Blood writing as extraordinary artifact and agent for socioreligious change

Abstract

This paper explores blood written texts, particularly Buddhist scriptures, as unique artifacts of sanctity. It also examines the extraordinary uses of blood in premodern times and how people have negotiated socioreligious relationships in their production of blood writings, which were seen as a product of meticulous, controlled ritual practice, an act of asceticism par excellence. We typically think of written text as a means to an end, an expression of ideas and knowledge that privilege the written word as the carrier of message, something to be read and understood. However, Buddhist “blood writing” challenges these received notions of how meaning is communicated; blood writings are far more than carriers of a message. When we view these documents, when we experience their material presence and, at the same time, understand their extraordinary mode of production, we have a unique opportunity to appreciate the socioreligious significance of such texts in the premodern world of East Asia.