Body Incantatory: Spells and the Ritual Imagination in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

397 Pages·2014·5.03 MB·English

by  Paul Copp

:
TH E BODY INCANTATORY
SPELLS AND TH E RITUAL
IMAGINATION IN MEDIEVAL
CHINESE BUDDHISM
PAUL COPP
THE BODY INCANTATORY
the sheng yen series in chinese buddhist studies
the sheng yen series in chinese buddhist studies
chün-fang yü, series editor
Following the endowment of the Sheng Yen Professorship in Chinese Buddhist Studies,
the Sheng Yen Education Foundation and the Chung Hua Institute of Buddhist Studies
in Taiwan jointly endowed a publication series, the Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Stud-
ies, at Columbia University Press. Its purpose is to publish monographs containing new
scholarship and English translations of classical texts in Chinese Buddhism.
Scholars of Chinese Buddhism have traditionally approached the subject through
philology, philosophy, and history. In recent decades, however, they have increasingly
adopted an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on anthropology, archaeology, art
history, religious studies, and gender studies, among other disciplines. This series aims
to provide a home for such pioneering studies in the field of Chinese Buddhism.
Michael J. Walsh, Sacred Economies: Buddhist Business and Religiosity in Medieval China
Koichi Shinohara, Spells, Images, and Mandalas: Tracing the Evolution
of Esoteric Buddhist Rituals
Beverley Foulks McGuire, Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655)
:
THE BODY INCANTATORY

SPELLS AND THE RITUAL

IMAGINATION IN MEDIEVAL

CHINESE BUDDHISM

PAUL COPP
columbia university press————new york
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Copyright © 2014 Columbia University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Copp, Paul F., 1965- author.
The Body incantatory : spells and the ritual imagination in medieval
Chinese Buddhism / Paul Copp.
pages cm. — (The Sheng Yen series in Chinese Buddhist studies)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-231-16270-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-231-53778-0 (electronic)
1. Buddhist incantations—History. 2. Buddhism—China—Rituals—History.
I. Title.
BQ5535.C67 2014
294.3'438—dc23
2013036862
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Jacket Image: Madame Wei Mahāpratisarā amulet. Eighth century? Yale University
Art Gallery (“Tantric Buddhist Charm,” 1955.7.1a). Hobart and Edward Small Moore
Memorial Collection, bequest of Mrs. William H. Moore. Ink and colors on silk.
21.5 cm × 21.5 cm.
References to websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired
or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
For Anna

If one holds it to be self-evident that man is gratified by his fantasy, then one
must consider that his fantasy is not like a painted picture, or a plastic model,
but a complicated construction of heterogeneous components: words and
images. Then one would not place operations with written and spoken signs in
opposition to operations with “mental images” of events.
We must plow through the complete language.
—LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN, “Remarks on Frazer’s Golden Bough”
I SING the Body electric;
The armies of those I love engirth me, and I engirth them;
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the Soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves;
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?
. . . the body itself balks account.
—WALT WHITMAN, Leaves of Grass [1881 ed.]

CONTENTS
List of Illustrations xi
Preface: The Body Incantatory xiii
Acknowledgments xxv
Abbreviations xxix
Introduction:
Dhāranīs and the Study of Buddhist Spells 1
1. Scripture, Relic, Talisman, Spell 29
2. Amulets of the Incantation of Wish Fulfillment 59
3. Dust, Shadow, and the Incantation of Glory 141
4. Mystic Store and Wizards’ Basket 197
Coda:
Material Incantations and the Study of Medieval Chinese Buddhism 227
Appendix 1. Suiqiu Amulets Discovered in China 233
Appendix 2. Stein no. 4690: Four Spells 239
Notes 241
Glossary 303
Sources 315
Index 347