Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her ... - Khamkoo

194 Notes to Pages 8–10
Mountain and The Precious Scroll of Good-in-Talent and Dragon Daughter, are
set in a world in which native Chinese deities mingle freely with Buddhist divinities.
The Jade Emperor heads a bureaucracy of gods, whom he may dispatch to
the world of men.
30. See Yü 2001, pp. 419–438. A late precious scroll on this topic, Tilan
baojuan, is reproduced in Zhang Xishun et al., eds., Baojuan chuji (Taiyuan:
Shanxi renmin chubanshe, 1994), vol. 23. It is available in my Dutch translation,
in Prinses Miaoshan en andere Chinese legenden van Guanyin, de bodhisattva
van barmhartigheid (Amsterdam: Atlas, 2000), pp. 181–196.
One of the plays popular with dan (male performers of female roles) on the
Beijing Opera stage of premodern times was Trying to Seduce Mulian (Xi Mulian),
in which Guanyin tests the resolve of the Buddhist saint Maudgalyāyana
(Mulian) by trying to seduce him in the shape of a beautiful girl. See Colin
P. Mackerras, The Rise of Peking Opera, 1770–1870 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1972), p. 256.
In some folktales of a more recent date, Guanyin also uses her charms as a
young girl to seduce men to come up with the donations needed for the completion
of a major bridge.
31. See Yü 2001, pp. 247–242. The White-robed Guanyin is often venerated
for her power to grant children to childless couples, and in Ming and Qing images
she is often depicted with a baby in her arms or lap.
The strong association of the White-robed Guanyin with Hangzhou and the
strong link to the same city of the legend of the White Snake make one wonder
whether both images could derive from an earlier local veneration of a raingiving
dragon-lady. The Guanyin of the Upper Tianzhu Monastery was especially
renowned ‘‘for its response to prayers for rain’’ (ter Haar 2001, p. 108). In
later centuries the iconography of the White-robed Guanyin and the White
Snake (Madam White) is at times strikingly similar. For a modern folktale in
which the White Snake is clearly portrayed as a substitute for the White-robed
Guanyin, see Xu Hualong, ‘‘Baishe zhuan de qianxing yishi,’’ Minsu quyi 72
(1991): 225, where he discusses ‘‘Weituo Thrice Tries to Seduce Madam White’’
(Weituo sanxi Bainiang).
32. See Yü 2001, pp. 438–448. Practically everybody in China in recent centuries,
whether Buddhist or not, would be acquainted with the image and
powers of the White-robed Guanyin from her frequent appearance in plays and
novels, most notably the sixteenth-century vernacular novel Journey to the West
(Xiyou ji).
In the new religions of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the White-robed
Guanyin would often be identified with the Eternal Mother or considered to be
a manifestation of the Eternal Mother. On Guanyin in these new religions, see
Yü 2001, pp. 449–486.
33. Dudbridge 2004, pp. 5–14. The inscription, in the calligraphy of Cai
Jing (d. 1126), was installed later in the year 1100, and reinstalled in the summer
of 1308. A critical edition of the Chinese text of this inscription is provided
in Dudbridge 2004, pp. 119–132. A complete English translation is offered by
Yü 2001, pp. 495–504.
34. Dudbridge 2004, pp. 14–20.