In medieval China, silk was the fabric of Buddhist monasticism. Silk enmeshed Chinese Buddhist monastery environs, monastic bodies, institutional economies, and literary discourses that helped shape Buddhist identities in China. This article examines how Chinese Buddhists sought to reconcile or remedy this state of affairs by adducing Indian Buddhist paradigms of silk production and use. In some Chinese sources, Indian Buddhism was similarly enveloped by silk. Other sources showed how Śākyamuni and the Indian sangha shunned silk as an ostentatious product of killing. Either way, Chinese Buddhist authors tied India with silk in ways that would ideally diminish the gap between Buddhism in China and in the land of its birth.
目次
Introduction 633 Indian Silk in the Chinese Buddhist Canon 638 Indian Silk for Imperial Chinese Consumption: The Travelogues of Faxian and Xuanzang 644 Yijing's Travelogue and the Practical Details of Indian Purity 651 Indian Silk in Vinaya Codes and Commentaries 655 Conclusion 671 References 674
