Rúlái fāngbiàn shànqiǎo zhòu jīng 如來方便善巧呪經
Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Skilful-Means Dhāraṇī by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Suí dhāraṇī-sūtra, the Suí re-translation of the same Indic text (Sanskrit Saptabuddhakasūtra) that the anonymous Liáng-period KR6j0563 T1333 already rendered as Xūkōngzàng púsà wèn qī fó tuóluóní zhòu jīng. Translated by 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta (Shénàjuéduō; 523–600) at the Suí Dàxīngshànsì 大興善寺, almost certainly during his Suí-period activity (after 587, before his death in 600). CANWWW lists T20N1147 and KR6j0563 T1333 explicitly as related texts.
Abstract
The frame story is essentially identical to KR6j0563: the Buddha at Kailāsa with five hundred bhikṣus and five hundred mahāsattvas; two of the bhikṣus are possessed (one by a demon, “his body unclothed and unaware”, the other “deviated, with his back turned to the Buddha, in mid-air uttering wails and unable to be at ease”); Ākāśagarbha 虛空藏 inquires; each of the Seven Buddhas of the Past pronounces in turn a vidyā-spell, with the same fruits as in KR6j0563 (cure of disease, suppression of demonic possession, protection of the dhāraṇī-holder). The translation idiom is recognisably Jñānagupta’s: more closely calqued on the Indic syntax than the Liáng version, and with his characteristic introduction of double-syllable transcription markers.
The relationship between the two recensions is a textbook case of Suí-Táng “re-translation” — Jñānagupta could see the Liáng version (it was already in the catalog tradition by his time) and produced his version not as a correction but as a new working from a fresh manuscript. Nanjio N0367. The text is recorded in the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 under Jñānagupta’s name.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
No substantial secondary literature located.