Púsà zàng xiūdào zhòngjīng chāo, juàn dìshíèr 菩薩藏修道眾經抄卷第十二
Excerpts from Various Sutras on Cultivating the Way of the Bodhisattva-Piṭaka, Juan 12 [only] anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript fragment)
About the work
A single juan-fragment surviving from a much larger lost work titled Pú-sà zàng xiū-dào zhòng-jīng chāo 菩薩藏修道眾經抄 (“Excerpts from Various Sutras on Cultivating the Way of the Bodhisattva-Piṭaka”) — preserved only in the form of juan 12 (卷第十二) at the Dunhuang Library Cave. The Taishō canon’s gǔ-yì bù (vol. 85) preserves this single-juan fragment at T85 no. 2820 — the rest of the work is lost.
Prefaces
The text has no preserved auto-preface or byline. It opens directly with a doctrinal exposition (paraphrased, with reconstructed lacunae): “Increased-superior wisdom-study, vigorous, penetrating throughout □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ Avalokiteśvara addressed the Buddha, saying: ‘World-Honored One, of these six □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ how many constitute the wisdom-assembly?’ The Buddha addressed Avalokiteśvara □ □ □ □ □ □ □ virtue-assemblies. Increased-superior wisdom-study, the wisdom-assembly. Dhyāna and vigor penetrate throughout. Avalokiteśvara addressed the Buddha, saying: ‘World-Honored One, the bodhisattva, in the matter of the six studies — how does he study?’ The Buddha addressed Avalokiteśvara, saying: ‘There are five kinds of study corresponding to the pāramitās. Namely, speaking the right Dharma, the bodhisattva-piṭaka. First, extreme faith and understanding; for him, practising ten dharmas: practice of hearing, thinking, cultivating…‘”
Abstract
Authorship and date of the original lost full work are unrecoverable. The fragment is from juan 12 of the original — implying that the full work ran to at least 12 juan and probably substantially more (a 20- or 30-juan work would be plausible). The work is a topical excerpt-anthology of canonical citations on the bodhisattva-piṭaka path — drawing on canonical Mahāyāna sutras for instruction on the six pāramitās, the bodhisattva path stages, the bodhisattva’s upāya, etc. The Avalokiteśvara-Buddha question-and-answer framing in the fragment suggests the work may be modeled on the Avalokiteśvara / Sandhīnirmocana dialogue tradition.
The work is one of the principal Dunhuang witnesses to medium-scale lost Tang-period topical anthologies — works that did not survive in the canonical transmission but that constituted significant monastic-pedagogical resources at their time. notBefore = 600, notAfter = 1000 (the standard Dunhuang-manuscript dating bracket).
The juan-12 fragment is structurally important: it preserves the work’s distinctive dialogue-format organization (rather than the simple citation-string format of the smaller anthologies like KR6s0028), which makes the original full Púsà zàng xiūdào zhòngjīng chāo a more developed scholastic compilation than the more straightforward digests of T85.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See general Dunhuang-manuscript references at KR6s0026.
Other points of interest
The work’s title — explicitly invoking the Pú-sà zàng 菩薩藏 (Bodhisattva-piṭaka) as its frame — connects it to the broad Mahāyāna tradition of the Bodhisattva-piṭaka-sūtra (T310 part 12, Da-bǎo-jī-jīng j. 35–54), one of the principal canonical organizations of bodhisattva-path teachings. The lost full work was likely a major monastic-pedagogical resource for bodhisattva-path study in the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties western frontier.