. tantric buddhism in ming china 555
This episode suggests that Tibetan Buddhist rituals had already seeped
deep into the ceremonies of rich and powerful families in Ming
China.
Tibetan Buddhism was consistently represented as magic by Ming
literati. In the writings of the literati there appear various finely detailed
magical stories about Tibetan monks, and these details made the magi-
cal image of Tibetan monks left by Yuan Chinese literati still more
vivid. The image of magical monks spread throughout the realm along
with the “Nanjing miracle” created by the fifth Karma pa in 1407. A
Ming writer recorded the story this way:
The Karma pa led monks from the realm to hold the great purification
ceremony that lasted for fourteen days. The emperor went to the altar for
the ceremony. At the time there appeared auspicious clouds and heav-
enly flowers, sweet rains and dew, auspicious lights, blue luan birds and
white cranes gathered every day. Golden deities and arhats appeared in
the clouds with white elephants and blue lions. The magnificent figures
came down guided by heavenly lamps and surrounded by banners and
umbrellas. One night, golden colored flowers grew on cypress all over
the city. One could also hear the sound of mantras and music coming
down from sky. Since then, the miracles have often reappeared and it is
called magic. [Monks] taught people to chant [six syllables of ] O ma ni
pad ma hūm, and those believers chanted it day and night. The grand
chancellor Hu Guang composed the “Song of the Auspicious Correspon-
dence to Imperial Filial Piety” to present to the emperor. The emperor
also concentrated on Buddhist sūtras and composed Buddhist songs and
ordered them to be sung and danced in the palace.^19This sort of description was very common in the hagiography of
Tibetan Buddhist masters, yet it was a rare “miracle” for Han Chinese
people.
The other wide-spread miracle story was the legend of living Bud-
dha in Tibet. Besides the eighth Karma pa patriarch whom Emperor
Wuzong tried to invite to China in vain, the most famous living Bud-
dha from Tibet known in China and Mongolia at that time was the
third Dalai Lama bSod nams rgya mtsho (1543–1588) who once wrote
to the prime minister Zhang Juzheng (1525–1582) requesting
an imperial reward.^20 The story of living Buddha’s reincarnation had
been spread widely in China by Tibetans. The Tibetan monk Byang
(^19) Fu 1964–1966, 160, p. 3154.
(^20) Zhang 1984, 552.