Fóshuō bā jíxiáng shénzhòu jīng 佛說八吉祥神呪經
Sūtra of the Divine Dhāraṇī of the Eight Auspicious Ones by 支謙 Zhī Qiān (譯)
About the work
The Bā jíxiáng shénzhòu jīng is a brief single-fascicle scripture in which the Buddha, addressing Śāriputra and his assembly at Gṛdhrakūṭa (Rājagṛha), enumerates eight auspicious Tathāgatas (bā jíxiáng 八吉祥) in the eight cardinal directions, each presiding over a world-field at a distance of one to eight Ganges-River-sands from the speaker. The Buddha enjoins the assembly to hear and hold these eight names in mind, promising protection and blessing. The text belongs to the “eight auspicious Buddhas” (bā jíxiáng or bā fó 八佛) protective literature that was widely popular in early Chinese Buddhism. The Taishō groups it together with four close parallels (T427–T431), all of which enumerate eight Buddhas in the cardinal directions and are closely related in content though differing in phrasing and attribution. The translation is attributed to the lay translator 支謙 of the Wú dynasty (Three Kingdoms).
Prefaces
No preface survives. The translator colophon reads: 吳月氏優婆塞支謙譯 (“Translated by the Yuèzhī upāsaka [lay practitioner] 支謙 of Wú”). However, Jan Nattier (A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations, 2008) does not regard the 支謙 ascription in the Taishō as reliable; 僧祐 Sēngyòu’s Chū sānzàng jì jí lists this text under anonymous translations (失譯). The colophon attribution likely reflects later cataloguing tradition rather than a verified transmission record.
Abstract
The Bā jíxiáng shénzhòu jīng is one of five closely related translations of a short Mahāyāna protective sūtra enumerating eight Buddhas in the eight directions (T427–T431); the Taishō editors group them together with a cross-reference. The Indic original (not preserved in Sanskrit) appears to have been a short devotional and protective text (rakṣā-type literature) invoking eight directional Buddhas, each associated with auspiciousness (maṅgala). The formula — listing Buddhas with names such as 安隱囑累滿具足王如來 (“Tathāgata King Fully Complete in Peaceful Entrustment”) in the east, through to the west — points to an early Mahāyāna cosmological vision that influenced the later “Eight Auspicious Signs” iconographic tradition in Chinese Buddhist art.
The Taishō ascribes this text to 支謙 (Zhī Qiān; fl. 222–252 CE), a lay Buddhist of Yuèzhī origin who settled in the Wú state and produced dozens of sūtra translations. However, Nattier (2008) finds the 支謙 ascription unreliable and the Chū sānzàng jì jí lists the text as anonymous. The text’s date accordingly remains uncertain; a 3rd–4th century provenance is most likely, given its membership in the “eight directional Buddhas” cluster (T427–T431). Noteworthy is the appearance of a Buddha named 藥師具足王如來 (“Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru, King Fully Complete”) as the fifth of the eight directional Buddhas — one of the earliest occurrences of the Bhaiṣajyaguru name in Chinese Buddhist literature, anticipating the later fully developed Yakushi sūtra cycle (cf. KR6i0047, KR6i0048, KR6i0049). The relationship between T427, T428 (KR6i0004), T429 (KR6i0005), T430 (KR6i0006), and T431 (KR6i0007) suggests that a common Indic original was translated repeatedly across the 3rd–6th centuries.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located on this specific text.