Mulian- Chinese FigureMortal"Rescuer of His Mother"

The Descent into Hell

Mùlián, known in Sanskrit as Maudgalyāyana, was one of the two chief disciples of the Buddha, renowned above all others for his supernatural powers (shéntōng, 神通). According to the Yulanpen Jing (Ullambana Sūtra), after attaining arhatship and gaining the ability to see across all realms of existence, Mùlián turned his divine eye upon the six realms to find his deceased mother. What he discovered shattered him: Lady Qīngtí (青提夫人) had been reborn in the realm of hungry ghosts (èguǐdào, 餓鬼道), condemned by the karmic consequences of her greed and violations of Buddhist precepts during her lifetime. Mùlián attempted to offer her food using his supernatural powers, but every morsel burst into flames before reaching her mouth, transformed by her karmic condition into burning coals. Despairing, he returned to the Buddha and begged for a way to save her.

The Buddha instructed Mùlián that no individual's power, however great, could overcome the accumulated karma of past lives. Instead, he must rely on the collective merit of the entire sangha. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the final day of the monks' summer retreat (ānjiā, 安居), Mùlián was to prepare offerings of food, drink, and supplies for monks of the ten directions. The combined spiritual merit generated by this act of generosity would be sufficient to release his mother and seven generations of ancestors from suffering. Mùlián followed these instructions, and his mother was freed from the hungry ghost realm.

The Ghost Festival and Literary Legacy

The ritual Mùlián performed became the foundation of the Yulanpen Festival (盂蘭盆節), observed on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month, one of the most important religious holidays in Chinese Buddhism and folk religion. The festival merged with indigenous Chinese ancestral worship practices to become the broader Ghost Festival (Zhōngyuán jié, 中元節), during which the living make offerings to ease the suffering of all deceased spirits, not only family ancestors. This synthesis of Buddhist soteriology and Chinese filial piety made Mùlián's story a powerful cultural bridge between the two traditions.

The narrative reached its fullest elaboration in the medieval bianwen (transformation texts) discovered among the Dunhuang manuscripts, dating to the Tang dynasty (8th-10th centuries). The "Mùlián Rescues His Mother from Hell" (大目乾連冥間救母變文) is one of the longest and most dramatic of all bianwen, depicting Mùlián's journey through the courts of hell in vivid, harrowing detail. He passes through realms of boiling oil, mountains of knives, and forests of swords, witnessing the torments of the damned before finally locating his mother. This text became the basis for theatrical performances (mùlián xì, 目連戲) that remained popular through the Ming and Qing dynasties, performed during the Ghost Festival season as both entertainment and religious ritual.