Largely unstudied until now, the religious festivals that attracted Chinese people from all walks of life provide the most instructive examples of the interaction between Chinese forms of social life and the Indian tradition of Buddhism. Stephen Teiser examines one of the most important of such annual celebrations. He provides a comprehensive interpretation of the festivities of the seventh lunar month, in which laypeople presented offerings to Buddhist monks to gain salvation for their ancestors. Teiser uncovers a wide range of sources, many translated or analyzed for the first time in any language, to demonstrate how the symbolism, rituals, and mythology of the ghost festival pervaded the social landscape of medieval China.
目次
Introduction 3 The Significance of the Ghost Festival 10 The Place of Buddhism in Chinese Society 20 The Prehistory of the Ghost Festival 26 Taoist Parallels 35 An Episodic History of the Ghost Festival 43 Tsung Lins Record of Seasonal Observances in Chingchu ca 561 56 Huichings Commentary Praising the Yülanpen Sūtra ca 636639 63 Yang Chiungs Yülanpen Rhapsody 692 71 Government Offerings According to the Tang liutien ca 739 77 Poems and Celebrations under Emperor Tetsung r 779805 83 Tsungmis Commentary on the Yülanpen Sūtra ca 830 91 The Mythological Background 113 Mulien as Shaman 140 The Cosmology of the Ghost Festival 168 Buddhism and the Family 196 Concluding Perspectives 214 Character Glossary of Chinese Korean 225 Index 265
