has shown these extraordinary signs .... "
125. T(262)9.2b.
126. T(264)9.135c.
127. Kern, tr., Saddharma-PurJ{iarfka, p. 263.
128. Kern and Nanjio, cds., p. 276, line 6. .
129. See Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary, pp. 525bc, 568bc.
130. T(262)9.37a. The translation of Dharmagupta and Jiianagupta,
T(264) 9.171 c, follows Kumarajiva verbatim. Dharmarak~a's earlier paraphrase,
T(263) 9.1 07b, is "Do not gather in the same place with singers and actors" ::f' ~
l[X~~Ililt~WI'Il'UJ.l!E.
131. There is some question about the relationship between the first group of
3 characters and the second of6. I take it to be essentially genitive.
192
Pages 57-62 Notes
132. BHS, p. 289a.

133. Bendall, cd., 9ikshiisamuccaya, p. 126, lines 3-4; Bendall and Rouse, trs.,
Sikshii-samuccaya, p. 125.
134. See Mair, "The Buddhist Tradition of Prosimetric Oral Narrative in
Chinese Literature."
135. Yang Hsuan-chih, Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi chiao-chu, p. 271; Ch'ung-k'an Lo-
yang ch'ieh-lan chi, 5.39b-40a; Iriya, tr., Rakuyi5 garan ki, p. 97ab; Jenner, tr.,
Memoirs rif Loyang, p. 257.
136. The so-called "Demon of Havoc."
137. Wu Ch'eng-en, Hsi-yu chi, Vol. I, Chapter 2, p. 22; Waley, tr., p. 30
(cited); Anthony Yu, tr., I, 97. Cf. also Wu, Chapter 4, p. 43; Waley, p. 49; Yu,
p. 128 and Wu, Chapter 7, p. 71; Waley, p. 73; Yu, p. 169.
138. See Mair, "The Buddhist Tradition of Prosimetric Oral Narrative in
Chinese Literature."
139. "Some Questions Connected with Tun-huang pien-wen," p. 222.
Kanaoka, "On the Word 'Pien,"' p. 21, also seems to accept this identification.
But his explanation that this has to do with something "changing itself" or being
"transitory" is not convincing.
140. Ingalls, "Sanskrit Poetry," p. 11.
141. "Lueh shuo 'pien' tzu te lai-yua.n," pp. 2-3.
142. A History of Chinese Darma, p. 11.
143. "Gakujutsu to bungaku," pp. 246b-247a.
144. Shina bungakugairon, p. 357.
145. It will be noticed that I have not spoken against Kuan's assertion of an
exchange between the two labials p and m.
146. Such as I carry out in my article "Records ofTransformation Tableaux
(pien-hsiang)." In Chapters 4 and 6, below, I shall justify my assertion that pien
may refer to pictorial representation and that pien-hsiang may legitimately be
rendered as "transformation tableau."
I47. See Chapters 4 and 5 ofMair, Painting and Peiformance.
I 48. Bhadramiiyiikiiraoyiikaral)a, p. I I.
149. See K'ai-yuan lu [Catalogue of Buddhist texts from the Epochal Begin-
ning reign period] f#:1:7[;~, T(2I54)55.567c.
ISO. T(I45l,ch.l7)24.283ab.
151. ij\1~~ usually translates Sanskrit rddhi[-sampad]; Tib. rdsu &phrul. See
Nakamura, Bukkyogo daijiten, p. 794b. For a most detailed explanation of what ta
shen-pien is, sec the section of the Ratnakiita which deals with its various types and
subdivisions, T(310) 11.492b-50lb. Cf. also mahiinimittaT{l-priitihiiryaT{l ~~;ffl.
Nakamura, Bukkyogo daijiten, p. 795c.
152. See the volumes of the Gilgit manuscripts edited by Nalinaksha Dutt.
153. Yuyama, Systematische Obersicht, pp. 24-28.
154. 'Dul-ba phran-tshegs-kyi gzi, tr. by Vidyakaraprabha, Dharmasriprabha,
Dhar-'byor (Derge text no. 6).
155. Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. III, part 2, p. iii, and Vogel, The Teachings
of the Six Heretics, p. 4. Vogel states that the terminus ante quem for the Gilgit manu-
193
Notes Pages 62-67
scripts of the Mulasarviistiviidavinaya is based on the certain palaeographical evi-

dence of their being written in Gupta characters of the sixth century. The terminus
post quem is to be found on fol. 342a (see Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. III, part 1,
p. 2.3) where the Ku~ana King Kani~ka (fl. 78-103?) is mentioned. Cf. Basham,
Papers on the Date of Kani~ka, pp. 432-435.
156. Vol. tha, p. 225b.3.
157. See Das, Tibetan-English Dictionary, p. 426b: rdsu-l)phrul-gyi cho-l}phrul
[rddhipriitihiirya] "magical and miraculous exhibitions," and Jiischke, Tibetan-
English Dictionary, p. 161 b: "magical trick,jugglery." Cf. my discussion ofSaubhika
in Chapter 1 of Painting and Performance.
158. Derge, text no. 6, Vol. tha, p. 225b.5. See Das, p. 1169b, and Jiischke,
pp. 524b-525a. Masatoshi Nagatomi (conversation of22 Aprill982) appreciably
sharpened my understanding of the key word rabs by explaining that it can mean
"succession, development, generation; membership in a family or category."
Hence we may interpret dmyal-bal)ai-rabs as "that which belongs to the hell
category" or "that which belongs to the tradition of/about hell." Probably the
most natural approximation in English would be "Account of Hell" (Cf. a
hypothetical Chinese :ttl!~{$).
160. Monier-Williams, pp. 396-397, and Wogihara, pp. 472-473.
161. "Kuan-yii 'Su-chiang k'ao'."
163. See especially Chapter 4.
164. Horner's note 3 says that "ko!{haka is a word of unsettled meaning." She
cites the Ca{avaggavarp)anii to the effect that this is a long house of seven stories
with a porch (or storehouse) at the gateway. See Samantapiisiidikii, ed. Takakusu
and Nagai, VI, 1221. In Tamil, kol{haka means a "porch" or "canopy-like
construction."
165. Horner, tr., Book of Discipline V, 223; Oldenburg, ed., The Vinaya
Pi(akaT{l II, 159. Cf. the less elaborate description in The Jiitaka, ed. Fausb0ll I,
92-93; T. W. Rhys Davids, tr., Buddhist Birth Stories I, 131-132.
166. Barhut I, 92-93.
167. T(1442)23.8llab.
168. Cowell and Neil, eds., pp. 300-301.
169. See Chapter 1 ofMair, Painting and Performance.
I 70. Ibid., Chapter 2.
l 71. Essence and Development, p. 18b.
172. Regamey, p. 12.
173. P. 7.
174. T(324) 12.3la-37a.
175. T(310[21])11.486b-492b.
176. See Leumann, Das nordarische Lehrgedicht, Chapter 2, and Emmerick, The
Book of .<:,ambasta, Chapter 2.
177. Regamey, pp. 70-71, § 18. In the Chinese versions I and 2, these words
for magic are all rendered as various types of illusion }r.J.
194
Pages 67-69 Notes
178. Regamey, p. 100. I here list several lines of the Bhadramiiyiikiiravyiikaral)a,

together with the corresponding Chinese versions, where they exist, that have a
bearing on our present study.
A description of the Buddha says that he was "possessed of supernatural

faculties (p. 55 §1, line 4)." Chinese 2 %f:kiil$3ml!IHJ'l E1 :tE.
A list of the various types of miraculous powers (priitihiirya) with which the
Buddha is endowed (p. 57 §3, lines 12-13). Ch. 1 refers to them as ~1-t;
Ch. 2 as iii$~.
Buddha speaks of "the essence of [his] magic"; Tib. sgyu-ma'i chos-iiid

z
=Skt. miiyiidharmatii (p. 65 §9, line 19). Cf. 1 :fG f*; Ch. 2 :fG~j f*.
The Bodhisattva Prabhavyiiha says: "[All is] void like the magic of the mind
(p. 72 §25, line 3)." Ch. 1 pfr;fiiO:#~; Ch. 2 ff:KH,,J5fr:f.!l,.
"This arrangement" vyiiha (p. 72 §24, lines 2-3). Ch. 1 (312c) unexpectedly
has Jl:t1t instead of jf_Em;;. Bhadra asks how one who has seen the "magical
transformations" of the Buddha can avoid thinking of Enlightenment (p. 77
§41); Tib. rnampar 'phrul-ba 'di-'dra (p. 33); Ch. 2 iii$~.
"Had created such an arrangement (p. 66 § 12, line 1) "; Tib. bkod-pa [ vyiiha]
de-lta-bursprul (p. 25). Ch. 1 f'f~1tB; Ch. 21-tf'f~B.
"Created (p. 67 §12, line 7)"; Tib. mnan-par sprul-to (p. 26). Ch. 1 1tf'f;
Ch. 2 ~ffl.. Words for "create" occur several other times in the following
Tibetan passage (§13). They are rendered in Chinese by expressions such as
those already indicated. It is clear that Buddhist Chinese 1:J!! and 1t imply
creativity.
179. Bhikku Nii.Qananda, Magic tifthe Mind.
180. Conze, tr., Buddhist Scriptures, pp. 122-129. Cf. Lamotte, La traite de la
grand vertu de sagesse IV, 1982-1984.
181. Buddhism: Its Essence and Development, p. 172.
182. For further discussion of these and related terms, see my "Ontological
Presuppositions" and cf. above in this chapter at pp. 49ff.
183. A temple was built at this spot near Wenchow t'liUH in the province of
Chekiang sometime between 860 and 873.
184. Literally, "five-colors," Skt. paiica-uarl)a, paiica klima, paiica riipa, etc. The
five colors have various symbolic meanings in Buddhism (SH p. 125b).
185. Literally, "seven jewels," Skt. sapta ratna (SH, pp. 11 b-12a).
186. In Ch'en Yuan-lung, comp., Tu-ting li-taifu hui II, 148la (106.29a-30b).
187. "Two Final Consonant Clusters in Archaic Tibetan," p. 88. The cog-
nation between the two words is obscured by the peculiar spelling habits of
Tibetan.
188. "Ensemble semantique," especially pp. 418, note 21 on that page, and
421-422.
195
Notes Pages 70-72
189. Stein compares this expression to Chinese tsao-hua ~{t (make-transform)

which connotes magic, supernatural, illusory creation. For full entries on 1ju-
'phrul, see Das, Tibetan-English Dictionary, pp. 1058b-1059a, andjiischke, Tibetan-
English Dictionary, pp. 360ab, 468b-469a.
190. In Emmerick's Tibetan Texts Concerning Khotan, we often encounter cho-
'phrul (e.g. p. 6) and lju-'phrul (e.g. p. 52) in the sense of "miracle." But even more
interesting for our purposes is the occurrence of sprul-pahi (p. 87 [thrice], Sanskrit
nirmita, cf. sprul-ba ["to be transformed (into)," "appear miraculously (as)," see
Emmerick, p. 138] and sprul-pa "an apparition, transformation").
191. P. 417n21. As an addendum to this note, I should like to draw attention
to another Tibetan word that may have some bearing on pien-wen and pien-hsiang.
On P(Tib.) 1293v, there are scenes from the Sariputra transformation. Three
times the word 'l!Yen (following the transliteration of Imaeda Yoshiro A,;tiZ
El3 ili~ injao, eta!., Peintures monochromes, p. 38) occurs in the Tibetan inscription.
Though its meaning has not been determined, it is supposedly a transcrip-
tion from Chinese. Could this perhaps be meant as a medieval transcription of
pien?
192. Ku Yeh-wang, [ Ta-kuang i-hui]yii-p'ien, 5.6a; Hsing-chiin, Lung-k' an shou-
chien, 1.64b; Han Tao-chao, Wu:Yin lei-chii ssu-sheng p'ien-hai, 10.2ab. Also see
K'ang-hsi tz;u-tien and Morohashi, Dai Kan-Wajiten. It should be noted that the
second-named work, written by a monk of the Liao period, is particularly valu-
able for explaining unusual Buddhist words. Cf. my discussion of the historical
relationship between pien and optical phenomena in the introduction to Painting
and Performance and in the various notes given there.
193. Information culled from D. N. MacKenzie, Buddhist Sogdian Texts, pp. 119
and 147; Henning, Sogdica, pp. 17 and 21; D. N. MacKenzie, The 'Siitra rif the
Causes and Effects,' pp. 28-29 ( 11.500 and 502) and 64; llya Gershevitch, A Gram-
mar rif Manichaean Sogdian, p. 86 (no. 549); studies by Benveniste and Weller; and
my own examination of Chinese texts against their Sogdian equivalents.
194. Lane, Lexicon, Book I, part 4, p. l559a.
195. Jacob, "Zur Geschichte des Schattenspiels," p. 234, citing a footnote from
Quatremiere's translation ofal-Maqrizi, Histoire I, 152-153. Cf. Lane, Lexicon,
Book I, part 2, p. 835c, and Metin And, Karagoz, p. 22.
196. See Mair, Painting and Performance, beginning pages of Chapter 3.
197. Among other places where I touch on the frequent linkage between pien
and optics, see the discussion of shadow-plays in "Contributions" and Painting and
Performance, passim, but especially the chapter on Indonesia.
198. In Hopei.
199. Also in Hopei.
200. "Buddha" images were also worshiped later by various Manichaean
sects.
201. ~1iib 1±1 i!t, Skt. Maitreya-utpiida (the appearance ofMaitreya).
202. Skt. paunar-bhaviki or Pali pubbeniviisa.
203. Sui shu, 23.2417c.
196
Pages 73-76 Notes
CHAPTER FOUR
1. For this part of the formula, see T90.4, 373.4, etc.

2. For the T'ang colloquial interrogative use of jo-wei, cf. Nakamura,
Bukkyogo daijiten, p. 1055a.
3. The bracketed parts of the question in Chinese, though not always sup-
plied, are usually implied. I have given the known variations of the formula in
the appendix to my Tun-huang Popular Narratives.
4. This finding is of such importance that a full and detailed exposition of
the Indological evidence is provided in the 5th chapter of my Painting and Per-
formance. A summary of the more important points may be found in the "Note
on the Indian Hypothesis" to be found at the end of this chapter.
5. "Kegon engi no setsuwa," p. 20a. Kawaguchi refers to the wall-painting
as a transformation tableau on the eight aspects of achieving the Way ;\;j{j)j)(jf[
~;f§, but I did not see this title during my visits.
6. Kwang-chih Chang reported to me several years earlier that he had seen
the same inscription.
7. On the north wall of the same cave, at the bottom of a panel showing
events in the Buddha's life, there is an inscription that only superficially resembles
the formulaic usage I have been describing: "In those foothills, [he] hunted for
ra,
a level place." JnW£ Ill it ;J< zp: IE y!g. Beyond it, there is another similar inscrip-
tion: "Wishing to seek quiet, he suddenly saw a place." ~;J<IJjit~Jt/Ji!.y!g. In
neither of these instances does ch'u function in the formulaic sense under discus-
sion. It means, rather, quite literally a topographical location.
8. Recorded and discussed in Sun Hsiu-shen, "Bakukokutsu no engi
setsuwaga," p. 236.
9. Kuo Wei-ch'ii, Chung-kuo pan-hua shih-lueh, p. 25.
10. In the collection ofBaron Iwasaki Koyata ;!5ilf.jtj,5fffj:. See Matsumoto
Yeiichi, "Hokekyo bijutsu-Hokekyo hensohen," Kokka 428: 175-184 Ou1y 1926).
11. Kadokawa shoten, ed., Kegon engi, pp. 48-59.
12. This use of the word tokoro in the Kegon engi emaki was first pointed out for
students of popular literature by Kawaguchi Hisao, "Tonko hen bun no seikaku,"
p. 33. Barbara Ruch referred me to Kawaguchi's article.
13. This scroll has been studied by Miya Tsugio, "Mokuren kyiibo setsuwa
to sono eiga." My remarks here are based on a reading of his article and observa-
tion of the photographs that accompany it.
14. I have also noticed on the scroll mention of the 5th month of 1304.
15. In the introduction to Painting and Peiformance and elsewhere, I posit an
evolutionary connection between pien-wen and p'ing-hua.
16. In Kindai Nihon bungaku taikei [Outline of modern Japanese literature]
lli:~ 13 ;;!;:)(~:;!(* (Tokyo: Kokumin tosho, 1928) I, 171-226.
17. I am indebted to Margaret Childs for this information. For other evidence
that this story of the seven nuns was derived from an etoki performance, see her
"Religious Awakening Stories," Chapter 3, part 1.
197
Notes Pages 76-81
18. Suzuki Kei and Akiyama Terukazu., Chiigoku bijitsu, Vol. I, pl. 12.
19. S5600, a booklet of explanatory notes on Buddhist terms, comments on
pien, hua {t, and ch'u together.
21. Nihon daijiten kank6-kai, ed., Nihon kokugo daijiten XIV, 624d.
22. Gabelentz, Elemens de la grammaire Mandchoue, pp. 128ff, esp. section
261.
23. Chu-t;::u yii-lei. For a discussion of related usages, see Gerty Kallgren,
"Studies in Sung Time Colloquial Chinese," p. 43. Kallgrcn mentions that "Chu
Hsi often uses ch'u in the sense of «passage» (in a book or a demonstration ... )."
24. This is documented through a wealth of citations by Wang Ying, Shih tz;'u
ch'iiyii-tz;'u li-shih, pp. 23-24. Among·thc early poets cited are Tu Fu ,j:±ffi (712-
770), Liu Ch'ang-ch'ing \i'iiJ:l~JM (709-785?), Ku K'uang ~/£ (725-820?), Yuan
Chen 5[:fli: (779-831), and Li Shang-yin $fi'ij~ (813-858).
25. The latest possible terminus ad quem is A.D. 800; the terminus a quo is about
the middle of the seventh century. See Bendall, pp. v-vi.
26. Both cited by Edgerton, BHS, p. 486b.
27. Bendall and Rouse, pp. I 76. I I, 221.30-~ I; Bendall, pp. 180.4, 236.2-3;
T(l636)32.l!Oc.25f., 122b.7ff.
28. Sec T(I590)3!.74ff; also Clarence Hamilton, Wei shih er shih lun and
Levi, Vijfiaptimiitratiisiddhi, passim. Shih ("time") is also prominent in this short
text. I am indebted to an anonymous reviewer for this reference.
29. Chuan is particularly noteworthy, since it may refer to the style of delivery
of the verse portion. For a discussion of this term in the context ofpien storytelling,
sec notes 35 and 40 to Chapter 6.
30. For a fuller analysis and translations, sec the appendix to my Tun-huang
Popular Narratives.
31. Hirano Kensh6, "Bcppon taishi j6d6 hen bun ni tsui tc."
32. Ibid., pp. 44, 54.
33. In cave 92 (Tun-huang Institute no. 85; dating from the late T'ang), I
saw many cartouches ending in shih and, interspersed among them, a few ending
in ch'u.
34. See my paper entitled "India and China: Observations on Cultural
Borrowing."
35. SH, p. 408b.
36. Hsieh Chih-liu, Tun-huang i-shu hsu-lu, p. 43 I b.
37. Other inscriptions ending in shih on Tun-huang wall-paintings listed by
Hsieh Chih-Iiu, Tun-huang i-shu hsu-lu are: p. 103b, cave 47 cast side, 6th inscrip-
tion, T'ang period during the Tibetan occupation; p. IOSa, same cave, west side,
13th inscription; p. 105b, same cave, north side, 7th inscription. I have seen
hundreds of this type of inscription during my visits to Tun-huang. Michel
Soymie, in his "Un rccucil d'inscriptions sur pcintures," has published and trans-
lated (pp. 194-203) an interesting text (P3304v) that consists of 60 cartouche-
lcngth inscriptions of the Sariputra story (cf. the first text in my Tun-huang Popular
Narratives), all of which end with shift ll;f. He interprets this marker as "moment"
198
Pages 81-84 Notes
or "episode" and explains that it clearly links the text to illustrations (pp. 177-
179). Also see my discussion of S4527 on p. 83.
38. Sec Akiyama, "Tonko ni okeru hcnbun to kaiga," p. 439.
39. Ibid., pp. 444-445; also see Chin Wei-no, "Ch'i-yuan chi-t'u," pp. 34-
35.
40. This is transposed to the beginning of the translations.
41. That is, an image of the Buddha. Sec Morohashi, Vol. XI, 40152.624,
which gives references to similar stories that arc recorded in the dynastic histories.
42. Reading J::. ~ ~. Other. possible reconstructions are ta [~~~h-~~?]
ll!J
J::. ~ (Indoscythia) and ta [lffz.a-~~?] J::. [!] ~ (Bactriana).
43. Recorded in Hsieh Chih-liu, Tun-huang i-shu hsu-lu, p. 188b.
44. Recorded in Shih Yai, Tun-huang shih-shih hua-hsiang t'i-chih, p. 73ab.
45. This has been reproduced many times, most recently as pl. 61 in the Ts'ai-
se Chung-hua ming-hua chi-lan. One of the earliest reproductions is Matsumoto,
Tonko-ga no kenkyii, LXXVIa. It is beautifully presented in Suzuki Kei and
Akiyama Terukazu, Chiigoku bijutsu, pl. 70. See also ibid, pl. 71, for a ninth-
century banner with four scenes and empty cartouchcs. C( Aurcl Stein, The
Thousand Buddhas, plates XII, XXVI, and XXX.
46. Cf. tasyii1{l veliiyiim.
47. Kumiirariija, the Buddha-to-be.
48. Hetupratyaya.
49. Visited in August 1985.
50. Otani Kozui, Saiiki kOko zuju, Vol. I, pl. 45.3. Yiiki Somci, Saiiki ga, Vol.
XIII, no. 4, shows a Central Asian painting of an elephant that is most probably
the one conjured up by Sariputra in the "Transformation on the Subduing of
Demons." The cartouchcs that describe the action thereon end with the temporal
narrative sequence marker shih.
51. See also Paul Pelliot, Grottes de Touen-houang: Garnet de notes, p. 15, fig. 22.
52. C( T301.7-8.
53. See Jao Tsong-yi and Paul Demieville, Airs de Touen-houang, pp. 29-30
(edited), 37 (comment), 128-132 (translated).
54. See the edition published by Chung-kuo ku-tien wen-hsueh ch'u-pan-shc
in 1954.
55. Barua, Barhut I, 47.
56. Ibid. II, 27,Jataka scene 45; pis. XXVIII.3 and LVIII in Vol. III.
57. Ibid., p. 82,Jataka scene 87; pl. XLVIII.2 in Vol. III.
58. Ibid., p. 135,Jataka scene 125; pl. XXVII.l2 in Vol. III.
59. In the illustrated Siwariitrikalpa of Mpu Tanakm'l, ed. A. Teeuw, et al.,
there are 20 scenes (Plate V, Series 1646, 49-formcrly in the possession of Mr.
L. van dcr Wilk ofHaarlem). Five of the accompanying superscriptions include
the Balinese word for "place" (gnah [ipune]?). This usage is not exactly the same
as that of ch'u in Tun-huang pien-wen because it does not come at the end of a for-
mula and also because it refers to an actual place in the scene depicted. Neverthe-
less, it does merit our consideration, since the poem has an Indian source and also
for the more general reason that it shows the tendency for serial narrative pictures
199
Notes Pages 85-91
to use the word "place" (i.e., "locus") in inscriptions. Burmese narrative wall-
paintings often bear inscriptions and legends beginning with the word wo (this
[place]), cf. K ubyaukkyi 210: "Here, the dragon king Kala creates a likeness of
the Buddha and shows it to King Dhammasoka." Wo smih kiilaniigariij nimit rup
kyek ta!;a& smin dhammiisoka. (Shorto, Dictionary of Mon, pp. 214-215.) Note the use
of nimit ( = Pali nimmita, Sanskrit nirmita) meaning "conjure up, cause to appear,
call into being, create, assume [shape], etc." This usage ofwo brings to mind e[a
(this) as used to designate sequential episodes in the picture storytelling scene of
DiitaviikyaT[l, for which see Chapter l of my Painting and Performance.
60. Number TK-119 in Men'shikov, ed., Opisanie Kitaiskoi Chasti Kolletsii i;:.
Khara-khoto, pp. 255-256.
61. In my "Oral and Written Aspects of Chinese Siitra Lectures."
62. This is the actual title on the manuscript, S2073.
63. Cf. Mair, "Chinese Siitra Lectures."
64. Li-li Ch'en, "Pien-wen Chantefable," p. 255n2, and Master Tung's Western
Chamber Romance, p. ix.
65. Quoted in The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, p. 1491.
66. Monier-Williams, p. 818a; Bohtlingk and Roth, Sanskrit-Wiirterbuch V,
786a.
67. Cf. Das, Dictionary, p. 801.
68. Although this famous Sanskrit-Tibetan lexicon existed from approxi-
mately the ninth century, the Chinese equivalents were added at a much later
period (eighteenth century?). Furthermore, they were based on the Tibetan rather
than the Sanskrit and thus have no authenticity whatsoever for Chinese-
Sanskrit Buddhist terminology. See Sakaki, introduction to the 1916 edition, and
Demieville, p. 23, ofJao, Airs.
69. Sushilkumar De, History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 433.
70. Pai-hua wen-hsueh shih, pp. 150-153, 178. Both of Hu's two chapters
entitled "Fo-chiao te fan-i wen-hsueh" [Translated literature of Buddhism (A
and B)]" {!lfl~S3l!m~)C~ make worthwhile reading.
71. "P'i-p'an Hu Shih te Pai-hua wen-hsueh shih."
72. Is Lu thinking of t;:.'u and/or fu? On the writing ofju? Or the nebulous
.llii\
literary genre t;:.'u-fu? Or still tsa-fu (miscellaneousfu)?
73. See note 44 of Chapter 5 for a discussion of this troublesome graph.
74. "Kuan-yii pien-wen te chi-tien t'an-so." Many of Ch'eng's same basic
points are repeated in Chang Hsi-hou's recent Tun-huang Literature, pp. 66, 83.
75. Ibid., p. 82.
76. Ibid., p. 83. Liao Fu-shu, Chung-kuo ku-taiyin-:Jueh shih, p. 61, duplicates
much of the same argumentation. Of the specific "native sources" of the prosi-
metric form that he mentions, "Southeastward Flies the Peacock" :fL~*i¥i*
(which itself can by no means be certified to be free from foreign influence) has
a prose preface while the remainder is verse; Han and Wei stele inscriptions
do not even remotely resemble extended fictional narrative; and the "Ch'eng-
hsiang" Jjl(;;f§ chapter ofHsun-tzu as well as severalfu written by him are even
less deserving of serious consideration in this connection.
200
Pages 92-98 Notes
77. "Kuan-yii pien-wen te chi-tien t'an-so," p. 86.

78. Ibid., p. 85.
79. Tun-huang-hsueh kai-yao, p. 53.
80. Chung-kuo su-wen-hsueh kai-lun, p. 94.
81. "Tun-huang chiang-ch'ang wen-hsueh," p. 82.
82. Liu Hsiang ~lj [lij (77-76 B.C.), Lieh-nii chuan 71J~~ (SPPr, Vol. 1338),
1.4ab.
83. Pei-ching shih-fan ta-hsueh Chung-wen-hsi wu-shih-wu chi hsueh-sheng,
Chung-kuo min-chien wen-hsueh shih, p. 313.
84. Ibid., pp. 313-314.
85. Ch'a-t'u pen Chung-kuo wen-hsueh shih, p. 448
86. Chung-kuo su-wen-hsueh shih, I, 191.
87. Ch'a-t'u pen Chung-kuo wen-hsueh shih, p. 579.
88. Section 4 (pp. 275-293) of the title essay in HT.
89. Tun-huang pi-hua Fo-hsiang t'uyen-chiu, p. 29.
90. "The First Translations of Buddhist Siitras in Chinese Literature,"
p. 114; also seep. 133.
91. Sec also her article written with Zdenek Hrdlicka, "On the Origins of
'Narration Combined with Song,"' and Milcna Velingerova, "The Art of Chi-
nese Storytelling."
92. "Indian Literature in China," p. 125. Chi's simplified Sanskrit transcrip-
tion has not been regularized.
93. The Home if the Puppet Play, pp. 14-15.
94. That poetry was more important in the early periods and that prose
was added later has been posited by von Bradke, "Uebur das Miinava-Grhya-
Siitra," pp. 474ft'. See also Oldenberg's two important studies, "Die altindischen
Akhyana" and "Akhyana-Hymnen in l,{igveda." It is remarkable that a similar
situation seems to have obtained with regard to the early Greek epics. See Stephen
Kelly's paper "Homeric Metrics and the Nature of Greek Proto-Epic," epitome:
"The Higher levels of correption (a so-called license of Greek metrics) found in
the speeches of the Iliad and the Oqyssey reveal that the speeches in the Homeric
poems are of greater antiquity than the narrative, and that Greek proto-epic con-
sisted of versified speeches and an interstitial prose narrative." The prosimetric
form is also to be found in other literatures, for which see H. M. and N. K.
Chadwick, The Growth if Literature III, 716. But nowhere in the world has it been
so pervasive or typical as in the Indian Buddhist tradition.
95. "Original Nature ofJiitakas." The groundwork for De's study was laid
by Olden berg in his "The Prose-and-Verse Type of Narrative and theJiitakas."
96. Pre-Buddhist India, p. xxi. This sequence of development is borne out by
the Sinhalese tradition, which "asserts that during the process of translation into
the Old Sinhalese language and rctranslation into Piili of the Jiitaka{!hakathii, it
was only the prose that was open to this process; the Giithiis were preserved un-
changed in Piili." These canonical texts were transmitted orally until the time of
the Sinhalese king VagagiimaQ.I (first century B.C.) when they were first written
down.
201
Notes Pages 98- I 03
97. Ibid., p. xxii.

98. Blader, '"Yan Chasan,"' p. 87.
99. See, for example, the annotations to my Tun-huang Popular Narratives,
M223.2 and "Inventory," items 147, 296, and especially 555.
I 00. Tonkii no bungaku, p. I 96. A large number of the manuscripts found at Tun-
huang consist of or include drawings, and many of these have strong narrative
characteristics. See; for example, P2002, 2003, 2010, 4513, 2013, 2544v, 2564v,
2598v,2671v,2682,2683,2695,2702v,2723v,2868v,2869v,2870,2993v,2998,
3059, 3614, 3652v, 3666, 3882v, 3951, 4100, 4513, 4514a, 4517, 45!8b, 4518.4,
4523,,4524, 4757, 4886, 5019, 6001, PTib.1293v, S259v, 705, 1360v, 1586v,
1918v, 3961, 5407v, 5429v, 5638, 5655, 6983, 5642, S-Uighur frag. OR 12452.3
[Kao 0111], PK5883v, 3905, 1863,883, 6!10v, 685v, San621v, and D1277.
101. For a lengthy discussion of a very important inscription on this manu-
script, see "Inventory," item 207.
102. For a discussion of this contest, see Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels I,
394-395.
103. Granoff, "Scholars and Wonder-Workers."
104. In the favorite shadow-play called "Story of the White Snake" ~w:l;ii!J,
the White (Snake) Lady ~~T and the priest "Dharma-Sea" f.l;;ifjj fight each
other with magically produced demons and dragons. Some of the most delightful
episodes from the beginning of Journey to the West center around Monkey's magic
battles of transformational appearances with various heroes sent down from
heaven to subdue him. The same is true again later when Tripitaka faces off
against his Taoist enemies in Cart-Slow Country ·~~-
105. These illustrations are described in full detail by Vandier-Nicolas,
Sariputra, pp. 17-32.
106. See Akiyama Terukazu, "Miroku Kashokyohen hakubyo fun bon," p. 70.
The cartouches in cave 92 (Tun-huang Institute no. 85) are similar. Pelliot
Tibetan manuscript 1293 (cf. Lalou, lnventaire) includes several sketches for scenes
from the Siiriputra story. Even though they are sketches, one gets the impression
that they are by a more accomplished artist than the individual responsible for
P4524. It would seem that the sketches on Tib. 1293 were for a projected wall-
painting of the Sariputra story (there are many examples at Tun-huang).
107. See my translation in Tun-huang Popular Narratives.
108. Mu-lien chiu-mu ch'iian-shan hsi-wen by Cheng Chih-chen.
109. An attendant.
110. Nakanokimi's sister-in-law.
Ill. Nakanokimi's dead sister.
112. Murasaki Shikibu, tr. Seidensticker, p. 958.
113. For detailed photographs of this scene, see Kadokawa shoten hensiibu,
ed., Genji monogatari emaki, last color plate and pl. 37 (enlarged); Akiyama
Terukazu, ed., ibid.; Akiyama Terukazu, Heianjidai sei;:.okuga no kenkyii, pl. 44r
and pl. 51; Hideo Okudaira, Narrative Picture Scrolls, fig. 9 (p. 26).
114. Minamoto Tamenori, Sanbiie shiisei, pp. 3-6.
115. The meaning of llf (pau:) ~ is not certain. The PK catalog editors,
202
Pages 103-113 Notes
p. 279, indicate that it may be the name of the copyist. The back of the scroll, how-
ever, would be an unusual place to find such a notation. My impression is that
it means something like what is given in the translation or, perhaps, -> f* (pdu:)
~"protect/take care [of this]." It is also possible that it might be the name of
the owner of the scroll.
116. See "Inventory," item 555, for a description and analysis of these spaces.
11 7. Also see other reasons adduced above on p. 27.
118. Strassberg's recent analysis ("Buddhist Storytelling Texts from Tun-
huang," pp. 59-60) tends to confirm my suppositions. In their catalogs, both
Giles (p. 198) and Kanaoka, Classified Catalogue (p. 14) suggest that the standing
figure at the beginning ofS5511 (the opening section ofthe Siiriputrapien-wen)
is a warrior with a sword and that this ink-sketch may be an illustration for the
text.
119. As was done in medieval Italy (see Chapter 5 of Painting and Performance).
120. Pelliot, Les grottes, pl. CXXI There are a number of other interesting fea-
tures in this cave relating to siitra lectures and so forth. On the left wall at the
front are several platforms il11i~ on which men are sitting and lecturing (pl.
CXVIII). On the left part of the left wall a man is seated reading from a scroll
which he is holding up. At the top right, just below the ceiling, is a multiple-sided
structure. Does the front panel of this structure represent a picture of a man or
does it represent the man himself? (pl. CXIX). And what is the object held by the
strange man at the bottom right of the second section of the left wall? (pl. CXX).
121. On all of my first three trips to Tun-huang (summers of 1981, 1983, and
1985), officials of the Research Institute for Tun-huang Antiquities informed me
that such a project was under way.
CHAPTER FIVE
1. See Chapters 3, 4, and 5 ofMair, Painting and Performance. While it is not
my intention to equate the skills and social level ofpien storytellers with performers
of any other tradition, at the same time I do not wish to ignore analogical evidence
altogether.
2. "Medievaljongleurs," p. 286.
3. Analects, p. 51.
4. "Professional Training of Storytellers," p. 226.
5. [Original note) Karim stated that occasionally, for the benefit of illiterate
pupils, he draws sketches of various incidents in the repertoire to which the pupils
may refer. Hussein (Pedu, Kedah) possesses a book of similar sketches but in his
case the drawings are explained with captions in Thai.
6. [Original note) Hamzah copied part of Awang Lah's repertoire from my
transcript of the latter's narration, but this is not the usual practice!
7. The Ramayana and the Malay Shadow-Play, pp. 52-53; italics mine.
8. Hinzler, Bima Swarga, p. 84 (other information drawn primarily from
pp. 83, 85).
203
Notes Pages 113-119
9. "Puppet Play," p. 189.

10. Kuan Chiin-che, Pei-ching p'i-ying-hsi, p. 14.
11. Information in this paragraph gleaned from a lecture given before the
Oriental Club of Philadelphia on 30 April 1982 by Wolfram Eberhard, who has
carried out extensive field work on this subject in Taiwan.
12. The various categories of Indonesian drama (including picture story-
telling, shadow-plays, and puppet plays) are discussed in Chapter 3 of Mair,
Painting and Performance.
13. Literature of Java I, 248.
14. Ensink, "On the Old-Javanese Cantakaparwa," section 16, has also
written on the reluctance of dalangs to commit their texts to writing. He, too, men-
tions the instigative role of Western scholars in causing this to happen in some
cases.
15. "Shuo-shu yu-wu chiao-pen?"
16. Ibid.
17. The Way of the Storyteller, p. 59. Amin Sweeney, in his "Professional Malay
Story-telling," points out the qualitative difference between storytelling (folk or
oral literature) and the literary texts that derive from it. The scribe nearly always
adapts what he records.
18. In "Inventory" I have tried to show some of the reasons why they were
recorded. See also the latter part of this chapter. The introduction to Painting and
Peiformance discusses some of the probable causes of their disappearance.
19. "Peking Drumsinging," pp. 23, 250nll.
20. I am not, of course, necessarily making the case that the transcribers of
transformation texts were entrepreneurs. My point is only that, where there was
a demand for transcription, it could be done without the permission of performers.
21. The Home of the Puppet-Play, pp. 15-16.
22. Joshi, Painted Folklore, p. 16.
23. "Medieval Jongleurs," p. 304. For the meaning of etoki and Kumano
bikuni, see Chapter 5 ofMair, Painting and Peiform(mce.
24. "Vorgeschichte."
25. Bazaar Paintings of Calcutta. For the meaning of Biinkelsiinger and pa!uii, see
Chapters 4 and 5 of Painting and Peiformance.
26. Published by Lo Chen-yii, 1.1; !.2,3; and Chapter 3, last page (p. 72).
27. See also C. T. Lo, "Clues Leading to the Discovery of Hsi Yu Chi p'ing-
hua," pp. 180-181, especially 180n9.
28. "New Studies," pp. 454-455.
29. Shui-tungjih-chi, 2l.llb-12a.
30. I have relied chiefly on Marshall Pihl, "The Tale ofSim Ch'ong," for the
information in this paragraph.
3!. Salmen, Fahrende Musiker, pp. 136ff.
32. Blindness among biwa singers is well-known. Documentation for blindness
in Chinese fiddle singers may be found in Pei-ching min-chienfeng-su pai-t'u, no. 65.
33. Personal communication from Masato Nishimura, 8 December 1978; old
film shown by Holmes Welch at Harvard University, 6 December 1978. Blind-
204
Pages 119-126 Notes
ness has been a traditional characteristic of performers of many other oral genres
throughout Asia.
34. By the same token, Jen Erh-pei (Tun-huang ch'ii ch'u-t'an, p. 121) con-
cluded that the Tun-huang cantos must have been transcribed from oral pre-
sentation. Cf. note 41.
35. This is not the same as taking down a text from dictation ~~ (see
T50[2061).813c, 1.3J. Here the reader or speaker will go as slowly as the tran-
scriber requires. It is also not the same as the transcription of a ritualistic oral text
where the utterance of a single word may be drawn out to enormous lengths and
repeated many times.
36. "Sung and Yuan Vernacular Fiction," The Chinese Short Story, etc.
37. E.g., "The Early Chinese Short Story: A Critical Theory in Outline,"
p. 171.
38. "The Nature of Ling Meng-ch'u's Fiction," p. 87.
39. Eoyang has attempted to demonstrate this in his recent article entitled
"Oral Narration in the Pien and Pien-wen." By "spoken literature," I mean texts
that had their origins in the oral realm; by "written literature," I intend texts
that were initially consigned to paper.
40. See Chapter 5 ofMair, Painting and Performance.
41. But see my discussion in "Chinese Sutra Lectures" on the possibility of
phonetic error apart from any actual oral setting. The likelihood of affinity with
oral performance becomes a question of the prominence and frequency of such
error.
42. Dissatisfaction with T on other grounds has been mounting during the
past few years. Cf. the reviews by Chang Chin-ch'iian, Lii Shu-hsiang, and Kuo
Tsai-i, and the reworking ofP'an Ch'ung-kuei in T".
43. Eoyang, "Word of Mouth," p. 52.
44. Kiim. This is the reading suggested by the editors of the Paris catalogue,
pp. 198-199. It is interchangeable with t!\X, which is another conceivable reading.
Both these characters might be construed in the sense of "one letter." But it is
difficult to understand either character in the sense of"one unit of verse." Ota,
Kogobun, p. 139, suggests lJ9X and Kanaoka, Tonkii ... bungaku ... mokuroku, p. 21,
suggests ~' but I cannot make sense of either of these readings. The character
as written on the manuscript appears thus: ~. In any event, the syntax demands
some such numerary adjunct as {tj:: which was already in use before the period
when pien-wen were written down. It is not likely, however, that {tj:: itself could
have been exchanged for the difficult character, because it is not in the same
rhyme group as either of the proposed readings that seem plausible.
45. For a part of the text that has been well annotated, see Ota, Kogobun,
pp. 138-149. P2319 has been translated by Eugene Eoyang in Ma and Lau, eds.,
Traditional Chinese Stories, pp. 443-455.
46. See "Inventory," items 207 and 307, for evidence concerning the procure-
ment of one such illustrated scroll. The question of the relationship of written pien-
wen to pictures is also discussed in Chapter 4.
205
Notes Pages 126-128
48. Catalogue, pp. 212-213.

49. I.e., the four varga: Bhik~u and bhik~UIJ!, upiisaka and upiisikii, monks and
nuns, male and female devotees; i.e., all the Buddhist faithful.
50. PekCat, p. 254. Cf. Bibliotheque Nationale, Catalogue des manuscrits chinois
de Touen-houang, p. 39, andJen Erh-pei, Tun-huang ch'ii chiao-lu, pp. 140-162. See
"Inventory," item 4, for an alternative interpretation of the last sentence.
51. Hsu Kuo-lin, Tun-huang shih-shih hsieh-ching t'i-chi, AA.l9a. This manu-
script was not available for examination when I visited Peking in the summer of
1981.
52. See "Inventory," item 590, and, for a very close study of the writing
of one manuscript, my "A Newly Identified Fragment of the 'Transformation
on Wang Ling."' The "Inventory" provides much evidence about the copying
activities oflay students at Tun-huang.
53. The intercalary month in the designated year fell after the 7th month.
The Western equivalent is computed on the assumption that this was the month
intended and not the 6th month as written.
54. Kanaoka ( Tonkii bungaku mokuroku, p. 250n 7) reads this quite dif-
ferently: ... W;~. ~-All!., ~WI: ... Hence, "Yang Hsien, the thought having
been suggested by (received from?) someone, secretly (?) made .... " Admittedly,
this colophon presents problems, but Kanaoka's reading seems to complicate
them. Wl:ffiili f'Fi!ili't reads smoothly as a unit and resists being connected to the ~.
As for ~ rather than ffiiJi in the man's name, the manuscript has ~<,which speaks
for itself. The copyist's name is therefore either Yang Yuan or Yang Yuan-
shou, depending on how one punctuates the colophon. The problem is somewhat
exacerbated by the fact that, for~' the manuscript has W.k. If this character was
meant to stand for ~ xjw~i, perhaps we should read }~.!ii'K, yiwei-in which case
the translation would be "Yang Yuan, receiving the favor of a certain person .... "
However, my preference is as given in the translation, particularly since I have
a suspicion that, by ,fl!.~ (iwi), the copyist must have meant Jl!,jt (mjw~i)
which is a very common Buddhist expression (Skt. cetanii) for "reflection,"
"thought," and so on). See "Inventory," items 385 and 555 for positive identifica-
tion of Yang Yuan-shou.
55. The manuscript has f!lll.
56. Where T755.6 has 1:. f'f, Hsu Kuo-lin, Tun-huang tsa-lu, 40a.l2, inex-
plicably gives ::E. Neither reading is satisfactory, but I have been unable to come
up with a better one.
57. The manuscript has Jj!. The translation of this sentence is not certain.
58. The future Buddha.
59. Literally, "living beings" (sativa).
60. ~.C.- adhyiifaya.
61. ffiili:t.J praiJ-idhiina-balika (or bala).
62. Tsa-lu 40b.l inexplicably has z for:::::;:.
63. Gati.
64. Giles, Catalogue, p. 259.
65. The transcriber or copyist of the story in verse (S5441) about Chi Pu ~ ;fp
206
Pages 128-131 Notes
railing in front of the troops, who has the striking name Yin Nu-er ("Slaveboy
Yin," showing possible Uighur influence) l\tt!J(7C, is designated by a similar title,
"Lay Student ofRecording Officer Fan" ¥TI1ll3 ~{± jji~. A recording officer with
this surname is mentioned on P3757 and P2633.2. See Giles, Catalogue, p. 234b.
The inscription at the end ofS5441 is dated in accordance with 19 May 978.
66. For a fuller description of this manuscript and its inscriptions, see "In-
ventory," item 590.
67. Des Rotours, Fonctionnaires, pp. 198, 567.
68. Cf. Kanaoka, Tonka no minshii, p. 173.
69. The translation is from Giles, Catalogue, p. 234. Also see his "A Chinese
Geographical Text," and Naba, "Zokk6 to henbun," p. 451.
70. There are other conceivable interpretations of this brief inscription, but
most are compatible with the notion that a monk was responsible for the making
of this copy.
71. Translation by Giles, Catalogue, p. 138. Also see T314-315n205.
72. m;w. Cf. Reischauer, Ennin's Diary, p. 298nll31. The manuscript has
space for two characters which, it may be surmised, would most likely be ¥'9;- r,
srama7Ja. The last three characters (~~~ "narrated by Yun-pien"), however,
appear to have been added in a different hand, using lighter ink.
73. Cf. Reischauer, Ennin's Diary, p. 75 ("Archbishop") and n317 on that
page.
74. See S4472.3, which is his will. The exact date, given by a certain Li Yuan
<$J:3ii in a note of954, is in accordance with 24 July 951.
75. See T839.4. Yun-pien is not to be confused with the "Yuan-chien of Great
Virtue, Commissioned by the Emperor to Oversee the Inner Circle of Truth
(Bodhima7J¢ala) of the Ch'ien-fu ('Thousand Blessings') Monastery on the Right
Side of the Thoroughfare," who is mentioned in fascicle 1 ofP3886 as the author
of a pentasyllabic poem. The latter Yuan-chien would have lived approximately
one hundred years before Yun-pien. See Reischauer, Ennin's Diary, pp. 289, 311.
76. The one and one-quarter lines of prose that the T editors have printed
on page 840 have no necessary relationship to the seat-settling text. On the manu-
script, the title is placed just before the seat-settling text, which consists of27lines
of verse. This is directly followed on the same scroll by the "Seat-Settling Text
on the Twenty-four Exemplars ofFiliality." These two exhortations are separated
by a heavy, crudely drawn line which stands out clearly as a later addition to
the manuscript.
77. Fuller coverage may be found in "Inventory."
78. Other manuscripts of popular literature from Tun-huang that were tran-
scribed or bear inscriptions by such lay students include the "Rhapsody on
Swallows" ;IT~ (S214, dated in accordance with 29 January 924) by Tu Yu-
sui of Eternal Tranquillity Monastery 7k *~ ~± ili~H :t,z~.
79. There are, however, isolated instances in which the authors of other,
slightly more elegant types of Tun-huang popular literature are known, such as
Wang Fu, a graduate in the Third Provincial Examination jg~Jtllt±::E!J&, who
was responsible for the clever "Discussion between Tea and Wine" *l@f,lfli
207
Notes Pages 131-134
(P2718, dated in accordance with 1 February 972; K'ai-pao ["Opening ofTrea-

sures"] 3 is undoubtedly a mistake for K'ai-pao 5 because the latter year has the
cyclical designationjen-shen given in the colophon). The copyist, Yen Hai-chen,
was enrolled in an academy ~:cftjl1itwYf!Ml~.OO:,.
80. Other inscribed manuscripts taken into account include P32l0, P3757,
P2633.2, 8610, 8548, 82491, Sll56v, and a lecture on the Vimalakfrtf Siltra in the
Russian holdings.
81. A number oflists (82614, 82669, 86542) have been published in Chung-
kuo k'o-hsueh-yuan, Tun-huang tzu-liao I, 225-282. An important study of these
registers may be found in Fujieda Akira, "Tonko no soniseki."
82. Miira-bhafijaka or miira-pratyarthika.
83. The description of blowing upon a frozen brush to soften and warm its
bristles is reminiscent of the scene in Liu E's &IJ~ The Travels of Old Derelict (Lao-
ts'anyu-chi ~~~~[!),where we find the following: "Ts'ui-huan, afraid that the
ink on the slab would freeze, blew without stopping, but the brush still picked
up bits of ice, and, the more Lao Ts'an wrote, the thicker the tip became." See
Liu T'ieh-yun, The Travels of Lao Ts'an, tr. Shadick, p. 140.
84. T355.10-ll. Fa-lii (Dharma and Vinaya) identifies Yuan-jung as an ec-
clesiastical official under the regional sm;gha administrator fii&.
85. On the manuscript it would appear that there has been an effort to blot
out these two graphs, which in itself might lead to several interesting speculations.
86. T446. 14-15.
87. T389.10.
88. Parts of the Wu Tzu-hsu story indicate that the author(s) or scribe(s)
made reference to encyclopedic accounts of the hero. One such source discovered
at Tun-huang is 82072.
89. Kanaoka, Tonka no bungaku, p. 181, indicates that there are 4 missing
characters after nien :tp, undoubtedly a cyclical designation of the year.
90. Kanaoka, ibid., has Hsi-chou ~·I'! instead ofHsi-ch'uan gg 111. If we accept
the former reading as the correct one, the area referred to would be that ofTurfan
in modern Sinkiang.
91. This graph (Q!) is somewhat difficult to decipher but well within the
range of Tun-huang orthographical variants forying .1}!( ("responsive"). Kanaoka
(Mokuroku, p. 4) holds that we should read su 1§ (past). Strassberg, "Buddhist
Storytelling Texts from Tun-huang," p. 47, states that both colophons are in the
same calligraphic hand as the main text but that the second is in a lighter, more
watery ink on a succeeding sheet of paper. Cf. "Inventory," item 15.
92. T618.12-14.
93. IZSJ~ hetupratyaya or nidiina. This title is actually on 83491.
94. The story is not original with the author of this particular version since
it occurs in the Chuan-chi paiyiian ching [Compilation of the Siitra of the Hundred
Occasions] m~s~~' fascicle 6 (T[200]4.229c-230b).
95. I.e., Buddhists.
96. By ~lfij:!)l! "corpus of discussions," Pao-hsuan probably meant ~lfU~, that
is, the Abhidharma-pi!aka.
208
Pages 134-136 Notes
97. f!f in the sense of ilfi!:.

98. ~ pratyata.
99. =.f}f trailokya or triloka.
100. Another manuscript of the same piece, formerly owned by Lo Chen-yii
and entrusted to the Shanghai Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Arti-
facts, has "6th" which would yield a date equivalent to 28June 955 (?).
101. This is a practice that has its roots in early Indian educational systems.
See Radhakumud Mookerji, "Hindu Educational Systems," The Cultural Heritage
ofIndia III, 24 7. See also R. K. Mookerji, Ancient Indian Education: Brahmanical and
Buddhist, and S. Dutt, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries.
102. Takakusu, tr., A Record of the Buddhist Religion, p. 106.
103. The Buddhist Conquest I, 9.
104. Yen Keng-wang, "T'ang-jen hsi-yeh shan-lin ssu-yuan chih feng-shang,"
p. 414.
105. Ibid., pp. 374-375, and Yen Keng-wang, Tang-shihyen-chiu ts'ung-kao,
preface, p. 3.
106. See, for example, the colophons and signatures on P2609v, P2621,
P2633v, P2712, P3189, P3381, P3393, P3466v, P3649, P369lv, and P3698v.
Culled from Naba, "To shohon zassho ko."
107. At some point in his career, however, Chang I-ch'ao did become
a declared adherent of the Buddhist faith. S5835 is a short explanation of the
Salistambhaka-siitra 1~ Wl;:k~~¥~, which was "copied by the Buddhist disciple
of pure faith (upasaka) Chang I-ch'ao." m~1~ ~-T-iJJU~iliJJ~t. It is Giles's opin-
ion (Catalogue, p. 173) that, at this time, he was probably a lay pupil in the mon-
astery. I suspect that he became an upiisaka when he ceased being a lay student.
108. He is mentioned in fascicle 216B of the New Tang History (KM 4139.2)
and in fascicle 490 of the Sung History (KM 5719.1). See also TCTC, Vol. IV,
249.8048-8049.
109. "(Pu Tang-shu) Chang I-ch'ao chuan."
110. "Lo Shu-yen 'Pu Tang-shu Chang 1-ch'ao chuan' pu-cheng." See also
James Hamilton, Ouighours, pp. 12-15, 38n1, and the lengthy note on pp. 47-49.
111. For descriptions of this manuscript, see Giles, Catalogue, pp. 233-234, and
Kanaoka, Tonko mokuroku, p. 22.
112. Demieville, Concile, p. 168.
113. The fullest and best account of this army and its governors may be found
in A. Huzieda, "Sashii kigigun setsudoshi shimatsu."
114. Demieville, Concile, p. 168n.
115. The title is taken from an inscription in cave 281 (Pelliot no. 80) by his
nephew, Chang Huai-shen (d. 890), to whom he had entrusted the administra-
tion of the Ho-hsi region when he went to Ch'ang-an. Though Chang I-ch'ao's
fiefdom was of the rank oflO,OOO households, it was nominally composed of2,000
households and in actuality consisted only of 200 households jlt E.= =f p
= i3 p. See Hiang Ta. "Amendements ('Pu T'ang-shu'), pp. 7, 16.
.M
116. T(2061)50.743b.
117. Only the preface survives (on P3554v). For the text, translation, and
209
Notes Pages 136-140
notes, see Chen Tsu-lung, La vie et les oeuvres, pp. 101-109. For other references
to Chang I-ch'ao on Tun-huang manuscripts that attest to his strong advocacy
ofBuddhism, see NT, pp. 38-39, and Men'shikov, Opisanie I, 319-320 (no. 823,
D566).
118. A helpful study of this subject is Ogawa Kan'ichi's "Tonko butsuji no
gakushiro," which is based both on Tun-huang manuscripts and standard his-
torical sources.
119. B. A. Litvinsky, "Outline History of Buddhism in Central Asia," Kushan
Studies in U.S.S.R., pp. 128-130.
120. Naba Toshisada, "To shohon zassho ko."
121. Hui-shan Monastery is in Kiangsu province, 5 li west ofWu-hsi 1W,~ dis-
trict town.
122. From the preface by Li Chih to the poem that he inscribed at Hui-shan
Monastery ("Li Chih t'i Hui-shan ssu shih hsu" ~.~Jfl!~llPi'H¥/f:) in CTW,
724.11 b (p. 9438a).
123. Monks, nuns, nun-candidates, together with male and female novices.
124. Anirya.
125. K~ama.
126. Note that here and at the beginning of each succeeding sentence the con-
junction in Chinese is :;E-~ which, in the pre-verse formula of the transformation
texts, has an interrogative function.
127. Grhapati, "householder."
128. 7(2059) 50.417c. For a discussion of the social and educational signif-
icance of the evangelistic activities of Buddhist monks and preachers during the
T'ang period, see Michihata, Todai Bukkyii shi no kenkyii, pp. 210-270.
129. PekCat, p. 161. Punctuated texts are not uncommon in the Tun-huang
manuscripts. For another, see S4510v.
130. Note the use of the personal pronoun ~.
131. This is not a completely literal translation. I have had to rely on examina-
tion of the manuscript to make some sense of this rather garbled sentence.
132. By?
133. See "Inventory," items 251 and 590.
134. The recto of this scroll is a portion of fascicle 233 of the Mahiipra}iiiipiiramitii
siitra.
135. Wang Fan-chih's dates are c. 590-660.
136. Ma Shih-ch'ang, "Kuan-yii Tun-huang ts'ang ching tung," plate 4.2.
137. Translated from jean Sauvaget's French version, Relation de laChine et de
l' Inde, p. 17 §36 and p. 21 §48. See also p. 58n36. Evelyn Rawski has shown
(Education and Popular Literacy in Ch'ing China) that, during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, there was surprisingly widespread "functional" literacy
(though of varying degrees) among the male populace, both in the cities and in the
countryside.
138. Among many others, scholars who subscribe to this view include: Ogawa
Tamaki, "Hen bun to koshi," p. 128; Kanda Kiichiro, Tonkii-gaku gojiinen, p. 69;
Hsu Chia-ling, "Wo tui pien-wen te chi-tien ch'u-pujen-shih"; Li Hui-ying (fol-
210
Pages 141-143 Notes
lowing Hsiang Ta in the preface to T [pp. I and 3]), Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih,
p. 117; Shao Hung, Tun-huang shih-shih chiang-ching-wenyen-chiu, p. 8; Pei-ching ta-
hsueh chung-wen hsi ( 1955), Chung-kuo wen-hsueh shih, p. 217; Ch'iu Chen-ching.
Tun-huang pien-wen shu-lun, p. 9; Hu Shih-ying, "T'ang-tai te shuo-hua"; and
Ch'eng 1-chung, "Lueh-t'an Sung Yuan chiang-shih te yuan-yuan." Kenneth
Ch'en(Chinese Transformation, p. 252) even goes so far as to declare: "All agree that
the pien-wen was composed primarily to serve as texts for the popular lectures."
I, for one, do not.
139. See Schipper's important article entitled "Vernacular and Classical
Ritual in Taoism." On p. 35, he makes the telling observation that, whereas the
tao-shih were classically oriented, generally read their ritual which was trans-
mitted through manuscripts, emphasized meditation, employed elaborate music,
used texts that were mainly in prose, were members of an organized profession,
belonged to higher classes, and were recognized by the state, thefa-shih, on the
other hand, were vernacularly oriented, recited their orally transmitted narra-
tives by heart, would fall into trances, employed monotonous chanting of texts
that were mainly in heptasyllabic rhymed verse, were loosely linked to cults,
belonged to the lower classes, and were not recognized by the state. He also lists
a number of other contrasts between the two types of priests, virtually all of which
parallel the differences between ordained Buddhist monks and lay transformation
performers.
140. Ho-shang ;fl:l f;1ij ("monk").
141. The music schools, that is.
142. rin-hua lu, Chapter 4, pp. 94-95.
143. Yueh-fu tsa-lu, no. I, p. 40. Consult also the annotated translation of the
35th chapter by Gimm, pp. 500-507.
144. Paintings of figures with eyes that seemed to follow the beholder were not
at all uncommon. At the Great Cloud Temple :k~~ in Ch'ang-an, there was
"an averter of evil [demon-quelling deity, probably Chung K'uei tm :hit], the two
eyes of which turn and glare at one wherever one moves" ~ § lliflA~Il5} (Acker,
pp. 299-300). And, at the Prospect Publican Temple ~ 0~, there were "paint-
ings of circumambulating monks who turn their eyes to look at people" • rrfi~
§ !iilA (Acker, p. 270).
145. Acker, p. 268.
146. See Mair, "Records ofTransformation Tableaux," p. 34.
14 7. Quoted by Acker, p. 268n3.
148. Reischauer, pp. 298-299. See also the very full annotations on this pas-
sage given by Ono Katsutoshi, in his Nitto guho junrei gyoki no kenkyil III, 343-
345n4, 348nl4.
149. Li Fang, comp., Tai-p'ing kuang-chi, ch. 204, p. 1546; Wang Cho, Pi-chi
man-chih, Chapter 5, p. 91. There are a few minor differences between the two
accounts, but they are essentially the same.
150. Tuan An-chich, Yueh-fu tsa-lu, ch. 35 (also note 143 above).
151. For other views on the subject, see Ono Katsutoshi, "Bunjo to Bun-
shuku," and Kanaoka Shoko, "Sairon Bunjo hoshi." Perhaps Wen-shu, who
211
Notes Pages 143-146
relied on audiences for a living, modeled his name after Wen-hsu's because of the
latter's popularity and prestige (suggested by Andrew Jones).
152. Kanaoka Shoko, Tonka no minshii, p. 99, offers a combined chronological
sketch covering the years c. 820-841.
153. TCTC, ch. 243, p. 7850.
154. T(2035)49.384c. Cf.Jan Yun-hua, tr. and annot., Fo-tsu t'ung-chi, p. 89.
In note 15 of pp. 89-90, Jan states that there is no biography of Wen-hsu in
the Sung Biographies of Eminent Monks or other historical records. He also follows
Hsiang Ta, "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao," in claiming that Wen-hsu was important
for the development of pien-wen.
155. "ChU To jidai zokko so Bunjo hoshi."
156. In the introduction to Nagendra Nath Vasu, The Modern Buddhism, p. 17.
157. Yang Pin-kuei, "Praying for Rain."
158. The majority of contemporaneous literary references to transformation
performers that I cite in Chapter 6 describe them as entertainers rather than as
monks.
159. "Notes sur l'ancienne litterature," p. 192. See "Inventory," item 559, for
a very different interpretation ofPK2496v.
160. For more possible evidence of the lay status of transformation performers,
see also Mair, "The Origins of an Iconographical Form."
161. "Obiter Dicta," p. 66.
162. "Funerals in North China," p. 50 of pre-publication version.
163. Information supplied by Harvey Mole in a letter of 6 May 1981, by
C. K. Wang in aletterof20June 1984,John Lagerwey in a letterof25June 1984,
and by Susan Naquin in a conversation of26 June 1984. Their sources included
personal observation in Taiwan, nineteenth-century reports of Westerners, and
late-Ch'ing gazetteers. See also van der Loon, "Les origines rituelles," pp. 158,
160, who refers to the performance by professional actors of the Maudga1yayana
story in K'ai-feng at the beginning of the twelfth century and to later professional
and semi-professional troupes putting on the same play in Chekiang. On p. 141
of the same article, van der Loon offers cogent justification for using recent and
contemporaneous sources to understand the origins and evolution of the theater.
In the following discussion, I consistently use the word professional to mean
"[one who is] customarily engaged in a specific activity for the purpose of earning
a livelihood." Thus there are both "funeral professionals" (viz. drama troupes
who undertake to perform at funerals for monetary compensation or payment-
in-kind) and "professional religious" or "religious professionals" (i.e. ordained
monks, nuns, priests, etc., who normally live in monasteries or temples and derive
their income from the resources of these institutions).
164. "Sexual Politics," p. 388.
165. "Magic and Religion in Sinhalese Society," p. 98.
166. For some of Seaman's articles, see the bibliography. The pertinent films
are "Chinese Funeral Ritual" and "Breaking the Blood Bowl." The information
in the following paragraphs was graciously supplied to me by Seaman in a very
long letter of 5 August 1984.
212
Pages 148-152 Notes
167. In his "Spirit Money," p. 90, Seaman refers to the sai-kong as a "funeral
professional ... of scornfully low status."
168. T(2060)50.602c. See Fukui Fumimasa (Bunga), "Todai zokko gishiki."
169. Translated by Chen Tsu-lung, La vie et les oeuvres, pp. 58-60.
170. Translated by Chen Tsu-lung, ibid., pp. 61-65.
171. See Bush and Mair, "Some Buddhist Portraits and Images," pp. 33-34,
49n1-10.
172. T( 1805) 40.403c-409b.
173. See Michihata Ryoshii, "Dokyo no zokko ni tsuite" [On Taoist popular
lectures] }!!~ O)f~~ t:8..;t P "(",in Chiigoku Bukkyo to shakai, pp. 192-200.
174. "Todai zokko gishiki no seiritsu o meguru sho mondai," "Zokko no imi
ni tsuite," and "Some Problems about the Origin of the Religious Lectures for
Laymen, su-chiang." The last-named paper gives bibliographical references to
other articles on su-chiang. The secondary literature on this subject is extensive:
Hsiang Ta, "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao"; Sun K'ai-ti, "T'ang-tai su-chiang kuei-
fan"; Naba Toshisada, "Zokko to henbun"; Sawada Mizuho, "Shina Bukkyo
sh6d6 bungaku"; Yamazaki Hiroshi, Shina chiisei Bukkyo no tenkai, part 3; Michihata
Ryoshii, Todai Bukkyo shi no kenkyii, part 2, pp. 228-270; Chou I-liang, "Tu
'T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao' ";[Hsiang] Chueh-ming (i.e., Ta), "Pu shuo T'ang-tai
su-chiang"; Kuan Te-tung, "T'ang-tai su-chiang k'ao te shang-ch'ueh"; Hsiang
Ta, "Kuan-yii su-chiang k'ao tsai shuo chi chii hua"; etc. One of the chief reasons
for the popularity of this subject is its presumed relationship to pien-wen.
175. Ennin's diary is an invaluable source for anyone investigating popular
lectures. See Reischauer's translation, pp. 298-299,310-311,316. Sun K'ai-ti's
"T'ang-tai su-chiang kuei-fan," which relies heavily on the various collections of
biographies of eminent monks, is also essential reading. Lo Tsung-t'ao, Tun-huang
chian.~;-ching pien-wenyen-chiu, pp. 872-978, gathers in one place much information
on the performance features of popular lectures.
176. Ch'ing and earlier versions. T incorporates Tun-huang materials. The
single exception known to me, from a historiographical work that denies that pien-
wen is a Buddhist phenomenon, is discussed at length in Chapter 6. Another highly
problematic occurrence of pien is examined in detail at the end of the same
chapter. It is possible that I have missed an occasional reference to pien-wen as
a genre in the tens of thousands of pages that constitute the Tripi{aka. Even assum-
ing that there were one or two mentions of the term in this vast canon, it would
not negate my contention that pien-wen is an extreme rarity in the context of
establishment Buddhism.
177. See Chapter 6.
CHAPTER SIX
l. ~· See below, note 35.
2. An important river in Szechwan.
3. Cf. the famous Yuan drama on the theme of Wang Chao-chiin by Ma
Chih-yuan .~if(~ (c. 1270-1330) entitled Autumn in the Han Palace ~'§t'\.
213
Notes Pages 152-157
4. Ch'iian Tang shih XI, 8771; Ts'ai-tiao chi, 8.18a.

5. T98-107.
6. Tl05.13, which states that, after 800 years, Chao-chiin's grave still exists.
7. Demieville, "Quelques traits," p. 72.
8. 6 Sho-kun henbun no seiritsu nendai k6."
9. Ch'iian Tang shih V, 3434.
10. Chang Pir~g-lin, Hsinfang-yen III, 88a. Cf. Sawada, "Shina Bukky6 sh6d6
bungaku no seisei," p. 45 and T'an Ts'ui, Shuo man. My translation of man
as "Szechwanese [maid]," while plausible in this context, is, of course, not
mandated.
11. The Poems of Li Ho (791-817), p. 245.
12. Saito Sho, RiGa, pp. 343-344, and Suzuki Torao II, 253.
13. Li Ch'ang-chi ko-shih, 4.25b.
14. Li Ch'ang-chi ko-shih, 4.29b.
15. San chia p'ing-chu Li Ch'ang-chi ko-shih, p. 277.
16. In Ch'en Hung-chih, Li Ch'ang-chi ko-shih chiao-shih, p. 558. Also cited by
Wang Ch'i.
·17. In ibid. Also cited by Wang.
18. Note especially the expression "Shu (i.e., Szechwan) paper."
19. More literally, "Lengthily, [she] turns over [the] Shu paper, [un]rolling
[the story in pictures of] Ming-chiin." It is possible that chiian has been used
for chuan iJ!i1i or lliiJ, for which see notes 1 above and 35 below. Wang Ch'i states
that he feels chiian is most likely an incorrect usage. Perhaps chuan was avoided
because it occurs in the succeeding line. Rather than suggest an emendation, how-
ever, I have simply read chiian in the rising (third) tone and have understood it
somewhat in the sense of chiian-shu 1{1: ff. Iriya, rev. ofKanaoka Sh6k6, Tonko shut-
sudo bungaku, p. 97, interprets chiian Ming-chiin as referring to the story ofChao-chiin
portrayed on an illustrated scroll, an interpretation with which I am in basic
agreement.
20. Wang Ting-pao, Tang chih-yen, ch. 13, p. 148 (under "Contradictions");
Mcng Ch'i, Pen-shih shih, p. 23 (under 'jests"); Li Fang, com·p., Tai-p'ing kuang-
chi, ch. 251, p. 1949, citing Tang chih-yen.
21. Hirano Kensh6, Todai bungaku to Bukkyo, pp. 4-8.
22. Sec below, note 28.
23. Note the colloquial usc of j)iij'mg.
24. Sec Chang's poem entitled "Thoughts on the Death of General Wang's
'Silkworm Thorn' Songstress" Ji&1; :E ll~V!!i::ffi~ !$i& in Li Fang et al., comps., Wen-
yuanying-hua, 305.10b (p. 19llb).
25. See Po's famous "Song of Lasting Sorrow" :1Jt ·~ Jlfk, Po shih Ch'ang-ch'ing chi,
12.64a (reduced format pagination); Po Hsiang-shan chi ~~Ill~ (SPPT), 12.8b.
26. These precise lines do not occur in the Maudgalyayana transformation
texts that are extant but may be said to encapsulate the first portion of the story.
27. :ffi~. This may be a transliteration of the Persian name Chaj (Tashkent).
Another interpretation holds that it is a corruption of ;j;fj~ Toba or, more prop-
erly, Tabgatch, the name of the founder of the Northern Wei.
214
Pages 157-159 Notes
28. r,,jiJi, in Zen Buddhist parlance, is a T'ang colloquial expression meaning

"conundrum for meditation." See Tsu-t'ang chi (Record of the Hall of Patriarchs)
ijijj_:£~ (bibliographical information in my Tun-huang Popular .Narratives), I-
180.10, III-47.1, and V-85.10, 103.13, and Ill. I. In the Sung, this was usually
referred to as a "topic" ~ ii$. It is the same device nqw best known as a kiian ~ ~
(public case). But r,,jiJi is also T'ang colloquial for lffir,,, which is the basis for
my translation. See T213.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 15, and 252.9. The Tai-p'ing kuang chi
and Pen-shih shih versions both have ~M·
29. Ts'e 34, 13.4b.
30. Ts'e 14, 13.5a.
31. In ts'e 159-160, 13.4b-5a.
32. Goblet Words from the Garden ofArt, 4. 7a. But perhaps I am giving Wang too
much credit. It is possible that he was simply using pien in its established (since
the Six Dynasties period) literary critical sense of"defective." See above, Chapter
3, note 23.
33. Kao Li-shih wai-chuan ~ .:1J±7'f-~ (TTTS), ts'e 8, 7b.
34. Upadefa, "dogmatic treatises, sermon, preaching." Here, however, the ex-
pression most likely refers to a type ofT'ang Buddhist humorous dialogue (hsiang-
sheng ;t§!!/,11:). See Chang Hung-hsun, "Tun-huang chiang-ch'ang wen-hsueh,"
p. 78.
35. Literally "to turn" or "to revolve," which might well refer to the actual
manipulation of the scrolls. The parallel expressions chuan-ching J!i1i~ and chuan-tu
m
Jli1i both mean to hold a siitra in one's hands and recite it while turning the scroll.
See Ryiikoku daigaku, comp., Bukkyii daijii VI, 3385, and Nakamura Hajime,
Bukkyii daijiten, pp. 988.2 and 989.2. Sun K'ai-ti ("Chung-kuo tuan-p'ien pai-hua
hsiao-shuo te fa-chan," TCC, p. 72), however, understands chuan in the expres-
sion chuan pien as meaning Ill¥ "warble" (i.e., l!l~wHffll "to trill out a tune"). Cf.
Sawada, Bukkyo to Chiigoku bungaku, p. 44, who says that it means "to recite with
rhythm." Tseng Yung-i, "Kuan-yii pien-wen te t'i-ming," p. 218, holds that it
means simply "recite" J!i1i~.James Liu, The Chinese Knight-Errant, pp. 100, 210,
renders chuan-pien as "chanting about the unusual." Cf. note 40 below.
36. In the Works of Yuan Chen, there is a poem entitled "In Response to the
Han-lin Academician Po's Poem of One Hundred Rhymes in Lieu of a Letter"
~~f*~~±~ti-Eim! (written around theyear800). The reference is to "A
Poem of One Hundred Rhymes Sent to Yuan Chen in Lieu of a Letter"~-~
- 8M\!Jir1l'ik;Z. in the Collected Works tif Po Chil-i, 13.la-4b. Yuan (10.4b-5a) has
a very interesting note to his own poem which reads as follows: "Every time
Chii-i and I were out wandering, we always would write our names on the walls
ofhouses. We also once [had?] someone tell the story ijjt~jS ofLi Wa $!€E in the
house at Hsin-ch'ang. It went on from 3 in the morning to 11 o'clock and still it
was not finished." This note is frequently cited as evidence that there was a tradi-
tion of professional storytelling for the T'ang classical tale. Y[au] W[oon] Ma's
careful critique no longer allows us to make this assumption. See his "The Begin-
nings of Professional Storytelling in China," pp. 232-233, 238. Cf. also Dud-
bridge's close analysis in The Tale of Li Wa, pp. 20-25, esp. pp. 23-24. Still, the
215
Notes Pages 159-164
fact that both Kuo Shih and Yuan Chen casually mention "storytelling" indicates
that there was at least an informal tradition that went by this name.
37. Li Fang, comp., Tai-p'ing kuang-cki, ch. 269, p. 2109, citing Tan pin lu
[Records of talks about guests] ~~~·This passage also affords definite proof
that oral transformation performances were already very well established by the
middle of the eighth century in Szechwan.
38. An administrative circuit in what is now Chengtu, Szechwan.
39. An administrative district established by the T'ang government in what
is now Yunnan.
40. This might possibly be understood as ~-~~~ "warble," i.e., "chanted"
or "sang." But the totality of evidence regarding the form of transformations
available from T'ang sources indicates that "unroll [their] transformation
[scrolls]," hence "perform transformations," is not incorrect here. See note 35
above.
41. It is impossible to say for certain whether the syntactical force of"order"
implies that the "monks" also were made to "perform transformations." My
translation tries to be as ambiguous as the original. The second clause might
also be rendered with an indeterminate agent as "or [ordered] transformations
to be performed along important roads" or even "[had] transformations per-
formed along important roads." In any case, seng ftf has wide applications in non-
Buddhist texts and does not necessarily refer to formally ordained monks. Thus,
even if the sentence is construed to have the "monks" performing the transforma-
tions, they might still be entertainers masquerading as monks (cf. Chapter 5). The
performance, it should be noted, takes place in a secular setting. Furthermore,
the word cha renders suspect as genuine manifestations of the Buddhist religion
per se all that follows it in this sentence.
42. Huan-:Jing chuan, ts'e 11.22a. This story is also recorded in Tuan Ch'eng-
shih's Miscellany of Rarities, First Collection, 5.4a.l0.
43. See T670.9.
44. Yu-:Jang tsa-tsu, 5.2b-3a, under the heading "Strange Technique" f:(EVJ!j.
45. See my translation of the Maudgalyayana transformation text in Tun-
huang Popular Narratives at note 315 on p. 235.
46. Huang Hsiu-fu, Mao-t'ing k'o-hua, ts'e 13, 4.7ab. Cited (with two minor
errors) in Yeh Te-chiin, Hsi-ck'ii hsiao-shuo ts'ung-k'ao II, 689. On the following
page, Yeh also cites (in abridged form) the texts mentioned in notes 47 and 49.
47. Ho Yuan, Ck'un-cku chi-wen, ts'e 209, 2.3ab.
48. See Li Fang, comp., Tai-p'ing kuang-chi, ch. 299, "Spirits" ijil~~' no. 9 (Wei
An-tao), quoting /-wen lu (Record of extraordinary hearsay) ~lifl~.
49. Yen Yu-i ~~~(Sung), !-:Juan t;:'u-kuang [Criticism from the garden of
art) ~j[j$~, cited in Hu Tzu, Tiao-hsiyii-:Jin ts'ung-hua, ts'e 2567, 18.539.
50. T(2035)49.370a.
51. Z(2).a3.650.412ab-ba. This text is to be found in Vol. CXXX (p. 412)
of the 1967 Hong Kong reprint of z.
52. Henning, "Neue Materialen," pp. 13-14n6 and "Bet- und Beichtbuch,"
p. 119.
216
Pages 164-166 Notes
53. Pelliot, "Les traditions," p. 203n6.

54. Cf. T(2035)49.475a.
55. Chavannes and Pelliot, "Un traite manicheen," pp. 353-362, have per-
formed an inestimable service with their translation and annotations of this note.
But even these two vastly learned savants complain at one point (p. 356n2) that
"toute cette serie de titres est d'une obscurite desesperante." See also Deveria,
"Musulmans," pp. 458-463. Readers who wish to gain a fuller understanding
ofTsung-chien's note are urged to consult these studies. I have provided only
minimal commentary.
56. There is some discrepancy among the available texts. I have followed what
I consider to be the best readings from the Unified Chronology, the Orthodox Line,
and Snow Mountain Collection (see note 62). The last text named, being primary,
is generally the most reliable and the next to the last text is next in reliability.
57. This surely refers to the Chinese translation of the Middle Persian
Manichaean scripture enti tied Sabuhragiin. The page headings of this Manichaean
do bun sabuhragan (the two foundations of the Sabuhragan). Chinese tsung *

scripture include such phrases as do bun wazarg (the two great foundations) and
ciple) corresponds to Middle Persian bun (base or foundation). See David Utz's
(prin-
unpublished paper, "Two Parthian Words in the Chinese Manichaean Tradi-

tion," p. 11. Piet van der Loon's contention (Taoist Books, pp. 44-45 and nn62-
63) that erh tsung eking refers to the scriptures of Buddhism and Taoism cannot be
sustained.
58. In Buddhism, IJIEE means vidya-riija, spirit-king of the pure word who in-
vokes the wrath ofVairocana against evil beings.
59. The binomes (k'ai-:Juan and kua-ti) are, respectively, ancient Chinese
cosmogonic and astrological terms. Deveria, "Musulmans," p. 459, gives as his
translation "Dissertations sur le commencement du Ciel et de la Terre."
60. Mani?
61. This confusion in the highest official circles between the two doctrines
occurs as early as 732 when, in the 7th month, Hsuan-tsung issued a rescript in
which he stated that Manichaeism "fraudulently declares itself to be Buddhism"
~fi!H!JHz. See Tu Yu, Tung tien, 40.229c.
62. In Wang's Snow Mountain Collection, 3.24-27.
63. This group has been carefully studied by Chikusa Masaaki in Studies in
the Social History of Chinese Buddhism. The document under discussion is cited
on p. 220. I am indebted to Piet van der Loon for this reference ( 16 March 1984).
For a long discussion in English of the "Vegetarian Demon Worshipers," see
Lieu, "Diffusion and Persecution ofManichaeism," pp. 102ff.
64. See Painting and Performance, Chapter 5.
65. Information gained during a conversation with Wu Hsiao-ling and Li
Shih-yii in Peking 3 August 1981. I have also seen references in written sources
to a "Southern Group Brothel" (Nan-pang chi-yuan m'Ji!!5i~) and suspect that
it may be the same center as the Nan-fang chi-yuan mentioned by Li and Wu.
Cf. Li Chia-jui, Pei-p'ingfeng-su, pp. 385-386.
66. See the paragraphs preceding this one. The term pien-wen may also be
217
Notes Pages 167-170
found in several Ming and Ch'ing texts where the author or editor is citing a
T'ang period source. In no case that I am aware of does a source written after
the Five Dynasties but before this century fully comprehend the meaning of the
term.
67. By P'an Ch'ung-kuei. See his "New Discussion on Tun-huang pien-wen
[Tun-huang pien-wen hsin lun] t!c~!it!3t®f~ifij, pp. 1297-1322, esp. pp. 1303-
1304 in Ta.
68. Tripi(aka Koreana facsimile (1975) XXXII, 72lb.
69. Julien, who states (p. vii) that he is relying on the Nanking and "imperial"
editions, totally ignores the pien in his translation (p. 328). Li Yung-hsi skips the
thorny sentence altogether in his translation ofHui-li's Life ofHsuan-tsang, p. 253,
lines 11-12. Waley. The Real Tripitaka, p. 120, renders pien as "legends."
70. See Utsunomiya's article in Shirin.
71. Tsukishima, Kokugogakuteki kenkyil, Vol. I, and Utsunomiya, ed., Koi II, 187
(9.94a). An early Japanese editor of the text has added interlineally no hen / ~
which indicates that the accretion o(pien to the text may be due to non-Chinese
redaction. The earliest manuscript versions ofHsuan-tsang's collected memorials,
as recorded in T52(2119).825a, probably originated in the Nara or Heian periods
(one is ostensibly dated 765), also include the character pien after Siitra of Rec-
ompense for Kindness.
72. I am grateful to Kahar Barat, who is preparing the most thorough study
of the Uighur fragments ofHsuan-tsang's biography, for checking this.
73. See Mair, "Records."
74. Chung-kuo su-wen-hsueh kai-lun, p. 108. Several examples of spurious ref-
erences to pien-hsiang are given in my "Records of Transformation Tableaux."
75. For the whole passage in context, see Tsang's Fu-pao fang chi, ch. 3, p. 57.
Meng Yao's citation of the same passage in Chung-kuo hsiao-shuo shih IV, 604-605,
is liable to misinterpretation for its lack of context as well.
76. Tun-huang pien-wen shu-lun, p. 18.
77. See especially Chapters 4 and 5.
78. See Mair, Painting and Performance.
79. For a study of the survival of the pien tradition after the demise of the name
itself, see my "The Contributions of Transformation Texts (pien-wen) to Later
Chinese Popular Literature."
218
Bibliography
While this bibliography is extensive, it is by no means intended to be exhaustive

for Tun-huang literature in general, nor even for Tun-huang transformation texts
in particular. It consists chiefly of works that have been cited herein and in certain
related publications of the author or useful works consulted during the period
of research for this study. I have tried to be reasonably thorough in bringing
together all significant works known to me that deal with general, theoretical, and
historical aspects of pien-wen. Articles and monographs dealing with individual
pien-wen as well as those treating solely oflinguistic, religious, philosophical, and
other such matters relating to pien-wen have not always been included. (It should
be noted that most important articles on pien-wen in Chinese have been collected
in the two volumes of LWL [q.v.]). Additional references for all languages may
be found in the section that lists catalogs and bibliographies. Many other works
that are relevant for the study ofpien-wen may also be found in the references and
bibliographies to other books and articles by the author. The author's "A Partial
Bibliography for the Study of the Influence oflndia on Chinese Popular Litera-
ture" (215 pages), available on request, may be consulted as well. In a few in-
stances, works that I have not been able to examine but that would appear to
be particularly relevant for someone who wishes to continue these investigations
have been included. Such works are listed in the last section of the bibliography.
Please note that not all items cited in the main body of the text and in the notes
have been entered in the bibliography.
All Chinese, japanese, and Korean titles have been given in English as well as
in romanization and charactets. The translations in square brackets are my own.
Those in parentheses are either established equivalents or have been provided by
the authors and editors of the works concerned. Occasionally I have made minor,
cosmetic changes in these latter renderings to bring them into agreement with
acceptable English grammar and usage. In the majority of cases, the translations
of East Asian titles that I have provided are not at all elegant; they are meant
to serve primarily as identifying tags for readers unfamiliar with morphographic
East Asian written languages.
In the Chinese entries of the bibliography, basic information about the listed
texts has been noted. Many of the pre-twentieth-century works have been de-
scribed more fully in the following: Gimm (especially pp. 583-620), des Rotours
(especially pp. 72=118), Pian (especially pp. 235-237), Teng and Biggerstaff, and
219
Bibliography
Edwards. For works of consequence not covered by these authors, where neces-
sary I have discussed in greater detail problems of authenticity, dating, filia-
tion, and so on, at appropriate places in the text itself or in the notes. For all
pre-twentieth-century works, I have tried to provide some indication of the time
when the author, compiler, translator, or editor(s) lived. Failing this, the date of
original publication or date of the preface is usually given.
Citations in the notes are to author and abbreviated forms of titles listed in the
bibliography. Since these are sufficiently differentiable, it has not been felt neces-
sary to provide an additional list of shortened titles.
N.B. Works from the Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist canons are not listed in-
dividually in the bibliography: Specific references to such works occur only in the
notes. The same is true of the standard dynastic histories of China and Tun-huang
manuscripts. For the latter, where in the notes I do not refer specifically to the
published source of a manuscript, the reference is either to the original in London,
Paris, Leningrad, Taipei, and Peking or to microfilms, photographs, and photo-
copies in my private collection, in the Harvard-Yenching Library, the Van Pelt
Library of the University of Pennsylvania, and in Olin Library of Cornell
University.
CATALOGUES OF TUN-HUANG MANUSCRIPTS AND

BmLIOGRAPHIES OF STUDmS (also see Works Referred to in
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1970. III: Paris: Foundation Singer-Polignac, 1983.
Chen Yuan (Ch'en Yuan) ID![rn. Tun-huang chieh-:Jii lu (An Analytical List of the
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tory and Philology of Academia Sinica, 1931.
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yen-chiu t'ung-hsun (Newsletter for Research in Chinese Studies) i'l~lilt~3ii~
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- - , comp. "Tun-huang-hsueh yen-chiu lun-wen chu-tso mu-lu ch'u-kao" [A
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Tunhuangology] !!lc;f;1j!~liJt~~~)(~f'F § ~%7Jli'ilj, Hua-kang wen-k'o hsueh-pao
(Hua-kangJournal of the Humanities) r!j¥1lil])(f4~$ 14:1-81 (1982); 15:1-
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220
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in Tunhuangology (Chinese section) (with continuations)]~ :1§1 ~ liff ~ ljj{ff 3t ~
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c
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c
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mz
Yang Hsuan-chih ftEj (d. 555?). Ch'ung-k'an Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi [Republica-
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*
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Yoshimura Shiiki '5;ft~ili\i, Tsuchihashi Shiiko ±;fit:l'§~, lnokuchi Taijun
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ZhaoJinming (Chao Chin-ming) ~~~·"Tun-huang pien-wen chung so chien

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Zhelokhovtsev, A. N. and Yu. L. Krol'. "Ob Etimologii i Znachenii Termina
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corrections.
ARTICLES AND BOOKS NOT SEEN
In this section are listed works which, to judge from their titles or from references
made to them elsewhere, would appear to be germane to the subject of this study.
The reader should be warned that the bibliographic information here provided
has been culled from various sources, has not been verified, and is often in-
complete. Several of the entries have been adapted in works listed in the main
bibliography above.
Akiyama Terukazu f:k Jlt :J'(;;f!l. "Hen bun to emaki-Perio shoraibon gomahen
zukan ni tsuite" [Pien-wen and picture scrolls-On the illustrated scroll of the
subduing of demons retrieved by Paul Pelliot] ~3t cit~-~ 1) :::t ~**ll*
M~!lill~ t:-? 1,~ "(, Bunkashi kondan kaihO [Bulletin of the cultural history dis-
cussion group] 3t{t3l:lf1H~"fr¥!a 32 (1955).
Chbu Tso-jen )l!iJ f'F .A. Article on Mu-lien [Maudgalyayana] § ~. Min-chien

[Folk] ~r~i 6 (1931).
Fu Yun-tzu ~~T· "Su-wen-hsueh yen-chiu" [Studies on popular literature]

ili )(~TiFf~. Lecture notes, perhaps never published.
Hatano Taro 1Bl4}!f:kN~. "Tonko henbunjigi tsii.shaku dokugo" [After read-

ing Comprehensive explanations of characters in Tun-huang pien-wen] t9.:i.lil~3t*
~ ~ ~ al f&, Yokohama shiritsu daigaku kiyo [The Bulletin of the Yokohama City
University] ;jj/{~m:lz:::k~wC.~ 11.2 (1960).
275
Bibliography
Hsu Chia-jui f,J<);l'/ffi. "Tun-huang fa-hsien Fo-ch'ii su-wen shih-tai chih t'ui-
ting" [A tentative establishment of the dating of the Buddhist cantos and
popular writing discovered at Tun-huang] ~:J;!il~:ffl.f9ilflll1i't3tlliff(;z11fXE,
Wen-hsueh chou-pao [Literary weekly] )C~f/il ¥a 199 ( 1925).
Hsu Ming-ya f,J<~~§. "Ts'ung pien-wen tao chu-kung-tiao" [From pien-wen
to chu-kung-tiao] {IU~3t3llj~'§~, Ch'ang-liu [Free flowing] ~VIE 21.8 (June
1960).
Hu Ku-huai ~ i:tm. "Ts'ung Mu-lien pien-wen shuo ch'i" [A discussion begin-
ning with the Maudgalyii.yana pien-wen] {i:(:r § ~~XJ WtJW, Kung-tun pao
[Public forum] 6 0~iiff¥a (8 Aprill963).
Hung Liang ij:f.;~. "Tun-huang shih-shih lite min-su wen-hsueh" [Folk litera-
ture from theTun-huangstonechamber] ~:J;!il:-fi~m!S9~1i't )C~. In Chapter
6, part 3 ofChung-kuo min-su wen-hsueh shih-lueh [Outline history of Chinese folk
literature] 9=tm~1i't3t~§l:~. Shanghai: Ch'iin-chung, 1934.
Ju-chen, tr. ~IJ~~ (?)."Tun-huang pien-wen yii Fo- [chiao](?)" [Tun-huang

pien-wen and Buddhism] ~m~3t~f91! [/Mt], Hsin hsueh-sheng [The new stu-
dent] fjf~j:: 4.3 (16 March 1970).
Kanaoka Shoko JillliJJJVB't. "'0 Ryo,' 'Ri Ryo' hen bun toni tsuite-Tonko-bon
koshi-rui no ichi-sokumen-" [On the Wang Ling and Li Lingpien-wen, etc.-
An aspect of historical narrative texts from Tun-huang] r X~J r$ ~J ~3t ~
t:·:H~-r-~m;;f;:~§l:~o:>-{JWfifi-. Toyogaku kenkyii [Studies of eastern
culture] *r=¥~1iff~ 2:55-64 (1967).
- - . "Pari zohon Mokuren henbun sanshu fuchii" [Three manuscripts of the
Maudgalyii.yana pien-wen preserved in Paris, with notes] /f.')~*§ ~~)C
.:=:::fil!fflll, Okurayamagakuin kiyo [Bulletin ofOkurayama Academy] :k~!l.l~
l!i'f*c~ 3:169-193 (1959).
- - . "Shunshi shiko hen bun no shomondai" [Questions on the pien-wen of the
utmost filiality of Shun as a boy] ~T-~$':~3t 17) ~F.., II!!. Okurayama gakuin
kiyo [Bulletin ofOkurayama Academy] )i:~l.LI~I!i'f*c~ 2:167-190 (1956).
- - . "Tonko-bon To Ei-den shitan" [Exploratory discussion of the Tun-huang
version of the story ofTung Yung] ~:J;!il;;j;:ji7J< VJj~~' Toyo daigaku kiyo (Bul-
letin of the Faculty ofLetters, Toyo University) *r=¥*~*c~ 20 (1966).
Kuan Te-tung IU!~tll[. "Ch'ou-nii yuan-ch'i ku-shih te ken-chii [The source of
the story about the legend of the ugly maiden] ~:tdifeiWi&~s:J~jl. In SWH
9 (19 December 1947).
- - . "Hsiang-mo pien-wen ya-tso-wen yii Mu-lien yuan-ch'i" [Theya-tso-wen
for the pien-wen on the subduing of demons and the Maudgalyii.yanayuan-ch'i]
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Meijuo ~tf. "T'ang-tai te min-chien Fo-chiao wen-hsueh-pien-wen" [Pien-

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wen-hua [Buddhist culture] {~ ~ )( 1t 1.5 ( 19 September 1966).
Tung K'ang j[Jl. "Shun-tzu chih-hsiao pien-wen pa, Chao-chiin pien-wen pa"
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Shu-poyung-t'an [Common chatter from a book-laden junk] :BM!JIEf. Shang-
hai: Ta-tung shu-chii, 1920 (?)or 1928 (?).
Wang Ch'ing-shu £~~- "Hsiao-shuo chih T'ang-tai shih ta ch'eng-li shih-ch'i

chili yuan-yin" [The reason fiction attained maturity only upon reaching the
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Wang Chung-min .:E!!l~- "Tun-huang pen Tung Yung pien-wen pa" [Post-
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Weng T'ung-wen ~ li'iJ )(."Tun-huang shih-shih feng-pi nien-tai chih mi" [The
277
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~tzr:~~t B ¥a (15 October 1948).
278
Index
Note: A list of Tun-huang caves and manuscripts referred to in this book is available from
the author.
abbreviation formula, 26, 31, 91, 124 Bharhut, 84, 98

Abhayagiri, 99 bhopo, 60, 117
academies, 137, 148 Bimbisara, 24
Africa, 120 Biographies of Eminent Monks, 140, 150-151;
'Ahbiir ~-~ifi Wa !-Hind, 139 Continued, 43, 148
aides-mimoire, 140 biwa, 118
Ajal)ta, 84, 99 black dog, 18
alaT(lkiiraka, 148 blindness, 118
allusions, 27 Blount, Thomas, 89
Amaravati, 84, 99 Bodh Gaya, 84
Amita-gyifng, 77 Bodhiruci, 67
Amitabha, 46-47 Book of Change, 45, 47, 90, 137
Amitiibha-siitra, 31 booklet, 15, 28, 128
An Wen-te, 132 brahmaciirin, 135
Analects, 13 7 Brahmal)as, 96
Ananda, 18,58 Brednich, Rolf, 117
Anathapil)<;lika, 62, 64, 84 British Museum, 10
Arabic, 71 Brough,John, 61
Archer, W. G., 117 Buddhacarita, 75
Aryasiira, 95 BuddhaghQsa, 68
ASvagho~a, 95 Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, 57
Aucassin et Nicolette, 39, 89 Bu~ma, 180n.32, 200n.59
audience, 26, 52, 86, Ill, 120, 148
Autumn Cantillation, 30 campa, 90
avadiina, 26, 29-30, 32 Cantonese storytellers, 119
Avatam~a, 75 cantos, 13
Avici hell, 17, 124 caraT]a citra, 64
cartouches, 73-76, 100, 105, 198n.33,
ba, 78 199n.50
Bactria, 2 Catch-Tiger Han, 11
Bali, 199n.59 caves, Tun-huang, passim
ballad, 155 Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, 1, 8; West-
"Ballad ofMuklan", 94 ern, 53, SO
Biinkelsiinger, 116 Central Asia, 5, 17, 41, 45, 65, 83, 96, I 07,
barbarian ants, 21, 24 137, 153, 199n.50
Barua, Benimadhab, 64, 84 Ceylon, 146
beggars, 145 "Ch'a-chiu lun", 207n.79
Bengal, 97 Ch'ang-an, 2, 159, 178n.8, 180n.35
BhadramiiyiikiiravyiikaraT]a, 66-67 Chang Ch'ien, 45, 82
279
Index
"Ch'ang-hen ko", 157 Chuang-tzu, 46, 137

Chang Hu, !56 chuang-yen, 148- I 49
Chang Huai-shen, 17, 23-24, 34 citra, 63
Chang Hung-hsun, 93 classical tale, 33
Chang 1-ch'ao, 16, 23, 34, 135, 178n.ll Cliffs of the Ten Thousand Buddhas, 53
Chang Pao-ta, 126 colloquia11anguage, 78
Ch'ang Shu-hung, I 77n.2 colophons, 86, 126-134, 209n.l06
Chang Ta-ch'ien, 4 commercial texts, Ill, 116-117
Chang Ta-ch'ing, 129 Confucianism, 72
Chang T'ai-yen, 154 conjuration, 58, 64, 66-68, 99
Chang Yen-yuan, 142 Conversations of the States, 90
Chang Ying-chiin, 134 Conze, Edward, 66, 68
chantefables, 39, 89 creation, 70, 72, 79
Chao I, 91 Crump, James, 40
Chao Lin, 141 Cullavagga, 63
Ch'en, Kenneth, 48, 50 cults, 163, 165, 21ln.l39
Ch'en Kuo-ning, 95
Ch'en, Lili, 48 dalang, 60, 112-113; 115
Ch'en Shih-tao, 163 Dat;~Qin, 90
Cheng Chen-to, 37, 95 De, Gokuldas, 97
Ch'eng 1-chung, 91 "DeafMonk" Li, 161
Ch'eng-tu, 7 definitions, 13-14, 26
Chi Hsien-Iin, 96 Demieville, Paul, ix, 41
Chi Pu, 28, 132, 206n.65 "Destruction of the Transformations of
Chi Shih-Iao, 152 Demons", 15, 24, 26, 31, 34, 132, 136
chiang-eking-wen. See siitra lectures Dhiira7Jf Siitra, 75
Chiang Po-ch'ien, I I Dharmagupta, 56
Chieh-ching, 134 Dharmakirti, 79
Chieh-tao, 130 Dharmalakljana, 59
Ch'ien Yin-kuang, 156 Dharmarak~a, 2, 56, 67
Chih-p'an, 164 Di'!)liivadana, 50, 52, 64
Chih-yen, 126 Dolby, William, 59
Ch'in Dynasty, 90 drama, 20, 26, 51, 57, 78, 97, 101, 113, 146,
Chinese, 3, 30, 61,65-71,80 213n.3
Ch'ingDynasty, 88, I 18, 120-121, 146, 166 Dutch scholars, 114
Ch'iu Chen-ching, 169
Ch'iu Chi-chen, 156 Edgerton, Franklin, 79
Ch'iu Hu, 25, 34, 137 Egami, N., 39
"Ch'iu-yin." See Autumn Cantillation Egypt, 108
Cho Wen-chiin, 153 · EightAspects, 15,25-26,31
Choe Sang-su, I 13 Embracement of the Earth. See Kua-ti pien-wen
cho-hphrul, 62 Ennin, 143 '
Chou !-liang, 38, 48, 63 Ennin's Diary, 142 ·
Chou Shao-liang, 10-11, 48 epiphany, 60
Chou Shu-chia, 140 episodic structure, I 5-16, 84
Ch'u, 91 erh-hu, 118
ch' ii. See cantos Erh-nii ying-hsiung chuan, 144
ch'u {"place"). See narrative locus etoki, I I 7
Chu Hsi, 46, 78 Europe, 108, 118
Ch'u-tz'u, I 07 evangelism, I 50
Ch'ii Yuan, 137 Evers, Hans-Dieter, 146
chuan. See turning and chuan-pien exorcists, I 46
chuan ("story"), 25, 28
ch'uan-ch'i. See classical tale Fa-hsien, 2, 99
chuan-pien, 107, 159, 161 Fa-pao, 134
280
Index
Fa-yuan chu-lin, 43, 53 Hsiang Ta, 11, 38, 95, 135

Famiry Teachings of the Grand Duke, 8, 131 Hsiang Yii, 19-20
Fan Ch'eng-ta, xviii Hsiao-ching, 137
filial piety, 58, 85 Hsiao T'ung, 137
Five Dynasties, 6, 10-11, 14, 33-34, 166 Hsiao-t;:.u chuan, 10
Five Terraces Mountain, 3, 74, 180n.35 Hsiao-yuan ts'ung-shu, 15 7
folk literature, 111, 151 Hsieh Hai-p'ing, 33
formulaic expressions, 120-121 Hsien-yii eking. See Siitra of the Wise and the
Fo-tsu fung-chi, 143, 164 Foolish
Four Noble Truths, 83 Hsien-yu meng-yu erh lu, 169
France, 108 Hsu Kao-seng chuan. See Biographies of Eminent
Frodsham,J. D., 155 Monks, Continued
fu. See rhapsodies Hsu Shen, 44
Fu Yun-tzu, 48 Hsuan-tsang, xviii, 2, 79, 99, 167
Fukien, 178n.8 Hsuan-tsung,2, 12,23,33,158,217
Fukui Fumimasa-Bunga, 149 Hsueh An-chiin, 126-127
Fu-mu en-chung eking, 85, 129, 167 Hsueh Chao-yun, 160
Fu-mu en-chung eking pien, xvii-xviii Hsueh-chin f ao-yuan, 158
funeral dramas, 145-148 Hu San-hsing, 143
Hu Shih, 15, 90, 99, 104
von Gabain, Annemarie, 41 hua. See talks
Ganges, 18 hua-pen. See story roots
giithii, 28, 30, 90, 124 Huang-fu Sung, 169-170
Ga;:.etteer of Soochow Prifecture, xviii Huang-ti nei-ching su-wen, 44-45
Genji Monogatari. See Tale ofGenji Hui-chiao, 138, 150
genres, 9, 29, 159 Hui-yuan, 25, 87
Germany, 108 Hui-li, 167
Gesar, 122 Hulsewe, A. F. P., 45
Giles, Lionel, 16, 126 Humi, 18
Glan Darma, 136 Hung-pien, 139
Glossographia, 89 hungry ghosts, 18, 76
granthika, 97 Huns, 21-22, 152
Greece, 3 hymns, 13
Grousset, Rene, 3
I-ching, 55, 62, 135
Hami,3 !-chou, 23
Han Ch'in-hu. See Catch-Tiger Han I-chueh, 130
Han-:fei-t;:.u, 137 illiteracy, 107, 111
Han shu. See History of the Han Dynasry illusion, 45, 49, 53, 57, 59, 66-70, 72, 79,
Han Wu-ti, 82 160, 191n.102, 194n.l77
Hanan, Patrick, 120 illustrations. See pictures
Hangchow, 118 immediacy, 86, 88
Haystack Mountain, 82 Important Instructions for Beginning Students, 8
Heart Siitra, 167 India, 2, 3, 62, 89, 91,94-99, 106, 135, 145,
Heian, 102 149, 167, 180
hell,40,62,86 Indonesia, 60, 108, 113-114, 120
heptasyllabism, 24, 27, 31 Inoue Yasushi, 4
Hinzler, H. I. R., 113 Intends to Create Merit, 24, 133
History of the Han Dynasry, 19, 21, 45, 132 Iran, 3
History of the Sui, 3, 72 Italy, 108
Homer, 118, 201n.94 Iwamoto Yutaka, 17
Hrdlickova, Vera, 11, 36, 58, 95, 112
Hsi-hsia, 5 Jade Gate Pass, 3
Hsiang-mo pien-wen. See "Subduing of Japan, 75-76,117,145
Demons" Jiitaka, 39, 80, 84, 97-99
281
Index
Jiitaka-miilii, 95 lakon, I 14
Jaworski,Jan, 145 Lalitavistara, 96
Jen Erh-pei, 10, 13 Lanciotti, Lionello, 36
Jeta, Prince, 64, 84 languages, 3, 15
Jetavana,53,62-63,65,81 Lao-Is'an yu-chi, 208n.83
Jiianagupta, 56 Layout, 16, 77, 168
Journey to the West, 50, 58 lay performers, 153-156,21 In.l39
laystudent, 126-129,131-132, 134,207n.65
K' ai-meng yao-hsun. See Important Instructions Li-chi, 137
for Beginning Students Li Chi-shun, 127
Kameta Tsutomu, 75 Li Ho, 154-156
k'an, 77 Li Kuang, 22
Kan Pao, 43 Li Ling, 16, 21-22,89, 134
Kanaoka Shoko, 4, 10, 34, 36, 99 Liang dynasty, 43, !51
Kano Naoki, 6 Liang, Later, 34
Kansu, 3, 7 Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, 95
Kansu Corridor, 135 Liao dynasty, 70
Kao Chin-ta, 136 Lieh-nfi chuan, 93
Kao Li-shih, 158-159 Ling-pao tu-jen ching, xviii
Kao Li-shih wai-chuan, !58 Literacy, 139
Kao-seng chuan. See Biographies <if Eminent Liu, Crown Prince, 133
Monks Liu Hsiu-yeh, 33
Karakhojo, 3 Liu,JamesJ. Y., 42
Karle, 84 Liu Pang, 19-20, 28
karma, 18, 72 Liu Ta-chieh, 42
kiii!Jiiidaria, 90 Liu Ts'un-yan, 48
Kawaguchi Hisao, 73 Lo Chen-yii, 30, 99, 135
ke ("song"), 28 Lo Tsung-t'ao, 34, 38
Khan-bling-koa, 146 Loewe, Michael, 45
Kharakhoto, 85 Lotus Siitra, 52, 55-56,69, 75, 138
Khotan(ese), 2-3, 18, 57, 67, 74, 178n.7 Lo-yang, 178n.8
Kofukuji, 167-168 Lo:Jang ch'ieh-lan chi, 57
Korea, I 18, 180 Lu K'an-ju, 90
Kozlov, P., 85 Lun:Jfi. See Analects
Ku-liang, 137 lyric verse, 8, 28, 78, 90, 141, 162
Kua-ti pien-wen, I 64
Kuan Te-tung, 59 magic, 71, 195n.l78
Kuan-t<:;u, 44 magic contest, 19, 34, 67, 99
Kuan-yin, 52 magical powers, 64, 69-70
Kuan Ying, 20 Mahiibhiirata, 96
Kuei-i chiin. See Returning-to-Righteous- (Maha)maudgalyayana, 14-15,17-18,26,
ness Army 28, 58, 64, 75-76, 86, 88, 91, 100, 123-
Kumano bikuni, 117, 166 124, 126-127, 129, 139, 145, 151-152,
Kumarajiva, 2, 56-57 161
k'ung-mu-kuan, 15, 128-129, 207n.65 Mahii-sammata-siitra, 53
Kung-sun Lung-tzu, 45 Mahiivastu, 96
Kung-le-i. See Intends to Create Merit Mahayana,32,67
Kung:Jang, 137 Mai-chi-shan. See Haystack Mountain
Kuo P'u, 39 man ("southern barbarian"), 154
Kuo Shih, 158 miinava, 135
KUO:JU. See Conversations <if the States Manchu, 78
kwangdae, I 18 mal]t/ala, xvii, 40, 59-60
Kyzil, 107 Manichaeism, 71-72, 164-165, 19ln.91
manifestation (supernatural), 19,58-60,62,
laity, 124, 128, 146, 149, 160 65,68-72,79
282
Index
Maiijusrl, 74 otogi zoshi, 76

mankha, 65
manuscripts, 12, 14 paintings, 41-42, 62, 64, 78, 80. See also
manuscripts, dating 5, 33-35 pictures
Maya, 71, 79 "Pair of Kindnesses," 168
medley, 90 "Pai-she chuan," 202n.104
memorization, 115 Pakem, 114
Meng Chiang-nii, 28, 104, !53 Pali,63,67, 190
Men'shikov, Lev N., 5 PanKu, 137
merchants, 124 p'ansori, 118
Mihr-Ormuzd, 164 pao-chiian. See treasure scrolls
Minamotono Tamenori, 102 Pao-hsuan, 134
Ming dynasty, 88, 101, 107-108, 121, 166, par, 117
169 par vlica7Jo, 73, 79
mifrakam, 89 paradise, 47
Mochizuki Shinkyo, 42 paramita, 148
Mongolia, 122 parallel prose, 91
Monkey,50,58,202n.104 parda, 108
monks, 145, 160, 211n.l39 Pari7]iima,43,58-59, 79
Miilasarviistiviida, 53, 55, 62, 64-65 pariT]iimana, 149
Mu-lien. See Mahamaudgalyayana Parthian, 71
music, 38 pal, 108
musical notations, 30 Paluii, 117
Peking, 166
Naba Toshisada, 41, 144 Peking drumsinging, 116
Nagasawa Kikuya, 59 Peking Library, 16
Nanking, 162 Peking opera, 122
Naquin, Susan, 146 Peking University Library, 15-16, 77
Nara Art Museum, 79 Pelliot, Paul, I, 5-6, 40
narrative, 26, 63, 76,91-97 Pen-shih shih, 15 7
narrative locus, 41, 73-75, 78, 80-82, 84- Persia(n), 2, 71, 108, 120, 164
86 Persian, Middle, 217n.57
narrative moment, xvii, 41, 78, 80-82 'phrul, 70
narrative sequence mark, 82-83 Pi-chi man-chih, 143
Navapa, 3 pictures, 15-16, 41, 62-66, 73, 76-77, 88,
Needham, Joseph, 2, 45 99-102, 104, 106-107, 156. See also
Nemoto Makoto, 153 paintings
Nco-Confucianism, 46, 164 picture recitation, 27, 71, 76, 107
Nepal, 97 picture scrolls, 9, 75, 77, 102, 153, 170
Nestorianism, 165 picture-story, xviii, 27, 71
nidiina, 26, 29-30, 32, 129, 134 Pidjan, 3
Nine Classics, 137 pien hsi-fa, 52
nirmiiT]a, 43, 45, 49, 65, 68-70 Pigeaud, Th. G., 114
nirmita, 56 p'ing-hua, 76-77, 108
nomenclature, 12-14 Pischel, Richard, 96, 117
Po Chii-i, 131, 156-158
Ol'denburg, S. F., 5 Poyuan ching. See Siitra ofOne Hundred Occasions
Ono Genmyo, 41 poetics, 38, 186-187n.23
Ono Katsutoshi, 142 popular lectures, 9, 37, 140-141, 148-150
optics, optical phenomena, 52, 69-70, 72, Porkert, Manfred, 44
196n.197 practice writing, 139
orality, 32, 36, 73, 86-88, 94, 96, 101, 107, Prague School, 89
110, 119, 120-121, 134, 153 prajflii, 186n.23
ordained status, 140-141, 216n.41 pratibimba, 70
orthography, 119 priitihiirya, 49, 57, 62, 65, 68
283
Index
pratiriipa, 60 Sarnath, 84
pratftya-samutpiida, 29 Siistri, Haraprasiid, 145
pratyaya, 30 Jaubhika, 65
preaching, 138, 149, 215n.34 Sawada Mizuho, 39
preta. See hungry ghosts Sawyer, Ruth, 116
pre-verseformula, 15,27,31, 73, 77,79-80, scribal error, 87, 119, 122, 132-133, 137
86-88,99 Scripture of the Two Principles, 164
professional religious entertainers, 146, scroll format, 16
212n.l63 scrolls, 25
promptbooks, 110-119, 140 Seaman, Gary, 146
prose, 27-28, 31, 2lln.l39 seat-settling texts, 11, 13, 24, 26, 32, 148
prosimetric form, 9, 13, 15-16, 26-28, 36- secularization, 149
37,73,88-98,106 Seven Bibliographies, 137
prostitution, 166 shadows, shadow-play, 70-71, 111-113,
Prusek,Jaroslav, 42, 118 180n.36, 196n.l97
p'u, 77, 167 Shan-hai ching, 107
Puli, 146-148 Shan-hui, 29
punctuation, 138, 2l0n.l29 Shang-shu, 13 7
puppet play, puppeteers, 113, 116-117 Shao Hsun-mei, 15, 77, 128, 139
Puriil].as, 96 shen-pien, 43,47-49,52-53,56,68, 195n.l78
purgatory, 28 Shensi, 7, 180n.32
shih (matter), 76
quotative formula, 28, 88 shih (moment). See narrative moment
Shih-chi. See Records of the Grand Historian
raga, 108 Shih-chiafang-chih, 52
Riihula, 57-58 Shih-chia p'u, 52
Riijagrha, 18, 51 Shih Chih-ts'un, 42
Rajasthani, 60, 117 Shih-ching, 137
Raudriik~a, 18, 34, 49, 53-56, 81, 99 Shih-erh shih, 136
rddhi, 49, 62 Shih-men cheng-t'ung, 164
realization, 66, 186n.23 Shih-tz;u yii£h Fo pen-sheng ching, 51
Records of the Grand Historian, 21 Shih Yen [Yai], 4
Rl:gamey, Konstanty, 60,66 Shionoya On; 59
Reischauer, Edwin, 142 Shu, Later, 161
Returning-to-Righteousness Army, 23, 136 Shuang en chi. See "Pair of Kindnesses"
J!.gveda, 96 Shun-tzu, 25, 33, 137
rhapsody, 9, 90-93 Siddhiirta, Prince, 30-31, 130, 138
"Rhapsody on Swallows," 207n.78 Sikfiisamuccaya, 57, 78
rhyme-prose. See rhapsody Silk Route, 3
ritual, 146 Simon, Walter, 70
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, 116 simulated context, 16, 77, 88, 120
Ruch, Barbara, 111, 117 Sinhalese, 20ln.96
Six Dynasties, 38, 43, 70, 92
Sabuhragiin, 217n.5 7 Six Heretics, 80
sai-kong, 147-148 So Ch'ing-tzu, 128
Saito Sho, 155 So Pu-tzu, 129
Siimaka, 80 Sogdia(n), 2-3, 71, 164
Sanbiie (kotoba), 102 Soochow, xviii, 145, 156
Siiiici, 84, 99 siiriibun, 78
San-kuo chih. See Romance ofthe Three Kingdoms Sou-shen chi, 10, 43
Sanskrit, 3, 30, 42, 55, 61, 62,65-71,80,85, "Southeastward Flies the Peacock," 94
113, 148, 190 Southern Brothel, 166
Siintideva, 78 Spirit of the Earth, 161-163
Sariputra, 18, 34, 49, 53-56, 58, 80-81, 83, sprul, 69
88, 98-101, 121, 124, 132, 153, 161 Sriivasti, 18, 81
284
Index
Ssu-ma Ch'ien, 22, 137 talks, 9

Ssu-ma Hsiang-ju, 39, !53 Tang chih-yen, 15 7, 169
Ssu-ma Kuang, 143 Tanguts, 4-5, 136
Ssu Su, 115 Tantra, 66
Stein, Au rei, I, 5-6 t'an-tz'u, 145, 169
Stein, Rolf, 69-70 Tao-hsuan, 52, 148
Stevens, Catherine, 116 Taoism, xviii-xix, 28, 137, 141, 144-145,
story roots, 9, 11-12 147, 149, 163, 2lln.139
storyteller, storytelling, 26, 65, 71, 79, 106, Tao-shih, 43
111-112,159, 215n.36 Tarim, 3
stotra (eulogies), 30 Taxila, 84
strangeness, 42-43, 63, 189n.56 Tea and Wine, Discussion between. See
stiipa, 18, 24, 46, 99 "Ch'a-chiu lun"
Su Wu, 21-22, 134 terminology, technical Buddhist, 61, 70
Su Ying-hui, 29, 92 textbooks, 7-8
"Subduing of Demons", 15-17, 49, 53, 100 Thompson, Laurence, 146
su-chiang. See popular lectures three rivers, 7
Sudatta, 18-19, 81, 100 Tibetan(s), 2-3, 23, 42,61-62, 66-67, 69,
Sui dynasty, 34, 72 135, 178n. 7 and n.ll
Sun K'ai-ti, 42 t'i-yung, 13
sung. See hymns Tocharian, 3, 96
Sung dynasty, xviii, xix, 12, 78, 83, 90, 107, tokoro, 75-76, 78
116, 166 Tiipffer, Rodolphe, vii
Sung Wen-hsien, 132 Toyuk, 83
SupaTI]iidhayiiya, 96 treasure scrolls, I 07
supernatural effects and powers, 50-51,62- Tsa-pao tsang-ching, 32
63,68 Ts'ai Yung, 91
siitra lectures, 9, 11, 13, 29, 31, 37, 86, 99, Tsang-ch'uan, 7
131, 134, 140, 149, 159-160, 168-169 Tsang Mou-hsun, 169
siitras, 94-96, 121, 134 Tso-chuan, 13 7
Siitra rif One Hundred Occasions, 31 Tseng Yung-i, 38
Siitra rif Recompense for Kindness, 167-169 Tsung-chien, 164
Siitra of the Sacrificial Feast for Hungry Ghosts, Tuan An-chieh, 141-142
17 Tuan Ch'eng-shih, 142, 160
Siitra rif the Wise and the Foolish, 18, 53, 100 Tun-huang, 1-14, 23, 73, 136, 153: name,
Siitra Spoken by the Buddha Concerning Recom- 1-2
pense to Parentsfor their Great Kindness, xviii- Tung Yung, 27
xix Turkestan, 3, 129
Suzuki Torao, !55 Turkey, 108
Sweeny, Amin, 112 Turks, 22, 34
Switzerland, 108 turning [picture scrolls], 9,214n.l9, 215n.35,
Syriac, 3 216n.40
Szechwan, 7-8, 133, 152-154, 159, 161, Tuyughuns, 23
180n.32, 213n.l two principles, 164, 217n.57
tz'u. See lyric verse
"Ta-shui pien", 169-170 tz'u-wen, 9, 28
Ta Tang San-tsang ch'ii-ching shih-hua, 84
Ta Tang San-tsang Fa-shih ch'ii-ching chi, 118 Ugly Girl, 31-32
Ta-tsu, 8 Uighur(s), 3, 23, 41, 167, 178n.7
Tai-kung chia-chiao. See Family Teachings rif Umezujiro, 10,41
the Grand Duke upiiya, 138
Tai-p'ing kuang-chi, 143, 156-157, 159
Taiwan, 145-148 Vajra, 31
Taklamakan, 3 Vajracchedikaprajniipiiramitii-siitra, 132
Tale rifGenji, 12, 16, 102 Vandier-Nicolas, Nicole, 34
285
Index
variation, 38 Whistling Sands Hills, 1

Vedas, 96 White Snake, Story of the. See "Pai-she
Vegetarian Servants of the Devil, 165 chuan"
vernacular: literature, 6, 12, 27; language, Wolfram, Eberhard, 8
27; fiction, 121 Wu-chen, 136
verse, 97-98, 100-102, 115, 124 153 Wu Cheng-tzu, 155
211n.139 ' ' Wu, Empress. See Wu Tse-t'ien
verse introductory formula. See pre-verse Wu Hsiao-ling, 63
formula Wu-keng chuan, 136
vikrfrfita, 69 Wu K'o-chi, 164
vikurva7Ja, 49 Wu-t'ai-shan. See Five Terraces Mountain
vikurvita, 68 Wu Tzu-hsu, 7, 11, 28, 33,87, 133, 182n.43,
Vijfliinamiitra, 59 208n.88
Vijnaptimiitratii, 79 Wu Tse-t'ien, 164
Vimalakirti, 40, 148, 161 Wu Tueh ch'un-ch'iu, 93
Vimalakfrti Siitra, 7, 30, 133
Vinaya (statutes), 55
ya-tso-wen. See seat-settling text
Vi~~er, M. W. de, 40
Ta:JIU t'ang ts'ung-shu, 15 7
visualization, 66
Visuddhimagga, 68 yamapata, 65
Yang Kuei-fei, 159
vithapana, 79
Yang Kuo-chung, 159
l!Jiiha, 77
Yang Pin-kuei, 145
Yang Wei-chen, 169
Waley, Arthur, 40, 48, 111
Yang Yin-shen, 92, 169
wall-paintings, 8, 73, 83, 99
Yang Yuan-shou, 128
wan pien-ch'ang, 160
Yao Wen-hsich, 155
Wang Chao-chiin, 16, 20, 34, 79 89 152~
154 , ' Yeh Ching-neng, 7, 12
Yeh Sheng, 118
Wang Ch'i, 155
Yen-ts'ung, 167
Wang Chien, 154
"Yen-tzu fu", 207n.78
Wang Chih, 165
Yen Wu-ch'eng, 15, 128
Wang Fan-chih, 8, 139
Yin Nu-er, 207n.65
Wang Kuang-yun, 69
yin:Jiuan, 31
Wang Kuo-wei, 118
Tu:Jiang tsa-tsu, 160
WangLing, 15,19-20,77,79 89 127-128
139 ' ' ' Yii Chien-hua, 40
Yii Hsin, 92
Wang Mang, 25
yuan (occasion), 31-32
Wang Shih-chen, 158
yuan-ch'i, 9, 13, 29-31, 123
Wang Wei, 46-48
Yuan Chao, 149
Wang Yuan-1u, 4
Yuan dynasty 12, 75, 78, 107, 213n.3
wayang, 114
Yuan-ti, 152
wayang heber, I 08
yueh-fu. See ballad
wayang siam, 112
Tii-lan-p'en eking. See Sutra of the Sacrificial
WeiHu, 152
Feast for Hungry Ghosts
Wei, Northern, 38, 83
Yii-men kuan. See jade Gate Pass
Wcnchow, 180n.35, 195n.183
Yunnan, 154, 180n.32
Wen-hsu, 141-144
Yun-pien, 3, 130
Wen-hsuan, 137
TU:Jiang tsa-tsu, 160
Wen K'ang, 144
Wen-shu, 141-144
Wcn-tsung, 143 Zen, 61, 133-134, 161, 215n.28
West Asia, 108 Zoroastrianism, 165
Western Regions, 3, 45 Zurcher, E., x, 135
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T'ang Transformation Texts

Harvard-Yenching Institute Monograph Series 28

Distributed by the HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Cambridge (Massachusetts) and

A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise

Published by the COUNCIL ON EAST ASIAN STUDIES, HARVARD UNIVERSITY

The Harvard-Yenching Institute, founded in 1928

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Mair, Victor H., 1943-

As will shortly become apparent to readers of this study, in

More attention could be paid to the way in which Buddhism, as a

But, for various ideological, political, and patriotic reasons, the

matters. Any deficiencies in these areas are entirely the result of

generous support, in part financed by the National Endowment for

swerving insistence on quality, reliability, and civility. His "Dutch

New Developments xvii

Chapter One Tun-huang and the Manuscripts

ofit on my hurried visit. What I saw convinces me that it richly de-

figures, buildings, and flora. Each specialized in a particular skill and

The problematic word pien ~ is herein consistently translated as

which has not been positively identified. The Greek equivalent

there were artistic and literary influences flowing in both direc-

As Grousset has so aptly put it in terms of the transmission of

paper." 22 When Stein first saw the manuscripts in situ, he was

found in great numbers). They are notes, jottings scribblings, con-

The discovery at Tun-huang of a significant number oftexts32 that orig-

at writing titles, including those of textbooks for children such as Family

Our primary task is to delimit the corpus of pien-wen. In order to

other genres of popular literature simply because they were dis-

sistence that no untitled Tun-huang text should be designated

a hua-pen implies anything, it suggests a generic relationship to

discovered at Tun-huang. Without further ado, we should discard

erature from Tun-huang, regardless of whether it is in verse, in

82614 Ta-mu-ch'ien-lien ming-chien chiu-mu pien-wen ping t'u i chiian ping

P2319 Ta-mu-ch'ien-lien ming-chien chiu-mu pien-wen i chiian 7;: 13 fz; ~

It would be incorrect to refer to the account of Maudgalyayana

introductory formula, language, and so forth. Both the head title

1. "Transformation Text on Mahamaudgalyayana's Rescue of His

to hell. However, because the sinful karmic burden ofMu-Iien's mother

3. "Transformation on the Han General, Wang Ling." S5437-367,

The basis for this tale is a brief account of approximately 80 tetra-

5. [Transformation Text on Li Ling]. Inventory 587. T85-96, r893-

This story ultimately derives from the well-known historical ac-

perience with the Eastern Turks. In obsequious terms, Li Ling throws

6. [Transformation Text on Chang 1-ch'ao]. P2962-70. Tll4-117,

After several days of banqueting and celebrating, the mission must

as assembled by the T editors-as a "mixed" or "hybrid" trans-

refer to it as apien (T342.5). The rather cryptic reference reads as

inition which includes the following elements: a specific verse-

bar the Tun-huang story ofWu Tzu-hsu (P3213-l 00, S6331-428,

337; T817); and a piece, wholly in prose, about a monk named

Today I've proclaimed for you this matter,

This interpretation is reinforced by the ending of another, untitled,

This morning I intend to speak on this profound sutra;

Siitra if the Treasures if Assorted Jewels ?itJf~~ are, respectively,

Most of the dated transformation-text manuscripts bear colophons that

The meaning of the character pien in pien-wen, as distinct from the

On the basis of one newly proffered bit of evidence, two Soviet

occupied by pien-wen. We should strive to discover an English

It appears that Pelliot was tentatively on the same path of exegesis

The terms pien[sic] ~' pien-hsiang[sic] i:il!ffi, chfng-pien[sic] m!~ all