. on esoteric buddhism in china 175
grew and developed as part of traditional Mahāyāna Buddhism but
took on a distinct form and direction of their own, complete with
hermeneutics and ritual lore, and which eventually coalesce into the
phenomena of a developed Esoteric Buddhism. I would place the his-
torical presence of this in the Indian subcontinent no later that the
early sixth century, and in China less than a century later.
If we remain confined to the historical reality of Chinese Buddhism,
I would certainly insist on the existence of an Esoteric Buddhist tra-
dition in China and on seeing the term as precisely justified as when
one refers to the traditions of Huayan, Tiantai, Jingtu or Chan
for that matter. While I am not suggesting that Esoteric Buddhism
existed as a distinct sectarian denomination with a firm institutional
structure (with the exception of the Zhenyan phase during the
mid- to late Tang), no one, I believe, would seriously question the
existence of the Jingtu or Pure Land cult as a major pan-Buddhist tra-
dition in China from the fifth century onward. Actually, a comparison
between Esoteric Buddhism and the Jingtu is especially poignant, since
both share similarities in their historical development, their largely
non-institutional character, and the ways in which they both related
to the canonical Mahāyāna literature. They were similarly integrated
and absorbed into other forms of Chinese Buddhism while influencing
each other.
Finally, I would like to say that a substantial component of the argu-
ments against “Esoteric Buddhism” seems to come from a general mis-
understanding on the part of its detractors—namely, that the term is
meant to designate a “school” of Buddhism (though it has been used
this way in certain cases). One may well argue, as I also do, that the
term is valid as an indicator of a “school of practice” or a “tradition
of practice,” but of course not as a school in the sense of a sect or
institution such as Tiantai or Huayan. Indeed, the Zhenyan tradition
of the mid- and late Tang is the only form of Esoteric Buddhism in
late medieval China that comes close to what we may think of as a
school or sect.