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法界聖凡水陸勝會修齋儀軌

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Text ID
KR6k0204
Date
1269–1615
Dynasty
宋明

Fǎjiè shèngfán shuǐlù shènghuì xiūzhāi yíguǐ 法界聖凡水陸勝會修齋儀軌

Liturgical Code for the Cultivation Fast at the Victorious Assembly of Sages and Common Beings of the Dharma-Realm by Water and Land by 志磐 (Zhìpán, 撰); 袾宏 (Zhūhóng, 重訂)

About the work

The standard six-fascicle manual for the Shuǐlù dàochǎng 水陸道場 (the Shuǐlù mass — the largest and most elaborate Chinese Buddhist liturgy of universal salvation, in which “all sages and ordinary beings of the dharma-realm of water and of land” are convoked, fed and released). The work is in two compositional layers: the Sòng original by Sìmíng Dōnghú shāmén Zhìpán 四明東湖沙門志磐 (the same Tiāntái historian who wrote the Fózǔ tǒngjì 佛祖統紀), and the late-Míng revision (重訂) by Gǔháng Yúnqī hòuxué Zhūhóng 古杭雲棲後學祩宏 (Yúnqī Zhūhóng, 1535–1615; 袾宏). The internal title-line of fascicle 1 reads Sòng Sìmíng Dōnghú shāmén Zhìpán jǐn zhuàn / Míng Gǔháng Yúnqī hòuxué Zhūhóng chóng dìng 宋四明東湖沙門　志磐　謹撰／明古杭雲棲後學　祩宏　重訂.

Structural Division

Six fascicles, organised as a multi-day altar service:

  • Fascicle 1 — Xíng chénzhāo kāiqǐ fǎshì 行晨朝開啟法事 (the morning-watch opening rite): purifying the three karmas (jìng sānyè 淨三業), invoking the three jewels, summoning the qīngzhāi shīzhǔ 請齋施主, the biǎobái 表白 declarations, and the establishment of the dàochǎng 道場 boundaries.
  • Fascicles 2–4 — the principal qǐngshèng 請聖 (invocation of the holy) and zhàofán 召凡 (summoning of the common beings: gods, asuras, humans, hungry ghosts, animals, hellbeings) sequences, with their gòngyǎng 供養 (offerings) cycles.
  • Fascicles 5–6 — the qiānshèng 遣聖 (sendingoff of the saints) and fàngshēng 放生 / yùjiā yànkǒu 瑜伽燄口 (Yogastyle hungry-ghost feeding) closing rites.

Abstract

This is the principal Sòngonward liturgical handbook for the Shuǐlù mass — the rite that became, from the late-Sòng onwards, the most important large-scale ritual of universal salvation in Chinese Buddhism, performed both at imperial commission and at private patronage for the relief of the dead. Zhìpán (志磐, dates not preserved; flourished mid-13th c.; the Fózǔ tǒngjì’s self-preface is dated 1269 / Xiánchún 5) compiled the original yíguǐ at Sìmíng Dōnghú 四明東湖 in Níngbō, working from the older “northern” and “southern” Shuǐlù traditions traced ultimately to a Sòng court-promoted ritual. Yúnqī Zhūhóng in the Wànlì period (late 16th / early 17th c.) revised the manual for late-Míng monastic and lay use; this is the version preserved in the Xùzàngjīng. notBefore is set at 1269 (the latest secure date for Zhìpán’s literary activity) and notAfter at 1615 (Zhūhóng’s death-year), bracketing the received recension as a layered Sòng-Míng work; the Shuǐlù manual itself is normally dated to ca. 1270 in the Sòng layer, with Zhūhóng’s revision likely in the 1590s–1610s. Two further Qīng Shuǐlù manuals follow this work in the Xùzàng (X1498, X1499 → KR6k0205, KR6k0206).

Translations and research

  • Stevenson, Daniel B. “Text, Image, and Transformation in the History of the Shuilu fahui, the Buddhist Rite for Deliverance of Creatures of Water and Land.” In Cultural Intersections in Later Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2001), 30–70.
  • Yü, Chün-fang. The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Zhuhong and the Late Ming Synthesis (Columbia University Press, 1981) — for Zhūhóng’s editorial role in late-Míng liturgy.

Other points of interest

  • Although attributed in the catalog to “Zhìpán of the Sòng” with Zhūhóng as reviser, the text as transmitted is essentially the late-Míng Yúnqī recension; pre-Zhūhóng witnesses do not survive intact.
  • Crossreferences in the Xùzàng: the two later commentarial / supplementary Shuǐlù manuals by Qīng-period Zhǐguān 咫觀 (KR6k0205 Xìngxiàng tōnglùn and KR6k0206 Fǎlún bǎochàn) build on this work.

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