Wǔbǎi luóhàn zūnhào 五百羅漢尊號
Honorific Names of the Five Hundred Arhats recorded by 高道素手 Gāo Dàosùshǒu (錄)
About the work
The Wǔbǎi luóhàn zūnhào is a single-fascicle catalogue of the honorific names (zūnhào 尊號) of the five hundred arhats (luóhàn 羅漢), together with the names of the eighteen permanent arhats (zhùshì shíbā zūnzhě 住世十八尊者). The text is preserved in the Qiánlóng Edition of the Canon (乾隆大藏 / 龍藏), and is recorded as compiled by 高道素手 in the Míng dynasty. The prefatory inscription (tí luóhàn zūnhào bēi 題羅漢尊號碑) describes the provenance of the list: the compiler’s father (xiāndàfū 先大夫), a Míng-dynasty literatus surnamed Gāo 高 with the religious sobriquet 明水 (Míngshuǐ) — a disciple of the Tiāntái master Liánchí dàshī 蓮池大師 (袾宏 Zhūhóng, 1535–1615) — discovered in Beijing an old stele from the Southern Sòng (Shàoxīng 紹興 period, 1131–1162) from Qiánmíng-yuàn 乾明院 in Jiāngyīn 江陰 bearing the names of the five hundred arhats. The father copied it by hand; the compiler (the son) later had it engraved and published.
Prefaces
The preface describes the full provenance:
- The father found a worm-eaten rubbing in Beijing’s Mùlǐ-pǔ 木里浦 at the Zhēnrú-ān 真如菴 monastery
- The stele was a Southern Sòng specimen from Jiāngyīn-jūn 江陰軍 Qiánmíng-yuàn 乾明院
- It bore the names of the 18 permanent arhats (住世十八尊者) and the 500 arhat names (石橋五百尊者名號)
- A verse of praise by 葉清臣 Yè Qīngchén (Northern Sòng, style Nèihàn 內翰) was inscribed on the stele
- The compiler’s father copied it by hand 25 years before publication; the compiler then had it printed
Abstract
The Wǔbǎi luóhàn zūnhào is a hagiographic name-list of the canonical 500 arhats, a genre important in Chinese Buddhist iconographic and liturgical traditions. The “five hundred arhats” cult was highly developed in Sòng-dynasty China, with major arhat hall complexes at monasteries throughout China. The source stele from Jiāngyīn’s Qiánmíng-yuàn dates to the Southern Sòng Shàoxīng period (1131–1162), contemporary with a flourishing of arhat image programs (cf. the famous Sòng arhat paintings and sculptures). The Míng-dynasty compiler 高道素手 appears to have been a lay Buddhist with family connections to the Tiāntái master 袾宏 (via his father’s discipleship); his identity has not been established beyond what the preface reveals. The text is preserved only in the Qiánlóng Edition (乾隆藏), which was completed in 1738 CE during the Qīng dynasty, suggesting the text was still being circulated and canonized in the late imperial period.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.