My bowl is fragrant from the rice of a thousand homes;
My heart has renounced the sovereignty of riches and worldly fame.
Quietly cherishing the memory of the ancient Buddhas,
I walk to the village for another day of begging.
Ryōkan
From India
The history of Jizo Bodhisattva before his arrival in Japan, the history of his birth, travels, and transformations, is a story that can be pieced together out of fragments found along a path of pilgrimage that stretches over four thousand miles, from the jungles of India through the desert oases of central Asia to a sacred mountain in China. The fragments include faded frescoes on the walls of forgotten caves, fragile hangings of painted silk, statues fashioned of stone, clay and metal, and sections of sutras sung to celebrate the virtue of this beloved bodhisattva. The travels of Jizo parallel the history and spread of Buddhism in Asia.
He was born in India in the first or second century, about six hundred years after the Buddha died. His name, in Sanskrit, was Kshitigarbha. He came to life within a family of bodhisattvas as the Mahayana school emerged from the original teaching of the Buddha and the elder monks. In the Mahayana school the ideal practitioner was a bodhisattva, who sought not only personal enlightenment but the welfare and spiritual liberation of all beings. There is no evidence that Kshitigarbha was ever very popular in India. Only a little historical evidence remains in India to hint at how he was portrayed and venerated. His image is found in mandalas of Shakyamuni Buddha and the eight great bodhisattvas carved in the walls of the cave temples of Ellora (fifth to sixth century) near modern Bombay. Groups of eight bodhisattvas surrounding a Buddha have been found in other ancient sites in India, but no early image of a single bodhisattva clearly identifiable as Kshitigarbha has been found yet in India. The diaries of seventh-century Chinese pilgrims to India do not mention Kshitigarbha although he and his sutras certainly were known and studied at the great Buddhist university and monastic complex of Nalanda in Magadha.
As the new religion of Buddhism spread to Central Asia, Jizo Bodhisattva followed its path. Upon entering a new country Jizo, as any good immigrant, became assimilated into the culture. In this process he took on new names, new forms, and new dress. Through intermarriage with indigenous religious practices and folk beliefs he also assumed new powers and functions.
To China
Buddhism arrived in Turkestan, the part of China that borders on India and Pakistan, about 140 c.e. Buddhism was spread by missionary monks traveling the Silk Road. The journey between India and China was long, arduous, and often dangerous. Travelers encountered difficult terrain and hostile peoples. A biography of a Chinese monk of the times tells of his courage in leading twelve fellow pilgrims west to India in order to study the Dharma. As they struggled through the deserts of northwest China they used the skeletal remains of dead men as landmarks to keep them on the path. Veneration of Kshitigarbha as the protector of pilgrims may have begun at this time in order to meet a very real need. In painted silk banners from Turkestan he wears the “shawl of the Traveler.” This garment is described either as a monk’s cloak thrown over the head or as a head scarf or turban with loose ends covering and protecting the traveler’s neck and shoulders. A cult of Kshitigarbha as guardian deity of travelers was flourishing in Turkestan by the ninth and tenth centuries.
Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva entered central China around 400 c.e., taking on the name Ti-tsang Pusa. It does not appear he was venerated widely until the middle to late 500s when the sect of the Three Stages promoted veneration of Ti-tsang as the most appropriate form of Buddhism for that era, which was felt to be degenerate. “Degenerate era” refers to a prediction that the original teachings of the Buddha would become so corrupted over time that eventually people could not hope to become enlightened through their own study and practice. They would have to depend upon the intercession of someone who had become enlightened in an earlier time, a Buddha or bodhisattva.
This prediction, which is attributed to the Buddha himself, makes Buddhism subject to the law it teaches, namely the impermanence of all things. Buddhism is the only religion to forecast its own demise. According to the scriptures, the first five hundred years following the death of the Buddha would be the time of practice of the True Dharma. During the next period, the era of the Counterfeit Dharma, the practice would be outward only, a false show of religiosity. In the third period, called the time of the Collapsed Dharma, the teaching and practice would degenerate completely and enlightenment would not be possible. This period was known in China as mo fa and in Japan as mappo. The Japanese calculated that this period would begin at the end of the eleventh century. In Japan economic and social conditions did deteriorate at this time and people who felt that salvation was no longer possible under one’s own power turned to religious teachings that focused on calling upon the beneficent “other power” of Amida Buddha or bodhisattvas such as Jizo.
There are many images of Ti-tsang in the caves at Lung-Men, where he was worshiped from 650 to 700 c.e. The construction of this extensive complex of twenty-one thousand sacred caves and one hundred thousand Buddhist images was supported by the imperial family, indicating that Ti-tsang was revered by those of power and wealth. There also are many images of Ti-tsang / Kshitigarbha in the grotto of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in the Tun-huang caves, located in Turkestan, now the province of Kansu in northwestern China. In frescoes and banners there from the ninth and tenth century he is portrayed with a shaven head, wearing monk’s robes and carrying a staff and jewel, a savior of those in the six realms. Worship services in the Tun-huan caves included hymns to Ti-tsang, chanting, bowing, prayers, rites of repentance and divination, and the traditional offerings of incense, flowers, and money.
The art of the Sung dynasty testifies to the popularity of Ti-tsang in the tenth through twelfth centuries. He was depicted in stone statues used for veneration and offerings in temples, in hand scrolls used for sermons, in portraits painted on silk banners, and on frescoes painted on the walls of temples and grottoes. The sermons that unfolded as the illustrated scrolls were unrolled probably were aimed at impressing believers with the pain suffered by unrepentant sinners and the benefits of confession, repentance, and a life guided by the precepts.
Three Chinese Sutras about Ti-tsang
Sutras that refer to Ti-tsang provide clues about how the Chinese viewed this bodhisattva and came to revere him. Three texts were instrumental in shaping Chinese views of Ti-tsang and his powers, because of their popularity among the laity and their wide dissemination. These were the Sutra of the Ten Kings, the Transformation Text on Mu-lein Saving His Mother, and the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva. The first two texts give bare mention to Ti-tsang. The Sutra on the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva provides more information about Ti-tsang / Kshitigarbha and is excerpted and discussed separately in chapter eleven.
The sutra on the Ten Kings was written in China in the ninth century. The sutra represents a synthesis of Indian and Chinese beliefs. Indian Buddhism focused upon practice as a means to escape from the endless round of birth and death driven by karma, that is, the effects of unenlightened thought, speech and action. The Buddha had described five realms of existence (see chapter ten on the Six Realms). The Chinese were particularly focused on the hell realm to which they added a new concept, that of purgatory. In the Ten Kings Sutra these ideas were combined with several Chinese ideals. The first was the ideal of filial piety, particularly as expressed through veneration of ancestors and concern for their fate after death. The second was the ideal of harmony and order that was possible under a strong, well-organized system of government. The third was the attainment of immortality after death.
Chinese sutras document the way in which Buddhist teachings flowed into China and blended with existing beliefs. The Sutra of the Ten Kings is a synthesis of Taoist, Confucian, and Buddhist views. It describes a cosmology in which the Taoist hierarchy is intercalated with a
Buddhist one, as might occur if the rulers of two merging countries worked out the delicate task of deciding who is in charge of what without demeaning or insulting anyone. In the Sutra of the Ten Kings a Taoist deity is Emperor of Heaven and under him is the Buddhist Ti-tsang, called Lord of Hell. Ti-tsang Pusa is in turn overlord of the Chinese Ten Kings of Hell including Yama, the ruler of hell. Yama has three messengers, Old Age, Sickness, and Death, who go forth into the world to warn humans that life is fleeting and they should mend their ways while there is still time left.
The Ten Kings Sutra combined all of these beliefs and personages in purgatory, which was both a physical location and a process that each person must undergo after death. The first forty-nine days after death became a time of particular concern, when the fate of the deceased was uncertain. Before death a person’s own actions and mind-state were important in influencing their destination. After death it was the actions of friends and relatives that could tip the scales and determine a pleasant or horrible future existence.
The Chinese moved the Buddhist hell from India to China, to a location in Szechuan province, 280,000 miles under the surface of the earth. The entrance to these Infernal Regions was thought to be in a desolate area on the side of a specific mountain where, during the night, terrifying shrieks and wailing could be heard. Hell was vast, containing great seas and mountains of iron, encircled by an iron wall with a huge gate studded with countless nails. Purgatory was located outside the gates to hell.
The Ten Kings Sutra taught that after death a person entered purgatory, where they became the defendant in a series of trials. They passed from one court to another, once a week in the first forty-nine days after death, then again on the one hundredth day, the first year, and the third year, for a total of ten trials and ten judges or kings. It must have been frightening for a Chinese peasant in medieval times to be called before a powerful and educated judge or king. The tests imposed by the ten kings included such things as being burned with scalding water and searing fire, and having one’s beating heart cut out and examined. Death itself is fearsome, but to believe in ten terrifying interrogations, judgments, and punishments after death might frighten anyone into more moral behavior.
In the ten courts many clerks maintained written records of each person’s actions during his or her lifetime on earth. Each king reviewed these files, administered certain tests, and then passed sentence. When a good person died he was led by a good demon before the judge of the first court. The judge took measure of the person’s life. If he determined that the good deeds outweighed the sins, he sent the deceased directly to the tenth court and thence on to another existence in the human realm. The circumstances of his next existence would depend upon how his life account was balanced. A man could be reborn as a woman, a woman as a man, a rich person could be born to experience poverty, or a sick person who was virtuous, into a long and healthy life.
The sutra created a stage setting with characters taken from the ubiquitous imperial bureaucracy of the times. Virtuous people appeared serene, wearing fine garments and jewelry. They carried scrolls of sutras that they commissioned while alive, visible proof of the meritorious acts that resulted in their happy destination. Unhappy sinners, in sharp contrast, entered the stage as prisoners. They wore only their underclothing and were shackled at wrists and ankles, with iron yokes around their necks. Demon guards pulled their hair and beat them with whips.
If in the first court a person’s evil deeds were found to outweigh the good he had done, the demon guards forced him to kneel before the great Mirror of Guilt that reflected the evil acts of his recent life. The mirror showed times when a person had been cruel or killed another living being, providing visible proof of the past actions that had resulted in their current miserable state. Once the deceased had witnessed all of the suffering he had caused for others, he was sent on through the next nine courts, for a succession of trials and judgments. The punishments were appropriate to the crimes. Even Buddhist monks could not escape the inexorable workings of the law of cause and effect, as this example of just retribution shows.
[In] this First Court of Hades, a group of Buddhist monks may be seen squatting in a narrow comer, and atoning for all the short-weights they have given in the exercise of their professional duties when living on earth. The dungeon assigned to them is one from which the light of day is wholly excluded. A lamp with a wick composed of a single thread is allowed them, and by this weak, flickering light, they have to repeat all the prayers and chants they skipped while in life, to the material detriment of those who had paid for their services.
The second king was stationed on the banks of the River Sai (River of No Recourse). People of virtue could cross the river on a bridge but sinners struggled across in deep water, prodded by ghosts and ox-headed demons wielding clubs and pitchforks. The tenth and final court was very large, furnished with many tables, chairs, and benches where numerous officials worked to carry out the process of transmigration. They determined in which of the six realms a person would be reborn. The determination was made purely in accord with the person’s past actions, under the laws of cause and effect. To Christian missionaries this process was “fatalistic in the extreme.” To Buddhists it was objective and fair.
Before leaving purgatory to go on to the next realm, souls were led to the Hall of Oblivion. There an old woman named Granny Meng made them drink a special broth that wiped out all memory of their previous existence. King Yama appointed her to this task so that no one could divulge what happened in the underground realms. If a person refused to take the broth, two demons forced a bamboo pipe in his throat and poured the liquid down. At last the souls could leave purgatory. In some versions of hell, the dead again crossed the bridge over the River Sai. Engraved upon a stone pillar on the opposite shore were these words, hopefully to be imprinted deeply upon their newly cleansed minds, “To become a human for the first time is easy, but to act truly human is difficult. If you did not behave well, it is almost impossible to be born again as a human. If you wish a happy transmigration, do good during your coming life so that you can reap its rewards.” As the deceased approached the opposite shore two demons hurled them into the dark red foaming waters beneath the bridge and they were carried away by the torrent to their next existence.
Ti-tsang is mentioned only once in the Ten Kings Sutra, but he is a prominent figure in the many illustrations added to the picture scrolls of the sutra that monks apparently used in their instruction of lay people. He appears upon the tragic stage of purgatory and hell as a figure offering mercy and hope. Ti-tsang had been a relatively minor bodhisattva until he was assigned, through the widespread propagation of this sutra, the power to deliver souls from the many ghastly forms of torture in the Chinese hells. Ti-tsang was portrayed as a powerful overlord who could intercede with the Ten Kings, argue for leniency and soften their judgments. He was also a compassionate priest. If he knocked on the doors of hell with his ring staff, they had to open. As he descended into hell, the cintamani jewel brought light into realms of utter darkness and despair. If he could discern even one good deed in a person’s life he could plead for leniency. If he were able to find more virtuous actions, he might win acquittal. He could release prisoners from their shackles and, in some illustrations of the sutra, it is he who gives those who have undergone torment in hell the broth of oblivion to drink.
A second work that spread faith in the savior Ti-tsang was the Transformation Text on Mu-lein Saving His Mother, written in the eighth century. It is the story of a disciple of the Buddha named Mu-lein (Mahamogallana, or Mogallana) who searches for his deceased parents, trying to discover their fate. He finds his father in heaven. His mother, however, had acquired an unhealthy appetite for meat, roasting a live goat and even eating the family dog. For this she was reborn in hell, where Mu-lein finds her nailed down by forty-nine huge iron spikes. The Buddha releases her and she is reborn in a slightly higher realm, as a hungry ghost with a huge belly, a needle-thin neck and
skin hanging off her bones. Mu-lein tries to send his mother food through offering it on the altar, but it becomes flaming coals as it enters her mouth. Mu-lein appeals to the Buddha for help. The Buddha tells the sorrowing son to provide a feast for the monks on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, at the time they emerge from the summer retreat, three months of intensive and aesthetic practice. He does so, and through this offering his mother is freed. As the story ends she ascends into heaven.
This tale became the basis for the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts (in Sanskrit ullambana, in Chinese yu-lan-p’en, in Japanese obon), now celebrated throughout Asia. This holiday occurs on the full moon in the late summer when people make offerings from their harvests to the sangha of monks. Lay people hope to transfer the merit of these offerings to their ancestors to ensure them an easier time in hell or a better rebirth. Temples are cleaned and decorated, and families go to cemeteries to sweep and tidy ancestral graves, and sometimes to picnic. It is a time that the dead may be allowed a brief visit with their relatives on earth. In medieval China professional storytellers and troupes of actors entertained crowds at Hungry Ghosts Festivals with renditions of the story of Mu-lein rescuing his mother.
Ti-tsang plays a minor role in the Transformation Text. Mu-lein meets him as he journeys through the underworld and the bodhisattva advises the monk to look for his mother in hell, as she had committed a number of sins. As the Transformation Text and Sutra of the Ten Kings barely mention Ti-tsang, devotees who wanted to know more about him had to rely on the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva. It helped “flesh out” this deity, explaining more about his origins, his vows, and his functions.
A Mountain Sacred to Ti-tsang
The most famous site dedicated to Ti-tsang Pusa in China is Chiu-hua Mountain, which lies in a high range on the south bank of the Yangtze River in Anwei Province. The name of the mountain means “Nine Flowers.” It is said to come from the famous poet Li Po who saw the peaks from his boat on the Yangtze River and compared them to the petals of a lotus flower. Li Po was reputed to be a friend of the hermit monk Mu-lein, who lived on the mountain for over fifty years.
Jizo Bodhisattva Page 13