562 hun y. lyeclassification of Buddhist monastics that was already in place in the
Song. This edict divided monasteries into three types: chan (medi-
tation), jiang (expository), and jiao (lit., “teaching”).^4 Jiao mon-
asteries specialized in ritual performance and, according to the edict,
these monks
performed the buddhas’ methods of benefiting and aiding (beings) by
eliminating (negative) karma created in the present and purifying the
errors of the dead created in the past. In this way they teach (jiao )
people of the world.^5
Significantly, the jiao monastics were also known as “yuqie monas-
tics” (yuqie seng ) and we learn from Hanshan Deqing
(1546–1623) that “To become a monk of yü-chia (i.e., yuqie), one
must pass the test on the rules concerning the feeding and deliverance
of flaming-mouth (i.e., Yankou) hungry ghosts.”^6 This is another clear
testament to the centrality of the Yankou in the ritual program of late
imperial Buddhists. Furthermore, records from late Ming also indicate
that not only did jiao/yuqie monastics perform the Yankou with great
regularity but chan and jiang monastics did as well. It is worth nothing
that the popularity of the Yankou even prompted the production of several
Daoist Yankou liturgies that are still in use today.^7
Though he is most often noted as a promoter of nianfo prac-
tice, Zhuhong also took a special interest in the Yankou. He mostly
taught nianfo as the most effective and appropriate practice for all,
but Zhuhong himself performed the Yankou for a range of purposes,
such as liberating the deceased, praying for rain, and dispelling tiger(^4) In doing so, the Hongwu emperor was revising a practice that harkened back to
the Yuan and Song dynasties by redefining and replacing those categories. Thus, the
Song category of lu or vinaya monastics was dropped, replaced by the category of
jiang. And while the jiao category existed in the Song, in that period it had a clear
sectarian reference to Tiantai monastics, as opposed to the way it was defined in the
Hongwu emperor’s edict. 5
Shishi qigu lue xuji ( ), T. 2038.49:932a.
(^6) Hsu 1979, 142.
(^7) For examples of Daoist versions of the Yoga of Flaming-mouth, see Ōfuchi Ninji’s
Chūgokujin no shūkyō girei. In this collection of Daoist texts are the Lingbao pudu
keyi used by Daoists in Taiwan and the Mengshan shishi yi
used by the San’nai Daoists of Hong Kong, which is very similar to the
Huashan Yankou. See Ōfuchi 1983, 391–403, 799–813. Duane Pang and Judith Boltz
have also published articles on the Daoist pudu rites. See Pang 1977, 95–122; Boltz
1996, 177–225. For a discussion on the Daoist appropriation and transformation of
this ritual, see Orzech 2002, 213–310.