TY - JOUR
T1 - Kūkai’s transcultural rhetoric of prayer
T2 - on his writings inspired by the Chinese “prayer text” (yuanwen 願文)
AU - Williams, Nicholas Morrow
N1 - Funding Information:
This project has been generously supported by a Japanese Research Fellowship from the Hakuhodo Foundation in 2019–2020, and General Research Fund grant #17615818 from the University Grants Council of the HKSAR. I have previously discussed the texts and issues here in my Japanese publication ‘Kitō suru Kōbō daishi: Mikkyō to Kanbungaku no aida in aru ganmon.’ I am deeply grateful for the help of Wang Xiaolin 王小林 in conceiving this article, as well as suggestions on many specific points of detail; and also for the keen-eyed corrections and amplifications of David Gardiner and DING Yi 丁一.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - The religious and philosophical import of Kūkai’s 空海 (774–835) writings has sometimes distracted attention away from their formal and rhetorical properties, even though these are in fact integral to their messages. This article examines Kūkai’s achievement in the genre of the ‘prayer text’ (Ch. yuanwen 願文; J. ganmon; K. wonmun), which already had a convoluted history throughout Asia in the preceding centuries. Originating at the courts of Southern Dynasties China, the form is widely represented among the anonymous texts of Dunhuang, and then regained vitality in Nara and Heian Japan. Yamanoue no Okura 山上憶良 (660–733?) seems to have adapted the rhetoric of Chinese prayer texts in his own writings, and Kūkai 空海 (774–835) and Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845–903) both wrote dozens of prayer texts. Though some of Kūkai’s pieces are conventional, others deploy his vast erudition in both Chinese literature and Esoteric sutras to powerful effect, enacting the triumph over death through the requisite mantras and assistance of the Mahāvairocana Buddha.
AB - The religious and philosophical import of Kūkai’s 空海 (774–835) writings has sometimes distracted attention away from their formal and rhetorical properties, even though these are in fact integral to their messages. This article examines Kūkai’s achievement in the genre of the ‘prayer text’ (Ch. yuanwen 願文; J. ganmon; K. wonmun), which already had a convoluted history throughout Asia in the preceding centuries. Originating at the courts of Southern Dynasties China, the form is widely represented among the anonymous texts of Dunhuang, and then regained vitality in Nara and Heian Japan. Yamanoue no Okura 山上憶良 (660–733?) seems to have adapted the rhetoric of Chinese prayer texts in his own writings, and Kūkai 空海 (774–835) and Sugawara no Michizane 菅原道真 (845–903) both wrote dozens of prayer texts. Though some of Kūkai’s pieces are conventional, others deploy his vast erudition in both Chinese literature and Esoteric sutras to powerful effect, enacting the triumph over death through the requisite mantras and assistance of the Mahāvairocana Buddha.
KW - Kūkai
KW - esoteric Buddhism
KW - kanbun poetics
KW - parallel prose
KW - prayer text
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U2 - 10.1080/23729988.2021.1996974
DO - 10.1080/23729988.2021.1996974
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85124272410
SN - 2372-9988
VL - 7
SP - 279
EP - 305
JO - Studies in Chinese Religions
JF - Studies in Chinese Religions
IS - 2-3
ER -