Dàoān fǎshī niànfó zàn 道安法師念佛讚
Master Dào-ān’s Niàn-fó Encomium attributed to 道安 (anonymous Dūnhuáng manuscript)
About the work
A short Dūnhuáng-recovered devotional zàn 讚 (encomium) on Pure Land themes, pseudepigraphically attributed to 道安 Dàoān fǎshī 道安法師 (probably referring to the great Eastern Jìn master Shì Dàoān 釋道安, 312–385, but presumably composed centuries later in the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties period in the Dūnhuáng region). Preserved in the Taishō Gǔyìbù of Vol. 85 as No. 2830A. The companion text No. 2830B — Dàoān fǎshī niànfó zànwén KR6p0140 — is a related but distinct manuscript composition under the same attribution.
Abstract
The text is a sustained seven-character verse-encomium on Pure Land themes, opening with the declaration that of the sānshísān tiān fó zuì zūn 三十三天佛最尊 (“of the Thirty-Three Heavens, the Buddha is supreme”) and wàn wù zhōng guì bù guò rén 萬物中貴不過人 (“among the myriad beings, none more honoured than the human”). The body proceeds through pastoral exhortation:
zhǐ kǒng zhòngshēng zào zhū è, jīnglǜ fǎjiào [□] xiūshēn 只恐眾生造諸惡，經律法教□修身 (“only fearing that beings perform every evil, the sūtras-and-vinaya in their teaching cultivate the body”)
shí ròu zhòngshēng duǎnmìng bǎo, yuán fó cíbēi zhēngjiàn jūn 食肉眾生短命保，緣佛慈悲徵諫君 (“flesh-eating beings receive short-life-protection only; through the Buddha’s compassion, [I] admonish the gentleman”)
zào è rén duō xiū fú shǎo, suǒyǐ zhòngshēng cháng shòu pín 造惡人多修福少，所以眾生長受貧 (“evil-doers are many, merit-cultivators few; therefore beings perpetually receive poverty”)
The text combines Pure Land soteriology with karmic-retribution moralism (anti-killing, vegetarian observance, anti-lust) in the popular-pastoral register characteristic of Dūnhuáng-period Buddhist devotional literature. The opening principle — that jiē yīn qiān-tān nán quàn-jiàn, bǎi jié qiān shēng zì [□] shēn 總緣慳貪難勸諫，百劫千生自□身 — assigns the cause of saṃsāric suffering to qiān-tān 慳貪 (avarice and greed) which is “difficult to remonstrate against.”
The manuscript shows multiple kōngquē lacunae (rendered □); the surviving text is in poor physical condition. Both the attribution to Dàoān and the dating to a specific period are problematic: the attribution is pseudepigraphic (the historical Eastern Jìn Dàoān is highly unlikely to be the actual composer of a seven-character popular-pastoral zàn in this register); the dating must be inferred from the manuscript-tradition context (late Táng / Five Dynasties / early Sòng).
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The pseudepigraphic ascription to Shì Dàoān 釋道安 (312–385) — the great Eastern Jìn translator and patriarch — is striking. Dàoān was the principal architect of the early-Chinese Buddhist exegetical tradition prior to Kumārajīva’s arrival, and his jīnglù 經錄 (sūtra-catalogue) work was foundational for the entire Chinese Buddhist canonical tradition. He was also the master of 慧遠 Huìyuǎn, who founded the Lúshān Báiliánshè and is conventionally counted as the first patriarch of Chinese Pure Land. The Dūnhuáng-period attribution of these popular-pastoral Pure Land zàn materials to Dàoān thus borrows the prestige of the patriarch’s master to authenticate later devotional compositions.