Shèng Miàojíxiáng zhēnshí míng jīng 聖妙吉祥真實名經
Sūtra of the True Names of the Holy Mañjuśrī by 釋智 (Shìzhì, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Yuán-period rendering of the Mañjuśrī-Nāmasaṅgīti — the fourth Chinese translation of this Indo-Tibetan Esoteric scripture — translated by the Tibetan-trained Shìzhì (釋智). Preserved in the imperially sponsored Qíshā 磧砂 edition. The text opens with an extensive imperial preface by the Míng Tàizōng 大明太宗文皇帝御製真實名經序 (i.e., the Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor’s 朱棣 preface, retained from the early-Ming republication of the Yuán text) — a striking instance of an imperial author’s preface added to a Buddhist scripture.
Abstract
The Yǒnglè-emperor preface (only preserved in some editions) calls the Zhēnshí míng jīng a teaching that “emerges from beyond the corruptible wisdom-bodies of the Tathāgatas” (是諸如來超出有壞智身) and presents Mañjuśrī’s secret names as a cintāmaṇi-jewel. The preface invokes Mañjuśrī’s “great compassion and great vow” as the operative force in delivering beings from saṃsāra and dispelling karmic obstructions, and frames the scripture’s reissue as a meritorious imperial act.
The scripture proper is a verse rendering of the Nāmasaṅgīti parallel to T1187, T1188 and T1189 — but Shìzhì’s translation is the one that was canonized in the Qíshā print and subsequently in the standard Yuán-Míng-Qīng canon; the previous three renderings became increasingly marginal. The text’s verse-architecture follows a Tibetan source-version closely (compare KR6j0415); the same names-and-meanings sequence is preserved, but the diction is more polished and the line-economy more refined than 沙囉巴 Sherap’s earlier rendering.
The dating bracket (1290–1330) reflects Shìzhì’s documented activity. Inclusion of the imperial preface dates the Ming reprint to the early fifteenth century; the underlying translation is Yuán.
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. “The Litany of Names of Mañjuśrī: Text and Translation of the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti.” In Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honour of R. A. Stein, ed. M. Strickmann, vol. 1, 1–69. Brussels: Institut Belge des Hautes Études Chinoises, 1981.
- Wayman, Alex. Chanting the Names of Mañjuśrī. Boston: Shambhala, 1985.
- Tribe, Anthony. Tantric Buddhist Practice in India: Vilāsavajra’s commentary on the Mañjuśrī-nāmasaṃgīti. London: Routledge, 2016.
Other points of interest
The Yǒnglè-emperor preface presented in this Taishō version is one of the most important Míng imperial endorsements of an Esoteric Buddhist scripture, signalling that the Mañjuśrī-Nāmasaṅgīti — far from being a residue of Yuán Mongol patronage to be set aside — was incorporated into the early-Míng court’s own Buddhist programme.
Links
- CBETA T20n1190
- Kanseki DB
- 朱棣 CBDB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1300) — 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.