Diamond Sutra Narratives: Textual Production and Lay Religiosity in Medieval China.

• Author: Benn, James A.

Diamond Sutra Narratives: Textual Production and Lay Religiosity in Medieval China. By CHIEW HUI Ho. Sinica Leidensia, vol. 144. Leiden: BRILL, 2019. Pp. xiv + 520. $159.

This excellent study is based on a dissertation produced at Stanford University that was inspired in part by the interest of Chiew Hui Ho's supervisor Paul Harrison in the Diamond Sutra. It is a comprehensive study of miracle tales (although Ho prefers not to use that term) associated with the Diamond Sutra. This is an important and substantial body of Buddhist literature that has yet to be studied as deeply and intensively as miracle tales associated with the Lotus Sutra. Ho has produced an exemplary piece of research that deserves to be widely read and appreciated. This is a substantial work and the writing is dense, detailed, and nuanced. The main body of Diamond Sutra Narratives consists of two parts. Part 1, "Study," contains five chapters. Part 2, "Translation," presents translations of three collections of Diamond Sutra narratives. There are also six appendices. In an age when academic monographs in our field seem to be shrinking rapidly, it is refreshing to see a detailed, full-length investigation of an important body of Chinese Buddhist literature. The book is unapologetically scholarly in tone and will be most appreciated by experts in the field. But it is very well written and despite the subtitle it is not confined to the medieval period. I imagine that scholars of times and places other than medieval China will find much to enjoy here.

Chapter 1 places in historical context the Diamond Sutra and its rise to popularity among Buddhist lay communities in China. Chapter 2 seeks to explain how and why Diamond Sutra narratives appealed to a lay audience and created a following of devotees. In chapter 3, Ho explores the unique features of the cult of the Diamond Sutra as represented in the narratives. Chapter 4 focuses on the place of the Diamond Sutra in practices related to death and the afterlife. Chapter 5 assesses the long-term impact of the Diamond Sutra and its narratives on East Asian religions and beyond, in Tibet, Mongolia, and Central Asia.

Diamond Sutra Narratives is published by Brill and not by a university press, so it maintains certain sinological standards that readers of this journal will likely appreciate. Names, terms, and titles appear complete with Chinese characters in the text. There are footnotes rather than endnotes. Ho provides ample and...