296 pol vanden broucke and sem vermeersch
fth century.^138 The Korean scholar Pak T’aehwa 139 refers in
his contribution to a collection of papers devoted to Korean esoteric
Buddhism to a passage in book 7 of the Guanding jing, titled Guanding
fumo fengyin dashenzhou jing , meaning “Seals
(mudrs) and Great Spells that Subdue Demons”.^140 In this passage
we nd practically the same unusual phonetic translation for mudr as
mentioned in the Samguk yusa, namely wentoulou , Sino-Korean
munduru.^141 Both the Samguk yusa and the Guanding jing note that this
term means shenyin , “divine seal”.^142 Judging from the index to
the esoteric Buddhist section (Mikky -bu ) in the Taish edition,
this exceptional phonetic transcription for mudr is only used in the
Guanding jing. The author of this apocryphal text probably employed
the unusual Chinese transcription wentoulou in order to give the impres-
sion that the text is a genuine translation from an Indian original.^143
The phonetic transliteration is included as a headword in the Japanese
esoteric Buddhist encyclopedia Mikky daijiten.^144 In this
lexicon it is not explained in its standard meaning of hand-gesture, but
as a seal of gold, silver or sandalwood on which the name of a deity or
Buddha is engraved. The interpretation of the Mikky daijiten is based
on the same passage in the Guanding jing. According to this scripture,
one should write the names of the Divine Kings of the Five Directions
(Chin. wufang shenwang ) on a round piece of wood.^145 The text
mentions the names of these deities, but their Sanskrit-seeming names
in Chinese transcription do not appear in any Buddhist source.^146 It is
said that with this seal one will be able to cure diseases and to expel
fear and demons.^147
(^138) Strickmann 1990, pp. 90–93.
(^139) See Pak 1986, pp. 19–20.
(^140) T.1331.21.515b14 and following. For an English translation of this chapter of
the Guanding jing, see Strickmann 1993, pp. 21–27.
(^141) See T.1331.21.515b16.
(^142) See T.1331.21.515 b25; HPC, vol. 6, p. 356b14.
(^143) See Strickmann, 1993, p. 22 n. 34, pp. 28–29.
(^144) Mikky daijiten, p. 2170 s.v. monzuru.
(^145) See T.1331.21.515 b15–16.
(^146) See T.1331.21.515 a29–b8; Strickmann 1993, p. 23.
(^147) In his study of the Daoist seal, Strickmann (1993, p. 21) writes about Chapter
VII of the Guanding jing: “The work furnishes the most explicit account of the Daoist
ritual of exorcistic sigillation—but this time, in a Buddhist context.”