The Worship of Samantabhadra

Both Samantabhadra and Manjushri are attendant Buddhas of Sakyamuni. The worship of Manjushri is prevalent in Mt. Wuwai, while the worship of Samantabhadra is popular in Mt. Emei. Temples which worship Manjushri had been built since North Wei Dynasty (386-557) in Mt. Wuwai. In North Qi Dynasty (550-577), it became the worship center of Manjushri, reaching its peak in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The period when Mt. Emei became the worship center of Samantabhadra remains unknown. While according to historical records, Mt. Emei was firstly a Taoist site. In Biography of Jiangwei, Records of Shu State, Records of Three Kingdoms,which quoted from History of Han and Jin Dynasties，it recorded that Jiang Wei aksed Zhong Hui: “Since you have achieved such a success, why don’t you learn from Fan Li to retire from the political life, and go to Mt. Emei to live in seclusion?”

In Bao Pu Zi there is also a saying that “Go to Mt. Emei to meet Tianzhen (an ancient immortal of Taoism) at the Jade Hall and ask him for the Taoist truth.” It is therefore can be seen that Mt. Emei had been a holy place for Taoism in an early time. It is also understandable that the famous calligrapher Wang Xizhi, a disciple of The Celestial Masters (an major Taoism sectalso called “Way of the Five Pecks of Rice”,) in the Jin Dynasty wanted to visit Mt. Emei, though he failed at last. Many other Taoism classics also mentioned Mt. Emei. This together with many places in Mt. Emei named after Taoist terms could demonstrate Mt. Emei’s position in Taosim.

How did Mt. Emei become the way-place of Samantabhadra? Let’s start from how the worship of Manjushri became essential in Mt. Wuwai. And, to talk about the worship of Manjushri, we have to know a little about the worship of Vimalakirti.

Vimalakirti was the central figure for scholar-officials in the Eastern and Western JinDynasties(266-420) and Northern and Southern Dynasties(420-589) to worship. Mr. Tang Yongtong, a scholar, holds an opinion that China’s lay Buddhists are deeply affected by the story of Vimalakirti, who was a lay Buddhist practitioner and said to be as enlightened and clear as the Buddha, and had unexpectedly stumped the Ten Buddhist Disciples. For the scholar-officials, they could not stay away from the secular world, as they had to raise children and support the elder, but they hoped to get rid of the worldly troubles by Buddhist pray. So, they admired Vimalakirti and everybody would talk about him; even Emperor Wu of LiangDynasty granted Weimo (in Chinese, Vimalakirti is pronounced as Weimojie) to his prince as the infant name. Nonetheless, from a pure Buddhist perspective, Vimalakirti had not neither attended any Buddhist practices nor received any strict Buddhist courses. As Buddhists needs a bodhisattva who obeys all Buddhist rules and practices to grasp truths, Manjushri, who is closely related with Vimalakirti was chosen besides Sakyamuni in the Wei and Jin dynasties to be the central figure of worship.

As the parents of all Buddhas, Manjushri is the number one in terms of wisdom, so he is also called the Mother of Enlightenment. When arguing with Vimalakirti, every bodhisattva presented his view on "entrance" into the dharma of non-duality. Then Manjushri asked Vimalakirti, "We have already spoken. Now you should tell us, benevolent man, what is a bodhisattva's entry into the Dharma gate of non-duality?" Vimalakirti responded with silence. Manjusri said, “Excellent! Excellent! No words, no speech, no demonstration and no recognition; this is entering the Dharma gate of non-duality."This marked the end of the argument. Vimalakirti’s silence greatly inspired Manjusri, who came to the conclusion of entrance to the dharma of non-duality. But from an opposite perspective, Vimalakirti, who remained silence, was baffled by Manjusri, who had thus won points for Buddhist monks. Among all the Ten Buddhist Disciples, Manjusri was the only one that made Vimalakirti to be speechless and was still the first disciple of Sakyamuni.

A New Account of the Tales of the World recorded that Zhi Daolin, a Buddhist master, showed his Jise Theory to Mr. Wang Tanzhi,an offical, who said nothing. Master Zhi asked, “Are you reciting it?”“Since Manjusri is not here, who may appreciate me?” replied Wang.

This story demonstrates that Manjusri has occupied a high position among the scholar-officials since Jin Dynasty. Wang Tanzhi did not think highly of Zhi Daolin’s Jise theory, so he adopted Manjusri’s conclusion to respond to Zhi. While, it was not true that Wang Tanzhi did not believe in Buddhism. What he believed in was a sect of lower level that advocated retribution between the netherworld and the world of living. While Jise Theory was similar to the theories of Laozi, Zhuangzi and Prajna, it was understandable why Buddhists that believed in retribution between the netherworld and the world of living worshiped Manjusri and did not emphasize words or speeches.

Due to the worship of Manjusri, Mt. Wutai gradually became the center of Manjusri worship in the Northern Dynasties (386-581). It had been mentioned in Expanded Record of Clear and Cold that Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei supported the construction of Dafu Lingjiu Temple in Mt. Wutai. In North Qi Dynasty (550-577), over 200 temples and monasteries were built there. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Sui (581-604), he issued an imperial edict to build five temples on the five peaks respectively, thereby forming the Manjusri worship center. When it came to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), Mt. Wutai became so influential that many foreign monks went on a pilgrimage there. As could be seen in documents in Dunhuang, there is a Painting of Mt. Wutai collected in the 61^st cave of the Mogao Grottoes, and six poems and music in Dunhuang poem and music; literature works compiled in Complete Literature Works of Tang Dynasty and A Complete Collection of Tang Poetryare countless. As a result, there is no wonder that in 824, the Tibetan Empire sent out a special envoy for the Painting of Mt. Wutai

There are not many examples of document records of Mt. Emei. In A Complete Collection of Tang Poetry, there are more Taoism poems than Buddhism poems. There are three poems written by Li Bai that are collected in it. The first one is Climbing Mt. Emei, in which the verse “There are a lot of celestial mountains in Sichuan, but none can compare to Mt. Emei” shows Taoism influence; the second one is Listening to Shu Monk Jun playing Qin, which has been regarded as a poem about Buddhism in Mt. Emei by many local records; the third one detailed the guest in Mt. Emei and the moon in Mt. Emei, from which it could be deduced that the guest should be a Buddhist master from Mt. Emei. From the above-mentioned verses, it can be seen that in Li Bai’s period, Taoism and Buddhism co-existed in Mt. Emei.

In Writing in a Boat on the way Back from Qianwei, Cen Shen (715-770) wrote “There is an Emei monk, chant sutra in a boat.” While another poem relevant to Mt. Emei implied Taoist influence. Cen Shen served as chief administrative officer of Jiazhou (now Leshan), which is only 60 li from Emei. He had once visited Lingyun Temple and wrote a poem named Visiting Lingyun Temple in Jiazhou. If there was any places of interest in Emei, why hadn’t he visit and compose verses? Emei belonged to Jiazhou, so if he inspected Jiazhou, why hadn’t he visit Emei? Why hadn’t he leave poems about Mt. Emei?

In addition, there are many other poems about Taoists in Mt. Emei, including Sikong Shu’s Send Alchemist Zhang Back to Mt. Emei, Bao Rong’s Appointment with aTaoist from Mt. Emei, Who Did Not Come as Appointed and To Alchemist Yang From Mt. EMei, Shi Jianwu’s To Taoist Tian from Mt. Emei in Mt. Tianzhu and Li Xuangu’s Enjoying Shu Taoist Playing Qin. These poets’ works reflected Taoism and Buddhism in Mt. Emei in a relatively faithful manner, and when compared with those who had not been to Sichuan but wrote poem merely relying on emotions and imaginations, their poems were much more reliable.

Another famous poet Liu Yuxi (772-842), who once served as chief administrative officer of Kuizhou (now Fengjie, a county of Chongqing), had visited many places. He had once written a poem summarizing Buddhism in China, in which he mentioned Mt. Songshan, Mt. Wutai and Mt. Hengshan. As Liu had a deep understanding of Buddhism, his summary was in no doubt a faithful description of Buddhism development in China at that time. This article did not mention Mt. Emei, which demonstrates that in his time Mt. Emei was still a Taoist place, and Buddhism had not taken root in Mt. Emei then.

When Jia Dao was demoted to Pengxi, he had written a poem named For Master Tanyuan, in which he mentioned Mt. Emei by “The gold light of Buddhist enlightened the trip; how I wish I could stand aloof from world affairs and live in seclusion in Mt. Emei with you”. In another poem For A Monk, he mentioned Mt. Emei by “I don’t know when can we meet each other again. What I know is that the sun rises and sets as usual in Mt. Emei day after day”. It can be seen from the latter poem that the number of monks in Mt. Emei increased, and that was in the period of Wenzong Emperor of Tang (827-840).

Zheng Gu had been to Sichuan, and left a poem Mt. Emei, with the verse “monks know clearly about the environment here, but it is hard for them to identify a certain crane in the forest”, which is relevant to Buddhism.

Qi Ji was a famous monk-poet who had three poems about Mt. Emei, one of which was for monks in Mt. Emei, which proved the existence of temples and monks in Mt. Emei.

It is weird that though there was a whole volume in A Complete Collection of Tang Poetry of works of Master Guangxuan, a monk-poet in Sichuan, who had connections with famous poets such as Liu Yuxi and Bai Juyi, but there was not even one poem about Mt. Emei. Was it because he did not come back to Sichuan, or due to other reasons?

What is more strange is that in the Five Dynasties period (907-960) there was a well-known Taoist called Du Guangting, who had served as an assistant minister of finance for the Later Shu Kingdom (934-965) and held Taoist rites in Sichuan. According to the biography of Buddhist master Monk Guanxiu, Du had a nice relationship with him, which demonstrated that Du was an easygoing person. If Taoism was prevalent in Mt. Emei at that time, it was not reasonable that no poem about Mt. Emei was found in Du’s Collection of Great Accomplishment (Guang Cheng Ji). Guanxiu, a Zhejiang native, was a celebrated monk poet. After he came to Sichuan, he was well respected by the Emperor of the Later Shu Kingdom. Guanxiu at last died in Sichuan and was buried in Chengdu. Therefore, he might be attached to Mt. Emei; however, no poem about Mt. Emei could be found in his Collection of the Zen Moon (Chan Yue Ji), in which there were Five Poems for Monk Wutian, Send Monks to Visit Mt. Wutai, For Monk from Mt. Lu, Send A Monk Back to Japan, Send A Monk Back to Mt. Hua and Send A Monk Back to Mt. Tiantai. He had sent a lot of monks back to a lot of places except Mt. Emei, wasn’t it strange? Guanxiu was a disciple of the Tiantai Sect. It was said that he on a daily basis used to chantLotus Sutra, the last chapter of which is Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra,which shares a lot in common with the worship of Samantabhadra in Mt. Emei. With the above-mentioned facts, it is worthwhile asking how was the development of religions in Mt. Emei is the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

Chapter 32, Dwelling Places of Avatamsaka Sutra lists dwelling places of all bodhisattvas. When talking about dwelling places in China, it writes: “There is a dwelling place in China named Luoyan Cave, and many bodhisattvas have lived there.”It has listed a lot of dwelling places in ancient India; here just name a few that are closely related:

……In the northeast is a place called Mt. Qingliang (Clear Cold Mountain). From of old, many Bodhisattvas have lived there. Currently, the Bodhisattva Manjusri and his retinue of ten thousand Bodhisattvas abide there and speak the Dharma……In the southwest is a place called Bright Mountain. From of old, many Bodhisattvas have lived there. Currently, the Universal Worthy Bodhisattva and his retinue of three thousand Bodhisattvas abide there and speak the Dharma……

Manjusri in Mt. Wutai is in north east China and has been prosperous for several centuries. It is explainable that in order to localize the bodhisattvas for believers in China, the Clear and Cold Mountain in India’s northeast could be localized to the Mt. Qingliang (clear and cold) in China. However, this method might not be reasonable to apply to the Bright Mountain.

Prior to Monk Chengguan, Monk Fazang only built temples of Huayan sect in five places including the two capitals and Mt. Qingliang etc. Only Manjusri in Mt. Qingliang was highlighted, without Mt. Emei. Chengguan, in order to further localize Huayan sect in China, put forward the concept of Three Sages of Huayan: “Manjusri is the first, followed by Samantabhadra,”“The Three Sages of Huyan include the BuddhaVairocana and the two bodhisattvasManjushri and Samantabhadra,” etc. Since Manjusri and Samantabhadra are all sages of Huayan sect, and Manjusri has its rite in Mt. Qingliang but Samantabhadra has no rite, Chengguan altered Chapter 32, Dwelling Places ofAvatamsaka Sutra, and made Mt. Emei as Samantabhadra’s rite. With much effort, Chengguan visited Mt. Wutai in 776, and made his trip to Mt. Emei to pray for Samantabhadra. At last he returned to Mt. Wutai and dwelled in Huayan Temple. From that on, a relationship had been established between Mt. Emei and Samantabhadra. In 800, about 20 years after Chengguan’s visit to Mt. Emei, Wei Gao wrote an article, On Rebuilding the Statue of Samantabhadra in Chengdu’s Grand Shengci Temple, in which he mentioned that “Long time ago, Samantabhadra vowed to praise Shakyamuni’s effort in relieving pains of the common people in Jambudvipa; however, as the people were not smart, they failed to see the fact.”It implied that Chengguan’s pilgrimage to Mt. Emei seemed to have failed to impress the people, which could be proved by the sentence “they failed to see the fact”. In addition, no articles about building temples to worship Samantabhadra can be found in the Complete Literature Works of Tang Dynasty which has huge volumes.

In Chapter 13 Biography of Shanjing in Yong’an Temple in the Jin Dynasty of Biograophies ofEminent Monks in the Song Dynasty, Monk Shanjing became a monk in Mt. Yunju. He once came to Mt. Emei and worshiped Samantabhadra. In Chapter 23, Biography of Xingming in the Tang Dynasty goes that Xingming visited Mt. Wutai and Mt. Emei at an early age, worshiping bodhisattvas in both golden and silver world. It seemed that since Chengguan, visiting and worshiping bodhisattva Samantabhadra was an action that followed the heart. In addition, in the Biography of Liu Benzun, Benzun visited Mt. Emei with many others in 886, and worshiped Samantabhadra. It does notmention any temples in Mt. Emei. Only Chapter 22 mentions a temple-- Heishui Temple (Black Water Temple) by describing monks staying there during their pilgrimage in Mt. Emei, but this happened in late Five Dynasties period. It seemed that in the period between late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties period (907-960), there were not many temples in Mt. Emei.

Volume 28 of Things Heard and Seen By Shao:

Mt. Emei’s Samantabhadra Temple is farmore prosperous than Mt. Wutai. But in the Tang Dynasty, Mt. Emei was not very famous, asthe great poet Li Bai only mentioned the immortals rather than the Buddhas;Avatamsaka Sutra focuses on bodhisattva Samantabhadra though; Master Li Xuantong only mentioned Mt. Wutai rather than Mt. Emei. Moreover, there were not any inscriptions carved in the Tang Dynasty in temples and shrines in Mt. Emei, it is suspected that the prosperity of Mt. Emei appeared in our dynasty (the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)).

The Shao’s moved to Sichuan since Shao Bowen, so his son Shao Bo was able to visit Mt. Emei by himself. His words “there were not any inscriptions carved in the Tang Dynasty in temples and shrines in Mt. Emei” showed the result from his own experience; therefore, the conclusion that “it is suspected that the prosperity of Mt. Emei appeared in our dynasty (the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) )” was more reliable than folklores. It is worth thinking.

The prosperity of culture and region in a certain place shall go with its economic development. The Taiping Huanyu Ji, or "Universal Geography of the Taiping Era [976-983]," written in early Song Dynasty (690-1279), described the customs in Jiazhou: The local people lived with southwest minority groups. The Han people were well-mannered, while the minority groups were less developed and lived in bamboo or wooden cottages without proper rules or laws.

For Rongzhou, a place adjacent to Jiazhou, the customs were described as follows: There were a few Han people with many southwest minority groups. Males would not wash and comb and females wore dirty clothes. They had reversed names and they don’t know rites and laws.

The situation in Qiongzhou was that Han people and southwest minority groups lived together. Only in Meizhou, the situation was a little better.

The above-mentioned were situations in the Song Dynasty, and situations in the Tang Dynasty might be worse. If we consider the above-mentioned analysis, it is natural to hold a view that there might not be many temples in Mt. Emei and Shao Bo’s deduction that Buddhism prevailed in the Southern Song Dynasty is quite probable.

In the Tang Dynasty (618-907), the syncretism of three teachings (Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism) has been finally fixed. Buddhist and Taoist representatives should attend all major ceremonies of the empire and the absence of any one of them would be considered a pity. The representatives were the best at their time, and the prosperity of Buddhism and Taoism was a major indicator of an emperor’s merits and virtues. Consequently, from the central government to local governments, all officials would cultivate one or two monks and Taoist priests in the mountains within the areas under their administration to be representatives of ceremonies. After the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun (now Beijing, Tianjin and thenorth part of Shanxi and Hebei) were ceded to Khitan, Mt. Wutai fell into the hand of North Han(951-979) under the protection of the Khitan Liao Dynasty (907-1125). As Mt. Wutai and Manjusri did not belong to the Song Empire, emperors of Song Dynasty began to develop Mt. EmeI in Sichuan. Since the Tang Dynasty, Samantabhadra had appeared in Mt. Emei, with confirmation from Monk Chengguan. The Song Empire’s rulers developed Mt. Emei into the worship center of Samantabhadra in order to make up the loss of Mt. Wutai and Manjusri. As Manjusri and Smantabhadra are two attendant bodhisattvas of Shakyamuni, Mt. Emei became flourishing in the Song Dynasty. So it is with Mt. Jiuhua and Mt. Putuo.

According to the History of Liao, in 983 after Emperor Shengzong of Liao (982-1031) heard that the Song Empire had stored a lot of provisions at the border, he ordered to make corresponding preparations. In 992 he treated monks in Mt. Wutai’s Jinhe Temple. Daodian, a celebrated monk, who was born in 1056, was the most famous monk of Huayan sect and always lived in Jinhe Temple; thus it could be seen that Mt. Little Wutai where Jinhe Temple located had long been occupied by the Liao people. Mt. The jurisdiction of Mt. Wutai fell to the Song Dynasty and Liao Dynasty in turns. As the Song people knew that they were not strong enough to win back Mt. Wutai thoroughly, they began to develop Mt. Emei. In 979, Zhang Renzan was sent to build a over-8-meter-high bronze Samantabhadra statue in Chengdu, which is now kept in Wannian Temple. Master Monk Jiye was also sent here during that period. In July 1002, Zhenzong Emperor of Song issued an imperial edict that farm rent of Mt. Emei’s Puxian Temple (Samantabhadra Temple) was exempted. In addition, Emperor Taizong, Zhenzong and Renzong granted over 100 imperial books, pearl-decorated crowns, golden beads, necklaces, kasaya, gold and silver bottles, furnaces, drums, tea, pagoda, sesame and many other things. There were imperial writings on the kasaya granted by Emperor Renzong that made good wished to the country and its people. Buddhist scriptures were delicately made in Chengdu by craftsmen specially assigned by the authority. These all demonstrated the great determination and investment of the Song people to development Mt. Emei into the worship center of Samantabhadra.

As proved by the relics discovered in Mahao Cliff Tomb in Leshan, Buddhism appeared early in Sichuan. But only when Huiyuan monk’s younger brother, Huichi monk came to Sichuan were there celebrated Buddhist masters. From late Jin Dynasty to early Song Dynasty, Jianye (now Nanjing), Jiangling and Chengdu became the Buddhism centers at that time. But there was still Taoist influence in Sichuan, with many people and activities against Buddhism, including Wei Yuansong and Li Rong’s anti-Buddhism activity. In early Tang Dynasty, there were still a lot of people believing in Huang-Lao Taoism in counties near Mianzhu where Master Baoqiong located. The residents there “did not believe in Buddhism, and when there were monks asking for help, no one extended hands”. The most accomplished master monks including Mazu, Zongmi and Xuanjian from Sichuan were all more known outside of Sichuan. When Li Deyu battled against Nanzhao’s incursion into Sichuan, he had once prohibited Buddhism as recorded in Biography of Li Deyu, New Book of Tang：

He destroyed thousands of temples privately built by his subordinates and gave the land to farmers. There is a Nao Village beside the ancestral shrine of the Shu Kingdom and there were bareheaded people like the monks marrying women as usual. The Prime Minister Li Deyu ordered to prohibit it. Later, customs in Sichuan were greatly changed.

During the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang (840-846), Buddhism experienced another disaster, which was less than two decades after Li Deyu’s prohibition order in 830. Having undergone one more anti-Buddhism action than other places was absolutely a beat to the development of Buddhism in Sichuan.This might also be the reason why Buddhism in Sichuan in late Tang Dynasty was so weak and degenerate. According to Volume 29 of Tang Yin Gui Qian, Du Guangting’s full official titles were:

Celestial Master Who Transmits Perfection (Chuanzhen Tianshi), Assistant Grand Tutor, Assistant Minister of Finance, Great Scholar of Academy for the Worship of Perfection (Chongzhen Pavilion), Duke of the Kingdom of Cai, Guiding and Education Master, Jinmen Yuke (a gracious title for Taoist priest), Imperial Writer, Master of Great Accomplishment etc; granted with five thousand units of land and tenants but actually 1600 units; and granted to dress in purple.

Du Guangting was official in charge of Taoism at the highest level with a lot of power, so if Taoism in Mt. Emei had not declined, he should pay attention to its development. While the full official titles of Guanxiu were:

Longlou Daizhao (Waiter in Imperial Palace) of Shu Kingdom, Gongde (Virtues and Merits) Master Who Understands Reasons and Consequences, Yinjia (Guider for Emperor’s Sedan) in Linde Hall, monk-server in the worship place in the palace, Professor Who Selects Buddhist Classics, Xuanyi Master of Three Teachings, Master Senglu (Monk Name List) Guarding Liangchuan, with three thousand units of land and tenants; Monk Granted to Dress in Purple.

According to his full official titles, Guanxiu was the official in charge of Buddhism at the highest level in the Shu Kingdom and was well trusted by Wangjian (the founding emperor of Shu Kingdom); therefore, if worship center of Samantabhadra in Mt. Emei was established, he should have pay a lot attention. However, both two people’s collections showed no evidence of the worship of Samantabhadra. Hence it is reasonable to say that during that period in Mt. Emei, Taoism was going to decline and worship of Samantabhadra was still in bud.