Rù bùsà táng shuō jì wén děng 入布薩堂說偈文等
Verse for Entering the Upoṣadha Hall, and Other Texts anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
A single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist liturgical text-collection, preserved at T85 no. 2852. The principal text is a verse formulary for entering the bù-sà (upoṣadha) hall — the vinaya-prescribed bi-monthly precept-confession assembly. The verse establishes the speaker’s pure-precept observance, blameless body-and-speech, and harmonious-non-disputatious mental state as preconditions for participating in the upoṣadha.
Prefaces
The text has no auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with the entry-verse:
持戒清淨如滿月 身口皎潔無瑕穢 清淨和合無違諍 爾乃可得同布薩
Maintaining the precepts pure as the full moon / Body and speech bright-and-clean, without flaw or defilement / Pure and harmonious, without violation or dispute / Then and only then may one share the upoṣadha.
[The text continues with additional verse-formularies for various phases of the upoṣadha ceremony.]
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The text belongs to the Dunhuang vinaya-ritual genre — practical liturgical scripts for the bi-monthly upoṣadha (bù-sà 布薩) ceremony at which monks confessed precept-violations and renewed their commitment to the vinaya. notBefore = 600, notAfter = 1000 (the standard bracket).
The upoṣadha is one of the foundational vinaya ceremonies of Buddhist monastic life, prescribed in the Pāṭimokkha and observed across all Buddhist traditions. The text is a primary Dunhuang witness to the practical liturgical culture of upoṣadha observance in late-Táng / Five-Dynasties western-frontier monasteries — providing the actual verse-formulae that monks would chant when entering the assembly hall and beginning the ceremony.
The work complements the Sìfēn lǜ 四分律 (T1428, Dharmaguptaka-vinaya) — the standard vinaya of the late-Táng Chinese monastic establishment — by providing the operational liturgical script that the vinaya’s prescriptions only outline.
Translations and research
- John Holt, Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapiṭaka (Delhi, 1981; revised 1995) — context for upoṣadha tradition.
- Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900-1950 (Harvard, 1967) — modern Chinese-monastic context.
- Paul Groner and Heng-ching Shih on Chinese-Buddhist vinaya literature.
Other points of interest
The text’s mnemonic verse-format reflects the practical orality of medieval Chinese monastic ritual — even foundational vinaya ceremonies required spoken liturgical scripts that could be memorized and recited from memory rather than read from canonical texts during the ceremony itself.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry)
- CBETA: T85n2852
- Companion upoṣadha text: KR6s0045 Bù-sà wén děng (T2853)
- Doctrinal source: Sìfēn lǜ 四分律 (T1428, Dharmaguptaka-vinaya)