Shíèrtiān gòng yíguǐ 十二天供儀軌
Ritual Manual of the Offering to the Twelve Heavens (anonymous Tang Esoteric ritual manual, with the editorial subtitle “combining the texts of two places into a single manual; already extracted from the Homa Manual”, 合兩所文為軌已出護摩軌)
About the work
A short anonymous one-fascicle Esoteric ritual manual (儀軌) for the offering to the Twelve Heavens (jūniten 十二天 = the eight directional gods plus Brahmā 梵天, Pṛthivī 地天, Sun 日天, and Moon 月天) of the standard Mikkyō outer maṇḍala. The editorial subtitle (合兩所文為軌已出護摩軌) records the text’s compilatory character: it is described as “combining the texts of two places into a manual” and as “already extracted from the Hù-mó yí-guǐ 護摩儀軌” (a Homa Ritual Manual). The text bears no translator’s or compiler’s name; it is the ritual companion-piece to the doctrinal KR6j0528 (T1297), and shares much of its mudrā-and-mantra material with KR6j0526 – KR6j0527.
Abstract
The text begins with practical preparations: at the eight directions of the ritual platform, mats of thatch-grass (茅草), lotus or other green leaves are spread; or a circular altar (圓壇) is painted out, with ten ritual positions disposed at the eight directions plus Brahmā and Pṛthivī flanking Indra in the East; if the inner platform is too small, a clean spot in front of it is bounded as a separate maṇḍala-perimeter (方界), with the eight directions on the perimeter and Brahmā and Pṛthivī at the centre. The offering is thus to all “ten” Heavens within an eight-directional layout — for the Sun and Moon the manual treats them as positions added separately within the same offering, yielding the full Twelve.
The food is mixed porridge (雜粥) of non-glutinous rice, sesame, mung beans, harmoniously cooked and kept absolutely clean; presented from a fragrant vessel. The offering at each position proceeds in fixed order: empowered fragrant water poured from a kuṇḍikā; sandalwood-paste flicked with the right ring-finger; a flower; burnt incense; a ladle of porridge; a small wax or paper candle plunged into the porridge. From the water through the candle, each item is empowered with the position’s mantra repeated three times; an attendant or driven helper (助伴或驅使數人) executes one item each, since the ritual cannot be completed in time if the principal practitioner alone takes each in turn. To the closing svāhā of each mantra is appended the practitioner’s specific request-vow.
The text then gives the iconography of each of the Twelve Heavens, plus its mudrā (in the standard jiǎnzhǐ nomenclature) and its mantra. Thus:
- East — Indra mounted on the white-elephant king, residing in five-coloured clouds, body golden, right hand a three-pronged vajra at the heart, left hand against the left hip, left leg pendant; three devī attendants each holding lotuses or trays of flowers / blue lotuses. Mantra: 曩莫三曼多沒馱南因捺羅耶娑嚩賀 (namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ indrāya svāhā).
- Southeast — Agni 火天 mounted on a green ram, body red flesh-colour with all-encompassing flames, four arms holding a green bamboo, kuṇḍikā, a lifted palm, and a mālā; two devī attendants with celestial flowers; flanked by ascetic-immortals; left leg pendant, right foot crossed under. Mantra: 南莫三滿多沒馱南阿哦那曳娑嚩訶 (namaḥ samanta-buddhānāṃ agnaye svāhā).
The remainder follows the same protocol around the perimeter to South / Yama, Southwest / Rākṣasa, West / Varuṇa, Northwest / Vāyu, North / Vaiśravaṇa, Northeast / Īśāna, and then the four central / framing positions: Brahmā 梵天, Pṛthivī 地天, Sun 日天, Moon 月天. The result is the canonical Twelve-Devas (jūniten) iconographic-and-ritual programme that became the standard outer-maṇḍala figure of East-Asian Mikkyō (cf. the famous Kōzan-ji and Tō-ji Jūniten paintings of the 12th – 13th centuries, which depict precisely the deities here described).
The dating bracket (800 – 900) follows the inferred late-Tang composition window for the Twelve-Devas ritual cycle of the Chángān Esoteric institutions; the editorial-headed compilatory character (“already extracted from the Homa manual”) shows that by the time of the manual’s redaction the Twelve-Heavens material had achieved a stable set of mudrās and iconographies and was being extracted as an autonomous offering-rite from the larger homa programme.
Translations and research
- ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999 — esp. on the jūniten iconography and its Tō-ji and Kōzan-ji exemplars.
- Bogel, Cynthea J. With a Single Glance: Buddhist Icon and Early Mikkyō Vision. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009.
- Faure, Bernard. Protectors and Predators: Gods of Medieval Japan, vol. 2. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2016.
- 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.