Fóshuō xiāozāi yánshòu Yàoshī guàndǐng zhāngjù yí 佛說消災延壽藥師灌頂章句儀
Ritual Manual of the Calamity-Eliminating Life-Extending Bhaiṣajyaguru Abhiṣeka-Phrases as Spoken by the Buddha attributed to 若愚 (述); critical edition by 侯沖 (整理)
About the work
A six-fascicle Chinese Buddhist kē-yí 科儀 — also titled Yàoshī kē 藥師科 or Yàoshī kē-fàn 藥師科範 — based on the Fó-shuō guàn-dǐng zhāng-jù bá-chú guò-zuì shēng-sǐ dé-dù jīng 佛說灌頂章句拔除過罪生死得度經 (the Bhaiṣajyaguru / Yàoshī sūtra; T21n1331 j. 12 in Bó-shī-lí-mì-duō-luó 帛尸梨蜜多羅’s translation, Eastern Jìn). The structure has four parts: Jiào-jiè 教誡 (didactic instruction), Yí-wén 儀文 (ritual text), Tí-gāng 提綱 (topical outline), and Mì-jiào 密教 (esoteric instructions). The largest of the Āzhālì 阿吒力 jí-zhāi 吉齋 (auspicious-fast) ritual manuals; still in active use among the Jiànchuān 劍川 Āzhālì monks. Smaller derivative manuals — Fó-shuō Yàoshī qī-jí dēng kē 佛說藥師七級燈科 and Shí-èr shén-wáng jiě-jié fǎ-shì 十二神王解結法事 — were both compiled from this manual.
Abstract
The compiler-attribution to “Mǐnyuè Jīnshēn Tàipíngsì shāmén Ruòyú 閩越金身太平寺沙門若愚” is editorially flagged as suspect. Long passages of the Jiàojiè yíwén 教誡儀文 are textually identical with the 釋祖照-attributed Léngyán jiěyuān shìjié dàochǎng yí (KR6v0063), which is internally datable to the late Northern Sòng Zhènghé (1111–1118). The Yàoshī kē in its present form must therefore be later than KR6v0063 — most likely a Míng-period (1368–1644) Yúnnán Āzhālì compilation that pseudo-attributed itself to the otherwise unknown Ruòyú of Fújiàn. The composition window in the frontmatter conservatively brackets the entire Míng dynasty.
The text is unrecorded in any pre-modern Chinese Buddhist catalog or canon. The Zàngwài edition uses an Jiā-qìng 嘉慶 18 (1813) hand-copy by Yáng Yǔnrén 楊允仁 (held by Yáng Chàngkuí 楊暢奎) as base copy, with four collation copies: a Guāng-xù 9 (1883) Duàn Shòu-róng 段壽榮 manuscript (jiǎ 甲), and three derivative compilations including the Fàng-shēng yí-wén 放生儀文 appendix from one of them. The Bhaiṣajyaguru sūtra’s instruction “let the four classes set up life-extending banners (xù-mìng shén-fān 續命神幡), light forty-nine lamps, and release living creatures” is the doctrinal basis for the fàng-shēng 放生 (life-release) appendix that some witnesses include.
Translations and research
- Hou Chong 侯沖, Yúnnán Āzhālì jiào-pài jí qí jīngdiǎn yán-jiū (Beijing: Zhōngguó shū-jí, 2008).
- Birnbaum, Raoul, The Healing Buddha (Boulder: Shambhala, 1979) — broader study of the Bhaiṣajyaguru cult.
- Hou Chong 侯沖, Zhōngguó fójiào yí-shì yán-jiū (Shanghai: Shànghǎi gǔjí, 2011).