ordained and spent some years in a Korean monastery.(21) Chinese and
　　　　  Korean monks and nuns may also be questioned on their own
　　　　  experiences of ordination. The consensus of opinion of scholars and
　　　　  monastics alike is that there is some connection between the
　　　　  sixteenth minor precept of the Fanwang jing and burning at
　　　　  ordination. But what, precisely, is this connection? Where and when
　　　　  was it first made? One particularly significant fact that emerges
　　　　  when looking at East Asia as a whole is that monks and nuns in Japan
　　　　  are ordained to precisely the same bodhisattva precepts of the
　　　　  Fanwang jing, but they do not burn their arms or heads, and there is
　　　　  no evidence that they ever did.(22)
　　　　  De Groot's chapter "Acceptation des Commandements des Bodhisatwas"
　　　　  in his erudite and detailed study of the Fanwang jing is based on
　　　　  the observations he made over a number of years at ordination
　　　　  ceremonies conducted at Yongquan si on Gushan in Fuzhou. As he
　　　　  notes, this particular ceremony was one that was first established
　　　　  there by Yuanxian (1578-1657). Yuanxian in turn is said to have
　　　　  borrowed it from that in use at Yunqi si in Hangzhou, the abbot and
　　　　  founder of which was the eminent Ming monk Zhuhong (1532-1612).(23)
　　　　  De Groot quotes the relevant part of the sixteenth minor precept at
　　　　  the beginning of his discussion of the burning of the head, which
　　　　  follows that part of the ceremony that he terms "acte de penitence
　　　　  et serment" (an act that is penance and vow).(24)
　　　　  What exactly happens at this point in the proceedings, and how is it
　　　　  described? According to de Groot, terms in use for burning the head
　　　　  at ordination in this particular monastery at the end of the
　　　　  nineteenth century were ranxiang (burning incense) and jiuxiang
　　　　  (calcination by incense). As far as I have been able to ascertain,
　　　　  these terms are not attested in the Taisho edition of the Buddhist
　　　　  canon, and I have not seen them attested in ordination manuals
　　　　  before the mid-seventeenth century. This may indicate that there was
　　　　  an ordination vocabulary, which was not drawn from canonical
　　　　  sources, and that terms and techniques for ordination might well
　　　　  have been transmitted orally from teacher to student. The ordinands
　　　　  knelt in front of the masters of ceremonies, who marked their heads
　　　　  with ink in the places where they were to be burned. De Groot notes
　　　　  that the following numbers of burns were administered: three, nine,
　　　　  twelve, and eighteen. Apparently these were all in use at Yongquan