Zànlǐ dìzàng púsà chànyuàn yí 讚禮地藏菩薩懺願儀
The Ritual of Praise, Salutation, Repentance, and Vow before the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha by 智旭 (Zhìxù / Ǒuyì 蕅益, 述)
About the work
The Zànlǐ dìzàng púsà chànyuàn yí in 1 fascicle is the late-Míng repentance liturgy (chànyuàn yí 懺願儀) for the bodhisattva 地藏 Kṣitigarbha, composed by the late-Míng Buddhist master 智旭 Zhìxù (1599–1655) — better known by his sobriquet Ǒuyì 蕅益, the most influential Buddhist scholar of the late Míng. The Xuzangjing print signs the entry “明 菩薩沙彌古吳 智旭 述” — “set forth by Zhìxù, bodhisattva-novice of Gǔ Wú 古吳 [Sūzhōu], in the Míng dynasty”. The text is structured as a complete chànfǎ 懺法 (repentance ritual) liturgy, with rubrics in interlinear notes giving the prescribed actions of the practitioner — purifying body, mouth, and mind; venerating the buddhas; visualising the bodhisattva; reciting confession formulas; and concluding with vows.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the liturgical instructions and the prescribed visualisation, without a separate preface.
Abstract
The chànyuàn yí is part of the great late-Míng revival of Buddhist liturgical scholarship, a project to which 智旭 contributed several major works (the [[KR6f0050|Wéishí xīn yào 唯識新要]] on Yogācāra, his Línglóng dàlùn 楞嚴大論 on the Śūraṅgama, and his commentaries on the [[KR6h0016|Dìzàng běnyuàn jīng]] and other Mahāyāna sūtras). Like his contemporaries 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng and 德清 Hānshān Déqīng, 智旭 worked to reconstitute properly Buddhist ritual forms after the perceived corruptions of the late-Míng popular tradition; the Chànyuàn yí is one such reconstruction, prescribing a structured Kṣitigarbha repentance based on the doctrinal framework of the [[KR6h0016|Běnyuàn jīng]].
The dating window 1610–1655 reflects the bracket of 智旭’s active scholarly life, conventionally given as 1610 (the year of his ordination) to 1655 (the year of his death). The work was widely adopted in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese (especially Ōbaku) Buddhist communities and remains in use as the standard Kṣitigarbha repentance liturgy in contemporary East Asian practice.
Translations and research
- 聖嚴 Shèngyán. Míngmò Zhōngguó fójiào zhī yánjiū 明末中國佛教之研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1975. — Standard study of late-Míng Buddhism, with substantial treatment of 智旭’s liturgical writings.
- Yu, Beverley Foulks McGuire. Living Karma: The Religious Practices of Ouyi Zhixu. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014. — Recent monograph centred on 智旭’s religious life, with discussion of his liturgical work.