Quick Answer: What Are Buddhist Prayer Beads Used For?
In China, Buddhist prayer beads (念珠, niànzhū), also called counting beads (数珠, shùzhū), help a person keep track of repetitions such as the name of a Buddha or a mantra. A full strand often contains 108 counting beads.[1][3][5]
- Counting: A bead can mark each repetition of a name or formula.[3][5]
- Markers: Larger beads can divide the main loop into sections. These may sit outside the count of 108.[3]
- Different objects: Qing court necklaces can also have 108 main beads. Their pendants and documented use distinguish them from prayer strands.[4]
The bead count is one clue. Read it together with the layout and the object’s history.
Two strings can have the same number of beads and have been made for different settings. A carved peach pit strand in the Rubin collection is a prayer aid. A turquoise necklace in the Palace Museum belongs to court dress.
What the Beads Count
A strand lets a practitioner keep a place without counting every repetition aloud. In Chinese Pure Land Buddhism, one use is to mark repetitions of Amitabha’s name as part of nianfo (念佛, niànfó), the recollection of a Buddha. Beads can also track repeated mantras. The specific words and number depend on the practice.[3][5][6]
Why 108 Appears So Often
The Chinese Buddhist canon preserves a short scripture about soapberry seeds, T0786. In it the Buddha tells a king to string 108 seeds and count while reciting the names of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. The catalogue assigns the text to the Eastern Jin period and records no translator. This is evidence of a scriptural precedent for the count.[1][2]
An eighteenth-century strand of carved peach pits in the Rubin collection has 108 main beads plus three coral separators and a terminal bead. The separators divide the counting beads into four groups of 27. The museum also relates the number to a Buddhist explanation involving 108 afflictions. The dividing beads help the user find a place in the sequence.[3]
How to Read a Strand in a Museum
Turquoise court beads (朝珠, cháozhū) at the Palace Museum also have four groups of 27. The necklace has three small side strands and a pendant that hangs down the wearer’s back. The museum records that court rules specified turquoise for the emperor’s rite at the Altar of the Moon. The arrangement and rules identify it as an object of Qing court ceremony.[4]
A second Palace Museum strand has 108 round white jade beads. Its beads date to the Han, but the museum says they were restrung in the Qing. The finished strand therefore reflects a Qing arrangement of earlier material.[5]
FAQs About Buddhist Prayer Beads in China
Does a strand need 108 beads?
Smaller strands exist. Counts such as 18, 27 and 54 are also documented.[6]
Do the larger separator beads count toward 108?
Check the particular object. On the Rubin peach pit strand, the coral separators and terminal bead are additional to the 108 counting beads.
Can materials identify a prayer strand?
Wood, jade and seeds have all been used for Buddhist beads. The way the strand is made and the record of its use give better clues than material alone.
資料來源
[1] National Taiwan University Library. Soapberry Seed Sutra, Taisho T0786
[2] Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts. Buddhist Canonical Catalog, T0786
[3] Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Peach Pit Prayer Beads
[4] Ruan Weiping, Palace Museum. Turquoise Court Beads
[5] Zhao Guiling, Palace Museum. White Jade Bead Strand
[6] Southwark Heritage. Prayer-Beads