This dissertation presents the first detailed study in English of the yu-lan-p'en festival, an annual celebration in which descend- ants bettered the status of their ancestors in the underworld by making offerings to monks. Founded upon the myth of Mu-lien (Maudgalyayana) saving his mother from the torments of hell, yu- lan-p'en ritual was widely known and practiced in China in the sixth century, and soon spread throughout East Asia. Part One draws on a broad range of written sources to document the prehistory and history of this seventh-month festival. A chapter on the antecedents of yu-lan-p'en discusses indigenous rituals of purification and regeneration, precedents in Indian Buddhism for the participation of monks, and a Taoist-sponsored festival also held in the seventh month. The longest chapter describes the many versions and audiences of the yu-lan-p'en myth, and it documents the actual celebration of the festival by common people, monks, literati, and emperors. Sources include poetry and prose pieces, liturgical texts, vernacular literature, scriptures and commentaries from the Buddhist and Taoist canons, encyclopedias, and traditional Chinese historiography.Part Two, comprised of four chapters, addresses more broadly the significance of the festival in medieval Chinese religion. Topics include: Chinese Buddhist mythology; Mu-lien's role as a spirit-medium; the cosmology presented in yu-lan-p'en tales; and the pattern of interaction between monks and laypeople.By using new sources (especially Tun-huang manuscripts) and by focusing critically on questions of genre and audience, this study sheds light on forms of religion that were diffused throughout medieval Chinese society. It suggests that participation in yu-lan- p'en spanned the whole continuum between folk and elite: the myth of Mu-lien appealed to audiences from all classes of society, while the yu-lan-p'en ritual placed world-renouncers squarely within the bounds of the ancestral cult. This study also uses the yu-lan-p'en festival to illuminate the process whereby Indian forms of religion were synthesized with the traditional patterns of Chinese society.
