Zhūjīng yàoluè wén 諸經要略文
Essential Abridged Texts from the Various Sutras anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
A single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist excerpt-anthology, preserved in the Taishō canon’s gǔ-yì bù 古逸部 at T85 no. 2821. The text gathers brief ritual and karmic-recompense passages from various sutras and śāstras, with a particular focus on ritual conduct around food-offerings to monks (zhāi-shí 齋食) and the karmic consequences of improper conduct toward food-offerings, monastic vessels, and the deceased.
Prefaces
The text has no preserved auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with citations on funeral / posthumous food-offering ritual (paraphrased):
The Zūn Pó-xū-mì jīng 尊婆須蜜經 (Vasumitra-saṃgīti-śāstra, T1549) says: “If on behalf of the deceased one sets up the zhāi (purificatory feast), and the assembled monks pass through the food and the deceased’s portion is set down — then the deceased can eat. If this is not done, the deceased cannot eat.”
The Dìyù bǎojí jīng 地獄寶即經 says: “If at the food-distribution of the zhāi-host, the food has not yet been passed through and one already takes out the food for sentient beings — one enters the Tongue-Cutting Hell.”
The Zuì-fú jué-dìng jīng 罪福決定經 says: “Kāśyapa Discusses: those who take two vows in one place become two-headed snakes after death, mutually instructing each other.”
The Dà-shèng zhuāng-yán lùn 大乘莊嚴論 (Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra, T1604) says: “Of the zhāi-host’s Buddha-bowl, not one grain or particle is allowed to lay-people; those who eat it…”
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The work is one of the anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist devotional-instructional manuscripts preserved in Cave 17 — notBefore = 600, notAfter = 1000 (the standard bracket).
The work’s principal substantive interest is its detailed ritual-and-karmic-consequence framing of monastic food-offering practice — specifically the orderly zhāi (purificatory feast) sequence: setting up the offering, the assembled monks proceeding through the food, the deceased’s portion being set aside last, and the absolute prohibition on lay-handling of the Buddha-bowl food. The work draws on a wide spread of canonical and apocryphal sutras: the Vasumitra-saṃgīti-śāstra (a 4th-century Sarvāstivāda compilation translated by Saṃghabhūti and others), the Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra (Maitreya / Asaṅga, T1604), and several otherwise-unattested or apocryphal works (Dì-yù bǎo-jí jīng 地獄寶即經, Zuì-fú jué-dìng jīng 罪福決定經 — both possibly Chinese-composed Buddhist apocrypha rather than translations).
The work is therefore a primary witness to the karmic-instructional and ritual-correction culture of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng monastic practice, particularly around the relationship between the lay sponsor of a monastic feast, the assembled monastic recipients, and the deceased on whose behalf the zhāi may have been arranged.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See general Dunhuang-manuscript references at KR6s0026. Specific to this text:
- Stephen F. Teiser, The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton, 1988); The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Hawai’i, 1994) — context for funeral-offering ritual literature in late Táng / Five-Dynasties Dunhuang.
- Robert F. Campany, Strange Writing (1996) — context for the apocryphal Dì-yù and Zuì-fú jué-dìng genres.
Other points of interest
The citation of Dìyù bǎojí jīng and Zuìfú juédìng jīng — neither preserved in the canonical transmission — makes this text a primary preservation site for fragments of late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Buddhist apocrypha otherwise lost. The “two-headed snakes” karmic punishment for “two vows in one place” is a striking and folkloric image preserved here through the Zuìfú juédìng jīng citation.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry)
- CBETA: T85n2821
- Companion anonymous Dunhuang anthologies: KR6s0026, KR6s0027, KR6s0028, KR6s0029
- Cited canonical sources: Zūn Póxūmì jīng (T1549), Dàshèng zhuāngyán lùn (T1604)
- Cited apocryphal/lost sources: Dìyù bǎojí jīng 地獄寶即經, Zuìfú juédìng jīng 罪福決定經