Jiùdù Fómǔ èrshíyī zhǒng lǐzàn jīng 救度佛母二十一種禮讚經
Sūtra of the Twenty-One Praises of the Saviouress Buddha-Mother (Tārā-namas-kāra-ekaviṃśati-stotra; alternative Yuan/Ming rendering) (translator: anonymous)
About the work
A one-fascicle Yuán/Míng-period anonymous Chinese rendering of the Twenty-One Praises of Tārā (Tārā-namas-kāra-ekaviṃśati-stotra), preserved in the Taishō alongside the Yuán-period rendering of Ān Zàng (KR6j0317, T1108A). The text is unattributed in the canonical witnesses but on internal-philological grounds — the use of bōdálā 波答拉 (a different phonetic transcription of Potala, more typical of late-Yuán/early-Míng) and the somewhat looser rendering style — is dated to the period after Ān Zàng’s translation, possibly compiled in the early Míng for monastic-liturgical use.
Prefaces
The text opens with the namaskāra: 納摩阿(阿喇)鴉答(阿)喇葉 — “Namaḥ āryatārāyai” — followed by 敬禮聖大悲藏觀自在菩薩 (“Reverent obeisance to the Holy Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, Treasury of Great Compassion”). The Avalokiteśvara invocation links the Tārā praises to her source-deity Avalokiteśvara, since in Indian Buddhist mythology Tārā is born from the tear of compassion shed by Avalokiteśvara at the suffering of sentient beings.
Abstract
The text preserves the same Twenty-One Praises cycle as KR6j0317 but in a different translation register. The opening verses begin:
波答拉勝境… “From the supreme realm of Potala…”
Each of the twenty-one verses praises one Tārā-emanation with her epithets and ritual associations. The translation is closer to the Tibetan than Ān Zàng’s more imperial-courtly rendering, suggesting a Buddhist monastic context rather than a Yuán-court literary one. Together with KR6j0317, the pair preserves the Chinese-canonical witness to the Tārā-stotra-ekaviṃśati in two alternative translation traditions.
Translations and research
- Beyer, Stephan. The Cult of Tārā. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973.
- Willson, Martin. In Praise of Tārā. London: Wisdom, 1986.
- Franke, Herbert. Chinesischer und tibetischer Buddhismus im China der Yüanzeit. Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1996.