金剛般若經集驗記

Jīngāng bōrě jīng jíyàn jì 金剛般若經集驗記

Records of Verified [Miraculous] Responses to the Vajracchedikā-Prajñāpāramitā-Sūtra, Collected

written by 孟獻忠 (Mèng Xiànzhōng, fl. 690s–720s, 撰)

About the work

A 3-juan early-Tang miracle-tale anthology dedicated specifically to the 《金剛般若波羅蜜經》 Vajracchedikā-Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra (the Diamond Sūtra), compiled by the Tang official Mèng Xiàn-zhōng 孟獻忠 in his capacity as Sī-mǎ of Zǐ-zhōu 梓州司馬 (Sìchuān). The work is dated by the author’s own preface to 大唐開元六年 = 718 CE — fixing it as the earliest specialised Vajracchedikā-miracle anthology in the Chinese Buddhist tradition. The work supplies the structural template for all subsequent late-imperial Jīn-gāng-jīng miracle-anthologies, and was the principal source-base for the much larger Sòng-Yuán-Míng compilations including KR6r0176 Jīn-gāng jīng shòu-chí gǎn-yìng lù, KR6r0177 Jīn-gāng jīng gǎn-yìng zhuàn, KR6r0179 Jīn-gāng jīng líng-yàn zhuàn, KR6r0180 Jīn-gāng jīng chí-yàn jì, and KR6r0181 Jīn-gāng jīng gǎn-yìng fēn-lèi jí-yào. Transmitted in the Xù-zàng-jīng as X1629.

Prefaces

The author’s preface (bìng-xù 并序) opens with a doctrinal-poetic encomium of the Prajñāpāramitā in standard Tang parallel-prose: “The prajñā is the wisdom-mother of the various Buddhas, the subtle essence of the Supreme Way, the source-spring of the Dharma-ocean, the secret treasury of the Tathāgata. Words and language are cut off there; the practices of the heart are extinguished there. It transcends name and form yet is borne in the realms; the calling and the naming, slowed though they be, do not catch up with it. It departs from seeing-hearing-discriminating-knowing; the wisdom-discrimination defines and grows distant. There is no doing and no obtaining — therefore is its merit accomplished. There is no abiding and no defilement — therefore is its wisdom completed.” The preface emphasises the Diamond Sūtra’s special position within the Mahāprajñāpāramitā corpus: “For those who have one moment of pure faith and uphold the four lines of gāthā, merit is unbounded and limitless, broad as the Dharma-realm; the fruit is unborn and undying, ultimate as empty space.” It then frames the work as a documentary collection of historically-verified miraculous responses to Diamond Sūtra devotion — explicitly jí-yàn “verified-responses gathered.”

Abstract

The work is structured into three juan organised by the type of miraculous response:

1. Juan 1 — the Jiùhù piān 救護篇 (“Section on Rescue and Protection”), in 19 章 (chapters), each presenting a single miracle-tale of Diamond Sūtra recitation rescuing a devotee from physical danger (illness, drowning, military attack, judicial execution, animal attack, etc.).

2. Juan 1 (continued) — the Yánshòu piān 延壽篇 (“Section on Life-Prolongation”), in 12 章, presenting tales of recitation extending the devotee’s allotted lifespan, often through the intervention of underworld officials who, on receiving the merit transferred from the recitation, restore the devotee from imminent death.

3. Juan 2 and 3 continue the typological organisation with sections on:

   • Mìngzhōng piān 命終篇 (“Section on Auspicious Death”) — tales of recitation producing peaceful death and good rebirth.
   • Bàoshēng piān 報生篇 (“Section on Karmic Rebirth”) — tales of post-mortem testimony from the deceased about the karmic results of their recitation practice.
   • Shénlì piān 神力篇 (“Section on Divine Power”) — tales of supernatural manifestations occasioned by recitation.
   • Shūjīng piān 書經篇 (“Section on Sūtra-Copying”) — tales of miraculous events surrounding the copying or commissioning of Diamond Sūtra manuscripts.

A representative tale: a Sìchuān merchant of the 開元 4 = 716 period halts at the household of Zhāng Xīrùn 張希閏 in Suìzhōu and witnesses a sūtra-copying-related miracle. The materials draw heavily on first-person Tang-official informant chains (Mèng Xiànzhōng’s professional network of Sìchuān regional officials supplies many of the named informants) and on earlier Tang miracle-tale literature (the Míngbào jì of Táng Lín, the Jí gǔjīn fódào lùnhéng of Dàoxuān).

The work is the decisive document for the Tang-period emergence of the Diamond Sūtra as a specialised cult-object, supplying both the canonical narrative-template for Diamond Sūtra miracle-tales and the conceptual vocabulary (the typological organisation by miracle-type) that subsequent compilers would inherit. It is also a key source for early Tang regional-Buddhist devotional history, particularly in Sìchuān where Mèng Xiànzhōng’s local-official career is concentrated.

Translations and research

• 鄭阿財, 《敦煌佛教靈驗記研究》(Táiběi: Xīn-wén-fēng, 2010) — major study of Tang Buddhist miracle-tale literature, with extended treatment of the Jí-yàn jì.
• Robert Campany, Signs from the Unseen Realm: Buddhist Miracle Tales from Early Medieval China (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 2012) — context for the genre.
• 牧田諦亮, 《六朝古逸觀世音應驗記の研究》(Kyōto: Heiraku-ji shoten, 1970) — early Six Dynasties-Tang miracle-tale tradition.
• Stephen Teiser, The Scripture on the Ten Kings (Honolulu: Univ. of Hawai’i Press, 1994) — context of the underworld-rescue narrative type.
• Donald Gjertson, Miraculous Retribution (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1989) — the standard Western-language treatment of the Tang miracle-tale tradition; the Jí-yàn jì is one of his principal comparanda.

Other points of interest

The work’s typological organisation by miracle-response category (jiùhù, yánshòu, etc.) became the standard structural template for the late-imperial Jīngāngjīng miracle-anthology genre — Wáng Zéshēng’s KR6r0181 Jīngāng jīng gǎnyìng fēnlèi jíyào of the early Qīng explicitly identifies its 18-rubric typology as a refinement of Mèng’s Tang-period scheme.

Links

• CBETA: X87n1629