Qíyuàn wén 祈願文
Petition-and-Vow Text anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript, second of two)
About the work
A second single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist liturgical qíyuàn wén 祈願文 (petition-and-vow text), preserved at T85 no. 2847, paralleling KR6s0038 (T2846). The text is the dedication-component of a Dunhuang ritual ceremony — invoking the Four Heavenly Kings (sì wáng 四王), nāga-spirits, the Eight Classes of celestial beings, and dedicating accumulated merit to imperial / regional / family welfare.
Prefaces
The text has no auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with a vow-and-merit-dedication formula (paraphrased, with reconstructed lacunae): “This Sahā-realm — pledging the heart to benefit beings, therefore establishing the upāya gate. □ □ □ □ □ benevolence builds the eight extremities, peace and joy. The music-tones competing run, knock-arrival to receive. The Sanskrit □ □ □ □ leads forward — the intent is that the field-laborers’ suffering is hard to evade, the monsters and demons remote at a thousand li □ □ □ □ at the earth-gate. All these many goods, no limit to the fine causal connection — first used for □ □ □ □ the Four Kings, dragon-heaven, the Eight Classes. Reverently we pray that their majestic light be flourishing, their merit-power further increased, raising □ □ □ □ to save people and protect the country.”
The vow-formula proceeds through the standard Dunhuang dedication sequence: first to the protective deities, then to the imperial ruler, then to the regional Tàibǎo, then to the named family beneficiaries.
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The work belongs to the Dunhuang ceremonial-ritual literature, with the standard structural features of the genre: invocation of cosmic and regional protective deities; dedication of merit; named patron and beneficiaries (here lost in lacunae). notBefore = 800, notAfter = 1000 (the Guīyìjūn / Five-Dynasties bracket).
The text complements KR6s0038 as a parallel qíyuàn wén of the same general type — together the two texts (T2846 and T2847) constitute the principal Dunhuang witnesses to the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties / early-Sòng petition-and-vow genre as it was actually performed. The works are valuable not for any specific authorial composition but for the liturgical-formulaic structure they preserve, which can be cross-referenced with the much larger corpus of named Dunhuang dedication-texts in the Pelliot, Stein, and Beijing collections.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See KR6s0038.
Other points of interest
The text’s emphasis on cosmic-deity protection (Four Kings, nāga-heaven, Eight Classes) reflects the Esoteric-Buddhist devotional culture of the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties western frontier, in which the Four Heavenly Kings were imagined as the active protectors of the regional ruler and his territory. This invocational structure links the present text to the broader Esoteric protector-deity literature of Dunhuang.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry)
- CBETA: T85n2847
- Companion qíyuàn wén: KR6s0038 (T2846)
- Genre context: Dunhuang ceremonial-ritual literature, Guīyìjūn period