Xuánmì chāo 玄祕抄
Profound Mystery Compendium by 實運 (撰)
About the work
A four-fascicle Shingon ritual encyclopedia by Jitsuun 實運 (1105–1160), forming the third volume of his great late-Heian Daigo-ji Sanbō-in ritual project. Companion to KR6t0190 Zhū-zūn yào chāo (fifteen fasc., organized by ritual-purpose) and KR6t0191 Mì-zàng jīn-bǎo chāo (ten fasc., organized by deity); the present work focuses on the most profound and esoteric of the bessen-hō — the Buddhalocanā (佛眼), Cakravartin (金輪), Mahā-Buddhoṣṇīṣa (大佛頂), and the Mañjuśrī rites in their one-, five-, six-, and eight-syllable forms, plus the Five-Ākāśagarbha — i.e. the senior or “secret” methods reserved for advanced practitioners.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: composition window ca. 1130–1160. Copyists’ colophons date the transmission to Eiwa 1 (1293), 8th month, 16th day, copied by Jissen 實詮; Eiwa 4 (1296), 7th month, 16th day, brought from the Hō-on-in to the Sōjō’s quarters and lightly corrected; and Shōwa 3 (1314), 6th month, 25th day, copied at the Karyō Tamon-in sub-temple of Kami-Daigo by Gōzai 杲濟 (age 47) “during illness and extreme heat.”
Doctrinal content: fascicle 1 opens with the Buddhalocanā (佛眼法息災 — Buddhalocanā as the calamity-pacifying method). The dais-visualization is given in full:
“Within the palace, in the central mandala, there is the syllable hrīḥ. This transforms into a three-tiered eight-petalled lotus. Above the lotus is the syllable a, which becomes a moon-disc. Above the moon-disc the syllable hrīḥ becomes a lotus. Above the lotus the syllable [ bhrūṃ ] becomes a vajra-eye. The vajra-eye transforms into the Buddha-eye consort (Buddhalocanā, *the principal feminine vidyārājñī of the Buddha family). Her body is like the colour of water-crystal; she wears the crown of the Five Buddhas; she sits in the Dharma-realm meditation-mudrā. In the first ring of eight petals, in front, is the syllable [ bhrūṃ ] becoming the Cakravartin honored one, surrounded by the seven planetary luminary-emissaries. In the second ring, from the front, beginning with Vajrapāṇi, going clockwise, are the eight great bodhisattvas. In the third ring, from the front going clockwise, are the eight wrathful king Vidyārājas headed by Trailokyavijaya. The peripheral courts have the four summoners and the eight offerers surrounding.”
The text then proceeds through the Tathāgata-fist empowerment of the seven points (如來拳印加持七處), the Greater Ākāśagarbha, the Lesser Adamantine Wheel, the vehicle-dispatch and vehicle-summons mudras, and the rest of the eighteen-mudrā sequence specific to the Buddhalocanā method. The remaining fascicles cover the Cakravartin, the Mahā-Buddhoṣṇīṣa, the Mañjuśrī rites in their multiple forms, and the Five-Ākāśagarbha.
The work concentrates Jitsuun’s most senior-level transmissions and is one of the principal documents of the late-Heian Sanbō-in kuden tradition.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- See KR6t0190 for the broader Jitsuun corpus.