Dìzàng púsà shízhāirì 地藏菩薩十齋日
The Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Ten Fast-Days (Recension VII — the Dàzú stone-engraving) anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition by 張總 (整理)
About the work
Recension VII / VIII of the Shízhāirì cluster — printed from the Bǎodǐngshān 寶頂山 stone-engraving (Dàzú niche 20, the Dìzàngshíwáng dìyùbiàn 地藏十王地獄變). See KR6v0077 for the full discussion of the work and the eight-recension transmission.
Abstract
The Dàzú stone-engraving form of the Shízhāirì is the most elaborate surviving witness. Each of the ten zhāirì receives: (a) prose schedule entry naming the buddha whose name should be invoked, (b) the hell from which observance protects, and (c) a four-line seven-character zàn 讚 (praise-verse) — the latter being the most distinctive feature of this recension. Sample (1st day): “Yuè yī rì, niàn Dìngguāngfó yīqiān biàn, bù duò Dāoshān dìyù. 月一日，念定光佛一千遍，不墮刀山地獄. Zàn yuē: Wénshuō Dāoshān bùkě pān, cuóé xiǎnjùn shǐ xīnsuān; yù féng zhāirì qín xiūfú, miǎnjiàn qiánchéng èyè qiān.” The verse-form parallels the verse-and-figure pairing of the Bǎodǐngshān Guānjīng biànxiàng jīngwén jìsòng (KR6v0050) and Dìyùbiàn jīngwén jìsòng (KR6v0051).
The composition window for this stone-engraved form is bracketed by the period of Zhào Zhìfèng 趙智鳳’s Bǎodǐngshān cave-temple development (1174–1249, with closing dates extending to ca. 1252). The zàn-form preserved on the niche is later than the bare-schedule Recensions I–IV preserved at Dūnhuáng (mid-late Táng), but draws on the same Dìzàng/Shízhāirì tradition.
Translations and research
See KR6v0077 for general; specifically:
- Howard, Angela F., Summit of Treasures: Buddhist Cave Art of Dazu, China (Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001) — extensive treatment of the niche-20 inscription.
- Hú Wényuán 胡文圓, Dàzú shíkè yán-jiū 大足石刻研究 (Chongqing: Chongqing chubanshe, 1985 et seq.).
Other points of interest
The Dàzú niche-20 Dìzàng-shí-wáng dìyù-biàn is the most elaborate surviving figural-and-textual treatment of the Dìzàng-shí-wáng (Kṣitigarbha-and-Ten-Kings) cult complex in Chinese cave-temple art. The integration of the Shí-zhāi-rì schedule with the iconographic Shí-wáng dìyù-biàn is the jewel-in-the-setting of the entire Bǎodǐng-shān ritual program.