Fó shuō yīqiè gōngdé zhuāngyánwáng jīng 佛說一切功德莊嚴王經
Sūtra of the King of All-Merits-Adornment
by 義淨 (譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Táng translation by 義淨 Yìjìng (635–713), the colophon “唐三藏法師義淨奉制譯”. Fèngzhì-translation, in his most active period (700–712).
Abstract
The Buddha at Rājagṛha at the Karaṇḍa-pond (羯闌鐸迦池) in the Bamboo-Grove (竹林園), with 500 bhikṣus and 1,200 mahāsattvas — the bodhisattva-list opens with Maitreya, Cháng-qín-yǒng 常勤勇 (Sadāvīrya), Píngděng-zhù 平等住 (Samasthita), Mahāmati 大慧, Wúbiān-biàn 無邊辯 (Anantavākya), Yǒng-huì 勇慧 (Vīrya-mati), Avalokiteśvara, Chú-yí 除疑 (Vimati-saṃharaṇa), etc. — plus Brahmā, Indra, the Four Heavenly Kings, the aṣṭa-vargas, and six thousand tīrthikas with their followings. The Buddha enters the néng-duàn-huò lí-gòu sānmèi 能斷惑離垢三摩地 (“samādhi of cutting confusion and removing defilement”); the great earth quakes in six fashions; sandal-fragrance dust rains from heaven, divine flowers cover the earth, light pervades all worlds — beings in the lower realms are released by the touch of the light, deva-palaces are illumined throughout, music sounds through every realm. The deva-host then come to listen as the Buddha pronounces the Yīqiè gōngdé zhuāngyán-wáng — the dhāraṇī “King of all-merits-adornment”.
The work is a typical large-frame gōngdé-zhuāngyán dhāraṇī-sūtra, with an elaborate Mahāyāna assembly-frame and a doctrinally substantive opening samādhi-section. Yìjìng’s translation idiom is at its most polished here. Recorded in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù. Nanjio N0788.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.