Shèng Guānzìzài púsà gōngdé zàn 聖觀自在菩薩功德讚
Hymn on the Merits of the Noble Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara by 施護 (Shīhù, Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Northern-Sòng gōngdé zàn 功德讚 (Skt. guṇa-stotra) in seven-character verse, ascribed in its rubric to “西方賢聖集” (“compiled by the worthies and saints of the West”) — that is, an Indian-authored Avalokiteśvara hymn of unknown attribution rendered into Chinese at the Northern-Sòng Yìjīng yuàn 譯經院 by Dānapāla (施護), a Khotanese monk active 982–1017 under the imperial titles 西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試鴻臚卿傳法大師.
Abstract
The hymn opens “歸命最聖觀自在，滿月妙相蓮華生” — taking refuge in Avalokiteśvara, the full-moon-faced, lotus-born — and proceeds through the bodhisattva’s attributes and the abhaya-dāna (無畏施) by which he allays the fears of beings. Comparison with the parallel Tibetan canon Āryāvalokiteśvarāya guṇa-saṃgraha (Tōh. 2719) and the Sanskrit fragment recovered from the Gilgit and Tabo collections suggests the Chinese is a relatively close rendering of a short Avalokiteśvara-guṇa-stotra that circulated alongside the Aṣṭottaraśatakanāma (T20n1054, KR6j0253) and the Brahma-praise (T20n1055, KR6j0254) in the late tenth-century Indian monastic milieu from which Dānapāla’s manuscripts derived. The compact size (≈ one Taishō page) and the absence of vidyā-pada / dhāraṇī material situate the work in the stotra genre proper, distinct from the more elaborate Esoteric yíguǐ 儀軌 manuals.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 — Yìjīng yuàn output.
- Jan Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6 (1966).
Links
- CBETA T20n1053
- Kanseki DB
- 施護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000) — 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.