Mìjì lìshì dàquán shénwáng jīng jìsòng 密跡力士大權神王經偈頌
Verses on the Sūtra of the Mighty Spirit-King Vajrapāṇi-Mahābala by 管主八 (Guǎnzhǔbā / Guǎngfú, 撰)
About the work
A one-juǎn Yuán-period composition of devotional verses on the wrathful Vajrayāna protector Vajrapāṇi-as-Mahābala (密跡力士大權神王 Mì-jì lì-shì dà-quán shén-wáng — “the secretly-traced strong-man, the great-power spirit-king”). Composed by 管主八 Guǎn-zhǔ-bā (zì Guǎng-fú), the Yuán-period Sōng-jiāng sēng-lù responsible for the late additions to the Qí-shā Canon.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1688) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The text is preceded by a preface — the Mì-jì lì-shì dà-quán shén-wáng jīng xù — by a different monk, 古汴龍華寺住持沙門智昌 (“Zhì-chāng, abbot of the Lóng-huá-sì in old Biàn[-jīng]”). The preface narrates the doctrinal background: the Wèi-jì jīn-gāng 穢跡金剛 (the “Filth-Trace Vajra”, another epithet of Vajrapāṇi as Mahābala) is said to have been first translated into Chinese by the North Indian master Wú-néng-shèng 無能勝 (presumably Ajita) and the Tantric master Ā-zhì-dá-xiàn 阿質達霰. These Tang translations entered the canon but had circulated incompletely. The Sòng monk Zhì-bīn 智彬 of Cuáng-jī had then re-edited and expanded the text, restoring the lost liú-tōng-fēn 流通分 (transmission-section), under the new title Fó rù niè-pán xiàn-shēn shén-wáng dǐng-guāng huà-fó shuō dà-fāng-guǎng dà-yuán-mǎn dà-zhèng-biàn-zhī shén-tōng dào-lì tuó-luó-ní jīng 佛入涅槃現身神王頂光化佛說大方廣大圓滿大正遍知神通道力陀羅尼經.
The body of the work is Guǎn-zhǔ-bā’s own verse composition expounding the deity’s iconography, the iconographic emergence of the wrathful three-headed eight-armed form from the Buddha at the moment of parinirvāṇa, and the deity’s subjugation of the Luó-jí 螺髻 (Coiled-Top) Brahmā King. The text reflects the Yuán-period syncretic Han-Tibetan-Tangut Vajrayāna devotional culture, in which Mongol-court patronage of esoteric Buddhism brought a wave of new literature into the Chinese tradition.
The composition is bracketed by Guǎnzhǔbā’s documented activity 1295–1307. The Taishō uses the Qīngcáng (清臧本) recension as base.
Translations and research
- Strickmann, Michel. Mantras et mandarins: le bouddhisme tantrique en Chine. Paris: Gallimard, 1996. — Background on Tantric Buddhism in China, including the Yuán period.
- Sørensen, Henrik H., ed. Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Leiden: Brill, 2011. — Treats the late-medieval Chinese esoteric tradition.
- Solonin, Kirill. (Various studies on Tangut and Yuan-period Buddhist texts.)
- No further substantial dedicated study located.
Other points of interest
The text is one of the few canonical witnesses to Yuán-period Han-Chinese composition of esoteric Buddhist devotional verse (as opposed to translation from Sanskrit or Tibetan), and reflects the broader Yuán-court patronage of Tibetan-style Vajrayāna Buddhism. Guǎnzhǔbā’s role as editor of the Qíshā Canon placed him at the centre of this institutional culture.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Guǎnzhǔbā): A001633
- Dazangthings date evidence (1300): [ 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/