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金光明最勝王經

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Text ID
KR6i0303
Date
703–703
Dynasty
唐

Jīnguāngmíng zuìshèngwáng jīng 金光明最勝王經

Sūtra of the Most Victorious King of the Golden Light (Skt. Suvarṇaprabhāsottama-sūtrendrarāja) translated by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)

About the work

T665 in ten fascicles is 義淨’s long-form translation of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra, completed by imperial command (奉制譯) in the second year of Cháng’ān 長安 (703) under the second reign of Empress 武則天 Wǔ Zétiān. With 31 chapters arranged across ten fascicles, this is roughly twice the length of 曇無讖’s T663 of c. 414, and supersedes both that text and 寶貴’s composite T664 for liturgical purposes. T665 is the version commented upon in the Yogācāra tradition by 慧沼 (KR6i0309) and is the basis of the East Asian state-protective Buddhism of the Táng and later periods.

Abstract

The translation is unanimously ascribed to 義淨 (635–713) on the basis of the original colophon, the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154) and the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061). The date of completion is precisely fixed by the Kāiyuán catalogue at Cháng’ān 長安 3 (703), in the imperial translation office at Luòyáng. The text is a single translation of the long Sanskrit recension preserved in extenso (and in part transmitted in Khotanese; cf. Skjærvø 2004), which expands the Suvarṇaprabhāsa with several additional doctrinal and ritual chapters absent from the earlier Chinese rendering — most strikingly the celebrated Wángfǎ zhènglùn pǐn 王法正論品 (chapter 20), a Buddhist mirror-of-princes which gave royal legitimacy a scriptural foundation, and the expanded dhāraṇī cycles around Sarasvatī (大辯才天女) and Lakṣmī / Śrī (大吉祥天女).

T665 was canonised by the Empress with a personal preface (the 序 by 武則天 is preserved in the Sòng-onward editions but in the Taishō appears as the imperial preface to the Sòng zhū jīng group), and it became the standard ritual text of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa across Táng China, Silla and Heian Japan: the Heian Saishō-ō-kyō (the Japanese reading of this very title) is the basis of the Saishō-e 最勝會 imperial assembly. Its impact in Tibet, where the analogous text underlies the gSer-‘od dam-pa, is comparable.

Structural Division

T665 has 31 chapters (CANWWW):

序品, 如來壽量品, 分別三身品, 夢見金鼓懺悔品, 滅業障品, 寂淨地陀羅尼品, 蓮華喻讚品, 金勝陀羅尼品, 重顯空性品, 依空滿願品, 四天王觀察人天品, 四天王護國品, 無染著陀羅尼品, 如意寶珠品, 大辯才天女品, 大吉祥天女品, 大吉祥天女增長財物品, 堅牢地神品, 僧慎餘耶藥叉大將品, 王法正論品, 善生王品, 諸天藥叉護持品, 授記品, 除病品, 長者子流水品, 捨身品, 十方菩薩讚歎品, 妙憧菩薩讚歎品, 菩提樹神讚歎品, 大辯才天女讚歎品, 付囑品.

Related canonical texts: KR6i0301 (金光明經 / T663), the parent short recension; KR6i0309 (慧沼’s commentary / T1788).

Translations and research

  • Nobel, Johannes. Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra. Das Goldglanz-Sūtra. Leipzig, 1937. Sanskrit edition.
  • Nobel, Johannes. Suvarṇaprabhāsottama-Sūtra: I-Tsing’s chinesische Version und ihre tibetische Übersetzung. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1958. The standard study and translation of 義淨’s T665 specifically; includes a parallel Tibetan rendering.
  • Emmerick, R. E. The Sūtra of Golden Light. Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1996. English translation from the Sanskrit; useful synoptic reference for T665.
  • Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. This Most Excellent Shine of Gold, King of Kings of Sutras. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004. The Khotanese parallel to T665.
  • Radich, Michael. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2015. Contextualises the Buddha-body teaching of T665.

Other points of interest

The Wángfǎ zhènglùn pǐn (chapter 20, “Right Discourse on the Dharma of Kings”) is the single most influential Buddhist political text in East Asian history: it was paraphrased into Japanese imperial proclamations from Shōmu onward, and was cited in Korean and Sòng-period state-protection rhetoric. The Sìtiānwáng hùguó pǐn 四天王護國品 (chapter 12, “Four Heavenly Kings protecting the realm”) is the canonical scriptural foundation of the East Asian hùguó / gokoku tradition.

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