This dissertation seeks to place the practice of self-immolation by Chinese Buddhists in historical, social, cultural and doctrinal context via a thorough investigation of the practice throughout Chinese history. Buddhist canonical sources contain biographies of some 300 monks, nuns and laypeople who sacrificed themselves in homage to the buddhas between the late fourth century and the early twentieth. They included all types of religious figures, from distinguished exegetes, proselytisers, wonder-workers and ascetics to otherwise undistinguished and unknown monastics and laypeople. Their deeds were usually witnessed by large audiences and were not uncommonly praised by emperors and officials. The central question which this dissertation poses is why self-immolators did what they did. The results of this inquiry may serve to suggest some ways in which the history of Chinese Buddhism as a whole might be re-conceptualised. The acts of self-immolators, although perhaps few in number, formed a strong and enduring part of the religious tradition and although they may seem strange to us now, since we have chosen to privilege the mind over the body in our study of Chinese Buddhism, they deserve to be understood.
The first four chapters examine closely accounts of monks and nuns who sacrificed themselves as they appear in collections of the biographies of eminent monks. Chapter Five explores the influence of the Lotus Sutra on the bodily practices and beliefs of medieval Chinese Buddhists. Chapter Six provides a detailed case-study of an act of auto-cremation which took place in Sichuan in the mid-sixth century. In Chapter Seven I discuss some Taoist analogues with Buddhist auto-cremation. Chapter Eight focuses on the controversies and tensions associated with self-immolation within Chinese Buddhism through a discussion of a defence of the practice written by a major tenth-century monk. Chapter Nine deals with auto-cremation as a practice with roots in apocryphal texts and indigenous Chinese practices. The conclusion stresses the previously overlooked importance and prevalence of self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism, and suggests some ways of understanding this practice within the broader spectrum of Chinese Mahāyāna thought.
