doctrinal innovation, so I would suggest that passages in these two
　　　　  texts were created to endorse practices that were at times the
　　　　  subject of controversy within the tradition and the subject of
　　　　  censure from without. Moreover, although critics of self-immolation
　　　　  within the Buddhist tradition were never entirely won over by these
　　　　  texts, burning at ordination at least emerged as a fully vindicated
　　　　  practice.
　　　　  BURNING THE BODY IN THE FANWANG JING AND SHOULENG'YAN JING
　　　　  The apocryphal nature of these two texts is not in question, and it
　　　　  is not my intention to repeat or revise arguments made elsewhere by
　　　　  more able scholars.(11) What this study aims to do is to examine one
　　　　  particular reason for the creation of these texts and to encourage
　　　　  the application of the findings to other apocryphal texts. It is
　　　　  worth beginning with the two passages in question, since, when
　　　　  considered in isolation, they appear rather remarkable. First, let
　　　　  us examine the earlier of the two texts, the Fanwang jing, which
　　　　  appeared in China sometime between 440 and 480 C.E., in other words,
　　　　  not long after the first recorded cases of self-immolation by fire,
　　　　  which occurred in the early fifth century.(12) The Fanwang jing in
　　　　  time became the major text used in China and Japan for ordination to
　　　　  the bodhisattva precepts. The sixteenth of the forty-eight lesser
　　　　  precepts given in this text is that known in the Tiantai tradition
　　　　  as weili daoshuo jie (the precept on making inverted statements for
　　　　  [one's own] gain). I mention this fact in order to show that the
　　　　  precept was understood, for the most part, as a commitment not to
　　　　  make misleading statements rather than as a vow to burn one's own
　　　　  body. Many of the precepts contained in the Fanwang jing can be
　　　　  clearly traced back to earlier Mahayana texts, and Ono Hodo, who has
　　　　  done the most extensive work on the subject, is of the opinion that
　　　　  this precept derives from the Pusa dichi jing
　　　　  (Bodhisattvabhumisutra).(13) He is probably correct as far as the
　　　　  sense of the precept goes, but the wording of the two texts is
　　　　  entirely different, and there is no mention of burning the body in
　　　　  the earlier of the two. The inspiration for this particular part of
　　　　  the precept is most likely drawn from the Lotus Sutra, since the
　　　　  other potential culprit, the Yuedeng sanmei jing
　　　　  (*Samadhiraja[candrapradipassutra]), which also contains a story of
　　　　  a bodhisattva who burned his arms, was not translated until 557.(14)