Léngyán jiěyuān shìjié dàochǎng yí 楞嚴解冤釋結道場儀
Ritual Manual for the Śūraṃgama Bond-Loosing Resentment-Resolving Sacred Assembly compiled by 釋祖照 (集); critical edition by 趙文煥 (整理) and 侯沖 (整理)
About the work
A Chinese Buddhist dào-chǎng-yí 道場儀 (“ritual manual for a sacred assembly”) in eight fascicles, structured around the Dà-fó-dǐng shǒu Léng-yán jīng 大佛頂首楞嚴經 (T19n0945, the Śūraṃgama-sūtra). The ritual must be performed in conjunction with cantillation of the host Léng-yán jīng. The text specifies: (1) the doctrinal purpose of erecting the dào-chǎng 道場 (the jiě-yuān shì-jié 解冤釋結 — “loosing of grudges and resolving of karmic bonds” between the participant and his/her yuàn-jiā 冤家); (2) the order of the ritual; (3) ritual implements; (4) the placement of icons; and (5) the historical origins of the assembly.
Abstract
The text uses the Zhènghé 政和 reign-name (1111–1118), placing its compilation no earlier than the late Northern Sòng under emperor Huīzōng 徽宗. The compiler’s head-cartouche identifies him as “Méiyáng Huìjuésì chángjiǎng shāmén Zǔzhào 眉陽慧覺寺長講沙門祖照” — a chángjiǎng 長講 (“long-resident lecturer”) at the Huìjuésì in Méiyáng (modern Méishān 眉山, central Sìchuān). Beyond this self-identification, 釋祖照 is unrecorded in any Chinese Buddhist biographical source. The work is unrecorded in any Buddhist catalog and absent from all canonical editions; it survives only through the regional Āzhālì 阿吒力 lineage of Yúnnán, where it remained an active liturgical text from the Míng through the Qīng. Notably, the manual cites a now-lost commentary on the Léngyán jīng — the Léngyán shū 楞嚴疏 of one Xìngfú chánshī 興福禪師 — making this also a witness to a vanished branch of Léngyán-exegesis.
The Zàngwài edition uses a Qiánlóng 乾隆 51 (1786) printing — held by the Yúnnán Provincial Library and based on a Míng-edition print sponsored by the Lìjiāng Dàyánlǐ Dàxīmén 麗江大研裡大西門 lay-donor Yáng Shùn 楊順 — as the base copy, with a Guāngxù 11 (1885) hand-copy by Duàn Shòuróng 段壽榮 (held by Zhào Wénhuàn) as collation copy. The latter omits the mìjiào 密教 (“esoteric instructions”) section.
Translations and research
- Hou Chong 侯沖, Yúnnán Āzhālì jiào-pài jí qí jīngdiǎn yán-jiū 雲南阿吒力教派及其經典研究 (Beijing: Zhōngguó shū-jí, 2008) — the standard study of the Yúnnán Āzhālì lineage’s textual corpus, with extensive treatment of this manual.
- Hou Chong 侯沖, Zhōngguó fójiào yí-shì yán-jiū 中國佛教儀式研究 (Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2011).
- Yáng Xuézhèng 楊學政, Yúnnán mìjiào yán-jiū 雲南密教研究 (Kunming: Yúnnán mínzú, 1989).
Other points of interest
The Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vols 6–8 contain a substantial cluster of Yúnnán Āzhālì ritual manuals (KR6v0063–0067, 0088 etc.) edited by Hóu Chōng and Zhào Wénhuàn. These represent the only direct print/manuscript witness to the Āzhālì lineage’s dàochǎngyí literature — a regional Buddhist tradition that mixed Tantric, Pure-Land, and Léngyán-cult practices, suppressed multiple times by the MíngQīng state but continuously transmitted in monastic and lay-temple communities of Lìjiāng, Dàlǐ 大理, and Wēishān 巍山.