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

the Guitian lu are those of one especially fond of meddling; Duke Ouyang erroneously adopted them.”¹¹⁰ In addition, the Orthodox Transmission counters with a story of its own, contrasting with the impression of Zanning left by the Guitian lu account.

The Orthodox Transmission story involves Wang Yucheng, suggesting that the real suspicions regarding Zanning’s commitment to Buddhism stemmed from Wang, and seeming to imply that he was the “one especially fond of meddling” that Ouyang Xiu’s account was allegedly based on. The story is not a defense of Zanning per se, but a justification for the practice of performing prostrations before the Buddha on the part of emperors, a practice that Zanning, according to the Guitian lu, failed to advocate. During the Lantern Festival, according to the Orthodox Transmission, the Hanlin Academician Wang Yucheng criticized the plan calling for the emperor to meaninglessly engage in the pretext of making prostrations before the image of the Buddha, questioning how the emperor could be so excessively indulgent of Buddhism. By claiming that Emperors Gaozong (r. 1127-1162) and Xiaozong (r. 1162-1189), the first two emperor of the Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279), always go down on their knees before the image of the Buddha when attending Lantern Festival celebrations on Mount Tianzhu,¹¹¹ the Orthodox Transmission counters the Guitian lu with a story of its own designed to defend allegations against Zanning’s alleged leniency toward imperial authority. Zanning did not, as Ouyang Xiu contends, condone the practice of offering incense to the Buddha without performing prostrations.

In contrast to Wang Yucheng’s preface, the Orthodox Transmission biography emphasizes Zanning’s defense of Buddhism and service to the Buddhist faithful. The image of Zanning as wen master, central to Wang’s preface, is acknowledged, but ultimately peripheral in the Orthodox Transmission account of Zanning as a defender of the Dharma. Rather than a “Confucian monk,” the image of Zanning that emerges from the Orthodox Transmission is of a committed Buddhist operating in a hostile environment dominated by Confucians. Even when this