Zhōngtiānzhú Shèwèiguó Qíhuánsì tújīng 中天竺舍衛國祇洹寺圖經
An Illustrated Manual on the Jetavana Monastery in Śrāvastī, Central India by 道宣 (Dàoxuān, 撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle illustrated Tang Vinaya-cosmographic manual by Dàoxuān 道宣 (道宣, 596–667) describing the architectural plan and ritual organisation of the Jetavana (祇洹寺 Qíhuánsì) — the monastery donated by Anāthapiṇḍada (Jǐgū 給孤) to the Buddha at Śrāvastī (Shèwèi 舍衛) in Madhyadeśa (Zhōngtiānzhú 中天竺). The work was composed on the basis of Dàoxuān’s gǎntōng 感通 (spiritual communications, cf. KR6k0184 Lǜxiàng gǎntōng zhuàn) of 667 and presents a cosmographic blueprint for the proper architectural form of a Buddhist monastery.
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with Dàoxuān’s autograph xù: 蓋聞蒼生敬福之肇歸真之基起立支提 (“I have heard that the basis of the masses’ reverence-merit and the foundation of their return-to-truth is the erection of stūpas”). The preface narrates the canonical antecedents — Anāthapiṇḍada spreading gold in the Jetavana, King Udayana carving the sandal-wood image of the Buddha — and grounds the present manual in Dàoxuān’s revealed cosmography.
Abstract
The Qíhuánsì tújīng is the principal Tang Buddhist architectural-cosmographic blueprint for the standard Buddhist monastery, presenting the Jetavana as the canonical model. The work belongs to the same revelatory programme as KR6k0184 Lǜxiàng gǎntōng zhuàn and KR6k0178 Jiètán tújīng: in 667 (Dàoxuān’s final year), through visionary communications, he received detailed information about the Jetavana’s architectural form, which he then transcribed as a standard for Chinese monastery design. The text is precisely datable to 667 and was decisive for the Tang and post-Tang Chinese understanding of the canonical Buddhist monastic plan; it was also influential in the Japanese reception of Buddhist architecture via the Nara-period transmission. The work is one of the earliest extant Buddhist architectural manuals in Chinese.
Translations and research
- Ho Puay-peng 何培斌. Studies on Tang Buddhist architecture and the Tújīng tradition.
- Steinhardt, Nancy. Studies on Tang Buddhist monastic plan.