The female image of Guanyin Bodhisattva in China

Author: Yu Junfang

There are several sources for the generation of Guanyin female images. Although some of them can be found in Buddhist scriptures, they are Chinese people's transformation of Buddhist concepts. More importantly, they contain filial piety and female chastity. traditional central idea. These images of Guanyin originated from "biographies" written by the people, and were closely related to special geographies. They became well-known through efficacies and reports from believers, and through literary and artistic promotion, until they spread throughout China.

Princess Miaoshan

Princess Miaoshan is by far the most famous of all the female Avalokitesvara figures, and her story is likely to be an image used to illustrate the thousand-armed and thousand-eyed Avalokitesvara in Indian tantra. To the average Chinese believer, the image of a thousand hands and a thousand eyes may be strange and incomprehensible. The legend of Miaoshan and her relationship with Xiangshan Temple in Ruzhou, Henan has attracted the attention of scholars. In the Xiangshan Temple, there was originally a thousand-armed thousand-eyed Guanyin statue in the Great Compassion Pagoda.

In the Tang Dynasty, with the introduction of the Guanyin statue of the esoteric religion, the statue of a thousand hands and a thousand eyes was very popular. However, the Avalokitesvara statue in Xiangshan is unique because it is believed that Avalokitesvara not only created this statue here, but also lived a manifested life here. Du Deqiao believes that the reason why Xiangshan Mountain has become a holy place for incense is that it was jointly promoted by local officials and temple abbots in 1100. Jiang Zhiqi (1031-1104) was a short-term prefect in Ruzhou, and he met and talked with Huai Zhou, the abbot of Xiangshan Temple. Huai Ri gave him a copy of "The Biography of Fragrant Mountain Great Compassion Bodhisattva", which was brought to Huai Ri by a mysterious monk who made a pilgrimage to Xiangshan. The content is said to be a reply from a god to a question posed by Dao Xuan (596-667). This book describes how Guanyin became the third daughter of King Miaozhuang. She practiced Buddhism and refused to marry. When her father fell ill, she sacrificed her arms and eyes to save him.She showed the image of a thousand hands and a thousand eyes in front of her parents, then returned to her original state, and then passed away. Her relic and the "self-made" image soon became the target of the annual pilgrimage on February 19.

Jiang Zhiqi wrote the story of Miaoshan Avalokitesvara according to Huai Zhou, and Cai Jing wrote the inscription. Jiang was transferred to Hangzhou less than three years after his transfer to Ruzhou, and the story may have been brought to Hangzhou by Jiang from Henan. There used to be a stone tablet in Shangtianzhu Temple in Hangzhou, which may be "Re-engraved the Great Compassion". This monument was erected in 1104 and retells the story of Princess Miaoshan. At that time, Shangtianzhu Temple was already a century-old Guanyin pilgrimage center. Before Jiang arrived in office, this story may not have been known in Hangzhou, but when it spread to Hangzhou, it became closely related to Shangtianzhu. It is recorded in detail in the "Xiangshan Baojuan". It is said that this treasured scroll was written by Puming of the temple, and the temple enshrined in the white-robed Guanyin.

The earliest extant version of the Fragrant Mountain Treasure Scroll dates back to 1773. The preface tells that on September 17, 1103, a monk visited Puming and instructed him to write the story of Guanyin in order to save the world. He wrote this article based on what his visitors said, and when he saw Guanyin holding clean water and a willow branch. Later, a female master gave this text to Baofeng of Lushan, and asked him to pass it on to those who were unable to practice Zen.

The Fragrant Mountain Treasure Scroll provides many details about the life of Miaoshan Guanyin. The book says that Miao Shan was born on February 19 (the commonly celebrated Guanyin Christmas Day), she grew up vegetarian, and when she grew up, she refused to marry, angering her father and king. So she was imprisoned in the Imperial Garden and later sent to Baique Temple to do hard labor, but she still did not give in. Her father, the king, burned the temple, killing 500 monks and nuns.Because she failed to burn Miaoshan to death, her father sentenced her to hang her. Her body was taken to the "corpse forest" by the mountain god, and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva appeared and led her soul to travel to the underworld. She preached for all beings in hell and let her They are freed. King Kuro was afraid that the people in hell would be saved, so he had to invite her back to the world. Then Miaoshan went to Xiangshan to practice Taoism for nine years. At that time, her father, the king, was suffering from a strange disease that doctors could not do. Miaoshan disguised as a monk and went to see him. She claimed that only medicine made from the eyes and hands of those who had no hatred in their hearts could save him, and then instructed him to find the "Daxian" in Xiangshan, and when the messenger came, she brought back her arms and eyes. After the king took the medicine, his body really recovered, and he decided to go to thank the benefactor. When the queen and the king recognized the eyeless and armless immortal as their daughter, they were deeply moved and converted to Buddhism. He vowed and prayed that Miaoshan would return to "full hands and all eyes". Immediately the immortal declared that she was actually the real one. of Guanyin. Then she showed her true body: a crown of pearls on her head, a ring of necklaces around her body, a willow branch and a vase in hand, and she stood on a golden lotus platform with thousands of petals. (This is different from the image of the Guanyin with thousands of eyes and thousands of hands described earlier). "Xiangshan Treasure Scroll" also mentions purple bamboo forest and parrots, which are from the characteristics of the statue to show that there are Mount Putuo with Guanyin.

Nanhai Avalokitesvara

The 16th century "The Complete Biography of Nanhai Avalokitesvara" is a rewrite of "Xiangshan Treasure Scroll", which clearly identifies Xiangshan and Putuoyan as the same place, and Putuo has become the main pilgrimage center at home and abroad at that time. The book also provides a folklore rather than an orthodox canon explanation for Guanyin, Shancai, and Longnu, a trio that began to appear in images in the twelfth century. In the Buddhist scriptures, Guanyin is only associated with good fortune or dragon girl, but not both at the same time. Shan Cai is a young pilgrim in the Huayan Sutra, who visited fifty-three good teachers in order to study the Dharma.The source of the dragon girl can be found in the esoteric scriptures. The scriptures describe that Guanyin taught the Dharani to the Dragon Palace, and the dragon girl presented the incomparably valuable Mani beads because of her gratitude. She is also mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, but not directly related to Guanyin. I believe that the status of these two followers in Buddhism is equivalent to the golden boy and jade girl of Taoism. Since the Tang Dynasty, the golden boy and the jade girl have been the attendants of the Jade Emperor.

The author of "The Complete Biography of Guanyin of the South China Sea" was also not bound by tradition when dealing with other materials. The entire royal family was deified. The Jade Emperor gave the title of three princesses, and they were all turned into bodhisattvas. Miaoshan was given the title of "Great Mercy, Great Compassion, Inspiration for Rescue and Rescue Avalokitesvara", and was appointed as the owner of Putuo Rock in the South China Sea. The two sisters are Manjusri and Puxian Bodhisattva, and were appointed to manage Mount Wutai. The Jade Emperor even gave them two green lions and white elephants as mounts. They escaped from their guard posts in the Sakyamuni Palace and attempted to insult the two sisters. In the end, Miaoshan Guanyin appeared to save them. Later, Guanyin also became known. Mounts for "holes". These additional materials may be used to explain the new combination of the three great scholars that became popular after the Song Dynasty. The Dazu Grottoes in Sichuan in the late Tang Dynasty seem to provide the earliest style, with a thousand-armed and thousand-eyed Guanyin standing in the middle, and Manjusri and Puxian on both sides.

Miaoshan is the manifestation of the female body of Guanyin, but there are no pictures or statues originating from it. The story of Miaoshan is mainly to explain the origin of the thousand-handed Guanyin. However, Nanhai Guanyin began to be depicted as a goddess when Putuo was considered to be the hometown of Miaoshan. She usually sits in a bamboo forest or on a rock surrounded by a full moon. She either carries a vase and holds a willow branch in her hand or keeps the vase beside her. The willow branch is also often placed in the vase. Stand by. She is also depicted riding a wave or standing on a turret, with a white parrot beak soaring above her right with a rosary.The national drama "Heavenly Girl Scattering Flowers" also describes this Avalokitesvara image: "Putuo Palace, Avalokitesvara's full moon face, the dragon girl of good fortune standing on both sides, the white parrot clean bottle, the poplar branch nectar, the breadth of sentient beings from the bitter abyss." In "Journey to the West" Li Guanyin is known as the "South China Sea Guanyin". Some people think that Wu Chengen may have been to Putuo, because "Journey to the West" describes the island in detail in about nine places.

In the 16th century, after being neglected for a long time, Mount Putuo reappeared as a major pilgrimage center with the support of the Ming Emperor Wanli and his mother, the Empress Dowager Li. The island continued to uphold imperial grace during the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong dynasties in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, so it is no accident that the Nanhai Guanyin surpassed other images in those centuries. During this period, treasure scrolls appeared, possibly to increase Putuo's prestige. The "Shan Cai Long Nv Bao Scroll" describes Shan Cai and the dragon girl, while the white parrot is the protagonist of the "Parrot Treasure Scroll".

"Shan Cai Long Nv Treasure Scroll" describes how Guanyin received two attendants and a white parrot. Shan Cai was the son of Prime Minister Chen in the ninth century. He was over fifty and had no children, so he went to Putuo to seek a son from the Master of the South China Sea. Since he was destined to have no children, Guanyin gave him a servant boy under the Blessing Heavenly Official Throne, the lucky boy, as his son. This child showed extraordinary abilities very early, and studied under the door of Huanglong Zhenren, who is a close friend of Miaoshan Guanyin and the protagonist of "Guanyin Ji Du Yuan Yuan Zhen Jing".

The real Huanglong named the boy "Shan Cai". After three years, Shan Cai performed very well and never even returned home. In order to test him, the master told Shan Cai to watch and guard the cave when he went out to visit friends. Since it was the eve of Shancai's father's sixtieth birthday, he decided to go home to visit. But before he left the mountain, he heard a girl crying for help. After being rescued, she replied that the python wanted to eat him because she had been hungry for 18 years.Guanyin then rescued Shan Cai, and cast a spell to make the snake demon climb back into the bottle that imprisoned her, and then put the bottle in the Chaoyin Cave in Putuo Mountain, asking her to cleanse the poison in her heart. She cultivated for seven years and transformed into a dragon girl, and her poisonous heart transformed into a night pearl, which is the pearl she dedicated to Guanyin.

The source of the parrot should be the "Amitabha Sutra", which describes the parrot, pinja bird and other birds in the paradise of bliss, singing and praising the merits of the Pure Land, so that those who have been reborn in the Pure Land benefit. Like the origin of good fortune, the origin of parrots is also treated in a folk-custom style. This parrot is the protagonist of "Parrot Treasure Roll". Her father died and her mother was seriously ill. She wanted to eat cherries that only grow in the eastern soil. Although she warns that people in the East are evil, the filial parrot flies away to get cherries desperately. It was unfortunately arrested by hunters who found it could speak human words and sold it to a wealthy landowner. He started preaching, and the hunters gave up hunting and converted to Buddhism, but the rich man refused to release him. One day Bodhidharma came to remind him to play dead to escape, and when the rich man saw that he was dying, he threw him to the ground. It flew home to see its mother, but she passed away with grief. Guanyin was moved by its filial piety, and sprinkled it with pure water, it woke up, and Guanyin also helped its parents to be reborn in a good place, and it asked to follow Guanyin for life to repay. The conclusion of the "Shan Cai Long Nv Bao Scroll" said: "The Bodhisattva stood on the top of the horn, the good wealth stepped on the lotus, and slowly watched the purple bamboo forest come, and see again, the white parrot flew from the sky with the rosary to greet the Bodhisattva. So far. Leave this picture alive." The author may have been looking at such a picture when he wrote this volume, because the earliest such statue exists in the twelfth century. After the 16th century, Putuo became more and more famous, and the South China Sea Guanyin spread more widely.

Fish Basket Avalokitesvara

If Princess Miaoshan is a symbol of virginity, Fish Basket Avalokitesvara is a more complex female image. . Buddhism was prevalent in the Tang Dynasty, but people in the eastern part of Shaanxi were not interested in Buddhism because they liked hunting. In about 809 or 817, a young and beautiful woman came here and threatened that whoever could memorize the "Public Doors" in the Lotus Sutra in one night, she would commit herself to marry. The next morning, twenty people passed the test. The woman claimed that she could not marry so many people. She asked them to memorize the Diamond Sutra by heart. Another ten passed the test, and she asked them to familiarize themselves within three days. Remembering the Lotus Sutra, this time only Ma Lang passed the test, so he prepared for the wedding and invited the woman to his home. As soon as she entered the door, the woman was unwell and needed to rest. Just before the wedding, the woman died suddenly, and the body quickly decayed, so she was buried immediately. A few days later, an old monk in a purple robe came here and asked Ma Lang to take him to see the tomb. When the monk opened the tomb, the flesh and blood of the corpse had already been corroded, and only the bones were left with a golden chain. Like sari. The monk told the crowd that this was a sign of the sage's manifestation. He came here to rescue them from the consequences of sin and karma. The monk washed the bones with water, tied them to a rod, and vacated them. After that, many residents converted to Buddhism.

In the earliest narrations, the woman has not yet been referred to as the incarnation of Guanyin, and the fish basket is not mentioned, and even the place where the holy relics appeared is unknown. It has developed into common sense and is often quoted. For example, Zen Master Ruzhou was asked by a monk, "What is the Dharmakaya?" He replied, "Ma Langfu on the Golden Beach". Huang Tingjian's poems written in 1088 also quoted the phrase "clavicular golden beach".This woman was later thought to be the incarnation of Guanyin, and was called "Ma Langfu" or "Fish Basket Guanyin" because when she arrived at the golden beach, she dressed up like a fish seller and carried a fish basket in her hand. ? Many paintings titled Ma Langfu or Yubasan Guanyin have been preserved. Song Lian once wrote a "praise" on the portrait of Yubasan Avalokitesvara, which can be used as a complete Fu Ji of Yubasan Avalokitesvara.

No matter in Chinese poetry or painting, Yubasin Guanyin is always young, beautiful and attractive. She agrees to marriage, unlike Miaoshan who refuses marriage, but like Miaoshan, she remains a virgin. means to help people be good. There is also a legend that during the Dali period, a woman who lived in Yanzhou, eastern Shaanxi, was a few decades earlier than Ma. This woman had sex with any man who asked for her. Everyone should be She was a prostitute, but the strange thing is that as long as anyone who has sex with her is said to have no sexual desire since then, the woman died at the age of twenty-four and was casually buried on the side of the road. Soon, a foreign monk from the West came to the woman's grave to recite the scriptures. The villagers who hated this woman asked why the monk should pay attention to this woman who is as rude and shameless as possible. The monk said that everything she did was out of compassion, and prophesied that her bones would be linked together, and when the tomb was opened, she saw that her bones were indeed strung together in a chain.

These two stories clearly illustrate the same theme—sex, whether directly in a sexual relationship or beginning to agree and then refuse, can be a beneficial tool for attaining a higher level of spirituality. How much is this? There are similar examples in the esoteric classics. In the Huayan Sutra (Entry into the Dharma Realm), a good teacher told Shancai that she would satisfy all the men who came to see her with desire, and used this to make them dispel their desires.Some people kill their passion as soon as they see her, others need to talk to her, or shake her hand, or stay by her side, or stare at her, or hug her, or kiss her to kill their lust.

The Fish Basket Avalokitesvara and Fu Qi of Yanzhou women can actually find their basis in Buddhism. However, most people know it mainly through folk tales and treasure scrolls. Such as "Fish Basket Treasure Scroll", "Carrying Basket Treasure Roll", "Selling Fish Treasure Roll", "Watermelon Treasure Roll" and "Guanyin Miaoshan Treasure Roll". The details of the heroine's life (such as birthday, age and identity, etc.) are all based on Miaoshan's story, but its development moved from Shaanxi to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, which shows that Buddhist beliefs have taken root in the coastal areas develop. In these treasure scrolls, Guanyin appeared for the first time in the form of an old woman selling fish. The image of Guanyin as old and poor began after the Song Dynasty. Since the Ming Dynasty, she has been called "the old mother of Guanyin". Folk sects hold the influence of the "birthless mother" as the main god. Few painters have painted Guanyin as an old image, except for the last image of Ding Yunpeng's "Five Phases of Avalokitesvara". In this painting, Avalokitesvara is an old and serious woman dressed in white, sitting on a rock by the sea.

Several other treasure scrolls retain the main plot of the story, but with appropriate changes to suit local customs. The common point of all the stories is to give a reasonable explanation to the statue of the fish basket Guanyin, and to record the prevailing situation of the fish basket Guanyin in the local area. In fact, the theme of fish baskets does not appear in all the treasure scrolls that describe Guanyin as a seductive woman. For example, in the "Avalokitesvara Wonderful Treasures" and "Watermelon Treasures", Guanyin is not a fish seller Instead, she emphasized that she was a young widow dressed in white.That is, after the tenth century, the widely worshipped image of the white-robed Guanyin was added to Ma Shi and the Fish Basket Guanyin. stories put together.

White-robed Avalokitesvara

Another main image of Avalokitesvara is the white-robed Avalokitesvara. According to the author's opinion, the Guanyin of sending children should be a variant of Guanyin in white clothes. The white-robed Avalokitesvara has been the subject of debate among scholars such as Maspero and Chen Guansheng who see him as the Tantric goddess Pandalavasini (the white-robed goddess), and a sinicization of the white-robed goddess (the chief female of Avalokitesvara). spouse, goddess of Tibetan Buddhism). Chen Guansheng said that he was introduced into China during the Tang Dynasty and further transformed into a goddess who protects reproduction. Because he belongs to the mandala of the womb and Tibetan world, Chinese folk religions adopted him from Buddhism, and took the word "fetus" literally, making him a gift for giving birth. Son of Guanyin.

Rove. Stein disagrees with the above explanation, arguing that Pandalavasini should not be confused with Baidoro. He has two main arguments. First, he believes that the white-robed Avalokitesvara first appeared in the Dharani Collection, which was translated in the sixth century, not in the eighth-century classics that Maspero said. It is also clearly recorded in the sixth century scriptures. He has no specific gender, sits on a lotus in white clothes, holds a lotus (not a willow branch) in one hand, a bottle in the other, and has his hair combed up, which is probably the classic benchmark for Guanyin statues. Literature records of the white-robed Guanyin portraits date from Tang to Song, but they never describe the shape precisely, so there is no way to know whether the descriptions in this scripture have always been followed.

Stein's second, more important point is that in the esoteric scriptures translated into the Tang Dynasty about the "Mother of Buddha" or the female incarnation of the Buddha, both Baiyi (Pandalavasini) and Baiduo, Baiyi, are mentioned at the same time. The mother of the lotus group headed by Guanyin, he is also called "White House" because he lives in a white and pure lotus. Some scriptures describe a white robe sitting on a lotus, holding a lasso in the downed left hand, and holding the Prajnaparamita Sutra in the raised right hand, which is very different from the earlier image of meditating while wearing a white robe holding a lotus and a bottle. The white robe is also different from the white body. The white body and other gods surround the Guanyin of Bukong and sit on Mount Putuoluojia. To make things more complicated, in the mandala of the womb storage world, the three goddesses located in the Guanyin Palace—Baiju, Baishen, and Dazhishen, all wear white clothes, so they can all be called "white clothes". White is the symbol of enlightened mind, and all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are born together. The reason why the lotus goddesses living in the Guanyin Palace are all white is because they are the "mothers" of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

From the tenth century onwards, the white-robed Avalokitesvara has been popular in sculpture, painting, poetry, etc. He is often depicted wearing a long flowing white cloak, sometimes covering his head with a hat. The Chinese began to believe in Him in the tenth century. Although the worship of Guanyin is likely to be related to the Pandaravasini in the esoteric scriptures, we have no clear evidence, because the white-robed Guanyin in China is not directly related to the esoteric rituals. Apart from Dharani, there is no esoteric element in the scriptures praising him. He seems to have developed independently of Doro, Zunti and other esoteric gods, and I am sure that his worship is due to the fact that some Chinese written scriptures describe him as an efficacious goddess of childbirth or fertility. Gender-neutral and never a mother, but He gave children to others.This distinction can be explained by psychologist Karen. The principle of what Kaoni said was: "He is a sign of the loving kindness of motherhood, but not of motherhood." There are mantras. People firmly believe that reciting or reciting these sutras must be effective, the most famous of which is the "white-robed Guanyin (Tai Shi) mantra". It became popular in the eleventh century and is still widely printed and presented by believers today. In addition, "Guanyin Ten Sentences Sutra" is often combined with the former and has several different names, such as "Guanyin Dream Teaching Sutra", "Guanyin Preserving Life Sutra", and "Guanyin Life Saving Sutra". This sutra, which also dates back to the eleventh century, is said to have been imparted to her devout disciples by the white-robed Guanyin. It is believed that reciting these sutras will bring relief from all kinds of suffering, but the sutras are not particularly related to fertility.

The ability to grant children (especially boys) is recorded in another scripture, which also has many different names, the most common being the Five Sealed Heart Dharani Sutra. If you have been expecting a baby boy for a long time and haven't gotten one, you can get a boy by reciting this sutra, and the boy will be born in a special way. The earliest example can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, which may explain the origin of the sutra.

In the Tang Dynasty, there was a gentleman who lived in Hengyang. One day he suddenly met an old monk who gave him the "Avalokitesvara Sutra". The monk told him that if anyone recites this sutra, all wishes will be fulfilled, and if he wants to have a son, he will get a wise son who will be born "in white clothes". After that, he and his wife recited the scriptures devoutly, and within a few years they had three sons, all of whom were born in "white clothes and heavy bags". When the magistrate of Hengyang heard about this, he also donated money to print and distribute this sutra to get heirs.

Many of the miraculous features attached to this sutra are noteworthy.First, although some things happened in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, most of them were concentrated in the Ming Dynasty, especially at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, the belief in the worship of Guanyin in white clothes as Guanyin was firmly established in China. , should be between 1400 and 1600. Second, the woodcut Avalokitesvara as the cover illustration of the picture scroll is usually seated with a baby on his lap. The white magnetic products and ivory statues produced in Fujian in the 17th and 18th centuries can be seen in the typical Guanyin of sending children. The similarities between Guanyin and the Virgin Mary and the Holy Infant have attracted widespread attention, and this Virgin is also in these two statues. popular in parts of Europe. As early as the 13th century, Christian missionaries came to Fujian and Guangdong, and between the 16th and 18th centuries, a large number of Spanish merchants and missionaries brought Spanish and Nordic statues to China, and they also invited Chinese craftsmen to carve Christian sculptures. Most of the statues are of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Infant. Zhangzhou, Fuzhou and Guangzhou account for the most of these craftsmen, and these are also the places where the Goddess of Mercy is created. Because all the same craftsmen make religious images, so the Virgin Mary Chinese-looking, Guanyin looks a bit "gothic", which is not surprising at all. In "Pu Men Pin", it is mentioned that Guanyin will send children. However, before the Ming Dynasty, even if Guanyin was depicted as a woman, there were very few images of holding a baby boy or putting a baby boy on his lap. The basis of this image came from Buddhist scriptures. allusions, but the artistic expression may have been influenced by the statue of St. Mary.

The third feature of these miracles is that they provide the names and places of birth of the donors. Most of them are from Shexian and Huizhou in Anhui. Huizhou merchants are known for their wealth. It is not the only place to worship Guanyin, but the belief seems to be the most common. The local people can afford to print scriptures.Interestingly, among the names of the donors' wives, seventeen of them have the character "Miao", which is a very popular name for female Buddhists, or? Because of the relationship of "Miaoshan", the daughter of a Chinese Buddhist family. Being named Miaoshan or something similar is as common as Christian girl names being named Mary or Maria.

"Miaoyin Baojuan" is an autobiography of the white-robed Guanyin. The heroine's name is Miaoyin. The influence of "Xiangshan Treasure Scroll" is a common feature of all other treasure scrolls.

This story takes place in Luoyang during the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Song Dynasty (976-996). When Mr. Xu was forty years old, his wife gave birth to the only daughter, Miaoyin. She began to be a vegetarian at the age of seven and spent most of her time reciting "Miaoyin" when she grew up. In the Lotus Sutra, she refused to get married, but her parents secretly betrothed her to Wang Chengzu, and secretly planned a wedding with the Wang family. Her father did not lie to her to see the lanterns. I prayed and moved the Buddha to send Tianwang, Thunder God, Wind God, Rain God, etc. to create a storm, rescue Miaoyin in the chaos and send it to Baiyun Mountain. When the storm subsided, she mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a copy of the Lotus Sutra. ".

Miaoyin's parents sued the Wang family for murder. Wang Chengzu was arrested and imprisoned. Under torture, he had to confess. Wang realized the change of life and prayed for release by chanting the Buddha's name in prison. When the emperor celebrated his 60th birthday and held an amnesty, the king was exiled to the frontier to join the army, and two jailers escorted the king on the road. One night they heard the sound of a wooden fish coming from the temple, and they searched for the sound and found a wonderful sound. She told the king what happened, and made the king convert to the Three Jewels and take the five precepts. And eighteen other people decided to convert to her, respecting her as a "great immortal", which is also the title of Miaoshan.Finally, on the third day of the first month of a certain year, she ascended in broad daylight.

Conclusion

Baojuan provides many important clues to help us understand the evolution of the female Avalokitesvara in late Chinese art. Some Buddhist scriptures can be found in these popular documents, but they are rarely faithful to the classics. Instead, they boldly combine different contents to create localized stories, such as Shan Cai, the Dragon Girl and the White Parrot, which can be traced back to "Hua Hua". The Strict Sutra, the Lotus Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, or the esoteric scriptures of the Thousand Hands Thousand Eyes Avalokitesvara. In addition, the later treasure scrolls are closely related to the earlier ones, and the features of the former are repeated and polished.

How did the various female Avalokitesvara come about? Efficacy and pilgrimage traditions may have provided the initial causes, and the promotion of art and literature made them popular. I think that each form of female Guanyin originally developed in a specific area and is related to a specific person's life and a certain statue. For example, Princess Miaoshan was originally worshiped in Henan, Ma Langfu (fish basket Guanyin) in Shaanxi, white-robed Guanyin in Hangzhou, Nanhai Guanyin in Putuo, from a foreign male god, she was transformed into a female savior with unique Chinese characteristics. By. As Putuo developed into China's "Putuo Luojia", it became the worship center of the external sound in China during the Ming Dynasty. Nanhai Guanyin also absorbed the images of Miaoshan, fish basket and white-robed Guanyin. When we study the statues of Nanhai Guanyin At the same time, traces of other Guanyin images can be found. Through the process of "overlapping", Nanhai Guanyin successfully retained his characteristics, and also joined the magical legends of other Guanyin images, sometimes even conflicting, but the results of mutual confirmation and confirmation are strengthened. The "efficacy" of Guanyin in the eyes of believers.

Earlier we talked about the "how" of Guanyin's transformation into the goddess and the form he took. I would like to provide a hypothetical answer to "why" Guanyin became the Chinese "goddess of mercy". First, although Mahayana Buddhism opposes dualism, There is still a tradition of humanizing and goddess of Prajnaparamita. In the "Small Prajna Sutra" there is a long verse praising Prajna Paramito: "We can find refuge from her... She brings light to the blind... She guides the lost to the right path, she has nowhere to go. She is the mother of Bodhisattvas." Since Guanyin is a Bodhisattva representing compassion and wisdom, and the shortest sutra about Prajna Paramita, the Heart Sutra, is the sutra taught by Guanyin in deep meditation. , so Guanyin is very suitable as a personified goddess, but this answer does not answer why Guanyin Bodhisattva has not experienced any gender transition in Buddhist countries other than China, Korea and Japan.

On the other hand, the female Avalokitesvara mainly appeared in the Song Dynasty, which may also be an important clue. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, new local gods appeared in the development of folk religion. For example, Valari Hansen mentioned in "The Changes of Chinese Gods in the Middle Ages": Like the early gods, men and women were sealed after death. Gods and goddesses, but unlike the earlier gods, these new gods were just ordinary people when they were alive, and they were recognized as gods because of their miracles. The female Guanyin has characteristics similar to these gods. They (except Princess Miaoshan) lived a humble and ordinary life before they became Guanyin. Guanyin, who was originally a cosmic bodhisattva, was about to become the belief of the Chinese people. She had to adapt to the characteristics and belief patterns of the Chinese gods.

When Guanyin adopted the characteristics of Chinese gods, she became a widespread belief in the whole country. I think Guanyin's popularity should be observed together with the appearance of goddesses during the same period, such as Mazu, Bixia Yuanjun, and the birthless mother. Their origins are closely related to certain places, but eventually they all become large regional and even national beliefs, and are believed to have a mother-daughter relationship with Guanyin or an incarnation of Guanyin, why these goddesses dominated the beliefs of medieval Chinese people to this day Woolen cloth? This is a complex question, and it may not be easy to answer unless the goddesses are better understood. In any case, the localization and feminization of Guanyin should have played a key role in the rise of goddess worship throughout China in the late period.