280 sØrensen
ple of the influence of Tibetan Mahāyoga Tantrism on that of Chan and
provided various examples drawn directly from a number of manuscripts.71
In this process he misread or otherwise overstated his case, such as when he
interpreted the lengthy text of the Esoteric Dharma Precepts Altar Methods of
Ritual Proceedings as an example of Mahāyoga influence on Chan. As we now
know, this important Esoteric Buddhist scripture was composed by Chinese
practitioners of Esoteric Buddhism on the basis of purely Chinese texts. It does
not have any overt traces of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in it, as it were, but
reflects more or less directly mature Esoteric Buddhism current during the sec-
ond half of the Tang.72
While practitioners of Chan adopted certain terms, concepts and even prac-
tices from both Tibetan Tantric Buddhism as well as from Chinese Esoteric
Buddhism, it would appear that the influence went both ways.73 In other
words we find several examples of Chinese Chan texts as well as those relating
to Chinese Esoteric Buddhism adapted for a Tibetan-reading audience, not to
mention texts written in bilingual Sino-Tibetan.
7 Guhyavāda at Dunhuang?
Before ending this brief excursus on Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, let me
address the issue of Guhyavāda, i.e. ‘Secret Doctrine,’ a Sanskrit term which
has appeared in recent scholarly writing and debate on the Chinese side in
order to provide a better way of identifying Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang.
In the works of especially two Chinese scholars, Zhao Xiaoxing (赵晓星) and
Kou Jia (寇甲), this term has been used as a substitute for Esoteric Buddhism,
71 See the groundbreaking study by Eastman, Kenneth, “Mahāyoga Texts at Tun-huang,” in
Bukkyō bunkan kenkyūkiyō 佛教文化研究所紀要 [Bulletin of Buddhist Textual Studies]
22 (1983): 42–60 (esp. 57–58).
72 I discuss this text and its relationship with local Chan at some length in Sørensen, Henrik
H., “The Conflation of Chan and Esoteric Buddhism during the Tang as Reflected in the
Chinese Dunhuang Manuscripts,” (forthcoming in Chán Buddhism—Dūnhuáng and
Beyond: Texts, Manuscripts, and Contexts, ed. Christoph Anderl). See also Huo, “Mijiao
Zhongguo hua de jingdian fenkai,” 141–172.
73 One interesting example of Tantric Buddhist influence on Chan is the presence of the
famous mantra, Oṃ manī padme huṃ (Chin. an moni bote ou 唵磨尼特鉢吽), which
appears in the Nan tianzhu guo Putidamo chanshi guanmen 南天竺國菩提達摩禪師觀
門 [Meditation Methods of the Chan Master Bodhidharma from Southern India], S. 6958.