Ornamenting Liturgies—Scripts for a Zhai Feast and Their Liturgical Context (6th–10th Centuries)

Abstract

Shortly after Buddhism entered China, the character zhai 齋—an indigenous term originally referring to a purificatory ritual performed before a sacrificial rite in early Chinese religion—began to be used to denote several interrelated concepts in Chinese translations of Indian texts. In Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese before the Tang, the term zhai is mostly used to refer to the lay practice of the “Eightfold Observance” (Skt. a.s.tā . nga-samanvāgatôpavāsa; baguanzhai 八關齋) or the related feast hosted on a po.sadha day (i.e., the eighth, fourteenth, fifteenth, twenty-third, twenty-ninth, or thirtieth of every lunar month).1 As Chinese Buddhism rapidly took form, the meanings of the zhai in Chinese Buddhism evolved alongside developments in doctrine and practice. From the fourth to the sixth century, zhai was also employed to refer to a Chinese liturgy termed zhaichan 齋懺 (or sometimes just zhai) that combines aspects of the “Eightfold Observance” (i.e., the lay po.sadha), the monastic po.sadha, and Mahāyāna repentance practices into one ritual form.2 Aside from these various zhai rituals, zhai has continued, from the early medieval period on, to refer to a Buddhist feast sponsored by a patron.3 As historical