Pu'an Ritual Tradition普庵派

Also known as

Pu'an Teaching, Pu'an Method, Patriarch Pu'an Lineage, Shijiao (Buddhist Ritual Tradition), Fujian–Taiwan

Type

Folk Daoist Ritual Traditions

Period

Yuan and Ming to the present

Founded

Taking as patriarch the Southern Song Chan master Pu'an Yinsu (1115–1169), the ritual lineage took shape between the Yuan and Ming

Region

Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia

Status

Extant — Pu'an ritual altars and communities practicing "Sakya teaching" rites are still found in western Fujian, the Hakka areas of eastern Guangdong, Hunan-Jiangxi, and Taiwan; the Pu'an Incantation is widely used in both Daoist liturgy and folk practice.

Overview

The Pu'an Ritual Tradition is a folk ritual tradition venerating the Southern Song eminent monk Patriarch Pu'an as its founding master; although it arose from Buddhism, in the course of its transmission it absorbed a great deal of Daoist talismanic methods and liturgy, forming a "fajiao" (ritual teaching) system located between Buddhism and Daoism, classed by historians of Daoism and scholars of popular religion alongside the Lüshan Ritual Tradition as one of the ritual traditions of the south. Pu'an Yinsu was a native of Yichun, Yuanzhou, Jiangxi, a monk of the Linji Chan lineage who served as abbot of the Cihua Monastery on Nanquan Mountain; he was said to be able to heal illness and exorcise evil with incantations and talismans, and after his death his followers venerated him as their founding patriarch. He was granted the posthumous title "Great Virtue, Wise and Blessed" in the Yuan dynasty and "Chan Master of Universal Peace, Utmost Goodness, Vast Benevolence, Perfect Penetration, Wisdom, Silent Response, Wondrous Correspondence, Compassionate Aid, True Enlightenment, Manifest Blessing" in the Ming; his name and the "Pu'an Incantation" are widely used to secure homes and settle the earth. From the Yuan and Ming onward, folk ritual masters in Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian and Guangdong styled themselves the "Pu'an Teaching" or "Pu'an Ritual Tradition"; their altars enshrine Patriarch Pu'an alongside various Daoist deities, and they perform rites using Pu'an talismans and incantations for subduing evil, settling the earth, giving thanks to the earth, expelling epidemics, and salvation of the dead. In Taiwanese folk religion, the death-ritual specialists of the "Sakya teaching" (shijiao), commonly called "wutou" (black hats) or "xianghua heshang" (incense-and-flower monks), are associated with the Pu'an Ritual Tradition, and the Pu'an Incantation is also used in Daoist liturgy, in the carpenters' Lu Ban guild, and in qin music. The Pu'an Ritual Tradition embodies the deep popular fusion, from the Song and Yuan onward, of Buddhist esoteric incantation and Daoist talismanic methods; its ritual masters are mostly laymen, transmitting the tradition from father to son and master to disciple, and their rites combine the Daoist paces of Yu (bugang) and talismans and registers with Buddhist incantations and mudras. Contemporary Pu'an ritual altars remain active in western Fujian, the Hakka areas of eastern Guangdong, Hunan-Jiangxi, and Taiwan, with the Cihua Monastery in Yichun as the ancestral seat.

Core Doctrine

Venerates Patriarch Pu'an as the master of its rites, alongside Guanyin, the Three Pure Ones and the Jade Emperor; holds that the Pu'an Incantation and talismanic methods can secure homes, expel evil, avert calamity and save the dead; a fusion of Buddhism and Daoism, its ritual masters style themselves as belonging to the "Sakya teaching" or the "Pu'an Teaching" while performing Daoist-style rites; it places great weight on the efficacy of the patriarch and on the oaths sworn at the ritual altar. Although the Pu'an Ritual Tradition traces its patriarch to a Buddhist monk, its conception of ritual magic closely resembles the Daoist institution of the "ritual officiant" (faguan) and the thinking of the Tianxin Zhengfa's "Bureau for Dispelling Evil," making it a typical example of the mutual permeation of Buddhist and Daoist ritual magic.

Practice & Ritual

Chanting the Pu'an Incantation; securing homes and settling the earth, giving thanks to the earth, sending off epidemics, subduing evil, and calling back a frightened soul; salvation of the dead ("performing merit"); writing talismans (Pu'an talismans), forming mudras, and pacing the Dipper (bugang); using bells, drums, ritual cords and other implements; ritual masters are mostly married and living at home, using both Buddhist and Daoist ritual implements. Pu'an altars also enshrine Fazhu Gong (Lord Dharma-Master) and Lüshan Jiulang (Ninth Lord of Lüshan) among others, and their rites often run in parallel with those of the Lüshan Ritual Tradition, with ritual masters sometimes receiving both Lüshan and Pu'an methods.

Transmission

Pu'an Yinsu (Southern Song) → the monastic community and followers of the Cihua Monastery → folk ritual altars in Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian and Guangdong in the Yuan and Ming (transmitted master to disciple, father to son) → transmitted to Taiwan and Southeast Asia in the Qing along with Hakka and Fujianese migrants → contemporary ritual altars. The lineages of Pu'an ritual altars are mostly transmitted within families or through master-disciple "passing of the method," and their hand-copied liturgical manuals are important material for the study of the folk religion of the Hakka in Fujian and Guangdong.