38. ESOTERIC BUDDHISM UNDER THE SONG: AN OVERVIEW
Charles D. OrzechIntroduction
While there is circumstantial evidence for continued but limited
propagation of the abhiṣeka delineated “Yoga” tradition in the period
between the end of the Tang in 906 and the founding of the Song in
960, it is clear that the broader adoption and integration of esoteric
techniques and deities by Chinese Buddhists continued apace. During
the same period, there had been little by way of new texts and transla-
tions. The last major translator under imperial patronage was Prajña,
working in the early ninth century.^1 The engine of translation that
had sustained Chinese Buddhism for some seven hundred years had
for all intents and purposes stopped. When we look elsewhere on the
continent—to the Liao, Xixia, and to Korea—we see a similar pattern,
with little or no evidence of the Tang abhiṣeka lineages, but ongo-
ing incorporation of spell lore and its attendant ritual practices (spell
texts, dhāraṇī pillars, etc.) and deities.^2 Indeed, this ongoing incorpo-
ration was not limited to buddhist milieux, as the appearance of the
Vidyārāja Ucchusma (Huiji jin’gang ̣ ) in exorcistic cults and
the adoption of Mārīcī in Daoism (see below) indicate.^3 The Liao in
particular synthesized Huayan traditions with the esoteric traditions of
the Mahāvairocana sūtra.^4
(^1) Lü 1995, 347–349 lists translations lacking attribution dating from the late Tang,
many of them culled from Japanese pilgrim accounts. For Prajña see Copp, “Prajña,”
in this volume. 2
These developments are traced in Dunnell, “Esoteric Buddhism under the Xixia
(1038–1227),” Sørensen, “Esoteric Buddhism under the Liao,” Esoteric Buddhist Art
960–1279,” and “Esoteric Buddhism under the Koryŏ.” Despite the widespread use of
dhāraṇī pillars (shichuang ) in Liao, Jin, Dali, etc., few seemed to have been built
in the Song domains. One surviving example is the eighteen meter pillar in Zhaozhou,
Hebei built under the Northern Song in 1038. Yan 1959 and Murata 1993 survey the
form.
(^3) For an account of the appearance of Ucchusma in exorcistic cults see Davis 2001, ̣
126–152.
(^4) See Sørensen, “Esoteric Buddhism under the Liao,” in this volume.