Little Devotees: Children’s Ritual Efficacy and Soteriological Capacity in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

In Buddhist thought, do children have the capacity to attain enlightenment? Or are they bound by their ignorance, unable to ascertain the Dharma until they develop a certain level of discernment? This paper examines concepts of children’s ritual efficacy and soteriological capacity in medieval Chinese Buddhist miraculous tales and hagiographical accounts from the third to tenth centuries CE.  It considers in what circumstances, in what capacities, and for what purposes children appear as religiously agentive in accounts of Buddhist practice in medieval China. Reflecting indigenous Chinese concepts of biophysical and moral development, medieval Chinese Buddhist miraculous tales and hagiographical accounts ascribe ritual efficacy and soteriological capacity to children from roughly six-years-old (seven sui 歳) onward. By exploring portrayals of children’s religious practice in medieval Chinese Buddhism, my paper invites scholars in Buddhist studies to reconsider how historical and cultural notions of childhood shaped basic tenets of Buddhist thought.