Teaching Buddhism in a Confucian Society onks frequently told stories to teach ordi- nary people the tenets of Buddhism. The story of the Indian monk Maudgalyayana (mowd-GAH-lee-yah-yah-nah) survives in a Sanskrit version, composed between 300 B.C.E. and 300 C.E., and a much longer Chinese version from a manu- script dated 921. This story has enormous appeal in China (it is frequently performed as Chinese opera or on television) because it portrays the dilemma of those who wanted to be good Confucian sons as well as good Buddhists. Maudgalyayana may have been filial, but he was unable to fulfill his Confucian obligations as a son because he did not bear a male heir. The Buddhist narrator takes greatpains to argue that he can still be a good son because Confucian offerings have no power in a Buddhist underworld. In the Sanskrit version, Maudgalyayana, one of the Buddha's disciples, realizes that his mother has been reborn in the real world and asks the Buddha in every respect. The tale contrasts the behavior of the virtuous, if slightly dim, Maudgalyayana with his mother, who never gave any support to her local monastery and even kept for herself money that her son had asked her to give the monks. As a filial son, he cannot believe her capable of any crime, and he searches through all the different compartments of the Chinese hel to find her. Unrepentant to the very ME endof the tale, sheexplains that traditional Confucian offerings to the ancestors have no power in the un- derworld. Only offerings to the Buddhist order, such as paying monks to copy Buddhist texts, can help to ease her suffering. At the end of the story, the Buddha himself frees her from the underworld, a grim series of hels that do not exist in the Sanskrit original. to help her to attain nirvana. Maudgalyayana and the Buddha travel to find the mother, who attains nirvana after hearing the Buddha preach. In the Chinese version, the protagonist retains his Indian name but acts like a typical Chinese son Sources: John Strong, "Alial Piety and Bucdhism: The Indian Antecedents to a 'Chinese' Problem," in Traditions in Contact and Change: Selected Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the Intemational As sociation for the History of Raligions, ed. Peter Slater and Donald Wiebe (Winnipeg, Man.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1980), p. 180; from Tun-huang Popular Narratives, by Victor H. Mair. Copyright© 1983 Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with pemission of Cambridge University Press. Sanskrit Verslon were fostered by her; therefore she is my From afar, [Maudgalyayana's mother] Bhadrakanya [bud-DRAH-kahn-ee-ya] saw her son, and, as soon as she saw him, she rushed up to him exclaiming, "Ah! At long last I see my little boy!" There upon the crowd of people who had assembled sald: "He is an aged wandering monk, and she is a young girl-how can she be his mother?" But the Venerable Maha Maudgalyayana replied, "Sirs, these skandhas' of mine mother." Then the Blessed One, knowing the dis- position, propensity, nature and circum- stances of Bhadrakanya, preached a sermon fully penetrating the meaning of the Four Noble Truths. And when Bhadrakanya had heard it, she was brought to the realization of the fruit of entering the stream. "skandhas The five aggregates-form, feelings, percep- tions, karmic constituents, and consciousness-which in Buddhism are the basis of the personality.

Teaching Buddhism in a Confucian Society onks frequently told stories to teach ordi- nary people the tenets of Buddhism. The story of the Indian monk Maudgalyayana (mowd-GAH-lee-yah-yah-nah) survives in a Sanskrit version, composed between 300 B.C.E. and 300 C.E., and a much longer Chinese version from a manu- script dated 921. This story has enormous appeal in China (it is frequently performed as Chinese opera or on television) because it portrays the dilemma of those who wanted to be good Confucian sons as well as good Buddhists. Maudgalyayana may have been filial, but he was unable to fulfill his Confucian obligations as a son because he did not bear a male heir. The Buddhist narrator takes greatpains to argue that he can still be a good son because Confucian offerings have no power in a Buddhist underworld. In the Sanskrit version, Maudgalyayana, one of the Buddha's disciples, realizes that his mother has been reborn in the real world and asks the Buddha in every respect. The tale contrasts the behavior of the virtuous, if slightly dim, Maudgalyayana with his mother, who never gave any support to her local monastery and even kept for herself money that her son had asked her to give the monks. As a filial son, he cannot believe her capable of any crime, and he searches through all the different compartments of the Chinese hel to find her. Unrepentant to the very ME endof the tale, sheexplains that traditional Confucian offerings to the ancestors have no power in the un- derworld. Only offerings to the Buddhist order, such as paying monks to copy Buddhist texts, can help to ease her suffering. At the end of the story, the Buddha himself frees her from the underworld, a grim series of hels that do not exist in the Sanskrit original. to help her to attain nirvana. Maudgalyayana and the Buddha travel to find the mother, who attains nirvana after hearing the Buddha preach. In the Chinese version, the protagonist retains his Indian name but acts like a typical Chinese son Sources: John Strong, "Alial Piety and Bucdhism: The Indian Antecedents to a 'Chinese' Problem," in Traditions in Contact and Change: Selected Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the Intemational As sociation for the History of Raligions, ed. Peter Slater and Donald Wiebe (Winnipeg, Man.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1980), p. 180; from Tun-huang Popular Narratives, by Victor H. Mair. Copyright© 1983 Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with pemission of Cambridge University Press. Sanskrit Verslon were fostered by her; therefore she is my From afar, [Maudgalyayana's mother] Bhadrakanya [bud-DRAH-kahn-ee-ya] saw her son, and, as soon as she saw him, she rushed up to him exclaiming, "Ah! At long last I see my little boy!" There upon the crowd of people who had assembled sald: "He is an aged wandering monk, and she is a young girl-how can she be his mother?" But the Venerable Maha Maudgalyayana replied, "Sirs, these skandhas' of mine mother." Then the Blessed One, knowing the dis- position, propensity, nature and circum- stances of Bhadrakanya, preached a sermon fully penetrating the meaning of the Four Noble Truths. And when Bhadrakanya had heard it, she was brought to the realization of the fruit of entering the stream. "skandhas The five aggregates-form, feelings, percep- tions, karmic constituents, and consciousness-which in Buddhism are the basis of the personality.