Bryan D. Lowe is Mellon assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Vanderbilt University.
關鍵詞
purity; sutra copying; scribes; Nara Buddhism; state Buddhism; Shōsōin
摘要
This article focuses on ritualized scribal practices in eighth-century Japan. It uses colophons, scriptorium documents, and narrative tales to explore how sutra copyists upheld vegetarian diets, performed ablutions, wore ritual garments, and avoided contact with pollutants stemming from death and illness. Such practices, often described in terms of purity, spread widely on the Asian continent in the seventh century and reached Japan by the eighth century. This article argues that upholding purity was deeply connected to notions of ritual efficacy but also enabled pious lay scribes to train for monastic careers. The evidence is used to reassess historiographical debates on Nara Buddhism with particular attention to the well-known “theory of state Buddhism” (kokka Bukkyō ron).
目次
Purity and Scripture Copying on the Continent 204 Defining Purity 207 On Pure Grounds: The Office of Sutra Transcription 209 Dietary Discipline 210 Washing Away Impurity 213 Pure Robes 215 Contact Pollution 216 Sexual Discipline 219 Beyond the Office of Sutra Transcription 221 Cultivating Purity 222 Conclusion 228
