Rúfǎjīng xiànxiū zuòfǎ 如法經現修作法
Procedural Manual for the Present Performance of the Nyohōkyō [Sūtra-Copying Observance] by 宗快 Shūkai (撰)
About the work
A single-fascicle ritual procedural manual by Shūkai 宗快 宗快 (1276–1340), companion to his Gyo-san mokuroku KR6t0425. The Nyohōkyō 如法經 — “Sūtra-Copying-According-to-the-Law” — is a Tendai-distinctive ritual observance in which the Lotus Sūtra (or another sūtra) is ritually copied under stringent purity-conditions and the resulting manuscript is offered as a devotional act. The practice descends from Ennin 圓仁 (794–864), who established it on Mt. Hiei c. 833 as the principal sūtra-copying observance of Japanese Tendai.
Abstract
The treatise is a procedural manual for the Nyohōkyō observance: (1) purity preparation — fasting, ritual bathing, isolation from defilements; (2) the copy-room arrangement — the orientation, the ritual implements, the iconographic setup; (3) the actual copying procedure — calligraphic technique, the recitation that accompanies each character, the ritual breaks; (4) the dedicatory offering — how the completed manuscript is presented as a devotional object; (5) the musical-liturgical accompaniment — the shōmyō hymns that accompany each phase of the observance.
The work is doctrinally and musicologically valuable for its integration of shōmyō with sūtra-copying practice — most kōshiki-style manuals focus on lecture-liturgy alone; Shūkai’s manual shows how shōmyō was integrated with the other principal devotional practices of the medieval Tendai tradition. It is the principal documentary source for the medieval Nyohōkyō observance, which was one of the most important Tendai devotional practices throughout the late Heian and medieval periods.
Date. Composition during Shūkai’s mature career at Ōhara, c. 1300–1340.
Structural Division
The CANWWW entry (div25.xml, T84N2730) records the work as a single-fascicle treatise by Shūkai with no internal toc sub-list and no related-text cross-references tabulated.
Translations and research
Critical edition: Taishō vol. 84. No English translation. Major studies: Imatomi Yū, Tendai shōmyō no kenkyū (Hōzōkan, 1991); on the Nyohōkyō practice: Willa Jane Tanabe, Paintings of the Lotus Sutra (Weatherhill, 1988); Niels Guelberg, Buddhistische Zeremoniale (kōshiki) (Stuttgart, 1999); Stephen F. Teiser, The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Hawai’i, 1994), comparative material on sūtra-copying practice.
Links
- CBETA online
- Author: 宗快 (Shūkai)
- Companion: KR6t0425 (Shūkai, Gyo-san mokuroku)
- Practice founder: 圓仁 (Ennin)