| Mulian Rescues His Mother | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Mulian and his mother Madame Liu (19th century) | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 《目連救母》 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 《目连救母》 | ||||||||
| Literal meaning | Moggallāna Rescues His Mother | ||||||||
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Mulian Rescues His Mother or Mulian Saves His Mother From Hell is a popular Chinese Buddhist tale first attested in a Dunhuang manuscript dating to the early 9th century CE.[1] It is an elaboration of the canonical Yulanpen Sutra which was translated from Indic sources by Dharmarakṣa sometime between 265 and 311 CE.[2] Maudgalyayana (Pali: Moggallāna), whose abbreviated Chinese transliteration is Mulian,[3] seeks the help of the Buddha to rescue his mother, who has been reborn in the preta world (in canonical sutra) or in the Avici Hell (in elaborated tale), the karmic retribution for her transgressions. Mulian cannot rescue her by his individual effort, however, but is instructed by the Buddha to offer food and gifts to monks and monasteries on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, which established the Ghost Festival (Chinese: 鬼節; pinyin: guǐjié). While Mulian's devotion to his mother reassured East Asians that Buddhism did not undermine the Confucian value of filial piety and helped to make Buddhism into a Chinese religion, it also reflected strong undercurrents of filial piety that existed throughout Indian Buddhism as evidenced through its canonical texts and epigraphical remains.[4]
The story developed many variations and appeared in many forms. Tang dynasty texts discovered early in the twentieth century at Dunhuang in Gansu revealed rich stories in the form of chuanqi ('transmissions of the strange') or bianwen ('transformation tales'). Mulian and his mother appeared onstage in operas, especially folk-opera, and have been the subject of films and television series. The story became a standard part of Buddhist funeral services, especially in the countryside, until the end of the twentieth century. The legend spread quickly to other parts of East Asia, and was one of the earliest to be written down in the literature of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.[5]
Another canonical version similar to the Yulanpen Sutra, has Sāriputta as the chief protagonist and is recorded in the Theravāda Petavatthu. It is the basis of the custom of offering foods to the hungry ghosts and the Ghost Festival in the cultures of Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Laos.[6]
- ^ Teiser p 44. "The manuscript of The Transformation Text on Mulien Saving His Mother, for instance, may be dated only to around the year 800, while the storytelling traditions preserved in it probably extend back at least a few centuries before that.
- ^ Karashima Seishi (March 2013). "The Meaning of Yulanpen 盂蘭盆 "Rice Bowl" On Pravāraṇā Day" (PDF). Annual Report of the International Research Institute F<or Advance Buddhology at Soka University for the Academic Year 2012. XVI: 289,301,302.
p.302 -Although this sutra has often been regarded as apocryphal [Japanese version has in recent times], the contents and ideas in it are well rooted in India as we have seen above. In addition to that, the vocabulary and usage of Chinese words are more archaic, compared with Kumārajīva's corpus (401–413 CE), while they resemble greatly the translations by Dharmarakṣa (fl. 265?–311 CE). Moreover, the transliteration 鉢和羅 (EH pat γwa la > MC pwât γwâ lâ} of Skt. pravāra(ṇā), which only occurs in this sutra and its adaptation, i.e. the Baoen Fengpen jing 報恩奉盆經 (T. 16, no. 686, 780a20), indicates clearly that this sutra is not apocryphal but a genuine translation, because only somebody who knew the original Indian form was able to transliterate it thus correctly into Chinese. In conclusion, I assume [<-missing in Japanese version] that this sutra is not apocryphal, but a translation from an Indian text translated by Dharmarakṣa or somebody else in pre-Kumārajīva times [Japanese version has 3rd to 4th century CE]. [c.f. p 189 for equivalent in Japanese version] Also c.f. p 301 for derivation of Yulan from Middle Indic (Gandhari) *olana.
- ^ Mulian is the preferred Chinese transliteration for Maudgalyayana. We also see Mujianlian and Damujianlian.
- ^ Guang Xing (2016). "The Teaching and Practice of Filial Piety In Buddhism". Journal of Law and Religion. 31 (2): 212–226. doi:10.1017/jlr.2016.20.
summary : Numerous early sutras or suttas talk about filial piety e.g. Katanna Sutta, Dighajanu Sutta, Sabrahma Sutta, Samyuktaratnapitaka Sutra, Mahayanna Sutta, Sigalovada Sutta, Vatapada Sutta, Matuposaka Sutta, Samyuktagama Sutra no. 506, Sama Jataka, Syama Jataka (represented on relief in Sanchi Stupa, Gandhara reliefs, Ajanta Caves c.f. pp 220–221)
- ^ Teiser (1988), pp. 8–9.
- ^ How Did Moggallana and Sariputta Rescue their Mothers from the Hungry Ghost Realm?