Dìyùbiàn jīngwén jìsòng 地獄變經文偈頌
Verses for the Hell-Tableau Inscription anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition by 陳明光 (整理)
About the work
A versified Chinese Buddhist biànwén 變文 (transformation-text) inscribed alongside the Dìyùbiàn 地獄變 (Hell Tableau) niche of the Bǎodǐngshān 寶頂山 cave-temple at Dàzú 大足, on the western part of the northern cliff of Dàfówān 大佛灣. The Bǎodǐng cave-shrines were developed by the Sòng Buddhist evangelist Zhào Zhìfèng 趙智鳳 (1159–1249) over roughly seventy years. The hell-niche pairs ten “Hell Kings” (Shíwáng 十王) — Qínguǎng dàwáng 秦廣大王, Chūjiāng dàwáng 初江大王, Sòngdì dàwáng 宋帝大王, Wǔguān dàwáng 五官大王, Yánluó dàwáng 閻羅大王, Biànchéng dàwáng 變成大王, Tàishān dàwáng 泰山大王, Píngděng dàwáng 平等大王, Dūshì dàwáng 都市大王, and Wǔdào zhuǎnlún wáng 五道轉輪王 — each with a 28-character (or 20-character) verse summarising that king’s role in post-mortem judgment. The Xiànbàosī 現報司 (“Present-Retribution Bureau”) opens the cycle.
Abstract
The text is anonymous and survives only as the engraved cartouches of the Dàzú niche; it has no manuscript or canonical witness. Like its companion piece KR6v0050 (the Guānjīng biànxiàng jīngwén jìsòng), it belongs to the Dàzú stone-inscription cluster (KR6v0045–KR6v0051) developed under Zhào Zhìfèng. The composition window is therefore bracketed by Zhào’s documented activity at Bǎodǐng (Chúnxī 淳熙 1 = 1174 to Chúnyòu 淳祐 9 = 1249, with closing dates extending to ca. 1252). The verses condense the Sòng-period Shíwáng jīng 十王經 tradition (cf. T20n1245A Yánluówáng shòujì sìzhòng nìxiūshēngqīzhāi gōngdé jīng and the Dūnhuáng Shíwáng jīng witnesses Stein 3961, Pelliot 2003, etc.) into popular didactic jìsòng 偈頌, anchored to the figural niches in the cave. Modern critical edition by Chén Míngguāng 陳明光 in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 4 (1998).
Translations and research
- Teiser, Stephen F., The Scripture on the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994) — the standard study of the Shí-wáng jīng tradition.
- Howard, Angela F., Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China (Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001) — iconographic analysis of the Bǎo-dǐng cluster including the hell niche.
- Hú Wényuán 胡文圓, Dàzú shíkè yánjiū 大足石刻研究 (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 1985 et seq.) — multi-volume study of the Dàzú inscriptions.
Other points of interest
The Dàzú niche is the most extensive surviving figural-and-verse representation of the Shíwáng 十王 (Ten Kings of Hell) tradition in Chinese stone art. The pairing of biànxiàng (figural tableau) with engraved jìsòng makes it a key witness for the integration of vernacular Buddhist literature with cave-temple iconography in the Southern Sòng.