Abstract
This article explores the development of the cult and rituals of arhats (luohan) during the Song dynasty (960-1279), with a focus on their importance in the history of Chinese Buddhism. It opens with a description of the main characteristics of the arhat cult, as well as the factors underlying their spread. There is also a consideration of different groupings of arhat and their significance, but the primary goal is to examine the history of arhat hagiographies and miracle tales. My research has focused on legends about the Eastern Jin monk Zhu Tanyou (fl. 376-397), who is said to have encountered a divine monk from a vanishing monastery while crossing a stone bridge at Mount Tiantai in Zhejiang. While Zhu’s legends became conflated with those of another monk named Bai Daoyou of the Sui dynasty (581-618), by the Tang dynasty (618-907) he had begun to be worshipped as an arhat, with further materials added to his hagiography during the Song.
In addition, this article examines literati writings (especially eulogies) appended to paintings of arhat that were worshipped during Buddhist rituals, including the ways in which these works contributed to the spread of the arhat cult. There is also a discussion of merchants’ roles in the growth of the arhat cult during the commercial expansion of the Song dynasty. The article concludes with new perspectives on the “Five Hundred Arhats Paintings” (Wubai luohantu) preserved at Kyoto’s Daitokuji. This set of 100 paintings on Buddhist rituals, with 5 arhats portrayed in each work, was originally commissioned by the Hui’an Monastery in Mingzhou (Ningbo) between 1178 and 1188, and subsequently transmitted to Japan during the first half of the thirteenth century. While conventional wisdom has assumed that these paintings were associated to Buddhist Water and Land Dharma Assemblies (Shuilu fahui), my research reveals that they were a key component of arhat rituals featuring tea offerings.
Keywords
arhats, arhat rituals, tea offerings, Mount Tiantai, Daitokuji’s “Five Hundred Arhats Paintings”
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