Qiānshǒu jīng èrshíbā bù zhòng shì 千手經二十八部衆釋
Explanations of the Twenty-Eight Classes of Retainer-Deities in the Thousand-Hand Sūtra (Jp. Senju-kyō nijūhachi-bu shū shaku) by 定深 (Jōshin, 撰)
About the work
A one-fascicle Japanese Shingon commentary on the twenty-eight classes of retainer-deities (二十八部衆) of the Thousand-Hand Avalokiteśvara cult — the protective entourage of Sahasrabhuja Avalokiteśvara recited in the dhāraṇī-edict verse (勅偈) of the Qiānshǒu qiānyǎn Guānshìyīn púsà guǎngdà yuánmǎn wúài dàbēixīn tuóluóní jīng (KR6j0260, T20n1060) — by Jōshin 定深 (定深), a Shingon scholar-monk active in the mid-to-late Heian period.
Prefaces
The work opens with its own author’s preface (lines 3–24 of the source text):
“The Qiānshǒu dhāraṇī scripture has both a new and an old recension. They share an imperially-edicted hymn (勅偈) in which the names of the protector-divinities, devas, and good spirits appear. The two recensions largely agree but differ in details. Now, regarding the old recension, there exists a three-fascicle commentary 疏 [now lost]; the new recension lacks such a commentary…”
Jōshin explains that the “old recension” (古本) carries an unrevised text with extensive ritual and medical materials (種種藥法并祕術), and that an extant three-fascicle 疏 commentary on this recension first cited the scripture passage, then explained it. The “new recension” (新本) is an edited and shortened reading-version (除麁取要為令易誦持也). He further mentions a Song-dynasty xerographic (模印之本) edition that mixed Amoghavajra-translated mantras into the older text. Jōshin’s project is to collate the protector-deity names across these three witnesses, then provide a measured (致取捨) explanation, drawing on Sanskrit (依梵文) and on other scriptural sources.
“This is not to surpass others or to court fame, but only for the flourishing of the dharma and the benefit of beings.” 非爲勝他名聞。但是爲興法利生耳
He notes that the old Qiānshǒu edict-hymn contains 40 verse-lines, of which 27 are deity-names (missing the Maṇi-bhadra line and the Diffuse-finger-general-Phūrṇabha line), while the new recension’s edict-hymn has 43 verse-lines, of which 29 are deity-names. He chooses to organize the latter into 28 retainer-classes (二十八部) by combining the first two lines into one class.
The colophon at the end of the text records: “One fascicle of the Qiānshǒu jīng èrshíbā bù zhòng shì. Copied at the Provisional Hall 假堂 of Tō-ji 東寺 on the 14th day of the 4th month of Kennyū 9 [= 1198 CE]. By the monk Eishin 永眞 (永眞).”
Abstract
The Qiānshǒu twenty-eight retainer-classes are a distinctive feature of the Japanese-Sino Esoteric Avalokiteśvara cult: a fixed roster of yakṣa-generals, devas, gandharvas, nāgas, garuḍas, kinnaras, piśācas, and other protective spirits who guard the dhāraṇī-practitioner. The original Sanskrit antecedent appears to have grown from the standard aṣṭasenā (eight classes) plus various local accretions, and the resulting set as it stood in Tang Esoteric practice was canonized in Bhagavaddharma’s translation of the Qiānshǒu scripture (T20n1060). Jōshin’s work is one of the earliest extant systematic Japanese treatments of this roster.
The text proceeds class-by-class through the 28 retainer-divinities. For each, Jōshin gives:
- the Chinese name as it appears in T1060;
- the underlying Sanskrit (where reconstructible) and its meaning;
- the deity’s classificatory affiliation (sky-traveler, water-dweller, wrathful protector, etc.);
- the deity’s iconographic features in the standard Sino-Japanese cultic representations;
- the deity’s function in the Qiānshǒu practice (which mantra it guards, which directions it protects, etc.);
- comparative citation of the parallel passages in related Esoteric scriptures (especially the Kǒngquè míngwáng texts, which carry the analogous twenty-eight yakṣa-classes — though Jōshin explicitly observes that these are not identical to the Qiānshǒu set).
The work also offers a long postscript (定深私撿, “I, Jōshin, have privately examined…”) in which Jōshin discusses the alternative twelve-class scheme found in the now-lost old-recension commentary, noting that it organizes the deities differently (vajra-warriors, good spirits, victory-spirits, country-protectors, monastic-protectors, six-form devas, Trāyastriṃśa, four-heavens-kings, peacock spirits, eight nāga-classes, sundry spirits, and “thus first-served-one with multitudes attached”). He observes that this scheme gives twelve classes rather than twenty-eight, and includes the piśāca — which the lost commentary places in the East quadrant of the heavenly kings, while standard Esoteric practice places them in the Western quadrant’s secondary class. He concludes: “The names of all these spirits do not align with the Sanskrit; the sacred intention is hard to penetrate — how should one give rise to doubt?” 凡厥諸神名釋皆不與梵合。聖意難測。何生疑惑
The work is dated by transcription colophon to 1198 CE (Kennyū 9), copied by the monk Eishin 永眞 at the Tō-ji Provisional Hall. Composition predates this transcription; the developed Heian Shingon scholastic apparatus, the access to multiple manuscript recensions, and Jōshin’s reference to the now-lost three-fascicle “old commentary” together suggest a composition window of mid-to-late 12th century.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located. (The work is referenced in modern Japanese-language studies of the Sino-Japanese Senju cult and of medieval Esoteric apotropaic iconography but has not received dedicated Western-language treatment.)