摩尼光佛教法儀略

Móní guāngfó jiàofǎ yí luè 摩尼光佛教法儀略

A Compendium of the Doctrines and Styles of Mānī, the Buddha of Light translated by 拂多誕 (譯) (= Mihr-Ohrmazd / Mahistāg)

About the work

A single-juan Tang-period imperial-Manichaean compendium, presented at the Chinese imperial court in Kāiyuán 開元 19, 6th month, 8th day = 18 July 731 CE. The work is a systematic doctrinal-and-ritual compendium of Manichaeanism in seven chapters (pǐn 品), translated into Chinese at the imperial Jíxiányuàn 集賢院 (Academy of the Assembled Worthies) by the dàdé Fúduōdàn 大德拂多誕 (“Great-Virtue Fúduōdàn”, a Manichaean frat’ist / fudai / mahistāg — bishop). The work is the single most systematically-organized pre-modern Chinese-language Manichaean text preserved, providing the imperial court with an authoritative summary of the Manichaean religion at the height of Tang-period Manichaean institutional acceptance. Preserved at T54 no. 2141A.

Prefaces

The text opens with the byline:

Móní guāngfó jiàofǎ yí luè, one juan. Kāiyuán 19, 6th month, 8th day, dàdé Fúduōdàn by imperial command translated at the Jíxiányuàn 集賢院.

Then immediately:

Tuōhuà guótǔ mínghào zōngjiào dìyī 託化國土名號宗教第一 (“First Chapter: Names and Lineages of the Country of Manifestation”):

Fóyísèdé Wūlúshēn 佛夷瑟德烏盧詵 (the original-country Sanskrit-sound) — translated as Light-Sender 光明使者 (guāngmíng shǐzhě = prophet of light). Also called Wisdom-King possessing All-Wisdom Dharma-King 具智法王 (jùzhì fǎwáng). Also called Mānī, Buddha of Light 摩尼光佛 (Móní guāngfó) — that is, our Light, Great Wisdom…*

[The text continues through the seven chapters covering Manichaean doctrine (the dualism of Light and Darkness), institutional structure (the five-rank hierarchy of Hearer, Elect, Presbyter, Bishop, Apostle), liturgical practice, fasting, and the historical lineage from Mānī through to the contemporary Chinese mission.]

Abstract

Authorship and date are precisely fixed by the imperial-translation byline: Kāiyuán 19, 6th month, 8th day = 18 July 731 CE. The translator Fúduōdàn 拂多誕 (DILA does not preserve a separate authority entry, but per Lín Wùshū’s 林悟殊 reconstruction, his name reflects the Manichaean ecclesiastical title frat’ist / fudai / mahistāg = “presbyter / bishop” — therefore not a personal name but a clerical title; the actual person was almost certainly a Manichaean clergyman dispatched to the Tang court from the Western Regions). The translation took place at the imperial Jíxiányuàn 集賢院, the senior court-academic-translation office under Xuánzōng. notBefore = 731, notAfter = 731. Catalog dynasty 唐.

The work is the single most authoritative pre-modern Chinese-language statement of Manichaean doctrine, produced under direct imperial sponsorship as a formal court-presentation document. It was prepared at the height of Manichaean institutional acceptance in Tang China — under the patronage of Xuánzōng 玄宗, who had received the Manichaean church favorably and provided imperial registration for its temples (the dàyúnguāngmíngsì 大雲光明寺 Manichaean temples, registered in many prefectures from the early 8th century onward).

The seven-chapter structure provides a comprehensive overview of the Manichaean religion as it presented itself to the Chinese imperial court:

1. Names and lineages of Mānī’s manifestation
2. Doctrinal teaching (the foundational dualistic cosmology)
3. Institutional structure (the five-rank hierarchy)
4. Liturgical practices (rituals, fasting, etc.)
5. Adherent practices (lay and elect requirements)
6. Cosmological-doctrinal exposition (Light vs Darkness, the unfolding of the cosmic drama)
7. Historical lineage (from Mānī through to the contemporary Chinese mission)

The work is a primary source for the Tang-period Chinese reception of Manichaeanism as a recognized institutional religion, complementing the more strictly liturgical KR6s0078 Móníjiào xiàbù zàn (hymnal) and the fragmentary KR6s0080 Bōsījiào cánjīng.

Translations and research

• Édouard Chavannes and Paul Pelliot, “Un traité manichéen retrouvé en Chine” (Journal Asiatique 1911, 1913) — the foundational Western-language study of this text and the related Chinese Manichaean materials.
• Lín Wù-shū 林悟殊, Mó-ní-jiào jí qí dōng-jiàn (Zhōng-huá Shū-jú, 1987; expanded 1997) — the standard Sinophone treatment.
• Samuel N. C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Medieval China (Mohr Siebeck, 1992) — comprehensive English treatment.
• Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Gnosis on the Silk Road (HarperSanFrancisco, 1993) — comprehensive Western-language treatment.
• Werner Sundermann, comprehensive German philological scholarship on Western-Regions Manichaean materials.
• Pelliot Chinese 3884 is the standard manuscript witness (Pelliot Chinese collection at the BnF).

Other points of interest

The fact that this Manichaean compendium was prepared by direct imperial command (奉詔) at the Jíxiányuàn in 731 CE makes it an exceptional document — perhaps the single most prestigious imperial-canonical recognition of a non-Buddhist non-Daoist non-Confucian religion in pre-modern Chinese history. The subsequent Huìchāng persecution (845) and the disappearance of institutional Manichaeanism from Tang court patronage was therefore a particularly steep institutional descent for a religion that had achieved this remarkable level of imperial recognition just a century before.

Links

• DILA authority: (no preserved authority entry for Fúduōdàn — but his title reflects the Manichaean mahistāg ecclesiastical office)
• CBETA: T54n2141A
• Translator-presenter: Fúduōdàn 拂多誕 (= Manichaean frat’ist / fudai / mahistāg / “presbyter-bishop”)
• Translation venue: Jíxiányuàn 集賢院 (Tang imperial Academy of Assembled Worthies)
• Imperial sponsor: Xuánzōng 玄宗 (r. 712–756)
• Companion Chinese Manichaean texts: KR6s0078 Móníjiào xiàbù zàn, KR6s0080 Bōsījiào cánjīng
• Foundational figure: Mānī 摩尼 (216–276)