Fó shuō dàbēi kōngzhì jīngāng dàjiàowáng yíguǐ jīng 佛說大悲空智金剛大教王儀軌經
Sūtra-Ritual-Manual of the Great-Compassion Empty-Wisdom Vajra Great-Teaching-King (Skt. Hevajra-tantra) by 法護 (Dharmapāla / Fǎhù, 譯)
About the work
A five-fascicle Sòng-period Esoteric translation by Fǎhù 法護 (法護) — the second great Indian translator at the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn (distinct from the much earlier 3rd-century Western Jin translator Dharmarakṣa 竺法護 竺法護). The text is the Chinese translation of the Hevajra-tantra — one of the foundational Indian yoga-uttara-tantra scriptures and one of the central texts of late Indian Buddhist tantra. Dàbēi kōngzhì (Great-Compassion Empty-Wisdom) translates the technical Sanskrit mahā-karuṇā-śūnya-jñāna designation of the Hevajra deity.
Abstract
The text is the Chinese Hevajra-tantra — a Sòng-period rendering of the foundational late-Indian yoga-uttara-tantra scripture that became central to the late Indian (Pāla-period) Buddhist tantra tradition and to the Tibetan bKa’ brgyud and Sa skya schools. The five-fascicle translation by Fǎhù preserves the doctrinal-ritual content of the Sanskrit Hevajra-tantra — the Hevajra (i.e., ‘Hé-Vajra’, a wrathful Vajra-deity in yab-yum embrace with his consort Nairātmyā) cycle of practices, including the abhiṣeka sequences, the sādhana prescriptions for the principal yidam, and the central yoga practices of caṇḍālī (tum-mo), the six dharmas of Nāropā (in proto-form), and the mahāmudrā of consort-yoga.
The translation is one of the principal Sòng-Chinese textual witnesses to the late Indian Buddhist tantra. Like other Sòng yoga-uttara-tantra translations, its East Asian liturgical reception was minimal — but the text’s importance for understanding the Indian and early Tibetan tantric tradition is significant. The translation dates from Fǎhù’s documented Yìjīngyuàn period (1004–1058).
Translations and research
- Snellgrove, David L. The Hevajra Tantra: A Critical Study. London: Oxford UP, 1959. — The foundational scholarly edition and translation of the Sanskrit Hevajra-tantra.
- Farrow, G.W., and I. Menon. The Concealed Essence of the Hevajra Tantra. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992.
- Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. — Extensive treatment of the Hevajra-tantra tradition.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — On the Sòng Institute.
Other points of interest
T892 is one of the few extant Chinese translations of a major yoga-uttara-tantra text — most of the late Indian tantras were never translated into Chinese (the Tibetan tradition preserves them more comprehensively). Fǎhù’s Hevajra is thus a unique East Asian witness to late Indian tantric Buddhism, valuable for comparison with the Sanskrit and Tibetan recensions and for understanding the Sòng Institute’s scope of Esoteric translation work.