| Identifier | T2882 [Fang 2010] |
| Title | Zhoumei jing 呪魅經; Zhoumei jing 呪媚經 [Fang 2010] |
| Date | pre-Tang [Fang 2010] |
| Author | Anonymous (China), 失譯, 闕譯, 未詳撰者, 未詳作者, 不載譯人 [Teiser 1994] |
| Preferred? | Source | Pertains to | Argument | Details |
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[Fang 2010] 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. — 1004-1007 |
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. Entry author: Michael Radich |
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[Teiser 1994] Teiser, Stephen F. The Scripture of the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994. — 111 |
Teiser says that the text printed in the Taisho as T2882 was "probably created in China sometime during the sixth century". It first appears in Fajing, where it is classed as apocryphal. Entry author: Michael Radich |
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