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| The Legendary Siege of Anxi : Myth, History, and Truth in Chinese Buddhism | ||
| 作者 | Goble, Geoffrey |
|---|---|
| 出處題名 | Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies |
| 卷期 | n.15 Third Series |
| 出版日期 | 2013 |
| 頁次 | 1 - 32 |
| 出版者 | Institute of Buddhist Studies |
| 出版者網址 | http://www.shin-ibs.edu/ |
| 出版地 | Berkeley, CA, US [伯克利, 加利福尼亞州, 美國] |
| 資料類型 | 期刊論文=Journal Article |
| 使用語言 | 英文=English |
| 附註項 | Geoffrey Goble Postdoctoral Fellow in East Asian Religions Washington University in St. Louis |
| 摘要 | The figure of Vaiśravaṇa, the World-Protecting King of the North, is relatively familiar to scholars working in the field of East Asian Buddhism. He appears fairly early in the history of East Asian Buddhism and has played an outsized role throughout East Asia as a protector deity, often specializing in military conflict.1 The East Asian mythology of Vaiśravaṇa is often considered in relation to a rather well-known and widespread myth concerning the intervention of this deity on behalf of the Tang emperor Xuanzong (玄宗, r. 712–765) and at the command of the Esoteric Buddhist monk Amoghavajra (不空金剛, 704–774)—a tale that I refer to as the “Legendary Siege of Anxi.” In previous studies, the Legendary Siege of Anxi has been considered as an etiological myth explaining practices contemporary with the source in which it appears, but bearing little if any relationship to actual historical events. The historical accuracy of the account is broadly rejected on the basis of discrepancies between the events it describes and those attested in independent sources. Thus, rather than an accounting of events from the mid-eighth century, the tale has been read instead as evidence of practices current in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279).2 Here I would like to return to the Legendary Siege of Anxi and consider it anew by approaching the story as myth and as reflective of historical events, and by setting aside expectations and considerations rooted strictly in contemporary historiography, text-critical logical positivism, and conceptions of genre literature. The developed Legendary Siege of Anxi familiar from Song dynasty sources is a hybrid tale emerging from a collection of earlier mythic elements. The stories and history that lead to the accepted association of a Buddhist monk (Amoghavajra), a martial figuration of an Indic deity (Vaiśravaṇa), and a Tang emperor (Xuanzong) is a pastiche of several narrative elements and developments. In the first of these narrative movements we see the recapitulation, merger, and metamorphosis of a mythic tradition deriving ultimately from the Hellenic world of the Mediterranean that was transplanted to Central Asia. This element is reimagined and reframed according to particular historical events surrounding the An Lushan Rebellion in the second half of the eighth century. Reading the story in this manner is based on the assumed primacy of a shared objective world to which the story has only a secondary and imagined relation. However, rather than simply explaining and justifying practices contemporary with its retelling, the Legendary Siege of Anxi acted as the impetus for the creation of indigenous Sinitic scriptures and practices. In reversing the assumptions concerning the relationship between fact and fiction, history and myth, and cause and effect we are pushed to reevaluate our expectations and approaches to Chinese documentary sources and their relationship with historical events and practices. |
| 目次 | Introduction Myth: The Legendary Siege of Anxi History: Amoghavajra and the Tang Emperors Truth: Vaiśravaṇa in Chinese Buddhism Conclusion Notes |
| ISSN | 08973644 (E) |
| 點閱次數 | 305 |
| 建檔日期 | 2015.02.11 |
| 更新日期 | 2021.02.03 |
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