This is a study of poems from the Dunhuang manuscripts about Mount Wutai, a sacred mountain of Chinese Buddhism and the center of a cult devoted to the bodhisattva Mañjuśri. These works, from the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, reflect the transformation of the mountain into a Buddhist paradise by the time of the Tang dynasty. They display motifs and themes previously unknown in Chinese poetry and provide important literary evidence for the study of the transformation of Chinese culture by Buddhism. The Mount Wutai poems take as their theme the Buddhist concept of transformation and manifestation: that buddhas and bodhisattvas can transform themselves and vary their manifestations at will according to the needs of individual beings. Their authors were probably Buddhist monks who lived on or made a pilgrimage to Mount Wutai. Although the poems utilize the Indian cosmology of the Buddhist scriptures, these events occur on Chinese soil and in the Chinese imagination. Thus the poems also demonstrate the syncretic nature of Chinese culture and the sinicization of Buddhism. Chapter One discusses the significance of Dunhuang and Dunhuang literature, along with the relationship between Dunhuang and Mount Wutai. Chapter Two introduces the early legends and history of Wutai, and its association with Mañjuśri. This chapter also presents two early poems about the bodhisattva and the mountain. Chapters Three, Four, Five and Six each present a set of poems about Mount Wutai. Each compares the themes and imagery of these poems not only to the Avatam˙saka, Lotus, Vimalakirti and Amitābha sūtras, but also to the records of Buddhist monks, such as the Gu qingliang zhuan, the Guang qingliang zhuan and Ennin's Nittō guhō junrei gyōki. Chapter Seven assesses the place of these poems in the Chinese literary tradition by comparison of their themes and genres to those of better known poems. Appendix A presents the recurring motifs in the poems. Appendix B discusses the wall-painting of Mount Wutai from Dunhuang cave no. 61, and relates the motifs of the painting to the poems.
