Rénwáng hùguó bōrě bōluómìduō jīng shū 仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經疏
Subcommentary on Amoghavajra’s State-Protecting Rénwáng-jīng by 良賁 Liángbì (述)
About the work
A three-fascicle Tang esoteric-circle commentary on Amoghavajra’s revised translation of the Rénwáng-jīng (KR6c0203 = T246), composed by 良賁 Liángbì (717–777) at the explicit request of 不空 Amoghavajra (705–774) shortly after the completion of T246 in 766. Preserved in the Taishō as T1709. Three fascicles.
The commentary is the principal canonical Tang esoteric reading of the Rénwáng-jīng and accompanies T246 as the doctrinal-scholastic complement to the revised translation. Together T246 and T1709 constitute the foundational textual base for the Tang state-Buddhist Rénwáng huì 仁王會 ritual programme.
Prefaces
The Taishō witness opens with substantial introductory materials: an Amoghavajra-circle preface noting the imperial commission, the structural-outline (kē) of the commentary, and the standard Tang scholastic xuányì analysis. The body then proceeds line-by-line through Amoghavajra’s translation in the esoteric Yogācāra-influenced doctrinal register characteristic of the Amoghavajra circle.
Abstract
T1709 is the principal Tang esoteric Buddhist commentary on the Rénwáng-jīng and a primary document of the mid-Tang state-Buddhist political-religious programme that Amoghavajra constructed under Dài-zōng patronage. Doctrinally Liángbì incorporates substantial esoteric Buddhist material — dhāraṇī analysis, Five Tathāgata mappings, ritual-instructional notes — that aligns with Amoghavajra’s revised translation T246’s expanded esoteric content.
The commentary became the canonical Tang esoteric reading of the Rénwáng-jīng and was widely used in the imperial Rénwáng huì ritual training. It complements the contemporary doctrinal commentaries by Jízàng (T1707, Sānlùn) and Wǒnch’ǔk (T1708, Yogācāra) by providing the explicitly esoteric reading.
For the wider history of East Asian Buddhism, T1709 is significant as: (i) the Amoghavajra-circle’s authoritative commentary on his own revised translation; (ii) a primary witness to the mid-Tang esoteric Buddhist political theology; and (iii) a foundational text for the Heian-Kamakura-era Japanese Renwáng-e state-protective ritual practice.
Composition date: between 766 (completion of Amoghavajra’s T246) and 777 (Liángbì’s death). The bracket notBefore 766 / notAfter 777 reflects this; the work was likely completed within a few years of T246’s appearance, in the late 760s or early 770s.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located of T1709 specifically.
- For Liángbì and Amoghavajra’s circle, see Charles D. Orzech, Politics and Transcendent Wisdom (1998); various papers on the Amoghavajra-led mid-Tang esoteric Buddhist programme.
- For the Rénwáng-jīng tradition, Orzech (1998) and the references for KR6c0202 / KR6c0203.
- Modern Chinese-language scholarship: 呂建福《中國密教史》 and other works on Tang esoteric Buddhism.
Other points of interest
The Amoghavajra-Liángbì pairing — translator and commentator working in close collaboration — is one of the more visible mid-Tang examples of the master-disciple commentarial production model. Together T246 (translation) and T1709 (commentary) form a single textual programme designed for state-Buddhist ritual use.