Fó jíxiáng dé zàn 佛吉祥德讚
Hymn on the Auspicious Qualities of the Buddha by 寂友尊者 (Jìyǒu zūnzhě, 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A three-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian Buddhist stotra on the auspicious qualities (maṅgala-guṇa / jí-xiáng dé) of the Buddha. Translated by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla) at the Sòng Institute. The author 寂友尊者 Jì-yǒu zūn-zhě is a late-Indian Buddhist whose specific identity is not preserved in other sources.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1681) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The Fó jí-xiáng dé zàn is one of the more substantial stotras preserved in the Taishō (3 juǎn, longer than the usual 1-juan format), suggesting that the Indian original was a fully-developed devotional poem rather than a brief verse-cycle. The work elaborates the Buddha’s auspicious qualities (maṅgalāni) under multiple categories — physical marks, intellectual virtues, compassionate deeds, and so forth — in the manner of the Buddhānusmṛti tradition. The Sanskrit original does not survive.
The translation date is bracketed by Shīhù’s Institute career, 982–1017. The Taishō uses 高麗 and 金臧廣勝寺本 collated.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located on this specific text.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — Background on the Sòng Institute.
Other points of interest
The text’s three-juǎn extent makes it the longest stotra preserved in Taishō Vol. 32 — a useful witness to the longer end of the late-Indian stotra tradition, which included not only short hymns of 100 or 150 verses but also extended devotional poems of considerable length.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Shīhù): A000844
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/