Seeking the Origins: Reconsidering the Impact of “Origins of the Śākyas” (Shishi yuanliu 釋氏源流) on Ming Book Culture

The fifteenth-century illustrated compilation “Origins of the Śākyas” (Shishi yuanliu 釋氏源流) is considered the most important retelling of the life of the Buddha in late imperial China, yet its impact on Chinese (and East Asian) book culture has been surprisingly overlooked. Spanning four hundred episodes, presented in the “picture-above-text” format, Shishi yuanliu couples the life of the Buddha with a pseudo-historical survey of Chinese Buddhism from antiquity to the Yuan dynasty. The monk Baocheng who compiled Shishi yuanliu strove to create a grand vision of Buddhist teachings, rituals, and history that would be both comprehensive and accessible to a wide audience. In its vision of Chinese Buddhism as deeply rooted in the life story of its founder, it draws on the realms of genealogy, hagiography, and historiography, yet transcends all three genres. In this talk, I will discuss Shishi yuanliu vis-à-vis other Ming accounts of “origins” (yuanliu 源流 and chushen 出身) in daily-life encyclopaedias, hagiographic anthologies, and popular narratives (xiaoshuo 小說), arguing that Shishi yuanliu represents an important milestone in the development of Ming book culture beyond the realm of Buddhism.