Qiānzhuǎn tuóluóní Guānshìyīn púsà zhòu 千轉陀羅尼觀世音菩薩呪
Thousand-Turning Dhāraṇī Spell of Avalokiteśvara by 智通 (Zhìtōng, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle early-Tang Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī translated by Zhìtōng (智通, fl. mid-7th c.) at Zǒngchísì 總持寺 in Chángān in Yǒnghuī 4 (653). Together with KR6j0236 (Qīngjìng Guānshìyīn pǔxián tuóluóní jīng 清淨觀世音普賢陀羅尼經 / T1038) and the Guānzìzài púsà suíxīn zhòu (T1103a/b), the three Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī-texts make up Zhìtōng’s recorded translation corpus and represent one of the earliest substantial Tang-period engagements with the Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī tradition.
Abstract
The Qiānzhuǎn tuóluóní (“thousand-turning dhāraṇī”) is so named because of the thousand-fold repetition required for the dhāraṇī’s full efficacy — a feature characteristic of the more elaborated dhāraṇī-genre that became standard in seventh-century Chinese Buddhist practice. The text supplies the dhāraṇī itself, an account of its efficacy, and basic recitation-instructions; it does not yet have the fully-developed yíguǐ apparatus that would emerge under Śubhakarasiṃha and Amoghavajra in the eighth century. Zhìtōng’s translation should be read as a representative document of the pre-Esoteric (i.e. pre-Tángmì) Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī tradition. The biographical evidence places Zhìtōng at Zǒngchísì in Yǒnghuī 4 (653); the other two surviving translations bear the same date, suggesting this was a concentrated translation project. Compare also Dānapāla’s later Sòng re-translation KR6j0234 (Qiānzhuǎn dàmíng tuóluóní jīng 千轉大明陀羅尼經, T1036) made some 330 years later.
Translations and research
- Yü Chün-fang. Kuan-yin. New York: Columbia UP, 2001.
- Hidas, Gergely. Powers of Protection. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2021.
Links
- CBETA T20n1035
- Kanseki DB
- 智通 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (640) — 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.