Shī bāfāngtiān yízé 施八方天儀則
Procedural Rules for the Offering to the Heavens of the Eight Directions (by an anonymous Cháng-ān Dà-xīng-shàn-sì abhiṣeka-ācārya)
About the work
A short one-fascicle Esoteric procedural manual (儀則) for the offering to the Eight-Direction Heavens (八方天) — that is, the eight directional gods of the Tang Esoteric outer-maṇḍala perimeter (Indra, Agni, Yama, Rākṣasa, Varuṇa, Vāyu, Vaiśravaṇa, Īśāna). The text bears no translator’s name, but the colophon gives the author / compiler as a Translation-Office Abhiṣeka-Ācārya of the Dà-xīng-shàn Monastery (大興善寺翻經院灌頂阿闍梨述). This formula points to a Cháng-ān Dà-xīng-shàn-sì 大興善寺 ācārya, hence to a member of the Bù-kōng / Amoghavajra lineage, but no specific person can be identified with confidence; the text has been variously attributed to Amoghavajra (不空), to 含光 Hán Guāng, to 法全 Fǎquán, or to other ācāryas of the Cháng-ān Esoteric institutions, without firm catalogue evidence. The frontmatter is therefore left without an attributed person; the dating bracket (800 – 900) reflects an inferred late-Tang composition window for the Dà-xīng-shàn-sì lineage’s outer-maṇḍala materials.
Abstract
The text prescribes a “Universal Offering to the Eight Directions” rite, designed to be performed in conjunction with any Esoteric programme as an outer-maṇḍala protective offering. The food is five-flavour mixed porridge (五味雜粥), prepared thick and not watery, of non-glutinous rice (粳米), mung beans (菉豆), sesame oil, hemp-seed (油麻), cow’s milk, and butter (蘇), lightly salted and kept ritually pure (護淨); served from a porcelain basin, with twelve small wax candles, ground white-sandalwood incense, fresh flowers, and clear water. A small altar (小壇) is laid out at each of the eight cardinal and intercardinal directions; on each altar a clean bowl is set, and the porridge, flowers, and other offerings are presented in turn.
The cycle proceeds clockwise, beginning at the East with the mantra to Indra / Dì-shì 帝釋 (recited after the universal namo invocation: 唵印捺囉野娑嚩賀); next Southeast = Agni (火天 Huǒ-tiān: 唵阿疙曩曳娑嚩賀); South = Yama (焰魔天); Southwest = Rākṣasa (羅剎天); West = Varuṇa (水天 Shuǐ-tiān); Northwest = Vāyu (風天 Fēng-tiān); North = Vaiśravaṇa (多聞天 Duō-wén-tiān); Northeast = Īśāna (伊舍那天). Each offering is preceded by a sprinkle of clean water, paste of sandalwood-paste (塗香), then a flower, then the porridge, then the candle (planted on the porridge), then triple incense; the Eight-Direction host is invited to descend into the rite and grant the donor’s protection. A small remainder of porridge is mixed with water, with a few cakes, fruits, paste, and flowers, then empowered with the amṛta mantra and dispatched by an attendant to a clean spot on the ground, given to “all evil ghosts and spirits” (施與諸惡鬼神) so that they too may protect the donor.
The text exemplifies the outer-maṇḍala / outer-altar offering (wài-tán gòng-yǎng) tradition that runs through Tang Esoteric and is closely paralleled in KR6j0526 (T1295, the Eight World-Protector Heavens manual of 法全), KR6j0527 (T1296, the Ten Heavens manual), and KR6j0529 (T1298, the Twelve Heavens Offering Ritual). All four texts share much of the same mudrā-and-mantra material, with ascending complexity from eight to ten to twelve directional deities, reflecting the late-Tang elaboration of the outer-maṇḍala perimeter from a Hindu-style eight-directional cosmology (Indra and the seven Loka-pālas) into the standard Mikkyō Twelve-Devas (jūniten 十二天) by adding the Sun 日天, the Moon 月天, Brahmā 梵天, and Pṛthivī 地天.
Translations and research
- ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999 — esp. on the Twelve-Devas and outer-maṇḍala iconography.
- Bogel, Cynthea J. With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009 — for the Tang transmission of outer-maṇḍala material to Japan.
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996.
- Orzech, Charles D., Henrik H. Sørensen, and Richard K. Payne, eds. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011.
- Goble, Geoffrey C. Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2019.