Fó shuō dàbáisǎngài zǒngchí tuóluóní jīng 佛說大白傘蓋總持陀羅尼經
Buddha-Pronounced Sūtra of the Great-White-Parasol Dhāraṇī-Holder by 真智 (Zhēnzhì, 等譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Yuán-period Chinese translation of the Sitātapatra-dhāraṇī produced collaboratively by Zhēnzhì (真智) “and others” (等譯) under the Yuán imperial translation programme. The text presents an alternative recension to Sherap’s T976 (KR6j0159), framed explicitly as the zǒngchí 總持 (Skt. dhāraṇī) “holder” — emphasising the dhāraṇī as a comprehensive container of merit and protection rather than a discrete spell.
Abstract
Zhēnzhì (Tib. Ye shes?) is identified in the Taishō attribution as a Yuán trepiṭaka-translator working in the imperial Sino-Tibetan Esoteric translation establishment of the late 13th to early 14th century. The “děng yì” (and others) attribution indicates a translation team — characteristic of the Yuán imperial method that paired Tibetan-trained monks with Chinese scribes for the rendering of Bka’-‘gyur materials. The recension preserves additional epithets and ritual-purpose formulas not in Sherap’s T976, suggesting an independent or supplementary Sa-skya recension. Together with T976, the two texts form the standard Yuán Sitātapatra canonical pair, transmitted into the Míng-Qīng Esoteric corpus and into the eighteenth-century Qīng-imperial Sino-Mongol-Manchu-Tibetan parallel canon.
Translations and research
- Lokesh Chandra. Sanskrit Texts from the Imperial Palace at Peking. New Delhi: Sharada Rani, 1969–1976.
- Sørensen, Henrik H., and Charles Orzech, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.