Dàzàng Fó shuō shǒuhù dàqiān guótǔ jīng 大藏佛說守護大千國土經
The Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha in the Great Treasury for the Protection of the Lands of the Trichiliocosm anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition by 陳明光 (整理)
About the work
A short anonymous Chinese-composed Buddhist zhōujīng 咒經 (protective sūtra) carved in stone at the Bǎodǐngshān 寶頂山 cave-temple complex at Dàzú 大足, Chongqing. The text was inscribed under the direction of the Southern Sòng Mìjiào 密教 (Tantric) master Zhào Zhìfèng 趙智鳳 (1159–c.1252), the principal architect of Dàzú’s massive thirteenth-century Tantric stone-carving programme. The principal inscription is at the Fózǔyán kān 佛祖巖龕 (height 225 cm, width 73 cm; 8 vertical columns of 234 characters at 8 cm each); the title is double-outline carved on the niche-frame at 36 cm. A short residual fragment (95 characters in 16 columns at 4 cm) survives at the Hùfǎshén kān 護法神龕 in the southern cliff of Dàfówān 大佛灣, with similar but condensed content (no title), used here as a supplementary witness. A duplicate title-only inscription at the Púsàbǎo kān 菩薩堡龕 has also been identified.
Abstract
The text is unrecorded in any Chinese Buddhist catalogue and unknown to canonical editions. It survives only in stone-inscription form at Dàzú. The doctrinal content invokes the Vajra Treasure-Mountain (金罡寶山 = 金剛寶山), promising the recitation of the Dàzàng (the entire Buddhist canon) at each of “sì qiān huì” 四千會 (four thousand assemblies) for the protection of all sentient and material things on the mountain. It threatens those who oppose the Dharma with descent into Avīci hell, and invokes the protection of the standard bābù 八部 deva-nāga assembly. The literary form — the use of Jīngāng bǎoshān and the Tantric protective rhetoric — is characteristic of Zhào Zhìfèng’s Dàzú project and embeds the inscription firmly in the southern-Sòng Mìjiào revival programme. Composition is therefore bracketed by Zhào Zhìfèng’s active years (1174 ordination to c. 1252 death).
The text is one of several Dàzú stone-inscriptions edited by Chén Míngguāng 陳明光 in volume 4 of Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn — see KR6v0046, KR6v0047, KR6v0048, KR6v0049, KR6v0050, KR6v0051 for related Dàzú materials.
Translations and research
- Howard, Angela F., Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China (Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001) — the standard English-language treatment of the Dàzú complex.
- Hú Liángxué 胡良學, Dàzú shíkē yánjiū 大足石刻研究 (Chongqing: Chóngqìng chūbǎnshè, 1985) — comprehensive Chinese survey.
- Liú Chánjiǔ 劉長久 et al., Dàzú shíkū yìshù 大足石窟藝術 (Chengdu: Sìchuān rénmín, 1985).
- Chén Míngguāng 陳明光, Dàzú shíkū jīngwén jí qí yánjiū 大足石窟經文及其研究 (Chongqing: Chóngqìng chūbǎnshè, 1996), and the zhěnglǐ preface to KR6v0045 in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 4.
Other points of interest
The text is one of several documented “Buddha-spoken” sūtras composed in China but never circulated in canonical paper-manuscript form — surviving only in inscription. As such it is an important data-point for the existence of paratextual Chinese Buddhist literature outside the manuscript and printed canons.