Zhuǎnjīng xíngdào yuàn wǎngshēng jìngtǔ fǎshì zàn 轉經行道願往生淨土法事讚
Verses for the Liturgical Service of Sūtra-Recitation, Circumambulation, and the Vow of Pure Land Rebirth by 善導 (Shàndǎo, 集記)
About the work
A two-juǎn liturgical-devotional manual — verses for the conduct of a Pure Land fǎshì 法事 (“Dharma-service”) incorporating sūtra-recitation (specifically of the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha 阿彌陀經), circumambulation (xíngdào 行道), and the vow for rebirth in Sukhāvatī — composed by 善導 Shàndǎo 善導 (613–681), the foundational systematiser of Chinese Pure Land devotional practice and the principal architect of the East-Asian Pure Land tradition. One of three major Pure Land zàn compilations by Shàndǎo (alongside KR6p0075 Wǎngshēng lǐzàn jié and KR6p0076 Yī Guānjīng děng míng bānzhōu sānmèi).
Abstract
The Fǎshì zàn is a complete liturgical script for a Pure Land devotional service. It opens with the verses of opening (kāijīng zàn 開經讚) and the invitation of the Three Jewels; proceeds through the zhuǎnjīng recitation of the Smaller Sukhāvatīvyūha with interleaved zàn responses at each major narrative juncture; incorporates the xíngdào 行道 / circumambulation segment with its appropriate verses; transitions through repentance and the bodhisattva-vow segments; and closes with the huíxiàng 迴向 / dedication-of-merit and the closing zàn. The whole script is in regular five- and seven-syllable verse, designed for chanted performance, with stage-direction-style prose markers (“the great assembly chants together” 大眾同聲, “the precentor sings alone” 維那獨唱, etc.) directing the liturgical performance.
The work is the principal early-medieval Pure Land liturgical manual in Chinese and the foundational document of subsequent East Asian Pure Land devotional practice. Shàndǎo’s three zàn texts together establish the basic shape of Pure Land liturgical performance (sūtra-recitation, zàn, circumambulation, repentance, vow, dedication) that has remained canonical in Chinese Pure Land practice through the late-imperial period and into the present, and were transmitted to Japan where they decisively shaped the Hōnen-Shinran-Ippen lineages.
The Taishō text (T47N1979) is collated against the Korean canon and an original (原) variant. No internal preface fixes the composition date; the bracket adopted (660–681) covers Shàndǎo’s mature period at Guāngmíngsì 光明寺 in Cháng’ān 長安 (where he taught and composed his major works) up to his death in 681.
Translations and research
- Pas, Julian F. Visions of Sukhāvatī: Shan-tao’s Commentary on the Kuan Wu-Liang-Shou-Fo Ching. Albany: SUNY, 1995 — the principal English-language study of Shàn-dǎo’s commentarial work; touches on the zàn texts.
- Inagaki, Hisao. The Three Pure Land Sutras: A Study and Translation from the Chinese. Berkeley: BDK America, 1995.
- Hirakawa Akira 平川彰 et al., eds. Jōdo Bukkyō no shisō 淨土佛教の思想. Tokyo: Kōdansha — multivolume Japanese-language treatment.
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China.” In Buddhism in Practice, ed. D. Lopez. Princeton, 1995 — discusses the zàn genre and Shàn-dǎo’s contribution.
- Andrews, Allan A. The Teachings Essential for Rebirth: A Study of Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū. Tokyo: Sophia University, 1973 — for the Japanese reception.
Other points of interest
Shàndǎo’s Fǎshì zàn is the earliest complete liturgical manual of any Buddhist devotional tradition in China to survive in full, and is a unique witness to the structure and rhetoric of seventh-century Chinese Buddhist liturgy. Its survival is owed to its canonical status in the East Asian Pure Land tradition; few seventh-century Chinese liturgical texts of any school survive in such complete form.