十一面神呪心經

Shíyīmiàn shénzhòu xīn jīng 十一面神呪心經

Eleven-Faced Spirit-Spell Heart-Sūtra by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Tang revision of the Eleven-Faced Avalokiteśvara dhāraṇī-sūtra by Xuánzàng (玄奘, 602–664), the Faxiang patriarch and the most consequential Sanskrit-to-Chinese translator in Chinese Buddhist history. The text is Xuánzàng’s reworking of the older Ekādaśa-mukha sūtra previously translated under the Northern Zhōu by 耶舍崛多 (KR6j0276 = T20n1070).

Abstract

The sūtra opens at Veṇuvanaviṃśopa-vāstavya (室羅筏竹笋道場) with the assembly of 1,250 bhikṣus and innumerable bodhisattvas led by Maitreya. Avalokiteśvara then announces and discloses the Ekādaśa-mukha-dhāraṇī. Compared to Yaśogupta’s earlier rendering (KR6j0276), Xuánzàng’s text is rhetorically more polished, the Sanskrit transliteration more rigorous, and the narrative frame slightly expanded — characteristic markers of the Cí’ēnsì 慈恩寺 translation bureau’s mid-seventh-century method. The xīnjīng (heart-sūtra) framing in the title is generic for hṛdaya-dhāraṇī-genre texts and does not refer to the Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya. Xuánzàng’s recension circulated alongside Yaśogupta’s older version and they were later both supplemented by 不空 Amoghavajra’s full yíguǐ manual (KR6j0275 = T20n1069). CANWWW (T20N1071) cross-references KR6j0276 (T20N1070) and the Atikūṭa compendium (KR6c0098, T901).

Translations and research

• Reis-Habito, Maria. Die Dhāraṇī des Großen Erbarmens. Nettetal: Steyler, 1993.
• Birnbaum, Raoul. Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī. Boulder: Society for the Study of Chinese Religions, 1983 — comparative material on Tang dhāraṇī revision.
• McRae, John R., trans. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra. (For the broader context of Xuánzàng’s translation methodology.)

Links

• CBETA T20n1071
• 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.