Bā zhǒng cūzhòng fànduò 八種粗重犯墮
Eight Grave Tantric Transgressions falsely ascribed to 馬鳴菩薩 (Aśvaghoṣa); critical edition by 方廣錩 (整理)
About the work
A short Tantric text in one fascicle setting out eight categories of “grave transgression” (cūzhòng fànduò 粗重犯墮) for esoteric (mìjiào 密教) practitioners. Each transgression is announced in a four-line verse and then illustrated by an Indian (Xītiān 西天) cautionary tale: forced sexual use of one’s mǔ 母 (consort/yoginī), debate within the jùlún 聚輪 (gaṇacakra), exposing the secret teaching to the unfit, perversion of the secret doctrine for material gain, sharing a chamber with a Hīnayāna monk for seven nights, abandonment of meditation and recitation after receiving the precepts, conceit by one who has not understood the teaching, and unsanctioned use of an unconfirmed (wújì 無記) consort. A concluding verse prescribes confession before the protective deity within the gaṇacakra.
Abstract
The Sanskrit author-attribution to Aśvaghoṣa is purely conventional; both author and translator are unknown. The sole surviving witness is Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (St Petersburg branch) Φ221, traditionally classed among the Dūnhuáng manuscripts but, as Fāng Guǎngchāng demonstrates from internal evidence (the markedly Tibetan-influenced terminology — 持禪定 for yoginī, 最上尊師 — and from the Heishuicheng 黑城 / Khara-Khoto provenance of comparable manuscripts in the Russian collection), almost certainly a Tángut-era (Western Xià, 1038–1227) manuscript from the former Western Xià territory. The doctrinal content places it within the anuttarayoga tantric tradition transmitted to the Western Xià from late-Indian and early Tibetan sources via the Yogāsāra master Shèngtiān púsà 聖天菩薩 (Āryadeva, the Tantric one) of the Xītiān lineage. Fāng’s 1991 edition was made directly from the original manuscript at St Petersburg and verified against the photographic reproduction in É cáng Dūnhuáng wénxiàn 俄藏敦煌文獻 vol. 4 (Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 1992).
Translations and research
- Solonin, K. J., “The Heritage of the Tangut Empire: Buddhism in Xixia,” in Buddhism in Mongolian History, Culture, and Society, ed. V. A. Wallace (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015) — essential context on Tangut Tantric Buddhism.
- Fāng Guǎngchāng 方廣錩, “Bā zhǒng cūzhòng fànduò 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 1 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1995) — the 題解.
- Shén Wéiróng 沈衛榮, Xīxià fójiào wénxiàn yǔ shǐliào yánjiū 西夏佛教文獻與史料研究 (Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2006) — comparable Tangut tantric materials.
Other points of interest
The text is one of the few KR6v entries that does not originate from Dūnhuáng despite its catalogue placement under “Dūnhuáng manuscripts,” and is an important witness to the diffusion of Indian anuttarayoga tantras into Tangut China.