Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch
RASHKB and author
78
Vol. 1 (1961)
ISSN 1991-7295
son of Li Ching is Hui-an () who was a disciple of Kuan Yin (Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara), while his name, Mu-ch'a (*), is not mentioned except in one verse, and not in the prose part of Ch.21. This is the name the author of the Fêng-shên Yen-i adopted. The origin of the name Mu-ch'a can be found in chüan 18, Kan-t'ung P'ien (A) of the Sung Kao-sêng Chuan (***) by Tsan-ning (), who was a follower of the Monk Sangha (@). The latter was said to be an incarnation of the Avalokitesvara of eleven faces and died in A.D. 710. Apart from Mu-ch'a, Hui-an was also one of his disciples. Therefore, in popular literature, Mu-ch'a and Hui-an are mixed up into one person and in the "Four Travels" Hui-an remains a disciple of Kuan Yin. It was the author of the Fêng-shên who changed the character ch'a (X) to cha (RE) in his novel so that the name could have the same second character as No-cha. In some popular editions of the "Four Travels" the character ch'a (X) has also been changed.
Now, in the Tantric works, though the second and third sons of Vaisravana (Tu Chien and Nata) play rather important parts, his other sons, especially his first son, are not mentioned. I have read through a large number of sutras about Vaisravana and consulted some Buddhist scholars in Japan,1a but they could not give me any definite opinion. In Oda Tokuno's (1) Buddhist Thesaurus (#) and in the Chinese work Fu-hsüeh Ta Tz'u-tien (BAND) edited by Ting Fu-pao (TR) based upon it,19 we find that the names of P'i-sha-mên wu t’ung-tzu (£££7 Five Attendants of Vaisravana) include Tu Chien and Nata, but no origin is given. I think they may be identical with the "Five Yakshas" which appear under the sub-title "Princes and Family Members" (ERB) in Caturmaharaja (19F諸小王及眷屬)in E) in chuan 6 of the Ch'i Shih Ching (). They are, in translation, Fifty-feet (wu-chang £), Wilderness (k'uang-yeh ), Golden Mountain (chin-shan ), Long Fellow (ch'ang-shên ) and Hair of A Needle (chên-mao E). They appear (translated literally from the Sanskrit) also in the Caturmaharaja of the Shih Chi Ching (H) and in chüan 19 of the Dirghagama (£§ÂŒ) as "Five Attending Genii of Vaisravana.”
20
I Dr. Henmi Baiei), Professor of Buddhist Art, Tama University (9) and others. I have also consulted the Chinese Buddhist priest Tan-hsü (1), aged 89, a disciple of the late T'i-hsien (M) of the Tien-t'ai Sect (R) and some Tantric scholars.
19 The 4th ed., I Hsieh Shu Chũ (885), Shanghai, 1939.
20 No. 24, The Tripitaka in Chinese, translated by Jñanagupta. cf. No. 25, Ch'i-shih Yin-pên Ching (#LFXE), chữan 6 & 7.