Women and Buddhism in East Asian History: The Case of the Blood Bowl Sutra, Part I: China

This two‐part series examines an often‐overlooked aspect of Buddhist practice that was ubiquitous in late medieval and early modern China and Japan: cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra. According to the logic of this indigenous Chinese sutra, women are destined for a special hell composed of uterine blood...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Religion compass 2020-04, Vol.14 (4), p.n/a
Main Author: Meeks, Lori
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:This two‐part series examines an often‐overlooked aspect of Buddhist practice that was ubiquitous in late medieval and early modern China and Japan: cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra. According to the logic of this indigenous Chinese sutra, women are destined for a special hell composed of uterine blood, where they are to be punished for the pollution they produce during childbirth and/or menstruation. While cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra have mostly disappeared in modern times—and despite the fact that they have been largely forgotten, even by historians of East Asia—they were, by the 16th and 17th centuries, a common part of women's religious lives in both China and Japan. Cults to the Blood Bowl Sutra comprised a diverse set of practices that engaged concerns about female bodies, motherhood, filial piety, and suffering in hell. Part I focuses on the development of such cults in China, and Part II focuses on the cults' spread in Japan.
ISSN:1749-8171
1749-8171
DOI:10.1111/rec3.12336