[ { "id": 204304, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n68\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nBUDDHIST SOURCES OF THE NOVEL\n\nFENG-SHEN YEN-I\n\n:\n\nLIU TS'UN-YAN. PH.D.\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nThe Feng-shên Yen-i, or 'Investiture of the Gods,' is a long novel consisting of 100 chapters. Its authorship had long been unknown, until in 1931 Prof. Sun K'ai-ti discovered in the Japanese Cabinet Library a Ming edition of this novel labelled \"compiled (pien-chi) by Hsu Chung-lin, styled Chung-shan I-sou.\" Many scholars therefore concluded that Hsü Chung-lin was the author. For instance, Lu Hsün in his A Brief History of Chinese Fiction (Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shih-lüeh) mentioned Hsü as the author, though he added that he had not seen the original preface and therefore could not ascertain the date of the novel. This attribution of authorship is not reliable, for in Ming times the term \"compiling” (pien-chi) was rather freely used, and sometimes booksellers would reprint a book with slight additions and alterations and label it as being \"compiled\" by a new writer. In view of this, from 1935 to 1956, I tried to find out the true author of this novel, and my researches led me to the conclusion that the author or compiler of the novel was in fact Lu Hsi-hsing (1520-1601?), a Taoist priest of the Chia Ching period.\n\nLike the Hsi-yu-chi (\"Pilgrimage to the West\", also known to Western readers as \"Monkey\"), the Fêng-shên Yen-i is a work of fiction dealing with the supernatural. It was produced during the time when Chinese fiction was evolving from the prompt-books (hua-pên) of story-tellers to long novels. Its plot is based on the historical events related to the defeat of King\n\n1 There is no English translation of this novel. The German translation by Wilhelm Grube and Herbert Mueller, Die Metamorphosen der Götter (2 vols., Leiden, Brill, 1912) contains only chapters 1-46. Chapters 47-100 have been summarized by Mueller. The novel is mentioned in E. T. C. Werner, Myths and Legends of China (London, 1934) and in Sir J. C. Coyajee, Cults and Legends of Ancient Iran and China (Bombay, 1935).\n\n2 Chung-kuo Hsiao-shuo Shih-lüeh, Ch. 18, p. 176 (1953); also the English translation entitled A Brief History of Chinese Fiction by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang, p. 220 (1959).\n\n3 Details of my evidence and arguments are contained in my unpublished thesis, \"The Authorship of the Feng-shen Yen-i\", a copy of which is in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University.\n\n4 Cf. James J. Y. Liu, \"The Knight Errant in Chinese Literature\", in this volume, pp. 30-41.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204306, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\n70\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n(P'u-hsien), and Avalokitesvara (Kuan-yin). Only certain Buddhas of the Tantric Sect, such as Cundi (Chun-t'i) and Vairocana (P'i-lu-chê-na) are mentioned as \"saints from the West\"; but even these are given Taoist-sounding titles like tao-jên. In this way, the mainly Taoist framework of the novel is preserved. This amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist deities is highly interesting and may have influenced actual religious practice in China. The practice of worshipping Taoist gods side by side with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas seems to have started after the publication of the novel, for in earlier Taoist literature we find no Buddhist deities mentioned among Taoist gods. For instance, in the Yün-chi ch'i-ch'ien, chüan 103, we find an account of the Taoist pantheon as it was in the eleventh century, which contained no Buddhist deities or fictional gods. But after the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, various Taoist gods mentioned in the novel came to be worshipped together with Buddhist ones. What is more, most of the temples which apparently first adopted such practice were situated in northern Kiangsu, near Hsinghua, the native district of Lu, the author of the novel. It is therefore not unreasonable to suggest that the novel influenced the composition of the Chinese pantheon and contributed to the amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist gods in popular belief.\n\nThe amalgamation of Buddhist and Taoist gods seems to have been achieved purposely by the author of the Fêng-shên. As a concrete illustration, I propose to describe how Vaisravana (P'i-sha-mên Tien-wang), one of the Four Heavenly Kings in Buddhist belief, and his third son Nata (Na-cha or No-cha), became important characters in this novel. Vaisravana was of course an Indian god, but during the T'ang and Sung periods he became identified with the Chinese general of the T'ang dynasty, Li Ching. But stories about him were disconnected before the novel Fêng-shên Yen-i was compiled. In various prompt-books which existed before the novel, such as the Nan-yu-chi (\"Prince Hua-kuang or The Voyage to the South\") and the Hsi-yu-chi (“Pilgrimage to the West”, the prototype of the famous novel of the same name) in the Ssu-yu-chi (\"The Four Travels\"), there were already stories about this god and his son. But in the hands of the author of the Fêng-shen these fragmentary and disconnected stories were reorganized and transformed into a vivid tale which can almost stand on its own as an interesting story apart from the whole\n\n* For illustrations of some of these temples, such as the Kuang Fu Monastery in Tai-hsing, Yangchow, and the Tu Tien Temple in Hai-men, Kiangsu, see Père Henri Dore, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, (10 vols., Shanghai, 1913-38), Bk. 9, Pt. 2, in Vol. 6.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204330, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1961", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author\n\n94\n\nVol 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\nmouth. After a fruitless argument with the Taoist master, No-cha wielded his weapon again and as Jan-têng raised his sleeve upwards an object was hurled into the air which emitted radiant beauty and when falling, enveloped No-cha in it and rendered him motionless. Jan-têng tapped it with his hand and flames broke out and made No-cha yield and acknowledge Li Ching as father and bow to him in humiliation. After the reconciliation had been made, Jan-têng Tao-jên instructed Li Ching to relinquish his official post and go into seclusion until the rise of King Wu, and gave to Li Ching the magic weapon which was a golden pagoda of elegant workmanship which would serve to safeguard No-cha from rebellion against his father and to consolidate the reconciliation. (Ch.14)\n\n5. HSI-YU-CHI (“MONKEY\") AND FENG-SHEN\n\nThe story of No-cha as it appears prominently in Chapters 12-14 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i, is for the most part, I believe, the creation of the author except for those minute points which I have discussed. After having consulted the Tantric texts which I have already quoted, we can see that the fantastic story of the pagoda, though with some hints of being inspired by the texts, is a wholly fabulous invention and only by skilful ingenuity can it be made so natural and so plausible. In Ch.83 of Wu Ch'êng-ên's (AR) Hsi-yu-chi (“Pilgrimage to the West\") which is no doubt an enlargement of the Hsi-yu-chi in the \"Four Travels\", there is a paragraph which seems to be either the origin of these Chapters (12-14) of the Fêng-shên Yen-i or a synopsis of these same chapters with variations. I am inclined to take the latter view and believe that the writing of Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi was later than this novel for these reasons:\n\n36\n\n35\n\n(a) As I have pointed out elsewhere when discussing the magic lasso, the name Ya-lung Tung (Dragon-subduing Cave) of the Ya-lung Shan (Dragon-subduing Mountain) which appears in Ch.34 of Wu Ch'êng-ên's Hsi-yu-chi was derived from Ch.52 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i (Fei-lung Tung AM or Flying-dragon Cave of the Chia-lung Shan or Dragon-pinching Mountain).\n\n(b) In Ch.52 of Wu's Hsi-yu-chi, the eighteen Arhats tried with the sand of golden pills to subdue the devil, which sank its feet to the depth of more than three feet. This sand is derived from the Red-sand Array () in Ch.49 of the Fêng-shên Yen-i.\n\n35 See Arthur Waley, Monkey, translation of chapters i-12, 13-5, 18-9, 22, 37-9, 44-6, 47-9, 98-100, London, George Allen & Unwin, 1943.\n\n30 In my thesis \"The Authorship of the Feng-shên Yen-i\", pp. 178-80.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204420, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1962", "page_number": 52, "title": "RAS-1962", "content_text": "THE BUDDHIST CAREER\n\n43\n\nmeditation. I know of a monk who tried the latter for about a year and a half and then gave up. He changed to T'ien-t'ai meditation, which is somewhat easier. He did this for nine years, but still did not feel that he was getting anywhere, and so for the last eighteen years he has been reciting Buddha's name, which is the practice of the Pure Land sect.\n\nNotice that there was no set career. A monk could meditate; he could recite Buddha's name; he could study. He was not committed to the practice of any one sect. It is as if in the West a Christian could be a Quaker this year, a Roman Catholic next year, and a Baptist the year after, regarding them all as complementary. Much of the Buddhist monk's time, of course, was spent in ritual which was common to all sects: chanting the scriptures morning and evening, rites to celebrate the anniversaries of buddhas and bodhisattvas through the calendar year, masses to release the souls of the dead from hell, prayers for the sick, prayers to avert disaster, and other ceremonies designed to assist the faithful with practical problems of life and death.\n\nThe newly ordained monk was, as I say, supposed to meditate and study for five years after ordination. Study was usually carried on in a seminary. The seminaries (there were about thirty-five of them) were established in the nineteen-twenties as a part of the general revival of Buddhism in China. I shall not go into the seminary curriculum, but it lasted from three to twelve years, depending on how much education the monk had already had. It began with secular subjects (history, mathematics, etc.), and ended with studying how to expound the sutras. Some seminaries had a tough programme: one monk I know got T.B. from overwork.\n\n**\n\nAfter the seminary the next stage of the monk's career was peregrination. I use this word because it properly means making pilgrimages. A monk would start off from the place he had been trained and wander up and down China. He might spend a week in one monastery, a few months in another, many years in a third. But in theory there could be no final settling down.\n\nPeregrination was a hard life, and this was one of the reasons it was considered essential. It rubbed off superficialities—from interest in personal comfort to feelings of self-importance. More than that, it enabled a monk to learn each text and doctrine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1962.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f", "rank": 0 } ]