Transcript Lecture outline 9

Guanyin:
Feminization
and
Historicization
BODHISATTVA
GUANYIN (KUAN-YIN)
• Avalokitesvara (India), Lokesvara
(Cambodia), Lokanatha (Burma),
Natha Deviyo (Sri Lanka), Chenresig
(Tibet)
• Kennon or kwannon (Japan)
• Kwanse’um (Korea)
• Quan-am (Vietnam)
GUANYIN: AVALOKITEŚVARA
• Originally a minor figure in some major
Mahayana scriptures such as the Vimalakirti
Sutra
• Figured prominently in the Huayan Sutra and
the Lotus Sutra.
• Most prominent in the Pure Land Sutras,
• Chief attendant to Amitabha Buddha
• another is Mahathamaprapta
• Prominent in Chinese Buddhist art
• Water-moon, White-robed, Fish-basket, Clamdwelling, Wife of Mr. Ma
Guanyin and
Gender
Polychromed Wood
95 x 65 inches
(241.3 cm)
Chinese
Shanxi Province
Liao Dynasty
(A.D. 907-1125)
Guanyin, Late Northern Song Dynasty
(960-1127)
• Guanyin’s
Feminization of feminization in
Guanyin
the context of
and Gender
traditional
Relations
Chinese culture
and of gender
relations
Why must Guanyin have become a goddess anyway?
• Chinese image of male/female
differences
– Chinese conceptualization of the
quality of compassion: it is a
female/maternal virtue
– Chinese cultural tradition defines:
•intellect and reason as masculine
traits,
•whereas emotion and feeling as
feminine ones
In a Chinese family:
father is regarded as
strict, mother
compassionate (Yanfu
cimu)
• Wisdom is an attribute
of father; compassion,
that of mother
•
Bodhisattva, large wood
sculpture, Song Dynasty
• Indian view:
– Mother, symbol of wisdom
– Father, love
– Wisdom is a dominant feminine
quality
– Compassion, masculine
Guanyin Must be Feminine: other rationales
• Absence of powerful female deities
– Nu Wa, Queen Mother of the West were shortlived
– Male gods dominated the pantheon of Chinese
folk religions
– A female Guanyin is the mother figure par
excellence; she “loves” indiscriminatingly
Further Feminization of Guanyin
• Scriptural basis of Guanyin’s female identity
• In the “Universal Gateway” chapter of the
Lotus Sutra, 7 of the 33 manifestations are
feminine
•Nun, lay woman, wife of an elder,
householder, official, Brahmin, and girl.
• In the Surangama Sutra, 6 of 32
manifestations are feminine
•Nun, lay woman, queen, princess, noble
lady, virgin maiden.
• Sectarian religions in late imperial China
appropriated Guanyin through these:
– production of new apocryphal scriptures, such as
The True Scripture of Guanyin’s Original Vow of
Universal Salvation
– Creation of new identity of Guanyin
– Elevation of Guanyin’s status to that of the Buddha
– Often referred to as “Venerable/Supreme Mother
Goddess”
Indigenous/Apocryphal Scriptures
Reasons for the making of
indigenous/apocryphal Chinese scriptures:
 Promoted the interest of the ruling authority
 Criticized policies of the ruling authority
 Reconciled differences between Buddhism and traditional
Chinese thoughts, both Confucianism and Daoism
 Advocated/proselytized a specific faith
 Enhanced a cult of a national hero/heroine
 Promised cures, blessings and other miracles to help
maintain people’s well-being
Artistic representations, dating from
10th century, as portrayed in the
Guanyin jing are found in Dunhuang
cave:
mural Paintings
Illustrated booklets
Sculptures
All Inspired new female divinities in
post-Tang times:
The Princess Miao Shan
The Queen of Heaven, or Mazu
The Princess of Azure Clouds (Bixia
yuanjun)
The Unborn Mother (Wusheng laomu)
Guanyin’s Image Multiplied
Guanyin assumed different forms, they
authenticated and reinforced one another
 The Fish-basket Guanyin,
 Guanyin of the South Sea
 White-robed Guanyin
Women (artists) contributed to Guanyin’s
feminization,
Guanyin and the veneration of Her, somehow,
did/could not empower women
Myths and Legends
“Euhemerize” Guanyin
•Give him birthday
•Establish his sacred abode in Mt. Putuo in Eastern
Zhejiang
•Transform his gender and identity
•Creating “Princess Miao-shan” stories and icons
•Fictional accounts in “precious scrolls”, e.g.,
Precious Scroll of Xiangshan (Hsiang-shan)
•Fictional accounts in novels
Miao-shan Legend
•Formation:
•Lay society created a new image and
identity of Guanyin: (5th c)
• A woman who saved, healed, …people
• a filial girl who refused to get married
•Lay society spread Miao-shan story and
Guanyin worship
•Important themes:
•“gift of the body”—body parts as gifts
• Filial piety expanded to repayment (paying
back debts owed to parents)
• Chanting evokes Guanyin’s salvific response
“Great compassion dharani”
• “Guanyin meditation mudra”
•
1000-armed Kannon (Senju Kannon)
8th century, Fujii-dera (in Osaka)
Avalokitesvara in Angkor, Cambodia: Lokesvara
Vietnam, Hanoi region
Tibetan form of
Avalokiteśvara ( Four-armed
Chenrezig)
Avalokiteshvara in South Vietnam
(8th and 9th century Bronze,
Museum of the history of Ho Chi
Minh City),
Seated statue of Senju-Kannon,
Kyoto, Sanjusangen-do
Guanyin (Kuan-yin)
Assumes
the Role of a Savior
The Lotus Sutra (chap.
“Universal Gateway”)
The Contemplation Sutra
(or The Sutra of
Visualization on Amitayus
Buddha)
The Surangama Sutra
The Karandavyudha Sutra
By Wu Daozi,
Tang Dynasty
Guanyin’s abilities:
Transformation in the sense of
polymorphism
 thirty-three forms
Can transgress all distinctions of gender,
age, social or spiritual status
Can be a Buddha, Brama, a Brahman, an
elder, a rich man’s wife, a sovereign or a
simple official, a minister or a monk, a boy or
a girl, a divinity, a yakşa or a nāga,
Palmer’s Book
The authors give the following reasons for the
feminization/gender change of Guanyin in
China:
Appearance of Virgin Mary’s image in China along
with the spread of Christian churches (strictly
Nestorian Christianty’s church) in Tang times.
The quest for and interest in the Divine Feminine to
compensate for the patriarchal or male-dominated
nature of Buddhism
competition with Daoism, in which Queen
Mother of West was its goddess, impelled
Buddhists to created a female deity for
Buddhism
If “compassion,” considered by the Chinese a
woman’s quality, is Avalokitesvara’s attribute,
he has to be female
child-bearing image of Guanyin was influenced
by images of Isis/Mary/Mother of Christ
the spread of Guanyin from China to Korea
and Japan, and religious elements in these
two countries, such as their goddesses, also
helped multiply Guanyin’s female forms
Countless stories about miracles associated
with Guanyin have been told or heard. A
recurrent theme in these stories is that
people are miraculously rescued from perils
when they see the epiphany of Guanyin
The book also tells the legend of Princess
Miao Shan (pp.36 on) told in the 12th
century
 Locations related to the myths and
legends of Guanyin
Hangzhou (p.37 on)
Xianshan (p.40)
and Putuo Mountain (p.41) (originally a
Daoist mountain, called Meicen Shan)
Avatamsaka Sutra (the Huayan Jing, or Flower
Ornament Sutra/Flower Garland sutra), tells
stories about Sudhana (善財童子, Child of
Wealth) meeting 53 spiritual masters who help
him attain enlightenment;
the 28th true friend/spiritual master that he
encounters is Guanyin who lives on an island
called Potalaka described as “an isolated place
at the end of the ocean” and identified as
Putuo Mountain
In China, some sixty (64) ethnic minority
peoples also help shape female images of
Guanyin and spread cult of Guanyin
As mentioned earlier, Guanyin can also be
found in Daoist temples, which are supposed to
honor Daoist deity Heavenly Venerable Savior
from Suffering, Guanyin’s double. In other
words, Guanyin transcends barriers between
Buddhism and Daoism
Countless stories/legends related to Guanyin have
been/are being/will be told and recorded
Many originate from Buddhist apocryphal scriptures, or
indigenous Buddhist scriptures
These scriptures emerged as early as the Tang Dynasty
and continued to multiply later on
Among Palmer’s three types of Guanyin tale, the first
type “Guanyin in Creation Myth” is based on indigenous
Buddhist scriptures whose stories are repeatedly
modified and expanded