Rúlái guǎngxiào shízhǒng bàoēn dàochǎng yí 如來廣孝十種報恩道場儀
Ritual Manual for the Tathāgata’s Great-Filial Tenfold Recompense-of-Kindness Sacred Assembly compiled by 思覺 (集); critical edition by 趙文煥 (整理) and 侯沖 (整理)
About the work
The largest of the surviving Yúnnán Āzhālì 阿吒力 ritual manuals — eight fascicles. Originally titled Xiàoshùn shègòng bákǔ bàoēn dàochǎng yí 孝順設供拔苦報恩道場儀; also titled Rúlái guǎngxiào shízhǒng bàoēn dàochǎng jiàojiè yíwén 如來廣孝十種報恩道場教誡儀文. Compiled by Sījué 思覺, zhùchí (abbot) of the Dàzhōngxiángfúsì 大中祥符寺 in Miánzhú 綿竹, Hànzhōu 漢州 (modern Sìchuān). Comprises Jiàojiè 教誡 + Yíwén 儀文 + Tígāng 提綱 + Mìjiào 密教.
Abstract
The text incorporates and synthesises three major prior works on Buddhist filial-piety: (1) Zōngmì 宗密’s Fóshuō yúlánpén jīng shū 佛說盂蘭盆經疏 (T39n1792); (2) Cíjué chánshī Zōngzé 慈覺禪師宗賾’s Xiàoxíng lù 孝行錄 (in some sources titled Xiàoyǒu wén 孝友文 or Quànxiào wén 勸孝文; otherwise lost); (3) Qìsōng 契嵩’s Xiàolùn 孝論 (in T52n2115, his Tánjīn wénjí 鐔津文集). It also draws on the Dà fāngbiàn fó bàoēn jīng 大方便佛報恩經 (T03n0156). As a synthesis-text it represents the late-Sòng integration of the Buddhist bàoēn 報恩 (recompense-of-kindness) discourse with mainstream Confucian xiào 孝 (filial-piety) values — a doctrinal innovation that helped make Buddhism more acceptable to Sòng Lǐxué 理學 critics.
The original Cíjué chánshī Xiàoxíng lù is otherwise lost; the Bàoēn dàochǎng yí preserves substantial extracts. The work also cites passages later engraved at the Bǎodǐngshān 寶頂山 cliff-niches of Dàzú (cf. KR6v0048 Dàfāngbiàn fó bàoēn jīngbiàn and the Fùmǔ ēnzhòng jīngbiàn jīngwén jìsòng KR6v0047) — confirming that Sījué’s text is one of the textual ancestors of the Bǎodǐngshān stone-engraving program.
The text is unrecorded in any pre-modern Chinese Buddhist catalog or canon. Sījué identifies Cíjué chánshī (1053–1118) as “běncháo” 本朝 (current dynasty) — i.e., contemporaneous Sòng — and mentions Lóngxìng chéngxiāng Yú Yǔnwén 隆興丞相虞允文 (1110–1174), placing the work no earlier than Lóngxìng 1 (1163).
The Zàngwài edition uses a Rúlái guǎngxiào shízhǒng bàoēn dàochǎng yí manuscript held by Zhào Wénhuàn as base copy, with five collation copies including a Kāngxī 28 (1689) Língquánsì 靈泉寺 manuscript and a Jiāqìng 4 (1799) manuscript. Comparison shows the Rúlái guǎngxiào form is an expansion of the original Xiàoshùn shègòng bákǔ bàoēn dàochǎng yí, with additional sections and the splitting-out of the Jìzàn 紀讚 and Tíngjì fàngshēng yíwén 庭際放生儀文 as performable independent sub-rituals.
Translations and research
- Hou Chong 侯沖, Yúnnán Āzhālì jiào-pài jí qí jīngdiǎn yán-jiū (Beijing: Zhōngguó shū-jí, 2008) — extensive treatment.
- Cole, Alan, Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998) — context on the bào-ēn-and-xiào discourse.
- Teiser, Stephen F., The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988) — context on the Yú-lán-pén tradition.
- Howard, Angela F., Summit of Treasures (Trumbull, CT: Weatherhill, 2001) — Bǎodǐng-shān stone-engravings related to this manual.
Other points of interest
The Rúlái guǎngxiào preserves the otherwise-lost Xiàoxíng lù of Cíjué Zōngzé (1053–1118), a major piece of Northern-Sòng Chán-school Buddhist xiào discourse. This makes the manual a philological document of considerably wider importance than its regional ritual character would suggest. The text also uses the formula “fǎbàohuàshēn Shìjiāwénfó 法報化身釋迦文佛” — the same trikāya-conflation found in KR6v0071 Yáo héshàng Jīngāng wǔlǐ, supporting the case for an early-Táng-to-Sòng continuous tradition of “sānshēn jí yīfó” 三身即一佛 doctrinal practice.