3: Narrating Salvation in Medieval Chinese Entombed Epitaph Inscriptions for Lay Buddhists

It would appear that Lady Pei Fumin 裴夫民 (684–741), the Countess of Hedong Commandery, was destined to reach the ultimate enlightenment in this lifetime. After all, she was born with several of the thirty-two great marks of a buddha, had an impeccable dharma lineage and command over doctrinal subtleties, and died in a manner attesting to her great attainment verified by lay and monastic witnesses. But something is off with this picture. First, her story does not come from an expected source—a collection of marvelous anecdotes, hagiographies of eminent monastics, or records of rebirth in the Pure Land. Instead, it takes up most of Lady Pei’s 758-characters entombed epitaph inscription (muzhiming 墓誌銘) composed by her son. Second, unlike most muzhiming, the arc of her life is not often obfuscated by trite or esoteric allusions to the Classics or past literary exemplars. It is held together by stated opinions of four individuals: her uncle, herself, her brother, and her son. Each, in turn, predicted, demonstrated, interpreted, and reacted to what her death would signify. Moving beyond the curious contents, the paper examines this muzhiming’s narrative strategy and compares it to similar accounts from the expected sources. The paper illuminates multiple and often conflicting commemorative agendas muzhiming serves, the religious discourse on the efficacy of lay practices in the commemorative genres, and ultimately, the ways by which the Mahayana focus on lay practices contributed to family mythmaking in medieval China.