On a Five-Colored Cloud: The Songs of Mount Wutai

Abstract

The Mount Wutai poems' take as their theme the Buddhist concept of nirmanakdya, or bianxian l: the idea that buddhas and bodhisattvas can transform themselves and vary their manifestations at will according to the needs of individual beings. These transformations and manifestations take place on Chinese soil, and even, more importantly, in the Chinese imagination. However, in the Mount Wutai poems, a unique Buddhist imagination also emerges: a cloud no longer appears as the floating cloud so familiar in the Chinese literary tradition but as a five-colored cloud or nimbus surrounding the bodhisattva Mafijuiri and his various forms. The five-colored cloud is one of many numinous traces (lingji M~p), or holy traces (shengji w`E), of Mafijuiri and other extraordinary beings which appear repeatedly in the Mount Wutai poems. Buddhas, bodhisattvas, arhats, and other divine beings change into forms both understandable and suitable to the person experiencing the manifestation. Although the goal of these transformations and manifestations is to save the recipient, they are colorful, magical, entertaining, and far more comprehensible than abstract or esoteric Buddhist doctrines.