Table of Contents

Preface Appendixes A. Stele Text of the "Life of the Great Compassionate One" B. Chinese Women Pilgrims' Songs Glorifying Kuan-yin Notes Glossary and Index 1. Introduction 2. Scriptural Sources for the Cult of Kuan-yin 3. Indigenous Scriptures and the Cult of Kuan-yin 4.Miracle Tales and the Domestication of Kuan-yin 5. Divine Monks and the Domestication of Kuan-yin 6. Indigenous Iconographies and the Domestication of Kuan-yin 7. The Ritual of Great Compassion Repentance and the Domestication of the Thousand-handed and the Thousand-eyed Kuan-yin in the Sung 8. Princess Miao-shan and the Feminization of Kuan-yin 9. P'ut'o Shan: Pilgrimage and the Creation of the Chinese Potalaka 10. Feminine Forms of Kuan-yin in Late Imperial China 11. Venerable Mother: Kuan-yin and Sectarian Religions in Late Imperial China 12. Conclusion

Promotional Information

Yu presents a groundbreaking, comprehensive study of one of the most popular and important "deities" in the Buddhist pantheon-one who changed gender as he/she was imported into China from India. Yu explores this dramatic transformation of the (male) Indian bodhisattva Avalokitesvara into the (female) Chinese Kuan-yin-from a relatively minor figure in the Buddha's retinue to a universal savior and one of the most popular deities in Chinese religion.

About the Author

Chun-fang Yu is professor and chair of the Department of Religion at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She is the author of The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia) and coeditor of Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China.

Reviews

A major case study of the Mahayana concept of upaya... excellent and comprehensive. Journal of Religion