2.1. The Mutual Convergence of Two Types of
Non-governmental Organisations with Different Natures, and the Changes of the Content and Aims of the Buddhist Activities They Undertook
During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods, there were obvious changes in traditional sishe and Buddhist organisations that special-ised in undertaking Buddhist activities. Among them, the change that most draws our attention is the gradual merging of these two types of non-governmental organisations. The first sign of this kind of merge is that their names slowly became mutually applicable.
During the Eastern Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, the terms ‘she’ and ‘yi’ had entirely different connotations. The Buddhist organisations discussed above that specialised in undertaking Bud-dhist events were called ‘yi’, ‘yiyi’, ‘fayi’ and so on, and were certainly not called ‘she’. Those non-governmental organisations that practiced the traditional sacrifices to the two she in spring and autumn were called ‘she’ and ‘yishe’, and were definitely not known as ‘yi’, ‘yiyi’, or the like. There is not even a single exception to this within the nearly 250 source materials that the author has collected. However, by the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods, this situation has gradually changed.
Let us look at the following passages. ‘On the eleventh year of Tianbao era, second month, eighth day (Tianbao 11.2.8=February 27, 752), the Wen’an Prefecture 文安郡, the official of ‘stone sūtra yi’ (shijing yi 石經邑) Sun Qian 孫倩, the secretary Xing Chang 邢 昌, together with two hundred people from the yi, made eight slabs of stone scriptures’ (天寶十一載二月八日, 文安郡石經邑社官孫倩、
錄事刑 [=邢] 昌合邑二百人等造經八條);156 and ‘in the tenth year of Tianbao era, second month, eighth day (Tianbao 10.2.8=March 10,
156 Beijing tushuguan jinshizu & Zhongguo fojiao tushu wenwuguan shijingzu, comps., Fangshan shijing tiji huibian, 94.
751), the people of the she of the Shijing yi, Wu Chongzi 武冲子, Zhao Kanju 趙堪舉, Ji Yuanli 冀元禮, together with people from the yi, made eight slabs of scriptures for offering’ (天寶十載二月八日, 石 經社人武冲子、趙堪舉、冀元禮合邑人等造經八條供養).157
These two passages are both sources for records of construction of sūtras engraved on stone during the Tang Dynasty. While both are from Buddhist organisations that undertook making sūtra inscrip-tions, one of them refers to itself as a ‘stone sūtra yi’, whereas the other calls itself a ‘stone sūtra she’ (shijing she 石經社). The leader of the stone sūtra yi is called a ‘she official’ (sheguan 社官), whereas the members of the stone sūtra she are called yi members. It is quite clear that the terms ‘yi’ and ‘she’ in these two source materials have identi-cal connotations, with no distinction between them. There are many examples like this within the recorded inscriptions of the Fangshan
房山 stone sūtras. If one wishes to argue that reference to the stone sūtras of Fangshan alone is insufficient as a reflection of the situation in the whole of society, we can show some relevant records found in Dunhuang texts.
In S.527 ‘Xiande liunian (959) zhengyue sanri nüren she shetiao
顯德六年 (959) 正月三日女人社社條 [Articles of Association from a Women’s She, 3rd Day of the 1st Month of the 6th Year of Xiande era (Xiande 6.zheng.3 = February 13, 959)], it states: ‘It is said that when establishing the she with the utmost sincerity, articles and regu-lations will be present. The people of the yi organization have bodies that were born from their parents and have ideals that were influ-enced by their friends’ (蓋聞至城 [=誠] 立社, 有條有格. 夫邑儀 [=義]
者, 父母生其身, 朋友長其值 [=志]). This is a traditional sishe that has been formed by women for the purpose of funerary activities, but it calls itself a ‘she’ and simultaneously an ‘yiyi’.
Another example is in P.3730 Moujia deng jinli shetiao 某甲等謹 立社條 [Respectful Establishment of Articles of Association for So-and-So] (template), which says: ‘A certain family carefully established she articles,... all she organization needs to deal with (lit. ‘pursue’) the auspicipous (e.g., marriage) and ominous matters (e.g., funerals)
157 Ibid.
together ...all established yiyi requires people to be long term resi-dents’ (某家甲等謹立社條, …… 凡為邑義, 先須逐吉追凶. …… 凡為立 社, 且要久居). This she regulation literary model also mentions the self designated name of ‘yi organization’, and also mentions the self designated name of ‘she’. There are also several other sources which demonstrate this same point.
Due to changes in the content of the term ‘yiyi’, while we can no longer use this as a general term to refer to Buddhist organisations that specialise in undertaking Buddhist activities, by the Tang and Five Dynasties periods there is the appearance of the term ‘Foshe’
佛社 [Buddhist She] within Dunhuang texts,158 which accurately reflects the nature of this kind of organisation. Therefore, when discussing this period, we will use the term Foshe to refer to sishe that
FIG. 7 S.527 ‘Xiande liunian (959) zhengyue sanri nüren she shetiao 顯德六年 (959) 正月三日女人社社條; courtesy of International Dunhuang Project (idp.bl.uk)
158 Дх. 10269 ‘Bian sumai li’ 便粟麥曆 [Accounts of the Lending of Grains]
includes, ‘people of the Xinfoshe 新佛社 [new Buddhist societies] borrowed two shi and five dou of millet 新佛社人便粟兩石五斗’. Xinfoshe is what contemporary people called those newly-established popular Buddhist societies.
specifically undertake Buddhist events, in order to distinguish it from traditional sishe.
The change from ‘she’ and ‘yi’ being distinct, to there being no difference between the two, is certainly not merely a change in name alone. In fact, this is representative of the changes in the activities and nature from (yi)she (邑) 社 in the Eastern Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties to the (yi)yi 邑 (義) of the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties periods.
The two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties were a period of fast development for Buddhism in China. However, the Sinifica-tion of Buddhism was not completed in this period, as its social and economic power was still insufficiently strong. Therefore, during this period, although Buddhist monasteries and monastics were able to exhort some people within their vicinities to form yiyi, and they already had an ongoing effect on traditional sheyi and other such non-governmental organisations as this article has discussed and shown, from a holistic perspective, the influence of Buddhist monasteries and monastics on traditional sheyi was not particularly large during the two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties. This is reflected in the fact that source materials showing a relationship be-tween the two are quite few, and that Buddhist organisations formed by monastic and lay Buddhist devotees, such as yi, yiyi, fayi and the like, were many in number and also popular.
In the Tang and Five Dynasties, Buddhism finally completed its process of Sinification, as its political, economic, and social power continued to strengthen to a point incomparable with that of the two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties. This provided some beneficial conditions for Buddhist monasteries and monastics in their influence on traditional sheyi and other such non-governmental organisations. At the same time, there were also changes in the atti-tudes and strategies of Buddhist monasteries and monastics toward traditional sheyi, as they shifted to an attitude of equal interaction and a strategy of maintaining distinctions within commonalities toward traditional culture. This brought about a gradual merging of Buddhist culture and traditional Chinese sishe thought and activities.
The first section of this article examines that during the Tang period at the latest, there was already a considerable portion of traditional
sishe that engaged in Buddhist activities while also maintaining traditional activities such as sacrifices to the two she of spring and autumn, mutual economic aid, and so forth. Because traditional sishe organisations were strict and tight, with long ongoing histories, they therefore had a much greater role than Foshe in terms of Buddhism’s popularity and dissemination among the general populace. Under this sort of background situation, Foshe slowly began to decline during the passage through the Tang and Five Dynasties periods, and their power also shrank. This is reflected in the fact that resources for this kind of organisation were much reduced when compared to the period before.
Another aspect is some Foshe that were influenced by traditional sishe that were broadly popular among the common populace and focused on activities for mutual assistance in economic and matters of daily life, also began to engage in mutual assistance for funerary services. For example, in the ‘Sui Kaihuang yuannian (581) Li Achang deng nianjia zaoxiang bei’ 隋開皇元年 (581) 李阿昌等廿家造 像碑 [Stele for Image Construction by the Family of Li Achang and Twenty Others, in the 1st Year of Kaihuang (581) during the Sui], it briefly states: ‘In the first year of Kaihuang era, which is a xinchou
辛丑 year, on the fourth month in which the first day is a gengcheng
庚辰 day, and on the twentieth day which is a renyin 壬寅 day (Kai-huang 1.4.20=June 7, 581), the Buddhist disciple Li Achang 李阿 昌 and others, twenty families total, made a contract in the autumn of last year when they would set up a monthly zhai, and watch over each other in both auspicious and ominous matters’ (維開皇元年歲 辛丑, 四月庚辰朔, 廿日壬寅, 佛弟子李阿昌等廿家去歲秋合為仲契, 每 月設齋, 吉凶相逮).159 The members of this organisation called them-selves ‘disciples of the Buddha’ (Fo dizi 佛弟子), and their primary goal of ‘coming together as a fraternity’ 合為仲契 was in order to
‘set up a monthly zhai’ 每月設齋, after which they would engage in constructing an image. From this we know that this was a Buddhist organisation that mainly focused on engaging in Buddhist activities.
However, apart from constructing images and setting up zhai¸ this organisation also had regulations concerning ‘watching over each
159 Qin, ‘Sui Kaihuang yuannian Li Achang zaoxiangbei’, 48–49.
other in both auspicious and ominous matters’ (jixiong xiangdai 吉 凶相逮), which is something we have not yet seen elsewhere in the source materials. This ‘jixiong xiangdai’ is equivalent to the state-ment cited earlier in the articles of association for traditional sishe,
‘deal with both auspicious (e.g., marraige) and ominous matters (e.g., funerals)’ (zhuji zhuixiong 逐吉追凶), which meant when sheyi mem-bers needed funerals or other such urgent matters, all she memmem-bers should go to help out. Another example is in the ‘Tang Xianqing san-nian (658) huo yiqian zhong apo deng shetiao’ 唐顯慶三年 (公元658)
或以前眾阿婆等社條 [Articles of Association for the Community of Aged Women in the 3rd Year of Xianqing era (658) or Earlier in the Tang], which first gives the names of the community of aged women, after which a list of names for the monthly zhai patron roster, and finally stipulations that each person should contribute some amount of wheat grain for each monthly zhai day. It is obvious that this was also an organisation that focused on Buddhist activities. However, apart from the Buddhist activities of this organisation, there were also regulations such as: ‘Those aged women who passed away;
people should provide one dou of wheat, and provide five cakes’ (眾 阿婆等中有身亡 麥壹斗, 出餅五個).160 Yet another example is in P.452511 ‘Taiping xingguo qinian (982) eryue li shetiao yidao’ 太平興 國七年 (982) 二月立社條一道 [Establishing One Article of Associa-tion, in the 2nd Month of the 7th Year of Taiping Xingguo (982)], which states:
1. It is my humble opinion that all the beings of the Jambudīpa need to rely on this excellent cause in order to be reborn in a better place. Some of them are indulged in the good fortune during their floating lives, while some are born from a womb with heavy sin 竊以閻浮眾凡上生, 要此福因. 或則浮生躭福, 或則胎生罪重, 2. each are different. Now nineteen people made great vows, and at
the end of the year came to this holy place to light lamps, eat at the vegetarian feast, and give 各各有殊. 今則一十九人發弘後 (=厚) 願, 歲末, 就此聖嵓, 燃燈齋食, 捨
160 Ning & Hao, Dunhuang sheyi wenshu jijiao, 60–63.
3. alms to gain merit. Each person carries one dou of millet, and need to prepare it beforehand during autumn. It would be ground by the mill and passed to the person in charge. There will again be a new year day where good fortune is built. 施功德. 各人麻壹㪷, 先 須秋間齊遂, 押磑轉轉主人. 又有新年建福一日
4. Each person gets a pair of lu pie, a dou of millet, one lamp, and sat in a circle for food. The people of the she are all ordinary 各人 餅一雙, 粟一斗, 然 (=燃) 燈壹盞, 團座設食. 或若社眾等, 儘是凡 5. people, who continue the cycle of birth and death. When some-夫種 one goes to the afterlife, at the moment of death, people need to express sorrow 子, 生死各續, 掩就黃泉, 須 (=雖) 則一朝死亡之 間, 便須心生親恨 [ ],
6. kowtow and cry loudly. On the day of passing away, it is forbidden to push and shove, and mutual respect is required. On the day of the funeral 號叩大哭. 或若榮葬之日, 不得一推一後, 須要榮勾. 臨去之日,
7. people need to assemble, hold up the coffin and place it on the cart, carrying an urn of wine and pouring it around the cart.
When they arrive at 盡須齊會. 攀棺擎上此車. 合有弔酒壹甕, 隨 車澆酹, 就
8. the tomb, everyone will cry loudly and kowtow together 此墳墓, 一齊號叩…161
This she was formed under the influence of Buddhist thought. Its principal activities were lighting lamps, setting up zhai, and other such Buddhist activities. However, there were also regulations for mutual aid in funerary services. It is therefore a Sishe that mainly holds Buddhist events but also does funerary assistance. There is also the text Beixin 北新 882, ‘Bowang fangxiang nürenshe shetiao gao’
博望坊巷女人社社條稿 [Draft of Articles of Assocation for the Women’s She of the Bowang Lanes and Alleys], which states:
161 Tang & Lu, comp., Dunhuang shehui jingji wenxian zhenji shilu, vol. 1:
280.
FIG. 8 P.452511 ‘Taiping xingguo qinian (982) eryue li shetiao yidao’ 太平興國 七年 (982) 二月立社條一道; courtesy of International Dunhuang Project (idp.bl.uk)
1. On the twentieth day of the fourth month of the bingshen 丙申 year, in order to light a lamp in the cave the woman of the she of the Bowang Lanes and Alleys sat and discussed and 丙申年四月廿 日, 博望坊巷女人因為上窟燃燈, 眾坐商儀 (=議)
2. made a vow together, setting a limit of three years 一齊同發心, 限 3. for the vow to be fulfilled. Each year 三年 願滿. 每年上窟所要,
4. goods and sacrificial offerings will be brought to the cave, with the secretary passing out bulletins. The people of the she should all come and gather together, making their private donations. 物色代 (=帶) 到, 錄事帖行, 眾社齊來, 停登稅聚.
5. Since the articles were established, all should act accordingly 自從 立條以後, 便須齊齊鏘鏘, 接
6. and ritual songs should be sung continuously. The people of all statures should be harmonious, and the elder be respected while the younger be saluted. After three years is up, people will decide themselves where to go. It is forbidden for 禮歌歡, 上和下睦, 識 大敬小. 三年滿後, 任自取 (集) 散, 不許
7. the secretary and officials to direct them. The various she members have discussed the matter, and each out of good intentions, will not go back on the previous statements 錄事三官把勒. 眾社商量, 各發好意, 不壞先言,
8. and breach the old articles. This message will not change regard-less of the days and months that pass. (Back of the paper) 抹破舊 條, 再立條. 日月往來, 此言不改. 今聚集 (紙背)
9. The present gathering has thirteen people listing their names at the back 得一十三人具列名目已 (於) 後.162
162 Beixin 882, ‘Bowan fangxiang nürenshe shetiao gao’, in Ren, comp., Guojia tushuguan cang Dunhuang yishu, Vol. 131: 358a.
This document is a draft, with many parts rubbed out and corrected, and it does not list the names of the she members. This sishe is a Foshe that specialises in undertaking lighting lamps to offer to the Buddha.
However, in the articles of association it states ‘The people of all statures should be harmonious, and the elder be respected while the younger be saluted’ (上和下睦, 識大敬小), which shows that it was influenced by Confucian culture. The several examples above began in the Sui Dynasty, span through the Tang and Five Dynasties, and extend into the early Song. Their common features are that they did not originate in traditional sishe, and the reasons for their formation are due to either being influenced by Buddhist thought or that their
FIG. 9 Beixin 北新 882, ‘Bowan fangxiang nürenshe shetiao gao’ 博望坊巷女人 社社條稿; courtesy of International Dunhuang Project (idp.bl.uk)
focus is on Buddhist activities. However, due to being influenced by traditional sishe that mainly carried out mutual funerary assistance which was widely popular at the time, they therefore either engage in funerary assistance or have been influenced by traditional culture.
This phenomenon was not seen in the Eastern Jin and the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
It is precisely because traditional sishe and Foshe in the Tang and Five Dynasties periods were heading toward merging in terms of their activities that brought about the gradual blurring of the terms ‘(yi) she’ and ‘yi(yi)’. Due to not understanding this situation we have just described, some Japanese scholars dogmatically maintain their interpretation of Huiyuan’s formation of the White Lotus Society, and based on this they imagine a kind of Buddhist organisation called
‘fashe’ that was popular in the Southern Dynasties during the North-ern and SouthNorth-ern Dynasties period, with a membership comprised largely of nobility, officials, and literati scholars, and mainly empha-sising their own personal cultivation in contrast to yiyi in the north that focused on constructing images.163 The reality of the matter has already been discussed in the first section of this article. That is, in the two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties, fashe refers to tra-ditional neighbourhood (yi)she that worshipped Buddhism, which were distinct from yiyi that engaged in Buddhist activities in terms of their origins and the content of their activities. Huiyuan lived in a time before ‘(yi)she’ and ‘yi(yi)’ merged, and so it is impossible that the yiyi-type of Buddhist organisation that he created would have been called a ‘she’.
In the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, there were also changes in terms of the content of activities that traditional sishe and Foshe undertook. The first was that the scope of Buddhist activities was broader than in the preceding period, including setting up zhai, lighting lamps as offerings to the Buddhas, image processions, sand-impression Buddhas, holding Ullambana gatherings, construct-ing caves, renovatconstruct-ing caves, constructconstruct-ing images, buildconstruct-ing saṃgha pagodas, building monasteries, renovating monasteries, building
163 See relevant works by Japanese scholars mentioned in notes above.
Buddha shrines, renovating Buddha shrines, constructing sūtra pillars, silk paintings, constructing monastery bells, purchasing land, transcribing sūtras, engraving stone sūtras, and so forth. The second change was that activities for constructing images were not as pro-nounced as in the past, whereas setting up zhai increasingly became the most important event. Although in the Eastern Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties there were some yiyi that undertook zhai activities, such activities were not that prevalent at the time, and the majority of related yiyi source materials do not have the position of a zhai patron. The Dunhuang textual sources indicate that in the latter Tang, Five Dynasties, and start of the Song, although sishe that held zhai events could also hold other activities at the same time, there were few sishe that only undertook Buddhist activities but never set up zhai. The annual three months of constant zhai (san changzhai
三長齋) held the greatest significance for people during this time period.
Yet another aspect is that there were changes in sishe goals for their practice of Buddhist activities. The ‘Beiwei Zhang Daoguo shuai yiyi zao Mile xiang ji’ 北魏張道果率邑義造彌勒像記 [Record of Construction of a Maitreya Image by the Yiyi Led by Zhang Daoguo, in the Northern Wei] describes the goal for constructing this image as: ‘To the imperial majesty and empress dowager above; next are the parents of seven generations and the family members bonded by karma, I wish all the sentient beings have this kind of good fortune’ (
上為皇帝陛下, 太皇太后, 後為七世父母, 因緣眷屬, 普願一切眾生, 咸 同斯福).164 However, a text for sishe setting up a zhai during the Five Dynasties and early Song, P.3545 ‘Shezhai wen’ 社齋文 [Text of She Vegetarian Feast], preserved in the Dunhuang manuscripts records its goal as follows:
The merits gained from establishing this vegetarian feast, which are unlimited good karma, will first be used to glorify the four kings from the realm above, and the eight legions from the region below,
164 ‘Beiwei Zhang Daoguo shuai yiyi zao Mile xiang ji’, Ōmura, Chūgoku bijut-sushi chōsohen, 187.