Lǐniàn Mítuó dàochǎng chànfǎ 禮念彌陀道場懺法
The Pure Land Repentance Liturgy of the Worship-and-Recitation of Amitābha at the [Bodhi-]Maṇḍa by 王子成 (Wáng Zǐchéng, 集)
About the work
A ten-juǎn Pure Land repentance liturgy compiled by the Yuán-dynasty lay-Buddhist scholar 王子成 Wáng Zǐchéng 王子成. The work is one of the most extensive lay-compiled Pure Land chànfǎ (repentance services) in the Chinese tradition and supplies a complete liturgical apparatus for a multi-day Pure Land repentance retreat (dàochǎng 道場).
Abstract
The ten juǎn lay out a comprehensive seven-day or twenty-one-day repentance retreat structured around the Pure Land devotional programme: (1) opening invocations and qǐjiào 啟教; (2) the formal lǐbài worship of Amitābha and his bodhisattva retinue; (3) the zàn in praise of Amitābha and Sukhāvatī; (4–6) the major chànhuǐ repentance segments, drawing on the Pǔxián xíngfǎ jīng 普賢行法經 model and the medieval chànyí tradition (Zhìshēng’s 智昇 Jí zhūjīng lǐchàn yí KR6p0077 and Zūnshì’s 遵式 Wǎngshēng jìngtǔ chànyuàn yí KR6p0079 are the principal precedents); (7) the fāyuàn vow-recitation and the bùtí xīn 菩提心 / bodhicitta segment; (8) the xíngdào circumambulation segment; (9) the xìniàn 繫念 mind-binding niànfó practice for the closing days of the retreat; (10) the huíxiàng dedication of merit and the closing observances.
The work is the most fully developed Pure Land repentance liturgy of the medieval Chinese tradition: where Zūnshì’s eleventh-century Chànyuàn yí KR6p0079 supplies a single-session liturgy, the Lǐniàn Mítuó dàochǎng chànfǎ supplies the apparatus for an extended retreat. It became one of the standard Pure Land retreat-manuals of the YuánMíngQīng period and was widely circulated in lay-Buddhist circles. The work’s lay authorship is significant: Wáng Zǐchéng’s jūshì 居士 status and Confucian-literati training are visible in the prose register and the literary-Confucian framing of some of the doctrinal sections, and the work belongs distinctively to the Yuán-period lay-Buddhist Pure Land tradition that flourished alongside the institutional monastic Liánzōng of 普度 Yōután Pǔdù and the Tiāntái Pure Land of 懷則 Hǔxī Huáizé.
The text is preserved only in the Xùzàngjīng 卍續藏 (X1467). No preface fixes a precise composition date; the bracket adopted (1280–1340) covers the most plausible mid- to late-Yuán period.
Translations and research
- Stevenson, Daniel B. “Pure Land Buddhist Worship and Meditation in China.” In Buddhism in Practice, ed. D. Lopez. Princeton, 1995 — for the broader chàn-yí tradition.
- Kuo Li-ying. Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme chinois du Ve au Xe siècle. Paris: EFEO, 1994 — for the antecedents.
- ter Haar, B.J. The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History. Leiden: Brill, 1992 — for Yuán-period lay-Buddhist context.