196 henrik h. sørensen
need to embellish on a given text or to create an even better one with
a more clear-cut and distinct message. This would especially seem to
have been the case when dealing with devotional material and cultic
texts, such as scriptures expounding on the wonders of Avalokiteśvara
(Kannon) or ritual tracts. However, we also encounter apocryphal
scriptures that were made on demand, forgeries meant to address a
specific situation of political or social power negotiation, and therefore
had a predefined political agenda.
Apocrypha with Daoist elements are commonly found among the
Esoteric Buddhist material from China, and the imprint of the prac-
tices associated with this religion in a given Buddhist scripture is a
good sign that one is dealing with a fabricated text, or at least one
that includes non-Indian material. Scriptures of this kind are often
concerned with worship of the constellations and asterisms, or ritual
texts involving the use of seals and talismans.
Many examples of Esoteric Buddhist apocrypha, hybrid works, and
variant texts have been identified from among the hoard of manu-
scripts found at Dunhuang. This material is especially important as it
constitutes a virtual time capsule of apocrypha and may well reflect,
or partly reflect, a general scriptural situation prevailing in Buddhist
communities in various parts of China toward the end of the Tang.
The study of Esoteric Buddhist apocrypha is a fairly recent adden-
dum to the study of East Asian Buddhism, and much work still needs
to be done. Among the important tasks is an extensive scrutiny of
the many texts we find in the Taishō and Zokuzōkyō, especially those
which exist in Japanese versions only, for the purpose of identifying
possible apocryphal and hybrid works.