Toward the end of his life，in the second month of the year 667，the eminent vinaya master Daoxuan(596-667) had a visionary experience in which gods appeared to him and instructed him. The contents of this divine teaching are reproduced in several works, such as the Daoxuan lushi gantonglu and the Zhong Tianzhu Sheweiguo Zhihuansi tujing. The Fayuan zhulin，compiled by Daoxuan's collaborator Daoshi，also preserves several passages, not paralleled in these works, but said to be part of Daoxuan's visionary instructions. These passages appear to have been taken from another record of this same event，titled Daoxuan lushi zhuchi ganying ji. The Fayuan zhulin was completed in 668，only several months after Daoxuan's death. The Daoxuan lushi zhuchi ganying ji，from which the various Fayuan zhulin passages on Daoxuan's exchanges with deities were taken，must have been compiled some time between the second lunar month in 667 and the third month in the following year.
The quotations in the Fayuan zhulin from the Daoxuan lushi zhuchi ganying ji take the form of newly revealed sermons of the Buddha and tell stories about various objects used by the Buddha during his life time. Focusing our attention on these objects, we may read these stories and the elaborate frames within which they are presented as attempts to construct imaginary cultic objects. What motivated Daoxuan and his followers to carry out this construction? What resources, available to medieval Chinese Buddhist monks, were used? What were the possible consequences of this project?
Though these stories about imaginary cultic objects are put together with considerable care，the passages that contain them show a degree of confusion and offer some clues that throw light on the way in which the records of the instruction Daoxuan received from the gods developed. In the first part of this paper a brief description of these passages is followed by a more focused examination of the passages on the robe Kasyapa Buddha handed over to Sakyamuni.
Subsequent sections of the paper are devoted to two attempts to place these passages on Kasyapa's robe within the larger context of medieval Chinese Buddhism. I first trace how distinctively soteriological discourses on the robe emerged in two places: Daoxuan's vinaya commentary and the account of the dharma robe in the Fayuan zhulin. I then turn to a discussion of the stories about the robe in the Asokavadana. I offer here the suggestion that in Daoxuan lushi zhuchi ganyingji，the Asokavadana's story of the Buddha's disciple Kasyapa's robe was reshaped into a story of the robe of the previous Buddha of the same name, Kasyapa. The paper concludes with brief comments on the possible significance of this discussion in the light of the prominent role that the account of the transmission of Bodhidharma's robe played in early Chan.
Summary I. The Revelation of the Divine Scripture 1. The Circumstances of the Revelation and the Sources of its Record 2. The Buddha's Sermons in the Revealed Scripture 3. The Sermon on Kasyapa Buddha's Robe II. The Discourse on the Robe in Daoxuan's Vinaya School 1. Daoxuan's Exegetical Strategy and Two Quotations from Mahayana Sutras 2. The Chapter on "the Two Categories of Robes" in Daoxuan's Vinaya Commentary 3. The Entry on "Dharma Garments" in the Fayuan zhulin III. The Robe in the Asokavadana, or the Biography of King Asoka IV. Concluding Comments Appendix I. Sources for the Zhuchi ganying ji 1. The Revelation 2. The Seven Passages from the Zhuchi ganying ji II. Scriptural Quotations on the Monastic Robe in Daoxuan's Vinaya Commentary and the Fayuan zhulin 1. The "Two Categories of Robe" Section in Daoxuan's Vinaya Commentary (i) The "Reasons for Stipulation" Section (ii) The Explanation of the Names Section (iii) The Merit and Function Section 2. The Main Division (a) The Main Division (b) The Miracle Story Division References Chinese Characters
