Jiājù língyàn fódǐng zūnshèng tuóluóní jì 加句靈驗佛頂尊勝陀羅尼記
Account of the Phrase-Augmented and Numinously-Efficacious Buddha-Crown Victorious Dhāraṇī by 武徹 (Wǔ Chè, 述)
About the work
A one-fascicle late-Tang miracle-tale (língyàn 靈驗) record by Wǔ Chè (武徹) compiled to demonstrate the efficacy of the “phrase-augmented” (jiājù 加句) recension of the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya-dhāraṇī — a slightly expanded version of Buddhapāli’s standard T967 transmission (KR6j0144). The text frames the dhāraṇī within a chain of reception accounts, court patronage notices, and miraculous-cures narratives that became central to the Tang-Sòng Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya pillar cult.
Abstract
Wǔ Chè was a late-Tang Buddhist literatus (his Jiùtáng shū / Xīntáng shū records are minimal — he held minor offices and is principally remembered through this single composition). The “phrase-augmented” recension contains additional dhāraṇī phrases (the so-called jiājù additions) absent in Buddhapāli’s standard T967 but preserved in the related T971 recension; Wǔ Chè’s account narrates the textual history of these additions and their devotional efficacy through case stories of demon-suppression, illness-cure, and post-mortem rebirth-improvement. The text is one of the principal pre-Sòng witnesses to the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya pillar cult and is heavily cited by Liú Shūfēn in her reconstruction of the Tang jīngchuáng devotional landscape. The composition postdates Buddhapāli’s translation (679–688) and the Tang court’s adoption of the jiājù recension under emperor Dàizōng (r. 762–779); Wǔ Chè was active in the Dàlì 大曆 (766–779) and Zhēnyuán 貞元 (785–805) eras, placing the composition in the late 8th century.
Translations and research
- Liu Shufen 劉淑芬. Mièzuì yǔ dùwáng — Fódǐng zūnshèng tuóluóní jīngchuáng zhī yánjiū 滅罪與度亡——佛頂尊勝陀羅尼經幢之研究. Shanghai: Shanghai guji, 2008. — primary modern study, citing Wǔ Chè extensively.
- Copp, Paul. The Body Incantatory. New York: Columbia UP, 2014.