Dà Pílúzhēnà chéngfó shénbiàn jiāchí jīng 大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經
Sūtra of the Mahāvairocana’s Attainment of Buddhahood, His Supernatural Transformations, and His Empowerment (Mahāvairocana-abhisaṃbodhi-vikurvitādhiṣṭhāna-sūtra; Dàrì jīng 大日經; Dainichi-kyō) by 善無畏 (Śubhakarasiṃha, 譯) and 一行 (Yīxíng, 譯)
About the work
The Dà Pílúzhēnà jīng — universally known by its abbreviation Dàrì jīng 大日經 (Jp. Dainichi-kyō) — is the foundational scripture of the Tang Esoteric Garbhadhātu (胎藏界, “Womb-realm”) transmission and one of the two textual pillars of East Asian Esoteric Buddhism (the other being the Vajraśekhara-sūtra / Jīngāngdǐng jīng 金剛頂經, KR6j0024). Translated by Śubhakarasiṃha 善無畏 (善無畏) with his Chinese disciple Yīxíng 一行 (一行) at Chángān between 724 and 725 CE. The received text comprises seven fascicles (七卷): six fascicles of the sūtra proper, structured into 31 chapters (品), and a seventh fascicle containing the Gōngyǎng cìdìfǎ 供養次第法 (“Method of the Sequential Ritual of Offerings”) — a five-chapter ritual appendix translated separately. The text is the locus classicus for the doctrine of the Three Mysteries (三密 sānmì: body, speech, and mind), the trikāya of Mahāvairocana, the Garbhadhātu mandala iconography, and the formula “bodhi-mind as cause, great compassion as root, expedient means as ultimate” (菩提心為因，大悲為根本，方便為究竟) — the terminus a quo of all subsequent East Asian Esoteric doctrine.
Prefaces
The Taishō text opens directly with the chapter heading 入真言門住心品第一 (“On Abiding-Mind: Entering the Mantra-Gate, Chapter 1”). The fascicle-1 colophon reads: 大唐天竺三藏善無畏共沙門一行譯 — “Translated by the Indian Tripiṭaka-master Śubhakarasiṃha of the Great Tang, jointly with the śramaṇa Yīxíng.” Variant attested readings in the Sòng/Yuán/Míng/Gōng editions give the alternative phonetic transliteration of the translator’s name: 輸波迦羅 / 輸婆迦羅 (Śubhakara). No separate translator’s preface survives in the Taishō; the principal documentation of the translation circumstances is the Sòng Gāosēngzhuàn 宋高僧傳 (KR6r0054, T50n2061), the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (KR6s0093, T55n2154) of Zhìshēng 智昇 (730), and Yīxíng’s own Dàrìjīng shū 大日經疏 (KR6j0080, T39n1796) preface.
Abstract
The Mahāvairocana-sūtra is a Mahāyāna-yoga-tantra of the kriyā- and emerging caryā-tantra classes — a transitional text between the proto-Tantric dhāraṇī-sūtras and the fully developed yoga-tantras that would follow with the Vajraśekhara. Its setting is unique among Buddhist sūtras: rather than being preached on earth in the human realm, the discourse is delivered by Mahāvairocana (大毘盧遮那, Dàpílúzhēnà — “Great Sun” or “Great Resplendent One”) seated in the Vajra-dharmadhātu palace, a non-spatial cosmic location, with Vajrapāṇi (金剛手) as the principal interlocutor. The doctrinal framework is the doctrine of dharmakāya-preached scripture (法身說法): the speaker is not the historical Śākyamuni in nirmāṇakāya form but the cosmic dharmakāya itself. This claim becomes the doctrinal foundation of the entire East Asian Esoteric tradition’s claim to a transmission that supersedes the exoteric (xiǎn 顯) Mahāyāna scriptures.
The first chapter, the Zhùxīn pǐn 住心品 (“On Abiding-Mind”), is the doctrinal core: it presents the threefold formula bodhi-mind as cause, great compassion as root, expedient means as ultimate and the famous “sixty kinds of mind” (六十種心) classification of soteriological dispositions. Chapters 2–31 are largely operative-practical: they give the layouts of the Garbhadhātu mandala (the basis of all subsequent East Asian taizōkai iconography), the abhiṣeka (灌頂) consecration sequences, the mudrā and mantra repertories of the principal deities, the homa (護摩) fire-offering rituals, and the contemplative-meditative methods (a-ji-kan 阿字觀 — contemplation on the seed-syllable A as the unborn dharmakāya).
The translation history is reasonably well-documented. According to Yīxíng’s own preface to the Dàrìjīng shū and the entry in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (730), Śubhakarasiṃha brought the Sanskrit manuscript with him from India when he arrived at Chángān in 716. The translation was undertaken at the Dà Fúxiānsì 大福先寺 in Luòyáng 洛陽 in 724–725, with Yīxíng as his Chinese disciple-amanuensis. The seven-fascicle structure reflects a six-fascicle sūtra + one-fascicle ritual appendix (Gōngyǎng cìdìfǎ) compilation; the extant Sanskrit (which is preserved in fragments at Gilgit and substantially in Tibetan as Mahāvairocana-abhisaṃbodhi-tantra) corresponds to the first six fascicles only. The seventh fascicle is unique to the Chinese transmission — likely compiled by Śubhakarasiṃha from associated ritual materials.
The doctrinal exposition that became canonical was not the sūtra itself but Yīxíng’s Dàrìjīng shū 大日經疏 (KR6j0080, T39n1796) — Yīxíng’s twenty-fascicle commentary recording Śubhakarasiṃha’s oral exegesis. This commentary, composed by Yīxíng during the translation work and finalised before his death in 727, became the authoritative Esoteric commentary on the sūtra and the doctrinal foundation of the entire East Asian Esoteric tradition. Kūkai 空海 (空海) brought it to Japan in 806 and built the entire Shingon doctrinal edifice on its foundation.
The text was canonised under the Mahāvairocana-tantra in the Tibetan transmission (rNam par snang mdzad chen po mngon par byang chub par gyur pa’i rgyud, Tōh. 494), where it is classified as an upayoga- or caryā-tantra. The Chinese and Tibetan recensions agree in substance but show some divergence in the detailed mandala iconography, suggesting they derive from related but not identical Sanskrit recensions.
Translations and research
- Hodge, Stephen. The Mahā-Vairocana-Abhisaṃbodhi Tantra, with Buddhaguhya’s Commentary. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. — The standard scholarly translation, based on the Tibetan recension with reference to the Chinese.
- Giebel, Rolf W. The Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sutra (BDK English Tripiṭaka). Berkeley: Numata Center, 2005. — Translation from the Chinese (Taishō no. 848); the standard English version of Śubhakarasiṃha’s text.
- Yamamoto Chikyō 山本智教. Mahāvairocana-Sūtra: Translated into English from Ta-p’i lu chê na ch’êng-fo shên-pien chia-ch’ih ching, the Chinese Version of Śubhakarasiṃha and I-hsing (A.D. 725). Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1990.
- Tajima Ryūjun 田島隆純. Étude sur le Mahāvairocana-sūtra (Dainichikyō): avec la traduction commentée du premier chapitre. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, 1936. — Classic French study of the doctrinal first chapter.
- Abé, Ryūichi. The Weaving of Mantra: Kūkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia UP, 1999. — Substantial discussion of the Dàrìjīng’s reception and Kūkai’s interpretation.
- Müller, Charles A. (ed.). Digital Dictionary of Buddhism — entries 大日經, 大毘盧遮那成佛神變加持經, 胎藏界 (with primary-source apparatus).
Other points of interest
The seventh fascicle (Gōngyǎng cìdìfǎ 供養次第法) — which has no Sanskrit or Tibetan counterpart — became the textual basis for daily Esoteric ritual practice in both the Tang Chinese and Japanese Shingon-Tendai liturgical traditions. Its compositional history (whether Śubhakarasiṃha himself produced it from Indian ritual materials or whether it was assembled in China) remains debated; the consensus view (Hodge 2003, Giebel 2005) is that it represents authentic Indian ritual material brought to Chángān by Śubhakarasiṃha but compiled in China during the translation work.