Fó shuō yīqiè rúlái wūsènìshā zuìshèng zǒngchí jīng 佛說一切如來烏瑟膩沙最勝總持經
Buddha-Pronounced Sūtra of the All-Tathāgata Most-Victorious Uṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī-Holder by 法天 (Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Sòng-period translation by Dharmadeva (法天) of an Uṣṇīṣa dhāraṇī sūtra in which the Sanskrit term uṣṇīṣa is preserved as the Chinese transliteration wūsènìshā 烏瑟膩沙 rather than being translated as fódǐng 佛頂. The text presents a separate canonical Buddha-Crown dhāraṇī parallel to but distinct from the Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya and Sitātapatra families — one of several minor uṣṇīṣa dhāraṇī sūtras catalogued in the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn programme.
Abstract
The text supplements Dharmadeva’s Uṣṇīṣa-vijaya recension (KR6j0151 T974A) with a separate canonical uṣṇīṣa sūtra translated from a different Indic source-recension. The transliterated form wūsènìshā 烏瑟膩沙 reflects the new Sòng convention adopted at the Yìjīngyuàn under Tiānxīzāi 天息災 and Dharmadeva for proper-noun loan-words, replacing the earlier Tang convention of full semantic translation. The text records the universal-tathāgata pronouncement of an uṣṇīṣa dhāraṇī with the standard panchakośa-protective frame — protecting the practitioner across the five cosmic directions and against the standard category of obstacles (sickness, demonic affliction, calamity, evil rebirth, and ill-omen). Composition falls in Dharmadeva’s Yìjīngyuàn period (980–1001).
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
- Lin Guangming 林光明 (ed.), Xīnbiān Dàzàng quánzhòu 新編大藏全咒. Taipei: 嘉豐出版社, 2001.