Signs of Power: Talismanic Writing in Chinese
Buddhism
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Robson, James. 2008. Signs of power: talismanic writing in Chinese Buddhism. History of
Religions 48(2): 130-169.

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James Robson

S I G N S O F P OW E R :TA L I S M A N I C W R I T I NG
I N C H I N E S E BU D DH I S M

Throughout much of the ancient world talismans or amulets written in anesoteric script were worn or ingested in order to repel the demonic andimpel the desired.1 Talismans and other objects—such as bowls or piecesof metal—emblazoned with either legible or illegible talismanic script are
well known to scholars of the ancient Mediterranean world. It is unclear,
however, precisely when tablets with writing that is backwards, scrambled,or otherwise unintelligible began to appear in the ancient world, but by

Much of the research reﬂected in this article was initially presented at the “Tantra andDaoism” conference at Boston University in 2002, at the International Association of Buddhist Studies meeting in Thailand in 2002, at McMaster University in 2003, at the “Manipulating Magic: Sages, Sorcerers and Scholars” conference at Yale University in 2005, and at
the “Knowledge and Belief ” symposium at the Stanford University Humanities Center in2005. I would like to thank all of the commentators and participants in those events for theircritical feedback and suggestions.
1
There is an increasingly large body of material on these topics, but see, among others,
Theodor H. Gaster, “Amulets and Talismans,” in Hidden Truths: Magic Alchemy and the
Occult, ed. Lawrence E. Sullivan (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 145–47; and Don C.
Skemer, Binding Words: Textual Amulets in the Middle Ages (University Park: Pennsylvania
State University Press, 2006). On the comparative context of using esoteric script as medium
for communication with the realm of spirits, see John G. Gager, ed., Curse Tablets and Binding
Spells from the Ancient World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 9–10; Christopher
A. Faraone and Dirk Obbink, eds., Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1991); and Stanley J. Tambiah, “The Magical Power of Words,”
Man 3 (1968): 177–206.

ç 2008 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.
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the late Roman period (fourth to ﬁfth century CE) a mystical form of writing is attested on deﬁxiones—curse tablets and binding spells.2 Amulets
and incantation bowls with magical characters or signs appear with regularity in Jewish magic and are found in “Palestinian amulets, Samaritan
amulets, and European Jewish magical texts, and they have found theirway into Christian magical handbooks as well.”3 Within the Islamic tradition prayer bowls are inscribed with Qur’anic verses that empower thewater that is poured into the bowls and imbibed by the sick. There are also
Islamic divination bowls, and talismanic shirts and mirrors that have esoteric diagrams composed of numbers, letters, and “illegible signs.”4
Texts and objects that include an esoteric or illegible form of writing arealso found in East Asia, where they have been employed in a variety of religious contexts, including within Daoism, popular religion, and—despitemuch writing to the contrary—within Buddhism. Indeed, there is a large
corpus of Buddhist manuscripts in which, like the Greek magical papyri
discussed by Jonathan Z. Smith, “the chief ritual activity . . . appears tobe the act of writing itself. Alongside the evident concern for the accuratetransmission of a professional literature marked, among other features, byscribal glosses and annotations, is an overwhelming belief in the efﬁcacy
of writing, especially in the recipes that focus on the fashioning of amulets
and phylacteries.”5 Whereas talismans in the Greek and other contexts of
the ancient world have received signiﬁcant scholarly attention, it is to an oft
overlooked collection of Buddhist talismans that are empowered by a formof writing that appears illegible—what Bronislaw Malinowski referred toas having a “coefﬁcient of weirdness” in the context of Trobriand Island
word magic—that I want to direct my thoughts in the words that follow.6
2
Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World; and Christopher A.
Faraone, “The Agonistic Context of Early Greek Binding Spells,” in Farraone and Obbink,
Magika Hiera: Ancient Greek Magic and Religion, 6.
3
Lawrence H. Schiffman and Michael D. Swartz, Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts
from the Cairo Genizah: Selected Texts from Taylor-Schechter Box K1 (Shefﬁeld: JSOT Press,
1992), 44. See also the two volumes by Joseph Naveh and Shaul Shaked entitled Amulets andMagic Bowls: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1985) and
Magic Spells and Formulae: Aramaic Incantations of Late Antiquity (Jerusalem: Magnes
Press, 1993).
4Ülkü Bates, “The Use of Calligraphy on Three Dimensional Objects: The Case of‘Magic’ Prayer Bowls,” in Brocade of the Pen: The Art of Islamic Writing, ed. Carol Garrett
Fisher (East Lansing: Michigan State University, 1991), 55–61.
5Jonathan Z. Smith, “Trading Places,” in Relating Religion: Essays in the Study of Religion(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 226. See also David Frankfurter, “The Magicof Writing and the Writing of Magic: The Power of the Word in Egyptian and Greek Traditions,” Helios 21 (1994): 179–221.
6 See the sections entitled “The Meaning of Meaningless Words” and “Coefﬁcient of
Weirdness in the Language of Magic,” in Bronislaw Malinowski, Malinowski Collected
Works, vol. 8, Coral Gardens and Their Magic (London: Routledge, 2002), 213–23. Stanley
Tambiah has also considered how in Sinhalese ritual a kind of sacred oral language is often

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Signs of Power

While doing ﬁeldwork in China some years ago, I entered a shrine
located on the summit of a mountain and saw that there was a small
wooden table that had a candle and various writing implements. When I
had earlier visited the same site, a Daoist priest was sitting at the tablewriting and selling talismans to long lines of devotees. On a more recent
visit, however, I saw that the same table was now staffed by a Buddhist
monk writing out the same talismans for an equally long line of pilgrims.
Those talismans (on red or yellow paper with black or red writing) arethought to provide practical beneﬁts like “knowledge and wisdom” (congming zhihui ), “elevation of status and rank” (luwei gaosheng). The), and “success in school” (xueye chengjiu
style and function of those talismans are similar to the style and functionof present-day talismans available for purchase at other sites in China, attemples and shrines throughout Japan (such as ofuda  or omamori), and even in Chinese diaspora communities in Thailand andMalaysia.7
At ﬁrst sight, the scene of a Buddhist monk writing what looked likepopular or Daoist talismans was striking and raised a number of questions.
Was there historical precedent for Buddhists writing and employing talismans? Resisting the temptation to explain away this practice as merely aform of contemporary Chinese popular religiosity that tends to mix andmatch various elements of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism, whatsome have decried as a form of “degenerative syncretism,” I instead deemployed rather than normal everyday language and that the sacred language was usually perceived as efﬁcacious and powerful due to the fact that it was incomprehensible. See Tambiah,“The Magical Power of Words,” 177–206. There was also a written counterpart to the typesof magical properties of words that Tambiah discusses. John Gager and others have shown theubiquity of the use of an esoteric script that is found in ancient Greece and Rome, and Antoine
Faivre has also noted the “liking on the part of many esotericists for ‘secret writing,’ ” suchas that of the sixteenth-century ﬁgure Johannes Trithemius, who was noted for his famous
steganographia. See Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World; andAntoine Faivre, “The Notions of Concealment and Secrecy in Modern Esoteric Currents
since the Renaissance (a Methodological Approach),” in Rending the Veil: Concealment andSecrecy in the History of Religions, ed. Elliot R. Wolfson (New York: Seven Bridges Press,
1999), 155–76. On Johannes Thrithemius, see Noel L. Brann, The Abbot Trithemius (1462–
1516) (Leiden: Brill, 1981), and Trithemius and Magical Theology: A Chapter in the Controversy over Occult Studies in Early Modern Europe (Albany: SUNY Press, 1999).
7
On talismans and their relation to “worldly beneﬁts” (genze riyaku) in Japan; see Ian
Reader and George J. Tanabe Jr., Practically Religious: Worldly Beneﬁts and the Common Religion of Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998). For a comprehensive surveyof esoteric talismans in Asia, see Ogata Toru  , Sakade Yoshinobu , andYoritomi Motohiro , eds., Dokyo teki mikkyo teki hekija jubutsu no chosa kenkyu (Tokyo: Biingu Netto Puresu, 2005); and the workon spells and talismans by Sawada Mizuho !" entitled Chugoku no juho # $(Tokyo: Hirakawa shuppansha, 1984). On the popular role of Chinese charms and talismansin contemporary Singapore and Malaysia, see Marjorie Topley, “Paper Charms, and Prayer
Sheets as Adjuncts to Chinese Worship,” Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society 26 (1953): 63–84.

History of Religions

133

cided to turn to the medieval Chinese historical record to see what could
be found. One of the goals of tracing the historical background of thosetalismanic practices was to take seriously the late Michel Strickmann’scomments on the need to combine anthropological/ethnographic observation of contemporary practices with a historical perspective grounded inmedieval Chinese primary sources.8
While the winding textual path that I began to follow eventually led toa corpus of medieval Buddhist sources, it was not a particularly wellmarked trail, and it seemed that all the signs (that is to say, scholarshipon Chinese Buddhism) were pointing in the wrong directions. Simply put,talismans and texts that include talismanic script have heretofore remained
all but invisible to scholars of Chinese Buddhism since they have traditionally understood them to be of a Daoist provenance and have tended toplace them on the wrong side of the problematic Western division between“pure” religion and “denigrated” magic.9 As is now well known, between
those polemical terms, it is magic that “has been made to play the role ofan evaluative rather than an interpretive term and, as such, usually bears anegative valence.”10 Therefore, anything labeled as magic, and particularly
a material object like a talisman that bears too close of a connection to a
fetish, is discarded posthaste.11
These interpretive problems are related in part to the now well-known“Protestant” assumptions that characterized early Buddhist studies and8
See Michel Strickmann, “Homa in East Asia,” in Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar,
ed. Frits Staal (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 420–21.
9There is a larger body of literature on this problematic divide. See, among others, Randall
Styers, Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004); Smith, “Trading Places”; Hildred Geertz, “An Anthropology
of Religion and Magic. I,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8 (1975): 71–89; Dorothy
Hammond, “Magic: A Problem in Semantics,” American Anthropologist 72, no. 6 (1970):
1349–56; John Skorupski, Symbol and Theory: A Philosophical Study of Theories of Religion
in Social Anthropology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976); Gustavo Benavides,“Magic, Religion, Materiality,” Historical Reﬂections/Refexiones Historiques 23, no. 3(1997): 301–30; and Michael Brown, “Thinking about Magic,” in Anthropology of Religion:
A Handbook, ed. Stephen D. Glazier (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997). Attempts to redress
the problematic relationship between religion and magic in East Asia include Michel Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, ed. Bernard Faure (Stanford, CA: Stanford University
Press, 2002); Donald Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical
Manuscripts (London: Kegan Paul International, 1998); and most recently Robert Ford Campany, “Secrecy and Display in the Quest for Transcendence in China, ca. 220 BCE–350 CE,”
History of Religions 45, no. 4 (2006): 291–336. For this problem in relation to Tantric studies,
see David L. Snellgrove, Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (Boston: Shambala, 1987), 143; and Stephan
Beyer, The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1973).
10
Smith, “Trading Places,” 218.
11
On the discomfort with the fetish and fetishism, see Tomoko Masuzawa, “Troubles with
Materiality: The Ghost of Fetishism in the Nineteenth Century,” Comparative Studies inSociety and History 42, no. 2 (April 2000): 242–66.

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Signs of Power

have yet to be overcome entirely.12 Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), the cofounder of the Theosophical Society and a late nineteenthcentury Western commentator on—and propagator of—a particular view of
Buddhism, explained the alleged inappropriateness of the use of talismans
within Buddhism by writing: “Question: Are charms, incantations, the observance of lucky hours and devil dancing a part of Buddhism? Answer:
They are positively repugnant to its fundamental principles. They are surviving relics of fetishism and pantheistic and other foreign religions.”13
Despite the insistence on the primacy of “pure beliefs,” and the ironic factthat Colonel Olcott later became known for effecting cures through his
knowledge of mesmerism, this view can be seen as representative (though
clearly from one extreme) of more widely held assumptions about therole (or lack thereof ) of talismans or charms in Buddhism.14 The entry on
amulets and talismans in J. Z. Smith’s Dictionary of Religion includes asubheading on talismans in Chinese religion that reﬂects more recent
general knowledge. The entry reads: “Amulets and talismans are used in
Taoism and in folk practices primarily for healing and protection, especially the protection of young children. They may be stamped with a seal
or written out by hand on paper with the appropriate color ink by a Taoist
priest or other professional. Most talismans display divinatory diagrams
and a highly stylized script understood to be heavenly writing. Talismans
are usually burned and the ashes ingested or scattered, but they may also
be worn on one’s person or mounted on a wall.”15 This is a succinct andunproblematic entry as far as it goes, but it is notable that this entry only
mentions Daoist and folk use of talismans and mentions nothing about theiruse within Buddhism.
It is not only modern Western scholars that have emphasized the exclusive Daoist use of talismans and depicted Buddhists as being categorically opposed to them. This same perspective is found in standard
contemporary Japanese-language Buddhist reference works. It is noteworthy, for example, that Mochizuki Shinko %&'( does not include
an entry on talismans in his encyclopedic Bukkyo daijiten ) *+12
See, among others, Gregory Schopen, “Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in
the Study of Indian Buddhism,” History of Religions 31 (1991): 1–23.
13
Henry Steel Olcott, The Buddhist Catechism (Madras: Theosophical Publishing House,
1947; ﬁrst published in 1881), 44–45.
14
On Henry Steel Olcott, see Stephen Prothero, The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey
of Henry Steel Olcott (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996); and Donald S. Lopez Jr.,
“Belief,” in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. Mark C. Taylor (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1998), 29–32.
15
Jonathan Z. Smith, ed., The HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: Harper
San Francisco, 1995), 45.

One Line ShortHistory of Religions

135(Great dictionary of Buddhism).16 Nakamura Hajime’s #,- Bukkyo
go daijiten ).
+ (Great dictionary of Buddhist terminology)
includes the following entry on “talismanic writing” ( fushu /0, Jpn.
fusho) that speaks for itself: “Talismanic writing: An expression regarding the writing (drawing) of a talisman, related to amulets (talismans).
Since [these talismans] are connected to magic (sorcery) they are excluded
from Buddhism [/0] /012 , 3/ , 45 , )67.”17 Thus, a kind of exorcism has
been performed on precisely those objects within the Buddhist tradition
that threaten to make it appear too magical. That these writers felt the needto repress the use of these objects further suggests that Buddhists in China
partook of a wide range of occult practices and employed an arsenal oftechniques to repel the harmful and impel the desired.
in other words: talismanic writing
There is an extensive literature on the history and function of Chinese
talismans within the pre-Daoist and Daoist contexts.18 Given that information on the use of talismans in Daoism is readily available, I will limit mycomments to just the barest of outlines. Pioneering early French sinologists
like Max Kaltenmark, Robert des Rotours, and others have detailed how
the original meaning of the character for “tally” ( fu / ), referred to two
halves of an object, usually in the shape of a dragon, ﬁsh, or tiger that were

16
Mochizuki Shinko %&'(, ed., Bukkyo daijiten + , rev. and enlarged ed.,
10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai Seiten Kanko Kyokai, 1958–63).
17
Nakamura Hajime #,-, Bukkyo go daijiten ).
+ (Tokyo: Tokyo shoseki,1975), 1178a–b.
18
See the comprehensive study and review of recent work on talismans and diagrams in
Catherine Despeux, “Talismans and Diagrams,” in Daoism Handbook, ed. Livia Kohn (Leiden:
Brill, 2000), 498–540. The authoritative work on talismans in Chinese Dunhuang manuscripts
is now Christine Mollier, “Talismans,” in Divination et société dans la Chine médiévale:
Étude des manuscrits de Dunhuang de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British
Library, ed. Marc Kalinowski (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2003), 405–29. Seealso, among others, Isabelle Robinet, Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great
Purity (Albany: SUNY Press, 1993), 31ff.; Lothar Ledderose, “Some Taoist Elements in the
Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties,” T ’oung Pao 70 (1984): 246–78; and Jonathan Chaves,“The Legacy of Ts’ang Chieh: The Written Word as Magic,” Oriental Art 23, no. 2 (Summer
1977): 200–215. There is also an important series of articles by Wang Yucheng 89 that
includes “Lüelun kaogu faxian de zaoqi daofu” :;<=>?@A/, Kaogu <= 1
(1998): 75–81, “Dong Han daofu shili” BC/DE, Kaogu xuebao <= F 1 (1991):
45–56, and “Tang Song daojiao mizhuanwen shili” GHIJ1DE, Zhongguo lishi
bowuguan guankan #KLMNOOP (1991): 82–93. For possible antecedents to talismanic script, see Tseng Yuho, A History of Chinese Calligraphy (Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 1993), 75ff. and the work on “bird script” by Rong Geng QR, “Niaoshu kao”
S0<, Yanjing xuebao TU F, no. 16 (1934): 195–203, “Niaoshu kao buzheng” S0<
VW, Yanjing xuebao TU F, no. 17 (1935): 173–78, “Niaoshu san kao” S0X<, andYanjing xuebao TU F, no. 23 (1938): 287–89.

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Signs of Power

split down the middle and inscribed on the back. Each of two contracting
parties would keep one half as a guarantee of an agreement.19 Some twenty
years ago, Anna Seidel emphasized that talismans were not invented by
nor the sole prerogative of Daoists, but rather they emerged out of Han
dynasty imperial treasure objects.20 One of the early functions of the talisman was for a ruler to authorize the conduct and scope of authority of ageneral (e.g., how many troops he could command).21 The military context
of talismans later found a corollary in the spiritual realm and permitted
their possessor to summon and control a variety of deities that could be
drawn on in battles with spirits.22 Talismans written in an esoteric script
are also found on Han tomb objects (see ﬁg. 1), where they “ﬁgure at theend of several ordinance and contract texts. They also occur separately or
combined with short demon-subduing spells on wooden tablets or on
jars.”23 Based on the available evidence, the earliest uses of talismans were
for healing, exorcism, and protection. What was it about the esoteric scripton these talismans that imbued them with such powers?
As many scholars of Chinese script have noted, it was believed that theearliest forms of writing in China were not used to transcribe human speechbut, rather, preceded it and were signs that reﬂected the hidden powers of
the universe and were used to “communicate with the spirits.”24 Léon
19
Max Kaltenmark, “Ling-pao: Note sur un terme du taoisme religieux,” in Mélanges
publies par l’Institut des Hautes Études Chinoises (Paris, 1960), 1:559–88; and Robert desRotours, “Les insignes en deux parties (fou) sous la dynastie des T’ang (618–907),” T ’oung
Pao 41 (1952): 1–148. See also the discussions in John Lagerwey, Taoist Ritual in Chinese
Society and History (New York: Macmillan, 1987), 149–67.
20
Anna Seidel, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments: Taoist Roots in the Apocrypha,”in Tantric and Taoist Studies, vol. 2, ed. M. Strickmann (Bruxelles: Institut Belge des Hautes
Études Chinoises, 1983), 292.
21
Mark Edward Lewis, Writing and Authority in Early China (Albany: SUNY Press,
1999), 29; and Seidel, “Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments,” 310.
22
Seidel, “ Imperial Treasures and Taoist Sacraments,” 315.
23
Anna Seidel, “Traces of Han Religion in Funeral Texts Found in Tombs,” in Dokyo toshukyo bunka, ed. Akitsuki Kan’ei  (Tokyo: Hirakawa, 1987), 27.
24
See John Lagerwey, “The Oral and Written in Chinese and Western Religion,” in Religion
und Philosophie in Ostasien: Festschrift für Hans Steininger, ed. Gert Naundorf, Karl-Heinz
Pohl, and Hans-Hermann Schmidt (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1985), 301–21, andhis comments on the foundational work of Léon Vandermeersch, Wangdao ou la voie royale:
Recherches sur l’esprit des institutions de la Chine archaique, vol. 2, Structures politiques, lesrites (Paris: Publications de l’Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1980). See also the section
titled “China’s Graphic Language,” in Anna Seidel, “Chronicle of Taoist Studies,” Cahiersd ’Extrême-Asie 5 (1990): 223–347; Kristofer M. Schipper, “The Written Memorial in Taoist
Ceremonies,” in Religion in Chinese Society, ed. Arthur Wolf (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1974), 324; and T. H. Hsien, Written on Bamboo and Silk: The Beginnings ofChinese Books and Inscriptions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1962). The characteristics of writing discussed here were not speciﬁc to China; see Henri-Jean Martin, The
History and Power of Writing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), 4. It should bepointed out here, however, that this view of the origins of Chinese script as preceding theoral is not a return to the fallacious view of early Chinese script as ideographic. See William

History of Religions

137

Fig. 1.—Samples of talismans found on funerary jars and wooden slips in Han
tombs. Sources: The talismans are reproduced from Wang Yucheng 89 ,“Dong Han daofu shili BC/DE,” Kaogu xuebao <= F 1 (1991): 45–
56, 46 (top two on left side); Gao Dalun  Y and Jia Maiming Z[,“Han chuping yuannian zhushu zhenmu taoping C\]-^_0`abc ,” in
Wenwu 1 6 (1987): 72 (left side third from top); Wang Yucheng, “Lüelun
kaogu faxian de zaoqi daofu :;<=>?@A/ ,” Kaogu <= 1 (1998):
75–81, 77 and 78 (bottom left and right side).

Vandermeersch has suggested that “the most archaic prototypes of theChinese characters must have been emblematic monograms of spiritual

G. Boltz, The Origin and Early Development of the Chinese Writing System (New Haven,
CT: American Oriental Society, 2003).

138

Signs of Power

protectors,” and “must have been simply talismanic, that is, composed ofjuxtaposed or imbricated graphs without any articulation of a linguistic
nature.”25 Since written traces were at root “patterns” (wen 1) originating in nature they controlled what they represented through their potent
spiritual power.26 This background is fundamental to understanding a
passage in the Huainanzi def that says, for example, “Of old when
Cangjie originated writing, Heaven rained down grain and the demons
howled at night.”27 Why did the demons howl at the origin of written
script? Xushen gh (ca. 100 CE), compiler of the Explaining Graphs
and Analyzing Compounds (Shuowen jiezi i1jk ), noted the following
about this passage, “By gazing at the patterns of the footprints of birds,
Cangjie created writing in correspondence to them, then . . . the demonsfeared that they also might be engraved in books and therefore they howled
at night.”28 In other words, to know the name or “true-form” (zhenxingl) of a spirit meant that one had control over that spirit. This theoryof naming power has a long history in China, as it does elsewhere in theworld.29
Written talismans, by virtue of their unique position somewhere between
the “legible” and “illegible,” between the “spirit world” and the “humanworld,” served as mediums for communication with (or control of ) the
realm of demons and deities. Talismanic script could express or illustrateineffable meanings and powers that defy transmission by traditional
modalities of communication: oral or written.30 Talismans were sacredimages that mirrored the forms of the primordial energies at the inceptionof the world and were therefore imbued with a spiritual power drawn froman ability to share in the essence of the thing it names or represents.31
25
See Vandermeersch, Wangdao ou la voie royale, 477 and 479, cited in Lagerwey, “TheOral and Written in Chinese and Western Religion,” 301–2.
26
On the notion of “wen,” see, e.g., Chaves, “The Legacy of Ts’ang Chieh”; and more recently Martin Kern, “Ritual, Text, and the Formation of the Canon: Historical Transitions of
Wen in Early China,” T ’oung Pao 87 (2001): 43–91.
27
Huainanzi 8 [Zhuzi jicheng, 116–17]. See also William Acker, Some T ’ang and PreT ’ang Texts on Chinese Painting (Westport, CT: Hyperion, 1954), 63 n. 1. On the power ofwritten traces see Chaves, “The Legacy of Ts’ang Chieh.”
28
Acker, Some T ’ang and Pre-T ’ang Texts, 63 n. 1; and Seidel, “Imperial Treasures andTaoist Sacraments,” 322.
29
An interesting discussion of name magic can be found in Maurice Godelier, Perspectives
in Marxist Anthropology (London: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 196–203. See also
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word (New York: Routledge,1982), 33; and Tambiah, “The Magical Power of Words.”
30
On the comparative context of using what appears to be illegible script as a medium forcommunication with the higher realm of spirits, see Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells
from the Ancient World, 9–10.
31 In the Zhen’gao
lm [Declarations of the perfected], for example, there appears to bea hierarchy of spiritual potency that places script unintelligible to humans on the top; see
Ledderose, “Some Taoist Elements in the Calligraphy of the Six Dynasties,” 256. On the“primordial” or “celestial” provenance of Daoist talismans, see Jean Francois Billeter, The
Chinese Art of Writing (New York: Rizzoli International, 1990), 256.

One Line LongHistory of Religions

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This depiction of the speciﬁc nature of talismanic language within Chinesesources resonates well with other studies, especially Stanley Tambiah’s
seminal essay entitled “The Magical Power of Words,” that have gone along way toward revising earlier theories that interpreted “unintelligible”
script or speech as mere gibberish.32 The esoteric language found in
Chinese talismanic writing and in a variety of texts from the ancient
Mediterranean world does not descend to the level of nonsense but is elevated to the level of being representative of the language used in spiritualconversations with higher orders. It is, in other words, the rareﬁed languageof the gods and not a tainted or debased form of human language.
the visible and the invisible: seeing buddhist talismans
While there has been ample discussion about the role of esoteric talismans
within Daoism and Chinese folk religion, there is a paucity of studies on
their role within Buddhism. To be sure, this absence is not merely due tothe modern scholarly prejudices discussed above. Some early Buddhist
texts already contain clear critiques of the use of charms and amulets. The
Brahmajala Sutta, in the Digha Nikaya collection, says: “Whereas someascetics and Brahmins, feeding on the food of the faithful, make their living
by such base arts, such wrong means of livelihood as palmistry, diviningby signs, portents, dreams, body-marks, mouse gnawings, ﬁre-oblations,oblations from a ladle of husks, rice-powder, rice grains, ghee or oil,from the mouth or of blood, reading the ﬁnger-tips, house- and gardenlore, skill in charms, ghost-lore, earth-house lore, snake-lore, poison-lore,
rat-lore, bird-lore, crow-lore, foretelling a person’s life span, charms
against arrows, knowledge of animals’ cries, the ascetic Gotama refrainsfrom such base arts and wrong means of livelihood.”33 Now, if one wereto turn to certain Chinese primary sources, it would also seem that the
production and usage of talismans was adamantly rejected by Chinese
Buddhists and was the sole prerogative of Daoists. The New Account of
Tales of the World (Shishuo xinyu nio.) includes a fascinating (albeit
polemical) account about a Buddhist monk whose healing techniques demonstrated the obstacles that might be encountered through the use of Daoist
talismans.
Ch’ih Yin believed in the Taoist religion with zealous devotion. Once he wassuffering from an ailment in his bowels, which various Taoist physicians wereunable to cure. Hearing that the Buddhist monk Yu Fa-k’ai had a good reputation, he went to consult him. After he had come, Fa-k’ai took his pulse and

32 Tambiah, “The Magical Power of Words”; and see the discussion of that work in Gager,
Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 9–10.
33
This passage from the Brahmajala Sutta is translated in Maurice Walshe, Thus Have I
Heard: The Long Discourses of the Buddha (London: Wisdom Publications, 1987), 71.

140

Signs of Powersaid, “What your Excellency is suffering from is caused by none other than anexcess of zeal [ching-chin], that’s all.” Whereupon he mixed a dose of medicine
with some hot water and gave it to him. No sooner had Ch’ih taken his medicine than immediately he had an enormous bowel movement in which he evacuated several wads of paper, each as big as a ﬁst. When he opened them up to
look, they turned out to be the Taoist paper talismans [ fu] he had ingested earlier.34

Clearly the earlier Daoist talismans had not done the job, and this story
represents the Buddhist rejection of the efﬁcacy of talismans in general.
Nonetheless, despite the negative assessment of the use of talismans in
Chinese Buddhism suggested by this ﬁfth-century source and reiterated
by much modern scholarship, there is evidence that suggests that there wasno consensus on the usage of talismans within early Chinese Buddhism.
In the Discourse on the Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra (Fahua
xuanyi $pqr), for example, the great Tiantai Buddhist master Zhiyi
s (538–97) wrote—citing the apocryphal Sutra of Trapusa and Bhallika(Tiwei boli jing tuvwx)—“If you hope to attain immortality, then
afﬁx [to your body] the talisman [ fu] of longevity, ingest the medicine ofimmortality, and grasp the seal [yin y] of eternal happiness.”35 Does
Zhiyi’s use of talismans and seals represent a lone voice in the Buddhist
tradition or were talismans more pronounced in Chinese Buddhism thanhas heretofore been acknowledged?
The absence of studies and references to the Buddhist uses of talismans
is connected to questions about the types of sources that have traditionallybeen used to delineate the parameters of Buddhist practice, a perduring
tendency to erect rigid partitions between Buddhism and Daoism, and therefusal to recognize shared practices (particularly those that have beenclassiﬁed as being of a “magical,” and therefore denigrated, character)between those two traditions. While it is true that talismans are foundless frequently in the Buddhist canon (Taisho shinshu daizokyo Wo
z {x, hereafter Taisho) than in the Daoist canon (Zhengtong Daozang W|{, hereafter Daozang) where they appear regularly, oneplace where they do appear with some frequency is in Buddhist texts that

34
Translation from Richard B. Mather, Shi-shuo Hsin-yü: A New Account of Tales of theWorld (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1976), 361, with some changes.
35
T. 33.804a5–7. The Tiwei boli jing tuvwx does not survive intact, but quotations
from that text are found in many later works, including the writings of Zhiyi s (538–97).
For further studies on the Tiwei boli jing, see Makita Tairyo }!~, Gikyo kenkyu x (Kyoto: Kyoto daigaku jinbun kagaku kenkyu jo, 1976), 148–211; Tsukamoto Zenryu , Tsukamoto Zenryu chosakushu   (Tokyo: Daito shuppansha, 1974),
2:203, 204; and Whalen Lai, “The Earliest Folk Buddhist Religion in China: Ti-wei Po-li chingand Its Historical Signiﬁcance,” in Buddhist and Taoist Practice in Medieval Chinese Society,ed. David Chappell (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 11–35.

History of Religions

141

have been conventionally identiﬁed as esoteric or proto-Tantric.36 Other
evidence points to the fact that their usage was pronounced in Chinese
apocryphal works and in a variety of Dunhuang manuscripts and fragments. Recent research has shown the important role that Chinese apocryphal texts played in the development and adaptation of Buddhism inChina, and therefore it is not surprising to ﬁnd a signiﬁcant indigenous
Chinese practice (the writing of talismans) incorporated into primarily
apocryphal Buddhist texts since “it is apocryphal texts, rather than exegeses of translated Indian scriptures, that often exhibit what is most distinctively Chinese about Chinese Buddhism.”37
There are a number of recent studies regarding the Buddhist cult of thebook and the way that Buddhist texts functioned like talismans, rather thanas mere repositories of doctrinal teachings that were meant to be read.38
There has been less attention paid, however, to the talismans themselvesthat are found within Buddhist texts. Perhaps, one of the difﬁculties oflocating talismans within Buddhist sources is that in most cases there isnothing in the title of a text that signals that it contains talismans. As will
become clear below, many texts that are labeled as dharani sutras—whichhave traditionally been considered to be composed of oral formulations—also contain written talismans and some dharani sutras mention that theiroral formulas should take a written form.39
One scholar who was at the forefront of a movement within Sinology
to recognize practices and rituals common to Buddhists and Daoists was,of course, the late Michel Strickmann. In his foundational study on theuse of “seals” (yin)—which use engraved wooden stamps in talismanic
ways—in Chinese magico-religion, Strickmann proposed that the “use of
36
See, e.g., the large number of entries in Lionel Giles, Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Manuscripts from Tunhuang in the British Museum (London: Trustees of the British
Museum, 1957), that either mention talismans ( fu) in the title or are described as being magicalcharms (by which Giles usually refers to talismans). See also the charm and references toother recently discovered charms in the entry by Alan Atkinson for a ‘Tantric Buddhist Charm”(catalogue no. 34) in Latter Days of the Law: Images of Chinese Buddhism 850–1850, ed.
Marsha Weidner (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), 296–98.
37
On this important genre of sources, see Robert E. Buswell Jr., ed., Chinese Buddhist
Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 14. On the use of talismans in
the Buddhist apocrypha, see Christine Mollier, “Les talismans du Buddha et de Laozi pour‘accroître le capital-vie,’ ” in Études de Dunhuang et Turfan, ed. Jean-Pierre Drège and Olivier
Venture (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2007), 155–88.
38
See, e.g., Robert F. Campany, “Notes on the Devotional Uses and Symbolic Function of
Sutra Texts as Depicted in Early Chinese Buddhist Miracle Tales and Hagiographies,” Journalof the International Association of Buddhist Studies 14, no. 1 (1991): 28–69; and Donald S.
Lopez Jr., Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton
University Press, 1996).
39
Paul F. Copp, “Voice, Dust, Shadow, Stone: The Makings of Spells in Medieval Chinese
Buddhism” (Ph.D. diss., Princteon University, 2005); see esp. chap. 6, “Sutra, Relic, Talisman:
Transformations of Spell Writing, ca. 400–1100.”

142

Signs of Powerseals in Buddhism and Daoism richly illustrates our long-held contention
that such pervasive phenomena cannot be parceled out into sectarian
pigeon holes. It is fruitless to ask (as so often is done) ‘is it Buddhist or
Daoist?’ Clearly, therapeutic sigillation has been both Buddhist and Daoist,and more besides.”40 This conscious breaching of the carefully delineated(albeit artiﬁcial) sectarian lines allows us to see that the use of seals was
not only present in Daoist sources, but that they were also pervasive in
Buddhist sources, and the same can be said of written talismans. We now
have some foundational studies on talismans found in Buddhist sources
by Gao Guofan K, Xiao Dengfu , Jean-Pierre Drège, andChristine Mollier that clearly demonstrate that Strickmann’s work on
seals merely touched the tip of an enormous iceberg ﬂoating in Daoist
and Buddhist waters.41
There are many Buddhist texts found in standard collections, such as
the Taisho canon, the Continued Buddhist Canon (Dai Nippon zokuzokyo
{x), and in Dunhuang manuscript collections, that incorporate
talismans—or talismanic writing in an esoteric form of script.42 In order togive a sense of the extent to which Buddhist texts incorporated talismans
and talismanic writing I will ﬁrst recall some of the texts readily available

40
Michel Strickmann, “The Seal of the Law: A Ritual Implement and the Origins of Printing,” Asia Major 6, no. 2 (1993): 82. Strickmann’s research now appears in a chapter titled“Ensigillation: A Buddho-Taoist Technique of Exorcism” in his book Chinese Magical Medicine (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002). It will be clear to those who have read
Strickmann’s pioneering work how much this section of my essay owes to Strickmann’s
groundbreaking research. One of the main goals of Strickmann’s series of articles was to rethink the connection that Paul Pelliot posited between the use of seals and the origin of printing
in China. Yet, in the primary sources I was studying it was clear that while ensigillation andtalismanic writing were two complementary entities, they needed to be dealt with on their own
terms. Therefore, I have focused my attention here on what Strickmann merely hinted at in his
study, namely, the uses of talismans and talismanic script. Now, see also the relevant study of
Edward L. Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 2001).
41
Gao Guofan K, Zhongguo minsu tanwei #K (Jiangsu: Hehai daxue
chubanshe, 1989), and K, Dunhuang minsu ziliao daolun ; (Taibei:
Xinwen feng, 1994); Xiao Dengfu , Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji 4
+ [Daoist techniques and esoteric Buddhist texts] (Taiwan: Xinwen feng, 1994); andMollier, “Talismans,” Mollier, “Les talismans du Buddha et de Laozi,” and Mollier, Buddhism
and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual and Iconographic Exhange in Medieval China(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2008).
42
Taisho shinshu daizokyo Woz {x, ed. Takakusu Junjiro  et al., 100
vols. (Tokyo: Taisho Issaikyo kankokai, 1924–32); Dai Nippon zokuzokyo {x,ed. Nakano Tatsue !"#$ (Kyoto: Zokyo shoin, 1902–5). Reprinted as Xuzang jing {x, 150 vols. (Taibei: Xinwenfeng, 1968–78). The reference here to Dunhuang manuscripts
refers to the discovery during the early twentieth century of a large cache of documents andpaintings at the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (Qianfo dong )) near the town of
Dunhuang in modern Gansu Province located in the far western part of China. The discoveryof these materials has led to a radical re-visioning of the nature of Chinese Buddhism andDaoism.

History of Religions

143

in the Taisho canon. I will then turn to a more detailed treatment of somesurviving Dunhuang manuscripts and focus on two that are representativeof the vast material available among those manuscripts.
In spite of the claims by some scholars that these talismans are evidenceof the existence of Tantric or proto-Tantric Buddhism in China, it is mycontention that the tendency to classify these talismans as Tantric is primarily due to the ways that they have traditionally been classiﬁed anddiscussed in modern Euro-American and Japanese secondary literature, as
well as the ways that some of texts with talismans have been categorized
by the editors of the modern Taisho canon.43 One of the signiﬁcant contributions of recent scholarship on talismans and spells is the mutual
concern for the intersections between Buddhism and Daoism, yet in muchof that work the invocation of Tantrism has served to separate off concerns
for magic and spells within Buddhism into a hermetically sealed category
in order to preserve the rest of Buddhism from these so-called debased or
benighted practices. Yet, the use of charms, spells, and talismans are foundwithin mainstream Buddhist texts and cannot be limited to any one lineage
or tradition within Buddhism.
In the section that follows, therefore, there is only occasional reference
to central Chinese Buddhist masters or well-known esoteric sutras. Rather,
the emphasis in these texts is on a world populated as much by gangs ofdemons, star deities, and magical spells as it is by buddhas and bodhisattvas. The following sources offer one vantage point from which to view
how Buddhist texts creatively assimilated the distinctive Chinese practiceof using an esoteric script to write talismans and how talismanic writing
became a shared practice that is found within Buddhism and Daoism.
The applications of the Buddhist talismans discussed below are quite
varied, but they generally include those that are to be ingested, those thatare to be burned and the ashes used to empower water for washing theeyes or drinking, those to be hung up to garrison a home, applied to a bed,

43
Most texts with talismans are situated in the “esoteric” (mikkyo bu ) section of themodern Taisho canon. This classiﬁcation system is followed by Xiao Dengfu in his work, but
we should note in addition that Michel Strickmann also classiﬁed these types of sources as“proto-Tantric.” While Gao Guofan situates the talismans found in Dunhuang manuscripts inrelationship to popular religious practices and Daoism, he also discusses their proliferation
during the reign of Tang Xuanzong, which he states began to evince the teachings of Tantricor Esoteric Buddhist via the inﬂuence of masters such as Amoghavajra. The nature of Chinese
Esoteric Buddhism and Chinese Tantrism has recently been rethought by Robert Sharf in his“Appendix” in Coming to Terms with Chinese Buddhism: A Reading of the Treasure Store
Treatise (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002); and by Richard D. McBride II in two
related articles: “Is There Really ‘Esoteric’ Buddhism?” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 27, no. 2 (2004): 329–56, and “Dharani and Spells in Medieval
Sinitic Buddhism,” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28, no. 1(2005): 85–114.

144

Signs of Power

Fig. 2.—Talisman from the Dharani Sutra of A†avaka, General of Demons(T. 21.184a). Source: For all texts from the Taisho canon (ﬁgs. 2–8 and 10;
citation beginning with T.), see Taisho shinshu daizokyo Woz {x, ed.
Takakusu Junjiro  et al., 100 vols. (Tokyo: Taisho Issaikyo kankokai,
1924–32).

put on a tree, garrison a tomb, and those to be worn to become invisible.44
Interestingly, there are also talismans that are speciﬁcally designated as
being for both Daoist and Buddhist monks to wear for good fortune, anda talisman found in later collections is to be afﬁxed to the wall of a Daoist
abbey or Buddhist monastery.45
One of the earliest Buddhist texts to include talismans is the Dharan5i
Sutra of Atavaka, General of Demons (Azhapoju guishen dajiang shangfo
tuolouni jing ¡¢2£¤ ¥¦)§¨©x), dated to the ﬁrst half ofthe sixth century (see ﬁg. 2).46 It may on ﬁrst glance appear odd to ﬁnd
written talismans in a dharani sutra, since scholars have tended to separate
44
Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 68–85; and Jean-Pierre Drège, “Du Texte àl’image,” in Images de Dunhuang: Dessins et pientures sur papier des fonds Pelliot et Stein(Paris: École française d’Extrème-Orient, 1999), 105–68.
45
Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 73; and see also the discussion in Sakade Yoshinobu , “Shoki mikkyo to dokyo to no kosho \A%&'(,” in
Chugoku Mikkyo # , ed. Tachikawa Musashi )*+, and Yoritomi Motohiro  (Tokyo: Shunjusha, 1999), 153–69.
46
T. 21, no. 1238. See Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 279ff., on this text,
and on the dating, see Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 143–51.

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145

these two into categories of writing and orality, but recently Paul F. Copphas shown that those categories were not mutually exclusive.47 The ﬁrst
image that we are presented with in this text is described as a talisman( fu) to be used against disease demons. One of the conspicuous aspectsof this talisman is the fact that it is written in a standard script that is allcompletely legible and may (if this text is true to its date) suggest that
Buddhists initially wrote talismans in standard script before adopting theesoteric talismanic script that is common in contemporary Daoist texts and(as we will see shortly) Buddhist talismans found in later sources.
The Atavaka talisman has at its center a square box partitioned into four
sections and radiating out from this square are all the names of the spirits
who become present in the talisman when it is “activated” by reciting aspell twenty-one times.48 The center of the talisman contains a command
derived from a phrase used to close Han dynasty ofﬁcial orders: “Maythose who are ordered by this spirit talisman be quick as the statutes andordinances! ( jiji rulü ling ªª«¬­).”49 Following the image of thetalisman we read that those who “wear this talisman will be free of nightmares, if they wear it and enter battle they will be assured of victory, if they
enter water they will not drown, and if they enter ﬁre they will not beburned,” all uncommon traits that are commonly ascribed to Daoist transcendents.50 Essentially this talisman functions as an all-purpose protective
device that is empowered by the deities it commands.
Another set of talismans is found in a text dated roughly to the midseventh century, entitled Dharani Sutra of Ja“guli, The Poison Woman,
Spoken by the Buddha (Foshuo Changjuli dunu tuoluoni zhoujing )i®
¯w°±§¨©²x) (see figs. 3 and 4).51 In line with the goddess
Ja“guli’s particular powers against malevolent dragons and serpents, herspell is known to be extremely effective against all forms of toxic envenomation.52 Thus, the talismans that are included in this text are also
47
Copp, “Voice, Dust, Shadow, Stone: The Makings of Spells in Medieval Chinese
Buddhism,” 237–99.
48
The combination of some type of physical movement while writing a talisman or carving
a seal is a common feature found in these texts but is also a practice with ancient roots. See
Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 159ff. On the subject of movements and gesturesin relation to healing, see Herbert Fischer, “The Use of Gesture in Preparing Medicaments
and in Healing,” History of Religions 5, no. 1 (1965): 18–53.
49
T. 21.184a16. On the early provenance of this phrase in Han ofﬁcial documents, see A. F.
Hulsewé, “Han Time Documents,” T ’oung Pao 45 (1957): 1–50; and Seidel, “Traces of Han
Religion,” 39ff.
50
T. 21.184a25–28; and Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 145.
51
T. 21, no. 1265. See the discussion of this text in Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao
dianji, 302.
52 For a brief mention of J a “ gul i in India, see Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric
Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia University
Press, 2002), 231. On her powers against envenomation, see Strickmann, Chinese Magical
Medicine, 151.

Fig. 3.—Talisman from the Dharani-Spell Sutra of Ja“guli, The Poison Woman,
Spoken by the Buddha (T. 21.295a).

Fig. 4.—Talisman from the Dharani-Spell Sutra of Ja“guli, The Poison Woman,
Spoken by the Buddha (T. 21.295a).

History of Religions

147

speciﬁcally directed at dealing with envenomation. The ﬁrst ﬁve talismans
are represented by curling concentric circles that appear to have the graphfor demon (gui £) written in talismanic script inside the serpentine coils.
The text informs us that these talismans are to be “drawn in black ink
upon the point of envenomation.”53 A note to these talismans says that they
can also be “written in vermilion ink on paper and swallowed to cure . . .
[text missing].”54 Then follows another talisman that, like the Atavaka
talisman, is written in standard script. The talisman says: “Ritual seal of
Ja“guli; Ja“guli cures the hundred envenomations! Kill and bind! Enchantand bind! Apprehend, goddess! Svaha!”55 The text notes that the talisman
can either be written in vermilion on paper and carried on one’s person to
repel all demonic pneumas (guiqi £³), or it can be written in vermilion
ink on paper and swallowed to get rid of stomach ailments. These talismans
contain a mixture of standard and talismanic script, could be used internally as well as externally, and function like an ofﬁcial written order
or command.
The canonical Buddhist text that includes the richest account of talismans to be worn ( pei ´) or ingested ( fu µ) is Nagarjuna’s Treatise on
the Five Sciences (Lungshu wuming lun ¶·¸;), compiled perhaps
as early as the sixth century (see ﬁg. 5).56 Although the actual representations of the talismans do not appear until the end of this fascinating text,
it is worth pausing at the beginning, since the ﬁrst chapter contains someof the most detailed written information on talismans found in any source.
The ﬁrst mention of talismans in this text occurs in a list of three talismans
that can “attract wealth” (zhao caibao ¹º»), “cure the illnesses of sentient beings” (zhi zhongsheng bing ¼½¾¿), and “command the proper
timing of wind and rain.”57 Then the text contains a lengthy section thatprovides precise details about eighteen different talismans (none of which
is illustrated). All of these talismans are to be written in vermilion on silkand either worn or carried. Strickmann has summarized their powers as follows: “In addition to talismans for treating diverse maladies and prophylactic use against disease demons, government ofﬁcials, and other robbers,
this list includes talismans to aid in childbirth, others to restore harmony,as well as one guaranteed to instantly obtain high-ranking suitors for an

53

T. 21.295a; and Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 153.
T. 21.295b1.
T. 21.295b, translation in Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 153. For an interesting cross-cultural perspective on “binding spells,” see Faraone, “The Agonistic Context of
Early Greek Binding Spells”; and Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory(Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), 114.
56
T. 21, no. 1420. See Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 399ff. On the datingof this manuscript, see Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 170–78.
57
T. 21.956c28–957a1.
54
55

Signs of Power148

Fig. 5.—Talisman from Nagarjuna’s Treatise on the Five Sciences (T. 21.958c)

unwed daughter who is growing perilously old.”58 In other words, thesetalismans were used to attract things that were desired, like wealth and soforth, and at the same time helped to repel disease demons and robbers.
Shortly after enumerating this list of talismans Nagarjuna’s Treatise on
the Five Sciences goes on to list twelve more talismans (although only
ten are pictured) that claim to “kill demons and cure diseases” (shagui
58

Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine, 171.

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149

zhibing À£¼¿). Signiﬁcantly, these talismans are all to be ingested atparticular times calibrated by a ﬁxed Chinese astrological schedule.59
In this text, as in others, astrological knowledge is all important, andgiven the importance of astrology in the ﬁrst part of the text it is no surprise
to ﬁnd that in the talismans and seals depicted at the end of the text we
ﬁnd a more liberal inclusion of astral, or pseudo-astral, depictions.60 We areinformed that “if a woman is undergoing difﬁcult labor pains, administera paper talisman imprinted with a seal for her to swallow, and the infant
in her womb will speedily come forth holding the talisman in its hand.”61
We are clearly a long way from the Shishuo xinyu tale that ridiculed thesick person for ingesting Daoist talismans written on paper! The ﬁrst of
the last three talismans included in this text focuses on the attainment of
powers to deal with evil people, and it speciﬁes that those who obtain
this talisman are not to drink alcohol, eat meat or the ﬁve pungent foods(wuxin ¸Á: onions, garlic, shallots, leeks, and chives, which are considered to induce lustful thoughts), and they are instructed not to transmit itcarelessly to others.62 This talisman lacks the systematic appearance ofother contemporary Daoist and Buddhist talismans and appears to be
merely a bunch of wavy lines. The depictions of the last two talismans,
which are both concerned with curing diseases, however, look more likethe intricately formed talismans that appear in contemporary Daoist
sources and what we ﬁnd in later Buddhist sources and therefore may
reﬂect the fact that there was a gradual movement from standard script
toward esoteric script.
In the Secret Magical Techniques of the Ten-Thousand Loves of Mañju¶ri and Yamantaka (Manshushili yanmandejia wanai mishu ruyi fa ÂÃÄwÅÂÆÇÈÉÊ4«Ë$) (see fig. 6), a text attributed to YixingÌÍ (683–727), the Chan monk who later became ‡ubhakarasimha’s
disciple, there is also a set of two talismans that are labeled “earth talisman”
and “heaven talisman.”63
These two talismans, which include the head and the head and partial
body of a human ﬁgure, are strange but do resemble a variety of Daoist
59

T. 21958c.
T. 21.967a1–3. The astral images are particularly evident in the seals that are reproducedon 963–64.
61
See this story in Strickmann, “Seal of the Law,” 62.
62
T. 21.967b3.
63
T. 21, no. 1219. See Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 251ff. On Yixing, see
his biography in Song gaoseng zhuan T. 50.732c7–733c24; and the study by Osabe Kazuo ÎÏÐ, Ichigyo zenji no kenkyi -./012 (Kobe: Kobe Shoka Daigaku Gakujitsu
Kenkyukai, 1963), which also discusses these talismans. Yamantaka is a ferocious manifestation of Mañju¶ri. See Alice Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism: Their History andIconography (New York: Dover, 1988; ﬁrst published 1914), 164.
60

150

Signs of Power

Fig. 6.—Talismans from Secret Magical Techniques of the Ten-Thousand Loves
of Mañju¶ri and Yamantaka (T. 21.97c).

talismans that are also capped with the head of a human being.64 Since
there is no detailed explanation of these talismans, there is little we cansay about them here, except to note that the practitioner is told to recite,rather than to write, ingest, or wear them.65 While we ﬁnd here an oral
element to talismans, there are also a number of texts labeled as dharani
sutras where we ﬁnd instructions that stipulate that the dharani was to be
written out and worn or ingested, rather than merely enunciated.66
Of the entire collection of written talismans found in Buddhist texts collected in the Taisho canon, the set that appears to be the most systematicallydrawn and the closest (in form) to pre-Daoist and Daoist talismans is thestar talismans found in the Sutra Spoken by the Buddha on Prolonging
Life by Worship of the Seven Stars of the Northern Dipper (Foshuo beidou
64

See, e.g., the Lingbao talisman depicted in Despeux, “Talismans and Diagrams,” 516.
T. 21.97c15. The occurrence of the character fu written with a double mouth radicalrather than with the bamboo radical may suggest an early precedent for some talismans being
representations of incantations.
66
It is interesting to note that at least two other esoteric texts that contain talismans arealso called dharani sutras. See T. no. 1238 and T. no. 1265. For further relevant comments ondharani, see Ryuichi Abé, The Weaving of Mantra: Kukai and the Construction of Esoteric
Buddhist Discourse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 159ff. and 166ff., where
he distinguishes Mahayana dharani that are appendages to sutras, and esoteric dharanithat are used for healing and long life in Nara period Japan. In thinking about the issue of theoral nature of dharani, it is useful to consult David Frankfurter’s work on the oral nature oftalismans and amulets. See Frankfurter, “The Magic of Writing and the Writing of Magic.”
65

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151

qixing yanming jing )iÑÒÓÔÕÖx ) (see ﬁg. 7).67 These talismans
draw extra potency from their correlation with speciﬁc stars due to themacrocosmic and microcosmic relationships between the celestial sphereand the human realm (including the inside of the body). In this text, thetalismans are found under the name for each star in the Northern Dipper(beidou ÑÒ)—an asterism of great importance within the imperial cult,
Daoism, Buddhism, and Chinese popular religion—and in the lower register of the text we are told that a person who is born under a certain
chronogram is to wear that talisman if they encounter danger.68
Ostensibly the talismans that are found in this text also help the practitioners negotiate the list of ailments and dangers, and realize the worldly
beneﬁts, that are mentioned later in the text. That list includes protection
from malevolent demons, ofﬁcial promotion, wealth and prosperity, curingof disease, and ease in childbirth. The list ends by reassuring the possessorof the talismans that the seven stars of the Dipper “control human destiny”(shenming ×Ö), that is to say, one’s life span.
Another short text in the Taisho canon that combines text and talismansis the Rules for the Diviner’s Board of the Holy Deity of Mirth (Shenghuanxitian shifa ØÙÚÛÜ$). Robert Duquenne has shown that thiscurious text is an amalgamation of Chinese and Indian astral images. Twotalismans are labeled “obscure character talisman” (mingwen fu Ý1/)for “prosperity” (sheng Þ) and a “talisman for mysterious captivation”(mishe fu Êß/).69 Unfortunately, the text does not describe the use of
these talismans. Two notes below the images of the talismans merely say,“on the back, [the name of] so and so,” and “tightly opposed to the surface,draw and cut.”70 This text contains a wide variety of Indian and Chineseelements, including Hindu deities, Sanskrit “seed syllables” (bija), mudras,
talismans, and the familiar injunction “quickly, quickly in accordance with67
T. no. 1307. This text is the subject of a study and translation by Charles Orzech andJames Sanford, “Worship of the Ladies of the Dipper,” in Tantrism in Practice, ed. David
Gordon White (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 383–95. See also Xiao
Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 347ff.
68
On the Northern Dipper in general, see, e.g., Edward H. Schafer, Pacing the Void:
T ’ang Approaches to the Stars (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1977), 157–62. On
the role of the Dipper in Daoist ritual, see Poul Andersen, “The Practice of Bugang,” Cahiersd ’Extrême-Asie 5 (1990): 15–53. On the role of the Northern Dipper within Buddhism, see
Yano Michio àáÐ, Mikkyo senseijutsu âÔ4 (Tokyo: Tokyo Bijitsu, 1986), Morita
Ryusen ã!¶ä, Mikkyo senseiho âÔ$ (Koyasan: Koyasan daigaku, 1941; repr.,
Rinsen shoten, 1975); and Charles Orzech and James Sanford’s introduction to their translationof T. 130, Scripture Expounded by the Buddha on Prolonging Life through Worship of theSeven Stars of the Northern Dipper [Foshuo beidou qixing yanming jing].
69 T. no. 1275. See the study and translation of this text by Robert Duquenne, “Ganapati
Rituals in Chinese,” Bulletin l’Ecole Francaise d’Extrême-Orient, vol. 77 (1988), esp. 326ff.;
and Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 311ff.
70
Duquenne, “Ganapati Rituals in Chinese,” 349.

Fig. 7.—Talisman from The Sutra Spoken by the Buddha on Prolonging Life by Worship of the Seven Starsof the Northern Dipper (T. 21.425b).

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F ig. 8.—Talismans from the Scripture on the Rites of the Vajra-Being of
Impure Traces [Ucchußma] for Exorcising the Hundred [Demonic] Transformations (T. 21.160–61).

the statutes and ordinances.”71 All of these techniques are combined for avariety of purposes: protecting oneself from diseases and spells cast byothers, empowering oneself to cast spells on others (make them ill), andattaining speciﬁc material goods (other people’s treasures, high rank, etc.).
Finally, the richest text for visual representations of talismans in the
Taisho canon is the Scripture on the Rites of the Vajra-Being of Impure
Traces [Ucchußma] for Exorcising the Hundred [Demonic] Transformations (Huiji jingang jin baibianhua fa jing åæçèéêëì$x) (seeﬁg. 8).72 After presenting four seals and their immense powers—which71

T. 21.324b12.
T. no. 1229. See Strickmann, “Seal of the Law,” 43 and Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China, 126–52.
72

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Signs of Power

include attracting the love of others, the ability to ﬂy, and the power toalleviate pain and suffering—the text depicts a total of forty-two talismans
that are to be written on paper, written on the body, or written on paperand swallowed. All of these talismans are included in a section that is titled“Miraculous Rites for Prolonging Life.”
The problems that these talismans claim to be effective against include
both heart ailments and demonic illness. Other talismans in this list emphasize the ability to prolong one’s life and increase one’s knowledge(yannian yizhi Õ^í), and one talisman claims to ensure the attainmentof treasures (bao »).73 If one covets someone else’s valuables, the text
boasts, all they need to do is to write the other person’s name underneaththe talisman and that person will immediately send the desired things tothem.74 After depicting three talismans that are to be drawn on the four legsof one’s bed in order to ensure the protection of the Eight Great Vajra
Protectors (bada jingang weihu î çè8),75 the next four talismans
are all concerned with protection from natural disasters, including thedangers of ﬁre, wind, excessive rain, and ﬂoods.76 Given what we havelearned from other collections of talismans, it is not surprising to ﬁndthat some of the talismans in this set also end with the “quickly, quickly inaccordance with the statutes and ordinances” formula for ordering demonsand deities, and that they also include injunctions ordering the possessor
not to show them to other people.77 Edward Davis has noted that there
was “no better example of Daoist inﬂuence on Tantric Buddhism” than in
the texts of the early followers of Ucchußma’s cult.78 While this may betrue, we will see below that based on other evidence from Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang, establishing a clear direction of inﬂuence—from
Daoism to Buddhism—is not as straightforward as one might expect.
buddhist talismans in dunhuang manuscripts
One of the problems with just referring to Buddhist texts in the Taisho
canon that contain talismans is that the texts in that collection were drawn
primarily from Japanese libraries and temple collections.79 The Taisho
canon also provides a limited vantage point onto Buddhist talismans due
73

T. 21.160c.
Ibid.
75
On these protectors, see Mochizuki Shinko %&'( , ed., Bukkyo daijiten +,
rev. and enlarged ed., 10 vols. (Tokyo: Sekai Seiten Kanko Kyokai, 1958–63), 4:3391. On therelationship of this talisman to aiding childbirth, see Gao Guofan, Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 80.
76
T. 21.1671a.
77
T. 21160a and 160b29.
78 Davis, Society and the Supernatural in Song China, 134.
79 On the history of the compilation of the Taisho canon, see Silvio Vita, “Printings of the
Buddhist ‘Canon’ in Modern Japan,” in Buddhist Asia 1: Papers from the First Conference of
Buddhist Studies Held in Naples in May 2001, ed. Giovanni Verardi and Silvio Vita (Kyoto:
Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2003), 217–45.
74

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155

to the fact that the Dunhuang texts that were included by the editors camefrom the Stein collection in London, while other collections—such as the
Pelliot collection in Paris—are not well represented.80 When we throw awider net than did the Taisho editors, we ﬁnd that there are at least ﬁfty
Dunhuang manuscripts that include Buddhist talismans or describe the production of talismans, but no longer include the images.
Included in the vast trove of paintings and books discovered in Dunhuang
at the beginning of the twentieth century was a striking painted talisman on
paper (42.7 centimeters [18 inches] high and 30 centimeters [11 inches]wide).81 This talisman, found in the “library” of cave 17 at Dunhuang andnow housed in the British Museum (Stein Painting #170), is a particularly
fascinating example of the mixing of text, talisman, and iconography (seeﬁg. 9). The talisman comprises two registers (above and below) and a surrounding decorative motif that is akin to the outer “doors” found on Indian
yantras.82
The lower register of the talisman can be divided into two sections. The
right side is ﬁlled with a haphazard looking mixture of talismanic script,
esoteric seal script, and a few recognizable elements of Chinese graphs.
The talismanic writing closely resembles the type of script that is encountered in Daoist texts and the esoteric texts discussed above, but whencompared to other intricate talismans preserved in contemporary Daoist
Dunhuang manuscripts this fragment appears to be exceedingly simple andto be the product of an untrained hand.83 Indeed, this talisman looks likewhat might be produced by someone who was trying to copy or mimic
the style of other talismans without understanding, or having mastered,
the logic that goes into their construction.84 We might imagine a scene not80

See Mollier, “Talismans.”
Reported in Aurel Stein, Serindia (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1921), 2:1080. This copy
is reproduced from Roderick Whitﬁeld and Anne Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas:
Chinese Art from the Silk Route (London: British Museum Publications, 1990), 83. See also
the record in Arthur Waley, A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from Tun-Huang by Sir Aurel
Stein, K. C. I. E., preserved in the Sub-department of Oriental prints and drawings in the
British Museum, and in the Museum of Central Asian antiquities, Delhi (London: Kegan Paul,
1931), 164. This painting was also discussed brieﬂy in Christine Mollier, “Talismans,” 409
and 424.
82
Madhu Khanna, Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity (London: Thames &Hudson, 1979).
83
Fine examples of some facsimiles of extant Daoist talismans can be found in Ofuchi
Ninji ïðñ, Tonko Dokyo: Zuroku hen 34%&: 567 (Tokyo: Fukutake Shoten,1979). Gao Guofan (Zhongguo minsu tanwei, 77) also writes about how Buddhists initiallydid not understand the usage of Daoist talismans.
84
Despite the fact that these talismans were meant to reﬂect the illegible writing of the spirit
world, research has shown that there came to be a logic used to write Daoist talismans. See,for example, the admirable efforts of interpretation undertaken by Wang Yucheng 89 in
his “Tang Song Daojiao mizhuanwen shili GHIJ1DE.” On the interpretation of atalisman on an ordinance jar, see Li Ling, “An Archaeological Study of Taiyi (Grand One)Worship,” Early Medieval China 2 (1995–96): 17; and Mu-chou Poo, In Search of Personal81

Fig. 9.—Stein Painting #170, British Museum. After Roderick Whitﬁeld andAnne Farrer, Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route(London: British Museum Publications, 1990), 83. ç The Trustees at the British
Museum.

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completely unlike that found in an essay entitled “A Writing Lesson,” in
Lévi-Strauss’s Tristes tropiques, where the Nambikwara chief mimicked
Lévi-Strauss’s writing by simply drawing wavy lines on the paper.85 Yet,rather than chuckle at that scene, we might speculate that, like the Nambikwara chief who sensed the purpose and power of writing and used it
to maintain (or even increase) his power in the tribe, whoever was responsible for the production of this talisman sensed that this newly encountered style of talismanic writing also held power that could be tapped.
This talismanic script was likely taken to be a dharani, and the mystic
power that is usually rendered in Siddham—or transliterated—is here presented in a siniﬁed form of an equally esoteric nature.86
The Chinese script on the left side of the lower register is entirely legible
and announces the power of this talisman: “This talisman is a dharani
talisman [cifu tuolouni fu ò/§¨©/]. Those who wear it will obtainsupernormal powers [shentong ¤ó, abhijña] and will have their sins removed for a thousand kalpas. All of the Buddhas of the ten directions willappear before their eyes, and there will be nothing that is not auspiciousor proﬁtable. Throughout their entire life they will obtain the respect andadmiration of others, and their merit will be without compare. [Actualizethe] protection and puriﬁcation, quickly, quickly in accordance with thestatutes and ordinances!”87 In the upper register there are two deities, one
female standing high on a red cloud holding a writing brush and a book,and the other a male demon-like ﬁgure standing on a green cloud with his
hands in añjali-mudra (kongo-gassho çèôõ). It is signiﬁcant to note,however, that in typical talismanic style all of the script on this talisman
is written in vermilion ink (zhushu _0). The passage next to the female
reads, “[I] respectfully request that the spirit of the star of the northernquarter [i.e., the Pole Star] protect my body [from evil] and preserve [my]life. Your disciple presents [this] with [his/her] whole heart.” The passage
next to the male ﬁgure says, “[I] respectfully request that the planet Ketu

Welfare: A View of Ancient Chinese Religion (Albany: SUNY Press, 1998), 181. For an
early article that attempted to point out how talismans might be broken down into discreteelements, see Ch’en Hsiang-Ch’un, “Examples of Charm against Epidemics with Short Explanations: With 15 Cuts of Charms,” Folklore Studies 1 (1942): 37–54; and see the example
from a modern talisman in Emily Martin Ahern, Chinese Ritual and Politics (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1981), 25.
85
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Tristes tropiques (New York: Washington Square Press, 1973),
331–43; originally published in French in 1955.
86
On the occurrence of dharani being used like “spells,” see Copp, “Voice, Dust, Shadow,
Stone: The Makings of Spells in Medieval Chinese Buddhism”; and John Kieschnick, The
Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1997), 88.
87
See also the translation by Waley in A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from TunHuang, 165.

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Signs of Power

protect my body [from evil] and preserve [my] life. Your disciple presents[this] with [his/her] whole heart.”88 While we would expect the other ﬁgure
to be Rahu, there is no evidence (as far as I can discern) to indicate that
identiﬁcation.89
This talisman emphasizes the dual attainment of supramundane goals(visions of Buddhas and removal of sins) along with more mundane
attainments (magical powers and admiration of others). Given the size andcontent of the text, one can well imagine that it is a surviving talisman of
precisely the type that might have actually circulated.90 In short, thisBuddhist talisman is a fascinating example of an extracanonical source inwhich we see the incorporation of talismanic script that empowers it for
use in puriﬁcation and protection.
The ﬁnal Buddhist text under consideration here presents a number ofinterpretive questions that complicate any attempt to assign a clear line ofinﬂuence between Buddhism and Daoism. The Sutra of the Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans Spoken by the Buddha (Foshuo qiqian fo
shenfu jing )iÓ)¤/x, hereafter Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit
Talismans) (see ﬁgs. 10 and 11), is a fragmentary text included in the
Taisho Buddhist canon that is exclusively focused on the explication of aseries of written talismans ( fu) but is also found in varying states of preservation among the Dunhuang manuscripts.91

88
This passage has also been translated in Waley, A Catalogue of Paintings Recoveredfrom Tun-Huang, 165. On Rahu and Ketu, see Michel Strickmann, Mantras et mandarins: Le
bouddhisme tantrique en Chine (Paris: Gallimard, 1996), 488 n. 23. Ketu, originally a demon
that devours the moon causing lunar eclipses, is here one of the powerful demons that, once
converted, becomes an invincible Buddhist protector.
89
Both Arthur Waley and Roderick Whitﬁeld note the resemblance between this woman
and representations of the planet Mercury. See Waley, A Catalogue of Paintings Recoveredfrom Tun-Huang, 164; and Roderick Whitﬁeld, The Arts of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum; 2 Paintings from Dunhuang (Tokyo: Kodansha International,
1983), pl. 61.
90
Christine Mollier has also suggested that this a “véritable” talisman, a talisman consecrated and ritually employed, as opposed to others that are models used for making copies.
See Mollier, “Talismans,” 409.
91
T. no. 2904. This text and its variants are found in a number of Dunhuang manuscripts
including Stein 2708 (British Library), Pelliot 2723, Pelliot 3022r, and Pelliot 4667v (Bibliothèque nationale de France). Other variants include Pelliot 2558r (which in fact has a Daoist
scripture on the reverse side) and Stein 4524. The Taisho version of the text serves as a good
example of the limitations of merely using the Taisho canon in conducting research on these
Buddhist manuscripts. The collection of Dunhuang sources included in that canon was drawn
mainly from the Stein collection in London. In the case of this text the Stein manuscript was
severely damaged, and the beginning of the text was missing, as is evident in the Taisho
printing. Yet, in the Pelliot versions the ﬁrst part of the text is intact. Therefore by collating
all the extant versions of this text we can reconstruct a complete version of the manuscript.
Christine Mollier notes that a fragment of this text was also found at Turfan (Ch. 2190r). See
Mollier, “Talismans,” 410. Masuo Shinichiro also lists P. 2153, which is presently in the Toyo
bunko Bö1÷, as a related text. See Masuo Shinichiro 8øÌ, “Nihon kodai no jufu

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159

Fig. 10.—Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans, Taisho version T. no. 2904

The focus of the ﬁrst part of the Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit
Talismans is on the role of these talismans in the prolongation of life
(yannian yisuan Õ^íù).92 The primary concern related to extending
one’s years seems to involve securing the protection of the one who possesses the talismans from illness and disease demons. After advertisingthat the “thousand Buddha talismans” (qianfo fu )/) are capable ofbeating and disciplining (daduan úû ) a variety of demons so that they
all vanish of their own accord ( jinzi xiaomie üýþ), the text goes on
to appeal to the controlling powers of the stars in the Northern Dipper( beidou ÑÒ). This text speciﬁes that the stars of the Dipper signify
the following: Army Destroyer (pojun xing Ô) controls “wasting”

bokukan, bokusho doki to gigi kyoten 9:;<=>? , @ABCDEFG,” Toyono shiso to shukyo HIJKL&, no. 13 (1996): 78–104. The most detailed study of thistext is now Mollier, “Les talismans du Buddha et de Laozi,” which is available in English as“Augmenting the Life Account” that is the third chapter of her recent Buddhism and Taoism
Face to Face, 100–133. Since the research for this article was completed some years ago andMollier’s work was only published recently, I was unable to take it fully into account here.
92
On the compound yisuan (íù ), see Hanyu da cidian C. +, vol. 7, 1423.

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Signs of Power

Fig. 11.—P. 2723, Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans Dunhuang version. After Dunhuang Baozang »{ [Treasures from Dunhuang] (Taibei:
Xinwenfeng, 1981–86), 126:68. Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

( haoxu ); 93 the star Militancy Song (wuqu xing Ô) controlsofﬁcial affairs (guanshi); the star Honest and Pure (lianzhen xingÔ) controls disputes (koushe  );94 the star Cultured Song (wenqu
xing 1Ô) controls nightmares; the star Maintaining Happiness/Preserv93 On this ailment, see Morohashi Tetsuji, ed., Dai kanwa jiten CÏ*+,13 vols. (Tokyo: Taishukan Shoten, 1955–60), 9:175.
94
On koushe, see Hanyu da cidian C. +, 3:4. This may be related to the Indian
Tantric use of mantras to aid in disputes; see Benoytosh Bhattacharyya, An Introduction to
Buddhist Esotericism (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1980), 87.

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ing Prosperity (lucun xing Ô) controls the hundred demons (baiguiê£); the star Great Gate ( jumen xing Ô) controls “not corpses” orperhaps “wronged corpses” ( feishi );95 and the star Insatiable Wolf
(tanlang xing Ô) controls evil pneumas (eqi ³). The text further
tells us that the Northern Dipper as a unit controls human destiny and thehundred demons.
While it is not surprising to ﬁnd the Northern Dipper invoked in thistext, since it is also the subject of a variety of Buddhist texts that we havediscussed above, it is interesting that the next asterism that is invoked iswhat is known to us primarily from Daoist texts as the Three Platforms(Santai X).96 The Three Platforms refers to a collection of six stars(though our text mentions only ﬁve) that are all within the constellation
Ursa Major. In Daoist texts the Three Platforms asterism is connected withthe power to protect human destiny, which is precisely the role it plays in
the Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans. In addition to protecting
human destiny, the ﬁve stars of Three Platforms are perceived to be capableof dispelling calamities and eliminating epidemics. The ﬁrst section of thetext ends by ordering all demons of chaos (luangui £) to remove themselves to a distance of a million li, and this command is enforced with the
now familiar juridical injunction: “quickly, quickly in accordance with thestatutes and ordinances” ( jiji rulü ling ªª«¬­).
The next section of the text merely introduces the names of ﬁve of theﬁfteen talismans that are pictured later in the text. These ﬁve talismans
include: (1) Talisman for Opening the Heart/Mind (xinkai fu /);
(2) Talisman for Adding Years to One’s Life (yisuan fu íù/); (3) Talisman for Saving and Protecting One’s Bodily Fate ( jiuhu shenming fu 
3×Ö/); (4) Engraved Talisman for when Metal, Wood, Water, Fire,and Earth are out of alignment ( jin mu shui huo tu buxiang kefu ç!"#$%/); and (5) Spirit Talisman of the Demon of Death Aji usedagainst Wasting (Aji sigui haoxu shenfu &'£(×/).97 This brief
section ends with an injunction that commands “all evil things that see
these talismans to disperse and vanish, quickly, quickly in accordance withthe statutes and ordinances.”98
The central portion of this manuscript is perhaps the most interesting.
It is in this section that we learn what types of beneﬁts and powers thetalismans can confer on the practitioner. These short statements are all95
I am unclear what “feshi  ” refers to. Mollier, “Les talismans du Buddha et deLaozi,” 181, translates the term as “ghosts” (les fantômes).
96 On the importance of “Santai
X” in Daoism, see Dokyo jiten  + (Tokyo:
Hirakawa shuppansha, 1994), 214.
97
I am not sure what this last name refers to.
98
T. 85.1446b2–5.

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Signs of Power

couched in an incantation style that has a long history in Daoist texts andlater inﬁltrated Buddhist incantation texts.99
After putting on the talisman(s), all the Buddhas give life to me; all of the sutras
are conveyed to me; radiance shines on me; yin and yang care for me; the four
seasons nourish me; the ﬁve elements [wuda ¸ ] guide me; ﬁve clouds coverme; bodhisattvas protect me, the six hundred cyclical signs cover me; the ﬁve
emperors assist me; the ﬁve musical notes entertain me; the ﬁve troops guardme; the stars and asterisms regulate me; the ﬁve silks accompany me; the ﬁve
fragrances perfume me; I recline on a golden bed and a brocade quilt covers me;transcendents support me; jade maidens attend to me; the green dragon guides
me; the white tiger ﬂanks me; governors, dukes, marquises, and commissioners
receive me; the ﬁve surnames [clans] respect me; the ten-thousand surnames
honor me; superiors obey me; fellow villagers are attracted to [or seduced by]me; bows and arrows, swords and soldiers, robbers and bandits are all repelledby me; tigers, wolves, and snakes all avoid me; the ﬁve poisons and gu worms are
kept out of my body.100
After putting on this talisman heaven opens and all directions are passable. The
hundred demons will not follow. If I fall into water I will not drown. Swords
and weapons will not injure me. My comings and goings will be auspicious andgood. I will not meet with calamity or misfortune. I receive protection from thetroops of the four directions and ﬁve marchmounts. . . . Worthies will cherish
and respect me. Excellent medicines will be given to me. Divine talismans willprotect me. The hundred demons will avoid me. The hundred spirits will adore me.
The Gate of Heaven will open for me, and the Door of Earth will exclude me.101
Cool spring water will be my drink. Wind, frost, and rain will all vanish from myway. Those who are faced with this talisman will die and those who go against[the orders of ] it will perish.102

After listing the names of nine more talismans and the demons that they are
responsible for repressing, this section again concludes with a forcefulcommand that says, “[Carry out] that which has been decreed, quickly,
quickly in accordance with the statutes and ordinances.”103 This list of the
beneﬁts and powers available to the possessor of these talismans is a ﬁne
example of how these talismans provided both protection (including theexpelling of noxious animals and demons) and assured the practitioner cer99
See the comments about this incantatory text in Strickmann, Chinese Magical Medicine,
107–8, which includes a slightly different translation of parts of this passage.
100
On gu worms as a form of demonic ailment, see Harper, Early Chinese Medical Literature, 300 n. 5, where at that early date talismans were already being used to cure peopleof them.
101
On “tianmen Û ” and “dihu )*,” see Hanyu da cidian, vol. 2, 1020.
102
T. 85.1446b11–19.
103
T. 85.1446b29–c1.

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tain beneﬁts (including riches, power, brocades, and respect). At the endof the text we are given a glimpse of the ﬁfteen talismans whose powers
are advertised in this text, and it is precisely these talismans that provided
the ﬁnal clue allowing us to bring together a variety of different Dunhuang
fragments that can all be pieced together in order to arrive at a complete
version of this text, since the beginning and end of some versions of thetext had become detached and were lost.
These written talismans all appear to be a mixture of “repeated script”( fuwen +1) and composite graphs.104 The talismans that conclude thetext are similar to contemporary Daoist talismans. Given the style of theincantation in the text along with certain other textual attributes (likethe reference to the Three Platforms), some suspicions about the text’s
authenticity may already have been raised in the mind of the reader, as
they were for some earlier scholars. Lionel Giles and Yabuki Keiki à,-. both speculated that Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans wasan apocryphal work that was most likely composed or compiled in the lateseventh century.105 While they were on the right track and in good company, since this is how the text was treated in classical Buddhist catalogs—
such as the Catalogue of Scriptures Authorized by the Great Zhou (Dazhou
kanding zhongjing mulu /P0½x12), dated to 695—further research reveals that the Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans was not
simply a text composed in China but has an almost verbatim copy in the
Daoist canon. The Marvelous Classic Spoken by the Great Lord Lao for
Extending One’s Life (Taishang Laojun shuo changsheng yisuan miaojing
3¦45iÎ¾íù6x, HY 650) contains much of the same content
and includes an identical set of talismans (see ﬁg. 12).106
In the Dunhuang Buddhist version of the text, however, overtly Daoist
names of deities are replaced with Buddhist names, and some sections of
the complete text have been excised. Both texts end with the same list ofﬁve talismans given above, and both include a further list of ten talismans
104
See, e.g., Wang Yucheng’s study of “repeated script” ( fuwen) that is the style used in
the Taiping jing 3]x, in “Luoyang yanguang yuannian zhushu taoguan kaoshi 78Õ9-^_0b:<D,” Zhongyuan wenwu #;1 1 (1993): 71–76.
105
Giles, Descriptive Catalogue, 154; and Yabuki Keiki à,-., Meisha Yoin <=>? (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1933), 305–6, suggest that this text dates to the seventh century.
Giles does not support this assertion, but based on Yabuki’s research it seems that he based
this date on two possible references to this text in the Dazhoukan dingzhong jing mulu /P0½x12 (often referred to simply as Dazhou lu) catalog (where it is listed as a spurious
scripture) that is dated to 695 (see T. 55.474a.20 and T. 55.474c.9). On the Dazhou lu, see
Kyoko Tokuno, “The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical
Catalogues,” in Buswell, Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha.
106 See Xiao Dengfu, Daojiao shuyi yu mijiao dianji, 436ff. A clearly related text is also the
Taishang Laojun shuo yisuan shenfu miaojing 3¦45ií@¤/6x (HY 672). The bestcomparative study of the Buddhist and Daoist versions of these texts is provided in Masuo
Shinichiro, “Nihon kodai no jufu bokukan, bokusho doki to gigi kyoten.”

164

Signs of Power

Fig. 12.—Talismans from The Marvelous Classic Spoken by the Great Lord
Lao for Extending One’s Life (Taishang Laojun shuo changsheng yisuan miaojing
3¦45iÎ¾íù6x, HY 650). Reference numbers (beginning with HY:)
are to the Zhengtong Daozang MN%O, 60 vols. (1445; repr., Taibei: Yiwen
Yinshuguan, 1962). Source: Weng Dujian PQR, Daozang zimu yinde %OS
TUV (Combined indexes to the authors and titles of books in two collectionsof Taoist literature), Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series, no. 25(Beijing: Yenching University, 1935; repr., Taibei: Chengwen, 1966).

with the title “fuyan” or “fuya” /A, which serve to “suppress” different
types of demons. 107 While it was initially tempting to interpret this107
On the term “fuyan” or “fuya,” see Gao Guofan, Dunhuang minsu ziliao daolun, 312;
and Hanyu da cidian, vol. 8, 1125–26.

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Buddhist text as a direct copy of a Daoist original, that seemingly plausible
conclusion had to be deferred due to other contextual information.
It is now generally accepted that the Dunhuang caves were “closed” by
the early eleventh century, which provides us with a rather solid terminus
ad quem for the Buddhist version of this text. According to Rong Xingjiang, the latest dated Chinese manuscript from Dunhuang is from 1002.
He suggests that the cave was sealed soon after this date, possibly when
the kingdom of Khotan to the west (with which the ruling family of Dunhuang had close ties) fell to the Islamic Karakhanids in 1006.108 We can,however, push the date for this Buddhist manuscript back much earlier
with reference to Buddhist catalogs. There are three texts listed in the Catalogue of Scriptures Authorized by the Great Zhou (695) with names thatare nearly identical to the Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans.109
The names of the Buddhist versions of the text are also found beginning in
the mid-eighth century in Japanese records held at the Shosoin WBC, astorehouse within the Todaiji Temple B D in Nara where the temple’s
treasures are stored.110
The Daoist version of the text is not, however, attested in the corpus ofDunhuang manuscripts or in any of the catalogs of Daoist texts found inSong libraries.111 Based on internal textual evidence, it appears that theextant Daoist version of this text may postdate the eleventh century, sincenear the beginning of the text we ﬁnd the name Wang Wenqing 81E(1093–1153) listed as one of the generals of the six cyclical jia (liujia
jiangjun FG¥), who are empowered by Lord Lao to ward off calamities, protect people and prolong lives.112 Although Wang is presented
here as a deiﬁed celestial general, he was known in his mortal existence
as a famous thunder ritual master who carried on the Divine Empyrean(Shenxiao ¤H) tradition, which was based on the textual revelations of
Lin Lingsu IJK (1076–1120).113 The name Wang Wenqing does, however, appear in a couple of Zhengyi “register texts” that list the six jia
generals, but it is difﬁcult to arrive at a precise date for those texts.114 It
108
Rong Xinjiang, “The Nature of the Dunhuang Library Cave and the Reason for Its
Sealing,” Cahiers d ’Extreme-Asie 11 (1999–2000): 247–75.
109
T. 55.474c.
110
Masuo Shinichiro, “Nihon kodai no jufu bokukan, bokusho doki to gigi kyoten,” 92.
111
See Piet van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period (London: Ithaca
Press, 1984).
112
HY 650 1b-7-8. I appreciate the assistance that Lowell Skar provided in interpreting thissection of the text (personal communication, 2005).
113
On Lin Lingsu and Wang Wenqing in the context of Senxiao Daoist history, see Lowell
Skar, “Ritual Movements, Deity Cults and the Transformation of Daoism in Song and Yuan
Times,” in Kohn, Daoism Handbook, 422–24; and Davis, Society and the Supernatural inSong China, 28–30.
114
See, e.g., the Protocol for the Invocation [of the Gods] of the Ten Registers of theZhengyi Canon (Zhengyi fawen shilu zhaoyi WÌ$1LMN , HY 1210) and Scripture of
the Ofﬁcers in Charge of the Energies of the Sexagesimal Cycle, for Protecting the Embryo

166

Signs of Poweris possible that Wang Wenqing’s name was later added to the text, but it isstill noteworthy that while there are many surviving Dunhuang versionsof the Buddhist Seven Thousand Buddhas Spirit Talismans, where Wang
Wenqing’s name is absent, there are no early extant versions of the
Daoist The Marvelous Classic Spoken by the Great Lord Lao for Extending One’s Life.115
Thus far I have presented a variety of Buddhist texts that include talismans that resemble those found in contemporary Daoist texts. It might betempting to claim, as Henrik Sørensen did recently in the pages of thisjournal, that “talismans—whether written, printed, engraved or cast—with
their highly specialized and intricate writing are unique to the Daoist tradition [and that] . . . when they occur in Chinese Buddhist material, weknow for certain that we are dealing with a case of direct (in the case ofan unmodiﬁed talisman) or indirect (in the case of a talisman modiﬁed
along Buddhist lines) borrowing from the Daoist tradition.”116 Yet I haveresisted interpreting all the talismans within Buddhist texts as merely the
product of a one-way borrowing. Given the evidence at hand, it would be
prudent to avoid trying to assign a direction of inﬂuence on these related
texts. I sympathize with Roger Chartier’s suggestion that “what is needed
is a historical approach not unlike that of sociologists when they try to
identify cultural types not from a group of objects supposedly characteristic of a particular group but rather from the relation each group has withshared objects, knowledge, or practices.”117 The Seven Thousand Buddhas
Spirit Talismans and related texts seem to be particularly good candidates
for proposing that there was in all likelihood a popular template in circulation that was altered and applied to both Buddhist and Daoist ends. Whenit came to such signiﬁcant acts, such as warding off disease demons andprotecting or extending one’s life, Buddhist and Daoists were occupied
with the same types of concerns and employed a similar arsenal of powerful techniques that drew on the powers embedded in esoteric talismans.

and Guarding Life (Taishang shuo liujia zhifu baotai hunming miaojing 3¦iFGO/P
Q3Ö6x, HY 50). HY 1210 is first attested in the Official History of the Song (Songshi
HM 4.18b) (van der Loon, Taoist Books in the Libraries of the Sung Period, 96), but HY 50
is not attested in Song libraries.
115
For dating the Daoist version of the text it may be signiﬁcant that the incantatory central
portion of the text, which is already found in the earliest Buddhist manuscript, is also foundin other Daoist texts, but they postdate a purported new revelation of the incantation by Lord
Lao in 1109. On that history see Mollier, Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face, 131–32, where,
despite the late dating of the evidence, she argues for an earlier Daoist provenance.
116 Henrik H. Sørensen, “Michel Strickmann on Magical Medicine in Medieval China andElsewhere,” History of Religions 43, no. 4 (2004): 319–32.
117
Roger Chartier, “Culture as Appropriation: Popular Cultural Uses in Early Modern
France,” in Understanding Popular Culture: Europe from the Middle Ages to the NineteenthCentury, ed. Steven L. Kaplan (Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1984), 234.

History of Religions167

conclusion: strong words
At the outset of this article I noted that throughout the ancient world there
was a tendency to inscribe the language used in curse tablets and binding
spells in an unintelligible, esoteric script. It is clear from the evidence
presented above that there is also an abundant textual record from China
detailing the long history of the use of esoteric talismans. By the Tangdynasty (at the latest), talismans and talismanic script also began to appear
in Chinese Buddhist texts, where they served to repel the noxious andimpel the desired. Why, however, did the compilers of the Chinese texts
begin to incorporate talismans written in an esoteric Chinese script when
Indian Siddham script, which was already quite popular in China due to its
perceived magical properties, could have been used to the same effect?118
It seems that to the extent to which they introduced other imported esoteric powers, the compilers of these apocryphal works also drew on the perceived powers of the indigenous Chinese esoteric script. The compilers of
the Buddhists texts analyzed above attempted to harness what for themmust have been a powerful indigenous practice that they could add totheir repertoire of potent ritual techniques.
When these types of Buddhist talismans appeared in Japan (see ﬁg. 13)—and we know that a cycle of texts surrounding the Seven Thousand Buddhas
Spirit Talismans arrived in Japan during the Nara period (710–94)—it was
precisely the powers they were perceived to have that worried the Naragovernment and eventually led to their proscription. The Rules for Buddhist
Priests and Nuns (Soniryo R©­) issued in 718, for example, included
an article that stipulated that “Priests and nuns who practice divination,
distribute charms, perform spirit-possession, or practice medicine will,
without exception, be deprived of their ordained status. Exempt from thisrule is the healing of the sick by chanting dharanis in accordance with the
Buddha Dharma.”119 Therefore, the oral was acceptable, while the written
was proscribed. Despite this injunction, talismans with esoteric script, often
coupled with Siddham script and the phrase “quickly, quickly in accordancewith the statutes and ordinances” ( jiji rulü ling), survived and circulated
widely in Japan, where they can still be seen in use today.120

118
Robert H. van Gulik, Siddham: An Essay on the History of Sanskrit Studies in China
and Japan (Delhi: Jayyed Press, 1980), 46. There is at least one example (that I am aware of )where a charm is written in Siddham, see the illustration in Weidner, Latter Days of the Law,
297–98. Siddham are also of course found on Japanese talismans, see the examples in Strickmann, Mantras et Mandarins, 367, and in Shingon mikkyo no hon WXY&: (Tokyo:
Gakken, 1997), 159–60.
119 Cited in Abé, The Weaving of Mantra, 162.
120
This is a vast topic, but on the use of the phrase “quickly, quickly in accordance with thestatutes and ordinances” ( jiji rulü ling) in Japan on talismans with esoteric script, see the ﬁne
essay by Maeda Ryoichi S!TÌ, “ ‘Kyukyu joritsurei’ o saguru ªª«¬­,” in Dokyo to168

Signs of Power

Fig. 13.—Example of Buddhist talismans from Japan with mixture of esotericscript and Siddham letters. Source: Talisman example copied from popularly circulating talismans in Japan.

Governmental proscriptions of esoteric script were not, however, limited
to the ancient past. Many readers will be familiar with the controversy
regarding the modern Chinese artist Xu Bing and the equally esoteric scriptthat he invented for his work titled A Book from the Sky.121 It is clear fromTo Ajia %&HZ[Z, ed. Fukunaga Mitsuji U9V (Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 1989), 101–
25. There is a fascinating collection of Buddhist esoteric talismans in the eighteenth-century
bibliophile Oe Masasuke’s Shinko sosho 'WX0 (Tokyo: Kokosho kankokai, 1915; repr.,
Tokyo: Yumani shoho, 1993), see esp. 354ff., 410–11, and 422ff.
121 See Britta Erickson, Words without Meaning, Meaning without Words: The Art of Xu
Bing (Washington, DC: Aurthur M. Sackler Gallery, 2001). It is unclear from reading Xu
Bing’s writings about his invented script if he was familiar with the types of script discussed
in this article, but he does cite the Huainanzi passage (quoted above) about how the ﬁrst

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the looks on the faces of those who attended Xu Bing’s installations ofbooks, hanging scrolls, and woodblock prints composed of invented characters that his work inspired a strange sense of wonder in the face of something that looked so familiar, but frustrated any attempts at understanding.
Stanley Abe has pointed out that when A Book from the Sky was exhibitedin 1989 “there was considerable perplexity over whether to read the work
as a critique, or as an instantiation of Chinese culture, or as both; the debate
reﬂected deep concerns and differences over the future direction of Chineseart.”122 One is left to wonder about the extent to which Xu Bing’s exhibition of this esoteric script was also perceived to be seditious by the
Chinese government, but that was precisely the way the work came to be
represented abroad despite (or because of ) Xu Bing’s own silence on thematter.123
Talismans and esoteric script seem, however, to have presented a different kind of wonder and danger for modern scholars. Despite theirubiquity in Buddhist sources, one of the possible reasons that these esoteric talismans have remained largely undiscussed in studies of Chinese
Buddhism is due to similar factors at work in the neglect of charms andtalismans in the study of ancient Greece. John Gager has noted that this“persistent neglect stems surely from the potentially harmful character ofthese small metal tablets—not so much the real harm suffered by theirancient targets but the potential harm to the entrenched reputation ofclassical Greece and Rome, not to mention Judaism and Christianity, as
bastions of pure philosophy and religion.”124 Previously held views abouta “pure” or rational Buddhism also lead to the occlusion (perhaps evensystematic erasure) of Buddhist talismans in scholarly writing on Chinese
Buddhism. In the process of approaching these powerful words we are
not only led to acknowledge the presence of talismans within Buddhism,
but we were also urged to consider the mutual interchanges and borrowings
that characterized the relationship between Buddhists and Daoists—to say
nothing of the impact of Chinese popular religion—in medieval China,
another previously harmful topic for those concerned with guarding thesectarian walls erected between those traditions.
Harvard University
script made the demons howl at night. See, e.g., Xu Bing, “To Frighten Heaven and Earthand Make the Spirits Cry,” in The Library of Babel (Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication
Center, 1998).
122
Stanley K. Abe, “No Questions, No Answers: China and A Book from the Sky,” inboundary 2, 25, no. 3 (1998): 175. On the political context of calligraphy, see also Richard
Curt Kraus, Brushes with Power: Modern Politics and the Art of Calligraphy (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1991).
123
Some of the problematic issues of linking A Book from the Sky to the June 4, 1989, incident are discussed in Abe, “No Questions, No Answers,” 181–82.
124
Gager, Curse Tablets and Binding Spells from the Ancient World, 3.