The Administration of Buddhism in China: A Study and Translation ...

excised.¹³ In the end, biographies conformed to models or types that reflected these social values far more than “individual” character.

2. Zanning: The Dual Legacy of a Secular Official and Buddhist Monk

As mentioned above, the traditions of biographical writing in China pertain to Zanning both as an author and as a subject. As a historian, biography writing figured prominently in the works of Zanning. The major work on Buddhist history that Zanning is known for, the Biographies of Eminent Monks compiled in the Song dynasty (Song gaoseng zhuan 宋高僧傳), is a major source for the study of Buddhist monks in China.¹⁴ Zanning’s other major extant work, the Topical Compendium of the Buddhist Clergy (Seng shilüe 僧史略), draws heavily from information recorded in histories and biographies in its analysis of subjects arranged according to topic.¹⁵ Neither work can be categorized as “standard history” (zheng shi 正史), a classification reserved for dynastic histories, but both works were compiled under imperial commission and bore the mark of imperial imprimatur. The influence of historiographical conventions on Zanning’s works on history will be considered below. Our main concern here is Zanning as biographical subject. How did Chinese historiographical conventions determine the image of Zanning preserved in his biographies? Before embarking on this course, I would like first to provide a general introduction ot Zanning and the context he lived in.

First and foremost, Zanning was a man of his times. The tenth century was a period of great change in China. The formal end of Tang rule in 906 ushered in a period of regional independence, a trend traceable to the An Lushan 安祿山 rebellion of the mid-eighth century. While warlord factions competed for control in the north and usurped the imperial banner, regional military commanders (jiedu shi 節度使) carved out autonomous enclaves in the south.¹⁶ Important changes affecting the nature of Chinese society, politics, and economics were being worked