Fóshuō hù zhū tóngzǐ tuóluóní jīng 佛說護諸童子陀羅尼經
Sūtra of the Dhāraṇī for Protecting Children by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci I, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Wèi translation by Bodhiruci I (菩提流支, the early-sixth-century trepiṭaka, distinct from the Tang-period Bodhiruci II at 菩提流志) of a rakṣā dhāraṇī specifically addressed to the protection of infants and young children from disease, demonic affliction, and accidental death. CANWWW alt-title: Hù zhū tóngzǐ qǐngqiú nánnǚ tuóluóní jīng 護諸童子請求男女陀羅尼經 — i.e. the dhāraṇī also produces sons and daughters for those who request them, i.e. functions as a fertility-and-child-protection text.
Abstract
The Hùzhūtóngzǐ tuóluóní is one of the most pragmatically-oriented rakṣā dhāraṇīs in the Chinese canon — its concerns are the everyday calamities afflicting families: child-mortality, infant disease, demonic afflictions of pregnancy, and so forth. Bodhiruci I (Northern Wèi, fl. 508–535) was one of the great Yogācāra translators based at Yǒngníngsì 永寧寺 in Luòyáng; alongside the technical Yogācāra texts (the Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra etc.) he produced this much shorter rakṣā text, demonstrating the breadth of the Northern-Wèi translation programme. The text was widely transmitted and frequently cited as the canonical authority for the East Asian “child-protection” ritual cycle. Listed at Nanjio 488. Recension B (T1028B = KR6j0224) is a separate Tang-period niànsòngfǎ recitation manual by Śubhakarasiṃha.
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
Links
- CBETA T19n1028A
- Kanseki DB
- 菩提流支 DILA
- CBETA online
- Dazangthings date evidence (520, 530) — 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.