Journal of Pali and Buddhist Studies
Online ISSN : 2424-2233
Print ISSN : 0914-8604
Benevolence (仁) and Buddhist Law in The Liu Du Ji Jing
Jewel, Royal Law and Buddhist Law in Kusa-Jātaka
Chikako Ito
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JOURNAL OPEN ACCESS

2019 Volume 33 Pages 59-77

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Abstract

Buddhism spread worldwide and established its status. However, its diffusion was difficult because Buddhist teachings were hard to understand. To solely read Buddhist teachings were not to understand Buddhism. Therefore, monks used illustrative examples such as fable to explain the essence of Buddhism. Some of them were the Buddhist tales called jātaka. When Buddhist monks they deliver sermons they used these tales to make it easier for people to understand. These tales bridged the gap between teachings and people. The synopsis of Kusa-jātaka is ‘The ugly prince married a beautiful princess from a neighboring country. The princess was frightened by the prince’s ugliness and run away to her father’s kingdom. He chased her for a long time, but she kept rejecting him. One day, 7 kingdoms challenged her father’s kingdom. The ugly prince fought against the 7 kingdoms and defeated the enemies with his lion’s roar. The prince noticed his own horrible ugliness for the first time and tried to commit suicide. The Sakka (帝釈天) knew this and gave a jewel that makes the ugly prince beautiful. When he put the jewel on his head, he became very beautiful. After that, the prince and the princess lived happily. Their kingdom prospered greatly.’ I compared 6 sutras which have the same stories. The Liu Du Ji Jing (『六度集経』) is different from other sutras. In The Liu Du Ji Jing, ‘the ugly prince became beautiful because of his right governance’. I will make clear the reason why The Liu Du Ji Jing is different from other sutras. The Liu Du Ji Jing was made by Kang Seng Hui (康僧会). I think Kang Seng Hui tried to educate kings to become true kings using The Liu Du Ji Jing consisting 91 jātaka. In this paper I will solve this using the word ‘jin (仁, Benevolence)’.

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© 2019 Society for the Study of Pali and Buddhist Culture
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