大明太宗文皇帝御製序讚文

Dà Míng Tàizōng Wénhuángdì yùzhì xùzàn wén 大明太宗文皇帝御製序讚文

Great Míng Tài-zōng Wén-huáng-dì’s Imperially Composed Prefaces and Encomia by 太宗朱棣 (撰), the Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor

About the work

A single-juan collection of ten imperially-composed Buddhist prefaces and encomia (xùzàn wén 序讚文) by Míng Tàizōng 太宗 = the Wénhuángdì 文皇帝 = the Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor (Zhū Dì 朱棣, 1360–1424, r. 1402–1424). The ten pieces are imperial-prefaces and encomiastic compositions written for various Buddhist canonical and devotional texts during his reign; collected together as a single juan and prefixed to the Northern Yǒnglè canon. Preserved at P178 no. 1610. The first of three substantial Yǒng-lè-imperial Buddhist works in the Kanripo (KR6s0063, KR6s0064, KR6s0065).

Prefaces

The text opens with a table of the ten included pieces:

• Zàngjīng zàn 藏經讚 — Encomium on the Buddhist Canon
• Rúlái zhèngzōng dàjué miàojīng xù 如來正宗大覺妙經序 — Preface to the Sūtra of the Tathāgata’s Right-Lineage Great-Awakening Wonderful Teaching
• Sìbù jīng xù 四部經序 — Preface to the Four-Part Sutras
• Shèng miào-jí-xiáng zhēn-shí-míng jīng xù 聖妙吉祥真實名經序 — Preface to the Sutra of the Holy Wonderful-Auspicious Real Name (= Mañjuśrī-nāma-saṅgīti)
• Xǐ jīngāng běnxù xù 喜金剛本續序 — Preface to the Hevajra-mūla-tantra
• Bō-rě-lùn zhōng-dào-lùn duì-lùn lǜ-lùn bǐ-liàng-lùn xù 般若論中道論對論律論比量論序 — Preface to the Prajñāpāramitā-śāstra, Madhyamaka-śāstra, Confrontation-Treatise, Vinaya-Treatise, Inference-Treatise
• (and four further pieces)

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed by the Yǒnglè emperor Zhū Dì 朱棣 (1360–1424) during his reign 1402–1424. notBefore = 1402, notAfter = 1424. Catalog dynasty 明.

The collection is one of the principal documents of the Yǒng-lè-era imperial Buddhist program, which included:

• The printing of the Northern Yǒnglè canon (Běizàng 北藏, begun 1410 in Beijing, completed 1440) — the primary Yǒnglè canonical project of which this collection is a prefatory component.
• The production of the Southern Yǒnglè canon in Nanjing (begun 1372 under the founding emperor, completed 1399).
• Sponsorship of Tibetan-Buddhist translation and printing — including the imperial publication of the Hevajra-mūla-tantra and other Tantric texts (the Xǐ jīngāng běnxù xù in this collection).
• The construction of the Báoēnsì 報恩寺 (Pagoda of Báoēnsì, the famous “porcelain pagoda” of Nánjīng) and other major imperial Buddhist building projects.
• Sponsorship of the major early-Míng fǎshù compilation Dà Míng sānzàng fǎshù (KR6s0007, 1419, by Yīrú).

The ten included pieces span the full range of Yǒng-lè’s Buddhist patronage: orthodox Mahāyāna (canon, sutras, prajñā-tradition), Tibetan Tantric (Hevajra), and devotional encomia. The collection is therefore one of the principal documents of early-Míng imperial Buddhist syncretism, particularly in its integration of Han-Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions under a single imperial program.

Translations and research

• Edward Farmer, Zhu Yuanzhang and Early Ming Legislation: The Reordering of Chinese Society Following the Era of Mongol Rule (Brill, 1995) — context for the early-Míng imperial Buddhist policy.
• Hé Méi 何梅, Lì-dài hàn-wén dà-zàng-jīng mù-lù xīn-kǎo (Zōng-jiào-wén-huà, 2014) — comprehensive study of the Yǒng-lè canon project.
• Pamela Crossley, A Translucent Mirror: History and Identity in Qing Imperial Ideology (UC Press, 1999) — context for the imperial-Buddhist sovereign-religious-program tradition that Yǒng-lè inaugurated and the Qing emperors continued.
• David M. Robinson, Martial Spectacles of the Ming Court (Harvard, 2013) — Yǒng-lè court ceremonial context.

Other points of interest

The Yǒnglè emperor’s combined Han-Chinese and Tibetan Buddhist patronage was foundational for the Ming-Qing imperial-Buddhist multi-traditional sponsorship pattern that became the standard imperial-religious-policy model down to the end of the Qing. The inclusion of the Hevajra-mūla-tantra preface in this collection is one of the principal early-Míng evidences for imperially-sponsored Tibetan-Buddhist printing in Chinese.

Links

• DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
• CBETA: P178n1610
• Author: Míng Tàizōng = Yǒnglè emperor 永樂帝 (Zhū Dì 朱棣, 1360–1424, r. 1402–1424)
• Companion Yǒnglè imperial Buddhist works: KR6s0064 Zhū fó shìzūn rúlái púsà zūnzhě shénsēng míng jīng, KR6s0065 Zhū fó shìzūn rúlái púsà zūnzhě míngchēng gēqū
• Canonical context: Northern Yǒnglè canon (北藏, 1410–1440)
• Companion early-Míng imperial work: KR6s0007 Dà Míng sānzàng fǎshù (1419)