Lánpén xiàngòng yí 蘭盆獻供儀
Liturgy for the Yúlánpén Offering re-edited by 元照 (Yuánzhào, 重集)
About the work
X1500 in one fascicle is the standard Sòng-period liturgical manual for the Yúlánpén offering — the seventh-month-fifteenth-day rite that is the ritual practice grounded by the Yúlánpén jīng (KR6i0364). The witness is signed “餘杭沙門釋元照重集” (“re-compiled by the monk Yuánzhào of Yúháng”) — the same Northern-Sòng Lǜzōng 律宗 revivalist responsible for [[KR6i0367|Xīnjì 新記]] (X372).
Abstract
元照’s preface gives the textual genealogy of the Sòng Yúlánpén liturgy in unusual detail: “昔孤山法師甞作蘭盆禮讚文。三寶目連共為六位。啟白懺悔各四句而巳。仍用常途羅漢禮請之聲” — “in former times Dharma-master Gūshān (孤山智圓 / Zhìyuán) composed a Yúlánpén liturgy in praise. The three jewels and Maudgalyāyana together constituted six liturgical positions, with four-line qǐbái 啟白 (“address-and-confession”) and chànhuǐ 懺悔 (“repentance”) texts at each position; the music continued to use the standard tunes for the Arhat-invitation (luóhàn lǐqǐng zhī shēng 羅漢禮請之聲).” 元照 then notes that Zhēnwù lǜshī 真悟律師 had subsequently revised the rite for use as a “Tiānzhúzǔ” (Indian-patriarchal) ceremony, adding qǐqǐng 啟請 (“invitation”) verses at the head and shifting 孤山智圓’s four-line praise to the tànfó 歎佛 (“praising-the-buddha”) position.
元照’s own contribution is to note that the existing rite had omitted two crucial elements: (1) the lùguò chénhuǐ 露過陳悔 (“disclosure-of-faults and presentation-of-repentance”) on behalf of the deceased, and (2) the zhòuyuàn 呪願 (“incantation-and-aspiration”) that the parent sūtra prescribes immediately after the food-offering. He inserts both into the Sòng liturgy, restoring (in his view) the sūtra’s prescribed sequence. The result is a comprehensive nine-section ceremonial: invitation, praise, food-offering, zhòuyuàn incantation, repentance, praise, transfer-of-merit, dedication, and conclusion.
Composition window: 元照’s mature Língzhīsì period, 1080–1116.
Related canonical texts: parent sūtra KR6i0364 (T685); commentary KR6i0365 (T1792); 元照’s sub-commentary KR6i0367 (X372).
Translations and research
- Teiser, Stephen F. The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton, 1988.
- Stevenson, Daniel. “Death-Bed Testimonials of the Pure Land Faithful”. Buddhism in the Sung (Honolulu, 1999) (background on Sòng Buddhist liturgy).
No standalone Western-language translation located.
Other points of interest
The Lánpén xiàngòng yí is one of the few systematic Sòng Buddhist liturgical manuals to survive in the canon (most Sòng monastery practices were transmitted only orally or in unstandardized monastery-internal manuals). Its prescription that zhòuyuàn incantations and food-offering verses follow strictly the sūtra’s order has been one of the textual bases for the modern East-Asian Yúlánpén / Obon liturgy.