Signs from the Unseen Realm (Mingxiang ji): A Collection of Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China

The UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies presents a talk by Robert Campany on the Buddhist miracle tales.

A Numata Colloquium Series talk by Professor Robert Campany, USC

Just prior to 500 C.E., scholar-official Wang Yan compiled and circulated a collection of Buddhist miracle tales titled Mingxiang ji 冥祥記 or Signs from the Unseen Realm.  Around 130 tales from this once much larger text, plus Wang’s preface, survive.  In this talk he will first introduce the text and the larger miracle-tale genre to which it belongs.  He will then offer remarks on selected themes in the text that are of interest to historians of Buddhism, Chinese religions, and comparative religions.  One of these themes will be the relation, in general, between miracle tales and the social and religious networks that produce them.  Another will be the extent to which Mingxiang ji exemplifies the “sinification” of Buddhism—and what this might mean.