Mǎmíng púsà dàshénlì wúbǐyàn fǎ niànsòng guǐyí 馬鳴菩薩大神力無比驗法念誦軌儀
Recitation Ritual Manual of the Method of Incomparable Efficacy of the Great Spirit-Power of the Bodhisattva Aśvaghoṣa by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Tang Esoteric ritual manual translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 671–741). Colophon: 金剛智奉詔譯. The text presents an Esoteric ritual focused on Aśvaghoṣa (馬鳴菩薩, Aśva-ghoṣa “Horse-Voice”), here treated not as the historical Indian poet-philosopher of the Mahāvibhāṣā and Buddhacarita but as a deified bodhisattva-figure within the Esoteric pantheon.
Abstract
The text opens with a flashback (曩日, “in former days”) to the Buddha’s bodhi-tree assembly. Aśvaghoṣa Bodhisattva rises and announces his intent to expound a Buddhadharma-adornment teaching, motivated by compassion for the latter-dharma poor and lowly naked beings (像末貧窮下賤裸形眾生有情) for whom he wishes to provide clothing. Throughout innumerable kalpas of bodhisattva-practice he has obtained great vidyā-formulae of incomparable efficacy and unrivalled radiance, capable of accomplishing supreme worldly deeds without obstruction. The text then proceeds to the operative niànsòng (recitation) procedure: the mantra, the mudrā-cycle, the visualisation, and the siddhi-applications — including specifically the production-of-clothing rite for which Aśvaghoṣa is the patron deity. The Esoteric Mǎmíng púsà tradition is curiously specific in its association with textile-and-clothing ritual — possibly originating in word-play on aśva (horse) and ūrṇā (wool/hair), or in a now-lost Indic legend connecting the silk-cult to the Bodhisattva. The cult underlies the Mémyō Bosatsu 馬鳴菩薩 worship in Japan, where this bodhisattva is invoked as patron of the silk-weaving industry; many Japanese silk-producing villages historically maintained Mémyō shrines and rituals.
The dating bracket follows Vajrabodhi’s translation activity at Cháng’ān (720–741).
Translations and research
- Sundberg, Jeffrey, with Rolf Giebel. “The Life of the Tang Court Monk Vajrabodhi as Chronicled by Lü Xiang (呂向).” Pacific World, 3rd series, 13 (2011): 129–222.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
Other points of interest
The deification of Aśvaghoṣa as a textile-cult patron-bodhisattva, distinct from the historical Indian poet, is one of the curiosities of the Sino-Japanese Esoteric pantheon. Its vernacular survival in Japanese silk-village shrines is documented in Asai Kanae 浅井亀根 and other late-Edo / Meiji ethnographic literature.
Links
- CBETA T20n1166
- Kanseki DB
- 金剛智 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (730) — 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.