護命法門神呪經

Hùmìng fǎmén shénzhòu jīng 護命法門神呪經

Spirit-Spell Sūtra of the Dharma-Gate that Guards Life (Sumukhanāmadhāraṇī-sūtra, Tang version) by 菩提流志 (Pútíliúzhì, Bodhiruci, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle Tang dhāraṇī sūtra translated by Bodhiruci (菩提流志, d. 727), the South-Indian translator who reached Luòyáng in 693. The colophon: 唐天竺三藏菩提流志譯 (with edition variants inserting 法師 or 藏菩提流志譯). Taishō head-note: No. 1139 [Nos. 1137, 1138, 1140]. CANWWW identifies this as another Chinese rendering of the Sumukhanāmadhāraṇī-sūtra, alongside KR6j0353 (T1137), KR6j0354/KR6j0355 (T1138a/b), and KR6j0357 (T1140).

Abstract

The sūtra opens with the Buddha at the Bodhi-tree (菩提樹下成正覺處大制多中) with twelve hundred and fifty bhikṣus including Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and Ānanda, together with the great bodhisattvas Vajra-banner, Vajra-treasury, Vajrapāṇi, and Maitreya. Vajrapāṇi (金剛手菩薩摩訶薩) requests the Buddha to expound a “subtle dharma-gate that guards life” (擁護壽命微妙法門) as a great illumination for sentient beings. Bodhiruci’s translation is more idiomatic and grammatically polished than the Eastern Jin anonymous versions, reflecting the late-7th-/early-8th-century Chinese translation idiom (sapt’ārya-style with bhagavān rendered 薄伽梵, formal-honorific jùshòu 具壽 for āyuṣmān). It belongs to the apotropaic-protective Sumukha dhāraṇī cluster, but reframes the focus on longevity-preservation (護命) — a recurrent theme of mid-Tang esoteric production.

For Bodhiruci’s lifedates and translation activity see Forte 1984, “The Activities in China of the Tantric Master Manicintana”.

Translations and research

• Forte, Antonino. “The Activities in China of the Tantric Master Manicintana (Pao-ssu-wei: ?–721 A.D.) from Kashmir and of his Northern Indian Collaborator Bodhiruci before Going to Luoyang in 693.” Estratto degli Annali della Facoltà di Lingue e Letterature Straniere di Cà Foscari 23.3 (1984): 99–137.
• No dedicated study of T1139 located.

Links

• CBETA T20n1139
• Kanseki DB
• 菩提流志 DILA
• Dazangthings date evidence (720) — 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.