Master Puji 普济 (1850–1912) was an eminent monk based at Nanshan Monastery in the Mount Wutai region. He is widely remembered as an orthodox Buddhist figure; however, texts associated with the Way of the Nine Palaces (Jiu Gong Dao 九宫道), a late Qing folk religious movement, present a markedly different account of his life, suggesting that he may have been closely connected to, or even a leader within, this sect under the name Li Xiangshan 李向善. These sources, however, do not present a single consistent account. Rather, they contain multiple and often conflicting versions of key events, which also diverge from external materials such as stone inscriptions at Nanshan Monastery. As a result, no clear historical consensus has been reached. This thesis examines these discrepancies through close textual comparison of the principal Jiu Gong Dao scriptures; the Precious Scroll of Establishing the World (Lishi baojuan 立世寶卷), the Root Scripture (Genben jing 根本經), The Bright-Dark Ancient Buddha’s Guiding Scripture (Guangxuan gufo zhimi jing 光玄古佛指迷經), and the Family Geniality of the Nine Incarnations of the Maitreya (Mile jiuzhuan jiapu 米勒九轉家譜), alongside epigraphic and local historical sources. By comparing variant accounts and identifying patterns of agreement, contradiction, and omission, it proposes a more plausible reconstruction of events and relationships among key figures. In doing so, this study demonstrates that the figure of Puji is best understood not as a fixed historical identity, but as one shaped through competing processes of sectarian memory, institutional recognition, and retrospective reinterpretation.
Jeremy James (Thu,) studied this question.