The Inner World of a Self-Immolator?

What is it about?

In this chapter, I explore the inner world of a fascinating and enigmatic figure from medieval China named Liu Benzun. The main question I ask is whether it's truly possible to understand the private thoughts of a long-dead person, especially when they left no writings of their own and are only known to us through representations made by others. Liu Benzun was a Buddhist layman who lived at the end of the Tang dynasty. He became the figurehead of a grassroots movement and was revered for his ability to heal people and fight epidemics. What makes him so extraordinary are the "Ten Refinings"—a series of ten acts of self-mutilation he performed to benefit others. These acts included burning his finger, gouging out his eye, severing his arm, and refining his private parts with fire. We know about these events from inscriptions and vivid sculptures his followers created long after his death, most famously at Baoding shan. Because these sources were created by his cult, they present a curated, idealized image of him. To understand him, I argue we must look beyond these specific accounts and place him in a larger context. I compare his actions to the practices of other self-immolators and charismatic laypeople in Chinese Buddhism. I conclude that Liu Benzun was a charismatic expert in mantras and rituals who used his skills for exorcistic healing, which won him a loyal following. He combined these practical skills with extreme body practices—like burning and cutting himself—that were already endorsed by Buddhist scripture and hagiography as signs of a dedicated bodhisattva. His inner world, then, was likely populated by these well-known Mahāyāna heroic figures, like Śākyamuni Buddha, rather than by complex esoteric lineages. While the "true" individual remains out of reach, I believe we can grasp the logic that informed his world by understanding the traditions he was a part of.

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