Fóshuō Wénshūshīlì xúnxíng jīng 佛說文殊師利巡行經
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on Mañjuśrī’s Itinerant Practice translated by 菩提流支 Pútíliúzhī (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō Wénshūshīlì xúnxíng jīng (T470) is a one-fascicle Mahāyāna sūtra translated by the Northern Wei Bodhiruci 菩提流支 (菩提流支). The Taishō header cross-references No. 471, marking the text as parallel to Jñānagupta’s KR6i0072 (T471) Wénshūshīlì xíng jīng. Both translations render the same Indic Mañjuśrī-vihāra-sūtra.
Prefaces
The text opens with rúshì wǒwén. The colophon attributes translation to “元魏天竺三藏菩提流支” (Bodhiruci of the Northern Wei).
Abstract
The sūtra describes Mañjuśrī’s daily vihāra (dwelling place / activity) — his itinerant practice of visiting different communities and adapting his teaching to varied audiences. The text models the bodhisattva’s pedagogical upāya (skillful means) in a way that mirrors the Buddha’s own bhikkhu-vihāra in early Buddhist suttas, but reinterprets it through Mahāyāna principles. The text was particularly influential for the bodhisattva-as-itinerant-teacher iconography that became central to East Asian Mahāyāna.
Bodhiruci’s translation activity at Luòyáng spanned roughly 508–537 CE; this short text is dated within that bracket.
Translations and research
- Tribe, Anthony. “Mañjuśrī: Origins, Role and Significance.” The Buddhist Forum II (1991): 1–25.
- Lamotte, Étienne. Mañjuśrī. Bruxelles, 1960.