Cíbēi dàochǎng chànfǎ 慈悲道場懺法
The Repentance Liturgy of the Compassionate Bodhi-Site by 諸大法師 (Zhū dà fǎshī, 集撰)
About the work
A ten-fascicle Liáng-dynasty Buddhist repentance liturgy compiled by Zhū dà fǎshī 諸大法師 (“the various great Dharma masters”, 諸大法師) at the imperial commission of Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) on behalf of the soul of his deceased consort Empress Chǐ 郗皇后. Conventionally referred to in Chinese-Buddhist usage as the Liáng huáng bǎochàn 梁皇寶懺 (“Precious Repentance of the Liáng Emperor”), it is one of the two most important penitence liturgies in the Chinese Buddhist tradition (the other being KR6k0199 Cíbēi shuǐchàn fǎ).
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with the Cíbēi dàochǎng chànfǎ zhuàn 慈悲道場懺法傳 (the standard prefatory hagiographic zhuàn): 此懺者梁武帝為皇后郗氏所集也 (“this repentance was compiled by Liáng Wǔdì for Empress Chǐ”). The zhuàn narrates the foundational hagiography: a few months after Empress Chǐ’s death, the emperor — distressed in his sleeping quarters — saw a serpent coiled (pán 盤) outside his window. Recognising it as the metempsychosis of his consort, he commissioned the great Buddhist masters to compile the present repentance for her sake; performed by the saṃgha at court, it was credited with releasing the empress from her serpent-rebirth.
Structural Division
The CANWWW T45N1909 record lists the work’s ten-juan structure. The complete Cíbēi dàochǎng chànfǎ in ten juan is preserved at:
- juan 1 — opening invocation, guījìng 歸敬 to the Three Jewels;
- subsequent juan — sequential treatment of the kā-rmic causes of suffering, gōngdé fāyuàn 功德發願 (vow-making), enumeration of the bodhisattvas, and concluding-praise.
CANWWW preserves no cross-references to other canonical texts; the work stands as a self-contained liturgical corpus.
Abstract
The Cíbēi dàochǎng chànfǎ is the principal court-Buddhist repentance liturgy of medieval China and the foundational document of the bǎochàn 寶懺 (“precious repentance”) liturgical tradition. Its compilation under Liáng Wǔdì gave it the imprimatur of the most prominent royal Buddhist patron of the Southern Dynasties; its subsequent reception throughout Chinese Buddhist history has been continuous, and it remains the standard mass-repentance liturgy in Han Buddhism today (regularly performed in major monasteries, especially during the Qīyuè zhōngyuán 七月中元 [Ghost Month] festival). The text dates to Liáng Wǔdì’s reign (502–549); precise compilation date is not preserved.
Translations and research
- Hsiao Po-yi 蕭百宜. Liángcháo huángshì fójiào yánjiū 梁朝皇室佛教研究 — for the institutional context of Liáng-court Buddhism.
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “The Four Kinds of Samādhi in Early T’ien-T’ai Buddhism.” In Peter Gregory (ed.), Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism (1986) — for the related liturgical tradition.
- Eberhard, Wolfram. Guilt and Sin in Traditional China (1967).
Other points of interest
The work’s status as the most-performed Buddhist liturgy in modern Han Buddhism — far more frequently chanted than any sūtra — gives it an institutional importance disproportionate to its philological standing. Generations of bǎochàn manuals (Sòng, Yuán, Míng, Qīng) trace their lineage to the Liánghuáng bǎochàn archetype.