Jīngāng yàochā chēnnùwáng xīzāi dàwēi shényàn niànsòng yíguǐ 金剛藥叉瞋怒王息災大威神驗念誦儀軌
Recitation Ritual Manual of the Great-Power Disaster-Pacifying Vajra-Yakṣa Wrath-King by 金剛智 (Jīngāngzhì, Vajrabodhi, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Táng Esoteric ritual manual on Vajra-Yakṣa (金剛藥叉 = Vajrayakṣa) — the wrathful protector who is vidyārāja of the north-quarter of the five-wisdom-king system — translated by Vajrabodhi (金剛智, 669–741). Colophon: 南天竺三藏金剛智奉詔譯.
Abstract
The frame-narrative: Vajrapāṇi (金剛手) and Ākāśagarbha (虛空庫菩薩) observe the assembly at the Pure-Abode Heaven, with all the great bodhisattvas, devas and the eight classes of beings present. Vajrapāṇi rises and tells the Buddha: “In an immeasurable past kalpa…” and proceeds to relate the origin-story of the Vajra-Yakṣa Wrath-King.
The text gives the disaster-pacification (息災 xīzāi = śāntika) application of the Vajra-Yakṣa rite — the most beneficial and least wrathful of the standard four homa applications. The Vajra-Yakṣa is iconographically a multi-armed wrathful figure, his name reflecting his dual nature: he is at once a yakṣa (a class of demonic being) and a vajra (a Buddhist enlightened protector) — the conversion of demonic energy into protective force.
The body of the text gives:
- The root mantra of Vajra-Yakṣa;
- The mudrā-cycle;
- The visualization of Vajra-Yakṣa as a many-armed wrathful figure;
- The disaster-pacifying homa sequence — fire-types, oblations, mudrā-mantra alignments specific to śāntika;
- The practical applications — pacification of natural disasters (drought, flood, earthquake, plague), of human disasters (war, civil unrest), and of personal disasters (illness, demonic possession).
Vajra-Yakṣa is the least familiar of the Five Wisdom-Kings to Western audiences but is iconographically standard in the East Asian Esoteric pantheon, and his cult attained particular prominence in Heian Japanese Esoteric Buddhism as a state-protection deity.
The dating bracket follows Vajrabodhi’s translation activity at Cháng’ān (720–741).
Translations and research
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.
- Faure, Bernard. Protectors and Predators. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
Links
- CBETA T21n1220
- 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.