Cíbēi shuǐchàn fǎ 慈悲水懺法
The Repentance Liturgy of the Compassionate Water by 知玄 (Zhīxuán, 撰)
About the work
A three-fascicle Tang Buddhist repentance liturgy composed by Wùdá guóshī Zhīxuán 悟達國師知玄 (知玄, 811–883). The catalog meta entry for this text records no author, but the work’s prefatory Yùzhì shuǐchàn xù 御製水懺序 (imperial preface) and the work’s hagiographic Tàishàn xù 太山序 (preserved in juan 1) attribute it unambiguously to Zhīxuán. The work is conventionally referred to in Chinese-Buddhist usage as the Sānmèi shuǐchàn 三昧水懺 (“Samādhi-Water Repentance”).
Prefaces
The Manji edition opens with two prefaces:
- Yùzhì shuǐchàn xù 御製水懺序 (imperial preface): 夫三昧水懺者。因唐悟達國師知玄。遇迦諾迦尊者。以三昧水為濯積世怨讐 (“the Sānmèi shuǐchàn arose because the Tang National Preceptor Wùdá, Zhīxuán, encountered the Venerable Kanaka, who used sānmèi-water to wash away his resentments accumulated through generations”).
- The Shuǐchàn yuánqǐ 水懺緣起 (preserved in the body of juan 1) preserves the famous hagiographic narrative: in his pre-eminence, when Zhīxuán was still unknown, he resided as a neighbour to a sick monk afflicted with jiāmóluó jí 迦摩羅疾 (a kind of leprosy or pustular disease), whom others avoided but whom Zhīxuán nursed. Years later, when Zhīxuán was famed at Ānguósì 安國寺 in the capital, he developed a rénmiàn chuāng 人面瘡 (“human-face boil”) on his thigh — a disease-spirit that complained to him of grievances dating back ten incarnations to Yuán Àng 袁盎 and Cháo Cuò 晁錯 of Hàn. The Jiānuòjiā zūnzhě 迦諾迦尊者 (Kanaka, the sixth of the Shíbā lóuhàn 十八羅漢) appeared to Zhīxuán in a vision and gave him sānmèi fǎshuǐ 三昧法水 (samādhi-Dharma-water) to release the karmic debt; Zhīxuán composed the present Shuǐchàn fǎ in commemoration.
Abstract
Together with KR6k0198 Cíbēi dàochǎng chànfǎ (the Liánghuáng bǎochàn), the Cíbēi shuǐchàn fǎ is one of the two principal repentance liturgies of the Chinese Buddhist tradition. Its hagiographic foundation in Zhīxuán’s encounter with Kanaka — recovered as a recurring motif in Chinese-Buddhist popular literature and visual culture — gave it institutional status equal to the Liáng-court repentance. The text is composed in the standard tripartite chànhuǐ form (guījìng 歸敬, chànhuǐ 懺悔, fāyuàn 發願) and remains widely performed in modern Han Buddhism. Composition is bracketed by the period after Zhīxuán’s Ānguósì abbacy and before his death in 883.
Translations and research
- Wùdá Guóshī Zhīxuán hagiographic studies in modern Chinese-Buddhist scholarship.
- Sòng gāosēng zhuàn j. 6 Zhīxuán zhuàn (T2061) — the principal source for the hagiographic narrative.
Other points of interest
The hagiographic episode of the rénmiàn chuāng (“human-face boil”) and the Yuán Àng / Cháo Cuò karmic debt is one of the most enduring motifs in Chinese Buddhist popular literature, depicted in countless paintings, prints, and theatrical works. The Shuǐchàn tradition is thereby integrated with the Hàn-dynasty political-historical narrative of Yuán Àng and Cháo Cuò — connecting Buddhist repentance practice with Confucian historical ethics in a distinctively Chinese synthesis.