From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures: Transmission and Adaptation of the Miaoshan Story in Vietnam

East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 EAST ASIAN PUBLISHING AND SOCIETY brill.com/eaps From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures: Transmission and Adaptation of the Miaoshan Story in Vietnam Nguyễn Tô Lan Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences lanhannom@gmail.com Rostislav Berezkin* National Institute for Advanced Humanistic Studies, Fudan University rostislavberezkin@yahoo.com Abstract This article deals with the process of adaptation of Chinese precious scrolls (baojuan) vernacular narratives in Vietnam in the period from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, with the example of the Princess Miaoshan story, which served the popular hagiography of Bodhisattva Guanyin (V. Quan Âm). This story was featured in several baojuan texts of the 15th-19th centuries that were transmitted from China to Vietnam in the 18th and 19th centuries. Several Vietnamese adaptations, both in Hán văn and in the indigenous language, transcribed in Nôm characters, were circulated in the printed form. We have collected these adaptations and undertaken a comparative study of the texts, demonstrating the complex nature of the literary exchange between vernacular literature with religious themes in Vietnam and China. We examine the place of these adaptations in traditional Vietnamese culture and demonstrate the differences in the social background of the original Chinese baojuan and their Vietnamese adaptations. * This research was assisted by a collaborative research fellowship from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies administered by the American Council of Learned Societies on ‘The transmission and influence of a Buddhist story in Vietnam: a case study of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain’ and a grant from the Chinese government for research in social studies on ‘Survey and research on Chinese precious scrolls preserved abroad’ 海外藏中国宝卷整理与研究 (17ZDA266). The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences for providing access to their materials and to Prof. Hue-Tam Ho Tai of Harvard University for attentive reading of our initial draft and providing valuable comments. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/22106286-12341323 108 Nguyễn and Berezkin Keywords baojuan – religious storytelling – Nôm literature – history of publishing – Quan Âm beliefs – popular Buddhism – vernacular literature The process of transmitting and adapting Chinese Buddhist narratives in Vietnam reveals the complexity of literary exchanges between the two countries. In this article, we focus on precious scrolls (baojuan 寶卷) that deal with the Princess Miaoshan (V. Diệu Thiện 妙善) story. This story constitutes the earthly biography of Bodhisattva Guanyin (V. Quan Âm 觀音), a deity that was very popular in both countries. We examine the importation of baojuan into Vietnam and compare the social and cultural contexts in which Vietnamese adaptations of such texts were produced and circulated with the use of their originals in China. The term baojuan (precious scrolls) refers to a genre of Chinese prosimetric narratives, which consist of alternating prose and verse passages. They were predominantly religious in content and often served as the basis of oral performances. During the early period of their development (14th-15th centuries) they contributed to the propagation of Buddhist ideas among the lay population; in the middle period (16th-17th centuries) they became associated with the teachings of folk religious sects; and in the late period (19th-early 20th centuries) they mostly lost connections to sectarian teachings but still often propagated religious ideas. Several baojuan were transmitted from China to Vietnam in the 17th-19th centuries and influenced the development of indigenous literature in Vietnam, including oral genres. While there is a considerable body of scholarship dealing with the adaptation of Chinese novels in Vietnam, baojuan have been generally neglected by scholars.1 This neglect may be due to the marginal status of such texts in China where they were never highly valued by traditional literati on the one hand and to their rarity in Vietnam on the other. While in China more than 1 See Nguyễn Nam, ‘Writing as response and as translation: Jiandeng xinhua and the evolution of the Chuanqi genre in East Asia’ (unpublished Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 2005); Chen Yiyuan, Zhong-Yue Hanwen xiaoshuo yanjiu (Hong Kong: Dongya wenhua chubanshe, 2007); Phạm Quốc Lộc, ‘Translation in Vietnam and Vietnam in translation: language, culture, and identity’ (unpublished PhD diss., University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2011); Ren Xiaoyang, ‘Yuenan Zhaojun gong Hu shu gushi liuyuan kao’, Dongnanya yanjiu 2 (2014); Xia Lu, ‘Sanguoyanyi zai Yuenan’, in Chen Ganglong and Zhang Yu’an, eds, Sanguoyanyi zai Dongfang (Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2016), 111-199; Kiều Thu Hoạch, Truyện Nôm: lịch sử phát triển và thi pháp thể loại (Hà Nội: Giáo dục Publishing House, 2007). East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 109 1500 different titles of baojuan are known, we have so far discovered only four such scrolls in areas inhabited by Vietnamese people. They include the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain (Ch. Xiangshan baojuan, V. Hương Sơn bảo quyển 香山寶卷, reprint of 1772); the True scripture of Guanyin’s original vow to save living beings (Ch. Guanyin jidu benyuan zhenjing, V. Quan Âm tế độ bản nguyện chân kinh 觀音濟渡本愿真經, reprint of 1887; hereafter abbreviated as the True scripture of the original vow2); and the Precious scroll on the Scripture of self-perfection (Ch. Xunxiujing baojuan, V. Huân tu kinh bảo quyển 熏修經寶卷; modern manuscript, undated), which was discovered by one of the authors of this article among the Jing 京 (also known as Yue 越) people in Wanwei 澫尾 village, Dongxing 東興, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in the PRC.3 The fourth text, the Precious scroll of Lady Liu Xiang (Ch. Liu Xiang nü baojuan, V. Lưu Hương nữ bảo quyển 劉香女寶卷), was discovered by one of the authors in the form of a Vietnamese adaptation written in Nôm, the Vietnamese demotic script. It is a woodblock print dated 1908 that is kept in the Assembled Felicity Monastery (Hội Khánh tự 會慶寺) in Bình Dương City, Bình Dương Province in the Mekong Delta. The place of printing is not indicated, but it appears likely that it was printed in Foshan 佛山 town in Guangdong Province, as popular texts in Nôm were often printed there at that period.4 We can suggest some reasons for the rarity of Chinese baojuan in Vietnam. In China, baojuan belonged to the sphere of vernacular performative literature, which could be used for the general, even illiterate, public. In Vietnam, in the 16th-19th centuries, there were similar narratives intended for oral performance, for example, the famous truyện 傳 ballads in Nôm. Unlike Chinese baojuan, which used alteration of prose and verse, they were written completely in verse form, most often using the indigenous six-eight meter (lục-bát 六八), though they adapted storylines from Chinese vernacular literature, including Ming-dynasty novels.5 There were also narratives dealing with 2 Though it does not use the generic term baojuan in its title, this text is usually regarded as a baojuan text, see Sawada Mizuho, Zōho hōkan no kenkyū (Tokyo: Dōkyō kankōkai, 1975), 128, and Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu (Guilin: Guangxi shifan daxue chubanshe, 2009), 548-51. 3 The last text belongs to the category of ‘ritual manuals’, while other baojuan texts found in Vietnam are narrative in nature, so it is not discussed in this essay. 4 Yan Bao, ‘The influence of Chinese fiction on Vietnamese literature’ in Salmon, ed., Literary migrations: traditional Chinese fiction in Asia, 17-20th centuries (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2013), 167. 5 Lục-bát is a traditional Vietnamese verse form first recorded in the Nôm script. It consists of alternating lines of six and eight syllables, see Yan Bao, ‘The influence of Chinese fiction on Vietnamese literature’, 166-70. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 110 Nguyễn and Berezkin stories of Vietnamese female deities.6 These were certainly more accessible to Vietnamese audiences than baojuan written in Chinese. Thus, in early-modern Vietnam, the needs met by baojuan in China were met by indigenous literary forms. Still, several baojuan that were transmitted to Vietnam in this period did become popular. Connections with Buddhism, and especially the female aspects of this religion, probably promoted Vietnamese interest in certain baojuan. Significantly, three of four Chinese baojuan (and their adaptations) that we have identified so far all revolve around stories of female self-perfection; this theme, in fact, constituted one of the main topoi of baojuan in China. The gender characteristics of baojuan literature in early modern China have already been noted by scholars, and these characteristics seem to apply to the texts transmitted to Vietnam.7 Two of the four texts we have uncovered narrate the story of Princess Miaoshan, who engaged in religious cultivation and eventually turned into compassionate Bodhisattva Guanyin. The third one is about Lady Liu Xiang, who demonstrated remarkable insistence in her wish for religious perfection despite her family’s disapproval and eventually achieved salvation, thus demonstrating her spiritual independence.8 1 The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain in Vietnam The Miaoshan story was the subject of several Chinese baojuan, some of which were brought to Vietnam. There, where it was known as the Diệu Thiện story, it was re-modeled in indigenous narratives in several forms both in Hán văn 漢文 6 E.g., Maurice Durand, Technique et panthéon des médiums Viêtnamiens (Đồng) (Paris: Publications de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1959), 35-44; Olga Dror, Cult, culture, and authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese history (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007), 119-63. 7 With several exceptions in northern local traditions, see Wilt L. Idema, ed., The Immortal Maiden Equal to Heaven and other precious scrolls from Western Gansu (Amherst, NY: Cambria Press, 2015), 8. On the gender characteristics of baojuan literature in China see e.g., Xu Yunzhen, Cong nüxing dao nüshen: nüxing xiuxing xinnian baojuan yanjiu (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Zhongguo shehui kexueyuan, 2010) and Rostislav Berezkin, ‘On the performance and ritual aspects of the Xiangshan baojuan: a case study of religious assemblies in the Changshu area’, Hanxue yanjiu 33.3 (2015): 307-44. 8 This text was also very popular in China: the complete catalogue of baojuan lists thirty-nine editions, printed between 1774 and 1930: Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu (Beijing: Yanshan shuju, 2000), 153-4. On this text see also Daniel L. Overmyer, ‘Values in Chinese sectarian literature: Ming and Ch’ing Pao-chüan’, in David Johnson, ed., Popular culture in Late Imperial China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), 245-53. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 111 (the version of classical Chinese used in Vietnam before 1945) and in the indigenous language, transcribed in Nôm (demotic) characters.9 These adaptations were created in the period from approximately the end of the 17th to the early 20th centuries and were widely circulated. We have found several versions of the Miaoshan story in Vietnamese collections.10 The story of Miaoshan is especially noteworthy in the context of baojuan transmission as it appeared in multiple Vietnamese adaptations of several different Chinese sources. It was a part of the worship of Quan Âm (Guanyin), the beginning of which in Vietnam dates back to the time of ‘Northern dependence’ (3rd-9th centuries), when Buddhism started to spread in Vietnam. It also flourished during the first centuries of autonomous rule (10th-12th centuries). However, we do not have solid evidence that Quan Âm was worshipped in the female form in that period. The Miaoshan story apparently spread to Vietnam from China together with the cult of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (V. Nam Hải Quan Âm 南海觀音) around the 15th-16th centuries when she had already assumed female form.11 One of the most famous narratives about Miaoshan is the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, an anonymous work that modern scholars estimate to have been composed around the 13th-14th centuries.12 However, the early variants of this text do not survive and the earliest available recension is the Vietnamese reprint with the complete title the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain of Bodhisattva Guanshiyin of Great Compassion (Ch. Dabei Guanshiyin pusa Xiangshan baojuan 大悲觀世音菩薩香山寳卷). It is currently kept in the Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi (hereafter abbreviated as the ISNS).13 As indicated in the colophon of this woodblock edition, it was reprinted under the guidance of Hải Khoát 海濶 ( fl. 18th century), the abbot of the Monastery of Repaying Mercies (V. Báo Ân tự 報恩寺) in Hanoi, an important Buddhist temple in the capital of the Later Lê dynasty (1427-1789), by commission from the monk Tính Chúc 性燭 (1698-1775), the master of Hải Khoát. The original of this precious 9 10 11 12 13 We use the term of Hán văn instead of Chinese or wenyan to denote the combination of Chinese characters and Vietnamese syntax used by Vietnamese literati. For a list of these texts, see Table 1. Because of space limitation, we discuss only the most important and representative Vietnamese adaptations. Nguyen Tai Thu, et al., The history of Buddhism in Vietnam (Washington, D.C.: The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2008), 181-4. Glen Dudbridge, The legend of Miao-shan (revised edition; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 52; Wilt Idema, Personal salvation and filial piety: two precious scroll narratives of Guanyin and her acolytes (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press, 2008), 31; Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, 113. ISNS, call number A.1439. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 112 Nguyễn and Berezkin scroll was printed in Nanjing by the sūtra publisher Chen Longshan 陳龍山, on behalf of the Lengyan (Śūraṅgama Sūtra) Monastery 楞嚴寺 in Jiaxing 嘉興 Prefecture (modern Zhejiang Province). The original printing of this scroll occurred sometime in the 16th or early 17th century.14 The exact date of transmission of this text to Vietnam is unknown, but it probably took place at the end of the Ming or beginning of the Qing dynasty. Significantly, this version was lost in China and remained unknown to the majority of Western and Chinese scholars of baojuan; they treated another version of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, called the Scripture of the previous life of Bodhisattva Guanshiyin of Great Compassion (Ch. Guanshiyin pusa benxing jing 觀世音菩薩本行經) as the earliest surviving one. That version was ascribed to the monk Puming 普明 (ca. early 12th century), but was printed in Hangzhou in 1773 and is now kept in a private collection in Japan.15 The Hanoi reprint of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain is the only baojuan text that was printed outside China in the 18th century. Three prefaces in this reprint, though they use Hán văn, were written in Vietnam and demonstrate the importance of this text for Vietnamese Buddhists at the end of the 18th century. The first of them, dated 1772, is ascribed to Emperor Hiển Tông 顯宗 of the Later Lê dynasty (r. 1740-1786). It praises this precious scroll as a Buddhist scripture with miraculous qualities.16 Thus, it appears that the emperor himself gave sanction to the printing and dissemination of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain in Vietnam. The second preface, ascribed to the monk Tính Chúc and also dated 1772,17 similarly treats it as a Buddhist scripture and relates it to the ‘Chapter of the Gates of Universal Salvation’ (Ch. Pumenpin 普門品) of the Lotus Sūtra—or, to call it by its complete title, the Sūtra of the Lotus flower of the wonderful dharma 14 15 16 17 Rostislav Berezkin and Boris L. Riftin, ‘The earliest known edition of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain and the connections between precious scrolls and Buddhist preaching’, T’oung Pao 99, no. 4-5 (2013): 445-99. See Berezkin and Riftin, ‘The earliest known edition’, 448-9. Xiangshan baojuan (A.1439), 1a-b. Tính Chúc was a famous monk of the Tào Ðộng School (Ch. Caodong 漕洞) of Chan Buddhism in Vietnam. His dates are given in a commemorative inscription on the Linh Nghiêm stupa 靈嚴塔 located in the Pagoda of Repaying the Country (V. Báo Quốc tự 報國寺) in Bình Vọng village 平望村, Văn Bình Commune 文平社 (now Thường Tín District 常信县in Hanoi): ‘The stupa inscription on the award of the title of Bodhisattva, Broadly Rescuing Living Beings to the forty-ninth patriarch of Ðộng Thượng school Bản Lai senior monk—Bhikshu Thiện Thuận-Đạo Chu Chan master’ (V. Động Thượng đệ tử tứ thập cửu thế Bản Lai hoà thượng Thiện Thuận tỳ khưu Đạo Chu thiền sư tặng phong Phổ Hoá Độ Sinh Bồ Tát chí tháp. 洞上弟子四十九世本來和尚善順比丘道周禪師贈封 普化渡生菩薩誌塔) (1775). East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 113 (Ch. Miaofa Lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經)—in the translation by Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 (344-413).18 This chapter is one of the most important texts on the worship of Guanyin in China and was known in Vietnam already for a long time.19 Indeed, the Hanoi reprint of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain represents a combination of the canonical text of the ‘Chapter of the Gates of Universal Salvation’ with the story of Miaoshan.20 The third preface (undated) says that the original reprint of this precious scroll in Vietnam was sponsored by several officials of high standing. The colophon of the 1772 edition contains the names of more than 300 sponsors who donated money for its printing. The list includes numerous Buddhist monks and nuns as well as members of the aristocracy and officials’ families, thus suggesting broad social support for the printing of this text. The attitude expressed in the Vietnamese prefaces to the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain is very different from the situation in China, where baojuan were generally despised by Confucian scholars as well as by ordained Buddhist clergy. For example, the eminent monk Yunqi Zhuhong 雲棲褚宏 (1535-1615), who was familiar with the text of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, wrote that only vulgar monks could believe it.21 Although Chinese Buddhist clerics participated in the compilation and printing of baojuan (including sectarian scriptures) in the 16th-18th centuries, these efforts usually did not enjoy the support of the state.22 Still, the original printing of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain in Nanjing was commissioned by a Buddhist Monastery of the Śūraṅgama Sutra in Jiaxing Prefecture. The 1773 version (Hangzhou recension) of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain is ascribed to several monks, but this text generally was not disseminated through official Buddhist institutions.23 Analyzing the status of this scroll is complicated by the fact that many sectarian teachings in China developed as deviant forms of Buddhism and sectarian 18 19 20 21 22 23 Xiangshan baojuan, 3a-3b. Chün-fang Yu, Kuan-yin: the Chinese transformation of Avalokiteśvara (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001), 151. For details, see Berezkin and Riftin, ‘The earliest known edition’. Zhuhong, Yunqi fahui (Nanjing: Jinling kejingchu, 1897), 27. 40a-b. See also Berezkin and Riftin, ‘The earliest known edition’, 456-8. Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang, Zhongguo minjian zongjiao shi (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2004), 1.145-148, 499-508; Barend ter Haar, Practicing scripture: a lay Buddhist movement in Late Imperial China (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press, 2014), 38-47. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo, ‘Kenryū han Kōzan hōkan (fukusei) fu kaisetsu, in Yoshioka Yoshitoyo and Michel Soymié, eds, Dōkyō kenkyū (Tokyo: Henkyōsha, 1971), 4. 122-126 (reprinted in Yoshioka Yoshitoyo chosakushū [Tokyo: Gogatsu Shobō, 1988-1990], 4. 245). East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 114 Nguyễn and Berezkin leaders could be disguised as Buddhist monks.24 Therefore, baojuan could easily pass for orthodox Buddhist teachings though in fact they were not related to their monastic forms. In modern times, Chinese monks never recite baojuan and do not allow such recitations in Buddhist monasteries.25 The attitude of Vietnamese monks towards baojuan narratives seems to be considerably different. Vietnamese monks regarded these vernacular texts as a part of the authoritative Chinese Buddhist tradition. Moreover, they were not especially knowledgeable about the particular circumstances of religious life in China. Therefore, even a vernacular narrative concerning a Buddhist deity was highly valued. This phenomenon is also observed in the later history of the reception of the Miaoshan story in Vietnam. Unfortunately, we do not have much information about the history of the dissemination of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain after it was reprinted in Hanoi in 1772. However, its contents must have been transmitted through oral storytelling and indigenous adaptations of the story written down in Nôm characters. 2 Early Vietnamese Adaptations of the Miaoshan Story So far, no early Vietnamese adaptations of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain have been found, but there exists an earlier adaptation of the Miaoshan story, known as the Wondrously composed national version of the original deeds of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (V. Nam Hải Quan Âm bản hạnh quốc ngữ diệu soạn (also tuyển) 南海觀音本行國語妙撰; hereafter abbreviated as the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin). It is ascribed to Thích Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源(慧燈) (1647-1726), the famous monk who revived the Trúc Lâm 竹林 school of Buddhism in northern Vietnam at the end of the 17th century; but it survives only as a woodblock reprint made in 1850.26 It has already been demonstrated that the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin is based not on the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain but on the Chinese vernacular novel called the Story of the birth and self-perfection 24 25 26 Ma Xisha and Han Bingfang, Zhongguo minjian zongjiao shi, 1. 499-508; Liang Jingzhi, Qing dai minjian zongjiao yu xiangtu shehui (Beijing: Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe), 292-4. Xie, Shengbao, ‘Hexi baojuan yu Dunhuang bianwen de bijiao’, Dunhuang yanjiu 4, cumulative 13 (1987): 82. See Berezkin & Nguyễn Tô Lan, ‘On the earliest version of the Miaoshan-Guanyin story in Vietnam: an adaptation of a Chinese narrative in the Nôm script’, Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (University of Social Sciences, Hanoi, Vietnam) 2, no. 5 (2016): 552-63. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 115 of Bodhisattva Guanshiyin of the Southern Sea (Ch. Nanhai Guanshiyin pusa chushen xiuxing zhuan, V. Nam Hải Quan Thế Âm Bồ tát xuất thân tu hành truyện 南海觀世音菩薩出身修行傳) by Zhu Dingchen 朱鼎臣 (ca. late 16th century), with the abbreviated title of the Complete story of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (Ch. Nanhai Guanyin quan zhuan, V. Nam Hải Quan Âm toàn truyện 南海觀音全傳).27 Scholars of Chinese literature regard this novel as an amplified adaptation of the baojuan text in prose form.28 There are many passages in this novel that almost literally follow the relevant parts of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain (1773 recension). An original edition of this novel has not been discovered in Vietnamese collections so far. In our view, the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin represents the indirect influence of Chinese baojuan on Buddhist literature in vernacular Vietnamese, for the Complete story of Guanyin of the Southern Sea was based on the text of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain. We have no solid evidence that the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain was known in Vietnam at the time, when Thích Chân Nguyên composed his adaptation of the Miaoshan narrative (ca. late 17th-early 18th centuries), so we cannot assert any direct influence of the original baojuan text on this Vietnamese adaptation. We suggest instead that Thích Chân Nguyên based his work, the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin, on Zhu Dingchen’s novel, which in turn was based on the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain. The form of the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin is noteworthy. It is written in the indigenous six-eight verse meter, which was also used in later adaptations of the Miaoshan story in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. This feature reveals that this early adaptation was intended to be recited. Though sometimes Nôm is considered by scholars to be a means of popularizing literary subjects in Vietnam, not many people could read it since it was based on Chinese characters. At the same time, modern scholars of traditional Vietnamese literature argue that ‘a vernacular text (in Nôm characters) could be read aloud and thereby understood by large numbers of illiterate listeners; moreover, it could be memorized and recited by illiterates’.29 The use of the popular six-eight meter undoubtedly facilitated the memorization of such texts. It is quite probable that the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin was transmitted orally and thus represented the popularization of this vernacular story among the common people, especially women, in Vietnam. This text was thus similar to baojuan texts in China that were recited by literate performers 27 28 29 Berezkin & Nguyễn Tô Lan, ‘On the earliest version’. Dudbridge, The legend of Miao-shan, 65-6. Dror, Cult, culture, and authority, 119-20. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 116 Nguyễn and Berezkin to lay audiences among whom illiterate women were prevalent. However, because of differences in length and style of the texts (long prose passages), baojuan texts in China were usually not intended for memorization.30 Vernacular hagiographic narratives were common in Vietnam already at the beginning of the 18th century. Thích Chân Nguyên is said to have composed similar poetic texts in Nôm.31 These include the Story of the appearance in the world of Prince Dana, the ancient Buddha of Bright Light (V. Thái tử Đạt Na thị Quang Minh vương cổ Phật xuất thế 太子達那是光明王古佛出世)32; the Story of the origins of the world (V. Hồng mông Tạo hoá chư duyên bản hạnh 洪濛 造化諸緣本行); and the Story in native language of the mind teaching of the Truc Lam School of Chan Buddhism of Yen Tu Mountain during the Tran Dynasty (V. Yên Tử sơn Trúc Lâm Trần triều Thiền tông truyền tâm quốc ngữ hạnh 安子山竹林陳朝禪宗傳心國語行).33 All of these apparently served to disseminate Buddhist teachings among the laity. At the time Thích Chân Nguyên compiled his adaptation of the Miaoshan story, the cult of Quan Âm already had its own sacred sites in Vietnam. These were two mountains, both called Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn 香山): one was located in Hà Tĩnh 河靜 Province (modern Can Lộc 干禄 District) and one in Hà Tây 河西 Province (modern Hương Sơn Commune, Mỹ Đức District, Hanoi). Of the two, the Hà Tây site, known as Incense Traces Pagoda (Hương Tích tự 香跡寺] is the more famous, although it was probably established later than the more remote Hà Tĩnh site. Judging by historical records and epigraphic evidence, the Incense Traces Pagoda had already become an important Buddhist center from the 17th century. The Incense Traces Cave was celebrated as ‘the First cave of Southern heaven (i.e. Vietnam)’ (V. Nam thiên Đệ nhất động 30 31 32 33 The oral transmission by illiterate (or even blind) performers also was known there, though; see (Berezkin 2010: 30-1). Lê, Mạnh Thát, Chân Nguyên Thiền sư toàn tập (Hồ Chí Minh city: Tu thư Vạn Hạnh, 1979 & 1980), vol. 2. An adaptation of the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra for Humane Kings Protecting their Countries (Ch. Renwang hu guo Boreboluomi jing 仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經, Sansk. Karunika-rāja Prajñāpāramitā sūtra). Printed copies of the first two texts, dated 1838 and made from the woodblocks stored in the Pagoda of Great Fortune (Hồng Phúc tự 洪福寺), Hoè Nhai Ward, Vĩnh Thuận Province (now Hanoi), were collected by Lê Mạnh Thát and transcribed in Chân Nguyên thiền sư toàn tập, vol.2. Other editions were printed in 1830 (Story of the appearance in the world of Prince Dana, the ancient Buddha of Bright Light) and in the period from 1820 to 1841 (Story of the origins of the world); they are kept in ISNS, call numbers AB. 374 and AB.322. Another edition of both texts together is kept in the Library of Société Asiatique in Paris, call number SA. PD.2389. Woodblocks of the third text are kept in the Eternal Garland Pagoda (Vĩnh Nghiêm tự 永嚴寺), Bắc Giang Province. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 117 南天第一峝) by Lord Trịnh Sâm (1739-1782) in 1770.34 It is still an important pilgrimage site near Hanoi, attracting pilgrims by the thousands during the spring festival season.35 We do not know the exact date when it became associated with the legendary Incense Mountain mentioned in the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain and in Vietnamese adaptations of the Miaoshan story, but this association was firmly established in the texts from the late 19th century. The texts that propagated the Miaoshan story seem to have circulated in the Buddhist temples of Incense Mountain in Hà Tây in the 18th and early 19th centuries, but so far no such developed narratives from this mountain have been found in Vietnamese library collections. The earliest text that we have discovered so far is the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea (V. Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh 觀音過海真經; with the complete title Scripture of the White Robed Guanyin crossing the sea, revealing her forms and sacred penetrations [V. Bạch y Quan Âm quá hải hiện tướng thần thông kinh 白衣觀音過 海現相神通經]), the printing of which is dated 1898 in the preface. The earliest available copy of this text is a woodblock edition made in 1905, which was printed with woodblocks kept in Quan Âm Pavillon (V. Quan Âm các 觀音閣) at Incense Traces Pagoda.36 The preface, written in Hán văn, states that the reprint was organized by the monks of Heavenly Kitchen Pagoda (V. Thiên Trù tự 天廚寺), an important shrine on Incense Mountain, and the text was edited by Tâm Chúc 心燭, the abbot of this monastery. The printing was sponsored by the provincial military commander Lưu Hữu 劉有 and Trần Bình 陳平, the head of Yến Vĩ 燕尾 Commune in Hà Tây Province. Though this text was composed comparatively late, the preface claims that it was in fact very old, as it was originally printed during the Early Lê (980-1009) and Lý (1009-1225) dynasties. The woodblocks were said to have been stored in the rear building of the Hall of Worshipping Heaven (V. Kính Thiên điện 敬天殿) and later given to the Pagoda of Observing Mountains (V. Khán Sơn tự 看山寺) in Thăng Long citadel (now Hanoi). However, it was claimed that they had been damaged by warfare, so at the end of the 19th century when Buddhist believers decided to reprint the text, the scholar Phùng Xuân Trạch 馮春澤 from Hà Tây Province searched for copies in various Buddhist temples and restored the original text. The abbot of Heavenly Kitchen Monastery regarded it as the ‘greatest treasure’. One cannot entirely believe this legend, as the text 34 35 36 Hà Văn Tấn, Buddhist temples in Vietnam (Hanoi: Khoa học Xã hội Publishing House, 1993), 180-9. Đỗ Phương Quỳnh, Traditional festivals in Vietnam (Hanoi: Thế Giới Publishers, 1995), 74-8. ISNS, call number A.2479. Several later reprints (1930, 1931, 1941) also exist. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 118 Nguyễn and Berezkin states that Miaoshan settled in Incense Traces Cave and thus betrays a much later origin than is claimed in the preface. The Miaoshan story was hardly known in Vietnam in the 10th-12th centuries, and its association with Incense Mountain in Hà Tây could not date back earlier than the 17th century. However, it is quite probable that the text of the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea predates the year 1898. The True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea is written in Hán văn and was most probably composed in Vietnam: there is no trace of it in China. Moreover, the text occasionally includes Nôm characters. It consists of an opening section (untitled) and six chapters (pin 品), and most of the text is in verse. Prose passages which provide instructions for the recitation of the scripture appear in special sections.37 The verse parts are in the six-four meter, which is rarely used in classical Chinese poetry, but appears in Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures. The text also includes numerous hymns (zan 讚) and gāthās ( ji 偈), devoted to Guanyin, mantras, and ritual texts that apparently accompanied the recitation of this scripture. Such poetic elements as the ‘text of taking vows’ ( fayuanwen 發願文) and ‘transfer of merits’ (huixiang 迴向) are also standard concluding parts of Chinese baojuan texts, and thus may indicate the connections of this Vietnamese text with baojuan.38 There is also a section on ‘untying the karmic knots’ ( jiejie 解結 or jieyuan shijie 解冤釋結), which is a common ritual in Buddhist liturgy in China, as well as in Vietnam; the ritual is intended to cleanse a person’s karmic burden and sins in the present life. This ritual is also used in modern recitations of baojuan in several areas of Jiangsu Province, such as in the former Changshu 常熟 County, where ritualized performances of these texts were influenced by Buddhist and Daoist rituals.39 The prose section of the True Scripture describes the setting for its recitation, which makes it possible to reconstruct the function of this text: Today persons who venerate the Buddha [names to be inserted], according to the instructions left by the Buddha, have established an altar, and a monk (bhiksu 比丘) [name to be inserted] leads noble and common people of the ten directions at the invitation of the multitude of priests at the Buddhist altar in the believer’s house [20a] to worship Guanyin on the ritual ground of universal happiness (今為奉佛建壇「某」人等稟佛 37 38 39 Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 19a-21b. Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, 69-77. Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, 398-400; Berezkin, ‘On the survival of the traditional ritualized performance art in modern China: a case of telling scriptures by Yu Dingjun in Shanghu Town area of Changshu City in Jiangsu Province’, Minsu quyi 181.9 (2013), 187-91. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 119 遺訓設立壇場比丘「某」洎領十方士庶人等請命僧眾就于家庭精蓝處 禮觀音普福道場).40 At the end of such a recitation, a written memorial (biaoshu 表疏) is submitted, and this is also common in modern baojuan recitations in Jiangsu.41 Thus, we know that the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea was recited not only in Buddhist monasteries but also by Buddhist monks in private homes. Reading a traditional Chinese text was not a problem for monks who were trained to read the Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, but this was not the case for their audiences. As the text of this scripture is in Hán văn, one cannot call it a vernacular text intended for explanation of the story of Miaoshan to lay believers. Though it was mainly in verse, it was not completely comprehensible to audiences present at the recitation of this text. However, lay believers would have venerated this scripture because of its miraculous (magical) qualities. In this respect, it stands closer to other Chinese texts imported into Vietnam, such as the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, than the indigenous adaptations of the Buddhist story like the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin. The purposes of its recitation are clearly set out in the prose section of the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea. The aims are averting disasters and praying for progeny.42 The preface explains that the text has these miraculous effects. One of the most important benefits was the bestowal of male descendants, which also appears in the title of the sixth chapter: ‘praying for progeny and worshipping [Quan Âm] (求嗣禮讚)’ (V. cầu tự lễ tán).43 As was already mentioned, this was one of the special characteristics of Quan Âm worship in Vietnam. The promise of a positive response to prayers for descendants was undoubtedly very attractive to lay believers. Indeed, the provincial military commander Lưu Hữu sponsored the reprinting of this text in 1898 with the purpose of praying for progeny, as stated in the colophon of this text.44 Praying for descendants was not the only purpose of the sponsors of the printing. As the scripture includes several passages describing the destruction of hell by Guanyin and the salvation of the souls imprisoned there, one can assume that it was also used for the deliverance of the deceased. This is a very common 40 41 42 43 44 Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 19b-20a. Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 58a-58b. Berezkin, ‘On the survival of the traditional ritualized performance art in modern China’, 179. Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 19b-20a. Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 38a. Ibid., 66a. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 120 Nguyễn and Berezkin aspect of the regular recitation of sutras by Buddhist monks, as well as of baojuan performances in China, which often replaced Buddhist rituals.45 Unlike the texts about Miaoshan discussed above, the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea is not a coherent narrative but a collection of stories related to Buddhist and other popular deities, centered on Guanyin who is called ‘Guanyin in White Robes, the Buddha crossing the sea” (Ch. Baiyi Guanyin guohai Fo 白衣觀音過海佛). In this title are combined several images of Guanyin which are known from Chinese fine arts and literature, including Guanyin in White Robes (Ch. Baiyi Guanyin 白衣觀音), Guanyin of the Southern Sea, and Guanyin with the Fish Basket (Ch. Yulan Guanyin 魚藍觀音).46 All these forms are featured in Chinese baojuan.47 The Precious scroll of Incense Mountain preserved in Vietnam also mentions Guanyin of the Southern Sea.48 The True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea often refers to Putuo Island (Ch. Putuoshan 普陀山], off the coast of Zhejiang, which was associated with the image of Guanyin of the Southern Sea and became a central site of Guanyin worship in the 16th and 17th centuries.49 The story of Guanyin with the Fish Basket (also known as the Mr. Ma’s wife [Ch. Malangfu 馬郎婦]), mentioned in the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea (the male protagonist is called Bát Lang 八郎 in this case), was known in China since the 16th-17th centuries and was featured in Chinese baojuan texts which appeared in the 19th century at the latest.50 However, related texts have not yet been found in Vietnam.51 Other stories, originally not directly related to Guanyin, are also included in the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea, for example, the stories of the Monkey King’s self-perfection and the journey of Xuanzang 玄奘 ( fl. ca. 602-664) to the West. This certainly represents the influence of the Chinese vernacular novel Journey to the West (Ch. Xi you ji 西遊記, ca. late 16th century), Vietnamese adaptations of which existed in the 18th-19th centuries.52 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 Berezkin, ‘On the survival of the traditional ritualized performance art in modern China’, 193-5. On the origin and development of these forms in China, see Yu, Kuan-yin, 185-8, 247-62, 438-48. Yu, Kuan-yin, 426-32. Xiangshan baojuan (1772), 3a. Yu, Kuan-yin, 369-84, 438-9. Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu, 352-3. Besides, according to this Vietnamese version, Bát Lang turns into the white parrot (a common acolyte of Guanyin in Chinese and Vietnamese imagery)—a detail which cannot be traced to the Chinese vernacular narratives. For baojuan about parrots in China, see (Idema 2002 & Idema 2015: 309-54). Yan Bao, ‘The influence of Chinese fiction on Vietnamese literature’, 169; Wang Jia, ‘Tình hình dịch thuật và xuất bản tiểu thuyết Minh—Thanh (Trung Quốc) ở Việt Nam đầu thế East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 121 The True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea represents a modification and domestication of the image of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (V. Nam Hải Quan Âm) in Vietnam. First, it states that Miaoshan came from Ailao 哀牢 (in modern Laos), and also refers to Đế Thiên quốc 帝天國 (ancient Angkor Thom, modern Cambodia).53 These sites were not mentioned in Chinese versions of this story. Second, this text states that Miaoshan moved to Incense Traces Mountain (in Hà Tây) after she was persecuted by her father; there, she engaged in self-perfection and attained enlightenment.54 This is a clear reference to the Incense Mountain in Vietnam, which is absent from the earlier versions of the story. The text describes Guanyin’s back-and-forth travels between this mountain, Putuo Island, and her native land. This geographical link was certainly supported by the Buddhist monks of Incense Mountain who acted as the compilers and editors of the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea. It can be considered the mature phase of domestication of the Miaoshan story in Vietnam, when it was firmly associated with her sacred site in that country. We find this detail in all later Vietnamese adaptations of her story. Despite the important place of the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea in the history of Vietnamese literature about Guanyin, it is hard to detect the exact source of the specific version of the Miaoshan story on which it is based. At one point the text refers to itself as the ‘Precious scroll of Guanyin’, so we can suppose that the authors were aware of baojuan texts propagating Guanyin worship.55 However, the brief outline of the story in this text does not provide any specific detail that would allow us to connect it to some other version identified by us so far. We can only suppose that one of the variants of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain or a Vietnamese adaptation unknown to us served as the source for this text. Its difference from the earliest known Vietnamese adaptation of the story can be seen from a comparison of the personal names of the main characters in this and other sources (see Table 2). For example, the names of the older sisters of Miaoshan in this text are close to, but not the same as those provided in the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain (Hanoi reprint). In the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea these are Miaoyin 妙音 (Wonderful Sounds) and Miaoyan 妙顏 (Wonderful Guise),56 while in 53 54 55 56 kỉ XX (1900-1930)’, Tạp chí Khoa học Đại học Sư phạm Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh 32 (2011): 145-53; Nguyễn Tô Lan, ‘Diện mạo văn bản tuồng truyền thống Việt Nam’, Tạp chí Nghiên cứu và Phát triển 5 (2011): 39-57. Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh (1898), 3b. Ibid., 6a. Ibid., 58a. They are also rendered as 茂音 (V. Mầu Âm) and 茂顏 (V. Mầu Nhan), which can be interpreted as the domestication of their names in Vietnam, 茂 (V. Mầu) being the prefix East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 122 Nguyễn and Berezkin the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain they are Miaoyin 妙音 and Miaoyuan 妙元 (Wonderful Links). The names of these characters in the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin are completely different: Miaoqing 妙清 (Wonderful Purity) and Miaoyin 妙音, respectively. At the same time, the name of Miaoshan’s mother, Empress Baode (V. Bảo Đức 寳德, Precious Virtue) in the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea is not mentioned in the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain. However, it appears in the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin (following Zhu Dingchen’s novel). Still, the name of Miaoshan’s native place in the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea as well as that of the nunnery where she went to study Buddhism are different from all other known versions of this story (see Table 2), which suggests yet another source. The True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea mentions Guanyin’s disciples Thiện Tài (Ch. Shancai 善才 [Good-in-Talent], Skt. Sudhana) and Long Nữ (Ch. Longnü 龍女 [Dragon Girl], Skt. Nāgakanyā), who figure prominently in the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin.57 The inclusion of these characters is a special feature of the National version, based on Zhu Dingchen’s novel. However, this detail does not necessarily betray the influence of the National version on the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea: in the late imperial period, these acolytes were firmly associated with the image of Guanyin of the Southern Sea in China as well as in Vietnam.58 There was a special baojuan text devoted to them in China, though we do not know whether it was ever transmitted to Vietnam.59 Additionally, these disciples are commonly depicted in images of Quan Âm in Vietnam, which also could have influenced the text about her. At the same time, numerous references to the technique of inner elixir (or inner alchemy, Ch. neidan 内丹), which appear in the text of the True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea, suggest the influence of yet another Chinese baojuan text, namely the True scripture of the original vow, a sectarian adaptation of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain in the religion of the Great Way of the Former Heaven (Ch. Xiantian Dadao 先天大道), an influential syncretic 57 58 59 attached to the names of female believers in Vietnamese Buddhism, especially girls, who were symbolically ‘sold’ to the pagodas. Berezkin and Nguyễn, ‘On the earliest version of the Miaoshan-Guanyin story in Vietnam’, 558. Together with the white parrot, who was also considered to be her disciple. For an English translation of the printed version dated 1912, see Idema, Personal salvation and filial piety, 161-89. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 123 religion in China at the end of the 19th century.60 Inner elixir was one of the basic elements of this teaching, similar to Chinese sectarian doctrines of the earlier period (16th-17th centuries). The earliest known printing of this scripture is dated 1850, but the place of printing is unknown.61 The True scripture of the original vow was transmitted to Vietnam soon after its publication in China. An edition of this text, printed in 1887 by the famous Temple of Three Saints (Tam Thánh miếu 三聖廟; later renamed Jade Mountain Temple [Ngọc Sơn từ 玉山祠]) which is located at the Lake of the Returned Sword (hồ Hoàn Kiếm) in Hanoi, is also kept in the ISNS.62 As indicated on its frontispiece, it is a reprint of a Chinese edition printed in 1870 (place unknown). Although this text has two prefaces dated 1417 and 1666, it is a much later work, as it is ascribed to the Hermit of the Vast Wilderness (Ch. Guangye Shanren 廣野山人), which is a pseudonym of Peng Deyuan 彭德源 (ca. 1796-1857), the founder of the Teaching of Blue Lotus (Ch. Qinglianjiao 青蓮教), one of the predecessors of the Teaching of Former Heaven. Therefore, the Chinese scholar Che Xilun has argued that this text was written in the mid-19th century and the earlier dates in the prefaces are fake, as is an assertion that the scripture was translated from Sanskrit in China.63 The appearance of this book in Vietnam was connected with the transmission of the Teaching of Former Heaven, which had considerable influence on local religions.64 3 Vietnamese Adaptations of the True Scripture of the Original Vow There are several Vietnamese poetic adaptations of the True scripture of the original vow. The earliest one we have identified so far is called The Deeds of 60 61 62 63 64 Lin Wanchuan, Xiantian dao yanjiu (Taibei: Taiwan qingju shuju, 1985), 3-75; Ma Xisha & Han Bingfang, Zhongguo minjian zongjiao shi, 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 2004), vol.2, 815-71. Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu, 68. ISNS, call number AC.154. Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan zongmu, 548-551. On this text see also Sawada, Zōho hōkan no kenkyū, 128, and Dudbridge, The legend of Miao-shan, 69-73. Victor Oliver, Caodai spiritism: a study of religion in Vietnamese society (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1976); Vincent Goossaert and David Palmer, The religious question in Modern China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 98-100; Đỗ Thiện, Vietnamese supernaturalism: views from the southern region (London: Routledge, 2003); Jérémy Jammes, ‘Divination and politics in southern Vietnam: roots of Caodaism’, Social compass 57.3 (2010): 357-71; Janet Hoskins, The Divine eye and the diaspora: Vietnamese syncretism becomes transpacific Caodaism (Honolulu: Hawai’i University Press, 2015). East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 124 Nguyễn and Berezkin Miraculous Buddha Guanyin from Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích 香山靈感觀音佛事蹟), which was printed in 1904 in Hanoi.65 The woodblocks for this edition were kept in the Shrine of the Lý Imperial Preceptor (Lý Quốc sư từ 李國師祠), which later became one of the major Buddhist temples in Hanoi, under the name Pagoda of the Lý Imperial Preceptor (Lý Quốc sư tự 李國師寺). The preface, also dated 1904, states that the author of this adaptation was Nguyễn Tử Nho 阮子儒, a lay Buddhist believer, while the preface itself was composed by Hoàng Đạo Thành 黃道成 (?-1908) from Kim Lũ 金侶 village, Thanh Trì 青池 District, Hà Đông Province (now Hoàng Mai 黄梅 County, Hanoi) and transcribed by Nguyễn Gia Chính 阮嘉正 from Cổ Điển 古典 Ward (now Thanh Trì 清池 County, Hanoi). All three appear to have been Confucian scholars. Hoàng Đạo Thành in particular was a famous scholar-official in the service of the Nguyễn dynasty, a participant in the Modernization Movement (Phong trào Duy Tân) in Vietnam and the editor of the Complete new recension of Vietnamese history (Việt sử tân ước toàn biên 越史新約全編). The preface to the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin clearly states that this text was adapted from the True scripture of the original vow. The latter is referred to by another name, the Scripture of Guanyin of the Southern Sea (Ch. Nanhai Guanyin jing 南海觀音經), in the preface, but the text the authors are actually referring to is clear from the fact that they mention the legend of Guangye Shanren 廣野山人 obtaining it miraculously from the Facing the Origins Cave (Ch. Chaoyuandong 朝元峝) on Putuo Mountain island in Zhejiang, for this legend also appears in the preface to the True scripture of the original vow. The contents of the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin also testify to the fact that it is an adaptation of ‘true scripture’; however, several details demonstrate the influence of other Vietnamese indigenous narratives about Miaoshan. For example, the inclusion of the abduction of the two elder princesses by the spirits of the green lion and white elephant, as well as the conversion of Thiện Tài and Long Nữ, can be explained by the influence of the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin. Furthermore, the preface states that before this new adaptation was made, another indigenous version in Nôm had already been circulating in the monasteries of Incense Traces Mountain and its contents were slightly different from those of the True scripture of the original vow that was transmitted from China. Unfortunately, details of this earlier version are not specified and it does not seem to be extant, so we can only guess whether 65 The complete title is Explication of the deeds of Miraculous Buddha Guanyin from Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích diễn âm 香山靈感觀音佛事跡演 音). A copy is preserved in ISNS, call number AB.111. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 125 it was related to the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin. The mention of the Incense Traces Pagoda in this passage demonstrates that at that time, in the early 20th century, the Miaoshan story was firmly associated with that monastic center. The literati who made the modified translation and compiled the preface obviously regarded it as an orthodox Buddhist text. In this way, the adaptation of the True scripture of the original vow was put into the mainstream Buddhist framework. Unlike the adaptation of 1909, the preface does not mention the Teaching of Former Heaven. Details of the printed edition of this text suggest that the story of Quan Âm, adapted from Chinese sectarian literature but completely domesticated in Vietnam, was regarded by Vietnamese literati at the turn of the 20th century as a part of their national culture and was promoted as such during the colonial era movement for the revival of national culture. The preface to the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin also mentions the earlier translation of the True scripture of the original vow: thus, we know that the first Vietnamese (Nôm) translations of this text were made even earlier than 1904, perhaps at the end of the 19th century. The text of the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin was corrected by Nguyễn Tử Nho, who in such a way wanted to express his gratitude to Quan Âm for her miraculous help.66 The mistakes mentioned in the preface and corrected by Nguyễn Tử Nho relate not only to the contents of the story but also to the form of the text, namely the discrepancy between the words and the rhythm of the six-eight verse. This detail indicates that the text was designed for oral performance. The version of the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin is also noteworthy for the juxtaposition of Vietnamese (Nôm) in the poetic narrative and Hán văn in its preface. This linguistic feature provides some information about the social life of this text. The main text was aimed at illiterate commoners, while the preface was composed by literati who acted as the editors. This ‘diglossia’ was characteristic of such vernacular literature and can also be observed in later adaptations of the True scripture of the original vow as well as in other narratives about popular Vietnamese deities.67 When writing prefaces in Hán văn, the authors were addressing their fellow literati, explaining the meaning of their editorial attention to vernacular texts, thus also contextualizing, and in many cases even legitimizing, a vernacular text in the tradition of ‘high culture’. Such diglossia was not peculiar to Vietnamese traditional literature at the end of the 19th century. It also existed in Chinese vernacular literature, where novels written in baihua (based on colloquial language) had prefaces in 66 67 Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích, preface 2a. Dror, Cult, culture, and authority, 142. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 126 Nguyễn and Berezkin wenyan. This situation also existed in the printed editions of Chinese baojuan produced at the end of the 19th century.68 It demonstrates the double role of vernacular texts in the mass culture of uneducated commoners as well as in the literati tradition in both China and Vietnam. Another adaptation of the True scripture of the original vow in the sixeight verse, titled New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin from Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch 香山觀音真經新譯; hereafter, New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin), was produced by the Confucian scholar Kiều Oánh Mậu 喬瑩懋 (1854-1912; style name Giá Sơn 蔗山) at the beginning of the 20th century. This is also a woodblock edition dated 1909, now kept in the ISNS.69 Kiều Oánh Mậu was a significant person in the history of Vietnamese culture at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, a representative of nascent nationalism and anti-colonialism.70 He passed the state examinations with the rank of Phó bảng 副榜 (auxiliary candidate) in 1880 as stated in the colophon of his adaptation, but later in his life, he became interested in popular religion and is known as a promoter of traditional culture.71 His translation of the True scripture of the original vow was edited by another scholar-official named Phạm Văn Thụ 范文樹 and commented on by Trần Xuân Thiều 陳春韶, the Education Officer (Đốc học 督學) of Bắc Giang Province. The preface of the New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin, written by Kiều Oánh Mậu in Hán văn in 1909, indicates that it is a modified translation of the True scripture of the original vow. Kiều Oánh Mậu mentions the Chinese original in one fascicle ( juan), referring to it by the abbreviated title of True scripture of Incense Mountain (V. Hương Sơn chân kinh 香山真經), as well as the earlier Vietnamese translation, which was printed and circulated in the Buddhist monasteries on Incense Traces Mountain.72 As the exact title is not provided, it is not clear whether it was the Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin or another adaptation, but both texts were presented to Kiều Oánh Mậu by Trần Xuân Thiều. These narratives about Miaoshan, both the Chinese original and Vietnamese adaptations, attracted the attention of Vietnamese scholars at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Vietnamese adaptation from Incense Traces Mountain is called a ‘song booklet’ (ca bản 歌本), which 68 69 70 71 72 Berezkin, ‘The development of the Mulian story in baojuan texts (14th-19th centuries) in connection with the evolution of the genre’ (unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2010), 208-12. ISNS, call number AB.271. Dror, Cult, culture, and authority, 133-56. Kiều Oánh Mậu, Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch, 45b. Ibid., 2b. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 127 testifies to the oral transmission of this text. Such singing versions were used for the propagation of the Miaoshan story among lay believers (pilgrims) who traveled to this mountain. From Kiều Oánh Mậu’s preface, as well as from the contents of the story, we learn that he primarily followed the version of the True scripture of the original vow, which he regarded as an authoritative source.73 He mentioned the legend about a Sanskrit original and the dates given in the prefaces of the Chinese original (1417 and 1666), which he treated as authentic proof of the text’s antiquity, though we now know that they are fake. He was also aware of the special ideas of the Great Teaching of Former Heaven, which he called ‘not leaving Three Treasures inside the human body: essence, pneuma, and spirit (不外人身中精、氣、神三寶)’, an allusion to the practice of the inner elixir. It appears therefore that Kiều Oánh Mậu respected this teaching as an orthodox tradition and regarded it as a special school of Buddhism with syncretic tendencies, which was quite different from the usual attitude of Chinese literati of the same period. Still, Kiều Oánh Mậu’s version of the Miaoshan story is considerably different from the True scripture of the original vow. The narrative is much abbreviated compared to the Chinese text and contains some details that diverge from the original. The last feature is partly explained by his use of earlier Vietnamese adaptations of the Miaoshan story, which are mentioned in his preface. Kiều Oánh Mậu’s version includes episodes with the two acolytes of Guanyin and the spirits of the white elephant and green lion (see the previous section). Kiều Oánh Mậu realized that these episodes were absent from the True scripture of the original vow and even gave a probable source for them, the Continued records of the search for spirits (Ch. Soushen xuji 搜神續記).74 This is a Chinese compendium of legends dating back to approximately the end of the 16th century, of which several variants existed. The version titled the Illustrated and augmented great compendium of Records of the search for spirits (Ch. Chuxiang zengbu Soushen ji Daquan 出像增補搜神記大全, ca. late 16th century) indeed contains the concise version of the Miaoshan story, which, as Dudbridge argued, was based on the vernacular novel by Zhu Dingchen rather than on the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain.75 In fact, as mentioned above, these details appeared in the early Vietnamese adaptation 73 74 75 Ibid., 2b. Kiều Oánh Mậu, Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch, 3a. Dudbridge, The legend of Miao-shan, 70-1. Luo Maodeng is also known for writing a preface to the play The story of Xiangshan (Ch. Xiangshan ji 香山記), dated 1598, which also presents the Miaoshan story: Dudbridge, 73-4. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 128 Nguyễn and Berezkin of Zhu’s novel. Thus, it seems that Kiều Oánh Mậu did not know about Zhu’s novel, but he still traced the details of Vietnamese versions to a Chinese source containing a summary of the novel’s storyline. Thus, his preface also demonstrates the complex nature of literary borrowings in Vietnamese vernacular versions of the Miaoshan story. Though Kiều intended to follow the True scripture of the original vow exactly (一從真經譯出), he decided to include the aforementioned ‘fictional’ episodes that can be ultimately traced back to the Chinese novel. He justified this inclusion by connecting the secondary characters of the vernacular narratives with the Buddhist images in the Incense Traces Pagoda: besides Quan Âm, they included Bodhisattvas Văn Thù (Ch. Wenshu 文殊) and Phổ Hiền (Ch. Puxian 普賢)—popular Buddhist deities both in China and Vietnam, who, according to the earliest Vietnamese version, were the deified older sisters of Miaoshan.76 In this way, he also supported the association between the Miaoshan story and the temples on Incense Traces Mountain, though he acknowledged that it was only an imaginary one. Furthermore, Kiều Oánh Mậu treated the Miaoshan story as an Indian legend, and as such should have referred to an Indian mountain.77 Moreover, he noted that this story’s connection to Incense Mountain near Hanoi was never mentioned in Vietnamese historical sources.78 Still, this association is established in the first lines of Kiều’s preface, which starts with a vivid description of Incense Traces mountain (located not far from his native place in Hà Tây province) and of spring pilgrimages to its sacred sites.79 He also praised the miraculous responses of Quan Âm, thus acknowledging the sacred nature of this mountain. Similar to the adaptation of 1904, the Kiều’s version is also highly syncretic from a linguistic point of view: while the main text uses vernacular Vietnamese, the preface is in Hán văn, as are the titles of different sections given in the upper margins of the poetic text. This new adaptation of a Chinese sectarian scripture by a leading Vietnamese intellectual of the early 20th century demonstrates the incorporation of elements of popular culture, such as pilgrimages and worship of Quan Âm, into a national culture that was primarily devised and constructed by literati. The authoritative authorship lent the New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin great influence among Vietnamese 76 77 78 79 Berezkin and Nguyễn Tô Lan, ‘On the earliest version of the Miaoshan-Guanyin story in Vietnam’. Statues of three sisters-bodhisattvas were made in 1907 for the Tiên (Immortal) cave shrine near Incense Mountain: Hà Văn Tấn, Buddhist temples in Vietnam, 182. He argued that Xinglin was an ancient Indian state. Kiều Oánh Mậu, Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch, 3a-4b. Ibid., 2a. Still, he confessed that at the age of 56 he had never been to Incense Mountain. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 129 clerics and lay believers: the transcription of this version into the modern Romanized Vietnamese script (quốc ngữ) is still printed and disseminated in the monasteries of Incense Mountain. We have also found the modern edition of this text in quốc ngữ in the library and bookstores of the Ambassador’s Pagoda (Quán Sứ tự 館使寺), one of the main centers of Buddhism in Hanoi. Thus, it undoubtedly became the vernacular scripture of the Quan Âm cult in modern Vietnam. However, we can suppose that yet another version of the Miaoshan story was even more popular in Vietnam at the beginning of the 20th century than the New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin by Kiều Oánh Mậu. It was called the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin (Quan Âm chân kinh diễn nghĩa 觀音真經演義), which had the alternative titles of Hagiography of the virtuous female Buddha (Đức Phật Bà truyện 德佛婆傳) and Song of the deeds of the Buddha Guanyin of the South Sea (Nam Hải Quan Âm phật sự tích diễn ca 南海觀音佛事蹟演歌). It is represented by a large number of woodblock editions in the ISNS, the National Library of Vietnam and the libraries of several Buddhist monasteries. They were probably printed at the end of the 19th or the beginning of the 20th century, but only a few of them are dated. The earliest among them, with the title of the Song of the deeds of the Buddha Guanyin of the South Sea, was printed in 1907. The version that we have used, titled the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin and dated 1909, was printed in a Buddhist pagoda of Cẩm Khê 錦溪 County in Phú Thọ 富壽 Province.80 This text is a poetic adaptation of the Miaoshan story, using the six-eight meter. Its title clearly indicates that it was designed to be sung. The Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin was printed together with the Scripture of King Gao (Ch. Gao wang Guanshiyin jing, V. Cao vương Quan Thế Âm kinh 高王 觀世音經) and stories of the ‘miraculous responses’ of this scripture; all of these are in Hán văn. The Scripture of King Gao was a very popular Chinese scripture about Guanyin, which dates back to around the 6th century.81 Numerous woodblock editions of this scripture were printed in Vietnam at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries, suggesting that it was very 80 81 Preserved in the National Library of Vietnam, call number R.388. The titles Hagiography of the virtuous female Buddha and Song of the deeds of the Buddha Guanyin of the South Sea appear at the beginning of the poetic text. This text is the reprint from the apparently earlier woodblocks kept in the Pagoda of Clear Spirit (Vt. Thanh Linh tự 清靈寺) in Hanoi. Several copies, representing slightly different variants of this text, were printed in 1916 by Gia Liễu đường 嘉柳堂 publishers in Hanoi and are kept in the ISNS, call numbers AB. 631 and VHv. 725. Yu, Kuan-yin, 110-8. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 130 Nguyễn and Berezkin popular there, too. Thus, the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin continues the tradition of diglossia in printed Vietnamese vernacular hagiographies of Quan Âm. The combination of vernacular narrative with Chinese scripture apparently demonstrated the authoritative status and religious efficacy of the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin in the eyes of Vietnamese Buddhist believers, similar to the use of canonical text in the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain. Though dated copies of the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin are of fairly recent vintage, the text itself is not necessarily a late composition. While it uses the term ‘true scripture’ in the title, the details of the story are more similar to the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin than the True scripture of the original vow. These include, for example, the episodes of Miaozhuang praying for descendants and the re-incarnation of three princesses and well as detailed characteristics of the imperial sons-in-law, the husbands of two elder princesses. The names of the princesses and their husbands are the same as in the National version of the original deeds of Guanyin. Thus, the influence of the True scripture of the original vow is not obvious in the Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin; this may indicate that it was composed earlier than the adaptations of the True scripture of the original vow published in 1904 and 1909. We can even surmise that it represents the earlier version of the story that was referred to in the prefaces to these two adaptations. The developed form of the narrative with numerous details, as well as the domesticated form of Miaoshan-Guanyin as the Virtuous [Female] Bodhisattva (德佛婆 Đức Phật Bà), the Third Princess (Bà chúa Ba 婆主𠀧), or the Third Lady (Cô Bơ 姑𠀧) under which she appears in this text, may explain its popularity among Vietnamese believers and its multiple printings at the beginning of the 20th century.82 One can imagine that the numerous poetic texts about Miaoshan-Guanyin were designed to be recited by the pilgrims who traveled to Incense Mountain. We have not found evidence for this in the texts discussed above, but there is such information in other texts in Vietnamese collections. For example, there is a text called the Ballad of Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn truyện 香山傳), with the subtitle ‘song performed on the way [of pilgrimage]’ (Nhật trình hành ca 日程行歌), which is a woodblock edition published by Quán Văn Đường 82 Yet another poetic Nôm adaptation of the True scripture of the original vow designed for singing performances by Trần Điền Chi 陳田之 has the title of Explication of the origins of deities of Incense Mountain (Hương Sơn linh phả diễn âm 香山靈譜演音) and was printed in 1920. It is kept in the NLV, call number R.426. The preface, written in Hán văn, refers to the True scripture of the original vow as well as the temples of Incense Mountain. Besides, it indicates that the author consulted Kiều Oánh Mậu’s adaptation. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 131 觀文堂 in Hanoi and dated 1916, now kept in the National Library of Vietnam.83 It consists of verses in the song thất lục-bát meter (alternating two lines of seven syllables with six and eight syllables lines), and among the description of the relics of Incense Mountain also briefly mentions the Miaoshan story. It was probably inspired by the long narratives discussed above.84 This text resembles the songs of female pilgrims sung on the way to Guanyin temples in Hangzhou.85 These also use the story narrated in the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain. 4 Conclusions Our analysis of the Vietnamese reprints and adaptations of Chinese baojuan from the 18th to the early 20th centuries have uncovered several special features of the transmission of religious literature in the vernacular from China to Vietnam. Although only a few baojuan have been found in Vietnam so far, they are noteworthy from the point of view of its cultural history. Chinese baojuan texts and their Vietnamese adaptations have four features in common relating to their cultural meaning and social context. First, numerous Vietnamese adaptations of baojuan used the Miaoshan story, which was one of the most common subjects of baojuan texts in China as well. Though it appeared in the 1772 reprint of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, this story had already become well known in Vietnam through the intermediary of the Chinese vernacular novel by Zhu Dingchen, which was adapted into the indigenous Buddhist scripture in Nôm in the late 17th-early 18th centuries. This early Nôm adaptation of Zhu’s novel exercised considerable influence on later Vietnamese adaptations of Chinese baojuan texts about Guanyin, namely the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain and the True scripture of the original vow. The complicated process of transmission of this subject, involving the direct and indirect influence of baojuan during different periods, demonstrates the vicissitudes of literary transmission from China to Vietnam. Second, in Vietnam, as in late imperial China, baojuan attracted a broad audience from diverse social backgrounds; the texts that were transmitted to Vietnam were primarily related to the female dimension of popular religiosity. 83 84 85 NLV, call number R.661. Another version of such song, titled Hương Tích động nhật trình 香跡峒日程, compiled by Vũ Quán Phủ 武冠甫 (early 20th century), is represented by an undated manuscript kept in the NLV, call number R.1944. Yu, Kuan-yin, 505-9. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 132 Nguyễn and Berezkin This phenomenon is similar to the Chinese cultural background, where the Miaoshan story, popularized in diverse literary forms of which baojuan were only one, represented the process of domestication of Bodhisattva Guanyin through its gradual feminization. Quan Âm beliefs in Vietnam underwent a similar transformation, which was intensified by the importation and adaptation of Chinese texts. Third, the connection with the lay, and especially female, audience explains the oral performative connotations of baojuan adaptations in Vietnam, and this is reminiscent of the Chinese situation. The majority of female believers in both countries lacked sufficient education to read traditional texts, and oral transmission was very useful for Buddhist proselytizing. In China, the prosimetric form and vernacular language used in baojuan facilitated their accessibility to illiterate audiences. In Vietnam, poetic adaptations of baojuan in the native language were similarly designed for oral transmission. Fourth, we can find connections with pilgrimages and festivals at the sacred sites for popular deities (in this case Guanyin) both in China and Vietnam. In this respect, the Miaoshan story played the same role in the domestication of this deity in both countries: in China, this story initially developed around the sites of Guanyin worship in Henan province and later spread to other sacred sites.86 In Vietnam, it became associated with the local Incense Mountains (even two of them!). Nevertheless, there are four important differences between reception of such texts in China and Vietnam. First, Chinese baojuan devoted to Miaoshan (and their adaptations) received higher cultural status in Vietnam than in China. The interest of Buddhist monks and Confucian literati in these texts in Vietnam in the 18th and 19th centuries greatly exceeded those in China in the corresponding period. One reason for this discrepancy was the origin of these texts in Chinese Buddhist literature, which was highly valued in Vietnam. One should also consider the syncretic nature of religious beliefs represented in these texts. It was common in China, but in Vietnam it was even more conspicuous, for even Confucian scholars valued texts such as the True scripture of the original vow regardless of its sectarian origins. Second, in the 18th-19th centuries, the Miaoshan story appeared in Vietnam in several forms: original baojuan transmitted from China, as well as adaptations in Hán văn and Nôm. Texts in classical (as well as semi-vernacular) 86 Dudbridge, The legend of Miao-shan, 5-20; Yu, Kuan-yin, 347-8; Che Xilun, Zhongguo baojuan yanjiu, 109-14. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 133 Chinese and Hán văn could be used in the Buddhist monastic context as well as in literati circles, but needed to be translated for commoner devotees. The process of ‘translation’ represented the gradual domestication and popularization of this story in Vietnam and also reflected the complex linguistic situation in this country in that period, which can be termed ‘diglossia’. Third, baojuan adapted in Vietnam were transformed into the poetic forms of native meters (mostly six-eight verse). These adaptations were close to the long ballads that constituted the core of indigenous Vietnamese literature in the pre-modern period. Thus, the form of the Vietnamese adaptations was different from the prosimetric texts of Chinese baojuan. This poetic form facilitated not only recitation to illiterate audiences, but also the memorization and oral transmission of the texts. Fourth, in Vietnam, through a process of adaptation and domestication, the Miaoshan story became popular among the general public regardless of social background. As such, it became an important component of Vietnamese traditional culture (formed in part from borrowings from Chinese culture). In this respect, the Nôm adaptation of the True scripture of the original vow made by Kiều Oánh Mậu, as well as the preface to another adaptation by Hoàng Đạo Thành, both of whom were famous Confucian scholars and forerunners of the anticolonial movement of the early 20th century, are especially noteworthy. Interest in these texts by leading intellectuals of that period testifies to the importance of the Vietnamese adaptations of Chinese baojuan about Miaoshan for the development of Vietnamese culture. table 1 Texts on the Miaoshan Princess story in Vietnam—table of sources Locations and corresponding call numbers: Institute of Sino-Nôm Studies (Hà Nội): A; AB; AC, VHv, VNv National Library of Vietnam (Hà Nội): R Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris): BN École française d’Extrême-Orient (Paris): EFEO Thanh Hà Pagoda (Hải Dương Province): TH Thắng Nghiêm Pagoda (Hà Nội): TN Phúc Hưng Pagoda (popular name Cổ Loan, in Ninh Bình Province): CL Diên Phúc Pagoda (popular name Khuyến Lương, in Hà Nội): KL Huệ Quang Pagoda (Hồ Chí Minh City): HQ Quán Sứ Pagoda (Hà Nội): QS Xu Canhuang, 許燦煌 Private collection (Taipei, Taiwan): XU Nguyễn Tô Lan, Private collection (Hà Nội): TL East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 134 table 1 Nguyễn and Berezkin Texts on the Miaoshan Princess story in Vietnam—table of sources (cont.) No. Name of text Date and place (if known) 1. Nam Hải Quan Âm bản hạnh quốc ngữ diệu soạn/tuyển 南海觀音本行 國語妙撰 Wondrously composed national version of the original deeds of Guanyin of the Southern Sea 2. Xiangshan baojuan 香山寶卷 Precious scroll of Incense Mountain 3. Guanyin jidu benyuan zhenjing 觀音濟渡本愿真經 True scripture of Guanyin’s original vow to save living beings Quan Âm quá hải chân kinh 觀音過海真經 True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea Reprint dated to 1850, under the supervision of the monk Từ Đàn 慈坛 of the Pháp Quang Pagoda 法光寺, in Kim Cổ 金鼓 village, Thuận Mỹ 順美 Commune, Thọ Xương 壽昌 County, Hoài Đức 懷德 District, Hà Nội 河內 Reprinted in Hà Nội 河內 in 1772 by the Báo Ân Pagoda 報恩寺; original printing Nanjing 南京, uncertain date (late 16th-early 17th cent.) Reprinted in Hà Nội 河內 in 1886 by the Tam Thánh Temple 三聖廟, from the original Chinese edition dated to 1870 Printed in 1898; reprinted in 1905; reprint executed by monks of the Thiên Trù Pagoda 天廚寺, Hương Tích 香跡 Mountain 4. Reprinted in 1930 Reprinted in 1931 Reprinted in 1941 East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 135 Author (if known) Language Location Special notes Thích Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源 (慧燈) (16471726) Nôm with the elements of Hán văn AB.550 Nôm adaptation based on the Chinese novel Nanhai Guanshiyin pusa chushen xiuxing zhuan 南海觀世音 Anonymous Classical Chinese with elements of baihua A.143 The earliest known version of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain Huang Dehui 黃德輝 (廣野山人), 1st half of the 19th century. Edited by Tâm Chúc 心燭-the abbot of the Thiên Trù Pagoda 天廚寺 (dates unknown) Classical Chinese with elements of baihua AC.154 Hán văn with inclusion of Nôm characters A.2479, QS.1 (Woodblocks used to be kept at the Quan Âm Pavilion 觀音閣, Hương Tích Pagoda 香跡寺, Hà Tây 河西 Province) R.1075 QS.2 Sectarian adaptation of the Precious scroll of Incense Mountain, also in prosimetric form Complete title: Bạch y Quan Âm quá hải hiện tướng thần thông kinh 白衣觀音 過海現相神通經 Scripture of Guanyin in white robes crossing the sea, revealing her forms and sacred penetrations Printed by Nguyễn Thị Nhân 阮氏仁, the wife of Mr. Ngô 吳-former Magistrate 知县 of Cẩm Khê 錦溪 County, Bắc Ninh 北寧 Province 菩薩出身修行傳 TN.054 East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 136 table 1 Nguyễn and Berezkin Texts on the Miaoshan Princess story in Vietnam—table of sources (cont.) No. Name of text Date and place (if known) 5. Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích 香山靈感觀音佛事蹟 The Deeds of Miraculous Buddha Guanyin from Incense Mountain Printed in 1904 in Hà Nội 河內 (Woodblocks used to be kept in the Lý Quốc Sư Temple 李國師祠 in Hà Nội 河內) 6. Nam Hải Quan Âm phật sự tích ca 南海觀音佛事跡歌 Song of the deeds of buddha Guanyin of the south sea Printed in 1907, place unknown Printed in 1907, place unknown Printed in 1907, place unknown 7. Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch 香山觀音真經新譯 New translation of the true scripture of Guanyin from Incense Mountain (Alternative title Thiên Nam Hương Sơn Quan Thế Âm chân kinh tân dịch 天南香山觀世音真經新譯 New Vietnamese translation of the true scripture of Guanshiyin from Incense Mountain) Printed in 1909, place unknown East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 137 Author (if known) Language Location Special notes Compiled by Nguyễn Tử Nho 阮子儒. The preface was composed by Hoàng Đạo Thành 黃道成 (?-1908) from Kim Lũ 金 侶 village, Thanh Trì 青池 District, Hà Đông 河東 Province; transcribed by Nguyễn Gia Chính 阮嘉正 from Cổ Điển 古典 Ward Anonymous Nôm AB.111 Complete title: Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích diễn âm 香山靈感觀 音佛事跡演音 Explication of the deeds of Miraculous Buddha Guanyin from Incense Mountain (An amplified translation of the True scripture of the Guanyin’s original vow, in lục-bát verse form) Nôm EFEO.VIET/AB/ Litt.7; BN.VIETNAMIEN B.23 CL.1; KL1; HQ.1 Briefly retells the story of Princess Miaoshan Edited by Nguyễn Mạnh Hương 阮孟香 Printed by Hương Sơn believers 香山 XU 善信譜奉鐫 Written by Kiều Oánh Mậu 喬瑩懋 (1854-1912); revised by Phạm Văn Thụ 範文樹; commented by Trần Xuân Thiều 陳春韶 Nôm AB.271; R.1833; TH.2 The improved adaptation of the True scripture of Guanyin’s original vow AB.194 included in Vị thành giai cú tập biên 渭城佳句 集編 Collection of perfect verses from Vị citadel East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 138 table 1 Nguyễn and Berezkin Texts on the Miaoshan Princess story in Vietnam—table of sources (cont.) No. Name of text Date and place (if known) 8. Quan Âm chân kinh diễn nghĩa 觀音真經演義 Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin Printed copy dated 1909, made in the Thanh Linh Pagoda 清靈寺 in Phú Thọ 福壽 Province Printed copy dated to 1916, made by the Gia Liễu Đường 嘉柳堂 in Hà Nội 河內 Dates and places unknown 9. Hương Sơn truyện 香山傳 Ballad of Incense Mountain Printed copy in 1916, place unknown Hand-written copy, date unknown (probably early 20th century) 10. Hương Sơn linh phả [diễn âm] 香山 靈譜(演音)Explication of the origins of deities of Incense Mountain Printed in 1920, place unknown East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 139 Author (if known) Language Location Special notes Anonymous Nôm R.388 This text has several alternative titles: Đức Phật Bà truyện 德佛婆傳 Hagiography of the immortal Lady Virtuous Buddha; Nam Hải Quan Âm phật sự tích diễn ca 南海觀音佛事 蹟演歌 Song of the deeds of the Buddha Guanyin of the South Sea; Quan Thế Âm chân kinh 觀世音真經 the True scripture of Guanyin; Quan Thế Âm thánh tượng chân kinh 觀世音聖像 真經 True scripture of the sacred images of Guanyin. (Another adaptation of the True scripture of the Guanyin’s original vow in lục-bát verse form) Alternative title is Nhật trình hành ca 日程行歌 Songs sung on the pilgrimage road; briefly retells the story of Princess Miaoshan The latest version of the Miaoshan story AB.631; VHv.725; R.[no call number]; HQ.2; HQ.3 VHv.726; VHv.727; VNv.122; AB.224; AB.176/2; AC.174; VNv.286; TH.1 Anonymous Nôm Compiled by Vũ Quán Phủ 武冠甫 Transcribed by Trần Điền Chi 陳田之 R.661 R.1944 Nôm R.426 East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 140 Nguyễn and Berezkin table 2 Comparison of names in major texts about Miaoshan in Vietnam Title of work Precious scroll of Incense Mountain (Hanoi reprint, 1772) National version of the original deeds of Guanyin True scripture of the original vow of saving people by Guanyin True scripture of Guanyin crossing the sea Deeds of Miraculous Guanyin from the Incense Mountain Explanation of the true scripture of Guanyin Name of the country Father-King Mother-Queen ? 興林 興林 南陽哀牢 興林 興林 莊王 ？(莊 王夫人) 妙音 妙莊 (莊王) 妙莊 (莊王) 莊王 寶德 伯牙氏 寶德 妙莊 (莊王) 妙莊 (莊王) 伯牙氏 寶德伯牙氏 妙清 妙音 妙音 妙音 妙清 妙音 妙元 妙顏 妙元 妙音 妙善 妙善 妙善 妙善 妙善 First daughter (elder princess) Second daugh- 妙緣 ter (second princess) Third daughter 妙善 (third princess) Bibliography Primary Sources Bạch y Quan Âm quá hải hiện tướng thần thông kinh 白衣觀音過海現相神通經. Woodblock printing made in Thiên Trù Monastery in Hà Tây Province, 1898 (reprinted in 1905). ISNS, A.2479. Xiangshan baojuan: Dabei Guanshiyin pusa Xiangshan baojuan 大悲觀世音菩薩香山 寳卷. Woodblock printing made in the Báo Ân Pagoda 報恩寺, Hanoi, 1772. ISNS, A.1439. Guangye shanren 廣野山人. Guanyin jidu benyuan zhenjing 觀音濟渡本愿真經. Yunyi 雲邑: Peixianzhai 培賢齋, 1856. Photocopy of a printed edition at Waseda University Library, Tokyo. Guangye shanren 廣野山人. Guanyin jidu benyuan zhenjing 觀音濟渡本愿真經 (V. Quan Âm tế độ bản nguyện chân kinh). Woodblock printing made in the Tam Thánh Temple 三聖廟, Ngọc Sơn Temple 玉山祠, Hanoi, 1887. ISNS, AC.154. East Asian Publishing and Society 8 (2018) 107-144 From Chinese Precious Scrolls to Vietnamese True Scriptures 141 Huân tu kinh bảo quyển 熏修經寶卷. A manuscript from Wanwei 澫尾 Village, Dongxing 東興 of Guangxi-Zhuang Autonomous Region in PRC; date unknown. Hương Sơn Linh Cảm Quan Âm phật sự tích diễn âm 香山靈感觀音佛事跡演音. Woodblock printing made in the Lý Quốc Sư Temple 李國師祠, Hanoi, 1904. ISNS, AB.111. Hương Sơn truyện nhật trình hành ca 香山傳日程行歌. Woodblock printing by Quán Văn Đường 觀文堂 publishers, Hanoi, 1916. VNL, R.661. Kiều, Oánh Mậu 喬瑩懋. Hương Sơn Quan Âm chân kinh tân dịch 香山觀音真經新譯. Woodblock printing, 1909, place unknown. ISNS, AB.271. Lưu Hương diễn nghĩa bảo quyển 劉香演義寶卷. Woodblock edition of 1908, place unknown; now kept in Hội Khánh Pagoda 會慶寺, Bình Dương Province, Vietnam. Thích, Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源 (慧燈). Nam Hải Quan âm Bản hạnh Quốc ngữ diệu soạn/tuyển 南海觀音本行國語妙撰. Woodblock edition printed in Kim Cổ Canton, Thuận Mỹ District, Hà Tây Province, 1850. ISNS, AB.550. Thích, Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源 (慧燈). Thái tử Đạt Na thị Quang Minh vương cổ Phật xuất thế 太子達那是光明王古佛出世. Woodblock edition printed in Hanoi in 1830. ISNS, AB.374. Thích, Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源 (慧燈). Hồng mông tạo hoá chư duyên bản hạnh 洪濛造化諸緣本性. Woodblock edition printed in Hanoi during the Minh Mạng reign (1820-1841). ISNS, AB.322. Thích, Chân Nguyên (Tuệ Đăng) 釋真源 (慧燈). Yên Tử sơn Trúc Lâm Trần triều Thiền tông truyền tâm quốc ngữ hạnh 安子山竹林陳朝禪宗傳心國語行. Third printing from woodblocks kept at Vĩnh Nghiêm Pagoda 永嚴寺, Bắc Giang Province, 1932; collected by Nguyễn Tô Lan. Similar edition in ISNS, AB.562. Vũ, Quán Phủ 武冠甫. Hương Tích động nhật trình 香跡洞日程. Manuscript, date unknown. VNL, R.1944. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 吉岡義豊. ‘Kenryū han Kōzan hōkan (fukusei) fu kaisetsu’ 乾隆 版《香山寶卷》（覆製）付解説, in Yoshioka Yoshitoyo and Michel Soymié, eds, Dōkyō kenkyū 道教研究 (Tokyo: Henkyōsha, 1971), 4. 122-126; reprinted in Yoshioka Yoshitoyo chosakushū 吉岡義豊著作集 (Tokyo: Gogatsu Shobō, 1988-1990), 4. 245-405. Zhuhong 褚宏. Yunqi fahui 雲棲法彙. Nanjing: Jinling kejingchu, 1897. 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