Shǐzhòu fǎ jīng 使呪法經
Sūtra of the Method of the Messenger-Mantra by 菩提留支 (Pútíliúzhī = Pútíliúzhì 菩提流志, Tang-period Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Esoteric scripture translated by the Tang-period Bodhiruci — the South-Indian translator who reached Chángān in 683 at imperial summons of Gāozōng, was renamed from his original ordination name Dharmaruci 達摩流支 to 菩提流志 (Bodhiruci, “Aspiration to Awakening”) by Wǔ Zétiān, and worked under five successive Tang emperors until his death in 727. The catalog meta and canwww both record his name in the variant form 菩提留支 / 菩提流志 (which led to centuries of confusion with his Northern-Wèi namesake; see the second entry in the 菩提留支 person note for the disambiguation). The text is paired with KR6j0499 (T1268, Dàshǐzhòu fǎ jīng) — both treat the same “messenger-mantra” 使呪 (duta-mantra) material in related Chinese versions, and CANWWW records them as related-texts.
Abstract
The shǐzhòu 使呪 (“messenger-mantra”) of the title refers to a category of Esoteric mantra by which the practitioner dispatches a deity — typically a low-ranking Vidyārāja or yakṣa — as a “messenger” (Skt. dūta) to perform a specific worldly task on the practitioner’s behalf. The tasks catalogued in this and the parallel T1268 include: long-distance message-delivery, location-finding, retrieving lost objects, and various forms of abhicāra (compelling-magic). The text gives the mantras for these dispatches, the conditions and offerings under which they are to be performed, and the iconography of the messenger-deities. As a representative work of the kriyā-tantra practical-magic stratum of Indian Esoteric Buddhism, T1267 is one of the earliest such collections to enter the Sinitic canon. The dating bracket spans Bodhiruci’s documented translation activity at Chángān (683–727).
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Forte, Antonino. A Jewel in Indra’s Net: The Letter Sent by Fazang to Uisang. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2000 — for Bodhiruci’s role in the Wu Zetian-era translation programme.