Making of a Savior Bodhisattva

Ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Chinese order, Zhiru is associate professor of religious studies at Pomona College.

“An excellent work that contributes significantly to the fields of Buddhist studies and Chinese religion. It will be the standard work on the early history of Dizang. Its comprehensive contextualization of the Dizang cult results from a judicious use of a wealth of sources and astute reflections on the best of contemporary scholarship. Thoroughly researched and rich in details, the book has much to offer students and specialists in related disciplines.” —China Review International; ""A splendid book for advanced undergraduates and for graduate students and scholars in the fields of Buddhism and Chinese religion."" —Journal of Chinese Religions; ""Zhiru explores the emergence of the blessed refuge as a distinct object of devotion and complex ritual life, and a crucial figure in Buddhist soteriology. Her analysis takes into consideration visual, archaeological, and textual sources in a remarkably well-integrated way, and she gets at the resulting critical religious studies questions most persuasively."" —Religion and the Arts; ""The book stands out for the wealth of material (both canonical and non-canonical, textual and epigraphical, Buddhist and non-Buddhist), and for the delicate balance that is adroitly maintained between different disciplines. It is particularly commenable for its methodological inventiveness. . . . Well written and edited . . . the arguments are carefully advanced and well founded."" —Journal of Asian Studies; ""This is a welcome, important, and very helpful study of a hitherto poorly understood topic, and will remain the standard work of reference on the distinctively Chinese development of this important bodhisattva figure for years to come."" —Robert Campany, University of Southern California; ""The bodhisattva Dizang’s place in Western-language scholarship has heretofore corresponded to the traditional position of his image in the dimly lit periphery of Chinese Buddhist temples. Zhiru’s groundbreaking work moves this cultic figure to the center of our attention, where she illuminates his medieval past, showing him to be much more than a sinicized folk divinity that oversees the underworld. Her study is a model of Buddhist scholarship, not simply for the richness of its content but especially for its interdisciplinary sophistication and theoretical balance."" —Dan A. Getz, Bradley University; ""The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China examines Dizang during his formative period—before he settled into his modern role as the beneficent sovereign of the underworld, ensconced when above ground at Mount Jiuhua—back when his iconography and hagiography were still rife with possibilities. Shi Zhiru discusses all of the major sources for the history of Dizang from the sixth to the tenth centuries, including scripture, epigraphy, art, ritual texts, and narrative literature. The result is the most thorough treatment to date of one of the most important deities in Chinese Buddhism."" —John Kieschnick, University of Bristol