The Pitfalls of Piety for Married Women

Two Precious Scrolls of the Ming Dynasty

Wilt L. Idema

• Publisher: Cornell East Asia Series
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781501758362
• eBook ISBN: 9781501758379
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Asian Literary Collections
• Index: Literature

The Pitfalls of Piety for Married Women shows how problematic the practice of Buddhist piety could be in late imperial China. Two thematically related "precious scrolls" (baojuan) from the Ming dynasty, The Precious Scroll of the Red Gauze and The Precious Scroll of the Handkerchief, illustrate the difficulties faced by women whose religious devotion conflicted with the demands of marriage and motherhood.

These two previously untranslated texts tell the stories of married women whose piety causes them to be separated from their husbands and children. While these women labor far away, their children are cruelly abused by murderous stepmothers. Following many adventures, the families are reunited by divine intervention and the evil stepmothers get their just deserts. While the texts in The Pitfalls of Piety for Married Women praise Buddhist piety, they also reveal many problems concerning married women and mothers.

Wilt L. Idema's translations are preceded by an introduction that places these scrolls in the context of Ming dynasty performative literature, vernacular literature, and popular religion. Set in a milieu of rich merchants, the texts provide a unique window to family life of the time, enriching our understanding of gender during the Ming dynasty. These popular baojuan offer rare insights into lay religion and family dynamics of the Ming dynasty, and their original theme and form enrich our understanding of the various methods of storytelling that were practiced at the time.

The Precious Scroll, as Preached by the Buddha, of the Handkerchief: How Wang Zhongqing Lost Everything

The Hymn for Raising the Incense

The precious scroll, wrapped in a kerchief,

Descends to the dharma world here below.

The bodhisattva ferries across all living beings

And awakens the people of this secular realm.

Throughout the past and the present

The words of the sutras are perfectly the same.

Hail to the Bodhisattva Mahāsattva who saves from sufferings and disasters! (The community repeats this three times.)

The Gatha for Opening the Scroll

The unsurpassable and unfathomable subtle and wonderful Dharma

Is rarely encountered in a hundred thousands of millions of kalpas.

Now I today have seen it and heard it and can receive and uphold it,

I desire to understand the Tathāgata’s true and substantial meaning.

Hail to the Three Treasures of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha of the Past, the Present, and the Future that, Utterly Void, Pervade the dharma world!

I have heard about a case of cause and fruit that occurred during the present dynasty¹ in our country. It concerns bodhisattvas and arhats who descended to the mortal world.

In the old days there was a village called Sanxian, also known as Bali Hamlet, outside the Eastern Capital, the city of Bian of the state of Liang.² There lived a rich man, a local notable, who was called Wang Zhongqing. His wife Zhang Suzhen from birth loved good deeds, and from her earliest years maintained the fast; she read the sutras and recited the name of the Buddha, feasted monks, and distributed donations, widely forming good karma. Now Wang Zhongqing’s heart was not pious, so he said to his wife, “The ancients put it very well: A family may have a thousand strings of cash, but if there is no daily income [it will not suffice]. When you feast those monks and hand out donations, we have only expenses and no returns. Drink some more good wine and eat some more good meat, to satiate and feed the four elements,³ and to enrich and strengthen the body; dress yourself in satin and silk to enhance the impression you make. To keep the fast and follow a vegetarian diet will only uselessly harm your five organs and their six gods.”⁴

When Suzhen had heard this, she secretly heaved a sigh:

The struggle for fame and pursuit of profit is all in vain!

“My dear husband,

Please listen to me

And let me explain it in full:

These four elements

Will decompose

Into a hole of shit and piss.

[The human body]

Will not last long,

[Death may arrive any day,]

[So I pray] you

To quickly convert

And use the fake to seek truth.⁵

During their lifetime

People scheme in vain

To amass gold and collect jade,

But truly alas,

The unfeeling

Sun and moon urge you on.

In vain you collect

Millions of taels,⁶

But silver and gold have no use:

When Death arrives

You will find out

That all your labor was useless.”

When rich man Wang

Had heard these words,

He replied in the following way,

“By keeping the fast

You wrongly harm

The five organs, their six gods.

All day long

You keep the fast

But feast and fatten the monks,

Yet when Death arrives,

You too can’t escape

Going ...

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Chinese Dynasties
• Introduction
• The Precious Scroll, as Preached by the Buddha, of Little Huaxian
• The Precious Scroll, as Preached by the Buddha, of the Handkerchief
• Appendix
• Bibliography