Wúgòu jìngguāng dà tuóluóní jīng 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經
Mahā-pratisarā-vidyā-rājñī Sūtra (Raśmi-vimala-viśuddha-prabhā Dhāraṇī Sūtra) by 彌陀山 (Mitraśānta, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang-period translation by Mitraśānta (彌陀山, 寂友 Jìyǒu) of the Raśmi-vimala-viśuddha-prabhā-dhāraṇī, completed at Chángān during the Tiānshòu / Wǔzhōu era (690–704). Co-translators recorded with Mitraśānta include the great Huáyán patriarch Fǎzàng 法藏 (643–712). The text is one of the most historically consequential dhāraṇī-sūtras: it is the dhāraṇī printed in the Pulguk-sa Śākyamuni Pagoda 佛國寺釋迦塔 woodblock print of c. 706–751 (the famous Korean Mu-gu-jeong-gwang Great Dhāraṇī Sūtra), a candidate for the earliest extant printed text in human history.
Abstract
The Wúgòu jìngguāng tuóluóní (“Stainless-and-Pure-Light Dhāraṇī”) is presented as a means of producing meritorious dharma-relics (法舍利) by inscription, recitation, and stūpa-deposit; the text instructs how a single small stūpa containing copies of the dhāraṇī is equivalent to the worship of all Tathāgatas of the past, present, and future. This doctrinal claim — convergent with the Bǎoqièyìn tuóluóní tradition (KR6j0215) — fueled the practice of mass-producing printed copies of the dhāraṇī for stūpa-deposits, which is the proximate cause of the famous early-printed copies. The Korean Pulguk-sa specimen, recovered in 1966 from the Śākyamuni Pagoda at Pulguk-sa, dates to within the building period 706–751 and constitutes one of the earliest physical witnesses of woodblock-printing in world history. (The competing claim — that the Japanese Hyakumantō Darani 百萬塔陀羅尼 of 770 is earlier — depends on which side one takes in the early-printing debate; the underlying texts are different in any case.) Mitraśānta and Fǎzàng’s collaboration is documented in the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳.
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
- Pak Sang-guk 박상국. Mugu jeonggwang dae darani-gyeong 무구정광대다라니경. Seoul: National Museum of Korea, 2007.
- Barrett, T. H. “The Rise and Spread of Printing: A New Account of Religious Factors.” SOAS Working Papers in the Study of Religions (2001).
- Kornicki, Peter. “The Hyakumantō Darani and the Origins of Printing in Eighth-Century Japan.” International Journal of Asian Studies 9.1 (2012): 43–70.
Other points of interest
The Pulguk-sa specimen is the principal physical witness of the text in pre-canonical form. It is a Korean National Treasure (No. 126) and the principal piece of evidence in the long-running scholarly debate about the priority of Korean vs Chinese vs Japanese block-printing.
Links
- CBETA T19n1024
- Kanseki DB
- 彌陀山 DILA
- Wikipedia (Mugujeonggwang Daedaranigyeong)
- Dazangthings date evidence (704) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.