Fùmǔ ēn zhòng jīngbiàn jīngwén jìsòng 父母恩重經變經文偈頌
Verses for the Transformation Tableau of the Sūtra on the Profound Kindness of Parents anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition by 陳明光 (整理)
About the work
A short Buddhist biànwén 變文 (transformation-text) accompanying the Fùmǔ ēn zhòng jīngbiàn 父母恩重經變 kān 龕 (niche) at the Bǎodǐngshān 寶頂山, Dàzú 大足 — the great south-Sòng biànxiàng 變像 (transformation-tableau) cycle inscribed under 趙智鳳’s direction depicting the shí’ēn tú 十恩圖 (the ten-kindnesses-of-parents iconography). It is the only known case in the entire Chinese cave-temple corpus of a Fùmǔ ēn zhòng jīngbiàn with both image and accompanying verse-text. The verses differ substantially from the canonical Fó shuō fùmǔ ēn nán bào jīng 佛說父母恩難報經 translated by Ān Shìgāo 安世高 and Kumārajīva, and instead frequently invoke Cíjué chánshī Zōngyí 慈覺禪師宗頤 (Cíjué Zōngyí, 1041–1117) — the Sòng Yúnmén lineage Chán master.
Abstract
Like the rest of the Dàzú stone-inscription cluster (see KR6v0045), the work is an inscription-only document, unrecorded in Chinese Buddhist catalogues. Its distinctive feature is the strong Confucianisation of Buddhist filial-piety doctrine — Zhào Zhìfèng was famous for his own zhì xiào 至孝 (extreme filial-piety) toward his mother (he ordained at age five), and the biànxiàng embeds Confucian filial-piety values in Buddhist iconography. Local-prefect Yǔwén Qǐ 宇文屺 wrote in his preface to the Dàzú memorial-poem inscription: “Bǎodǐng’s Zhào Zhìzōng (Fèng), carving stone in pursuit of filial-piety — his heart is admirable” (寶頂趙智宗（鳳），刻石追孝，心可取焉).
Translations and research
- See KR6v0045.
- Cole, Alan, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998) — the standard study of the Fùmǔ ēn zhòng jīng tradition.
- Howard, Angela F., Summit of Treasures (2001), ch. 5 — iconographic analysis of the Dàzú Shí’ēn tú.
Other points of interest
The unique paired biànxiàng + biànwén format at Dàzú makes this niche one of the very few sites where a Buddhist transformation-tableau survives with its accompanying script — most biànwén circulate in Dūnhuáng manuscripts without their tableaus, and most tableaus elsewhere survive without their script.