"The Sutra on the Ocean-Like Samadhi of the Visualization of the Buddha": The Interfusion of the Chinese and Indian Cultures in Central Asia as Reflected in a Fifth Century Apocryphal Sutra
This dissertation is a thorough philological examination of the Sūtra on the Ocean-Like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha (hereafter Ocean Sūtra). This is one of the six visualization sūtras allegedly written in India and translated into Chinese in the fifth century. In spite of its importance in Buddhist history, the textual background of this sūtra is obscure. I have attempted to clarify the origin of the Ocean Sūtra and locate it in its proper place within Buddhist textual history.
A detailed examination of the language and the content of this sūtra makes it clear that the Ocean Sūtra was not translated from an Indian original but was heavily dependent on prior Chinese Buddhist texts. In addition, the detailed description of the “Buddha Image Cave” (a pilgrimage spot in northwest India) in the Ocean Sūtra contradicts the testimonies of Chinese pilgrims. These factors indicate that the Ocean Sūtra was an apocryphal work originally written in Chinese.
At the same time, it should be noted that the people who composed this sūtra were familiar with Sanskrit traditions that must have been inaccessible to ordinary Chinese. The Ocean Sūtra shares significant similarities with Sanskrit texts that were not available in Chinese when the Ocean Sūtra was composed. Furthermore, the Ocean Sūtra contains phallic elements derived from the Indian Shaivite tradition, which are rarely found in Chinese texts but was certainly known in Central Asia. In addition, there are mural paintings in the Turfan area that seem to reflect early stages of the textual formation of the Ocean Sūtra.
I believe that these points are understandable only if we suppose that the Ocean Sūtra were composed in Central Asia, where Chinese and non-Chinese peoples had significant interaction. I conclude, therefore, that the Ocean Sūtra could have been produced only in such a milieu and retains many traces of cross-cultural interactions in itself.
