Ouyi Zhixu (1599–1655) was an eminent Chinese Buddhist monk who, contrary to his contemporaries, believed karma could be changed. Through vows, divination, repentance rituals, and ascetic acts such as burning and blood writing, he sought to alter what others understood as inevitable and inescapable. Drawing attention to Ouyi's unique reshaping of religious practice, Living Karma reasserts the significance of an overlooked individual in the modern development of Chinese Buddhism.
While Buddhist studies scholarship tends to privilege textual analysis, Living Karma promotes a balanced study of ritual practice and writing, treating Ouyi's texts as ritual objects and his reading and writing as religious acts. Each chapter addresses a specific religious practice—writing, divination, repentance, vows, and bodily rituals—offering first a diachronic overview of each practice within the history of Chinese Buddhism and then a synchronic analysis of each phenomenon through close readings of Ouyi's work. This book sheds much-needed light on a little-known figure and his representation of karma, which proved to be a seminal innovation in the religious thought of late imperial China.
- Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Karma as a Narrative Device in Ouyi’s Autobiography
- 2. Divination as a Karmic Diagnostic
- 3. Repentance Rituals for Eliminating Karma
- 4. Vowing to Assume the Karma of Others
- 5. Slicing, Burning, and Blood Writing: Karmic Transformations of Bodies
- Conclusion
- Appendix 1. A Translation of Ouyi’s Autobiography
- Appendix 2. A Map of Ouyi’s Life
- Notes
- Glossary of Terms, People, Places, and Titles of Texts
- Bibliography
- Index
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