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The Ramayana in China

Ji Xianlin
China Report 2012 48: 187
DOI: 10.1177/000944551104800210

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 The Raamayana in China 187

The Ramayana in China∗

Ji Xianlin

The Ramayana, one of the two great Indian epics, has had a history of at least nearly
2000 years since it came into being. It is well known that its influence has been vast and
far-reaching in India, Asia and the rest of the world. As for its influence in China, most
scholars in the past asserted that the Ramayana had not been translated into Chinese,
implying that its influence was not vast, at least on the Han nationality. Actually, this is
not true. Recently, some scholars, those who have been doing research on the literature
of the ethnic minorities in the province of Yunnan in particular, have carried out some
penetrating studies on this issue and obtained gratifying results. I have also collected
some data on the condition and influence of the dissemination of the Ramayana in
China, have formed some views and would like to inform readers.
In order to compare various versions of the Ramayana with the Sanskrit original,
I will first of all briefly mention the plot of the story of Rama. Although the definitive
edition of the Ramayana extends to almost 20,000 slokas, the main story is relatively
simple. Ravana, the ten-headed king of the Raksasas, is a bully of both men and gods.
The God Visnu transforms himself into four bodies, descends on earth in the form of
the four sons of Dasaratha. Kausalya, the first queen, gives birth to Rama. Kaikeyi, the
second queen, bore Bharata, and Sumitra, the third queen, produces Laksmana and
Satrughna. Rama marries Sita picked up from a ditch by king Janaka as her daughter.
Dasaratha intends to have Rama as the crown prince. The second queen imposes on
him to send Rama into exile for 14 years and appoint her own son Bharata as the
crown prince. Rama, Sita and Laksmana obey the king and live in exile in the wild
forest. After Dasaratha dies, Bharata goes to the forest to entreat Rama to return to
the capital to assume the throne. Rama declines. The ten-headed demon king Ravana

∗ First published in 1986 as “Luomoyanna zai Zhongguo” [Ramayana in China]. The

first English translation, by Richard Edwards and Yu Dong, appeared in 1987. The present version is
revised and edited by Professor Liu Jian of the Chinese Academy of Social Science. While the original
version included sections on Ramayana story among the minority people of China, this essay focuses on
the Chinese language material. Diacritical marks were not included in the original English version, and
thus are also not provided here.

CHINA REPORT 48 : 1&2 (2012): 187–198

SAGE Publications Los Angeles/London/New Delhi/Singapore/Washington DC
DOI: 10.1177/000944551104800210

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188 Ji Xianlin

kidnaps Sita and imprisons her in the city of Lanka. Rama forms an alliance with the
monkey king Hanuman and leads an army of monkeys and bears to assault the city of
Lanka. Hanuman performs outstanding service. The demon king is killed. Rama, who
is reunited with Sita, returns to his own country and assumes the throne. Such is the
outline of the story of the Sanskrit Ramayana. And the Pali version, as found in the
Jataka 461, is about the same. The most striking difference is that Sita is the daughter
of Dasaratha and the younger sister of Rama, and they get married later.
The following is my analysis of and views on the materials available.
Indeed, the Buddhist monks who translated Buddhist scriptures into Chinese in
ancient China, including Chinese, ethnic minorities and Indians, were familiar with
the Ramayana. Nevertheless, since it probably had nothing to do with the dissemi-
nation of Buddhism, they only translated the story or mentioned its name in their
translation of the scriptures, without rendering the whole epic into Chinese. In the
Biography of Vasubandhu (Posoubandou fashi zhuan) translated by Zhendi during the
Chen Dynasty, it goes like this,

The master of the law, pretending to be a lunatic, went to Kashmir. He often

attended lectures at great Buddhist assemblies, talking and laughing strangely,
without behaving himself at all. While he was at a discussion of vibhasa, he asked
about the Ramayana and was belittled by others.

The fifth juan of the Mahayanasutralankaratika (Da zhuangyan jing lun), written
by Asvaghosa and translated into Chinese by Kumarajiva in the Later Qin Dynasty,
says,

Then there were quite a number of Brahmins in the village and some one, who was
close to the head of the village, talked about the Book of Ramayana or the Book of
Bharatayana to him, asserting that those who were killed in the battle could ascend
to the heaven by the end of their lives.

The Book of Ramayana here refers to the Ramayana.

What is mentioned here is only the name of the book, and what is the story in the
book like? This issue should be divided into two parts for discussion. The first part
covers the main story of the Ramayana, and the second part covers various episodes
inserted into the story, including many fables and fairy tales.
We will first of all look at the main story, which is rather simple as mentioned
earlier. In juan 46 of the Abhidharma Mahavibasasastra translated by Xuanzang, it
goes like this: ‘The Ramayana has 12,000 slokas and two stories. One is about Ravana
kidnapping Sita away, and the other is about Rama bringing Sita back.’ Stories similar
to the main story can be found in some Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures. Here
are two of them. ‘Dasarathavadana’, the first story in juan 1 of the Samyuktaratna
Pitaka-sutra (Za baozang jing):

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 The Raamayana in China 189

In ancient times when people could enjoy a long life of ten thousand years, there
was a king named Dasaratha in Jambudvipa. The first queen gave birth to a son
named Rama. The second queen also bore a son named Laksmana. Prince Rama
was courageous and forceful like the God Narayana, and also had a magic fan;
therefore, he could defeat any foe easily and had no rival. The third queen also had
a son, called Bharata. The fourth queen produced Janaka. The king was in favour
of the third queen and said to her: ‘I will begrudge you no treasure; you can take
whatever you want from me.’ The queen replied: ‘I will ask nothing from you
now, and I will tell you if I have any desire later.’ The king got a fatal disease and
was dying any moment. He then made Prince Rama his substitute, who dressed
up and behaved like a king. The third queen came to see the king when he was a
little better. As the king’s favorite, finding out that Rama was about to succeed his
father’s throne, she was full of jealousy and immediately asked the king to fulfill
his earlier promise. She said, ‘I want my own son to be the king instead of Rama.’
The king was in a dilemma, for he had already made Rama the heir and yet he
had also promised the queen to satisfy her wishes. The king had never broken his
promises and the code of a king allowed for no breaking of promises. He thought
the matter over and finally asked Rama to relinquish the throne. Laksmana then
said to Rama, ‘You are courageous and forceful, and also have a magic fan. Why
not resort to all these and take the insult like this?’ Rama replied, ‘I do not want
to go against father’s wishes and become an unfilial son. Though Bharata’s mother
is not mine, since father respects her, she is just like my own mother. Our brother
Bharata is very amiable and cherishes no ill will to me. Although I have a magic fan,
I prefer to bear the wrongs of our father and brother than to revenge myself upon
them.’ At these words, the younger brother said nothing more. Then Dasaratha
exiled the two sons, sending them to a remote mountain, only allowing them to
return in 12 years. The Rama brothers obeyed their father and bore no ill will in
their hearts. They went into the mountains after saying good-bye to their parents.
It so happened that Bharata was then in a foreign country and was summoned
back to assume the throne. He had always been on good terms with his brothers
and respected them. When he returned to his country, the king died. After learn-
ing that his own mother had managed to have his two brothers exiled and made
himself the king in an evil way, he deemed that what his mother had done was
wrong and therefore refused to kneel before her in homage. ‘How wrong you are,’
he said, ‘You just want to ruin our family.’ He then respected Rama’s mother more
than ever. He led an army to the mountains where his two brothers lived. He left
the army behind and went alone to meet his brother. Laksmana said to Rama, ‘We
often said before that our brother Bharata was filial, respectful and amiable, but
today he has come with soldiers, intending to kill us.’ Rama asked Bharata why
he led an army. The latter answered that he was afraid there might be robbers on
the road, ‘I have brought the army just for the purpose of self-defense and have
no ulterior intention. I hope that you can return to court and become the king

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190 Ji Xianlin

to rule over the country.’ Rama answered, ‘We have followed our father’s will to
come here. How can we return before the term for the exile is over? If we do so,
we shall be unfilial.’ Bharata tried hard to plead with his brother repeatedly, but all
in vain. Having learned that his brother Rama was staunch and would not change
his mind, Bharata asked him to give him a pair of leather shoes and returned, full
of disappointment, to resume his rule. Whenever he was in court, he would put
the shoes on the throne and greet them as if his brother were sitting there. He
often sent messengers to the mountains and kept asking his brothers to come back.
The two brothers would not return until the 12 years of exile was over, for they
were extremely filial and dared not disobey their father’s order. When the term of
exile came to an end, Rama was deeply touched by the fact that Bharata had asked
them so earnestly, time and again, to come back, and having learned how much
his younger brother respected the leather shoes, they returned to the country. The
younger brother again offered up the throne, but Rama declined once again, saying,
‘Father made you the king, and it is not suitable for me to take the throne again.’
Then the younger brother said, ‘You are the eldest, and it is right for you to carry
out our father’s cause.’ Again and again they asked the other party to take over the
throne. Finally Rama could not avoid and became the king. The brothers’ beneficent
example helped to enhance the morality of the country greatly. Ordinary people
benefited a lot due to the wide practice of the morality. Everybody was both loyal
and filial. All the brothers still respected Bharata’s mother though she had done
some heinous evil. As they were so loyal to their parents, the weather turned very
favourable. The land enjoyed bumper harvests and there was no plague. All the
people in Jambudvipa were much more prosperous than ever before.

The forty-sixth story from the Sad-paramita-samgraha-sutra goes,

Once upon a time, the Bodhisattva was the king of a large country. He was very
benevolent to all the living creatures, and his fame spread far and wide and aroused
great admiration among the people. His maternal uncle was also a king in another
country. The latter was greedy, brutal and infamous. He was proud of his reputation
as a bully. He slandered the kind Bodhisattva and created excuses to attack the latter’s
country so as to take it over. The ministers of the Bodhisattva all said that it would
be preferable for them to live a poor life under the benevolent king rather than as
dignified men under a despot. The people of the country said that it was preferable
to domestic animals with morals rather than to be subjects with no morals. The
whole country was aroused and warriors were selected. The king inspected the army
and was moved to tears by the spirit of the army and the people, saying, ‘Numerous
people would sacrifice their lives just for me alone. If the country is conquered,
it won’t be easily restored; if lives are lost, they cannot be regained. If I flee, the
damage of the whole country will be spared.’ So the king and the queen left and
the country was conquered by the uncle. He ruled the country with cruelty, killing

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 The Raamayana in China 191

loyal officials and promoting flatterers and slanderous officials. His evil administra-
tion made the people suffer in a deplorable plight. The people had grievances, shed
tears, and missed their former king as children thought of their parents. The king
and the queen stayed in the mountains and forests. At that time there lived an evil
dragon in the sea who was attracted to the beauty of the queen. The dragon took
the form of a monk, pretending to be sitting in meditation with his hands folded
and his head bent. The king was joyous to see the monk and often went to make
offerings of fruit to him. One day when the king was away, the dragon kidnapped
the queen to his palace in the sea. On their way, they went through a pass between
two mountains. A giant bird, stretching its wings, blocked the road and fought
with the dragon. The dragon sent out a bolt of lightning to cut off the right wing
of the bird and then returned to the sea. On his return from picking fruit, the king
found the queen missing. He was greatly distressed and asked, ‘Has this happened
because I have done harm to my neighbors by living here?’ He took up his bow
and arrows and set off to search for the queen. He came across a river and traced it
to the source, where he saw a doleful giant monkey. The king asked the monkey,
‘Why are you also so sad?’ The monkey replied, ‘I used to rule together with my
maternal uncle as a king of monkeys, but he took away my monkeys by force and
I have nobody to ask for help. And why are you travelling in these mountains?’
The Bodhisattva replied, ‘I have the same grievance as you, and furthermore, I have
lost my queen and have no idea where she has gone.’ The monkey said, ‘If you
help me to fight against my uncle, then after regaining my monkeys, I will com-
mand them to search for the queen and you are assured to get her back.’ The king
agreed. Next day, the monkey fought with his uncle and the king drew an arrow
in his bow. On seeing this, the uncle was fearful and took to his heels. The army of
monkeys returned to their former king. The monkey king issued order to his men:
‘The queen is missing in the mountain. Go and search for her for this man.’ The
monkeys scattered to search and they came across the wounded bird who asked,
‘What are you looking for?’ The monkeys replied, ‘The human king has lost his
queen, and we are looking for her.’ The bird said, ‘The dragon has kidnapped her
and I could not stop him. Now he would be on his island in the sea.’ On saying
this, the bird died. The monkey king led his army to the sea but could not cross
it. Then Indra took the form of a small monkey suffering from scab and came to
offer advice to the monkey king: ‘We have many monkeys that can outnumber the
grains of sand in the sea. Why worry about crossing the sea? If each of us carries
stones to fill the sea, we can make a mountain; therefore, isn’t it a small deal for
us to reach the island!’ Upon hearing the suggestion, the monkey king appointed
him supervisor of the project, and the monkeys followed his scheme and made it.
After crossing the sea, they surrounded the island tightly. The dragon sent out a
poisonous fog among the monkeys, and the latter all became sick and fell down
to the ground. The two kings were full of anxiety. The small monkey said again,
‘I can cure the disease, and your majesties need not worry.’ He put some heavenly

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192 Ji Xianlin

medicine into the nostrils of the monkeys in no time and they all became livelier
than ever before in a moment. The dragon then summoned winds and clouds to
darken the sun and sky. The lightning was terribly raging and the thunder was
shaking the earth. The small monkey said further, ‘You human king is good at
archery. The lightning in the sky is the dragon himself. If you shoot and kill the
demon, it will be a blessing for the people and no sage will complain.’ When the
lightning flashed again, the human king shot his arrow and hit the dragon right in
the chest. Seeing the dragon was killed, all the monkeys extolled, ‘Well done!’ The
small monkey unlocked the door of the room where the queen was imprisoned and
let her out. At this both gods and devils were delighted. The two kings were about
to return to their mountains respectively; they were thankful and said good-bye to
each other. It so happened that the human king’s uncle died then and had no son
to succeed the throne; the officials and people were eager to find out their former
king. The king and his subjects met in the depth of the mountain. They were too
excited to hold their tears back and returned to their country, and at the same
time the king also took over his uncle’s former country. The people were joyful
and wished the king a long life. The king granted a general amnesty and ruled his
country with kindness, and the people were very happy at this. Then the king said
to the queen, ‘When a woman is away from her husband, even for a single night,
people can suspect her of wrong doing, and you have been away for one month or
so. According to the ancient rituals, I have to send you back to your family.’ The
queen said, ‘Although I stayed for some time in the filthy dragon’s cave, I remained
intact like a lotus out of mud. If my words are faithful, let the earth crack under my
feet.’ The moment she said so a chasm appeared. And the queen said, ‘This proves
my words are true.’ The king said, ‘Good! To remain chaste is what a Buddhist
should practice.’ Since then, all over the country, merchants were not so greedy,
officials were not so ambitious, those who were in high positions could tolerate the
underprivileged, the strong did not want to bully the weak, all resulted from the
king’s enlightenment. Wanton women changed their behaviors and could remain
chaste even at the risk of their lives, cheats became faithful, liars began to tell the
truth. All this was due to the queen’s example. Such were the Buddha’s words to
monks, ‘The king was myself, the queen was Kuyi, the uncle was Devadatta, and
Indra was Maitreya.’ The Bodhisattva could follow the ksantiparanita and endure
insults like this.

Now I would like to analyse these two stories and compare them with the Indian
Ramayana by Valmiki.
First, let us look at the structure of the two stories. One of them only deals with
King Dasaratha, his three wives and four sons, and describes how Rama and his
younger brother Laksmana are exiled for 12 years because of a court intrigue. Here in
Chinese, Laksmana is written as Luoman, Bharata is written as Poluoduo, and Janaka
is transcribed literally. The content of the story is identical with the Sanskrit Ramayana,

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 The Raamayana in China 193

including the details. For example, Laksmana’s in the Sanskrit Ramayana is quite like
Li Kui (a hero in the novel entitled Water Margins) in terms of character, which is
also depicted here. The story has clearly described Bharata leading an army into the
forest and Laksmana’s doubts about his motives. The similarity of the details in the
Chinese and Sanskrit versions is astonishing. Some feudalist ideas, such as filial piety,
loyalty and faithfulness, are also revealed here. Although they are not elaborated fully,
they are complete by themselves. Probably this was welcomed by the aristocracy and
intelligentsia in ancient China.
The second story only deals with a king of a large country who, in order to avoid
confrontation with his enemy, gives up his throne and takes his queen into the moun-
tains, where the queen is kidnapped by an evil dragon living in the sea. Then the king
allies himself with a monkey who suffers from the same misery and misfortune. At last
they succeed in crossing the sea, killing the evil dragon and rescuing the queen; the
story ends with satisfaction to all. From the perspective of the characters in the story,
it is very different from the Sanskrit original. However, in terms of the plot of the
main story, they are nearly the same, including the details. The evil dragon is Raksasa
in the Sanskrit version and the bird, the giant vulture. If we change the king’s name
to Rama, the queen’s to Sita and the uncle’s to the third queen Kaikeyi, then we could
make the story strikingly the same as that of Rama and Sita.
If we combine the two stories together, we can form a complete Sanskrit Ramayana.
This implies that in ancient India the great epic Ramayana was initially indeed a
combination of these two stories. We should not forget that the central story has
many varieties throughout India. Almost every state or ethnic community has its own
version of the Rama and Sita story, and their content sometimes vary rather greatly.
Although the Ramayana by Valmiki occupies a rather important place, probably due
to its right ideology and superb artistic achievements, it has never gained a unique
position among those different versions. Amazingly, in Chinese versions of Buddhist
scriptures, these two stories are almost the same as that in the Ramayana by Valmiki.
What is notable is that they are of a common origin and same system in the process
of development.
The above discussion related to is about the central story of the whole book of the
Ramayana. Now let us turn to the second part of my analysis and discuss miscellane-
ous episodes inserted into the book.
There are a surprisingly large number of these episodes. It is not possible to deal
with all of them here and I shall confine my discussion to a few typical ones according
to their order in the Ramayana. The first one is the story of Rishiyasringa, which has
appeared countless times in Indian literature. Lüders, a German Sanskrit scholar, has
written an essay entitled ‘Die Saga von Rsya’srnga’1 to discuss the topic, and Schlingloff
has also written a paper entitled ‘Unicorn’2 on the same topic. In the Ramayana, this

1
Philologica Indica, Göttingen, 1940, pp. 1–43.
2
German Scholars on India, Vol. 1, Varanasi, 1973, pp. 294–307.

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194 Ji Xianlin

story appears in Chapters 8–9 of the first book. Dasaratha wants to offer a sacrificial
rite to assure his getting a son when Sumantra, a minister of his, tells him the story of
Rishiyasringa. The content of the story goes roughly as follows: a son of a Brahmin
lived in a forest. He knew nothing beyond the forest, including sexual or sensual
pleasures. It so happened then that a king, who had made mistakes, was punished
by God, which resulted in a long-term drought over his land and brought him great
vexation. A Brahmin advised him that it would rain if he could tempt the young man
into the city from the forest. The king sent prostitutes into the forest, but the young
lad did not know the difference between men and women. Coming across those pros-
titutes, he deemed that they were lovely. At last, he was seduced away from the forest
and entered the city. The story does not mention why he was named Rishiyasringa.
This story has appeared many times in Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures.
I shall offer just one example from juan 1 of the Mahasanghika-vinaya (Dazang jing,
Vol. 22, pp. 232–33). I can only briefly narrate the content of the story in order to
make a comparison with the preceding story. The story here first tells that while a
rishi was urinating and happened to eject some semen, a doe swallowed it, became
pregnant and produced a boy with deer’s spots on his skin. The rishi admonished the
boy that nothing was more frightful than a woman. The boy with deer’s spots began
to practice tapas, so hard that God in the heaven feared that he might one day seize
the throne. Then God sent a fairy to the earth to undermine his cultivation. If we
compare the two stories, we can find some differences: (i) In the Chinese version, the
hero is not a rishi with deer horns, but a rishi with deer spots; (ii) the Chinese version
explains the origin of the deer spots; (iii) the rishi’s cultivation was undermined not
for the purpose of praying for rain, but due to God’s fear of losing power.
The second episode that I want to discuss is about Syama. It appears in the second
book of the Ramayana (2, 56, 2; 2, 57, 8-39; 2, 58, 1-46) and goes roughly like this:
Dasaratha regretted extremely for having sent his son Rama into exile. He told the first
queen that, when he was young, he could shoot an object by sound without seeing
it. Once he went on a pleasure outing by the river Sarayu and heard the sound of a
pitcher being filled with water in the darkness. Mistaking it for an elephant, he shot
and killed an ascetic fetching water for his blind parents. After the death of the ascetic,
the king visited his parents, who asked the king to lead them to the body of their son.
They cried bitterly, and the blind father finally put a curse on the king, saying that he
too should taste the agony of losing a son.
In Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, this story appears many times.
Here is only one example from the Sad-paramita-samgraha-sutra (Dazang jing,
Vol. 3, 24):

Once upon a time, the Bodhisattva was named Syama. He was always kind and
his benevolence benefited all living creatures. He felt very sorry that the ignorant
people were unable to see the triratna. He brought his aged and blind parents into
the mountains. When speaking of them, his sadness made him shed tears. He took

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 The Raamayana in China 195

good care of them and was a filial and virtuous son. His piety was well known eve-
rywhere by people and gods and dragons. He believed in Buddhism and practiced
the ten commandments; he did not kill and never took anything that was not his.
He did not get married and never suffered from any physical disaster; nor did he
quarrel, curse, or use dirty or evil words. He eschewed slander and hypocrisy, and
slips of the tongue. Envy, avarice and ill will all left him. Those who are benevolent
are blessed while those who are irreverent suffer. He lived in a thatched hut with
only a mattress to sleep on, and had no desire for nothing else. There were springs
with lotus in the mountains, and there were numerous sweet fruits. He just wan-
dered around them. He rose early to go pick them but never was the first to taste
them. He was so kind that even animals and birds would rather stay with and rely
upon him. One day his parents were thirsty so he went to fetch water for them.
It so happened that the king of Kayi had come to the mountains for hunting. He
saw a deer and shot at it but unfortunately, he mishit Syama in the chest. He cried
aloud in great pain from the arrow’s poison. While looking around, he asked, ‘Who
has shot me, killing three with one arrow? My parents are both aged and blind,
and without me they are sure to die shortly. People kill an elephants for its ivory, a
rhinoceros for its horns and a peacock for its feathers, but I have neither tusks nor
horns nor shining feathers. Why kill me?’ The king heard his moaning and asked
him, ‘Why are you in the deep mountains?’ He answered, ‘I live with my parents
in these mountains in order to cultivate my religious spirit and avoid filthy secular
temptations.’ At these words of Syama, the king was very sad and shed tears, ‘I am
unkind to hunt and have killed a most filial son. What is to be done?’ All of the
king’s ministers and retinue shed tears. The king said, ‘I wish I could save your life
at the cost of my kingdom. Please show me the way to your parents so that I can
confess before them what I have done right now.’ Syama told him, ‘Follow this
trail and you will find a thatched hut not far away. My parents live in it. Please
tell them on my behalf that “I shall depart from you forever; I wish you happy in
the rest years of your lives and not to miss me any longer.”’ Saying this, he was
very sad and died in an instant. The king and his men, very sadly, followed the
trail according to Syama’s directions and found the hut. The king had numerous
retinue, and the grass whistled. The parents heard the sound, guessing that the king
was no ordinary man, and then asked, ‘Who are you?’ The king answered, ‘I am
the king of Kayi.’ The father said, ‘It is nice of you to come here. You can sit upon
the mattress to enjoy coolness and taste some sweet fruits. My son has gone out to
fetch water and will soon be back.’ Seeing the parents were so kind to their son,
the king became sad and shed tears again. The king told the parents, ‘I am moved
by your kindness to your son and all the more regret and feel extremely sorrowful.
I have killed your son Syama.’ The father was startled and asked, ‘What crime has
my son committed to you to kill him? My son had such a kind heart that if he
stepped onto the ground he often worried that the earth might be painful. What
crime did he commit to you to kill him?’ The king said, ‘Such an extremely filial

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196 Ji Xianlin

son was indeed a sage. I killed him by mistake when I was shooting a deer.’ The
father said, ‘Our son is already dead, and who can we depend on? We are sure to
die now. We only wish that you lead us to the place where our son’s body lies. We
will stay there to wait until his body disappears almost like dust.’ At this, the king
felt extremely sorrowful again. He led the parents to their son’s body in person.
The father put his head upon his son’s knees; the mother hugged the son’s feet and
kissed them. Both of them caressed the wound with one hand. Then they, while
beating themselves on the chest and cheek, cried with their heads held high, ‘Gods
of Heaven, Earth, Tree and Water, listen! Our son Syama believed in Buddhism
and dharma. He respected sages, was filial to his parents and cherished great kind-
ness to everything, including grass and trees. If my son was sincere in his belief
in Buddhism, extremely filial to his parents, and God knows it, then the arrow
should be pulled out, the poison should disappear, and life should be back to him
so that he could be able to continue his filial conduct. If our son has not been like
this and my words are not true, then we should all die and become dust.’ Indra,
the four great kings of heaven, the god of the earth and the dragon in the sea all
heard their mourning and believed their words. All were touched. Indra descended
on the earth and said to the parents, ‘I can save your most filial son.’ He put some
medicine from heaven into Syama’s mouth. Suddenly he came back to life again.
The parents, the son, the king and his men all experienced mixed feelings of joy
and sorrow. The king said, ‘Such a result is because of his believing in Buddhism
and his extremely filial affection.’ He issued an order to his subjects, ‘From now on,
all the people throughout the country must cultivate the virtues of the Buddhist
ten good karma and learn to be extremely filial like Syama. The whole country
must take this as our code of conduct.’ Afterwards the country became prosperous
and the people enjoyed a wealthy and peaceful life. Buddha tells monks, ‘I have
respected various Buddhas from generation to generation. If one is extremely filial,
one is virtuous and is therefore highly blessed. Then one can become god of gods,
and be unique in the trilokya. At that time, Syama was me. The king was Ananda.
Syama’s father was my own father in this life. Syama’s mother was my own mother
in this life. Indra was Maitreya.’ The Bodhisattva could follow the ksantiparanita
and endure insults like this.

Comparing the Ramayana and the Sad-paramita-samgraha-sutra, we can find out

that the content of the two stories is identical and their details are alike or similar to
each other. The king’s name is different in the two versions, but that does not count
too much. A major difference is that this episode in the Ramayana is a tragedy: the
son is dead and the father utters a curse, but in the Sad-paramita-samgraha-sutra, the
story ends happily: the son is protected by gods and comes back to life again. It is not
known whether this change was made to meet the taste of Chinese readers or not.
Besides in the Sad-paramita-samgraha-sutra, this story is also found in the fol-
lowing: the Sengqie luocha suo ji jing (Dazang jing, Vol. 4, pp. 116c–117a); the

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 The Raamayana in China 197

Foshuo Pusa shanzi jing (Dazang jing, Vol. 3, p. 440); the Shanzi jing translated
by Shengjian, a Buddhist monk living in the Kingdom of Fuqiqin (Dazang jing,
Vol. 3, pp. 436–38); the Shanzi jing translated by Shengjian, another Buddhist
monk living in the Kingdom of the Later Qin (Dazang jing, Vol. 3, p. 442); the
Foshuo shanzi jing (Dazang jing, Vol. 3, pp. 438–42); and the ‘Wangzi yi rou ji
fumu jing’, the first two volumes of the Zabao zang jing (Dazang jing, Vol. 4,
pp. 447c–449a). Probably the Ramayana and Buddhist scriptures all originated in
Indian folk literature. Of course, it is not the case that this story came to China through
the Ramayana itself. Now that we can find this story in the epic, and there are various
versions of the same story in the Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures, is it too
farfetched to establish a literary relationship between them?
In the Pali Jataka 540, there is also such a story, which we shall not discuss here.
In addition to the two foregoing stories we can also find many fables and short
tales in the Chinese versions of Buddhist scriptures contained in the Ramayana, such
as the tales about cutting off one’s flesh to buy pigeons and sacrificing one’s own life
to feed the tiger, which we shall not discuss here.
I would like to discuss in passing Sun Wukong, a leading hero in the Journey to the
West. This monkey, at least in part, resembles the divine monkey in the Ramayana.
This is undeniable, regardless of how the matter is considered. If we respect facts, we
must admit that the Ramayana in this respect once exerted influence upon Chinese
literature. I shall not, however, deal with this matter here in detail.
I shall only mention the relations between Sun Wukong and the city of Quanzhou in
Fujian Province. Few people knew of this in the past. Recently Prof. Nakano Miyoko,
a Japanese scholar, sent me an essay entitled ‘Fujian Province and the Journey to the
West’, which I think contains some original views. Here is a brief introduction to
the essay,

At the Kaiyuan Temple in Quanzhou, there was a pagoda built in the first year
(1237 AD) of the Jiaxi Period during the Southern Song Dynasty. On the wall of
the fourth floor of the West Pagoda, there was a relief of a monkey wearing a golden
ring with a string of beads around the neck. On his vest hung a roll of Buddhist
scripture. On his right shoulder there was a tiny image of a monk. It is not certain
whether the image was that of Xuanzang. On the other walls on the same floor of
this pagoda, there were images of Xuanzang. Furthermore, in a Brahmanist temple
in Quanzhou, on a huge pillar was a relief of a monkey whose tail was very long
and in whose hand there was something like grass. This naturally reminds us of
Hanuman in the Ramayana who, with his tail on fire, once burnt down Lanka.
This monkey also carried a mountain with a magic herb on his hand to save the
lives of Rama and Laksmana.

This shows definitely that the story of the Journey to the West during the Southern
Song Dynasty was just at its beginning, not as perfect as in its later versions. Prof.
Nakano Miyoko made a study on the origin of Sun Wukong, saying that the Ramayana

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198 Ji Xianlin

came through the South China Sea to Quanzhou during the Song Dynasty. Quanzhou
was the biggest port at that time and had a lot of contact with Arabia and India
through maritime routes. It is plausible to say that Sun Wukong came through the
South China Sea instead of coming directly from India. I guess that before this, the
story of this divine monkey, having Wuzhiqi (a Chinese river god like a monkey)
as a basis in China, and with the Indian elements of Hanuman added, had already
become popular in some places long ago. The divine monkey in Quanzhou was not
the earliest immigrated one. After the eighth and ninth centuries, the Ramayana was
gradually introduced into Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia,
etc. From here, it would have been relatively convenient for the story of the monkey
to get into China.
Discovering the image of Sun Wukong in Quanzhou, Fujian is a simple fact, but
I feel that it has posed forth an issue worthy of much consideration: Scholars making
studies of China–India cultural communication, both Chinese and foreign, generally
hold that the channel for China–India cultural exchanges was only confined to that
in the Western Region in earlier times before the Tang and Song dynasties. Now it
seems that this view must be rectified. In terms of time, after the Song Dynasty, there
were still relatively important cultural exchanges between China and India. In terms of
space, the sea route communication became prosperous only during the Song Dynasty.
Besides, there were routes linking Sichuan, Yunnan, Myanmar and India, which are
also usually neglected by scholars.

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