Bó shuāng zhǐ 薄雙紙
The Thin Double-Paper [Compendium] by 成賢 (撰)
About the work
A sixteen-fascicle Shingon ritual encyclopedia by Jōken 成賢 (1162–1231), the great early-Kamakura master of Daigo-ji Kakudō-in 醍醐寺覺洞院 and senior disciple of Shōken 勝賢 (see KR6t0193, KR6t0195). The casual title — Usushi in Japanese, “thin double-paper” — refers to the working-notebook format on which the original draft was compiled. CANWWW records the work as the principal source for the later Kakuzen-shō 覺禪鈔 (KR6t0226 / T79n2535) — the great mid-Kamakura compilation by Kakuzen.
Abstract
Authorship and dating: Jōken (CANWWW AUT01124) was the foundational figure of the Kakudō-in sub-temple at Daigo-ji and rose to be Tōji chōja. The composition window is ca. 1190–1231, within his mature scholarly career.
Doctrinal content: the Bó shuāng zhǐ is organized as a layered ritual encyclopedia with the initial layer (初重) covering the common (普通) deities, organized into multiple layered headings:
Initial-Layer Section 1, “Common Knot of the Various Buddhas”: Bhaiṣajya-guru, Amitābha-Ono, Amitābha dais-visualization, Śākyamuni, Mantra of Light, Buddhalocanā.
Initial-Layer Section 2, “Common Knot of the Buddha-Crowns”: Cakravartin, Uṣṇīṣa-vijayā.
Initial-Layer Section 3, “Common Knot of the Various Sūtras”: Lotus Sūtra, Adhyardhaśatikā (Rishu-kyō), Rishu-kyō stanza-by-stanza mudrās, Jewel-Pavilion, Six-Syllable Sūtra, Rain-Jewel Dhāraṇī, Karaṇḍa-mudrā Sūtra, Heart Sūtra, Bodhi-Site Sūtra, Pure-Light Stainless, Curse-Thief Sūtra, Longevity Sūtra-Ono, Child Sūtra (two methods).
The text proceeds through the deeper layers of advanced practice, in each case giving for each ritual: the seed-syllable, three-equality-form, iconography, eighteen-mudrā sequence, recitation count (kansū), post-offering (after-event), praise (sandō), universal-offering-three-powers, prayer, prostration, merit-transfer, boundary-release, and dismissal. The closing folio notes: “The sūtra-manual says: the image faces west; the practitioner faces east, opposite the image. Buddha-offerings: seven cups — one for the chief deity, one for the leaf-pointing leader, the remaining three or five for the sa-sahasrā retinue. All Buddha-offerings are white. No tallow candles. Fruit-offerings: the auspicious-fruit (i.e. peach) is the appropriate one.”
The work was the principal early-Kamakura ritual encyclopedia of the Daigo Sanbō-in / Kakudō-in transmission and the direct precursor to the Kakuzen-shō.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- The work is treated in Brian Ruppert, Jewel in the Ashes (2000), and in the Mikkyō daijiten s.v. Jōken 成賢, Usushi 薄雙紙.