Shèng Jiānǐ fènnù jīngāng tóngzǐ púsà chéngjiù yíguǐ jīng 聖迦抳忿怒金剛童子菩薩成就儀軌經
Accomplishment-Ritual Sūtra of the Holy Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra Bodhisattva by 不空 (Bùkōng, Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
A three-fascicle Táng Esoteric ritual manual on the Holy Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra (聖迦抳忿怒金剛童子, Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra — “Wrathful Vajra-Youth”), translated by Amoghavajra (不空). The text’s full title-line note 出蘇悉地經大明王教中等六品 indicates it was extracted from the Susiddhikara-tantra Mahā-Vidyārāja-Teaching (蘇悉地經大明王教) chapter six (第六品). Title page: full elevated Amoghavajra titulature.
Abstract
The frame-narrative: Vajrapāṇi rises from his seat, prostrates at the Buddha’s feet, then takes his place again and asks the Buddha for compassion: “World-Honoured One, you have already expounded the Susiddhikara’s rules, mantras, observances and method-teaching. I [now request that you expound] the Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra rite…”
The body of the text gives the three-fascicle ritual manual on Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra, a wrathful protector iconographically depicted as a youthful but ferocious vajra-bearer. The three fascicles structure the manual as:
- The doctrinal frame and origin-narrative of Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra as a manifestation of universal compassion in wrathful form;
- The maṇḍala-architecture, parivāra-deity arrangement, and abhiṣeka-protocol;
- The mantra-and-mudrā-and-visualization programme together with the homa applications.
Krodha-Vajra-Kumāra belongs to the broader Vajra-Kumāra family of youthful-wrathful protectors (cf. the Mañjuśrī-Kumāra cycle KR6j0408 and the Eight-Acolyte Acala-cycle KR6j0431); within this family the wrathful-Krodha aspect is the most fierce.
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.
Other points of interest
The text’s pairing with KR6j0450 (T1222b) — an alternate parallel rendering of the same material — replicates the standard Táng Esoteric translation-bureau practice of producing two parallel recensions of the same source text, both retained in the canonical tradition.