Touching Heart and Transforming Mind: Huijiao's Comments on "Scripture Chanters" and "Recitation Guides"

In the early Chinese translation of the Buddha biography _Taizi Ruiying Benqi Jing_ 太子瑞應本起經, the Buddha thought of teaching all sentient beings what he had discovered after he had achieved Enlightenment. However, a second thought occurred to him which changed his mind. He was concerned that the truth he had discovered was too profound and difficult for people to comprehend. Besides, people were attached to sensual pleasures and would not believe what he would say. Then, Brahmā sent the celestial musician Pāñcika down to Earth, exhorting to the Buddha to teach by singing ten _gāthās_ while playing the lute. Brahmā also urged the Buddha to teach. He told the Buddha that there are more people who are virtuous, yearning for the Path, diligent, and can uphold precepts, and there are also some who are afraid of the three evil destinies and thus are open to his teaching. The Buddha finally agreed to teach. Many Buddha biographies corroborate this story with some variation, but all of them point to the important relationship between the teaching and the audience, which either made the Buddha reluctant to teach or fostered the Buddha’s consent to teach.

This paper suggests that this story, like many of the Buddha life stories, has become the framework for many _sūtras_ and other Buddhist texts, and also shapes how Buddhists and Buddhist texts envision their relationship with their audiences. Indeed, many of the Buddhist texts offer answers to understand this relationship that was at the center of the beginning of the Buddha’s teaching. Not only are many texts written in ways fitting for the audiences, but there are also numerous Buddhist texts which describe and elaborate on how Buddhist texts and their preachers should speak, articulate, and relate to the audiences in such a way that the audiences can be affected and transformed.

This paper uses the last two sections of Shi Huijiao’s (497-554 C.E.) _Biographies of Eminent Monks_, which are entitled “Scripture chanters” 經師 and “Recitation Guides” 唱導 to demonstrate that Chinese Buddhists in the sixth century placed significant importance on these two roles. Scripture chanter and recitation guide are considered indispensable vehicles for informing and transforming their audiences. Huijiao’s _Biographies of Eminent Monks_ divides the monks into ten categories such as scriptural translation, doctrinal exegesis, supernatural powers, etc, each including a number of eminent monks who specialized in each category. Later Chinese biographies of monks mostly followed his way of recording monks in ten categories. However, it is only in his _Biographies of Eminent Monks_ that Huijiao clearly included these two categories and clearly explained why he does so. He wrote that, originally, he only planned to include eight categories, but later added the last two because they “play important role in inspiring commoners” (悟俗可崇). Then he described a scene during the first night of the eight precepts observance, which is highly charged with the audience’s affective reactions to support his assertion. For Huijiao, the merit of the scripture chanter and recitation guide from praising those who are inspired, suiting the occasion, eradicating wrong views, and building up faith (賞悟適時拔邪立信) earned their inclusion in the compiled biography.

In the paper, I will follows how Huijiao vividly portrayed the amazing job the recitation guides and chanters did to evoke their audience according to the situation deploying their voice, knowledge, erudition, and eloquence. Including them in his biography indicates that Huijiao recognized their important role in educating and transforming the audience. In the brief comments on these two sections, Huijiao repeatedly asserts that the goal of scriptural chanting is to touch sentient beings. The feelings of the audience are the criteria to measure the level of the chanter. Huijiao emphasizes the importance of both the content and the sound, observing that the audience will not be inspired to cultivate the mind for the Way if only the voice is heard without understanding the words. However, if only reading the text without the sound, the audience’s feelings will not be aroused. If the voice of the chanter can be strong, serious, soft, resonant, clear, and deep, the subtle meaning will be conveyed, the mind will be composed, and the listeners will be delighted and open-minded. In such a way, everyone is willing to listen to the profound teaching. 

In conclusion, the paper argues that for Huijiao, the goal of scriptural chanting and recitation guidance is to touch sentient beings and transform the minds. His discussion on the qualities that a scriptural chanter and recitation guide should possess and their teaching should be adjusted and adapted according to specific occasions and audiences in order to ascertain that the teachings is sincere and touching to everyone highlights the Buddhist deep understanding of human emotions and resonates with the teaching tradition of the Buddha and those who speak for the Buddha in India and beyond.