Huìjī jīngāng shuō shéntōng dàmǎn tuóluóní fǎshù língyàomén 穢跡金剛說神通大滿陀羅尼法術靈要門
Essential-Spirit Gateway of the Great-Plenitude Dhāraṇī of Supernormal Powers, Spoken by Ucchuṣma-Vajra by 阿質達霰 (Āzhìdáxiàn, Ajitasena, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual translated by Ajitasena (阿質達霰) at Ānxī during the Kāiyuán reign — the first of two short Ucchuṣma manuals that complement his three-fascicle scripture KR6j0455 (T1227). The deity here is named in his Huìjī jīngāng 穢跡金剛 (“Filth-Tracks Vajra”) aspect, the form of Ucchuṣma especially associated with the consumption of impurity. Sanskrit affiliation in canwww: Vajragarbharatnarājatantra(sūtra). Korean Tripiṭaka K1265; Nanjio 0966.
Abstract
The text is structured as a ritual catalogue rather than as a continuous scripture: the deity, his bīja and mantra, then a series of applied dhāraṇī-rites (法術 fǎshù, “method-techniques”) for various practical ends — illness-healing, hostile-spirit expulsion, protection of person and dwelling, snake- and venom-cure, food-purification. The framing is huìjī / Ucchuṣma’s own self-exposition: “I, Ucchuṣma-Vajra, now expound this dhāraṇī-method…“. This format — the deity speaking his own ritual programme — is characteristic of late Indian kriyā-tantra and its Sinitic reception. Together with KR6j0457 (T1229), the text was the foundational scripture for the East-Asian Ucchuṣma-Vajra cult, which became important especially in Chán (Zen) monasticism for purification of latrines and for emergency demon-subduing rites.
The dating bracket follows Ajitasena’s Kāiyuán-era activity at Ānxī (713–741).
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996 — Ch. on Ucchuṣma.
- Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face: Scripture, Ritual, and Iconographic Exchange in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. (For the huìjī exorcism complex.)