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

Notes to Pages 27–29 201
97. New critical and annotated editions of both texts may be found in
Huang Zheng and Zhang Yongquan, ann., Dunhuang bianwen jiaozhu (Peking:
Zhonghua shuju, 1997), pp. 200–211, 1024–1070. For a short discussion of the
Shunzi bian and its sources, see e.g., Cheng Yizhong, ‘‘Shunzibian yu Shunzi
gushi de yanhua,’’ in Liu Cunren et al., eds., Qingzhu Pan Shichan xiansheng
jiuzhi huadan Dunhuangxue tekan (Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1996), pp. 89–
99. The text is preserved in two fragments, one of which was copied in 949.
Cheng Yizhong argues in favor of an early Tang date of composition. Qu Jinliang,
in his Dunhuang fojiao wenxue yanjiu (Taipei: Wenjin chubanshe, 1995),
pp. 213–216, following the suggestion of Xie Haiping, argues on very flimsy evidence
in favor of the even earlier date of the fifth and sixth centuries, even while
showing that all references to bian(wen) as text or performance date only from
the eighth century and later. It may therefore be safer to treat the text as a work
of the eighth or ninth century.
Cheng Yizong notes that whereas earlier versions of the legend all have
Shun married to the daughters of Yao at the beginning of the narrative, now
the marriage is postponed to the very end. This implies that the possibility of a
conflict between Shun and his brother over Shun’s wives has been removed. Liu
Shouhua, ‘‘Shilun Dunhuang bianwen Shunzi zhixiao gushi di xingtai yanbian,’’
Huazhong shifan daxue xuebao, no. 4 (1991): 72–77, sees the growing importance
of the role of the stepmother as one of the major changes introduced by
the Shunzi bian.
98. Arthur Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang (London: George
Allen and Unwin, 1960), pp. 66–67, translated the essential sentence in this respect
as ‘‘Though like other men’s their heads are black and their faces are
white, this land of Chi does produce people with the hearts of pigs or dogs,’’
and remarks in a note, ‘‘The text of this sentence is certainly corrupt.’’ On the
basis of the currently available editions of the emended text, this sentence
should be translated ‘‘When he saw how black my hair was and how white my
face, he had the desires of a pig or dog.’’
99. It may be noted that Shun, too, when emerging from the well at his
neighbor’s place, meets with his deceased mother, who directs him to Mt. Li.
Miaoshan upon her return from the Underworld is met not by her father but
by the God of the Big White (the Morning Star) in the guise of an old man who
directs her to Incense Mountain.
100. In the rituals of the Siege and Destruction of Hell as performed
on Taiwan, the soul of the deceased is freed from the prison of Hell. The
Hell from which the deceased is freed ‘‘is not just the Inferno in general, but
either the special hell for those who died a violent death . . . or the Blood Lake
Hell . . . for women who, through miscarriage or abortion, polluted the earth
with their blood. . . . [T]he bereaved families consider this rite, in which they
actively participate, as one of the most meaningful of the entire service’’
(Kristofer Schipper, ‘‘Mu-lien Plays in Taoist Liturgical Context,’’ in David Johnson,
ed., Ritual Opera, Operatic Ritual [Berkeley: Chinese Popular Culture Project,
1989], p. 137). Schipper starts his discussion of the ritual with a reference to
the story of ‘‘Zhengbo ke Duan yu Yan,’’ cautiously suggesting the possibility
that it may be the source of later practices and beliefs (‘‘Whether or not one