Fó shuō Quèwēnhuáng shénzhòu jīng 佛說却溫黃神咒經
Sūtra of the Divine Spell for Repelling Plague-Yellow
by 失譯 (譯)
About the work
A Xùzàngjīng-only short zhòu-text preserved without translator-attribution. The catalog meta records no dynasty. Internal style — the place-name Wéiyēlí 維耶離 (= Vaiśālī), the rāja-rakṣaka frame, the explicit naming of seven plague-spirits — places the text within the Eastern-Jìn or Liúsòng zhòujīng corpus; the dating window 317–420 follows the Eastern-Jìn ascription typical of texts of this style. The text is concerned specifically with the dispelling of wēnhuáng 溫黃 — “warm-yellow” pestilence, a category of acute febrile epidemic disease in pre-modern Chinese medicine.
Abstract
“Thus have I heard”: the Buddha is at Rājagṛha (王舍城), in the Bamboo-Grove monastery (竹林精舍) with the fourfold saṅgha. At that time, in the country of Vaiśālī (阿耶離 / 維耶離) a virulent plague (溫氣疫毒) is raging — death is countless and there is no recourse, no healer. Ānanda kneels and asks the Buddha to proclaim a holy spell-art (聖術) by which the plague-poison may be repelled and beings may attain peace and freedom from suffering. The Buddha responds: “Listen well, Ānanda. There are seven guǐshén 鬼神 (plague-spirits) who constantly emit poisoning vapours and harm the myriad surnames. One who is afflicted suffers head-pain, alternating cold and heat, the hundred joints feeling about to come apart, and pain beyond words. One who knows their names cannot be harmed. So now I will declare them to you.” Ānanda asks to hear. The Buddha gives the protocol: one is to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the Buddhas of the ten directions, the bodhisattvamahāsattvas, the holy assembly, and the zhòu-master (“某甲”). The spell-master is to recite Shāluóqū 沙羅佉 three times, then proceed with the spell-formula. The names of the seven plague-spirits begin with Mèngduōnánguǐ 夢多難鬼 and continue.
The text is one of the better-preserved early Chinese Buddhist plague-protection zhòu-texts, with explicit medico-demonological framing.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Chinese Magical Medicine. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2002. — addresses the plague-spell tradition specifically.
- Salguero, C. Pierce. Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China. Philadelphia: U Pennsylvania P, 2014.
- Mollier, Christine. Buddhism and Taoism Face to Face. Honolulu: U Hawaiʻi P, 2008.
Links
- CBETA online: https://cbetaonline.dila.edu.tw/zh/X0193
- Kanseki DB