On June 16 and 17, 2026, the Center for Buddhist Studies at Fo Guang University hosted a two-day program in its International Distinguished Scholars Lecture Series, featuring Associate Professor Kuramoto Shotoku of the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University. His two lectures, titled “The Conceptual Construction and Historical Significance of Daoxuan’s Illustrated Scripture on the Ordination Platform” and “The Compilational Intent of the Illustrated Scripture on Jetavana Monastery,” examined the formation and religious significance of the late thought of Daoxuan, the eminent Tang-dynasty Vinaya master, from the perspectives of textual transmission, Vinaya practice, monastic space, and sacred objects.
The first lecture focused on Daoxuan’s Illustrated Scripture on the Ordination Platform (Jietan tujing). Associate Professor Kuramoto began by explaining that the work was among the texts composed by Daoxuan during the final year of his life, in the second year of the Qianfeng era of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang dynasty (667). It is closely related to such works as the Record of Miraculous Responses Concerning the Preservation of the Dharma, the Account of Numinous Communications Concerning the Vinaya, and the Illustrated Scripture on Jetavana Monastery. Together, these writings reflect Daoxuan’s concern with “sustaining the Three Jewels”—that is, ensuring the continued transmission of the Buddha’s teachings, sacred objects, and monastic institutions after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa.
Associate Professor Kuramoto pointed out that the Illustrated Scripture on the Ordination Platform records not only the terminology and architectural form of the ordination platform, but also the procedures for establishing ritual boundaries and conducting ordination ceremonies. More importantly, it transforms abstract Buddhist concepts into tangible spatial forms and ritual practices. Daoxuan understood the ordination platform as a sacred site established under the Buddha’s direction and constructed by heavenly beings. He also invested it with rich symbolic meanings: its three levels represent the “three emptinesses,” while the three-tiered structure, together with the inverted-bowl element and the jewel above it, constitutes the fivefold Dharma body. The platform also possesses the character of a stūpa, linking ordination upon the platform with the presence of the Buddha and the transmission of the Dharma.
The lecture also discussed the ordination procedures recorded in the Illustrated Scripture on the Ordination Platform, particularly the practice of counterclockwise circumambulation. Daoxuan interpreted this movement as reflecting “the great principle of the natural order of heaven,” as manifested in the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. This demonstrates that he did not merely follow established Vinaya regulations, but reinterpreted ordination decorum through the order of the cosmos. Associate Professor Kuramoto further explained that, through the establishment of the ordination platform, Daoxuan connected the Guanzhong region and Mount Zhongnan with the Buddhist tradition of sacred sites. The platform thus served not only as a place for performing saṅghakarman and ordination, but also as an important symbol of safeguarding the Dharma and sustaining the continuity of the monastic community.
The second lecture turned to the Illustrated Scripture on Jetavana Monastery (Qihuan si tujing), examining how Daoxuan portrayed the ideal monastery of the Buddha’s lifetime and described the transfer and preservation of its sacred objects after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. Associate Professor Kuramoto first outlined the textual history of the work, explaining that it had long been lost in China but was transmitted to Japan before the ninth century. Today, it survives primarily through editions printed during the Edo period, illustrating the significance of the transregional transmission of Buddhist texts. In terms of monastic space, the Illustrated Scripture on Jetavana Monastery depicts an immense ideal monastery composed of multiple, interpenetrating spatial levels. Buildings such as the Great Buddha Hall, the eastern and western jeweled towers, the Vinaya compound containing the ordination platform, and the Mañjuśrī compound each perform specific functions. Within them are numerous stūpas, Buddhist images, and canonical collections dating from the eras of past buddhas. The overlapping spatial conception evokes the magnificent and multidimensional world described in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. These descriptions indicate that Daoxuan’s purpose was not simply to reconstruct the historical Jetavana Monastery, but to present a complete vision of the preservation of the Dharma and the ordering of sacred space through an idealized monastic layout.
Associate Professor Kuramoto further explained that, following Śākyamuni Buddha’s parinirvāṇa, the Buddhist images, scriptural and Vinaya collections, relics, ritual implements, and other sacred objects preserved at Jetavana Monastery were transferred to such places as the heavenly realms, the dragon palace, and Mount Qingliang. Among the figures involved, the Sāgara Dragon King played an especially prominent role by taking numerous sacred objects back to the dragon palace. Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, meanwhile, carried certain important scriptures and sacred objects to the Vajra Cave on Mount Qingliang. Heavenly beings, dragon kings, and bodhisattvas thus became crucial intermediaries linking the buddhas of the past, Śākyamuni Buddha, and the future Buddha Maitreya. Through these narratives, Daoxuan reconstructed an image of how the Dharma continued after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. Sacred objects did not disappear with the destruction of monasteries; instead, they were temporarily preserved by various protectors of the Dharma and would reappear when the future Buddha entered the world. This arrangement responded to anxieties concerning the age of the decline of the Dharma, while also incorporating Jetavana Monastery in India, Mount Wutai in China, the dragon palace, and the heavenly realms into a single system of Buddhist transmission.
Across the two-day lecture series, the discussion moved from the physical construction of the ordination platform and the performance of ordination rituals to the spatial organization of the ideal monastery and the entrustment of sacred objects. Together, the lectures demonstrated how Daoxuan integrated Vinaya, narratives of numinous communication, architectural imagination, and sacred geography into a coherent intellectual system for sustaining the Buddhist Dharma. The series not only deepened participants’ understanding of Daoxuan and the Chinese Vinaya tradition of the Tang dynasty, but also offered important perspectives for reconsidering the relationships among Buddhist texts, rituals, spaces, and material culture.
