Abstract

In ordinary usage, the term miracle is employed very broadly in modern times. It often refers to a highly improbable or extraordinary event with welcome consequences or an outstanding example of something, such as a miracle drug or an economic miracle. In my study of Chinese Buddhist stories relating marvelous and wondrous events, much of the modern conception of miracle is certainly not applicable. Indeed, the modern Chinese term qiji 奇蹟, a translation of miracle, has never been used to refer to wondrous events in Buddhist literature. Nevertheless, wondrous events recounted in Indian and Chinese Buddhist works are referred to by modern scholars of Asian studies as "miracle tales,"...