Signs of power: Talismanic writing in Chinese Buddhism

History of Religions

Volumn 48, Issue 2, 2008, Pages 130-169

  Robson, James ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 61249275263     PISSN: 00182710     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/596569     Document Type: Review

References (181)

1. There is an increasingly large body of material on these topics, but see, among others, Theodor H. Gaster, "Amulets and Talismans," in Hidden Truths: Magic Alchemy and the Occult, ed. Lawrence E. Sullivan (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 145-47;
2. and Don C. Skemer, Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006).
3. On the comparative context of using esoteric script as medium for communication with the realm of spirits, see John G. Gager, ed., Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 9-10;
4. Christopher A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink, eds., Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991);
5. and Stanley J. Tambiah, "The Magical Power of Words," Man 3 (1968): 177-206.
6. Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World;
7. and Christopher A. Faraone, "The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells," in Farraone and Obbink, Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, 6.
8. Lawrence H. Schiffman and Michael D. Swartz, Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts from the Cairo Genizah: Selected Texts from Taylor-Schechter Box K1 (Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1992), 44.
9. See also the two volumes by Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked entitled Amulets and Magic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1985)
10. and Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1993).
11. Ülkü Bates, "The Use of Calligraphy on Three Dimensional Objects: The Case of 'Magic' Prayer Bowls," in Brocade of the Pen: The Art of Islamic Writing, ed. Carol Garrett Fisher (East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1991), 55-61.
12. Jonathan Z. Smith, "Trading Places," in Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 226.
13. See also David Frankfurter, "The Magic of Writing and the Writing of Magic: The Power of the Word in Egyptian and Greek Traditions," Helios 21 (1994): 179-221.
14. See the sections entitled "The Meaning of Meaningless Words" and "Coefficient of Weirdness in the Language of Magic," in Bronislaw Malinowski, Malinowski Collected Works, vol. 8, Coral Gardens and Their Magic (London: Routledge, 2002), 213-23. Stanley Tambiah has also considered how in Sinhalese ritual a kind of sacred oral language is often employed rather than normal everyday language and that the sacred language was usually perceived as efficacious and powerful due to the fact that it was incomprehensible.
15. See Tambiah, "The Magical Power of Words," 177-206. There was also a written counterpart to the types of magical properties of words that Tambiah discusses.
16. and Antoine Faivre, "The Notions of Concealment and Secrecy in Modern Esoteric Currents since the Renaissance (a Methodological Approach)," in Rending the Veil: Concealment and Secrecy in the History of Religions, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 1999), 155-76.
17. On Johannes Thrithemius, see Noel L. Brann, The Abbot Trithemius (1462-1516) (Leiden: Brill, 1981),
18. and Trithemius and Magical Theology: A Chapter in the Controversy over Occult Studies in Early Modern Europe (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999).
19. On talismans and their relation to "worldly benefits" (genze riyaku) in Japan; see Ian Reader and George J. Tanabe Jr., Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998).
20. For a comprehensive survey of esoteric talismans in Asia, see Ogata Tōru, Sakade Yoshinobu, and Yoritomi Motohiro, eds., Dōkyō teki mikkyō teki hekija jubutsu no chōsa kenkyū (Tokyo: Biingu Netto Puresu, 2005);
21. and the work on spells and talismans by Sawada Mizuho entitled Chūgoku no juhō (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1984).
22. On the popular role of Chinese charms and talismans in contemporary Singapore and Malaysia, see Marjorie Topley, "Paper Charms, and Prayer Sheets as Adjuncts to Chinese Worship," Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 26 (1953): 63-84.
23. See Michel Strickmann, "Homa in East Asia," in Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar, ed. Frits Staal (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 420-21.
24. There is a larger body of literature on this problematic divide. See, among others, Randall Styers, Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004);
25. Smith, "Trading Places"; Hildred Geertz, "An Anthropology of Religion and Magic. I," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8 (1975): 71-89;
26. Dorothy Hammond, "Magic: A Problem in Semantics," American Anthropologist 72, no. 6 (1970): 1349-56;
27. John Skorupski, Symbol and Theory: A Philosophical Study of Theories of Religion in Social Anthropology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976);
28. Gustavo Benavides, "Magic, Religion, Materiality," Historical Reflections/Refexiones Historiques 23, no. 3 (1997): 301-30;
29. and Michael Brown, "Thinking about Magic," in Anthropology of Religion: A Handbook, ed. Stephen D. Glazier (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997).
30. Attempts to redress the problematic relationship between religion and magic in East Asia include Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, ed. Bernard Faure (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002);
31. Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998);
32. and most recently Robert Ford Campany, "Secrecy and Display in the Quest for Transcendence in China, ca. 220 BCE-350 CE," History of Religions 45, no. 4 (2006): 291-336.
33. For this problem in relation to Tantric studies, see David L. Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Boston: Shambala, 1987), 143;
34. and Stephan Beyer, The Cult of Tārā: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
35. Smith, "Trading Places," 218.
36. On the discomfort with the fetish and fetishism, see Tomoko Masuzawa, "Troubles with Materiality: The Ghost of Fetishism in the Nineteenth Century," Comparative Studies in Society and History 42, no. 2 (April 2000): 242-66.
37. See, among others, Gregory Schopen, "Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism," History of Religions 31 (1991): 1-23.
38. Henry Steel Olcott, The Buddhist Catechism (Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1947; first published in 1881), 44-45.
39. On Henry Steel Olcott, see Stephen Prothero, The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996);
40. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., "Belief," in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), 29-32.
41. Jonathan Z. Smith, ed., The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1995), 45.
42. Mochizuki Shinkō, ed., Bukkyō daijiten, rev. and enlarged ed., 10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai Seiten Kankō Kyōkai, 1958-63).
43. Nakamura Hajime, Bukkyō go daijiten (Tokyo: Tokyo shoseki, 1975), 1178a-b.
44. See the comprehensive study and review of recent work on talismans and diagrams in Catherine Despeux, "Talismans and Diagrams," in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 498-540.
45. The authoritative work on talismans in Chinese Dunhuang manuscripts is now Christine Mollier, "Talismans," in Divination et société dans la Chine médiévale: Étude des manuscrits De Dunhuang De la Bibliothèque nationale De France et De la British Library, ed. Marc Kalinowski (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale De France, 2003), 405-29.
46. See also, among others, Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 31ff.;
47. Lothar Ledderose, "Some Taoist Elements in the Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties," T'oung Pao 70 (1984): 246-78;
48. and Jonathan Chaves, "The Legacy of Ts'ang Chieh: The Written Word as Magic," Oriental Art 23, no. 2 (Summer 1977): 200-215.
49. There is also an important series of articles by Wang Yucheng that includes "Lüelun kaogu faxian De zaoqi daofu", Kaogu 1 (1998): 75-81,
50. "Dong Han daofu shili", Kaogu xuebao 1 (1991): 45-56,
51. and "Tang Song daojiao mizhuanwen shili", Zhongguo lishi bowuguan guankan (1991): 82-93.
52. For possible antecedents to talismanic script, see Tseng Yuho, A History of Chinese Calligraphy (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993), 75ff.
53. and the work on "bird script" by Rong Geng, "Niaoshu kao", Yanjing xuebao, no. 16 (1934): 195-203, Niaoshu kao
54. "Niaoshu kao buzheng", Yanjing xuebao, no. 17 (1935): 173-78,
55. "Niaoshu san kao", and Yanjing xuebao, no. 23 (1938): 287-89.
56. Max Kaltenmark, "Ling-pao: Note sur un terme du taoisme religieux," in Mélanges publies par l'Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises (Paris, 1960), 1:559-88;
57. and Robert des Rotours, "Les insignes en deux parties (fou) sous la dynastie des T'ang (618-907)," T'oung Pao 41 (1952): 1-148.
58. See also the discussions in John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 149-67.
59. Anna Seidel, "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha," in Tantric and Taoist Studies, vol. 2, ed. M. Strickmann (Bruxelles: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1983), 292.
60. Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999), 29;
61. and Seidel, "Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments," 310.
62. Anna Seidel, "Traces of Han Religion in Funeral Texts Found in Tombs," in Dōkyō to shūkyō bunka, ed. Akitsuki Kan'ei (Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1987), 27.
63. See John Lagerwey, "The Oral and Written in Chinese and Western Religion," in Religion und Philosophie in Ostasien: Festschrift für Hans Steininger, ed. Gert Naundorf, Karl-Heinz Pohl, and Hans-Hermann Schmidt (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1985), 301-21,
64. See also the section titled "China's Graphic Language," in Anna Seidel, "Chronicle of Taoist Studies," Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 5 (1990): 223-347;
65. Kristofer M. Schipper, "The Written Memorial in Taoist Ceremonies," in Religion in Chinese Society, ed. Arthur Wolf (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974), 324;
66. and T. H. Hsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings of Chinese Books and Inscriptions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962).
67. The characteristics of writing discussed here were not specific to China; see Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 4.
68. It should be pointed out here, however, that this view of the origins of Chinese script as preceding the oral is not a return to the fallacious view of early Chinese script as ideographic. See William G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System (New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 2003).
69. See Vandermeersch, Wangdao ou la voie royale, 477 and 479,
70. cited in Lagerwey, "The Oral and Written in Chinese and Western Religion," 301-2.
71. On the notion of "wen" see, e.g., Chaves, "The Legacy of Ts'ang Chieh"; and more recently Martin Kern, "Ritual, Text, and the Formation of the Canon: Historical Transitions of Wen in Early China," T'oung Pao 87 (2001): 43-91.
72. See also William Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts on Chinese Painting (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1954), 63 n. 1.
73. On the power of written traces see Chaves, "The Legacy of Ts'ang Chieh."
74. Acker, Some T'ang and Pre-T'ang Texts, 63 n. 1;
75. An interesting discussion of name magic can be found in Maurice Godelier, Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology (London: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 196-203.
76. See also Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (New York: Routledge, 1982), 33;
77. In the Zhen'gao [Declarations of the perfected], for example, there appears to be a hierarchy of spiritual potency that places script unintelligible to humans on the top; see Ledderose, "Some Taoist Elements in the Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties," 256.
78. On the "primordial" or "celestial" provenance of Daoist talismans, see Jean Francois Billeter, The Chinese Art of Writing (New York: Rizzoli International, 1990), 256.
79. This passage from the Brahmajāla Sutta is translated in Maurice Walshe, Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha (London: Wisdom Publications, 1987), 71.
80. Translation from Richard B. Mather, Shi-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of the World (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 361, with some changes.
81. For further studies on the Tiwei boli jing, see Makita Tairyo, Gikyō kenkyū (Kyoto: Kyoto daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkyū jo, 1976), 148-211;
82. Tsukamoto Zenryū, Tsukamoto Zenryū chosakushū (Tokyo: Daitō shuppansha, 1974), 2:203, 204;
83. and Whalen Lai, "The Earliest Folk Buddhist Religion in China: Ti-wei Po-li ching and Its Historical Significance," in Buddhist and Taoist Practice in Medieval Chinese Society, ed. David Chappell (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 11-35.
84. See, e.g., the large number of entries in Lionel Giles, Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Manuscripts from Tunhuang in the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1957), that either mention talismans (fu) in the title or are described as being magical charms (by which Giles usually refers to talismans).
85. See also the charm and references to other recently discovered charms in the entry by Alan Atkinson for a 'Tantric Buddhist Charm" (catalogue no. 34) in Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850-1850, ed. Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 296-98.
86. On this important genre of sources, see Robert E. Buswell Jr., ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 14.
87. On the use of talismans in the Buddhist apocrypha, see Christine Mollier, "Les talismans du Buddha et De Laozi pour 'accroître le capital-vie,'" in Études De Dunhuang et Turfan, ed. Jean-Pierre Drège and Olivier Venture (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2007), 155-88.
88. See, e.g., Robert F. Campany, "Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Function of Sūtra Texts as Depicted in Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tales and Hagiographies," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14, no. 1 (1991): 28-69;
89. and Donald S. Lopez Jr., Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sūtra (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996).
90. Paul F. Copp, "Voice, Dust, Shadow, Stone: The Makings of Spells in Medieval Chinese Buddhism" (Ph.D. diss., Princteon University, 2005); see esp. chap. 6, "Sūtra, Relic, Talisman: Transformations of Spell Writing, ca. 400-1100."
91. Michel Strickmann, "The Seal of the Law: A Ritual Implement and the Origins of Printing," Asia Major 6, no. 2 (1993): 82.
92. Strickmann's research now appears in a chapter titled "Ensigillation: A Buddho-Taoist Technique of Exorcism" in his book Chinese Magical Medicine (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002).
93. It will be clear to those who have read Strickmann's pioneering work how much this section of my essay owes to Strickmann's groundbreaking research. One of the main goals of Strickmann's series of articles was to rethink the connection that Paul Pelliot posited between the use of seals and the origin of printing in China. Yet, in the primary sources I was studying it was clear that while ensigillation and talismanic writing were two complementary entities, they needed to be dealt with on their own terms. Therefore, I have focused my attention here on what Strickmann merely hinted at in his study, namely, the uses of talismans and talismanic script. Now, see also the relevant study of Edward L. Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001).
94. Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minsu tanwei (Jiangsu: Hehai daxue chubanshe, 1989),
95. and, Dunhuang minsu ziliao daolun (Taibei: Xinwen feng, 1994);
96. Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji [Daoist techniques and esoteric Buddhist texts] (Taiwan: Xinwen feng, 1994);
97. and Mollier, "Talismans,"
98. Mollier, "Les talismans du Buddha et De Laozi,"
99. and Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual and Iconographic Exhange in Medieval China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008).
100. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō, ed. Takakusu Junjirō et al., 100 vols. (Tokyo: Taishō Issaikyō kankōkai, 1924-32);
101. Dai Nippon zokuzōkyō, ed. Nakano Tatsue (Kyoto: Zōkyō shoin, 1902-5).
102. Most texts with talismans are situated in the "esoteric" (mikkyō bu) section of the modern Taishō canon. This classification system is followed by Xiao Dengfu in his work, but we should note in addition that Michel Strickmann also classified these types of sources as "proto-Tantric." While Gao Guofan situates the talismans found in Dunhuang manuscripts in relationship to popular religious practices and Daoism, he also discusses their proliferation during the reign of Tang Xuanzong, which he states began to evince the teachings of Tantric or Esoteric Buddhist via the influence of masters such as Amoghavajra. The nature of Chinese Esoteric Buddhism and Chinese Tantrism has recently been rethought by Robert Sharf in his "Appendix" in Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002);
103. and by Richard D. McBride II in two related articles: "Is There Really 'Esoteric' Buddhism?" Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 27, no. 2 (2004): 329-56,
104. and "Dhāranī and Spells in Medieval Sinitic Buddhism," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28, no. 1 (2005): 85-114.
105. Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 68-85;
106. and Jean-Pierre Drège, "Du Texte à l'image," in Images De Dunhuang: Dessins et pientures sur papier des fonds Pelliot et Stein (Paris: École française d'Extrème-Orient, 1999), 105-68.
107. and see also the discussion in Sakade Yoshinobu, "Shōki mikkyö to dōkyō to no kōshō," in Chūgoku Mikkyō, ed. Tachikawa Musashi and Yoritomi Motohiro (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1999), 153-69.
108. T. 21, no. 1238. See Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 279ff.,
109. on this text, and on the dating, see Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 143-51.
110. Copp, "Voice, Dust, Shadow, Stone: The Makings of Spells in Medieval Chinese Buddhism," 237-99.
111. The combination of some type of physical movement while writing a talisman or carving a seal is a common feature found in these texts but is also a practice with ancient roots. See Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 159ff.
112. On the subject of movements and gestures in relation to healing, see Herbert Fischer, "The Use of Gesture in Preparing Medicaments and in Healing," History of Religions 5, no. 1 (1965): 18-53.
113. T. 21.184a16. On the early provenance of this phrase in Han official documents, see A. F. Hulsewé, "Han Time Documents," T'oung Pao 45 (1957): 1-50;
114. and Seidel, "Traces of Han Religion," 39ff.
115. For a brief mention of Jāṅgulī in India, see Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), 231.
116. For an interesting cross-cultural perspective on "binding spells," see Faraone, "The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells";
117. and Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 114.
118. See this story in Strickmann, "Seal of the Law," 62.
119. and the study by Osabe Kazuo, Ichigyō zenji no kenkyi - (Kobe: Kōbe Shōka Daigaku Gakujitsu Kenkyūkai, 1963), which also discusses these talismans. Yamāntaka is a ferocious manifestation of Mañjuśri.
120. See Alice Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their History and Iconography (New York: Dover, 1988; first published 1914), 164.
121. See, e.g., the Lingbao talisman depicted in Despeux, "Talismans and Diagrams," 516.
122. For further relevant comments on dhārancombining dot belowī, see Ryūichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 159ff. and 166ff., where he distinguishes Mahāyāna dhārancombining dot belowī that are appendages to sūtras, and esoteric dhārancombining dot belowī that are used for healing and long life in Nara period Japan.
123. In thinking about the issue of the oral nature of dhārancombining dot belowī, it is useful to consult David Frankfurter's work on the oral nature of talismans and amulets. See Frankfurter, "The Magic of Writing and the Writing of Magic."
124. T. no. 1307. This text is the subject of a study and translation by Charles Orzech and James Sanford, "Worship of the Ladies of the Dipper," in Tantrism in Practice, ed. David Gordon White (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 383-95.
125. On the Northern Dipper in general, see, e.g., Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void: T'ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 157-62.
126. On the role of the Dipper in Daoist ritual, see Poul Andersen, "The Practice of Bugang," Cahiers d'Extrême-Asie 5 (1990): 15-53.
127. On the role of the Northern Dipper within Buddhism, see Yano Michio, Mikkyō senseijutsu (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijitsu, 1986),
128. Morita Ryūsen, Mikkyō senseihō (Koyasan: Koyasan daigaku, 1941; repr., Rinsen shoten, 1975);
129. T. no. 1275. See the study and translation of this text by Robert Duquenne, "Ganapati Rituals in Chinese," Bulletin l'Ecole Francaise d'Extrême-Orient, vol. 77 (1988), esp. 326ff.;
130. Duquenne, "Ganapati Rituals in Chinese," 349.
131. and Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China, 126-52.
132. On these protectors, see Mochizuki Shinkō, ed., Bukkyō daijiten, rev. and enlarged ed., 10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai Seiten Kankō Kyōkai, 1958-63), 4:3391.
133. On the history of the compilation of the Taishō canon, see Silvio Vita, "Printings of the Buddhist 'Canon' in Modern Japan," in Buddhist Asia 1: Papers from the First Conference of Buddhist Studies Held in Naples in May 2001, ed. Giovanni Verardi and Silvio Vita (Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2003), 217-45.
134. Reported in Aurel Stein, Serindia (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1921), 2:1080.
135. This copy is reproduced from Roderick Whitfield and Anne Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route (London: British Museum Publications, 1990), 83.
136. See also the record in Arthur Waley, A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from Tun-Huang by Sir Aurel Stein, K. C. I. E., preserved in the Sub-department of Oriental prints and drawings in the British Museum, and in the Museum of Central Asian antiquities, Delhi (London: Kegan Paul, 1931), 164.
137. This painting was also discussed briefly in Christine Mollier, "Talismans," 409 and 424.
138. Madhu Khanna, Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity (London: Thames & Hudson, 1979).
139. Fine examples of some facsimiles of extant Daoist talismans can be found in Ōfuchi Ninji, Tonkō Dōkyō: Zuroku hen: (Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten, 1979).
140. Gao Guofan (Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 77) also writes about how Buddhists initially did not understand the usage of Daoist talismans.
141. Despite the fact that these talismans were meant to reflect the illegible writing of the spirit world, research has shown that there came to be a logic used to write Daoist talismans. See, for example, the admirable efforts of interpretation undertaken by Wang Yucheng in his "Tang Song Daojiao mizhuanwen shili." On the interpretation of a talisman on an ordinance jar, see Li Ling, "An Archaeological Study of Taiyi (Grand One) Worship," Early Medieval China 2 (1995-96): 17;
142. and Mu-chou Poo, In Search of Personal Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), 181.
143. For an early article that attempted to point out how talismans might be broken down into discrete elements, see Ch'en Hsiang-Ch'un, "Examples of Charm against Epidemics with Short Explanations: With 15 Cuts of Charms," Folklore Studies 1 (1942): 37-54;
144. and see the example from a modern talisman in Emily Martin Ahern, Chinese Ritual and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 25.
145. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes tropiques (New York: Washington Square Press, 1973), 331-43; originally published in French in 1955.
146. and John Kieschnick, The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 88.
147. See also the translation by Waley in A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from Tun-Huang, 165.
148. On Rähu and Ketu, see Michel Strickmann, Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 488 n. 23. Ketu, originally a demon that devours the moon causing lunar eclipses, is here one of the powerful demons that, once converted, becomes an invincible Buddhist protector.
149. and Roderick Whitfield, The Arts of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum; 2 Paintings from Dunhuang (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983), pl. 61.
150. Masuo Shinichirō also lists P. 2153, which is presently in the Tōyō bunko, as a related text. See Masuo Shinichirō, "Nihon kodai no jufu bokukan, bokusho doki to gigi kyōten" Tōyō no shisō to shūkyō, no. 13 (1996): 78-104.
151. The most detailed study of this text is now Mollier, "Les talismans du Buddha et De Laozi," which is available in English as "Augmenting the Life Account" that is the third chapter of her recent Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 100-133. Since the research for this article was completed some years ago and Mollier's work was only published recently, I was unable to take it fully into account here.
152. On this ailment, see Morohashi Tetsuji, ed., Dai kanwa jiten, 13 vols. (Tokyo: Taishūkan Shoten, 1955-60), 9:175.
153. On koushe, see Hanyu Da cidian, 3:4.
154. This may be related to the Indian Tantric use of mantras to aid in disputes; see Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, An Introduction to Buddhist Esotericism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980), 87.
155. On the importance of "Santai" in Daoism, see Dōkyō jiten (Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1994), 214.
156. On gu worms as a form of demonic ailment, see Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 300 n. 5, where at that early date talismans were already being used to cure people of them.
157. On "tianmen" and "dihu," see Hanyu Da cidian, vol. 2, 1020.
158. See, e.g., Wang Yucheng's study of "repeated script" (fuwen) that is the style used in the Taiping jing, in "Luoyang yanguang yuannian zhushu taoguan kaoshi," Zhongyuan wenwu 1 (1993): 71-76.
159. Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 154;
160. and Yabuki Keiki, Meisha Yoin (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1933), 305-6, suggest that this text dates to the seventh century. Giles does not support this assertion, but based on Yabuki's research it seems that he based this date on two possible references to this text in the Dazhoukan dingzhong jing mulu (often referred to simply as Dazhou lu) catalog (where it is listed as a spurious scripture) that is dated to 695 (see T. 55.474a.20 and T. 55.474c.9).
161. On the Dazhou lu, see Kyoko Tokuno, "The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues," in Buswell, Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha.
162. On the term "fuyan" or "fuya," see Gao Guofan, Dunhuang minsu ziliao daolun, 312;
163. and Hanyu Da cidian, vol. 8, 1125-26.
164. Rong Xinjiang, "The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reason for Its Sealing," Cahiers d'Extreme-Asie 11 (1999-2000): 247-75.
165. Masuo Shinichirō, "Nihon kodai no jufu bokukan, bokusho doki to gigi kyōten," 92.
166. See Piet van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period (London: Ithaca Press, 1984).
167. On Lin Lingsu and Wang Wenqing in the context of Senxiao Daoist history, see Lowell Skar, "Ritual Movements, Deity Cults and the Transformation of Daoism in Song and Yuan Times," in Kohn, Daoism Handbook, 422-24;
168. See, e.g., the Protocol for the Invocation [of the Gods] of the Ten Registers of the Zhengyi Canon (Zhengyi fawen shilu zhaoyi, HY 1210) and Scripture of the Officers in Charge of the Energies of the Sexagesimal Cycle, for Protecting the Embryo and Guarding Life (Taishang shuo liujia zhifu baotai hunming miaojing, HY 50). HY 1210 is first attested in the Official History of the Song (Songshi 4.18b) (van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period, 96), but HY 50 is not attested in Song libraries.
169. Henrik H. Sørensen, "Michel Strickmann on Magical Medicine in Medieval China and Elsewhere," History of Religions 43, no. 4 (2004): 319-32.
170. Roger Chartier, "Culture as Appropriation: Popular Cultural Uses in Early Modern France," in Understanding Popular Culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century, ed. Steven L. Kaplan (Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1984), 234.
171. Robert H. van Gulik, Siddham: An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China and Japan (Delhi: Jayyed Press, 1980), 46.
172. There is at least one example (that I am aware of) where a charm is written in Siddham, see the illustration in Weidner, Latter Days of the Law, 297-98.
173. Siddham are also of course found on Japanese talismans, see the examples in Strickmann, Mantras et Mandarins, 367,
174. and in Shingon mikkyō no hon (Tokyo: Gakken, 1997), 159-60.
175. Cited in Abé, The Weaving of Mantra, 162.
176. This is a vast topic, but on the use of the phrase "quickly, quickly in accordance with the statutes and ordinances" (jiji rulü ling) in Japan on talismans with esoteric script, see the fine essay by Maeda Ryōichi, "'Kyūkyū joritsurei' o saguru," in Dōkyō to Tō Ajia, ed. Fukunaga Mitsuji (Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 1989), 101-25.
177. See Britta Erickson, Words without Meaning, Meaning without Words: The Art of Xu Bing (Washington, DC: Aurthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2001).
178. It is unclear from reading Xu Bing's writings about his invented script if he was familiar with the types of script discussed in this article, but he does cite the Huainanzi passage (quoted above) about how the first script made the demons howl at night. See, e.g., Xu Bing, "To Frighten Heaven and Earth and Make the Spirits Cry," in The Library of Babel (Tokyo: NTT Intercommunication Center, 1998).
179. Stanley K. Abe, "No Questions, No Answers: China and A Book from the Sky," in boundary 2, 25, no. 3 (1998): 175.
180. On the political context of calligraphy, see also Richard Curt Kraus, Brushes with Power: Modern Politics and the Art of Calligraphy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).
181. Some of the problematic issues of linking A Book from the Sky to the June 4, 1989, incident are discussed in Abe, "No Questions, No Answers," 181-82.