222 richard d. mcbride ii
monk as a student of astrology, portents, and all spell techniques
(zhoushu ), divination practices, charms, and talismans. The text
also describes the acquisition of dhāraṇī as one of the most promi-
nent qualities of a bodhisattva (T. 1509.25:79c–80a, 95c–96c; Lamotte
1944–81, 1:199–202, 316–321). This is probably because, up through
the early Tang period, dhāraṇī and the procedures and rituals for their
use are presented unmistakably as ordinary practices appropriate for
all monks and as highly beneficial to laypeople (McBride 2005). Tiantai
Zhiyi (538–597) featured them prominently in his fourfold
samādhi (Stevenson 1986, Swanson 2000). There is also evidence that
the preponderance of translated sūtras encouraging people to chant
dhāraṇī or to use dhāraṇī as protective spells was seen as related to
and which influenced the practice of *buddhānusmṛti (nianfo ),
causing it to change from a primarily meditative activity to a verbal
practice (Ujike 1987, 3–68).
Although not differentiated from other Mahāyāna texts by catalogues
during the Tang period, a catalogue of the Northern Song period, the
Catalogue of the Dharma Treasure Compiled in the Dazhong Xiangfu
Reign Period (Dazhong xiangfu fabao lu ), which
was compiled under the guidance of Zhao Anren (958–1018)
and issued in 1013, placed Buddhist sūtras in three catagories: the
storehouse of Hīnayāna sūtras, the storehouse of Mahāyāna sūtras,
and the esoteric portion of the storehouse of Mahāyāna sūtras. This
last category subsumed everything from basic dhāraṇī texts to the
Guhyasamāja tantra (T. 885; Orzech 2006). Hence, the threefold
classification of translated sūtras, into the categories of Hīnayāna,
Mahāyāna, and tantric or esoteric, that emerged in the Northern Song
period was useful to some Chinese and later Japanese thinkers before
the modern period. In the early twentieth century, Japanese sectarian
writers and scholars influenced by them classified all dhāraṇī scrip-
tures and tantras as esoteric and conceptualized an “Esoteric Section”
(Mikkyōbu ) of the Buddhist canon of scriptures (Sharf 2002b;
Ōmura 1918; Toganoo 1933).