Fó shuō mùhuànzǐ jīng 佛說木槵子經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Aritha-Seed (Soapberry Seed) (Skt. Ariṣṭa-bīja-sūtra?) translator unknown (失譯, 譯)
About the work
T786 in one fascicle is an anonymous Chinese rendering placed by the Taishō editors in the Eastern Jìn catalogue (the standard formula 失譯人名今附東晉錄). The title 木槵子 (mùhuànzǐ) names the soapberry seed (Sapindus mukorossi / S. trifoliatus) — known in Indian sources as ariṣṭa / aritha and used as the standard material for Buddhist japa-mālā (rosary / prayer-bead string).
Abstract
The Buddha addresses King Vaiḍūrya (琉璃王) of an unspecified small state who comes to him with a problem: the kingdom is troubled by epidemic, war, and crop failure, the people are in distress, and the king as ruler does not know how he can himself maintain proper Buddhist practice while responsible for the welfare of so many troubled subjects. The Buddha replies with the foundational Buddhist instruction in the use of a rosary (japa-mālā): the king should string together one hundred and eight (一百八) soapberry-seeds (mùhuànzǐ 木槵子) into a string, and constantly carry them with him; while moving, sitting, or lying down, he should recite the formula “Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha” (佛、法、僧 — the triśaraṇa) and pass one bead through his fingers with each recitation. By accumulating recitations of the triśaraṇa in this way — across one rosary, ten rosaries, a hundred rosaries, a million rosaries — the king will gradually purify his karma, eliminate the kleśas, and progress toward the higher attainments. The Buddha specifies the karmic fruits that follow at increasing thresholds of accumulated recitation.
The text is the earliest surviving canonical Buddhist exposition of rosary practice — the foundational scripture for the use of the japa-mālā in Buddhist devotion. The number 108 specified for the rosary is the standard Buddhist enumeration, paralleling the 108 kleśas, the 108 upacāra-praśna of the abhidharma, and so on. The text founded the tradition of rosary use that became standard across all Buddhist traditions and was later supplemented by more elaborate treatments of rosary-merit in the Mànshūshìlì zhòucáng zhōng jiàoliáng shùzhū gōngdé jīng 曼殊室利呪藏中校量數珠功德經 (KR6i0491) and the Fó shuō jiàoliáng shùzhū gōngdé jīng 佛說校量數珠功德經 (KR6i0492). A later Tang esoteric expansion is preserved in the Jīngāngdǐng yújiā niànzhū jīng 金剛頂瑜伽念珠經 (KR6i0493) of 不空 (Amoghavajra).
Translations and research
- Strong, John S. The Buddha: A Short Biography. Oxford: Oneworld, 2001. (Background on Buddhist devotional material culture.)
- Kieschnick, John. The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. (For the rosary in Chinese Buddhism.)
Links
- CBETA online
- Dazangthings date evidence (420): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. Dazangthings
- Kanseki DB