Tuóluóní zájí 陀羅尼雜集
Miscellaneous Anthology of Dhāraṇī by 失譯 (compiler unknown)
About the work
A ten-fascicle anonymous compendium of dhāraṇī, the largest pre-Táng Chinese collection of its kind. The colophon reads “未詳撰者今附梁錄” — “compiler unknown; now appended to the Liáng catalog” — assigning it conventionally to the Liáng 梁 (502–557). The work is a zájí (雜集) in the strict sense: it gathers, edits, and re-presents dhāraṇī excerpted from earlier translated sūtras (notable extracts include sections from KR6j0562 Qī fó bā púsà, the [[KR6n0064|Wǔ qiānwǔ bǎi fó míng]], and the Lotus-sūtra spell-section of T262/T264) alongside a body of independently transmitted vidyā-spells.
Abstract
The first fascicle opens with a header — “Qī fó suǒshuō dà tuóluóní shénzhòu, bìng bā púsà suǒshuō shénzhòu, hé shíwǔ shǒu” 七佛所說大陀羅尼神呪(并八菩薩所說神呪合十五首) (“Great dhāraṇī divine-spells spoken by the Seven Buddhas, together with the divine-spells spoken by the Eight Bodhisattvas, fifteen spells in all”) — and proceeds through the same structural skeleton as KR6j0562 Qī fó bā púsà (T1332), of which it is in fact a slightly emended re-cataloguing. Subsequent fascicles add further dhāraṇī organised by their declared application: protection of the dhāraṇī-holder, cure of various illnesses, expulsion of demonic possession, pacification of weather, child-bearing, peace of mind, and post-mortem benefits. Each spell is given its Sanskrit name (in Chinese transcription), its pronouncing speaker, and a paragraph of ritual rubric.
As a Chinese-side editorial product, the work is one of the earliest large-scale attempts in the Buddhist tradition to produce a spell-canon — distinct from a sūtra-canon — and is therefore an important precursor of the Táng Tuóluóní jíjīng 陀羅尼集經 (KR6j0509 T901) of 阿地瞿多 Atikūṭa. The bibliographic catalogues record it under its Liáng-catalog placement; modern scholarship has not produced a critical edition. Nanjio number absent (the work circulated as a Chinese-side production rather than as a translation of a discrete Indian text).
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: Le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. — discussion of the early Chinese dhāraṇī-anthology tradition; treats Tuóluóní zájí as the principal pre-Táng exemplar of the genre.
- Davidson, Ronald M. “Studies in Dhāraṇī Literature II: Pragmatics of Dhāraṇīs,” Bulletin of SOAS 77.1 (2014), 5–61.