Shèng bāqiānsòng bōrě bōluómìduō yībǎi bā míng zhēnshí yuányì tuóluóní jīng 聖八千頌般若波羅蜜多一百八名真實圓義陀羅尼經
Dhāraṇī Sūtra of the Hundred-and-Eight Names of the Holy Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā: True-and-Complete Meaning by 施護 Shīhù (等譯, Skt. Dānapāla)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Sòng-period dhāraṇī-sūtra translation by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla) and the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn translation team. Preserved in the Taishō as T230. One fascicle. The Sanskrit title is reconstructed as Ārya-aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñā-pāramitā-aṣṭottara-śatika-nāma-dhāraṇī-sūtra — a Hundred-and-Eight Names (108 nāma) dhāraṇī text praising the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā.
The work is part of the late-Indian prajñāpāramitā-cult devotional literature: the Aṣṭasāhasrikā (the 8000-Verse Prajñāpāramitā) is reified as a personified deity (Bhagavatī Prajñāpāramitā) and invoked through a hundred-and-eight name-epithets in the standard Indian Buddhist aṣṭottara-śatika devotional format.
Abstract
T230 is a representative example of late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā-cult devotional literature transmitted to China through the Northern Sòng Yìjīngyuàn translation programme. The Aṣṭottara-śatika-nāma (108-name) format is one of the standard Indian Buddhist devotional genres, used to invoke and praise deities or personified scriptures through extended litany.
For the wider history, T230 documents: (i) the late-Indian devotional reframing of Prajñāpāramitā literature as personified deity; (ii) the Northern Sòng Yìjīngyuàn’s engagement with late-Indian devotional materials beyond doctrinal sūtras; and (iii) the broader transmission of Indian Prajñāpāramitā cult into Sòng Chinese Buddhism.
Composition date: Shīhù’s translation activity at the Yìjīngyuàn spans 982 (his arrival in Kāifēng) to 1017 (his death). The bracket reflects this conservative window. The work was likely produced in the early Sòng Yìjīngyuàn period.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located of T230 specifically.
- For Shīhù and the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn, Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade (Honolulu, 2003).
- For late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā devotional cult, see Edward Conze, The Prajñāpāramitā Literature (The Hague: Mouton, 1960; revised 1978).
- Modern Chinese-language scholarship: 王邦維《佛教文獻研究》 and others.
Other points of interest
The aṣṭottara-śatika-nāma (108-name) format is one of the most widely-used Indian Buddhist devotional formats and is found across Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna, and Pure Land traditions. T230’s application of this format to the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā personified deity is an important documentation of how Prajñāpāramitā literature was being received and transmitted in late-Indian Buddhist practice.
Links
- 施護 DILA
- CBETA T08n0230
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000) — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō dating.
- Kanseki DB