Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha

The volume opens with Robert E. Buswell, Jr.’s “Prolegomenon to the Study of Buddhist Apocryphal Scriptures,” which defines the field and explains why indigenous Buddhist scriptures are essential for understanding East Asian Buddhism. Kyoko Tokuno’s chapter examines the evaluation of indigenous scriptures in Chinese Buddhist bibliographical catalogues and shows how cataloguers distinguished authentic, suspicious, and spurious texts. Michel Strickmann studies The Consecration Sūtra as a Buddhist book of spells, highlighting ritual and esoteric dimensions of Chinese Buddhist apocrypha. Stephen R. Bokenkamp analyzes the “Stages of Transcendence” and the Bhumī concept in Taoist scripture, clarifying Buddhist-Taoist textual interaction. Kōtatsu Fujita and Kōshō Tanaka investigate the textual origins of the Kuan Wu-liang-shou ching, a canonical Pure Land scripture. Whalen Lai discusses the Ch’an-ch’a ching in relation to religion and magic in medieval China. Mark Edward Lewis examines the suppression of the Three Stages Sect and the political implications of apocryphal literature. Antonino Forte analyzes orthodoxy and the proscription of the Dharma Mirror Sūtra. Paul Groner studies the Fan-wang ching and monastic discipline in Japanese Tendai. Ronald M. Davidson’s appendix introduces standards of scriptural authenticity in Indian Buddhism.