Fó shuō yīqiè rúlái zhēnshí shè dàshèng xiànzhèng sānmèi dàjiàowáng jīng 佛說一切如來真實攝大乘現證三昧大教王經
Sūtra of the Buddha’s Speaking of the Great-Teaching-King for Manifest Realisation of the Mahāyāna-Samādhi, the True Compendium of All Tathāgatas (full Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha-tantra) by 施護 (Dānapāla, 等譯 — translated together with others)
About the work
A 30-fascicle complete translation of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha-tantra — the foundational Vajradhātu yoga-tantra — by Dānapāla 施護 (施護, d. 1017) at the Northern Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras (譯經院) in Kāifēng. The work is the complete Chinese rendering of the Sanskrit text, comprising all four chapters (Vajradhātu, Trailokyavijaya, Sarvavinaya, Sarvārthasiddhi) — distinct from Amoghavajra’s earlier 3-fascicle T865 (KR6j0024), which translates only the first chapter. T882 is the most complete Chinese textual witness to the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha tradition.
Abstract
The 30-fascicle T882 represents the definitive Sòng translation of the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha, undertaken approximately 250 years after Amoghavajra’s foundational 3-fascicle abridged translation (T865). Where Amoghavajra translated only the first chapter (the Vajradhātu Mahā-mandala) — the structurally central but doctrinally introductory portion — Dānapāla translated the complete Sanskrit text comprising all four chapters:
- Vajradhātu — the central Vajra-realm mandala (parallel to T865).
- Trailokyavijaya — the Conqueror-of-the-Three-Worlds sub-tantra, addressing the Vajradhātu’s wrathful aspect.
- Sarvavinaya — the All-Subduing sub-tantra.
- Sarvārthasiddhi — the All-Aim-Accomplishing sub-tantra.
The translation work was undertaken at the imperial Yìjīngyuàn 譯經院 in Kāifēng during the early Northern Sòng. Dānapāla, an Indian monk from Uḍyāna (Swat valley) who had been installed at the Yìjīngyuàn since its founding in 982 (Tàipíng-Xīngguó 7), had imperial title Chuánfǎ Dàshī 傳法大師 (“Master Who Transmits the Dharma”). The dating of T882 to ca. 1010–1015 reflects the documented timing of his major Esoteric translation work in his late career; he died in late 1017.
The text is the principal Chinese textual witness to the complete Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha and is essential for modern scholarly reconstruction of the Indian text. It complements but does not replace Amoghavajra’s T865, which had already become the canonical East Asian Esoteric scripture; T882 was used principally as a scholarly-philological resource rather than as a liturgical text. The Sòng-period Esoteric translations (T882 and the related Vajra-tantra translations of Dānapāla and his colleagues) had limited reception in the Esoteric ritual establishment of the Sòng (which was substantially reduced after the Huìchāng persecution and the Five-Dynasties dispersion) and were consigned to the canonical archive without practical liturgical use.
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. — On the Indian Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha tradition.
- Horiuchi Kanjin (ed.). Bonzō Kanwa Yon-ben Taishō Kongōchōkyō no kenkyū. Kōyasan, 1983. — Sanskrit-Tibetan-Chinese-Japanese parallel edition.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — On the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn translation programme.
- Jan Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6 (1966): 24–42, 135–168.
Other points of interest
T882’s 30-fascicle scope makes it one of the longest single Esoteric scriptures in the Chinese canon and the principal textual witness to the Sarvatathāgatatattvasaṃgraha-tantra in its full Indian form. Its limited liturgical reception in East Asia (in contrast to its scholarly importance in modern Buddhological scholarship) reflects the structural pattern by which the Sòng-period Esoteric translations were canonised but not integrated into the lived ritual tradition.