Der östliche Manichäismus im Spiegel seiner Buch- und Schriftkultur

Vorträge des Göttinger Symposiums vom 11./12. März 2015

Zekine Özertural, Gökhan Silfeler

• Verlag: De Gruyter Akademie Forschung
• Jahr: 2018
• ISBN:
  9783110591743
• Auflage: 1
• Thema: Theology & Religion
• Thema: History of Religion

Der Band befasst sich mit der gnostisch-synkretistischen Religion des östlichen Manichäismus in China, im Iran und im türkischen Zentralasien. Nach einer religionswissenschaftlichen Einführung erörtern die Beiträge Fragen der Überlieferung und der interkulturellen Wechselwirkungen mit dem lateinischen, koptischen und arabischen Manichäismus.

Teil IIDer östliche Manichäismus in seiner eigenen Überlieferung

GÁBOR KÓSA (Budapest/Ungarn)

The Manichaean Pantheon in the Xiapu Manuscript Entitled ‘Moni Guangfo 摩尼光佛’34

Starting from October of 2008, several Manichaean texts and artefacts were identified near the village Shangwan上万村 of the township Baiyang 柏洋乡, Xiapu county 霞浦县, in the province of Fujian.35 Especially important were the manuscript finds that can be traced back to a Song dynasty Manichaean Lin Deng 林瞪 (1003−1059), who played a crucial role in establishing Manichaeism in Xiapu county and in its vicinity. According to local historical records,36 at the age of 25 (in 1027), he “left the secular life and entered the community of Religion of Light” (棄俗入明教門), and became a fervent advocate of the religion. He is said to have performed the miracle of extinguishing a menacing local fire after his death. According to witnesses he identified himself and was worshipped by them in consequence from that time on. At present, there are three villages, in which rituals are performed in honour of Lin Deng: in Baiyang 柏洋村, in Shangwan 上万村, and in Tahou 塔后村.37 This local cult of his person in turn provided fortunate conditions for Lin Deng’s Manichaean manuscripts to survive, since they also became part of the ritual activity, although they underwent change during the subsequent centuries.

Preserved in the frame of family transmission, there are approximately two dozens of surviving manuscripts, at present owned by two ritual masters (fashi 法师), Chen Peisheng 陈培生 and Xie Daolian 谢道琏. The surviving manuscripts themselves were copied during the second part of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) or early Republican era. Some of them (Xingfuzu qingdan ke 興福祖慶誕科, Zou shen die shu kece 奏申牒疏科册) survive in two different copies.

Some of the manuscripts contain Middle Iranian hymns phonetically transcribed into Chinese. Based on the reconstruction of some of these hymns, YOSHIDA YUTAKA concluded that these transcriptions may go back to the Tang period, which means that they are roughly contemporaneous with, or even earlier than, those in the Dunhuang manuscripts.38 This dating is, of course, not valid for the entire content of the manuscripts, though the non-transcribed Manichaean part also seems tobe relatively early, and can most probably be traced back at least to Lin Deng’s time, i.e. to the 11th century. During the subsequent centuries, several Buddhist, Taoist and popular religious layers were added (not always distinguishable), thus resulting in the present form.

Considering the nature of the ritual manuals and some references to the actual rituals,39 one may venture the preliminary opinion that the rituals themselves do not go back to any specific Manichaean rite, but should be rather placed in the context of Chinese popular religion, which, in this form at least, is basically rooted in the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing dynasties. Chinese folk religion absorbed various Daoist elements, thus it is frequently emphasized that the Daoist elements in these texts are more dominant than the Buddhist ones.40

The manuscripts are almost exclusively of ritual nature: they basically contain hymns, invocations, and prayers, with specific instructions added for the correct performance of the rituals, which seem tobe predominantly funerary ones. During these rites various deities, including Manichaean, Daoist, Buddhist and local ones, are invoked to protect the deceased’s soul during his/her journey to the otherworld. Shangwan villagers, for example, gather at Leshantang temple on the 15th of the seventh month to perform a big annual rite for the deceased members of the community, while the ritual master recites some of the texts.41 Some other manuscripts are more directly related to the cult of Lin Deng: the Xingfuzu qingdan ke, for example, commemorates Lin Deng’s birthday and is used during the particular festival (according to the Chinese lunar calendar the 13th of the second month). Many Chinese scholars think that the popular religious nature of these texts is essentially important.42 Since Chinese popular religion is replete with Daoist and Buddhist motifs, it is hardly possible to determine if a certain Daoist motif arrived with the Manichaean content or if it had been already present in the popular religious system, when it became merged with the Manichaean texts.

In view of the non-systematic characteristic of the texts, the apparent absence of a Manichaean-like church hierarchy, the lack of typical Manichaean festivals and Manichaean precepts, as well as the pre...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Cover
• Titelseite
• Impressum
• Vorwort der Herausgeber
• Inhalt
• Einleitende Bemerkungen
• Teil I Religionswissenschaftliche Einführung
• Teil II Der östliche Manichäismus in seiner eigenen Überlieferung
• Teil III Der östliche Manichäismus und interkulturelle Fragestellungen
• Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen Neue Folge