Fódǐng zūnshèng tuóluóní 佛頂尊勝陀羅尼
Buddha-Crown Victorious Dhāraṇī by 慈賢 (Cíxián, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Liáo-period (Khitan) recension of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī by Cíxián (慈賢), the Madhyamaka monk-translator from Magadha who served at the Liáo court of emperors Shèngzōng and Xīngzōng. Preserved not in the standard Sòng canon but in the Fángshān 房山 stone-engraved canon (Vol. 27, no. 1062), the text reflects the Liáo-court Esoteric translation programme that paralleled the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn but transmitted somewhat different Indic recensions sourced through the northern Khitan-Khotanese trade routes.
Abstract
Cíxián is identified in Khitan sources as 摩竭陀國三藏 (the trepiṭaka of Magadha) who arrived at the Liáo court ca. 1031 and remained active through the Xīngzōng reign (1031–1055) and into the early Dàozōng period (r. 1055–1101). His seven attested translations — preserved exclusively in the Fángshān stone canon — comprise the earliest documented Liáo Esoteric translation corpus and predate the standard Liáo canonical compilations. The present Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī recension, together with Cíxián’s Sitātapatra-dhāraṇī (KR6j0162), forms a paired Buddha-Crown corpus distinct from both the Tang (KR6j0144–KR6j0148) and Sòng (KR6j0151) recensions, showing northern-Indic phonological features (post-classical retroflex/labial conventions). The Fángshān engraving was executed in the Liáo Qīngníng 清寧 to Xiányōng 咸雍 era (1055–1074) under the supervision of the Liáo-period stone-canon project at Yúnjū-sì 雲居寺.
Translations and research
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory. New York: Columbia UP, 2014.
- Lin Guangming 林光明 (ed.), Xīnbiān Dàzàng quánzhòu 新編大藏全咒. Taipei: 嘉豐出版社, 2001. — Sanskrit reconstructions and parallels for Cíxián’s transliterations.