Fó shuō zhòu xiǎo’ér jīng 佛說呪小兒經
Sūtra of the Spell for Children, Spoken by the Buddha
About the work
A one-page anonymous healing-dhāraṇī, fourth member of the Eastern-Jìn zhòujīng (呪經) cluster discussed under KR6j0557 (plague), KR6j0558 (toothache), and KR6j0559 (eyes). Where the others address adult ailments, this one is for “head-ache and abdominal pain” of small children, and consists of a single transcribed dhāraṇī of seven pādas plus a triple refuge formula and the rubric “recite seven times for instant cure”.
Abstract
The text in its entirety: a transcribed dhāraṇī (luó-nà-duō-luó / mó-luó-tí-lí / dān-bō-luó-tí-lì / hǒu-lóu-shòu / wúlóu-shòu / wén-shé / jǐ-chā jǐ-chà), followed by a refuge clause — “South-of-the-Buddha, South of the Dharma, South of the bhikṣu-saṅgha, South of the Seven Buddhas of the Past, South of the disciples of all Buddhas — let what I incant come to pass according to my wish; if a child has head-pain or abdominal pain, recite the spell seven times and it will be cured” — and the title repeated as a colophon. There is no narrative frame and no Sanskrit reconstruction is securely possible, though the jǐ-chā jǐ-chà alternation suggests a Prakritic origin transcribed through a Central-Asian convention.
The work is anonymous in the catalog tradition; CANWWW notes only “高麗藏本” (Goryeo Tripiṭaka source). Like the parallel anonymous T1326 (KR6j0557) and the Tánwúlán-attributed T1327 (KR6j0558), it is conventionally placed in the Eastern-Jìn 東晉 (350–500) cluster of healing-dhāraṇī, plausibly all originating from the same Yángzhōu translation milieu in which Tánwúlán was active. The dating bracket is generous; no firmer evidence is available.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002. (Foundational study of the Buddhist zhòujīng / dhāraṇī-medicine cluster.)
- Salguero, C. Pierce. Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014.