Dàlè jīngāng bùkōng zhēnshí sānmóyē jīng 大樂金剛不空真實三麼耶經
The Great-Bliss Vajra-Indestructible-Truth Samaya Sūtra translated by 不空 (譯)
About the work
A one-juan mid-Táng Tantric translation of the Sanskrit Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā / Naya-pāramitā by Amoghavajra 不空 (Bùkōng, 705–774), the most influential Indian Tantric master in Chinese Buddhist history. Better known by its short title Lǐqùjīng 理趣經 (the jīng of the Naya-tendency), this translation is the most influential Chinese rendering of the text and the foundational scripture of the Vajra-realm (vajradhātu) Tantric tradition in East Asia — preserved unchanged in the Japanese Shingon 真言 school via Kūkai’s (空海) transmission. The catalog title Dàlè jīngāng bùkōng zhēnshí sānmóyē jīng foregrounds the mahāsukha (大樂 great-bliss), vajra (金剛), amogha (不空 indestructible), tattva (真實 true-reality), and samaya (三麼耶 sacred-pledge) — the five-character Tantric-doctrinal complex of the Vajraśekhara cycle. notBefore set to 763 (Amoghavajra’s mature post-imperial-tutelage period); notAfter = 774 (death). Preserved as T8 no. 243. Catalog dynasty 唐.
Abstract
Amoghavajra’s title-attribution line is the most elaborate court-titular line in Chinese translation history: Kāifǔ yítóng sānsī tèjìn shì Hónglúqīng Sùguógōng shíyì sānqiānhù cì zǐ zèng Sīkōng shì Dàzhèngjiān hào Dàguǎngzhì Dàxìngshànsì sānzàng shāmén Bùkōng fèng zhào yì 開府儀同三司特進試鴻臚卿肅國公食邑三千戶賜紫贈司空謚大正監號大廣智大興善寺三藏沙門不空奉詔譯 — Amoghavajra’s accumulated court honours of “Pillar of State, Test-Hónglúqīng, Duke of Sù, fief of three thousand households, granted Purple, posthumously Sīkōng, posthumous title Dàzhèngjiān, sobriquet Dàguǎngzhì” framing the translation as an act of ultimate imperial-monastic authority. The text is structured as a sūtra in single-section format (Bānruò bōluómìduō lǐqù pǐn 般若波羅蜜多理趣品 — “the Method-Tendency Section of the Prajñāpāramitā”), and presents the canonical sixteen-mahāsattva exposition of prajñā in fully-developed Tantric register. Each mahāsattva presents a prajñā-mantra line + zhēnyán (mantra) + the symbol of the Tathāgata-family represented.
Translations and research
- Ian Astley, The Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (Brill, forthcoming) and his earlier essays — most authoritative modern English-language study with Sanskrit edition.
- Yukei Matsunaga’s comparative editorial work.
- Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (Columbia UP, 2002); Charles Orzech, Politics and Transcendent Wisdom (Penn State, 1998).
- For the Japanese Shingon transmission see Kūkai (空海)‘s extensive corpus on the Lǐqùjīng and the standard Shingon studies.
Other points of interest
The Lǐqùjīng is the central daily-recitation scripture of the Japanese Shingon school, recited in full at the principal Shingon ritual moments. The 160-verse Sanskrit original is now extant in multiple manuscript witnesses, and modern critical-edition work (Astley, Matsunaga) has established the high-fidelity character of Amoghavajra’s translation. Within the Chinese Vajraśekhara tradition, the Lǐqùjīng serves as the prajñāpāramitā doctrinal foundation for the entire vajra-realm ritual cycle.
Links
- 不空 DILA
- CBETA online
- Translator: Amoghavajra 不空 (705–774) — see person note 不空
- Sanskrit: Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā / Naya-pāramitā (~150 verses)
- Master’s parallel translation: KR6c0118 Jīngāngdǐng yújiā lǐqù bānruò jīng (Vajrabodhi)
- Sòng parallel: KR6c0119 Biànzhào bānruò bōluómì jīng (Dānapāla)
- Earliest Chinese version: KR6c0117 (Bodhiruci II)
- Major Japanese reception: Shingon 真言 school via Kūkai 空海
- Dazangthings date evidence (750): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/
- Kanseki DB