Jiàngsānshì fènnù míngwáng niànsòng yíguǐ 降三世忿怒明王念誦儀軌
Recitation Ritual Manual of the Wrathful Vidyārāja Trailokyavijaya by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle practical companion to T1209 (KR6j0436), translated by Amoghavajra (不空). Where T1209 expounds the most-profound-and-secret gate of the cycle, T1210 gives the practical niànsòng yíguǐ (recitation ritual handbook). Colophon: 特進試鴻臚鄉大興善寺三藏沙門大廣智不空奉詔譯.
Abstract
The frame-narrative: when buddhas-and-bodhisattvas-and-saints appear in the world to benefit beings, they encounter circumstances in which beings refuse to accept the right Dharma — they engage in violence, harm, and demonic obstruction (損壞國土眾生魔). For these conditions, the Tathāgata manifests the wrathful protector (忿怒明王) Trailokyavijaya, whose function is to convert and to subdue.
The body of the text gives the practical vidhi:
- The opening preliminaries — bath, altar-construction, deity-summons;
- The maṇḍala-construction — the central deity (Trailokyavijaya) with his attendant parivāra (the four wrath-deities of the Vajra-realm at the four cardinal points);
- The mantra-cycle — root, heart, and abridged mantras;
- The mudrā-cycle — the eight-armed seal that mimics the iconography of the deity;
- The visualization of Trailokyavijaya in his eight-armed form trampling Maheśvara and Umā;
- The post-rite dispersal — formal release of the deity-presence and merit-dedication.
The text is one of the principal Táng sources for the wrathful-protector vidhi tradition that dominated the East Asian Esoteric devotional repertoire from the late Táng onwards, especially in Japanese Shingon and Tendai practice.
The dating bracket follows Amoghavajra’s translation activity at Cháng’ān (746–774).
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
Links
- CBETA T21n1210
- Kanseki DB
- 不空 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (750) — 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.