Yáo héshàng Jīngāng wǔlǐ yīběn 姚和上金剛五禮一本
One Recension of the Yáo-Master’s Five-Bow Vajracchedikā Liturgy by 姚和尚 (撰); critical edition by 達照 (整理)
About the work
A Chinese-composed lǐ-chàn 禮懺 (“worship-and-confession”) liturgy in one fascicle, the first of two Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn recensions of the Jīngāng wǔ-lǐ 金剛五禮 (also titled Jīngāng wǔ-lǐ wén 金剛五禮文, Jīn-guāng wǔ-lǐ 金光五禮, Jīn-guāng wǔ-lǐ zàn 金光五禮讚). The text is structured as five lǐ 禮 (“bows” / ritual reverences): (1) to the Dharmakāya-Buddha; (2) to the Saṃbhogakāya-Buddha; (3) to the Nirmāṇakāya-Buddha; (4) to the Vajracchedikā (i.e., the sūtra itself as ritual object); (5) to the act and place of the Buddha’s preaching of the Vajracchedikā (Śrāvastī, Jetavana-vihāra).
Abstract
Eighteen Dūnhuáng manuscript witnesses of Jīngāng wǔlǐ are now identified, dividing into two recensions on the basis of how the trikāya are mapped to buddha-names. The “standard” recension (sixteen of eighteen witnesses, including Beijing Dūnhuáng Běidūn 7329, the cleanest copy) calls all three kāya “Śākyamuni” or “tóngmíng Shìjiāmóuní fó” 同名釋迦牟尼佛 (“same-name Śākyamuni-buddha”) — a doctrinally unusual reading. The “variant” recension (two witnesses, P.2325 and Russian Dunhuang 176-verso) gives the orthodox Vairocana / Locana / Śākyamuni mapping. KR6v0071 prints the standard recension; the variant is given in KR6v0072. Author identified in P.3664’s head-cartouche as “Yáo héshàng Jīngāng wǔlǐ” 姚和上金剛五禮; Wāng Juān’s tentative identification with Yáo Lìjì 姚利濟 of Jīnguāngmíngsì (Tibetan-period Dūnhuáng) remains conjectural.
The composition window is bracketed by the period of Tibetan administration of Dūnhuáng (786–848) — the period to which the bulk of the eighteen manuscript witnesses are palaeographically datable — though some manuscripts extend into early Guīyìjūn 歸義軍 times. The doctrinal feature of “Śākyamuni-as-trikāya” / “tóngmíng Shìjiāmóuní fó” links this text typologically to the Southern-Sòng 思覺-attributed Rúlái guǎngxiào shízhǒng bàoēn dàochǎng yí (KR6v0088), which uses the parallel formula “fǎbàohuàshēn Shìjiāwénfó” 法報化身釋迦文佛. This corroborates an early Táng emergence of the “sānshēn jí yīfó” 三身即一佛 doctrinal complex.
The text is unrecorded in any Buddhist catalog and absent from all canonical editions. Dázhào uses Beijing Dūnhuáng Běidūn 7329 (head-and-tail intact, fewest copyist errors) as the base copy.
Translations and research
- Wāng Juān 汪娟, Dūnhuáng lǐ-chàn-wén yán-jiū 敦煌禮懺文研究 (Taipei: Fagu wenhua, 1998) — the standard study of Dūnhuáng lǐ-chàn literature, with extensive treatment of Jīngāng wǔ-lǐ.
- Dá-zhào 達照, Jīngāng-jīng zàn yán-jiū 金剛經讚研究 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 2002).
- Sørensen, Henrik H., “Buddhist Devotional Literature from Dunhuang,” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 6 (1991).
Other points of interest
The text’s distinctive trikāya-conflation (“tóngmíng Shìjiāmóuní fó”) is doctrinally productive: it represents an early-medieval Chinese effort to read the Mahāyāna trikāya doctrine through a single-Buddha frame, anticipating later Tiāntái and Huáyán school synthesis. As such, Jīngāng wǔlǐ is a small but important data-point for Sino-Buddhist kāya-theology.
Links
- CBETA
- IDP records for the eighteen manuscript witnesses (S.4712, P.3664, P.2325, Běidūn 7329, etc.)
- Cf. KR6v0072 (the variant recension)
- Cf. KR6v0073 (Liáo Tōnglǐ’s parallel Jīngānglǐ)
- Cf. KR6v0088 (Sòng Sījué’s Rúlái guǎngxiào shízhǒng bàoēn dàochǎng yí, with the same trikāya conflation)