Bōrě bōluómìduō lǐqù jīng dàlè bùkōng sānmèi zhēnshí jīngāngsàduǒ púsà děng yīshíqī shèng dàmàntúluó yì shù 般若波羅蜜多理趣經大樂不空三昧真實金剛薩埵菩薩等一十七聖大曼荼羅義述
Exposition on the Meaning of the Great Maṇḍala of the Seventeen Sages including the Great-Bliss Unfailing Samaya True-Reality Vajrasattva-Bodhisattva from the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra by 不空 (Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric exegetical text by Amoghavajra (不空) explicating the Lǐqù jīng “Seventeen-Sage Maṇḍala” — the iconographic mandala arrangement of seventeen central figures (Vajrasattva at the centre surrounded by sixteen attendant deities) that serves as the visual-meditative framework for the Lǐqù-jīng practice. Together with KR6j0193 (T1003 Lǐqù shì), the text completes the canonical Tang Esoteric apparatus surrounding the Adhyardhaśatikā Prajñāpāramitā.
Abstract
The Seventeen-Sage Maṇḍala (shíqīshèng dàmàntúluó 一十七聖大曼荼羅) is the central iconographic-doctrinal apparatus of the Lǐqù jīng tradition in Tang Esoteric Buddhism, expressing the pan-tantric union of prajñā and upāya through the seventeen-deity arrangement organising the bodhisattvas and vajra-female partners in a configuration that became canonical for the East Asian Vajradhātu Lotus-family practice. Amoghavajra’s “exposition on the meaning” (yì shù 義述) gives the symbolic-doctrinal interpretation of each of the seventeen deities, their bīja-syllables, mudrā, and ritual functions. The text was foundational for the Japanese Shingon Lotus-Family iconographic tradition and for the Rishukyō-mandala paintings preserved at Tō-ji and Mount Kōya.
Translations and research
- Astley-Kristensen, Ian. The Rishukyō. Tring: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1991.
- ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.
- Toganoo Shōun 栂尾祥雲. Rishukyō no kenkyū 理趣經の研究. Kōyasan: Kōyasan Daigaku, 1930.