Dàyúnlún qǐngyǔ jīng 大雲輪請雨經
Sūtra of the Great Cloud-Wheel Rain-Petitioning by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A two-fascicle Tang-period translation by Amoghavajra (不空) of the Mahā-megha-sūtra (大雲經 Dàyún jīng) extracted as a stand-alone “rain-petitioning” (qǐngyǔ 請雨) ritual scripture. The text gives the rain-summoning vidyā together with the four-quarter Nāga-king invocation and the formal qǐngyǔ altar-rite. Together with KR6j0177 (Mahāmegha altar-method), KR6j0178–KR6j0180 (Sui and Northern-Zhōu recensions), the Mahāmegha family constitutes the principal Buddhist rain-magic corpus of medieval China.
Abstract
The Mahāmegha-sūtra tradition entered Chinese Buddhism through Dharmakṣema’s complete translation in the early fifth century (preserved in KR6f0046 T387 and related), but the qǐngyǔ (rain-petitioning) section of the text was extracted as an independent ritual scripture in multiple recensions. Amoghavajra’s T989 represents the Tang Esoteric reformulation of this rain-magic practice, integrating the Nāga-king invocation with the yoga-tantra mandala-ritual framework. The Mahāmegha rain-rite became one of the principal court-protection rites performed at the Tang capital — Amoghavajra performed it for emperor Sùzōng during the 安祿山 Ān Lùshān rebellion drought, and later imperial drought-rites under Dàizōng and Dézōng drew on this Amoghavajra recension as the canonical reference. The text is also one of the principal sources for the medieval Chinese Buddhist construction of the Nāga-king cosmology and is closely associated with the Lóngshén shùi 龍神水 (“Nāga-water”) ritual tradition.
Translations and research
- Bagchi, P. C. Le canon bouddhique en Chine. Paris: Geuthner, 1927–1938. — translation history of the Mahāmegha.
- Forte, Antonino. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976. — for the Mahāmegha cult under Wǔ Zétiān (the Great Cloud movement).
- Sørensen, Henrik H. “Esoteric Buddhism under the Tang.” In Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.