This paper explores topics and techniques of prognostication as recorded in medieval Buddhist historical literature, with an emphasis on the Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (GSZ) and Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳 (XGSZ). The paper first provides a short survey of how prognostication is treated in Chinese Buddhist translated texts. In these ‘canonical’ sources there is clear ambiguity over the use of supernatural powers: on the one hand, such practices are criticised as non-Buddhist or even heterodox; on the other, narratives on Śākyamuni’s former and present lives as well as accounts of other buddhas, bodhisattvas, and the Buddha’s disciples abound with descriptions of their special abilities, including knowledge of the future. In contrast, the GSZ and XGSZ display a clear standpoint concerning mantic practices and include them as integral aspects of monastics’ lives. The two texts articulate that the ability to predict the future and other supernatural powers are natural by-products of spiritual progress in the Buddhist context. This paper discusses the incorporation of various aspects of the Indian and Chinese traditions in monastics’ biographies, and investigates the inclusion of revelations of future events (for example, in dreams) and mantic techniques in these texts. In addition, it traces parallels to developments in non-Buddhist literature and outlines some significant differences between the GSZ and the XGSZ.
CBETA: Chinese Electronic Tripiṭaka, distributed by the Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (http://www.cbeta.org).
DDB: Digital Dictionary of Buddhism. http://www.buddhism-dict.net/ddb/.
GSZ: Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳, CBETA:T50, no2059.
Hànshū 漢書; by Bān Gù 班固 (32–92). Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1962.
Hòu Hànshū 後漢書; by Fàn Yè 范曄 (during the Sòng 宋 of the Southern Dynasties). Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1965.
Jiù Táng shū 舊唐書; by LIÚ Xù 劉昫 (887–946) et al. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1975.
Lèi biān Cháng’ān zhì 類編長安志; by Luó Tiānxiāng 駱天驤 (Yuán Dynasty). Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1990.
Lùnhéng jiàoshì 論衡校釋; by Huáng Huī 黄晖. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1990.
Míng kānběn Yímén guăngdú 明刊本夷門廣牘; ed. by Wáng Yúnwǔ 王雲五. Táiběi: Shàngwù Yìnshūguǎn, 1969.
Mòzĭ jiàozhù 墨子校注; by Sūn Qĭzhì 孫啟治. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1993.
Nán shĭ 南史; by Lĭ Yánshòu 李延壽 (Táng Dynasty). Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1975.
Sāndòng qúnxiān lù 三洞群仙錄
Dàozàng 道藏, Vol. 32. Shànghăi: Wénwù Chūbǎnshè, Shànghăi Shūdiàn / Tiānjīn Gŭjí Chūbănshè, 1988.
Shĭjì 史記; by Sīmă Qiān 司馬遷. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1959.
Shísān jīng zhùshū 十三經注疏; ed. by Ruăn Yuán 阮元 (1764–1849). Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1980.
Tiānyī gé cáng Míng-dài fāngzhì xuǎnkān xùbiān 天一閣藏明代方志選刊續編. Shànghăi: Shànghăi Shūdiàn Chūbǎnshè, 1990.
Wèi shū 魏書; by Wèi Shōu 魏收. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1974.
XGSZ: Xù gāosēng zhuàn 續高僧傳, CBETA: T50, no2060.Xīn Táng shū 新 Ōu Yángxiū 歐陽修. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1975.
Xù xiū Sìkù quánshū 續修四庫全書; ed. by Xù xiū Sìkù quánshū biānzhuàn wĕiyuánhuì 《續修四庫全書》編撰委員會. Shànghăi: Shànghăi Gŭjí Chūbǎnshè, 2002.
Xúnzǐ jíjiě 荀子集解; annotated by Wáng Xiānqiān 王先謙 (Qīng Dynasty); ed. by Chén Xiàohuán 沈啸寰 and Wáng Xīngxián王星贤. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1988.
影印文淵閣四庫全書 Yǐngyìn Wényuān gé Sìkù quánshū. Táiběi: Shàngwù Yìnshūguǎn, 1983.
Zhōuyì jíjiĕ 周易集解; by Lĭ Dĭngzuò 李鼎祚 (Táng Dynasty); ed. by Wáng Fēngxiān 王丰先. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 2016.
Zhuāngzĭ jíshì 莊子集釋; ed. by GUŌ Qìngfān 郭慶藩 and WÁNG Xiàoyú 王孝魚. Bĕijīng: Zhōnghuá Shūjú, 1961.
ASSANDRI, Friederike 2009. ‘Inter-religious Debate at the Court of the Early Tang: An Introduction to Daoxuan’s Ji gujin Fo Dao lunheng.’ In: Friederike ASSANDRI and Dora MARTINS (eds.) From Early Tang Court Debates to China’s Peaceful Rise. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 15–32.
ATSUSHI Ibuki 伊吹敦 1990. ‘Zokukōsōden no zōkō ni kan-suru kenkyū 『続高僧伝』の増広に関する研究 [A study on the expansion of the Xù gāosēng zhuàn].’ Tōyō no shisō to shūkyō 東洋の思想と宗教 7: 58–74.
ATSUSHI Ibuki 伊吹敦 1992. ‘Guānyú Xù gāosēng zhuàn zhī zēngbǔ 关于《续高僧傅》之增补.’Dìguān 谛观 69: 197–221. (Translation of Atsushi 1990 into Chinese by Shì Zhàohuì 释昭慧.).
BENN, James 2007. Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism. [Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 19.] Honolulu: University of Hawai‛i Press.
BRENNAN, John 1993. ‘Dreams, Divination and Statecraft: The Politics of Dreams in Early Chinese History and Literature.’ In: Carol Schreier RUPPRECHT (ed.) The Dream and the Text: Essays on Literature and Language. Albany, NY: Suny Press, 73–102.
CAMPANY, Robert F. 1990. ‘Return-from-Death Narratives in Early Medieval China.’ Journal of Chinese Religions 18/1: 91–125.
CAMPANY, Robert F. 1996. Strange Writing: Anomaly Accounts in Early Medieval China .New York: State University of New York Press.
CAMPANY, Robert F. 2012. Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Modern China. Honolulu: University of Hawai‛i Press.
CHAVANNES, Edouard 1962. Cinq cents contes et apologues extraits du tripitaka chinois et traduits en français. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve.
CHEMLA, Karine, Donald HARPER and Marc KALINOWSKI (eds.) 1999. Divination et rationalité en Chine ancienne. [Extrême-Orient, Extrême-Occident 21.] Paris: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes.
CHEN, Jinhua 2016. ‘Manuscripts, Printed Canons, and Extra-canonical Sources: A Case Study Based on a Biography from the Xu Gaoseng Zhuan (Further biography of eminent monks) by Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667).’ Studies in Chinese Religions 2/2: 137–156.
CHÉN Měiyīng 陳美英 et al. 1995. Zhōnghuá zhàn mèng shù 中華占夢術 [The art of Chinese dream divination]. Taipei: Wénjīn.
CHÉN Yuán 陳垣 2005. Zhōngguó fójiào shĭjí gàilùn 中國佛教史籍概論 [An outline of Chinese Buddhist historical records]. Shànghăi: Shànghǎi Shūdiàn Chūbǎnshè.
CULLEN, Christopher 2011. ‘Understanding the Planets in Ancient China: Prediction and Divination in the Wu xing zhan.’ Early Science and Medicine 16/3: 218–251.
CULLEN, Christopher 2017. Heavenly Numbers: Astronomy and Authority in Early Imperial China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DAVIS, Scott 2012. The Classic of Changes in Cultural Context: A Textual Archaeology of the Yi Jing. Amherst, NY: Cambria Press.
DESPEUX, Catherine 2003. ‘Physiognomie.’ In: Marc KALINOWSKI (ed.) Divination et Société dans la Chine Médiévale: Étude des Manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France et de la British Library. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France, 513–555.
GUGGENMOS, Esther-Maria 2018. ‘A List of Magic and Mantic Practices in the Buddhist Canon.’In: LACKNER 2018: 151–195.
HARPER, Donald 1979. ‘The Han Cosmic Board (shih 式).’ Early China 4: 1–10.
HIRAKAWA Akira 平川彰 1997. Bukkyō kan-bon dai jiten 佛教漢梵大辭典 [Buddhist Chinese–Sanskrit dictionary]. Tōkyō: Reiyūkai.
IRIYA Yoshitaka 入矢義高 and KOGA Hidehiko 古賀英彦 1991. Zengo jiten 禅語辞典 [A dictionary of Zen vocabulary]. Kyōto: Shibunkaku.
JENSEN, Christopher 2018. Dreaming Betwixt and Between: Oneiric Narratives in Huijiao and Daoxuan’s Biographies of Eminent Monks. (Ph.D. dissertation, McMaster University.)
KALINOWSKI, Marc (ed.) 2003. Divination et Société dans la Chine Médiévale: Étude des Manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliothèque Nationale de France et de la British Library. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
KARCHER, Stephan 2002. I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change. London: Vega.
KAWAI Kōzō 川合康三 and KOZEN Hiroshi 興膳宏 1995. Zui sho keisekishi shōkō 隋書經籍志詳攷 [A thorough investigation of texts and records referred to in the Suíshū]. Tōkyō: Kyuko shoin.
KIESCHNICK, John 1997. The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography. Honolulu: University of Hawai‛i Press.
KOTYK, Jeffrey. 2017a. Buddhist Astrology and Astral Magic in the Tang Dynasty . (Ph.D. dissertation, Leiden University.)
KOTYK, Jeffrey 2017b. ‘Can Monks Practice Astrology? Astrology and the Vinaya in China.’ In: Susan ANDREW, Jinhua CHEN and Cuilan LIU (eds.) Rules of Engagement: Medieval Traditions of Buddhist Monastic Regulations. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 503–517.
KOTYK, Jeffrey 2018. ‘The Sinicization of Indo-Iranian Astrology in Medieval China’. Sino-Platonic Papers 282: 1–95.
KROLL, Paul W. 2018. ‘The Representation of Mantic Arts in the High Culture of Medieval China.’In: LACKNER 2018: 99–125.
LACKNER, Michael (ed.) 2018. Coping with the Future: Theories and Practices of Divination in East Asia. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill.
LAI, Whalen 2003. ‘The Century of the Holy Man in Chinese History (316–439): The Death of Hsuan-Kao.’ Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies (Third Series) 5: 143–161.
LI, Jung-hsi (= LI Rongxi) and Albert A. DALIA (trans.) 2006. Lives of Great Monks and Nuns [BDK English Tripiṭaka Translation Series, Book 76.] Berkeley, CA: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research.
LǏ Líng 李零 1993. Zōngguó fāngshù kăo 中國方術考 [A study on Chinese divination]. Běijīng: Rénmín Zhōngguó Chūbǎnshè.
LI, Wai-yee 2007. The Readability of the Past in Early Chinese Historiography. [Harvard East Asian Monographs 253.] Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center.
LIPPIELLO, Tiziana 2001. Auspicious Omens and Miracles in Ancient China: Han, Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties. [Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 39.] Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica; Nettetal: Styler Verlag.
MAK, Bill M. 2014. ‘Yusi Jing: A Treatise of ‘Western’ Astral Science in Chinese and its Versified Version Xitian yusi jin.’ SCIAMVS 15: 105–169.
MAK, Bill M. 2015. ‘The Transmission of Buddhist Astral Science from India to East Asia: The Central Asian Connection.’ Historia Scientiarum 24/2: 59–75.
MEISIG, Konrad 1987. Das ‘Śrāmaṇyaphala-Sūtra’: Synoptische Übersetzung und Glossar der chinesischen Fassungen verglichen mit dem Sanskrit und Pāli. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
NAKAMURA Hajime 中村元 1975. Bukkyōgo daijiten 仏教語大辭典 [Encyclopedic dictionary of Buddhist terms]. Tōkyō: Tōkyō Shoseki.
NATTIER, Jan 2008. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University.
NG, Zhiru 2007. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China. [Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 21.] Honolulu: University of Hawai‛i Press.
NIELSEN, Bent 2018. ‘Hexagrams and Prognostication in the Weishu Literature: The Thirty-twoyear Cycle of the Qian zuo du.’ In: LACKNER 2018: 47–98.
NOEGEL, Scott 2007. Nocturnal Ciphers: The Allusive Language of Dreams in the Ancient Near East. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society.
OHNUMA, Reiko 2017. Unfortunate Destiny: Animals in the Indian Buddhist Imagination. New York: Oxford University Press.
PANKENIER, David W. 2013. Astrology and Cosmology in Early China: Conforming Earth to Heaven. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
RAPHALS, Lisa 2008–2009. ‘Divination in the ‘Han Shu’ Bibliographic Treatise.’ Early China 32: 45–101.
RAPHALS, Lisa 2013. Divination and Prediction in Early China and Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
SHARF, Robert 2002. Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai‛i Press.
SHINOHARA, Koichi 1992. ‘Guanding’s Biography of Zhiyi, the Fourth Patriarch of the Tiantai Tradition.’ In: Phyllis GRANOFF and Koichi SHINOHARA (eds.) Speaking of Monks: Religious Biography in India and China. Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 97–218.
SHINOHARA, Koichi 1994. ‘Biographies of Eminent Monks in a Comparative Perspective: The Function of the Holy in Medieval Chinese Buddhism.’ Zhōnghuá fóxué xuébào 中華佛學學報 7: 479–498.
SHÌ Zhàohuì 釋昭慧 (tr.) 1992. ‘Guānyú Xù gāosēng zhuàn zhī zēngbǔ 關於《續高僧傳》之增 補.’ Dìguān 諦觀 69: 197–221. [This is a translation of Atsushi 1990 into Chinese.]
STEAVU, Dominic 2018. ‘The Allegorical Cosmos: The Shi 式 Board Medieval Taoist and Buddhist Sources.’ In: LACKNER 2018: 196–232.
STEVENS, Anthony 1997. Private Myths: Dreams and Dreaming. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
STRASSBERG, Richard E. 2008. Wandering Spirits: Chen Shiyuan’s Encyclopedia of Dreams. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press.
STRICKMANN, Michel 2005. Chinese Poetry and Prophecy: The Written Oracle in East Asia. Ed. by Bernard FAURE. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
UTSUO Shōshin 撫尾正信 1954. ‘Makamaya kyō kanyaku ni kansuru gigi 摩訶摩耶経漢訳に関す る疑義 [Doubtful aspects concerning the Chinese translation of the Mahāmāyā sūtra].’ Saga Ryūkoku gakkai kiyō 佐賀龍谷学会紀要 2: 1–28.
WRIGHT, Arthur F. 1954. ‘Biography and Hagiography: Hui-Chiao’s Lives of Eminent Monks.’ In: Silver Jubilee Volume of the Zinbun kagaku kenkyūsho. Kyoto: Kyoto University, 383–432.
YANG, Lu 2004. ‘Narrative and Historicity in the Buddhist Biographies of Early Medieval China: The Case of Kumārajīva.’ Asia Major 17/2: 1–43.
ZHUĀNG Míngxīng 莊明興. 1999. Zhōngguó zhōnggŭ de Dìzàng xìnyăng 中國中古的地藏信仰 [Faith in Kṣitigarbha during the Chinese Middle Ages]. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press.