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This paper examines the utilization of the mantra of light and its associated maṇḍala practices by Wang Hongyuan 王弘願 (1876–1937), a Chinese Buddhist during the Republican Period, and his adherents, which has not yet been noticed by previous scholars. With the import of esoteric Buddhist doctrines and practices from Japan, the mantra of light, which was a rarely used mantra in pre-modern China, gained renewed significance. This led to the widespread adoption of the ritual practices of this mantra by Wang Hongyuan and his surrounding Buddhist groups in early modern China. The rituals of this mantra were used as a supplement or substitute for near-death Pure Land practices. This paper presents Pure Land Buddhist practices intertwined with esoteric Buddhist elements or "esoteric" approaches to Pure Land rebirth in modern Chinese Buddhism which have been overlooked by previous scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite numerous research findings related to medieval Chinese Buddhism, the witchcraft role of bird totems in Buddhist history has not received sufficient attention. In order to fill this gap, this paper analyzes how Buddhist monks in medieval China developed a close relationship with bird-totem worship. This relationship has been documented in Buddhist scriptures, rituals, oral traditions, biographies, and mural art. Although bird-totem worship was practiced in many regions of medieval China, this paper specifically examines the visual culture of bird totems in Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism. Furthermore, some details of this culture were recorded in Buddhist texts and images. According to these works, various bird-totem patterns and symbols are believed to be effective ritual arts used by Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist monks to influence nature and the supernatural through ritual and magic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The protection of one's home and ensuring the safety of one's family have been deep-rooted concerns throughout time and in all cultures. Ānzhái 安宅 ("pacifying one's residence") rituals can be traced to ancient China and are still practiced in contemporary China. In this study, we will focus on the Fóshuō ānzhái shénzhòu jīng 佛說安宅神呪經 (AZSZJ; T.21, No. 1394), one of the extant Buddhist scriptures dealing with home protection. There have been (at least) two lines of transmission of ānzhái scriptures and on the basis of internal and external evidence, we project the compilation of the extant version of this text to include the late 6th century and mid 7th century and show that the scripture—in earlier catalogues labeled as "fake"—entered the Buddhist canon on the basis of a mistake or confusion by Míng Quán when he recorded it in his Dà-Zhōu kāndìng zhòngjīng mùlù大周刊定眾經目錄. The main part of the study consists of an annotated translation of AZSZJ and a preliminary analysis of the difficult terminology appearing in parts of the text. In the last part, we discuss some aspects of the text's traditional Chinese and Buddhist elements and how they were skillfully combined in order to make the overall text attractive for the medieval Chinese Buddhist community and to successfully compete with other contemporary ritual practices concerned with the safety of one's home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]