Buddhist Seal Manuals and the Nature of Dunhuang Buddhism: The Case of P. 3835v.#9

UC Berkeley's Center for Chinese Studies presents a talk by Paul Copp on dhāranī-seal manuals from Dunhuang in the ninth and tenth centuries.

Chinese Buddhist uses of fu-talismans 符 and talisman-bearing seals (fuyin 符印) are among the most characteristic practices of the form of medieval Chinese religiosity known lately as "Buddho-Daoism." Yet aside from being a rather vague label, "Buddho-Daoism," as Christine Mollier has recently pointed out, implies a non-sectarian orientation on the part of the sources that is not always present. In the case of the text that will be the focus of this talk, "Dhāranī Methods of the Great Wheel Vajra" (Foshuo dalun jin'gang zongchi tuoluoni fa 佛說大輪金剛總持陀羅尼法), found as the ninth text on the verso of the Dunhuang manuscript Pelliot # 3835, seals are presented unmistakably as Buddhist – in fact, as forms of Buddhist incantation known as dhāranī (tuoluoni 陀羅尼, zongchi 總持, etc). He will thus take this text's seals as straightforwardly Buddhist and ask what close analyses of dhāranī-seal manuals may tell us about the deep doctrinal and practical natures of the forms of Buddhism practiced at Dunhuang in the ninth and tenth centuries. He will pay special attention to P. 3835v. #9's invocations of Manibhadra (Monibatuo 摩尼跋陀; often a protector of travelers) and Great Wheel Vajra (Dalun jin'gang 大輪金剛), a deity featured in such native Chinese Buddhist productions as the Pseudo-Śūraṃgama Scripture (Lengyan jing 楞嚴經) and the esoteric imagery found in Song Dynasty Sichuan.

Paul Copp is Assistant Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He received his Ph.D. in 2005 from the Department of Religion at Princeton University and spent a year as a postdoctoral researcher at the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, in Heidelberg, Germany, working on Buddhist inscriptions from Northern Dynasties China. He recently finished a monograph entitled Incantatory Bodies: Spells and Material Efficacy in Chinese Buddhist Practice, 600-1000, which explores amuletic and philosophical traditions of Chinese Buddhist incantation practice. He is currently beginning a large-scale study of personal forms of esoteric Buddhist practice in medieval Dunhuang.