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

42 Introduction
Conclusion
The bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara enjoyed wide and fervent veneration
almost from the very moment of his introduction into China.
The bodhisattva’s popularity only increased after he was, from the
tenth century on, increasingly worshipped in female form. This
new manifestation gave rise to many legends, the most popular of
which was that of Princess Miaoshan, who refused to marry and
give her father a grandson, but who was willing to give her limbs
to him to use as medicine when he was wasted by a terrible disease.
The most powerful version of this legend is The Precious Scroll of
Incense Mountain, which may go back to a composition by the
monk Puming of 1103 but has reached us only in the heavily revised
versions of later centuries.
The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain presents a powerful
and gripping account of the problems and opposition facing a
young woman in a Confucian society if she is determined to pursue
her own individual religious salvation, even as it holds out the
promise that her personal salvation may benefit her entire family,
including the father who wanted her dead. The text has traditionally
been read both as a charter for opposing marriage and a paean to
filial piety. A comparison with the hagiographies of Christian female
saints from medieval France shows many structural parallels
and also draws attention to some of the sexual tensions in the patriarchal
family that help to give the narrative in the precious scroll its
particular tension and dynamism.
The Precious Scroll of Good-in-Talent and Dragon Girl, which
probably dates from the eighteenth or nineteenth century, is an
original and charming account of how Shancai and Longnü (and
the white parrot) became the acolytes of Guanyin. This enjoyable,
fairy-tale-like narrative returns to many of the same themes as those
of The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain, such as the tension between
the duties toward the family and society and the yearning
for individual salvation, the dangers posed by female sexual hunger,
and the need to repay the favors one has received.
The overwhelming majority of Buddhist texts were written by
monks for monks. Both these precious scrolls, however, offer us
texts that, although most likely written by monks, were intended
for an audience of laypeople, for they spoke to the issues confronting
laymen and, especially, laywomen. In this respect, the precious