Retracing the thesis and its contributions to the field

This passage from the Persian historian Abdallah Waṣṣāf of the Īlkhānate describes the capacity for ruthlessness of the feared armies of the Mongol Empire. It provides a vivid glimpse of the potential fate that could have befallen Tibetans and was embodied in the threat included in Köden Khan’s invitation decree to Sa paṇ of 1244. Sa paṇ’s correspondences highlight how fear that such “harm might befall Tibet” led him to travel to Köden’s court with the “hope that it will prove to be beneficial for beings” although there was “no assurance of benefit”,2 accompanied by his nephews ’Phags pa and Phyag na rdo rje.

Despite this initial context of imminent danger and uncertainty, Sa paṇ and ’Phags pa, to borrow Davidson’s words, “managed to rein in the destructive potential of the greatest military machine the world had ever seen, so that Central Tibet, in particular, was spared the ravages that other civilisations suffered, sometimes to their annihilation”.3 Building on the groundwork laid by his uncle, a range of historical accounts recording the extraordinarily special treatment that ’Phags pa received from Qubilai Khan, and indicating influence over the Khan, his court and his policies, are testament to the exceptional position of power that the monk was eventually able to achieve.

The dominant approach in contemporary studies has been to perceive and examine ’Phags pa through the lens of his speculated utility for Qubilai, only affording him the role of a useful tool in the pursuit of political and militaristic objectives,

1 _{David Nicolle (1990: 132). Although better known as Waṣṣāf, his actual name was Abdallah ibn}

Faḍlallah Sharaf al-Din Shīrāzī.

2 _{Sa skya Pandita Kunga Gyaltshen and Jared Douglas Rhoton (2002: 267–8). This is a translation of Sa}

paṇ Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan (1968: 415–16).

3 _{Davidson (2005: 7).}

whether it be to “control without conquest”4 or to legitimise the Khan’s rule. The present study has contended that this approach, based on functionalist explanations and selective readings of historical sources, results in overly simplistic narratives that are incongruous with salient historical evidence that point to a more complex bond.

This thesis has argued that if Qubilai’s primary objective regarding Tibet was to leverage ’Phags pa to control Tibet without conquest, holding a broader range of Tibetan religious hierarchs at his court other than just ’Phags pa would seem more efficacious. Moreover, any notion that Qubilai adopted a policy of appeasement because militarily enforcing control over Tibet would somehow have been too costly is at odds with the factual situation of the fragmented Tibet of the time. This study has also found that the historical and cosmographic evidence stands against a standard trope of histories of this period—that Qubilai used ’Phags pa to sacralise himself and Chinggis Khan as cakravartins,thus legitimising their rule over the Mongol Empire. No detailed reading of ’Phags pa’s relevant compositions suggest that he understood the Mongol khans to be cakravartins. Furthermore, any suggestion that they were would have been inconsistent with the Abhidharmakośa text that served as the primary basis of ’Phags pa’s view of Buddhist cosmology, wherein the cakravartin concept is articulated.

While there was undoubtedly political symbolism in ’Phags pa’s initial transference to Qubilai’s court given his role as the perceived inheritor of Sa paṇ’s original acquiescence to the Mongols, only through a more nuanced approach that accounts for the personal-religious aspects of the Qubilai–’Phags pa association can the range of historical accounts be cohesively reconciled and explained. This result also serves to highlight a more general point—the need for caution against overreliance on political and militaristic perspectives when studying history, particularly when the key figures of interest lived in societies where religious belief pervaded the lives of people and the state.

The Qubilai–’Phags pa relationship, with its perceived context of political symbolism and its central role in Tibet’s external relations, has come to be viewed by some as defining the nature of the mchod yon bond. In the main, such views have ignored the personal-religious bond at the conceptual core of this form of relations; instead, they focus on its perceived political implications, drawing on them to make inferences about the nature of Tibet’s relationships with Mongol princes, Ming Chinese and Manchus over the following centuries. Through examining the historical and

4 _{Petech (1993: 651).}

semantic context underlying the mchod yon concept, the present study demonstrated that it is in fact devoid of any inherent political connotations, including a predetermined notion of the relative precedence of the parties involved. Moreover, despite the close association of this concept with the Sa skya–Mongol relationship, interestingly, it appears to be a retrospective neologism applied by later Tibetan historians and the use of the term mchod yon to refer to the priest-patron bond cannot be found in any works by Sa paṇ or ’Phags pa.

This thesis has drawn on the texts ’Phags pa composed for Qubilai and other members of his extended family for insights into the Qubilai–’Phags pa relationship. In particular, as ’Phags pa’s final extensive composition for Qubilai before he left the Khan’s service for good and because it encapsulates the core teachings of all the other texts composed for Qubilai by ’Phags pa, this study has focused on Advice to the King. This treatise offers the most conclusive view into the nature of the relationship that ’Phags pa’s discourses sought to instil and reinforce, and simultaneously reflect. As such, through presenting the potential power of these discourses, Advice to the King

provides insights into how ’Phags pa may have reached his remarkable position of influence.

This approach also demonstrates that Tibetan religious texts, such as Advice to the King, are also historical sources once they are located within the wider historico- political context. There is a wealth of historical insights that can be gained directly from such sources as well as indirectly through analysing the discourses embodied in them. This is not to suggest that such sources should somehow replace or take precedence over standard sources as the basis for studies of Tibetan history. Rather, they are supplementary resources that can help to corroborate and complement the prevailing historical sources upon which contemporary studies rely. Such an approach should prove to be beneficial in reaching better-informed and more holistic understandings of the Mongol Empire era and subsequent periods of Tibetan history.

Before examining Advice to the King, the thesis traced the broader tradition within Buddhism of speaking truth to power to which it belongs, placing the treatise within its literary context and providing a view into the sorts of teachings that have been given by Buddhist advisors to people of power and what sorts of results they may have hoped to achieve. This tradition derives from a long history of leading Buddhist prelates associating with kings and other people of power, challenging their prevailing worldview and presenting an alternative Buddhist regime of truth.

This thesis examined Advice to the King and its key themes, the Madyamaka Buddhist concepts of the conventional and ultimate truths, which correspond with the themes of the law of karma and the theory of emptiness found within the broader tradition of speaking truth to power. This study parsed the key components of the treatise, covering the moral precepts of all the three vehicles of Buddhism, meditative practices designed to lead Qubilai towards attaining the two bodies of buddhahood, as well as discussion of the two levels of truth perceivable in all phenomena. It also covered the addendum to Advice to the King—the miscellaneous requests to Qubilai, urging him to practice the teachings for his own wellbeing and his lineage’s successful continuation; support the welfare of Buddhist monastics; and grant ’Phags pa permanent leave from Qubilai’s court to allow him to practice Dharma. The detailed analysis of this important yet under-studied treatise included in the present study, as well as the provision of my own translations of it and its commentary and textual outline, represent a contribution to raising their profile and improving their accessibility so that they may receive the scholarly attention they deserve given their historical and religious significance.

This thesis argued that while Advice to the King is, most manifestly, a religious text, it embodies and gives rise to potential power through seeking to shape the constitution of current truths, and therefore, the power relations they carry with them. The treatise emphasises the centrality of the framework of the law of karma that entails that Qubilai’s status of power and affluence are the result of his past actions. It implicitly rejects any notion of a divine right of rulership derived from a Creator or mandated by the Eternal Sky as claimed in Mongol decrees, an assertion that ’Phags pa makes more directly in another of his compositions, Letter to Prince Nomoghan. In so doing, ’Phags pa reframes the source of the Mongols’ power within the Buddhist theory of karma and implicitly challenges the idea of the Chinggisid possessing a divine mandate to rule the world.

The treatise makes Qubilai known to himself as just one of infinite beings trapped in the cycle of samsara but presents him with the possibility of escape and the attainment of the boundless and lasting power of buddhahood. In order to achieve this, the text guides the Khan through a process of conquering the afflictive emotions and the misconceived sense of a “self” which, from a Buddhist perspective, have ruled over Qubilai since beginningless time; therefore, in a sense, it empowers Qubilai to conquer his conqueror. However, the only path to achieving this objective is presented as requiring Qubilai to submit himself wholly to his guru; therefore, the discourse can also

be seen to provide ’Phags pa with a means to, in a sense, also conquer the conqueror of his homeland.

While the wars that Qubilai waged and the punishments that he delivered to convicts show that his policies and actions did not always appear to be consistent with the teachings, moral precepts and the dharmarāja ideals set out by ’Phags pa in his discourse, the present study argues that this cannot be taken as evidence that the discourse was completely inconsequential. The lack of consensus in Buddhist literature forbidding such practices and evidence that ’Phags pa may not have strictly disapproved of all cases of such practices suggest that these actions need not have necessarily been in contravention of ’Phags pa’s advice. Furthermore, the characteristics and deeds consistent with efforts to live up to ’Phags pa’s discourses attributed to Qubilai by a range of historical accounts are also indicative of their power and practical influence.