Tag: Xi Xia

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Renzong

Renzong

Jen-tsung/Renzong (1139-1193) ruled the Mi-nyag/Minyak (a.k.a. Tangut or Xi Xia) people from 1169-1193. The relationships he formed with Tibetan Buddhist lamas is recognized as having marked the origin of imperial preceptorship (ti-shi), an institution that would be replicated in subsequent relations between Buddhist teachers and Central or East Asian rulers. Jen-tsung sponsored large-scale Buddhist ceremonies as well as the publishing of Buddhist canons in Chinese, Tibetan and Tangut languages. His extensive support of and close interaction with Buddhists laid the ground and provided a model for later dynasties’ involvement with Tibetan Buddhism. The legacy of his patronage of Buddhism also contributed to the posterity of Mi-nyag, a culture whose history might otherwise have been obscured completely.

Source:
Dunnell, Ruth. “The Hsia Origins of the Yuan Institution of Imperial Preceptor,” in Asia Major. Third Series. Vol. 1, part 1, 1992. p 85-111.

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Yuan Buddhist Canon Printing

Yuan Buddhist Canon Printing

In the early fourteenth century the printing of two separate and massive Yuan editions of the Buddhist canon was finally completed in southeast China. The first was a Tangut edition, the Xixiazang (西夏藏) or Xixia Tripitaka, completed in 1302. The second was the “complete” Chinese edition known as the Jishazang (ji砂藏) or Qisha (or Jisha) Tripitaka. Carving the blocks for the Jishazang had extended over almost a century, between 1231 and 1322.

Both of these editions had been ordered by Khubilai Khan (r.1260-1294) but came to fruition only after his reign, under the supervision of the General Secretary of the Buddhist Clergy in Songjiang, named Guanzhuba (管主巴). Guanzhuba (interpreted as bka’ ‘gyur pa or bka’ rgyud pa in Tibetan) was either Tibetan or of Xixia descent with a Tibetan education. The Xixiazang was printed in 3620 chapters at the Dawanshou (大萬壽) Temple in Hangzhou. It was based on earlier texts in the Xixia script engraved and printed in Xixia before Chinggis Khan destroyed the dynasty in 1227. The Jishazang blocks were carved at the Yansheng Yuan (延聖院) monastery on Jisha Island near Suzhou and Hangzhou. Although work began in the fourth year of the Shaoding reign in the Song dynasty, it was not completed until the second year of the Zhizhi reign of the Yuan. The Yansheng Yuan caught fire in 1258, interrupting the work, which was not resumed until 1299. The blocks finished before the fire seem to have survived. Major work was accomplished between 1300 and 1301, and from 1306-1307 Guanzhuba reconstructed and printed “missing” esoteric sections of the canon for inclusion in this second edition. These sections may have been carved at the same workshop as the Xixiazang in Hangzhou. The text of a vow by Guanzhuba was found in the Mogao cave of Dunhang and dated to the twelfth month of the tenth year of Dade 1307 (another similar but shorter colophon exists in volume 562 of the Yingyin Song Jisha Zangjing 影印宋ji砂藏經). This vow states that Guanzhuba was responsible for carving and printing vast numbers of illustrated Buddhist texts. He further committed to distributing these texts to monasteries, including monasteries in the former Xi xia lands, with great fanfare including offerings, assemblies and teachings. In the Yingyin Song Jisha Zangjing, it also states that Guanzhuba himself donated two hundred silver ingots in the form of a money order, and later three hundred silver ingots for the engraving of the woodblocks.

In addition to the canon, a revised catalogue of the Tripitaka was also published during the twenty-second year of the Zhiyuan reign period, also by order of Khublai Khan. This catalogue, the Zhiyuanlu 至元录 [full name: Zhi Yuan Fa Bao Kan Tong Zhong Lu 至元法宝勘同总录 (A Revised General Catalogue of the Dharma-Treasure up to the Yuan)] is said to have been based on three years of work by several tens of Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur monks, using source material from 1440 books in 5580 volumes. They are also said to have drawn from both Chinese and Tibetan versions of the Tripitaka, as well as the Chinese catalogue Buddhist Sutras Catalogue made in the Kaiyuan Reign Period (Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu) and the Tibetan catalogue kept in the Sakya monastery. This comparative catalogue of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist canons along with a reconstitution of Sanskrit titles was supported by Khubilai Khan (d. 1294) under the direction of ‘Phags pa and with the assistance of Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur Buddhists. It is preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, Taisho vol. 99, number 25, in ten juan.

The printing of the Xixia and Jisha Tripitaka show Tibetan Buddhist influence, with a high level of artistic maturity and technical skill, extending all the way to the seaboard of China during the Mongol Yuan dynasty. The texts also intimate the cooperation of Tibetan artists, Yuan Mongol patrons, and Chinese craftsmen during the long-running, expensive and ambitious project. The Xixia edition reveals the continuing importance of the Xixia people – as well as their models of legitimacy and governance – to the Yuan, and in addition, it can be noted that illustrations from the this canon were later replicated in another edition sponsored by the Yongle emperor of the Ming dynasty. Through the impeccable records kept and the obvious grandeur of the projects, it is clear that the printing of the Buddhist canon in Yuan dynasty China was aimed at making a contribution to the economy as well as building a sense of solidarity among subjects of the state and the legitimacy of the rulers.


Sources:

Patricia Berger. 1994. Preserving the Nation: The Political Uses of Tantric Art in China. In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 85-1850. Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. 89-125.
Heather Karmay (Stoddard). 1975. Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Aris and Phillips.
Rinchen Trashi. 1988. “Tibetan Buddhism and the Yuan Royal Court.” Tibet Studies 1-26.
Françoise Wang-Toutain, “Circulation du savior entre la Chine, la Mongolie, et le Tibet au XVIIe siècle. Le prince Mgon-po skyabs.” Études chinoises, vol XXIV, (2005), 57-111, which cites Huang Hao Zai Beijing de Zangzu wenwu (1993), p. 55.

Entry by Stacey Van Vleet, 1/30/07, with additions by Gray Tuttle 9/22/08

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Gtsang po pa Dkon mchog seng ge

Gtsang po pa Dkon mchog seng ge/ Gtsang pa Bkra shis (?-1218/1219)

Gtsang po pa was a Tibetan from central Tibet. He was a disciple of the first Karma pa, Dum gsum mkhan pa (1110-1193). When his teacher was summoned by the Mi nyak king, Dkon mchog seng ge went in his place. He is most famous for being one of the later Imperial Preceptors (dishi 帝師) of the Mi nyak or Xia Dynasty, which is why he is also called Gtsang pa Ti shri (Ch. dishi), or “the one from Tsang, Imperial Preceptor.” He was richly rewarded for his services and was permitted to send gifts and go on leave to his home monastery of Mtshur phu. In the end though, he died in the culturally Tibetan city of Liangzhou (Ling chu gser khab/ Byang ngos), in southern Mi nyag territory, where he had students.

His most important student was another central Tibet, named ‘Gro mgon Ti shri ras pa (Protector of Beings, the Imperial Preceptor, Cotton-clad) Sangs rgyas ras chen (1164/1165-1236). Although originally trained in different branch of the Bka’ brgyud tradition, the ‘Ba’ rom pa, he was a student of Gtsang po pa after he arrived in the Mi nyag realm in 1196/1197. He was thus the second and last of the ethnically Tibetan imperial preceptors to serve at the Mi nyag court. When the Mongols eliminated the Mi nyak dynasty, one of his students, a Tibetan native to the Mi nyak region named Gsang ba ras pa dkar po (The Secret One, Clad in White Cotton) Shes rab byang chub (1198/1199-1262) continued the ‘Ba’ rom pa Bka’ brgyud tradition. He later met Qubilai Khan, creating a direct link between the Mi nyag tradition of imperial preceptors and the Mongol Yuan establishment of a position bearing the same title.


Sources:

Ruth Dunnell. The Hsia Origins of the Yüan Institution of Imperial Preceptor. Asia Major. Third Series, Vol. 5, part 1, 1992, pp. 85-111
Elliot Sperling. “Rtsa-mi lo-tsā-ba Sangs-rgyas grags-pa and the Tangut Background to Early Mongol-Tibetan Relations,” in Per Kvaerne, ed., Tibetan Studies. Proceedings of the 6th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Oslo, 1994, pp. 801-824 & “‘Lama to the King of Hsia’” The Journal of the Tibet Society, vol. 7, 1987, pp. 31-50 [based mainly on an 18th century source that cites much earlier original sources now lost].

Entry by Gray Tuttle

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Liangzhou

Liangzhou 涼州 (currently: Wuwei 武威, Gansu Province) Tib. Ling chu gser khab/ Byang ngos

This initially Chinese prefectural seat on the Silk Road corridor between the Tibetan and Mongol inhabited regions of Inner Asia was a critical zone of contact between different ethnic and political polities across the centuries. Tibetans first attacked Liangzhou as part of the Tibetan Empire’s expansion into Inner Asia in 701, and finally captured the city from the Tang Dynasty in 764, only to lose it to the Uyghurs in 808. However, with brief exceptions, from the early ninth to the early eleventh centuries Liangzhou remained in the hands of the Tibetans, one of the last remnant outposts of their once vast Inner Asian empire.

Liangzhou Tibetans maintained good relations with the Song Dynasty from 906 to 1015, often winning titles from the court. However, after a brief period of rule by Uyghur’s from 1015 to 1030, Liangzhou became an important regional city in the rising Mi nyag or Xia Empire. Given its culturally Tibetan history, this city remained an important site for Mi nyag Tibetan contact. In the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, it was home to two imperial preceptors (dishi 帝師)–the Tibetan Gtsang po pa Dkon mchog seng ge (?-1218/1219) and Ti shri ras pa Sangs rgyas ras chen (1164/1165-1236)–in the Karma and ‘Ba’ rom pa Kagyü traditions respectively. The long-term presence of Kagyü monasteries in this region thus must date to this period.

With the collapse of the Mi nyag/Xia Empire to Mongol onslaught in 1227, in 1239 Liangzhou became the headquarters of Köden, son of Ögödei Khan. It was from this seat of power that the first Mongol invasion of Tibet was launched in 1240, under the direction of a Tangut named Doorda Darqan. Köden summoned Sa skya Pandita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251) to Liangzhou in 1244, and he arrived in 1246 with his two nephew’s ‘Phags pa (1235-1280) and Phyag na rdo rje. Although these Sa skya representatives stayed only a short while in Liangzhou, they had a lasting influence on the region. In return for healing Köden from an illness, Sa skya Pandita was given the local temple Sprul pa’i sde (Huanhua si 幻化寺, also known as the White Stupa Temple (Baitasi白塔寺), located in Dahe xiang 大河鄉. He died and was buried there in 1251. In all, the Sa skya controlled four monasteries spread around the city in the cardinal directions: this temple in the east, in the west Pad mo’i sde (Lianhua si蓮花寺), in the north Byang rgya mtsho sde (Haizang si海藏寺, this is the only one to survive to the present), in the south Dbang sde (Guanding si/ Jinta si 灌頂寺/金塔寺). Shortly after his uncle died, ‘Phags pa left in 1253 to serve at the court of Qubilai (not yet khan at this time). Around 1256, Karma Pakshi (1206-1283), the second Black Hat Karmapa, also passed through Liangzhou on his way from visiting Qubilai in the south heading north to the court of Möngke Khan in Mongolia. The Kagyü influence in this region, which was quite strong until the visit of the fifth Dalai Lama in 1652 (on his way to the Qing court in Beijing), no doubt benefited from this visit. Although Köden died by 1260 at the latest, his family remained in Liangzhou as the rulers of Hexi (河西) for the duration of Mongol rule.

    Sources:

Christopher Beckwith. 1987. The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia, Princeton: Princeton University Press
Patricia Berger. 1994. Preserving the Nation: The Political Uses of Tantric Art in China. In Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 85-1850. Lawrence: Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas. pp. 89-125
Ruth Dunnel. The Hsia Origins of the Yüan Institution of Imperial Preceptor. Asia Major. Third Series, Vol. 5, part 1, 1992, pp. 85-111
Heather Karmay, Early Sino-Tibetan Art. Aris and Phillips. 1975: 35-42
Luciano Petech. 1983. Tibetan Relations with Sung China and the Mongols. In China among equals: the Middle Kingdom and its neighbors, 10th-14th centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 173-204
Wangqian Duanzhi and Jiang Zengli, Sapan yu Liangzhou si da fo si, xerox, pp. 9-13.

Entry by Gray Tuttle, 1/21/07