Merit-Making through Printing, Distributing and Reading Buddhist Scriptures

As the Chinese Buddhist monk Daoxuan 道宣 (596-667) said, “There are a thousand ways to create karma, and ten thousand ways to experience retribution.” (Kieschnick: 2022, 81). John Kieschnick further points out that descendants were expected to create good karma by sponsoring Buddhist endeavors (Kieschnick: 2022, 236). In this presentation I will use the sponsoring of the Yongle Northern Canon as a test case for my discussion of how members of the royal family and eunuchs sponsored its production and distribution in the hopes of generating merit that could be dedicated to consolidating the imperial court or to their own future rebirth in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha. The first part of my presentation will illustrate how the late Ming imperial family generated merit through their dominant role in the compilation of the Yongle Northern Canon and the consequent donation of these canonical sets to various Buddhist monasteries in China. The project to cut the woodblocks for this Buddhist canon was initiated by Emperor Yongle 永樂(r.1402-1424) in 1419. The main body of this compilation was finished in the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Zhengtong 正統 (1440). The supplementary sections of the Yongle Northern Canon were sponsored by Empress Dowager Li 李太后 (1546-1614) from the year 1579  to 1583.

      The Empress Dowager, mother of the Wanli Emperor 萬曆 (r. 1573-1619), was a Buddhist devotee who enthusiastically supported the printing and distribution of copies of the Yongle Northern Canon. According to the Japanese scholar Yoshimi Nozawa, Empress Li alone probably donated seventy-nine sets among the total number of 139 sets of the Yongle Northern Canon printed in the Wanli reign that were distributed to various Buddhist monasteries throughout China. The Empress Dowager’s involvement in the printing and distributing of the Yongle Northern Canonis attested on the final page of the Sutra Donation Placard (shijing pai 施經牌) found in almost every tenth volume of this multi-volume work. She utilized all the sources available in the court to patronize Buddhism. Her seal imprints and other imperial seal imprints are found on Emperor Wanli’s decree to present this Buddhist canon to various monasteries. Both the emperor’s decree and imperial seal imprints made the Buddhist canon more auspicious and magnificent. One inscription clearly indicates the purpose of carving, printing and distributing the Buddhist canon with sixteen words: May the Emperor’s image be eternal, may the emperor’s path be forever prosperous, may the Buddha sun shine ever brighter, and may the Dharma wheel continue to turn (皇圖永固，帝道遐昌，佛日增輝，法輪常轉).  In this instance, we see that the imperial court united their own governing interests and Buddhist interests in how they understood the potential karmic outcome from their sponsorship. A similar inscription by the emperor’s concubine Hao Shi郝氏appeared on yet another copy.

     A court lady named Li Xiunü 李秀女 donated her money to print a set of Yongle Northern Canon. In the end of each tenth volume, she expressed her wish to be reborn on a lotus in the Pure Land of Amitabha. She further wished to encounter Maitreya Buddha and personally attend his lectures. In this way, all sentient beings might obtain the seeds of wisdom in the Dharma world.

     The second group of donors I plan to discuss are eunuchs. A number of eunuchs were responsible for the printing and distribution of the Buddhist canon. One influential eunuch, Feng Bao 馮寳 (1543-1583), donated money to print a set of the Yongle Northern Canon, which is now kept in the Guangji Temple 廣濟寺. The palace eunuch Lu Shou 盧受was a trusted confident of Emperor Wanli. Lu sponsored one set of the Yongle Northern Canon now kept in Yunju Monastery 雲居寺, Beijing. Lu Shou’s Sutra Donation Placard expressed his wish to become enlightened with prajñā wisdom and reach the other shore through the merit generated from printing this Buddhist canon. And finally, Gao Xun 高勲 was a high-ranking eunuch who donated money to build Cilong Monastery慈隆寺in Beijing. He likely influenced the Empress Dowager’s decision to send a set of the Yongle Northern Canon to this monastery. Gao Xun’s colophon included a number of red labels indicating that the canon was bestowed by decree of the Emperor.

     The Empress Dowager, and concubines were members of the royal family, eunuchs and the court ladies were in close contact with members of the royal family, and thus, they were allowed to share in the printing and distribution of this canon and benefit from the merit it generated.  

     And lastly, I will briefly mention Buddhist monks who believed that their reading of Buddhist scriptures resulted in the accumulation of merit which they then dedicated to Zhu Changluo 朱常洛, the heir apparent, and his mother (看經功德，上祝 大明宫妃王氏). Emperor Wanli mistreated both his oldest son and his mother. Monks knew about this, yet they dedicated their merit to them even though they understood that “if they did not rely on the emperor, Dharma affairs would be difficult to establish (不依國主，法事難立). 

     Chinese Buddhists believed that religious merit could be derived from copying and printing Buddhist scriptures. Chinese emperors, imperial family members, eunuchs and monks all participated in this endeavor and dedicated their accumulated merit to a better rebirth, to dynastic prosperity and stability, and to the heir apparent and his mother. This Yongle Northern Canon was designed, printed and bound in the capital for emperors and imperial family members and some powerful eunuchs to be presented to famous temples in China as an act of merit-making.