50. AVALOKITEŚVARA
George A. KeyworthDetermining which characteristics of the bodhisattva of compassion,
Avalokiteśvara (Guanshiyin or Guanyin ), are either eso-
teric or tantric is not only a matter of serious scholarly debate. Because
of the enduring centrality of Avalokiteśvara in China, he/she may also
shed light on what both of these terms mean in a specifically Chinese
context. Since at least the Tang dynasty (618–907), Chinese Bud-
dhists have associated Guanyin with three immensely popular texts
in the Chinese Buddhist canon, two of which are neither esoteric nor
tantric: the Lotus Sūtra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka sūtra, Miaofa lianhua
jing , T. 262) translated by Kumārajīva (344–413), and the
Heart Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya sūtra, Bore boluomiduo xinjing
, T. 251) translated by Xuanzang (602–664).
The third text, the apocryphal Chinese Śūraṃgama sūtra (Shou-
lengyan jing , T. 945), was catalogued by the editors of
the Sino-Japanese Taishō-era Buddhist canon in the esoteric section
(mikkyōbu ) only because of its dhāran ̣ī (Buddhosṇ̣īṣa-sitāta-
patrāparājitā-pratyaṅgirā-dhāraṇī, lengyan zhou ). Coinciden-
tally, the categorization of the Heart Sūtra as esoteric has been censured
by both of the established esoteric Buddhist institutions in Japan,
Shingon and Tendai , for more than a millennium
(Kimura 1998, 3–5).
The Lotus and Chinese Śūraṃgama present thirty-three and thirty-
two manifestations of Guanyin, respectively, while the Heart Sūtra
has been popularly connected to Guanyin since Tang times (Miaofa
lianhua jing 25, T. 262.9:56–61; Shoulengyan jing 6, T. 945.19:128b26–
129a23; Gotō 1958, 167–170; Iyanaga 2002, 292). All three texts pres-
ent Guanyin as a savior who can address nearly any calamity that
might befall a devotee—natural disasters, illnesses, ill fortune, and so
on—all of which are caused by demons. The primacy of Avalokiteśvara
in Sinitic Buddhist practice is therefore firmly established prior to the
introduction of either esoteric or tantric texts into China.
The forms of Guanyin most commonly considered esoteric by
scholars, commonly following Japanese paradigms, can be connected