Jīngāng jīng kēyí 金剛經科儀
The Diamond Sūtra Liturgy by 建基 (錄)
About the work
A one-juan late-Qīng (Dàoguāng-era) bǎojuàn-style liturgical edition of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, transcribed (錄) by the monk Jiànjī 建基 (alt. Xīnsēngtán 心僧談) in 道光乙未年孟夏 = early-summer 1835 (Dàoguāng 15). The catalog title-character kēyí 科儀 places the work in the same liturgical genre as Sòng Zōngjìng’s KR6c0055 foundational Xiāoshì Jīngāng kēyí, but the present text is a fresh recension rather than a re-edition of Zōngjìng’s substrate. The full title is Jīngāng jīng kēyí bǎojuàn 金剛經科儀寶卷 — explicitly designating the work as a bǎojuàn 寶卷 (precious-scroll, the late-imperial vernacular Buddhist sectarian liturgical genre). Preserved as X74 no. 1494. notBefore / notAfter = 1835. Catalog dynasty 清.
Abstract
The opening of the volume is striking: not the sūtra-text itself, but the famous pilgrimage-poem of Yìjìng 義淨 — Jìn Sòng Qí Liáng Tángdài jiān, gāosēng qiúfǎ lí Chángān; qù rén chéng bǎi guī wú shí, hòu zhě ān zhī qián zhě nán 晉宋齊梁唐代間，高僧求法離長安；去人成百歸無十，後者安知前者難 (“Through Jìn, Sòng, Qí, Liáng, and Táng, eminent monks left Chángān in search of dharma; of the hundreds who set out, fewer than ten returned — how could the latter understand the difficulty of the earlier?”). This evocative seventh-century poem of the Indian-pilgrim experience opens a nineteenth-century devotional liturgy on the Vajracchedikā, signaling the bǎojuàn genre’s characteristic mixing of canonical-classical materials with vernacular liturgical apparatus.
The body of the kēyí presents the Vajracchedikā arranged for liturgical recitation under the standard bǎojuàn sevenfold structure (echoing Zōngjìng’s frame: tígāng / yàozhǐ / chángxíng / jiélèi / sòng jīngwén / jǐngshì / jié guī jìngtǔ), with verses, hymns, and jié concluding with return to the Pure Land (jié guī jìngtǔ 結歸淨土). The Pure-Land orientation is characteristic of the Qīng-period popular-devotional reception of the Vajracchedikā.
Translations and research
- For the bǎojuàn genre see Daniel Overmyer, Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (HUP, 1999); Wilt Idema’s extensive translation work.
- For the Sòng substrate genre see entry KR6c0055 Xiāoshì Jīngāng kēyí huìyào zhùjiě of Sòng Zōngjìng / Míng Juélián.
Links
- 建基 DILA
- CBETA online
- Compiler: Jiànjī 建基 (Xīnsēngtán 心僧談), 1835 — see person note
- Substrate genre tradition: Sòng KR6c0055 Zōngjìng Xiāoshì Jīngāng kēyí
- Opening invocation: pilgrimage-poem of Yìjìng 義淨
- Commented text: KR6c0023
- Kanseki DB