Púsà zǒngchí fǎ 菩薩總持法
The Bodhisattva’s Comprehensive Dhāraṇī Method anonymous Southern-school Chán composition; critical edition by 上山大峻 (整理) and 袁德領 (整理)
About the work
A short Chán treatise in one fascicle (also titled Pò xiàng lùn 破相論, Qìjīng lùn 契經論, or Pò èrshèng jiàn 破二乘見) on the central Chán doctrines of jiànxìng 見性 (“seeing the nature”), liǎoliǎo jiànxìng 了了見性 (“clearly seeing the nature”), and dùnwù 頓悟 (“sudden awakening”) — the technical vocabulary of the Nánzōng 南宗 (Southern school). The text shares thematic ground with the apocryphal Guān xīn lùn 觀心論 attributed to Bodhidharma but offers original interpretations of two important parables: the sānshí shuō 三時說 (the three ages — true, semblance, and degenerate Dharma) and the sāndǒu liùshēng rǔmí 參斗陸升乳糜 (“three dǒu and six shēng of milk-gruel”) — the latter a paraphrase of the Vimalakīrti upāya image.
Abstract
The work is unrecorded in any Buddhist catalogue and unknown to canonical editions. Two Dūnhuáng witnesses are now known: P. 3777 (BnF; complete with head-title; companion-scroll texts include Wǔxīn jīng 五辛經, Liǎoxìng jù 了性句, Chéng xīn lùn 澄心論, Chú shuì zhòu 除睡咒, and the important Xiūxīn yào lùn 修心要論) and Beijing Library Běichéng 98 (microfilm Běi 8413; head damaged, no original title; previously catalogued by Dūnhuáng jié yú lù 敦煌劫餘錄 as Shìshì záwén gǎo 釋氏雜文稿; recently identified by Yuán Délǐng 袁德領 as a second copy of this text). Both manuscripts are wood-pen written in the Tǔfāntǒngzhì 吐蕃統治 (Tibetan-occupation) style of Dūnhuáng calligraphy (786–848 CE), placing the manuscript copies firmly within the Tibetan-period Dūnhuáng. P. 3777 is somewhat earlier than Běichéng 98; the two have substantially the same text and almost certainly derive from a common archetype.
The Southern-school technical vocabulary makes this an important data-point for the diffusion of Huìnéng 慧能-line Nánzōng doctrine into the Hexi corridor during the Tibetan period — a process otherwise documented mainly through Tibetan-language Chán manuscripts. Tanaka Ryōshō has argued for a structural relation to the apocryphal Guān xīn lùn; the matter remains under discussion.
Translations and research
- Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭, “Bosatsu sōji-hō to Kanshin-ron sān 〈菩薩總持法〉與〈觀心論〉三,” Komazawa daigaku bukkyō gakubu kenkyū kiyō 駒澤大學佛教學部研究紀要 45 (1987) — the principal study, comparing the two texts.
- Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭, “Bosatsu sōji-hō P.3777 zhěnglǐ” 整理, Komazawa daigaku bukkyō gakubu kenkyū kiyō 41 (1983) — the prior P. 3777 edition.
- Ueyama Daishun 上山大峻 and Yuán Délǐng 袁德領, “Púsà zǒngchí fǎ 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 3 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1996).
Other points of interest
The companion-scroll structure of P. 3777 (the same scroll bears KR6v0030, the Wǔxīn jīng, Liǎoxìng jù, Chéng xīn lùn, Chú shuì zhòu, and Xiūxīn yào lùn) makes it a single physical record of the Nánzōng canon-as-circulated-at-Dūnhuáng during the Tibetan period — a textual archive of comparable importance to the Pelliot 4646 Lìdài fǎbǎo jì 歷代法寶記 manuscript. The Xiūxīn yào lùn portion is published separately in the Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn.