Fang Ling 方玲. “Sûtras apocryphes et maladie.” In Médecine, religion et société dans la chine médiévale: étude de manuscrits chinois de Dunhuang et de Turfan, Tome II, sous la direction de Catherine Despeux, 1001-1093. Paris: Collège de France, Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises, 2010.
| Assertion | Argument | Place in source |
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Fang discusses the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經 T2882 as one of a group of four Dunhuang apocrypha that furnish evidence of Chinese Buddhist attitudes to and ideas about illness. The text is represented by fourteen witnesses in the Pelliot, Stein, China National Library and other collections, but in fact, these witnesses only represent thirteen manuscripts, since Fang discovered that S.6146 and S.2517 derive from the same original manuscript. In a lengthy appendix, Fang describes each individual manuscript in detail. The version of the text presented in the Taishō is only based upon S.418 and S.2517, and is incomplete, but it is possible to complete the text by supplementing from the other witnesses. Fajing's catalogue mentions the text among "forged and erroneous" texts; Yancong and others following repeat the same verdict. The title is sometimes given the orthography 呪媚經 (e.g. in DTNDL). Fang also gives a summary of the content of the text (1006-1007). As Fang describes it, the principal object of the text is sorcery or witchcraft (meigu 魅蠱), which was "not an illness, strictly speaking, but was regarded as a cause of illness and death". Fang discusses meigu (and the related terms wugu 巫蠱 and yanmei 厭魅), and the illnesses supposed to result from it, such as meibing 魅病, meiji 魅疾 and xiebing 邪病; pp. 1019-1021. Fang remarks of all four texts under discussion that they frequently attribute illness to pathological influences which are typically Chinese, such as "winds, miasmas, and demonic possession" (the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經, for instance, although it is presented as an Indian scripture, reveals a series of practices associated with Chinese sorcery); some passages are resonant with Daoist apocalyptic texts; and the texts feature "a throng of bodhisattvas associated with the stars, and the powers of the earth and vegetation, which are the invention of popular Chinese religion"; moreover, almost all the illnesses featuring in the Jiu ji jing are also included in the Jin jing 禁經 (which Fang translates "The Book of Exorcisms"), compiled under the Tang by Sun Simiao (1036-1037). The texts frequently prescribe the copying of sūtras as a cure, and Fang remarks that we see here an assimilation of the copying of sūtras to Chinese talismans that are pasted on doorways. Fang estimates that all the texts in the group date before the Tang. |
1004-1007 |
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Fang discusses the Quan shan jing 勸善經 T2916 as one of a group of four Dunhuang apocrypha that furnish evidence of Chinese Buddhist attitudes to and ideas about illness. This short text of approx. 162 characters is represented by thirty witnesses in the Pelliot, Stein, China National Library, Beijing University, Gansu Museum and other collections. The Taishō text is edited upon the basis of S.417. In a lengthy appendix, Fang describes each individual manuscript in detail. Jia Dan 價耽 (730-805), who was also associated with the Xin pusa jing 新菩薩經 T2917, is said in the text to have been supposed to promulgate the text on imperial order. The text predicts that in the year following its appearance, various illnesses will slaughter large numbers of people. Various manuscript copies bear dates, which cluster around the year 803 (some seem to be dated in error a decade earlier, in 793). This was a jiashen 甲申 year, which was a juncture in the sexagenary cycle often regarded as inauspicious, and fits the gloomy prophecies of the text. On this and other grounds, Fang dates the text to 803-805 (she discusses details of Jia's official biography in the dynastic histories which are difficult to reconcile with the date in 803). Jia Dan was an eminent minister of state who led an illustrious career, and whose biography reports that he had strong scholarly interests in dialectology, geography and ethnography. Fang discusses Jia's biography (1013-1015), and notes that the figure of Jia eventually took on supernatural and miraculous dimensions, which might account for the choice of Jia as the promulgator of the text. Fang remarks of all four texts in this group that they frequently attribute illness to pathological influences which are typically Chinese, such as "winds, miasmas, and demonic possession" (the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經, for instance, although it is presented as an Indian scripture, reveals a series of practices associated with Chinese sorcery); some passages are resonant with Daoist apocalyptic texts; and the texts feature "a throng of bodhisattvas associated with the stars, and the powers of the earth and vegetation, which are the invention of popular Chinese religion"; moreover, almost all the illnesses featuring in the Jiu ji jing are also included in the Jin jing 禁經 (which Fang translates "The Book of Exorcisms"), compiled under the Tang by Sun Simiao (1036-1037). The texts frequently prescribe the copying of sūtras as a cure, and Fang remarks that we see here an assimilation of the copying of sūtras to Chinese talismans that are pasted on doorways. Fang estimates that all the texts in the group date before the Tang. |
1007-1010 |
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Fang discusses the Jiu ji jing 救疾經 T2878 as one of a group of four Dunhuang apocrypha that furnish evidence of Chinese Buddhist attitudes to and ideas about illness. The text is witnessed in seventeen manuscripts in the Pelliot, Stein, China National Library and other collections, and in a lengthy appendix, Fang describes each individual manuscript in detail. The text also has the alternate titles Jiuhu zhongsheng eji jing 救護眾生惡疾經; Jiuhu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jiu jibing jing 救護疾病經; and Jibing jing 疾病經. Fajing's catalogue mentions the text, which it treats as a "forgery". A manuscript copy bears the date of 595. This evidence means that the text must date before the late sixth century. Fang declares that the term eji 惡疾 was only adopted in the secular medical literature form the middle of the seventh century (referring to the writings of Sun Simiao 孙思邈, ?-682), which leads her to favour a later date (in the sixth century) for the text. Fang discusses the term eji in greater detail (1015-): it denotes conditions in which the symptoms are physical and external; it is an old term, that can be traced (in non-medical literature) back to the Gongyang commentary on the Chunqiu, which was already glossed by He Xiu 何休 (129-182), and Fang also discusses mentions in the Shuo wen jie zi and in Daoist writings from the Jin (317-420). Fang also gives a summary of the content of the text (1003-1004). Fang remarks of all four texts under discussion that they frequently attribute illness to pathological influences which are typically Chinese, such as "winds, miasmas, and demonic possession" (the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經, for instance, although it is presented as an Indian scripture, reveals a series of practices associated with Chinese sorcery); some passages are resonant with Daoist apocalyptic texts; and the texts feature "a throng of bodhisattvas associated with the stars, and the powers of the earth and vegetation, which are the invention of popular Chinese religion"; moreover, almost all the illnesses featuring in the Jiu ji jing are also included in the Jin jing 禁經 (which Fang translates "The Book of Exorcisms"), compiled under the Tang by Sun Simiao (1036-1037). The texts frequently prescribe the copying of sūtras as a cure, and Fang remarks that we see here an assimilation of the copying of sūtras to Chinese talismans that are pasted on doorways. Fang estimates that all the texts in the group date before the Tang. |
1003-1004 |
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Fang discusses the Xin pusa jing 新菩薩經 T2917 as one of a group of four Dunhuang apocrypha that furnish evidence of Chinese Buddhist attitudes to and ideas about illness. This text exists in three separate versions, which differ in content. These versions of the text are represented by a total of over thirty witnesses in the Pelliot, Stein, China National Library, Beijing University, and other collections. The Taishō texts (T2917a and T2917b) only represent two of the three versions, on the basis of S.622 and S.136 respectively. In a lengthy appendix, Fang describes each individual manuscript in detail. Jia Dan 價耽 (730-805), who was also associated with the Quan shan jing 勸善經 T2916, is said in Version C of the text to have been supposed to promulgate the text on imperial order, as in T2916 also. Like T2916, the text is associated with the years 803-805 (Fang explains in relation to T2916 that this was a jiashen 甲申 year, which was a juncture in the sexagenary cycle often regarded as inauspicious, and fits the gloomy prophecies of the texts). Jia Dan was an eminent minister of state who led an illustrious career, and whose biography reports that he had strong scholarly interests in dialectology, geography and ethnography. Fang discusses Jia's biography (1013-1015), and notes that the figure of Jia eventually took on supernatural and miraculous dimensions, which might account for the choice of Jia as the promulgator of the text. Fang remarks of all four texts in this group that they frequently attribute illness to pathological influences which are typically Chinese, such as "winds, miasmas, and demonic possession" (the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經, for instance, although it is presented as an Indian scripture, reveals a series of practices associated with Chinese sorcery); some passages are resonant with Daoist apocalyptic texts; and the texts feature "a throng of bodhisattvas associated with the stars, and the powers of the earth and vegetation, which are the invention of popular Chinese religion"; moreover, almost all the illnesses featuring in the Jiu ji jing are also included in the Jin jing 禁經 (which Fang translates "The Book of Exorcisms"), compiled under the Tang by Sun Simiao (1036-1037). The texts frequently prescribe the copying of sūtras as a cure, and Fang remarks that we see here an assimilation of the copying of sūtras to Chinese talismans that are pasted on doorways. Fang estimates that all the texts in the group date before the Tang. |
1010-1011 |