Liù púsà yì dāng sòngchí jīng 六菩薩亦當誦持經
Sūtra of the Six Bodhisattvas Who Should Also Be Chanted (translator unknown)
About the work
The Liù púsà yì dāng sòngchí jīng (T491) is a one-fascicle Mahāyāna text whose translator is unknown (shīyì 失譯, “translator lost”). It enumerates six bodhisattvas whose names should be invoked in daily chanting practice. The text is shorter and earlier in date than the canonical aṣṭamahābodhisattva schemes (Fóshuō bā dà púsà jīng KR6i0119 = T490), suggesting a stage in the development of Mahāyāna pantheon-systematization before the standardization of the eight bodhisattvas.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the canonical jīngshǒu formula. There is no surviving translator attribution.
Abstract
The text witnesses an early phase of the Mahāyāna devotional pantheon — six bodhisattvas rather than the later canonical eight. The six are typically Mañjuśrī, Avalokiteśvara, Maitreya, Samantabhadra, and two others (variously). The catalog meta dates the text to “失譯” (translator lost) without dynasty assignment; the standard catalogers locate it in the broad pre-Sui canonical corpus, giving the bracket of 200–600 CE. 僧祐 Sēngyòu’s Chū sānzàng jì jí (Liáng) lists the text without attribution; later catalogs assign it variously.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.