Shìjiā Rúlái xíngjì sòng 釋迦如來行蹟頌
Verses on the Life-Deeds of the Tathāgata Śākyamuni
compiled by 無寄 (Mugi / Wújì, fl. mid-14th c., 撰集), Korean monk
About the work
A two-juan versified life of the Buddha, compiled by the Goryeo / Yuán-period Korean monk 無寄 (Korean: Mugi / Mugi seonsa; Mandarin: Wújì). Preserved in the Manji Xuzangjing (X75 no. 1510). The text is structured as a continuous sequence of verses recounting the life-deeds (xíngjì 行蹟) of Śākyamuni from the descent from Tuṣita to the parinirvāṇa, in seven-character verse. Despite the catalog’s “元” (Yuán) attribution, the work belongs to the Korean Buddhist tradition; 無寄 was active under Goryeo and is sometimes labelled “Yuán” because Goryeo was at this period a Yuán tributary state.
Abstract
無寄 was a fourteenth-century Korean Sŏn 禪 monk; little biographical data survives. The text was composed in Korea and circulated within the Korean Buddhist community before being incorporated into the wider East Asian canonical reprints. The composition window is bracketed by what is recoverable: 無寄 is mentioned in fourteenth-century Korean sources as active in the second quarter of the century; a date bracket of 1330–1352 is the safe range.
The verses follow the canonical sequence: ancestry, conception, birth, the four signs, renunciation, six years of austerity, the enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, the first sermon at Vārāṇasī, the early conversions, the major teaching journeys, the Devadatta schism, the parinirvāṇa, the cremation, and the distribution of the relics. Each major event is given one or several verses with a brief prose introduction. The work is thus part hagiography and part liturgical / mnemonic aid.
Translations and research
- Discussions of Korean Buddhist hagiographical literature in surveys of Goryeo Buddhism (e.g. Robert Buswell, The Korean Approach to Zen, Honolulu: UH Press, 1983).
- No dedicated Western-language translation located.
Links
- CBETA: X75n1510