RT Article
T1 Chinese Lunar Stations and Indian Nakṣatras in the Sui and Tang Periods
JF Religions
VO 14
IS 10
A1 Kotyk, Jeffrey
LA English
PB MDPI
YR 2023
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1861505086
AB The twenty-eight “lunar stations” (ershiba xiu 二十八宿) are unique in Chinese intellectual history in that they served as functional equivalents for Indian nakṣatras, which are also a type of lunar station (or mansion), but in practice these were quite different from the comparable Chinese system. The native Chinese lore of lunar stations as it was understood in the Sui period was outlined in the Wuxing dayi 五行大義 by Xiao Ji 蕭吉 (c. 530–610), which is a manual of Chinese metaphysics free of any Buddhist influences. We might compare the content in this text to writings by contemporary Buddhists, such as Jizang 吉藏 (549–623) and Zhiyi 智顗 (539–598), to illustrate the extent to which native, rather than foreign, astral lore took precedence in the writings of Buddhists in the Sui and Tang periods. This study will demonstrate that Buddhists in China struggled with understanding the nakṣatras and even when faced with the opportunity to adopt an orthodox Indian model, they shifted toward a kind of hybridized system.
K1 Moon
K1 Amoghavajra
K1 Tiantai
K1 Sanlun
K1 Zhanran
K1 Jizang
K1 Zhiyi
K1 Xiao Ji
K1 Buddhism
K1 Astronomy
DO 10.3390/rel14101276