Jīngāngjiè dàfǎ duìshòu jì 金剛界大法對受記
Record of the Mutual-Reception of the Great Method of the Vajra-Realm by 安然 (記)
About the work
An eight-fascicle comprehensive ritual-transmission record of the Vajra-realm (jin-gang-jie 金剛界, Vajra-dhātu) major method, compiled by Annen 安然 (841–c.915). The work is the companion to KR6t0088 (Garbha-realm) and shares its duìshòu (mutual-reception) format and lineage-attribution to the Ennin → Anne → Dōkai → Annen and Ennin → Anne → Chōi → Annen genealogical chains. It is the canonical Taimitsu Vajra-realm major-method documentation.
Abstract
Authorship. The header reads “Śramaṇa Annen records.”
Date. As KR6t0088 — Annen’s mature ritual scholarship, 876–915 CE.
The work proceeds across eight fascicles documenting the Vajra-realm major-method liturgy in extensive detail:
Fascicle 1 opens with the Pure-Ground Mudra Record (淨地印第一記): “Annen privately notes: Bùkōng’s two-fascicle ritual-manual says, in the chapter on the Body-Completion Assembly of the first [Mahāvairocana-]Vajraśekhara cycle, the Dai-nichi-in [Mahāvairocana hall] is preached. The empty-heart-añjali at the heart, with the 21-recitation, scattering at the crown. The ritual-manual says: ‘the vessel-realm is all pure.’ Also: ‘At this place, use the dharma-realm-arising-seal, throw it three times outside the body and scatter it; imagine the vessel-realm pure.’ This one seal Annen received from Genpō-ji-affiliated the Ācārya Genshō 元征 transmitted ritual-manual: ‘kneeling, with the lotus-añjali…‘”
The text proceeds through (1) the Body-Completion Assembly of the 37 Vajra-realm deities; (2) the Eight-Aspect Wisdom Mandala; (3) the Karma Assembly (羯磨會) — the supplementary mandala for the actualization of the Vajra-realm; (4) the Four-Seal Assembly (四印會) on Akṣobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitāyus, Amoghasiddhi; (5) the Triad-Sealed One Assembly (一印會); (6) the Liberation-Wheel Assembly (理趣會) corresponding to the Prajñāpāramitā-naya-sūtra; (7) the Subduing Vajra Assembly (降三世會); (8) the closing-rituals including abandoning-the-mandala (解界).
Throughout, Annen carefully documents the lineage variants: where Genshō’s ritual differs from Chōi’s, where the Bùkōng-Two-Volume Ritual differs from the Fǎquán-Two-Volume Ritual, and so on. The closing observation in fascicle 8 is a useful methodological note: “Privately note: in accord with the Amoghapāśa-sūtra, the bell is used at four places: (1) the abhinirhāra-invitation; (2) the offering; (3) the praise-hymn; (4) the recitation. Now the intent is that the bell is already used at the initial part of the invitation; therefore at the dissolution-of-the-boundary, the bell is also used. But there is no exact textual proof, so some do not use it.” This kind of careful procedural philology is characteristic of Annen’s mature work.
The work bears a manuscript collation-mark: “One collation complete” (一校了) at the end.
Translations and research
- No complete Western-language translation located.
- Misaki Ryōshū 三崎良周, Taimitsu no kenkyū (Tokyo: Sōbunsha, 1988).
- Mizukami Fumiyoshi 水上文義, Annen no taimitsu shisō (Hōzōkan, 2008).