Jīngāng wǔlǐ 金剛五禮
Five-Bow Vajracchedikā Liturgy (Variant Recension) by 姚和尚 (撰); critical edition by 達照 (整理)
About the work
The variant recension of the Jīngāng wǔ-lǐ 金剛五禮 — see KR6v0071 for full discussion. This shorter recension prints from the two manuscripts (P.2325 and Russian Dunhuang 176 verso) that, alone among the eighteen surviving Dūnhuáng witnesses, give the orthodox trikāya-mapping: (1) Vairocana (Pílúzhēnà 毗盧遮那) as dharmakāya; (2) Locana (Lúshènà 盧舍那) as saṃbhogakāya; (3) Śākyamuni (Shìjiā-móu-ní 釋迦牟尼) as nirmāṇakāya. The other sixteen witnesses (KR6v0071) collapse all three into “Śākyamuni” or “same-name Śākyamuni.”
Abstract
The relative priority of the two recensions is debated. Dázhào notes that the two variant-recension witnesses are both of relatively poor scribal quality (shūpǐn jí chā 書品極差), in contrast to the sixteen good-quality “standard” witnesses. He therefore concludes that the standard recension (with the trikāya identified as Śākyamuni) is more likely original, and the Vairocana-Locana-Śākyamuni recension represents an editorial correction by a later Dūnhuáng scribe trying to bring the text into line with orthodox doctrine. This counter-intuitive philological conclusion — that the doctrinally unusual reading is the lectio difficilior and earlier — is a textbook example of lectio difficilior potior applied to Sino-Buddhist liturgical literature.
The variant recension is much shorter than the standard recension because P.2325 and Russian 176 preserve only the five core lǐ opening-stanzas, without the extended gāthā development found in the standard recension. The composition window inherits from the standard recension: late-Táng Tibetan-period Dūnhuáng, 786–848.
Translations and research
- Wāng Juān 汪娟, Dūnhuáng lǐ-chàn-wén yán-jiū (Taipei: Fagu wenhua, 1998).
- Dá-zhào 達照, Jīngāng-jīng zàn yán-jiū (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 2002).
Links
- CBETA
- IDP records for P.2325 and Russian Dunhuang 176
- Cf. KR6v0071 (the standard recension)