out of compassion one burns the head and vows to cultivate the four
　　　　  dhyanas and samadhi and to uphold the dharma. This has now been
　　　　  established.(39)
　　　　  The significance of this passage, beyond its explicit explanation of
　　　　  when and why monks' heads were to be burned, lies in the fact that
　　　　  Vinaya monasteries in late imperial China were responsible for
　　　　  training monks to give ordinations. It is highly likely, then, that
　　　　  these instructions applied not to one particular institution but to
　　　　  many, perhaps even to all ordinations performed in China at this
　　　　  time. It is hard to be sure if this is true, since an extensive
　　　　  search of other monastic gazetteers; has failed to turn up anything
　　　　  similar. This does not mean that the monastery in Wulin was unusual,
　　　　  but rather that the gazetteer itself is unusual in that it devotes
　　　　  any attention at all to living monks. Most so-called monastic
　　　　  gazetteers were in fact literary-cum-topographical guidebooks rather
　　　　  than records of mundane Buddhist activities.(40)
　　　　  The Fanwang jing contains precepts but does not contain instructions
　　　　  on how to administer those precepts. Moreover, the sixteenth minor
　　　　  precept does not say anything about vows, burning the head, or
　　　　  burning incense on the body. Clearly, the model for ordination
　　　　  burning is drawn from the Fanwang jing and the Shouleng'yan jing
　　　　  used in conjunction. We can very easily confirm that the two
　　　　  passages were so linked by looking at commentaries on the Fanwang
　　　　  jing. The Fanwang jing pusa fie zhu by the Song monk Huiyin (dates
　　　　  unknown) cites the Shouleng'yan jing in support of the sixteenth
　　　　  minor precept of the Fanwang jing, as does the Fanwang jing pusa fie
　　　　  lueshu by Hongzan (1611-85).(41) However, neither of these texts
　　　　  makes any mention of burning at ordination as such.
　　　　  One theory that might be advanced is that the passage from the
　　　　  Shouleng'yan jing was composed in the early eighth century in order
　　　　  to validate some preexisting ordination practice based on the
　　　　  Fanwang jing. This is certainly a reasonable supposition, but one
　　　　  that is not borne out by the textual evidence. Although we have
　　　　  evidence that people burned or branded their heads in the centuries
　　　　  after the composition of the Shouleng'yan jing, it was never
　　　　  explicitly linked to ordination, nor to the bodhisattva precepts.
　　　　  In his infamous Memorial on the Buddha Relic (Lun fo gu biao) of
　　　　  819, Han Yu (768-824) complained to the emperor that if he should
　　　　  honor the Buddha's relic, the people, being easily misled, would "in