Qíyuàn wén 祈願文
Petition-and-Vow Text anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
A single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist liturgical text — a qíyuàn wén 祈願文 (petition-and-vow text) — preserved at T85 no. 2846. The text is a script for a five-day altar-establishment (jié tán 結壇) ceremony with daily monastic feasts, lamp-lighting, and qǐngfó invocations, with itemized lists of the offered goods (cloth, camel-hide, paper, etc.) recorded in interlinear gloss. It is one of two adjacent Dunhuang qíyuàn wén manuscripts in T85 (the second is KR6s0039).
Prefaces
The text has no auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with the ritual-itemization (paraphrased, with reconstructed lacunae): “At the place, establishing the altar for five days. Each altar offering food to monks. One-seven persons scattering food, lighting lamps. Following the night, chanting [the name of] the great □ □ □ □ □ □.” Then itemized lists: “One bolt of cloth. One side of camel-hide □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □ paper □ one folder □ □ □ □ □ □ □ □.” Followed by the vow-formulation: “The above-listed items: at the altar-establishment, sutra-recitation, monastic-feast, Buddha-chanting, lamp-lighting, alms-giving — what is intended is…”
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The text belongs to the Dunhuang lay-and-monastic ritual-petition genre — liturgical scripts produced for actual devotional ceremonies, with itemized lists of offered goods and named beneficiaries. The detailed enumeration of physical offerings (cloth, hide, paper) makes the text a primary source for medieval Chinese Buddhist material culture — specifically, the kinds of goods that lay donors actually contributed to monastic feasts in the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng western frontier. notBefore = 800, notAfter = 1000 (the Guīyìjūn / Five-Dynasties bracket).
The text is one of two adjacent qíyuàn wén preserved in T85 — the present text (T2846) and KR6s0039 (T2847) — neither carrying the named patron(s) for whom the ceremonies were performed in the preserved fragment-state. Both belong to the Dunhuang ceremonial-ritual literature that constitutes one of the principal genres preserved in Cave 17.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See:
- Yáng Bǎo-yù 楊寶玉, Dūn-huáng-běn fó-shū yán-jiū 敦煌本佛書研究 — Sinophone Dunhuang ritual-literature studies.
- Stephen F. Teiser, The Scripture on the Ten Kings (Hawai’i, 1994) — context for Dunhuang dedicatory and petition-texts.
Other points of interest
The itemized lists of physical offerings — cloth, camel-hide, paper — make the text a primary source for the material economy of Dunhuang Buddhism in the Guīyìjūn period. The 5-day altar with daily feasts, lamp-lighting, and chant-invocations reflects a substantial socio-religious investment, suggesting a major patron event (illness, funeral, official appointment, etc.) rather than a routine monastic activity.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry)
- CBETA: T85n2846
- Companion qíyuàn wén: KR6s0039 (T2847)
- Genre context: Dunhuang lay-and-monastic ritual-petition literature