Ein wunderbarer Tod: buddhistische »Hingeburtslegenden« im Nihon-ōjō-gokuraku-ki
During the Tang dynasty Chinese Buddhism developed a specific literary genre which centered around the description of the lives and deaths of people who were allegedly reborn in the Land of Utmost Bliss of the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light (Chin. Amituo, Skt. Amitäbha/Amitäyus, Jap. Amida). Thes...
| Published in: | Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | German |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Diagonal-Verlag
2012
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| In: |
Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Yoshishige, Yasutane -1002, Nihon ōjō gokuraku ki
/ Rebirth
/ Legend
B Yoshishige, Yasutane -1002 |
| RelBib Classification: | BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | During the Tang dynasty Chinese Buddhism developed a specific literary genre which centered around the description of the lives and deaths of people who were allegedly reborn in the Land of Utmost Bliss of the Buddha of Infinite Life and Light (Chin. Amituo, Skt. Amitäbha/Amitäyus, Jap. Amida). These so-called wangsheng zhuan (»Records of [people who attained] Birth [in Amituo* s Land of Bliss]«) preserved their popularity during the Song and Yuan dynasties and were transmitted to Japan, as was almost everything Chinese Buddhists produced. It was not until the late 10th century, however, that a Japanese wrote his own wangsheng zhuan (Jap. öjö-den). Taking Jiacai's (c. 620-680) Jingtu lun as a model, Yasutane Yoshishige (-997), a bureaucrat and man of letters, collected more than 40 biographies of Japanese monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, who were believed to have been born in Amida's Buddha-land. Yasutane, who was a fervent practitioner of the then quite popular Amida cult, bestowed the title Nihon-öjö-gokuraku-ki (»Japanese Accounts of [People who Gained] Birth in [the Land of] Utmost Bliss«) on his collection of biographies. This article discusses the structure, literary style and contents of the Nihon-öjögokuraku- ki focussing mainly on the following issues: (1) Which groups of persons are dealt with in the text? (2) Which events in the lives of these persons are regarded as noteworthy? (3) What kinds of religious practice are made responsible for birth in the Land of Bliss? (4) Which signs are valued as good omens for birth in the Buddha-land? (5) Which miraculous incidents are conceived of as proof of a successful rebirth? Partial translations of some exemplary accounts are provided. It is maintained that some views of Heian Buddhism must be reconsidered in the light of non-scholastic and non-sectarian texts, such as the Gokuraku-ki, which reflect the reality of Japanese Buddhism in the 10th century much more clearly than the better known theoretical discourses of Buddhist thinkers of the same period. |
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| ISSN: | 2194-508X |
| Contains: | In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1515/0022.3 |