A Contest of Believers:

Episodes 17 and 33 in the Hokke genki Written by Chingen

Abstract

This paper focuses on the episodes in Chingen’s 鎮源setsuwa compilation, the Hokke genki 法華験記, that compare the virtues of believing in the Lotus Sutra to other belief systems, examining how the Hokke genki adopts earlier references to indicate the superiority of belief in the Lotus Sutra. As a result, it was found that Chingen used a variety of story-telling techniques in this work, whereby he clarified the plots of, and exchanged character roles from parallel stories in earlier works such as the Kanzeon ōgenki 観世音応験記, Hokke denki 法華伝記, and Hokekyōshū genki 法華経集験記. Furthermore, this report shows that the Hokke genki comparatively played down the Prajñāparāmitā Sūtra while praising the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, a tendency likely influenced by Tendai school doctrinal classification systems.