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大通方廣懺悔滅罪莊嚴成佛經

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Text ID
KR6u0007
Date
500–700
Dynasty
隋唐

Dàtōng fāngguǎng chànhuǐ mièzuì zhuāngyán chéngfó jīng 大通方廣懺悔滅罪莊嚴成佛經

Sūtra of Great Penetrating Universal Repentance, Effacing Sin and Adorning Buddhahood Anonymous Chinese composition.

About the work

A three-fascicle apocryphal scripture of considerable length and ritual sophistication, set at Rājagṛha and addressed to a large assembly of bodhisattvas. The text articulates a programme of repentance ritual (懺悔) coupled with elaborate Buddha-name veneration as a means of effacing sin and progressing to Buddhahood. The opening lines have ragged lacunae — “如是我聞。一時佛在王舍大城。 / 俱。諸菩薩三萬六千人。一生補。 / 威德自在。顯說如來方便蜜 / 作佛事。皆悉成就。諸佛威德之所建立” — but the structural arc of confession-and-Buddha-veneration leading to aṃūmnāya-Buddhahood is intact and runs across three juan.

Abstract

T85n2871 reproduces a Dūnhuáng manuscript collated against several manuscript witnesses (原, 甲). The work is one of a substantial cluster of Chinese-composed chànhuǐ (confession) sūtras that flourished from the Northern Dynasties through the Táng and which underpin Tiāntái-school confession liturgies in their later codified forms. The cataloguer Zhīshēng (《開元釋教錄》, 730) lists a Dàtōng fāngguǎng chànhuǐ mièzuì jīng among the doubtful works (偽妄), and the text is found among the Northern Dynasty stone-inscribed scriptures at Fángshān 房山, indicating that despite cataloguer disapproval the text circulated widely in real cultic practice. Kuo Li-ying (1994) demonstrates the importance of this and related apocrypha for the development of Chinese repentance ritual. The text has multiple Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses (S. 4501, P. 2189, etc.) and Fángshān stone slab evidence, dating manuscript production to at least the early Táng.

Translations and research

  • Kuo Li-ying, Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme chinois du Ve au Xe siècle (Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1994) — definitive monograph on Chinese confession texts; treats this work in detail.
  • Makita Tairyō 牧田諦亮, Gikyō kenkyū 疑經研究 (Kyōto: Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūsho, 1976).
  • Cao Ling 曹凌, Zhōngguó fójiào yíwěijīng zōnglù 中國佛教疑偽經綜錄 (Shànghǎi: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2011).

Other points of interest

The text is one of the longest single apocryphal scriptures in T85, running to three juan; its scale and Fángshān stone-engraved witness suggest a high level of ritual prestige in the early Táng despite formal cataloguer rejection.

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