East Asian Buddhism
Chinese ghost festival –
A ritual that embodies Buddhist and Chinese values
The Ghost festival, the second most important festival of the year, is an event in which features of Buddhism are most relevant in Chinese culture. The ritual, by essence, belongs to the living and the dead – it creates a harmony between the two, as well as that between the individual, society and nature in its performance. Its Chinese term, Yu lan pen hui, is composed of the foreign word “yu lan” that refers to the pitiable fate of those hung upside down in the prisons of hell and the Chinese term “pen” which indicates the bowl in which offerings are placed. As the story of Mulien recorded in the Hungry ghost sutra represents, the festival synthesizes elements of Indian Buddhism into the indigenous concepts of China. Stephen F Teiser essentially captures this quality when he descirbes it as “China was made more Buddhist and Buddhism was made more Chinese.” Because the Yu lan pen jing is a key text in the development of the Buddhist rites in the ghost festival that is held in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it will be examined to observe the blending of the two values. The Ghost Festival Sutra (also known as Yu lan pen jing), which was written in the sixth century, is peppered with traces of Buddhism attempting to integrate into Chinese life. Its first few lines become all the more significant when considering that they were not present in the oldest narrative forged approximately eighty years earlier that serves as the basis of the ghost festival, The Sutra on Repaying the Kindness by Making Offerings (also referred to as Bao en feng pen jing). As Alan Cole, Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College cites in his book Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism the Ghost Festival Sutra, Buddha pronounces these words as Mu Lian explains his failure in feeding his mother: “Even [you cannot achieve this feeding] though your filial submission
A ritual that embodies Buddhist and Chinese values
The Ghost festival, the second most important festival of the year, is an event in which features of Buddhism are most relevant in Chinese culture. The ritual, by essence, belongs to the living and the dead – it creates a harmony between the two, as well as that between the individual, society and nature in its performance. Its Chinese term, Yu lan pen hui, is composed of the foreign word “yu lan” that refers to the pitiable fate of those hung upside down in the prisons of hell and the Chinese term “pen” which indicates the bowl in which offerings are placed. As the story of Mulien recorded in the Hungry ghost sutra represents, the festival synthesizes elements of Indian Buddhism into the indigenous concepts of China. Stephen F Teiser essentially captures this quality when he descirbes it as “China was made more Buddhist and Buddhism was made more Chinese.” Because the Yu lan pen jing is a key text in the development of the Buddhist rites in the ghost festival that is held in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, it will be examined to observe the blending of the two values. The Ghost Festival Sutra (also known as Yu lan pen jing), which was written in the sixth century, is peppered with traces of Buddhism attempting to integrate into Chinese life. Its first few lines become all the more significant when considering that they were not present in the oldest narrative forged approximately eighty years earlier that serves as the basis of the ghost festival, The Sutra on Repaying the Kindness by Making Offerings (also referred to as Bao en feng pen jing). As Alan Cole, Professor of Religious Studies at Lewis and Clark College cites in his book Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism the Ghost Festival Sutra, Buddha pronounces these words as Mu Lian explains his failure in feeding his mother: “Even [you cannot achieve this feeding] though your filial submission
Bibliography: Cole, Alan. "Mothers and Sons in the Ghost Festival." Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1998. 80-102. Print. Lakos, William. Chinese Ancestor Worship: A Practice and Ritual Oriented Approach to Understanding Chinese Culture. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2010. Print. Lopez, Donald S. "Saving the Burning-Mouth Hungry Ghost." Religions of China in Practice. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1996. 278-83. Print. Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 1988. Print. Teiser, Stephen F. "Ghosts and Ancestors in Medieval Chinese Religion: The Yu-lan-p 'en Festival as Mortuary Ritual." History of Religions 26.1 (1986): 47-67. Print. Weller, Robert P. "Pragmatic Ghosts." Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion. Seattle: University of Washington, 1987. N. pag. Print.