Tiāngōng jīng 天公經
The Sūtra of the Lord of Heaven (recension c) anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition of the Beijing-Library Běiniǎo 62 recension by 方廣錩 (整理)
About the work
The c recension of the Tiāngōng jīng — see KR6v0015 for the full literary description. This recension is the most fragmentary of the three: the head is severely damaged (“pìzhī zuò sìzhǔ” 辟支作寺主, with substantial lacunae), and the surviving text mentions a quite different cosmology — Wénshū jiǎng Fǎhuá 文殊講《法華》 and a list of five-direction Buddhas (Bǎoguāngmíng 寶光明 east, Qíyǔ qīngsè 其與青色 west, Líjuézǐdù 離覺子度 north, Xiāngjī rúlái 香積如來 above, Shīzǐ yìxiàng 獅子億象 below) — that may reflect later scribal expansion. The familiar jīngāngshén 金剛神 and yīrì sòng wǔ biàn 一日誦五遍 formulae nonetheless appear, anchoring this as the same scripture.
Abstract
Beijing Library Běiniǎo 62 (microfilm Běi 4466) — the unique witness of this recension. See KR6v0015 for the textual-historical context. The text-critically interesting feature of recension c is its incorporation of additional Buddha-names not present in recensions a and b, suggesting independent textual evolution within the Dūnhuáng manuscript-tradition.
Translations and research
- See KR6v0015.
- Fāng Guǎngchāng 方廣錩, “Tiāngōng jīng (錄文三) 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 1 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1995).
Other points of interest
The five-direction Buddha-list in recension c is one of the few quasi-maṇḍala lists in the Chinese apocryphal corpus that does not derive from a known Tantric source — its provenance is unclear, and may represent a Chinese popular synthesis from disparate sūtras.