210 richard d. mcbride iiStrickmann 1996, 73–87). All of these texts contain detailed proce-
dures for using dhāraṇī to both prevent and treat sickness and other
maladies. Excerpts from these and from other dhāraṇī scriptures, but
especially the Dhāraṇī Collection, were compiled by Daoshi (ca.
596–683) in his immensely popular encyclopedia A Forest of Pearls in
the Garden of the Dharma (Fayuan zhulin , T. 2122, dated
to 668, McBride 2005).
By the mid-fifth century, Chinese Buddhists appear to have adopted
and adapted the Daoist practice of exorcism by means of impress-
ing devil-subduing seals (fumo fengyin )—a process that
Strickmann termed “ensigillation.” The Buddhist version of the heal-
ing practice is first attested in the seventh roll of the apocryphal Con-
secration Scripture, which Strickmann dates to about 457 (Strickmann
2002: 132–178). Other spell scriptures describing this practice are also
attested from the sixth century and seventh century, some versions
surviving only in manuscript form and copied in medieval Japan
(Strickmann 1993; 1995; 1996).
The supernatural entities that afflict humans and cause illness and
disease in China comprise a complex Buddhist demonology that was
indelibly influenced by traditional Indian conceptions of pathology
(Filliozat 1934). Many of the various demonic beings of the Indo-
Buddhist pantheon are the earliest members of what eventually devel-
ops into the tantric pantheon, with its domesticated wrathful deities
and denizens (Tajima 1959, 132–141, 190–197). The most common
and successful of harmful entities is the original Devil of the Buddhist
pantheon, the god of temptation and illusion, Māra, “the evil one”
(pāpīyān), and his followers, who were also called māras. Transcribed
as mo , this designation became a widely used collective term for
deleterious devils: the demon-kings (mowang ).
Next come the eight classes of supernatural beings (babu or babu
shen ). First among these are the nāgas, originally representa-
tive of the hooded cobra but by extension including all other ophidian
creatures. The underlying idea associated with this class of beings was
soon inextricably assimilated to the well-rooted mythology of the Chi-
nese dragon (long ), including its various destructive forms. Many
nāgas were domesticated as protectors of Buddhist texts and esoteric
practices in ritual traditions. Next are the rākṣasas, “protectors,” who
haunted caves and trees in India. They stalked their prey in animal,
human, and purely monstrous forms. In Buddhist texts rāksasạ s are
often replaced with the ubiquitous yakṣas, “guardians,” who kept watch