Chan Buddhism; Buddhist biography; supernaturalism; popular religion
摘要
This paper focuses on a recurring theme in Chinese Buddhist biographies, namely the confrontation between monks and local gods. A diachronic study of Chan historiographies from its early history to the Song period will be carried out to show the sinuous development of the Chan attitude towards supernaturalism: while the Early Chan bore the marks of the absence of miracles and underlined doctrine and dharma transmission, from the 9th-10th centuries on, it caught up with the mainstream of Chinese Buddhist hagiography by generously producing accounts of the Buddhist conquest of indigenous cults. Lastly, I will show how a syncretic model arose in Song Chan miscellanea in the form of the “encounter dialogue”. Being grounded in a typical conversion narrative, it attempted to refute, in a deliberately obscure manner, the upāya represented by idolatry.
