Jīngāngdǐng yújiā zhōng lüèchū niànsòng jīng 金剛頂瑜伽中略出念誦經
Sūtra of Recitation Drawn from the Vajraśekhara-yoga (alt. Lüèchū niànsòng jīng 略出念誦經) by 金剛智 (Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A four-fascicle abridged-recitation version of the Vajraśekhara-sūtra tradition, translated by Vajrabodhi 金剛智 (金剛智, 669/671–741) — the second of the Three Great Tang Esoteric Masters and Amoghavajra’s master. The text is the earlier Chinese rendering of the Vajradhātu material, predating Amoghavajra’s standard Vajraśekhara-sūtra (KR6j0024, T18n0865) by several decades. The Taishō header notes the cross-references: “[cf. Nos. 865, 882]” — confirming the work as parallel to but distinct from Amoghavajra’s later, more authoritative translation.
Prefaces
The colophon gives “大唐南印度三藏金剛智譯” (with editions giving variant rendering 南天竺 in 三/宮/Sòng/Yuán/Míng witnesses, and 法師 added in some Yuán/Míng witnesses) — “Translated by Tripiṭaka-master Vajrabodhi from South India of the Great Tang.” The text opens with the verse-invocation:
為利諸眾生
令得三身故
身口意相應
[…]
— stating the soteriological aim of the practice (the attainment of the trikāya via body-speech-mind yoga).
Abstract
The Lüèchū niànsòng jīng is the earliest Chinese translation of Vajradhātu material from the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha tradition, predating Amoghavajra’s foundational T865 by approximately 30 years. Vajrabodhi’s translation is structured as an abridged ritual-recitation version rather than the full prose-narrative translation that Amoghavajra later produced. As such, it is a unique witness to the early Tang Esoteric translation tradition’s reception of the Vajradhātu materials before they were systematised in the canonical Amoghavajra recension.
The four fascicles cover: (i) the introductory framework and the verse-invocation; (ii) the construction of the principal Vajradhātu mandala; (iii) the abhiṣeka sequences for the central deities; (iv) the sādhana prescriptions for the 37 Vajradhātu deities. The text’s ritual-practical orientation distinguishes it from Amoghavajra’s more theoretically-oriented T865.
The translation is conventionally dated to the period of Vajrabodhi’s active translation work in Chángān (720–741). Vajrabodhi had arrived at Chángān in 719 (Kāiyuán 7) bearing Sanskrit Vajradhātu manuscripts; his translation programme commenced shortly after and continued until his death in 741. The Lüèchū niànsòng jīng is thus among the earliest Chinese textual witnesses to the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha tradition — preceding both Amoghavajra’s T865 (753–774) and Shīhù’s T882 (early Sòng).
Translations and research
- Chou Yi-liang. “Tantrism in China.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 8 (1945): 241–332. — Foundational study; discusses Vajrabodhi’s translation programme.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia UP, 2019. — Discusses Vajrabodhi’s preceding translation work.
- Sundberg, Jeffrey, and Rolf Giebel. “The Life of the Tang Court Monk Vajrabodhi as Chronicled by Lü Xiang 呂向: South Indian and Śrī Laṅkān Antecedents to the Arrival of the Buddhist Vajrayāna in Eighth-Century Java and China.” Pacific World 13 (2011): 129–222. — Detailed biography of Vajrabodhi.