Guanyin:

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Guanyin Feminization and Historicization
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Bodhisattva Guanyin (Kuan-yin)

• Avalokitesvara (India), Lokesvara (Cambodia),
  Lokanatha (Burma), Natha Deviyo (Sri Lanka),
  Chenresig (Tibet)
• Kennon or kwannon (Japan)
• Kwanseum (Korea)
• Quan-am (Vietnam)

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Guanyin AvalokiteSvara

• Originally a minor figure in some major Mahayana
  scriptures such as the Vimalakirti Sutra
• Figured prominently in the Huayan Sutra and the
  Lotus Sutra.
• Most prominent in the Pure Land Sutras,
• Chief attendant to Amitabha Buddha
• another is Mahathamaprapta
• Prominent in Chinese Buddhist art
• Water-moon, White-robed, Fish-basket,
  Clam-dwelling, Wife of Mr. Ma

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Guanyin and Gender
Polychromed Wood95 x 65 inches (241.3 cm)
Chinese Shanxi ProvinceLiao Dynasty(A.D.
907-1125)
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Guanyin, Late Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127)
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Feminization of Guanyin and Gender Relations

• Guanyins feminization in the context of
  traditional Chinese culture and of gender
  relations

Why must Guanyin have become a goddess anyway?
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• Chinese image of male/female differences
• Chinese conceptualization of the quality of
  compassion it is a female/maternal virtue
• Chinese cultural tradition defines
• intellect and reason as masculine traits,
• whereas emotion and feeling as feminine ones

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• In a Chinese family
• father is regarded as strict, mother
  compassionate (Yanfu cimu)
• Wisdom is an attribute of father compassion,
  that of mother

Bodhisattva, large wood sculpture, Song Dynasty
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• Indian view
• Mother, symbol of wisdom
• Father, love
• Wisdom is a dominant feminine quality
• Compassion, masculine

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Guanyin Must be Feminine other rationales

• Absence of powerful female deities
• Nu Wa, Queen Mother of the West were short-lived
• Male gods dominated the pantheon of Chinese folk
  religions
• A female Guanyin is the mother figure par
  excellence she loves indiscriminatingly

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Further Feminization of Guanyin

• Scriptural basis of Guanyins female identity
• In the Universal Gateway chapter of the Lotus
  Sutra, 7 of the 33 manifestations are feminine
• Nun, lay woman, wife of an elder, householder,
  official, Brahmin, and girl.
• In the Surangama Sutra, 6 of 32 manifestations
  are feminine
• Nun, lay woman, queen, princess, noble lady,
  virgin maiden.

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• Sectarian religions in late imperial China
  appropriated Guanyin through these
• production of new apocryphal scriptures, such as
  The True Scripture of Guanyins Original Vow of
  Universal Salvation
• Creation of new identity of Guanyin
• Elevation of Guanyins status to that of the
  Buddha
• Often referred to as Venerable/Supreme Mother
  Goddess

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Indigenous/Apocryphal Scriptures

• Reasons for the making of indigenous/apocryphal
  Chinese scriptures
• Promoted the interest of the ruling authority
• Criticized policies of the ruling authority
• Reconciled differences between Buddhism and
  traditional Chinese thoughts, both Confucianism
  and Daoism
• Advocated/proselytized a specific faith
• Enhanced a cult of a national hero/heroine
• Promised cures, blessings and other miracles to
  help maintain peoples well-being

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• Artistic representations, dating from 10th
  century, as portrayed in the Guanyin jing are
  found in Dunhuang cave
• mural Paintings
• Illustrated booklets
• Sculptures
• All Inspired new female divinities in post-Tang
  times

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• The Princess Miao Shan
• The Queen of Heaven, or Mazu
• The Princess of Azure Clouds (Bixia yuanjun)
• The Unborn Mother (Wusheng laomu)

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Guanyins Image Multiplied

• Guanyin assumed different forms, they
  authenticated and reinforced one another
• The Fish-basket Guanyin,
• Guanyin of the South Sea
• White-robed Guanyin
• Women (artists) contributed to Guanyins
  feminization,
• Guanyin and the veneration of Her, somehow,
  did/could not empower women

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Myths and Legends Euhemerize Guanyin

• Give him birthday
• Establish his sacred abode in Mt. Putuo in
  Eastern Zhejiang
• Transform his gender and identity
• Creating Princess Miao-shan stories and icons
• Fictional accounts in precious scrolls, e.g.,
  Precious Scroll of Xiangshan (Hsiang-shan)
• Fictional accounts in novels

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Miao-shan Legend

• Formation
• Lay society created a new image and identity of
  Guanyin (5th c)
• A woman who saved, healed, people
• a filial girl who refused to get married
• Lay society spread Miao-shan story and Guanyin
  worship

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• Important themes
• gift of the bodybody parts as gifts
• Filial piety expanded to repayment (paying back
  debts owed to parents)
• Chanting evokes Guanyins salvific response
• Great compassion dharani
• Guanyin meditation mudra

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1000-armed Kannon (Senju Kannon)8th century,
Fujii-dera (in Osaka)
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Avalokitesvara in Angkor, Cambodia Lokesvara
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Tibetan form of Avalokitesvara ( Four-armed
Chenrezig)
Vietnam, Hanoi region
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Avalokiteshvara in South Vietnam (8th and 9th
century Bronze, Museum of the history of Ho Chi
Minh City),
Seated statue of Senju-Kannon, Kyoto,
Sanjusangen-do
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Guanyin (Kuan-yin) Assumes the Role of a Savior

• The Lotus Sutra (chap. Universal Gateway)
• The Contemplation Sutra (or The Sutra of
  Visualization on Amitayus Buddha)
• The Surangama Sutra
• The Karandavyudha Sutra

By Wu Daozi, Tang Dynasty
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• Guanyins abilities
• Transformation in the sense of polymorphism
• thirty-three forms
• Can transgress all distinctions of gender, age,
  social or spiritual status
• Can be a Buddha, Brama, a Brahman, an elder, a
  rich mans wife, a sovereign or a simple
  official, a minister or a monk, a boy or a girl,
  a divinity, a yaksa or a naga,

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Palmers Book

• The authors give the following reasons for the
  feminization/gender change of Guanyin in China
• Appearance of Virgin Marys image in China along
  with the spread of Christian churches (strictly
  Nestorian Christiantys church) in Tang times.
• The quest for and interest in the Divine Feminine
  to compensate for the patriarchal or
  male-dominated nature of Buddhism

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• competition with Daoism, in which Queen Mother of
  West was its goddess, impelled Buddhists to
  created a female deity for Buddhism
• If compassion, considered by the Chinese a
  womans quality, is Avalokitesvaras attribute,
  he has to be female
• child-bearing image of Guanyin was influenced by
  images of Isis/Mary/Mother of Christ

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• the spread of Guanyin from China to Korea and
  Japan, and religious elements in these two
  countries, such as their goddesses, also helped
  multiply Guanyins female forms
• Countless stories about miracles associated with
  Guanyin have been told or heard. A recurrent
  theme in these stories is that people are
  miraculously rescued from perils when they see
  the epiphany of Guanyin

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• The book also tells the legend of Princess Miao
  Shan (pp.36 on) told in the 12th century
•  Locations related to the myths and legends of
  Guanyin
• Hangzhou (p.37 on)
• Xianshan (p.40)
• and Putuo Mountain (p.41) (originally a Daoist
  mountain, called Meicen Shan)

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• Avatamsaka Sutra (the Huayan Jing, or Flower
  Ornament Sutra/Flower Garland sutra), tells
  stories about Sudhana (????, Child of Wealth)
  meeting 53 spiritual masters who help him attain
  enlightenment
• the 28th true friend/spiritual master that he
  encounters is Guanyin who lives on an island
  called Potalaka described as an isolated place
  at the end of the ocean and identified as Putuo
  Mountain

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• In China, some sixty (64) ethnic minority peoples
  also help shape female images of Guanyin and
  spread cult of Guanyin
• As mentioned earlier, Guanyin can also be found
  in Daoist temples, which are supposed to honor
  Daoist deity Heavenly Venerable Savior from
  Suffering, Guanyins double. In other words,
  Guanyin transcends barriers between Buddhism and
  Daoism

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• Countless stories/legends related to Guanyin have
  been/are being/will be told and recorded
• Many originate from Buddhist apocryphal
  scriptures, or indigenous Buddhist scriptures
• These scriptures emerged as early as the Tang
  Dynasty and continued to multiply later on
• Among Palmers three types of Guanyin tale, the
  first type Guanyin in Creation Myth is based on
  indigenous Buddhist scriptures whose stories are
  repeatedly modified and expanded