Yúqié jíyào shīshí yíguǐ 瑜伽集要施食儀軌
Yoga-Compendium Food-Bestowal Ritual Procedure by 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng (重訂)
About the work
A one-fascicle (1卷) Yoga-school food-bestowal ritual (shīshí 施食 — the late-Míng fàng yànkǒu 放燄口 “release of flaming-mouth [hungry-ghost]” Buddhist liturgy), revised (chóngdìng 重訂) by 袾宏 Yúnqī Zhūhóng 雲棲袾宏 (1535–1615), the principal late-Míng Pure Land master and Yúnqīsì abbot near Hángzhōu. Preserved as X59 no. 1080 in the Xùzàngjīng.
Prefaces
The opening editorial note records the principle of revision: “The Yoga method-gate (yúqié fǎmén 瑜伽法門) all proceeds from the contemplative visualization of the Sanskrit syllable-seeds (fànshū zìzhǒng 梵書字種), producing all manner of broad spiritual transformations and benefiting sentient beings. The present text first lists twenty syllables; the practitioner must contemplate-and-visualize them with the utmost familiarity before he may ascend the maṇḍala and perform the ritual. The structure of these syllables has natural-and-unforced rules; not the slightest deviation is permitted. Consulting the original Bǎohuá 寶華 [Mountain] edition, comparison with the Indian (Zhúqián 竺乾) graphic-form shows that they had not yet fully agreed; subsequent re-printings by later persons departed even further. Now, consulting the Lóngzàng 龍藏, [I have] examined-and-corrected with the utmost care.”
Abstract
The Yúqié jíyào shīshí yíguǐ is the standard late-Míng Pure-Land-revised edition of the Esoteric fàng yànkǒu hungry-ghost food-bestowal liturgy: Zhūhóng’s revision corrects the Sanskrit-syllable graphic forms against authoritative manuscript witnesses (the Lóngzàng), producing what became the canonical form for late-Míng / Qīng monastic practice. The fàng yànkǒu liturgy itself originates in Tang Esoteric ritual but was reframed in the late Míng as a Pure-Land-aligned monastic memorial service. The work pairs with Xiūshè yúqié jíyào shīshí tányí 修設瑜伽集要施食壇儀 (KR6j0754). Composition window: late-Wànlì period (1580s — Zhūhóng’s mature Yúnqīsì period) – 1615 (his death).
Translations and research
- Yü Chün-fang, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia UP, 1981) — the standard treatment of Zhūhóng and his ritual reform program.
- Charles Orzech, Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Brill, 2011) — discussion of the fàng yànkǒu ritual lineage.
Other points of interest
The post-Zhūhóng yúqié shīshí tradition divided into several lineage-branches; the present work is the most conservative of these, attempting to recover the pre-corruption Esoteric ritual structure under Pure Land doctrinal aegis.