The nature of the “Debate over Whether a Buddhist Monk (śramaṇa) Should
Bow Before an Emperor” (the “Debate”) during the Eastern Jin Dynasty can be
understood as an “argument over court rituals.” The purpose of the “Debate” was
to determine the codes of behavior of a monk during an audience with an emperor,
which had not been expounded by the Confucian Classics. To be more specific,
the discussion revolved around the “bowing rituals.” Disagreements and
contentions about the “bowing rituals” frequently occurred during the Eastern Jin
dynasty. Such frequent occurrences demonstrated that people at that time
intended to reaffirm the power relations and social hierarchies between emperors
and their ministers through ceremonial ritual protocols. Since the “Debate”
occurred within the context of “argument over court rituals,” its implication
transcends the traditional view of Confucian-Buddhist debates, and signals a
possibility to reexamine the “Debate” from the interrelated perspectives of ritual
concepts and political order. Keeping this complexity in mind, this paper begins
its investigation by pointing out that the crux of the “Debate” lies in “zai san jhih
yi,” which broaches the issue of the identity of monks in a nation’s political order.
Furthermore, this paper analyzes two representative approaches to the
“Debate”— Huan Xuan’s theory of “zih sheng jhih de” and Hui Yuan’s idea of
“fang wai jhih bin”— and reveals how Huan Xuan and Hui Yuan transformed the
generally accepted concept of ceremonial rituals so as to construct their own
discourses. In doing so, this paper explores the political significance underlying
the narrative strategies employed by Huan Xuan and Hui Yuan respectively.