Dà Míng Tàizōng Wénhuángdì yùzhì Wénshū zàn 大明太宗文皇帝御製文殊讚
Great Míng Tài-zōng Wén-huáng-dì’s Imperially Composed Encomium to Mañjuśrī by 太宗朱棣 (御製)
About the work
A single-juan brief verse-encomium addressed to Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva 文殊師利菩薩, imperially composed by the Yǒng-lè emperor 永樂帝 (Míng Tài-zōng / Chéng-zǔ, Zhū Dì 朱棣, 1360–1424, r. 1402–1424). The work is structured as an extended seven-character poem covering Mañjuśrī’s various names, the bodhisattva’s transcendent attributes, his past-life as Lóng-zhǒng-shàng zūn-wáng-fó 龍種上尊王佛 (the “Honored-King Buddha of the Dragon-Kind”), and his current manifestation as Mā-ní bǎo-jī fó 摩尼寶積佛 (the “Maṇi-Jewel-Accumulation Buddha”) in the Cháng-xǐ shì-jiè 常喜世界 (“World of Constant Joy”) to the north.
Prefaces
The text has no separate preface; it opens directly with the verse:
三名微密含多義 妙德妙首妙吉祥 過去無量阿僧祇 號龍種上尊王佛 見在摩尼寶積佛 常喜世界居北方 爰自帝胄稱法王 無上之心能獨悟 功高積塵邈遐曠 豈有名數可為言
(Three names — subtle and secret, containing multiple meanings: Wonderful-Virtue, Wonderful-Head, Wonderful-Auspicious. / Past-times — immeasurable asaṃkhyeya-kalpas — he was named the Honored-King Buddha of the Dragon-Kind. / Present-now, the Maṇi-Jewel-Accumulation Buddha dwells in the World of Constant Joy in the north. / Self-derived from the imperial-lineage, called the Dharma King — / the unsurpassed mind able alone to awaken — / with merit so high accumulated like dust, vast and afar — / how could names and numbers be spoken in words?)
[The encomium continues for several more verse-lines through the standard Mañjuśrī devotional repertoire.]
Abstract
Authorship and date: imperially composed by the Yǒnglè emperor during his reign 1402–1424. notBefore = 1402, notAfter = 1424. Catalog dynasty 明.
The work is one of two short imperial-encomia preserved in the Fójiàozàng 佛教藏 (= Jiāxīng / Fójiàozàngjīng) at G83 (the other being KR6s0067 Yùzhì Shìjiā Móuní fó zàn). Together they constitute the Yǒnglè emperor’s brief devotional-encomiastic compositions, supplementing the much larger compilations KR6s0063–KR6s0065.
The work draws on standard canonical Mañjuśrī material — the bodhisattva’s three-name analysis (Wén-shū-shī-lì 文殊師利 = Mañjuśrī, parsed as Miào-dé 妙德 “Wonderful-Virtue” / Miào-shǒu 妙首 “Wonderful-Head” / Miào-jí-xiáng 妙吉祥 “Wonderful-Auspicious”, per Fǎ-xiǎn’s Tang-period Wén-shū-shī-lì pú-sà jí-xiáng-jīng and the Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa); the past-life identification with the Lóng-zhǒng-shàng zūn-wáng-fó (per the Wén-shū-shī-lì pú-sà jīn-gōng-dé jí jiān-bì jīng); and the current-incarnation identification with the Maṇi-Jewel-Accumulation Buddha in the Cháng-xǐ Pure Land. This canonical-doctrinal grounding makes the work a primary witness to the Míng imperial Mañjuśrī cult as it integrated with Mount Wǔ-tái devotional practice.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated Western-language secondary literature located. See KR6s0063 for general Yǒng-lè-imperial-Buddhism references. Specific to Mañjuśrī:
- Raoul Birnbaum, Studies on the Mysteries of Mañjuśrī (Boulder, 1983) — comprehensive treatment of the Mañjuśrī cult.
- Mary Storm (ed.), Aṭakāvatī Sūtra: A Vajrayāna Text on Mañjuśrī — context for Tibetan Mañjuśrī tradition that Yǒng-lè patronized.
Other points of interest
The Yǒng-lè emperor’s interest in Mañjuśrī was institutionally reinforced by his Tibetan-Buddhist patronage: Mañjuśrī was the principal bodhisattva-aspect of the Manchurian / Mongolian / Tibetan-Buddhist sovereign-religious framework that would later be most fully developed under the Qing Kāngxī and Qiánlóng emperors (who explicitly cast themselves as Mañjuśrī-incarnations). Yǒng-lè’s Mañjuśrī devotion is one of the principal early-Míng anticipations of this later sovereign-religious framework.
Links
- DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for the imperial author)
- CBETA: G083n2073
- Author: Yǒnglè emperor Zhū Dì 朱棣 (1360–1424, r. 1402–1424)
- Companion encomium: KR6s0067 Yùzhì Shìjiā Móuní fó zàn
- Companion Yǒnglè imperial Buddhist works: KR6s0063–KR6s0065
- Canonical sources: Wén-shū-shī-lì pú-sà jīn-gōng-dé jí jiān-bì jīng; Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa tradition