Fó shuō chíjù shénzhòu jīng 佛說持句神呪經
Sūtra of the Divine Spell of Sustaining-Verses by 支謙 (Zhīqiān, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle short dhāraṇī-text translated by the Wú-period 吳 lay translator 支謙 Zhīqiān (the colophon names him “吳月支優婆塞支謙譯” — “the Wú-period Yuèzhī upāsaka Zhīqiān”). His active period at Wǔchāng 武昌 / Jiànyè 建業 spans roughly 222–252, which is the dating bracket adopted here. The Taishō editors mark this as the head of a four-text cluster of independent translations: “[Nos. 1352–1355]” — i.e. KR6j0582 (曇無蘭 Tánwúlán, Eastern Jìn), KR6j0583 and KR6j0584 (both 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta, Suí), and KR6j0585 (施護 Shīhù, Sòng), all renderings of the same Indic original.
Abstract
A Buddha named Dèngzūnwáng 鄧尊王 (perhaps Indra-rāja?) of the world Wúliànghuá 無量華 (“Boundless-Flower”) sends two bodhisattvas — Wúliàng guāngmíng 無量光明 (Amitaprabha) and Dà guāngmíng 大光明 (Mahāprabha) — to visit Śākyamuni and bring him the chíjùzhòu “Sustaining-Verses spell” for the welfare of beings. The dhāraṇī is then pronounced (shé-lí mó-hē shé-lí luó-ní yǒu-qū mù-qū shā-bō-tí mó-hē shā-bō-tí); it preserves the holder from piśāca and yakṣa harm, snake-bite, poison-injury, blade-wounds, royal harm, Brahmā-anger, and grants knowledge of seven previous lives. Maitreya then offers a parallel dhāraṇī (knowledge of fourteen previous lives), and the Buddha himself a third dhāraṇī (knowledge of incalculable previous lives).
The text is one of the earliest dated witnesses to the chíjùzhòu (dhāraṇī-pada) cluster in Chinese, and its triadic Buddha-Maitreya-Buddha pattern is a template that the later versions reproduce. Recorded in the Chū sānzàng jì jí under Zhīqiān’s translations. Nanjio N0344.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2008. — for Zhīqiān’s translation profile, the relevant chapter; the Chíjùzhòu jīng is treated as one of his securely attested short works.