Dà Táng gù dàdé zèng Sīkōng Dàbiànzhèng Guǎngzhì Bùkōng sānzàng xíngzhuàng 大唐故大德贈司空大辨正廣智不空三藏行狀
Conduct-Record of the Late Eminence, Posthumously Granted the Office of Minister of Works, with the Titles “Greatly Discerning and Correct” and “Vast Wisdom”, the Tripiṭaka-Master Bùkōng (Amoghavajra) of the Great Táng
composed by 趙遷 (Zhào Qiān, fl. late 8th c., 撰), official of the Hónglú 鴻臚 court
About the work
A xíngzhuàng of 不空 (Amoghavajra, 705–774) — the third great patriarch of Táng Esoteric Buddhism, after 善無畏 (Śubhakarasiṃha) and 金剛智 (Vajrabodhi). Composed shortly after Amoghavajra’s death by the secular official 趙遷 (Zhào Qiān), to provide the formal funerary record on the basis of which the imperial encomium and posthumous titles were issued. Preserved in the Taishō (T50 no. 2056). The text is the principal contemporary documentary source for Amoghavajra’s life and an essential supplement to the Buddhist hagiographies in the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn of 贊寧 (KR6r0061 / Zànníng) and elsewhere.
Abstract
不空 (Skt. Amoghavajra “Unfailing Vajra”), of central Indian (or possibly Sinhalese) origin, was brought to China as a child and became the disciple of 金剛智. After Vajrabodhi’s death he travelled back to India and Sri Lanka (741–746) for further esoteric teachings, returning to Cháng’ān as the leading esoteric master of the Táng. He served three emperors — Xuánzōng 玄宗, Sùzōng 肅宗, and Dàizōng 代宗 — as imperial preceptor, performed major state-protective rituals (especially during the An Lushan rebellion), and translated more than seventy esoteric scriptures into Chinese. He died in 774 and was posthumously granted the high titles named in the text’s subject-line.
趙遷 was an official of the Hónglúsì 鴻臚寺 (Court of State Ceremonial), the agency responsible for foreign affairs and imperial-monastic relations; he composed the xíngzhuàng in his official capacity to support the posthumous title-granting process. The composition window is bracketed by Amoghavajra’s death (774) and the formal granting of his posthumous titles (which followed shortly thereafter); a date of 774–780 is standard.
The text is a primary documentary source — not a hagiography — and supplies factual detail (translations, ritual performances, imperial relations, finances) that is sometimes more reliable than the later canonised Buddhist biographies.
Translations and research
- Charles D. Orzech, Politics and Transcendent Wisdom: The Scripture for Humane Kings in the Creation of Chinese Buddhism (University Park: Penn State Press, 1998) — the major English-language study of Amoghavajra and the political-esoteric context, with extensive use of KR6r0046.
- Geoffrey Goble, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition (New York: Columbia UP, 2019) — the most recent monograph; uses KR6r0046 as a central source.
- Charles D. Orzech, Henrik H. Sørensen & Richard K. Payne (eds.), Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia (Leiden: Brill, 2011).
- Yi-liang Zhou, “Tantrism in China,” HJAS 8 (1945): 241–332 — the foundational Western survey.
Links
- CBETA: T50n2056
- Wikipedia: Amoghavajra