¹ But the encounter between Europeans and the goddess Zhunti happened much earlier. China Illustrata, a book compiled by the Jesuit Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) and published in 1667, representing seventeenth-century European knowledge on the Chinese empire and its neighbouring countries, includes an illustration of Zhunti sitting on a lotus supported by two dragon kings. See Kircher, A., China Illustrata, (trans.) C. D. Van Tuyl (Muskogee, 1987), p. 128Google Scholar.

² Beal, S., The Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese (London, 1871), pp. 411–412Google Scholar. However, Beal's account is very problematic. For example, his understanding of Zhunti is actually as a mixture of the general form of Guanyin and the white-robed Guanyin. Also, as Jacob Kinnard points out, Beal's use of ‘mother’ to describe Zhunti has remained a source of misapprehension and confusion. Finally, his translation of the so-called ‘Recitation of the Dhāraṇī of Zhunti’ is, in fact, an excerpt from Cundī Method of Purifying One's Karma (Zhunti jingye 準提淨業), a lengthy ritual text compiled by the seventeenth-century Buddhist layman Xie Yujiao 謝于教 (1565–1635), featuring charts and elaborate details on the ritual proceedings for the worship of Zhunti. See Kinnard, J., Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism (London and New York, 2013), p. 125Google Scholar; Sørensen, H., ‘Textual material relating to esoteric Buddhism in China outside the Taishō, vol. 18–21’, in Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia, (eds.) Orzech, C., Payne, R., and Sørensen, H. (Leiden and Boston, 2011), p. 100Google Scholar; Singhal, S. D., ‘Iconography of Cundā’, in The Art and Culture of South-East Asia, (ed.) Chandra, L. (New Delhi, 1991), p. 385Google Scholar; Gimello, R., ‘Icon and incantation: the Goddess Zhunti and the role of images in the Occult Buddhism of China’, in Images in Asian Religions: Texts and Contexts, (eds.) P. Granoff and K. Shinohara (Vancouver, 2004), p. 249Google Scholar.

³ R. Sayer, ‘From Cundi-Devi to Juntei, or How Durga Became Japanese but Her Song Remained the Same’ (unpublished MA dissertation, School of Oriental And African Studies, University of London, 2008), pp. 1–7. Another influential work on the Zhunti cult in this model is Whitaker, K. P. K., ‘A Buddhist spell’, Asia Major 10 (1963), pp. 9–22Google Scholar.

⁴ Chen, K., The Chinese Transformation of Buddhism (Princeton, 1973)Google Scholar.

⁵ Sharf, R., Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store Treatise (Honolulu, 2005), p. 21Google Scholar.

⁶ Yü, Chün-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Zhuhong and the Late Ming Synthesis (New York, 2020), p. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁷ Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, p. 249; Singhal, ‘Iconography of Cundā’, p. 386.

⁸ Niyogi, P., ‘Cundā—a popular Buddhist goddess’, East and West 27 (1977), p. 300Google Scholar.

⁹ Singhal, ‘Iconography of Cundā’, p. 386.

¹⁰ In the late 560s or early 570s, an Indian missionary monk named Jinagupta (She'najueduo 闍那崛多, 523–600) compiled and translated an anthology of dhāraṇī entitled Zhongzhong zazhou jing 種種雜咒經 within which there is an incantation entitled ‘Holy Spell of the Seventy Million Buddhas’ (Qifo juzhi shenzhou 七佛俱胝神咒). Later, a slightly different transliteration of the same dhāraṇī appeared in a very short text attributed to Xuanzang 玄奘 (602–664) with the title ‘Spell of the Seventy Million Buddhas’ (Qijuzhifo zhou 七俱胝佛咒). In the year 685 or 686, the Cundī dhāraṇī was again offered in Chinese: Divākara (Dipoheluo 地婆訶羅, 613–688) translated an entire scripture dedicated to the Cundī spell—the Sūtra of the Buddha's Enunciation of the Great Cundī Dhāraṇī, Essence of the Buddha-Goddess of the Seventy Million [Buddhas] (Foshuo qijuzhi fomuxin dazhunti tuoluoni jing 佛說七俱胝佛母心大準提陀羅尼經). Within decades of the appearance of Divākara's rendition, there appeared another two translations of essentially the same text, albeit in expanded and supplemented form: Vajrabodhi's (Jin'gang zhi 金剛智, 669–741) Foshuo qijuzhi fomu zhunti daming tuoluoni jing 佛說七俱胝佛母準提大明陀羅尼經 and Amoghavajra's (Bukong 不空, 705–774) Qijuzhi fomu suoshuo zhunti tuoluoni jing 七俱胝佛母所說準提陀羅尼經, both of which appended to their translations of the dhāraṇī scripture itself detailed ritual manuals of the sort usually labelled vidhi (yigui 儀規). The last one, attracting the least attention from both academia and the Buddhist community, is Qijushi zhunti dashen tuoluoni 七俱蒔準提大身陀羅尼, which appeared in the late ninth century (898) and was included in an anthology of dhāraṇī, the Shijiao zuishangcheng mimizang tuoluoni ji 釋教最上乘祕密藏陀羅尼集, compiled by the monk Xinglin 行琳 (n.d.) of the Anguo Temple 安國寺. This valuable but little-studied work survives only in the Fangshan Lithic Canon (Fangshan shijing 房山石經). Among all the above renditions, judging from the Dunhuang manuscripts (BD.7689, P.3916d, P.2289a, Q.0479, S.0083, S.2007), the most popular one in the Tang Dynasty should be Divākara's translation. See R. Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, paper presented at the symposium ‘Understanding Guan Yin’, Poh Ming Tse Temple, Singapore, 5 April 2015, pp. 11–37.

¹¹ Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, pp. 225–226.

¹² In fact, even in India, the morphology of Cundī was fluid. According to Singhal, the key to identification, which includes forms attested by texts or named in the illustrated pantheons, reveals that most of the forms of Cundī in India were hardly ever repeated. See Singhal, ‘Iconography of Cundā’, pp. 387–399; J. E. van Lohuizen-De Leeuw, ‘The Pattikera Chunda and variations of her image’, in Nalini Kanta Bhattasali Commemoration Volume: Essays on Archaeology, Art, History, Literature and Philosophy of the Orient, Dedicated to the Memory of Dr. Nalini Kanta Bhattasali [1888–1947 AD], (ed.) A. B. M. Habibullah (Dacca, 1966), pp. 119–143; L. Chandra, Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography (New Delhi, 2001), vol. 3, pp. 849–866.

¹³ In effect, the general notion of ‘persistence’ or ‘continuous development’ of a religion or a cult is questionable, because, according to J. Z. Smith, its (whatever ‘it’ is) persistence says nothing in itself. See J. Z. Smith, ‘Sacred persistence: toward a redescription of canon’, in Imagining religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago, 1982), p. 38.

¹⁴ Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, p. 234.

¹⁵ Liu Liming 劉黎明, Zhongguo gudai minjian mizong xinyang yanjiu 中國古代民間密宗信仰研究 (Chengdu, 2010), pp. 405, 425, 428, 435, 437, 440; Zhang Mingwu 張明悟, ‘Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji dui liaodai mijiao de yingxiang tanxi’ 《顯密圓通成佛心要集》對遼代密教的影響探析, Foxue yanjiu 佛學研究 (2020), pp. 188–199; Zhang Mingwu, Liaojin jingchuang yanjiu 遼金經幢研究 (Hefei, 2013), pp. 126–132.

¹⁶ M. Foucault, ‘Nietzsche, genealogy, history', in Hommage a Jean Hyppolite, (ed.) S. Bachelard (Paris, 1971), p. 81.

¹⁷ E. Hobsbawm, ‘Introduction: inventing traditions’, in The Invention of Tradition, (eds.) E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (Cambridge and New York, 1983), p. 1.

¹⁸ First, ‘Zhunti Esotericism’ or the Zhunti School (zhunti jiao 準提教(宗)) is not a notion coined by modern scholars; instead it occasionally appears in Ming–Qing documentation, with ambiguous connotations. Also, it is a highly controversial concept: scholars such as Lan Jifu 藍吉富 and Tang Xipeng 唐希鵬 spoke of this term in an institutional sense, and depicted it as an independent school with its own unique theories, distinctive ways of practice, and a large group of devoted followers; but, for Gimello and Xie Shiwei 謝世維, ‘Zhunti Esotericism’ actually is the equivalent of the proposition of ‘separate practice comprising an autonomous family of deities’ (dubu biexing 獨部別行). It is a turn away from systematic ‘theology’ and high priestcraft back to a more vernacular occultism. In this study, I tend to take the latter definition. See Jin Sheng 金聲, ‘Jinshi jiaxun’ 金氏家訓, in Huizhou mingren jiaxun 徽州名人家訓, (eds.) Yang Yongsheng 楊永生 and Wang Dabai 汪大白 (Hefei, 2018), p. 103; Lan Jifu, ‘Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji chutan’《顯密圓通成佛心要集》初探, in Fojiao yu lishi wenhua 佛教與歷史文化, (eds) Yang Zengwen 楊曾文 and Fang Guangchang 方廣錩 (Beijing, 2001), pp. 470–480; Tang Xipeng 唐希鵬, ‘ Zhongguohua de mijiao—xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji sixiang yanjiu’ 中國化的密教—《顯密圓通成佛心要集》思想研究 (unpublished MA dissertation, Sichuan University, 2004), p. 51; Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism', p. 37; Xie Shiwei 謝世維, Daomifayuan—daojiao yu mijiao zhi wenhua yanjiu 道密法圓—道教與密教之文化研究 (Taibei, 2018), pp. 203–222.

¹⁹ Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, pp. 231–239; Lü Jianfu 呂建福, Zhongguo mijiao shi 中國密教史 (Beijing, 2011), pp. 547–548; Xie Shiwei, Daomifayuan, pp. 203–222; Tang Xipeng, ‘Zhongguohua de mijiao—xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji sixiang yanjiu’, pp. 46–51; Guo Youmeng 郭祐孟, ‘Yindu fojiao mizong de hanhua—yi tangsong shiqi zhuntifa wei zhongxin de tansuo’ 印度佛教密宗的漢化—以唐宋時期準提法為中心的探索, in Mijiao de sixiang yu mifa 密教的思想與密法, (ed.) Lü Jianfu (Beijing, 2012), pp. 282–287; T. Kosho 多⽥孝正, Tendai Bukkyō to Higashi Ajia no Bukkyō girei 天台仏教と東アジアの仏教儀礼 (Tokyo, 2014), pp. 275–405; Guan Jingxiao 關靜瀟, ‘Zhunti fomu jiqi xinyang yanjiu’ (unpublished MA dissertation, Shaanxi Normal University, 2011), pp. 27–34; Lan Jifu, ‘Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji chutan’, pp. 470–480.

²⁰ In the early Song, Kāraṇḍavyūha (Dacheng zhuangyan baowang jing 大乘莊嚴寶王經), in which the name of Cundī was mentioned, was translated into Chinese. Meanwhile, a fully fledged Cundā Tantra (Foshuo chimingzang yuqiedajiao zunna pusa daming chengjiu yigui jing 佛說持明藏瑜伽大教尊那菩薩大明成就儀軌經) was also translated into Chinese, offering the goddess's Chinese devotees a much more populous Cundī ‘family’ and an even more elaborate liturgical system. The early Song translation of Māyājāla Tantra (Foshuo yuqie dajiaowang jing 佛說瑜伽大教王經) did much the same thing, enumerating a number of tantric deities (Vidyārāja, Mingwang 明王) as members of the goddess's retinue. See Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, p. 37. However, the contemporary translations of these Song texts, especially the latter two, attracted little attention from the Buddhist community because of linguistic and stylistic problems, and also due to the fact that they had become totally irrelevant to the trajectory that Chinese Buddhism had taken since the mid-Tang period. See Tansen Sen, ‘The revival and failure of Buddhist translations during the Song Dynasty’, T'oung Pao 2 (2002), pp. 27–80.

²¹ On the ‘mirror-altar’, see Hattori Hosho 服部法照, ‘Tyuugokukagami ni mirareru juntei shinkō’ 中国鏡にみられる准堤信仰, Inndogakubutu kyougaku kennkyū 印度學佛教學研究44 (1995), pp. 88–91; Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, pp. 231–239; Whitaker, ‘Buddhist spell’, pp. 20–22; Liu Guowei 劉國威, ‘Yuancang yuanmingshiqisuozao zhuntizhou fanwen jing’ 院藏元明時期所造準提咒梵文鏡, The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 385 (2015), pp. 48–57; Lei Tianyu 雷天宇, ‘Qianxi yuanmingqing zhuntijing zhi gongyong’ 淺析元明清準提鏡之功用, The National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art 473 (2022), pp. 110–117.

²² Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, p. 33.

²³ According to Gimello, these two very short texts form a pair, and are found as such in the modern Japanese canons because the editors of those canons copied them from a combined printed edition privately published at Nara's Hasedera 長谷寺 in 1801. In turn, this printed edition was based on a 1746 manuscript copy of the same pair of texts. The two works so closely resemble each other that it is not unreasonable to treat them simply as two recensions of the same work, although it is also true that they are, in certain details, different enough from each other to support the hypothesis that they reflect disparate textual histories that simply happened to converge in 1746, or that they may be codifications of two different oral transmissions. See ibid., p. 32.

²⁴ Yin Fu 尹富, ‘Shizhairi bushuo ’十齋日補說, Shijie zongjiao yanjiu 世界宗教研究 (2007), p. 30.

²⁵ Zhongguo fojiao xiehui 中國佛教協會, Fangshan shijing 房山石經 (Beijing, 2000), pp. 406–407.

²⁶ Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, p. 33.

²⁷ Ibid., p. 34.

²⁸ CBETA (Chinese Buddhist Electronic Tripitaka Association) (2021), Q3, X74, no. 1482, pp. 556a22–558a9. The list mentions a foreign version of the Zhunti mantrā (fan zhuntizhou 番準提咒) that Tada Kosho believed to be a Tibetan rendition. See ‘Minmatsu Shinsho no Fukuken no shūkyō jijō: Juntei shinyō o megutte’ 明末清初の福建の宗教事情:准堤信仰をめぐって, in Kyūyō ronsō 球陽論叢, (eds.) Shimajiri Katsutarō 島尻勝太郎, Kadena Sōtoku 嘉手納宗徳, and Toguchi Shinsei 度口真清 (Naha, 1986), p. 611.

²⁹ Zhou Bokan 周伯戡, ‘Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji wenben yu jiaoyi tanyuan’ 顯密圓通成佛心要集文本與教義探源, in Shoujie liang'an hanzang foxue yantaohui 首屆兩岸漢藏佛學研討會 (Wuxi, 2011), pp. 97–127.

³⁰ S. Gavronsky, ‘The translator: from piety to cannibalism’, SubStance 6 (1977), pp. 53–62.

³¹ Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-Yin, p. 253.

³² Jiang Wu, ‘The rule of marginality: hypothesizing the transmission of the Mengshan rite for feeding hungry ghosts in late Imperial China’, Pacific World 3 (2018), p. 166.

³³ Lü Jianfu, Zhongguo mijiao shi, p. 554; Sharf, Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism, p. 274.

³⁴ Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, p. 37.

³⁵ Lin Xiangyuan 林祥瑗, (Tongzhi 同治) Hanchuan xianzhi 漢川縣志 (Nanjing, 2013), pp. 204–205.

³⁶ Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-Yin, p. 325.

³⁷ CBETA (2021), Q3, J36, no. B348, p. 319a2–9.

³⁸ Dangui 澹歸, Bianxingtang ji 遍行堂集, in Chanmen yishu xubian 禪門逸書續編, (ed.) Mingfu 明復 (Taibei, 1987), vol. 4, p. 267.

³⁹ M. J. Powers and K. R. Tsiang, A Companion to Chinese Art (Hoboken, 2015), p. 62.

⁴⁰ Wu Qizhen 吳其貞, Shuhua ji 書畫記 (Shanghai, 1962), p. 27.

⁴¹ K. Popper, ‘Three worlds’, in The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, (ed.) S. M. McMurrin (Salt Lake City, 1980), vol. 1, p. 164.

⁴² Liu Liming, Zhongguo gudai minjian mizong xinyang yanjiu, pp. 405, 425, 428, 435, 437, 440; Zhang Mingwu, ‘Xianmi yuantong chengfo xinyao ji dui liaodai mijiao de yingxiang tanxi’, pp. 188–199; Zhang Mingwu, Liaojin jingchuang yanjiu, pp. 126–132; Liu Tizhi 劉體智, Xiao jiaojingge jinshiwenzi yindeben 小校經閣金石文字引得本 (Taibei, 1979), vol. 6, pp. 3604–3608; Liu Guowei, ‘Yuancang yuanmingshiqisuozao zhuntizhou fanwen jing’, pp. 48–57; Lei Tianyu, ‘Qianxi yuanmingqing zhuntijing zhi gongyong’, pp. 110–117.

⁴³ But the route of the transnational spread of Xianmi is relatively explicit; according to Gimello, very soon after it was finished, it was transmitted to Korea, where the established royal monk and bibliographer Ŭich’ŏn ( 의천 義天, 1055–1101) incorporated it into his famous supplement to the Buddhist canon. The Korean printing blocks for the text were carved in 1095; sometime shortly thereafter, a copy printed from those blocks was taken to Japan and was acquired by the Japanese monk Myōe (明恵, 1087–1185), who included it in his library at Kōzanji (高山寺). See Gimello, ‘Icon and incantation’, pp. 253–254. Xianmi was also discovered in Khara-Khoto, indicating that this text was once circulated in the Tangut state. See K. J. Solonin, ‘Sinitic Buddhism in the Tangut state’, Central Asiatic Journal 57 (2014), p. 175.

⁴⁴ Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, p. 38.

⁴⁵ C. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China (Princeton, 2014), p. 61.

⁴⁶ Ibid., p. 91.

⁴⁷ Ibid., p. 92.

⁴⁸ M. Shahar and R. Weller, ‘Gods and society in China’, in Unruly Gods: Divinity and Society in China, (eds.) M. Shahar and R. Weller (Honolulu, 1996), p. 9.

⁴⁹ Chün-fang Yü, Renewal of Buddhism in China, p. 119.

⁵⁰ O. Hiroshi 奥崎裕司, Chūgoku kyōshin jinushi no kenkyū 中國鄉紳地主の研究 (Tokyo, 1978), pp. 249–254.

⁵¹ Brokaw, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, p. 81.

⁵² M. Topley, Cantonese Society in Hong Kong and Singapore: Gender, Religion, Medicine and Money (Hong Kong, 2011), p. 88.

⁵³ About the cult of Wenchang, see T. Kleeman, A God's Own Tale: The Book of Transformations of Wenchang (Albany, 1994).

⁵⁴ Huang Ruheng 黃汝亨, Yulin ji 寓林集, in Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 (Shanghai, 2002), vol. 1369, pp. 560–561.

⁵⁵ This might be partly because male generativity was a major concern for men during the Ming–Qing period. See C. Furth, The Flourishing Yin: Gender in China's Medical History, 960–1665 (Berkeley, 1999), pp. 187–223. The role had gained ground whereby, in the Puxian drama 莆仙戲 Fu Tiandou 傅天斗, a prequel to the well-known Mulian dramas 目連戲, the goddess Zhunti bestowed a son upon Mulian's mother. See Ye Mingsheng 葉明生, Puxian xiju wenhua shengtai yanjiu 莆仙戲劇文化生態研究 (Xiamen, 2007), pp. 362–365.

⁵⁶ Yuan Huang 袁黃, Qisi zhenquan 祈嗣真詮 (Beijing, 1985), p. 28.

⁵⁷ Chün-fang Yü, Kuan-yin, p. 336.

⁵⁸ Ibid., pp. 336–337.

⁵⁹ They are The Second Collection of West Lake stories (Xihu er'ji 西湖二集) by Zhou Qingyuan 周清源 (n.d.) and Silent Operas (Wusheng xi 無聲戲) by Li Yu 李漁 (1611–1680). See Gimello, ‘Zhunti, Guanyin and the Worldly Benefits of Esoteric Buddhism’, pp. 1–11; Lei Tianyu, ‘A Study of the Cult of Zhunti in the Ming–Qing Literature’ (unpublished MA dissertation, National University of Singapore, 2016), pp. 15–27.

⁶⁰ I must note that, in the context of the Ming–Qing Zhunti cult, even simply chanting (song 誦, nian 念, chi 持, chisong 持誦, and niansong 念誦) the Zhunti mantrā is highly ritualised. Although some scholars took these terms to refer to pure oral invocation, on most occasions, they denote the combined practice of visualisation, oral invocation, and hand gestures.

⁶¹ Yang Youhan 楊有涵, Yuanxiangting shichao 遠香亭詩鈔, in Siku weishoushu jikan 四庫未收書輯刊 (Beijing, 2000), 10 Ji, vol. 15, p. 543.

⁶² Without doubt, this was very much to do with the sociocultural milieu of the organisation of society (Jieshe 結社) in the late Ming. See Xie Guozhen 謝國楨, Mingqing zhiji dangshe yundong kao 明清之際黨社運動考 (Beijing, 1982); W. Atwell, ‘From education to politics: the Fu She’, in The Unfolding of Neo-Confucianism, (eds.) W. Theodore de Bary and The Conference on Seventeenth-Century Chinese Thought (New York and London, 1975), pp. 333–367.

⁶³ Yu Shaozhi 余紹祉, Wanwentang ji 晚聞堂集, in Siku weishoushu jikan 四庫未收書輯刊 (Beijing, 2000), 6 Ji, vol. 28, p. 492.

⁶⁴ CBETA (2021), Q3, X74, no. 1482, pp. 557c23–558a6.

⁶⁵ Congregating around a few leading monks is also a feature of lay Buddhism (Jushi fojiao 居士佛教) in the late Ming Dynasty. See Chün-fang Yü, Renewal of Buddhism in China, p. 71.

⁶⁶ Yuan Huang, Liaofan sixun 了凡四訓 (Guangxu shiwunian hubei guanshuchu kanben 光緒十五年湖北官書處刊本), pp. 32–37.

⁶⁷ Tada Kosho was surprised to find that in fact three of the four eminent monks (Hanshan, Zhuhong, and Zibo Zhenke 紫柏真可 (1543–1604)) in the late Ming Dynasty were involved in propagating the Zhunti cult. See Kosho, ‘Minmatsu Shinsho no Fukuken no shūkyō jijō: Juntei shinyō o megutte’, p. 614.

⁶⁸ CBETA (2021), Q3, X88, no. 1646, p. 274a14–b24.

⁶⁹ The other two are Yao's uncle, Wen Zhenmeng 文震孟 (1574–1636), and Gu Zongmeng 顧宗孟 (n.d.).

⁷⁰ CBETA (2021), Q3, B34, no. 193, pp. 483a9–486b10. Yao Ximeng 姚希孟, Xuncang Ji 徇滄集, in Siku quanshu cunmu congshu 四庫全書存目叢書 (Ji'nan, 1997), vol. 2, pp. 49–54.

⁷¹ Li Suiqiu 黎遂球, Lianxuge ji 蓮鬚閣集, in Ming bieji congkan 明別集叢刊 (Hefei, 2013), vol. 76, pp. 598–599; Sun Chengze 孫承澤, Chunming mengyu lu 春明夢餘錄 (Beijing, 2018), p. 1273.

⁷² CBETA (2021), Q3, X74, no. 1482, pp. 556a22–558a9.

⁷³ Brokaw, Ledgers of Merit and Demerit, p. 63.

⁷⁴ CBETA (2021), Q3, X74, no. 1482, p. 557a5–b4.

⁷⁵ T. Brook, Praying for Power: Buddhism and the Formation of Gentry Society in Late-Ming China (Cambridge, 1993), p. 3.

⁷⁶ Ibid., p. 65.

⁷⁷ Yuan Hongdao 袁宏道, Yuanzhonglang shiji 袁中郎詩集 (Shanghai, 1935), p. 170.

⁷⁸ J. Eichman, A Late Sixteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Fellowship: Spiritual Ambitions, Intellectual Debates, and Epistolary Connections (Leiden, 2016), p. 30.

⁷⁹ J. Kieschnick and M. Shahar, ‘Introduction’, in India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought, (eds.) J. Kieschnick and M. Shahar (Philadelphia, 2013), p. 4.

⁸⁰ D. Faure, Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China (Stanford, 2007), pp. 103–107.

⁸¹ Yin Jishan 尹繼善 and Huang Zhijun 黃之雋 (eds), Jiangnan tongzhi 江南通志 (Harvard-Yenching Library), vol. 44, p. 47. A native Suzhou scholar speculated that Darong's conversion to Zhunti might have been related to his illness. See Hu Bocheng 胡伯誠, Taohuawu renwu chunqiu 桃花塢人物春秋 (Ji'nan, 2012), pp. 107–108.

⁸² About the Revival Society, see Atwell, ‘From Education to Politics’, pp. 333–367; Xie Guozhen, Mingqing zhiji dangshe yundong kao, pp. 119–152.

⁸³ However, recently, Jennifer Eichman has cast doubt on earlier scholarly depictions of the Donglin as anti-Buddhist, suggesting a distinction between being critical and being anti-Buddhist. See J. Eichman, ‘Buddhist historiography: a tale of deception in a seminal Late Ming Buddhist letter’, Journal of Chinese Religions 46 (2018), pp. 123–165.

⁸⁴ Zhang Zilie, Qishan shiwen ji 芑山詩文集 (Hangzhou, 1985), vol. 7, p. 92.

⁸⁵ CBETA (2021), Q3, J33, no. B277, p. 84a14–20.

⁸⁶ Brook, Praying for Power, p. 85.

⁸⁷ Wang Hongzhuan, Dizhai Ji 砥齋集, in Xuxiu siku quanshu 續修四庫全書 (Shanghai, 2002), vol. 1404, p. 527.

⁸⁸ Huang Tao 黃濤, ‘shilun qianlong zhi daoguang nianjian tangbin de xingxiang jiangou’ 试论乾隆至道光年间汤斌的形象建构, Guoxue xuekan 國學學刊 (2018), pp. 134–143.

⁸⁹ Glahn, R. Von, The Sinister Way: the Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture (Berkeley, 2004), pp. 236–256CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jiang Zhushan 蔣竹山, ‘Cong daji yiduan dao suzao zhengtong—Qingdai guojia yu jiangnan cishen xinyang’ 從打擊異端到塑造正統—清代國家與江南祠神信仰 (unpublished MA dissertation, National Taiwan Normal University, 1995).

⁹⁰ Brook, Praying for Power, p. 86.

⁹¹ Bell, C., ‘Religion and Chinese culture: toward an assessment of “popular religion”’, History of Religions 29 (1989), pp. 46–50Google Scholar; McDougall, B., ‘Writers and performers, their works, and their audiences in the first three decades’, in Popular Chinese Literature and Performing Arts in the People's Republic of China, 1949–1979, (ed.) McDougall, B. (Berkeley, 1984), p. 279Google Scholar.

⁹² Lao Qing 勞清, (Kangxi 康熙) Xingning xianzhi 興寧縣志 (Xingning, 2018), p. 86.

⁹³ Gan Xi 甘熙, Baixia suoyan 白下琐言 (Nanjing, 2007), p. 6.

⁹⁴ Li Pingjun 李平君, Shushi 術士 (Beijing, 2009), p. 206; Niu Xiu 鈕琇, Gusheng 觚賸 (Shanghai, 1986), p. 40.

⁹⁵ See footnote 17.

⁹⁶ This spatial analysis provides an approximated representation of an actual situation within a range of probability and a set of assumptions. Improvement of data and analysis can enhance such an approximation but not replicate historical reality.

⁹⁷ Yan Yaozhong 嚴耀中, Xinhao 心皓, and Tada Kosho once pointed out the geographically uneven distribution of the Zhunti shrines in the Ming–Qing period, with Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong being the most flourishing areas. See Yaozhong, Yan, Hanchuan mijiao 漢傳密教 (Shanghai, 1999), pp. 58–59Google Scholar; Xinhao, Tiantai jiaozhi shi 天台教製史 (Xiamen, 2007), p. 468; Kosho, Tendai Bukkyō to Higashi Ajia no Bukkyō girei, p. 309.

⁹⁸ The overwhelming number of Zhunti chapels built during Ming–Qing times suggests that they were built for the religious use of private families and hence of dubious legality, echoing the foregoing milieu of ‘domesticated religiosity’. In addition, the chapels tended to be located outside the main nodes of a county's religious topography, indicating the awkward actuality that, while prevailing, the Zhunti cult had not received official authorisation and thus did not have a right to expect the magistrate's protection. See Brook, Praying for Power, p. 4.