Jìnzhǐ 進旨
Presented Imperial Edict anonymous (Dunhuang manuscript)
About the work
A single-juan anonymous Dunhuang Buddhist popular-narrative text, preserved at T85 no. 2864. The work is a dialogue-format vernacular narrative in which an unnamed imperial sovereign presents an edict (jìnzhǐ 進旨) inviting the monk Yuǎngōng 遠公 (clearly intended as Huìyuǎn 慧遠 of Lúshān, 334–416, but in evident anachronism since Huìyuǎn predated any sovereign-emperor encounter of this kind) to remain at his court for further teaching. The work is a popular-narrative reframing of the conventional Buddhist patriarch-vs-emperor encounter trope.
Prefaces
The text has no auto-preface or byline. It opens immediately with the imperial speech (paraphrased): “The emperor, hearing the words, eyes brimming with tears flowing. After a long pause, [he] then said to Héshàng: ‘My small country has had no offering. The honored-one [you] for several years was within. I had no heart of slighting and arrogance. Although I am the lord of men, presumptuously occupying heaven-and-earth, I always thank the honored-one [you] for coming to pass through my small country. I reverently pray that Héshàng in compassion further dwell — for three or five days, may [I] obtain it or not?‘”
Yuǎn-gōng said: ‘If now the meaning of nirvāṇa is fundamentally without pān-yuán [grasping-causes]; if there are pān-yuán, all belong to jì-xiǎng [taboo-thinking]. I reverently pray that Your Majesty not bear tóng [longing], …”
Abstract
Authorship and date are unrecoverable. The text belongs to the Dunhuang vernacular Buddhist popular-narrative genre, paralleling KR6s0051 Huìyuǎn wàizhuàn in its dramatized reframing of canonical biographical material. The conventional anachronism — Huìyuǎn dialoguing with an emperor — is characteristic of the popular-narrative reframing of patriarch-biographies in late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Dunhuang vernacular literature. notBefore = 800, notAfter = 1000.
The text is one of the principal Dunhuang witnesses to the patriarch-vs-emperor encounter genre that became central to the SòngYuán Chán yǔlù tradition (cf. the famous Huízhì 灰質 → Bāizhàng stories in Wǔdēng huìyuán 五燈會元). The vernacular-narrative format and the emperor’s display of grief and supplication before the senior monk locate the text in the same general cultural register as the biànwén and yīnyuán literature of KR6s0050 and KR6s0051.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See:
- Victor H. Mair, Tun-huang Popular Narratives and T’ang Transformation Texts.
- General Dunhuang vernacular-narrative studies.
Other points of interest
The text’s choice of Huìyuǎn (Eastern Jìn, 4th–5th c.) as the patriarch-figure dialoguing with an unnamed emperor reflects the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties hagiographical idealization of Huìyuǎn as the model “patriarch-of-the-Way who refused imperial favor”. This idealization was central to the construction of Buddhist-vs-imperial-power narratives that would shape Sòng-period Buddhist political-ideological literature.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry)
- CBETA: T85n2864
- Subject: Huìyuǎn 慧遠 (334–416), conventional patriarch-figure
- Companion Huìyuǎn vernacular text: KR6s0051 Huìyuǎn wàizhuàn
- Genre context: Dunhuang vernacular Buddhist popular-narrative literature