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In researching the Tun-Huang manuscripts for an essay I found a PhD thesis by Thomas Edward Graham The Reconstruction of Popular Buddhism in Medieval China using selected "Pien-Wen" from Tun-Huang. For a thesis it was surprisingly easy to read and very enjoyable. The thesis looked at the four stories translated by Victor Mair as well as 8 others. I was glad to have read Mair's translations first as it was good to have first hand knowledge of the stories being discussed.
Grahams started by looking at the history of the discovery of the Tun-Huang manuscripts. He went into much more detail than Mair. Graham then traced the literary history of the Pien-Wen. He saw them as being heavily influenced by Indian sutras. He saw the mixture of prose and poetry and the use of repetition being the key examples of this. These two formats were different to any type of Chinese literature up to this point, but were common in sutras. After analysing the literary nature of the documents he then looks at the origin of their content, these are mainly Buddhist sutras, and Chinese historical documents. Graham saw the Pien-Wen as being read by monks, probably as prompt books, to a lay audience to get across the basic ideas of Buddhism. Not all the Pien-wen in Tun-Huang however were of a Buddhist nature, however, Graham focuses only on those that were. Graham analyses not just the uses of these books but also looks at the preaching and lectures that were commonly done by monks at the time and the Buddhist activities of lay men.
Graham tries to create a picture how the universe was perceived in these texts. He looks at the world view presented in particular as Earth, Hell and Heaven. His conclusions are that many Buddhist ideas on these places have been simplified for these texts, also several ideas have become sinified. Frequently stories supposedly taking place in India had a Chinese style governing body, and court. Indian geography was also mostly wrong in the stories. It was interesting that he noted how there was very little intrusion of popular gods or Taoist deities or immortals in the story, even Guan Yin was absent. He contrasted this with the later Journey to the West which is full of Buddhist, Taoist and popular deities and demons. It seems that this inclusion was a later development and had not happened by the time these stories were written in the 10th century.
Graham looks at the Buddha and how he is portrayed in the stories. Graham gave a very favourable impression of the Buddha in the stories showing his as compassionate and forgiving, however I remember few specific points that he raised.
The last section of the book looks at the way of life of Buddhist monks and lay believers, unfortunately only a little is said about nuns. However I think he is able to create a fairly clear picture of this small aspect of people's lives. I refer to it as a small aspect as he talks only of specific ritual events and offerings made which do not present themselves as daily activities for the layman. In addition to the Tun-Huang manuscripts for his discussion on Buddhism Graham also referred to the diary of the Japanese monk Ennin who visited China close to the time of the documents being discussed. The conclusion is a first person narrative summing up Graham's main points. It was a little hard to read as it seemed so terribly artificial however it did clearly sum up the main points of the book.
The appendix included a translation of the Tale of the Ugly Girl which was enjoyable and did an excellent job of showing the repetition that Graham referred to in his initial arguments.
I enjoyed reading the thesis very much, I've not been able to find if Graham has written anything more in the past 30 years. I am interested to find out what he has been doing and how his theories have developed.
Grahams started by looking at the history of the discovery of the Tun-Huang manuscripts. He went into much more detail than Mair. Graham then traced the literary history of the Pien-Wen. He saw them as being heavily influenced by Indian sutras. He saw the mixture of prose and poetry and the use of repetition being the key examples of this. These two formats were different to any type of Chinese literature up to this point, but were common in sutras. After analysing the literary nature of the documents he then looks at the origin of their content, these are mainly Buddhist sutras, and Chinese historical documents. Graham saw the Pien-Wen as being read by monks, probably as prompt books, to a lay audience to get across the basic ideas of Buddhism. Not all the Pien-wen in Tun-Huang however were of a Buddhist nature, however, Graham focuses only on those that were. Graham analyses not just the uses of these books but also looks at the preaching and lectures that were commonly done by monks at the time and the Buddhist activities of lay men.
Graham tries to create a picture how the universe was perceived in these texts. He looks at the world view presented in particular as Earth, Hell and Heaven. His conclusions are that many Buddhist ideas on these places have been simplified for these texts, also several ideas have become sinified. Frequently stories supposedly taking place in India had a Chinese style governing body, and court. Indian geography was also mostly wrong in the stories. It was interesting that he noted how there was very little intrusion of popular gods or Taoist deities or immortals in the story, even Guan Yin was absent. He contrasted this with the later Journey to the West which is full of Buddhist, Taoist and popular deities and demons. It seems that this inclusion was a later development and had not happened by the time these stories were written in the 10th century.
Graham looks at the Buddha and how he is portrayed in the stories. Graham gave a very favourable impression of the Buddha in the stories showing his as compassionate and forgiving, however I remember few specific points that he raised.
The last section of the book looks at the way of life of Buddhist monks and lay believers, unfortunately only a little is said about nuns. However I think he is able to create a fairly clear picture of this small aspect of people's lives. I refer to it as a small aspect as he talks only of specific ritual events and offerings made which do not present themselves as daily activities for the layman. In addition to the Tun-Huang manuscripts for his discussion on Buddhism Graham also referred to the diary of the Japanese monk Ennin who visited China close to the time of the documents being discussed. The conclusion is a first person narrative summing up Graham's main points. It was a little hard to read as it seemed so terribly artificial however it did clearly sum up the main points of the book.
The appendix included a translation of the Tale of the Ugly Girl which was enjoyable and did an excellent job of showing the repetition that Graham referred to in his initial arguments.
I enjoyed reading the thesis very much, I've not been able to find if Graham has written anything more in the past 30 years. I am interested to find out what he has been doing and how his theories have developed.