Dàwáng Guānshìyīn jīng 大王觀世音經
Sūtra of the Great-King Avalokiteśvara Anonymous folk-tradition apocryphal sūtra.
About the work
A short single-juan anonymous apocryphal sūtra preserved exclusively in the Fángshān shíjīng 房山石經 (Fángshān stone-engraved canon) corpus, where it is catalogued as F01n0016. The work is one of several apocryphal “Dàwáng sūtras” (Dàwáng Guānshìyīn jīng, Gāowáng Guānyīn jīng [the related work in KR6d0125], etc.) that circulated in pre-Sòng Chinese folk Buddhism as protective dhāraṇī texts associated with the Avalokiteśvara cult.
Prefaces
The text in the F01n0016 recension carries no separate translator’s preface and no attribution to any translator. The body opens directly with: “[The sūtra] expounds: contemplating Avalokiteśvara a thousand times attains crossing-over of suffering and tribulations, the elimination of sins of birth-and-death. Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Namo Buddha. The Buddha-realm has [karmic] connections; Buddha-dharma mutually causes. I — am a great spirit-mantra; namo Mahāprajñā is the great bright-mantra; namo Mahāprajñā is the great equal-mantra. Buddha: Lion-Roar Spirit-Foot Wandering King Buddha; Inform Sumeru-Lamp King Buddha; Dharma-Protector Buddha; Vajra-Children-Sport Buddha; Medicine-Master Beryl Buddha; Universal-Light Merit-Mountain King Buddha; Good-Abiding Merit Jewel King Buddha. Six-direction six Buddhas …”
Abstract
The Dàwáng Guānshìyīn jīng is a short Avalokiteśvara devotional sūtra that combines (1) brief prose narration of the protective efficacy of Avalokiteśvara contemplation; (2) extensive Buddha-name lists for invocational recitation; (3) the standard six-direction Buddha enumeration; and (4) protective formulas for daily recitation. The work belongs to the broader pre-Sòng Chinese folk-Buddhist apocryphal scriptural tradition and demonstrates the substantial textual production for popular devotional use that supplemented the Indic-translated canonical corpus.
The Fángshān stone-engraved canon — engraved in stone slabs at the Yúnjūsì 雲居寺 of Fángshān 房山 in modern Beijing’s Fángshān district — was a long-running stone-canon project initiated by 靜琬 Jìngwǎn (?–639) in the Suí-Tang transition and continued in successive engraving phases through the Liáo and Jīn dynasties. Its preservation of the Dàwáng Guānshìyīn jīng documents the inclusion of folk-apocryphal texts alongside canonically-attested works in the Tang Buddhist devotional culture.
The dating is consequently bracketed loosely within the productive period of the Fángshān canon project: c. 500–800.
Translations and research
- Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. (Standard study of the Chinese Avalokiteśvara cult, including the apocryphal Gāowáng and related sūtras.)
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr., ed. Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1990.
- Zhongguo Fojiao xiehui 中國佛教協會, ed. Fángshān shíjīng tíjì huìbiān 房山石經題記彙編. Beijing: Shūmù wénxiàn chūbǎnshè, 1987. (Standard reference for the Fángshān canon.)
Other points of interest
The Fángshān canon project — preserving the entire Buddhist canon engraved on stone slabs to ensure its survival against political-and-natural disasters — is one of the most ambitious preservation projects in pre-modern Buddhist textual history. Its preservation of folk-apocryphal texts like the Dàwáng Guānshìyīn jīng demonstrates the canon’s broad inclusivity and its commitment to comprehensive preservation rather than strict canonical filtering.