Zhūzūn yào chāo 諸尊要抄
Essential Compendium on the Various Honored Ones by 實運 (撰)
About the work
A fifteen-fascicle comprehensive Shingon ritual encyclopedia by Jitsuun 實運 (1105–1160), the great late-Heian master of the Daigo-ji Sanbō-in transmission line. Together with his companion KR6t0191 Mìzàng jīnbǎo chāo 祕藏金寶鈔 (ten fascicles) and KR6t0192 Xuánmì chāo 玄祕抄 (four fascicles), the present work forms the largest single Heian-period ritual-corpus by a single author preserved in the Taishō canon — twenty-nine fascicles in total, comprising the most ambitious systematization of mid-Heian Shingon ritual.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: Jitsuun (CANWWW AUT01120) was active at Daigo-ji ca. 1125–1160, with primary compositional output in the second quarter of the 12th century. notBefore = 1130, notAfter = 1160 brackets a defensible composition window.
Doctrinal content: the work is organized by ritual purpose rather than by deity-pantheon — i.e. for each of the standard prayer-purposes, the appropriate deity-rites are listed. The opening sections cover:
- All-purposes (所望): Five-Ākāśagarbha, Tārā, Rāgarāja, Sahasrabhuja, Yamāntaka, Vajrayakṣa, Vajrakumāra, Northern Dipper, Gaṇeśa.
- Calamity-removal (除災): Bhaiṣajya-guru, Uṣṇīṣa-vijayā, Holy Avalokiteśvara, Sahasrabhuja, Cundī, Northern Dipper, Yama-deva.
- Sin-extinguishing (滅罪): Amitābha, Akṣobhya, Uṣṇīṣa-vijayā, Mantra of Light, Mahāpratisarā, Ākāśagarbha, Hayagrīva, Lotus-sūtra, Jewel-Pavilion, Evil-Destination Eliminator.
- Life-extension (延命): Bhaiṣajya-guru, Aparimitāyus, Cundī, Northern Dipper, Yama-deva, Mahāmāyūrī Sūtra, Lotus-sūtra Pilgrimage Method, Longevity Sūtra.
- Childbirth (産生): Bhaiṣajya-guru, Cakravartin, Mahāpratisarā, One-syllable Mañjuśrī, Sahasrabhuja, Tārā, Ucchuṣma, Vajrakumāra, Hāritī, One-tuft Mañjuśrī.
- Bad-dream removal (惡夢): Yamāntaka, Eight-syllable Mañjuśrī, Hāritī.
- Counter-curse (呪詛): Dharma-Wheel-Turning, Six-Syllable Sūtra, Yamāntaka.
For each entry, Jitsuun gives the canonical scriptural source, the dais-visualization, the seed-syllable, the three-equality-form, the mudrā, the mantra, and any lineage-specific variants. The work was the principal practical ritual reference manual of medieval Japanese Shingon imperial-house Buddhism, transmitted continuously from the Sanbō-in Daigo-ji line.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Jitsuun and the mid-Heian Sanbō-in transmission are treated in the Mikkyō daijiten s.v. Jitsuun 實運; Daigo-ji shi.
- The bessen-hō tradition is discussed in Ryūichi Abe, The Weaving of Mantra (1999), and in Brian Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes (2000).
Other points of interest
The fifteen-fascicle scope of the work — combined with KR6t0191’s ten and KR6t0192’s four fascicles — makes Jitsuun the most prolific single-author compiler of ritual literature in the entire late-Heian Shingon corpus. The combined twenty-nine fascicles document the state of imperial-house Shingon practice on the eve of the Hōgen-Heiji disturbances that ended the Heian order.