Zàn ēmítuó fó jié 讚阿彌陀佛偈
Verses in Praise of Amitābha Buddha by 曇鸞 (Tánluán, 撰)
About the work
A single-juǎn sequence of devotional verses (jié 偈 / gāthā) composed by 曇鸞 Tánluán 曇鸞 (476–542) — one of the Five Patriarchs of Chinese Pure Land Buddhism and the foundational doctrinal commentator on the Pure Land tradition. The verses praise Amitābha Buddha and the splendour of Sukhāvatī, drawing principally on the Wúliángshòu jīng 無量壽經 (the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha) and Vasubandhu’s Wǎngshēng lùn 往生論 KR6f0101.
Abstract
The work consists of one hundred and ninety-five seven-syllable lines, arranged into a sequence of zàn praising successive aspects of Amitābha and his Pure Land: the body of the Buddha (his xiāng 相 / suǒ-shē 所攝 / lakṣaṇa, his light, his lifespan, his name); the cosmology of Sukhāvatī (the jewelled trees, the lotus pools, the radiant ground, the avian choirs); the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas of the Pure Land; and the salvific operation of Amitābha’s vows toward sentient beings of the Sahā-world. The verses are organised so that they can be chanted as a continuous devotional sequence, alternating with the canonical Nā-mó ē-mí-tuó fó 南無阿彌陀佛 invocation.
The work belongs to the same Pure Land doctrinal-devotional milieu as Tánluán’s better-known 《往生論註》 Wǎngshēng lùn zhù KR6f0101 (T1819) — his foundational commentary on Vasubandhu’s Pure Land treatise — and the two works are best read together: the Zhù supplies the doctrinal apparatus, the Zàn the devotional-liturgical expression of the same doctrine. The Zàn is the principal early devotional Pure Land verse text in Chinese, and it set the model for the subsequent zàn tradition of 善導 Shàndǎo (KR6p0074, KR6p0075, KR6p0076), 法照 Fǎzhào (KR6p0078), and the Sòng Tiāntái Pure Land authors.
The Taishō text (T47N1978) is collated against the Korean canon and yǐ / jiǎ manuscript variants. The dating bracket adopted (530–542) covers from Tánluán’s mature period (after his meeting with 菩提流支 Bodhiruci c. 529, which decisively shaped his Pure Land orientation) to his death in 542.
Translations and research
- Corless, Roger J. T’an-luan: The First Systematizer of Pure Land Buddhism. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, 1973 — and various subsequent articles.
- Inagaki Hisao 稻垣久雄. T’an-luan’s Commentary on the Pure Land Discourse. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshōdō, 1998 — the standard English-language treatment of the Wǎngshēng lùn zhù; touches on the Zàn.
- Hisao, Inagaki. Three Pure Land Sutras: A Study and Translation from the Chinese. Berkeley: BDK America, 1995 — for the underlying scriptures.
- Mochizuki Shinkō 望月信亨. Chūgoku jōdo kyōrishi. Kyoto: Hōzōkan — substantial chapters on Tán-luán.
- Yamaguchi Tomoyoshi 山口知良. Donran no Jōdokyō 曇鸞の淨土教. Kyoto: Heirakuji, 1949 — Japanese-language monograph.
Other points of interest
The Zàn circulated widely in Japanese Pure Land Buddhism as well. Hōnen 法然 (1133–1212) cites it repeatedly in his Senchakushū 選擇集, and it is one of the foundational devotional-liturgical texts of the Japanese Jōdo / Jōdo-shin traditions. The verses are still chanted in contemporary Pure Land monasteries on both sides of the East China Sea.
Links
- CBETA
- Wikipedia
- Wikidata
- Dazangthings date evidence (560): [ 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/