Zhòu wǔ shǒu 呪五首
Five Spells (Dhāraṇī-saṅgraha) by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle dhāraṇī-collection of five spells translated by Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602–664). CANWWW gives the Sanskrit reconstruction Dhāraṇīsaṅgraha and the alt-title Zhòu wǔdào jīng 咒五道經. Despite Xuánzàng’s primary identification with the Yogācāra and Prajñāpāramitā translation programmes, he also produced a small but significant body of dhāraṇī translations — a fact that complicates the conventional scholarly opposition between his “doctrinal” agenda and the “magical” dhāraṇī cult.
Abstract
The Zhòu wǔ shǒu presents five short dhāraṇī-spells, each accompanied by a brief introduction specifying its application and a concise prescription for its recitation. The collection-format is typical of dhāraṇī-saṅgraha literature in the broader Indic tradition (the Mahā-pratisarā and Pañcarakṣā corpus, etc.). Xuánzàng’s translation is dated to his late translation period (645–664) at Cíēnsì 慈恩寺 and Yùhuágōng 玉華宮 — the same institutional setting in which he was producing his major Yogācāra and Prajñāpāramitā translations. The dhāraṇī-orthography in this text is notably more careful than the early-seventh-century norm, reflecting Xuánzàng’s well-known philological standards for Sanskrit transliteration. Listed at Nanjio 1378.
Translations and research
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021. — covers the Pañcarakṣā / dhāraṇī-saṅgraha genre.
- Buswell, Robert E., and Donald S. Lopez Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014. — entry on “Xuanzang”.
Links
- CBETA T20n1034
- Kanseki DB
- 玄奘 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (655) — 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.