Shèngzhě Wénshūshīlì fā pútíxīn yuànwén 聖者文殊利發菩提心願文
Vow-Text for Generating Bodhicitta of the Holy Mañjuśrī by 智慧 (Zhìhuì, 譯) — transmitted by 巴看落目瓦 (Bākānlèmùwǎ)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Yuán-period bodhicitta vow-text (pútíxīn yuànwén = bodhicitta-praṇidhāna) of Mañjuśrī, transmitted from the Tibetan tradition through the lineage 巴看落目瓦傳 (“transmitted by Bākānlèmùwǎ”) and translated into Chinese by Zhìhuì (智慧). The colophon — “元甘泉馬蹄山中川守分真師姪智慧譯” — locates the translation at the Mǎtí Mountain centre in Gānquán (the Hexi Corridor Tibetan-Chinese translation milieu of the Yuán).
Abstract
The text opens with a general homage: “With reverence I bow to all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. / I rescue and protect those abiding before me; / Ultimately, I generate bodhicitta…”
The body is a structured bodhicitta-aspiration (praṇidhāna) of the kind familiar from the Tibetan Bodhipathapradīpa and related Sa-skya bodhicitta-recitation literature: a series of vow-formulas in verse in which the practitioner
- Takes refuge in the Three Jewels;
- Generates the relative bodhicitta (compassion for all beings, vow to attain Buddhahood for their sake);
- Generates the absolute bodhicitta (recognition of emptiness as the nature of mind);
- Dedicates the merit of the practice to all sentient beings.
The text is specifically a Tibetan-Esoteric Mañjuśrī-bodhicitta praṇidhāna: Mañjuśrī, as the bodhisattva of prajñā, is the patron-deity of bodhicitta-generation, and this short vow-text places his name in the title precisely to mark its specific Mañjuśrī-yāna register within the broader bodhicitta-vow tradition.
The dating bracket (1280–1340) follows Zhìhuì’s documented translation activity at Mǎtíshān; the precise terminus is not securely fixed.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The text is a rare surviving document of the Yuán-Hexi Tibetan-Chinese translation milieu, with a colophon that names both the Tibetan transmitter (Bākānlèmùwǎ) and the translation centre (Mǎtíshān). It complements the better-known imperial Yuán court-translations by 沙囉巴 (KR6j0415) and 釋智 (KR6j0416) by representing a peripheral, monastery-based translation lineage rather than the centralized Daidu programme.
Links
- CBETA T20n1198
- Kanseki DB
- 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.