Lǐchàn wén 禮懺文
Worship-and-Confession Text anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript, third of three)
About the work
A single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist liturgical penitential text, preserved at T85 no. 2856 — the third of three parallel Dunhuang lǐ-chàn wén manuscripts in the gǔ-yì bù. This version is structured around the standard sevenfold devotional sequence of late-Tang Mahāyāna ritual: confession, request-for-the-turning-of-the-Dharma-wheel, request-for-Buddhas-not-to-enter-nirvāṇa, rejoicing-in-merit, dedication-of-merit, refuge-taking, and arousal-of-bodhi-mind.
Prefaces
The text has no auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with the central penitential structure:
The body has sin — completely confessing — return-life salutation to the Three Jewels. With ultimate heart, encouraging-and-petitioning: of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions present and Way-completing — I petition for the turning of the Dharma-wheel, peace-and-joy to the various sentient beings.
Of all the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, if you wish to discard your received-life — I now throw down my face and salute, encouraging-and-petitioning to make you long abide. Encouragement-and-petition having taken refuge in the Three Jewels — with ultimate heart, rejoicing-in-merit: in the merit of giving — maintaining precepts, cultivating dhyāna-samādhi-wisdom, born from body, speech, and mind. Past-future-present, all having studied the three vehicles, those who possess the One Vehicle, the immeasurable people-and-heaven merits — all et al. — all rejoice. Rejoicing having taken refuge in the Three Jewels — with ultimate heart, dedication…
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The text presents the most fully-developed sevenfold-devotional structure among the three Dunhuang lǐ-chàn wén — paralleling the canonical sevenfold-devotional sequence of the Pǔ-xián xíng-yuàn pǐn 普賢行願品 (the Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna chapter of the Avataṃsaka) — confession, encouragement-of-Dharma, encouragement-of-non-nirvāṇa, rejoicing, dedication, refuge, bodhi-arousal. notBefore = 600, notAfter = 1000.
The text is the most developed of the three Dunhuang lǐchàn wén and may reflect a slightly later or more institutionally elaborated penitential tradition than KR6s0046 or KR6s0047. The sevenfold-devotional structure became standard in East Asian Mahāyāna ritual through the Sòng period and beyond, and the present text is one of the principal Dunhuang witnesses to its early-canonical formulation.
Translations and research
See KR6s0033 and KR6s0046. Specific to the sevenfold-devotional structure:
- Luis O. Gómez’s extensive scholarship on the Bhadracaryāpraṇidhāna-tradition.
- Karen C. Lang, scholarship on Mahāyāna devotional structure.
- Daniel B. Stevenson, “The Four Kinds of Samādhi in Early T’ien-t’ai Buddhism” (1986).
Other points of interest
The text’s sevenfold-devotional structure — chànhuǐ + quànqǐng + bùrùnièpán + suíxǐ + huíxiàng + guīyī + fāpútíxīn — is the canonical Mahāyāna ritual sequence that became standard in subsequent East Asian Buddhist liturgy. Its presence in this Dunhuang text, in operational liturgical form, confirms the sequence’s normative status by the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties period.