Liángcháo Fù dàshì sòng Jīngāngjīng 梁朝傅大士頌金剛經
Praise-Verses on the Vajracchedikā by the Great Master Fù of the Liáng Dynasty anonymous Chinese composition pseudonymously attributed to 傅大士 (sòng); critical edition by 達照 (整理)
About the work
A late-type recension of the Jīngāngjīng zàn cycle, now framed by an apocryphal preface attributing the zàn-verses to Fù dàshì 傅大士 (497–569, also known as Shànhuì dàshì 善慧大士), the famous Liáng-dynasty lay-Buddhist mystic of Wǔyīshān 烏夷山 / Shuānglínsì 雙林寺 in Yìwū 義烏 (modern Zhèjiāng). The preface narrates that Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) summoned Fù dàshì through the recommendation of Zhì Gōng 志公 (Bǎozhì 寶誌, 418–514) to lecture on the Vajracchedikā; Fù dàshì refused the high lecture-throne, asking only for a wooden pāibǎn 拍板 (clapper-board), and chanted forty-nine sòng 頌 (verses) — these forty-nine sòng being the cycle of this text.
Abstract
The Liángcháo Fù dàshì sòng Jīngāngjīng is one of three closely-related late-type witnesses (KR6v0098, KR6v0099, KR6v0100) of the Jīngāngjīng zàn cycle in its mature form. The preface’s pseudo-historical narrative — Wǔdì + Zhì Gōng + Fù dàshì — is a popular legend without basis in either the documented life of the historical Fù dàshì or in the actual textual history of the cycle. The cycle’s true author is unknown; its earliest witness is the early-Táng P.2039-verso (KR6v0093). The pseudo-attribution to Fù dàshì — like the parallel pseudo-attributions of the Shízhāirì tradition to Xuánzàng — reflects medieval Chinese popular Buddhism’s habit of attaching famous miracle-working figures’ names to popular ritual texts.
The text adds substantial esoteric apparatus to the zàn-cycle: Jìngkǒuyè zhēnyán 淨口業真言 (“True Words for Purifying the Mouth-Karma”), Xūkōngzàng púsà pǔgōngyǎng zhēnyán 虛空藏菩薩普供養真言, Fèngqǐng bā Jīngāng 奉請八金剛 (invocation of the Eight Vajra-deities), and Sì púsà 四菩薩 invocations — making this a fully-developed kēyí 科儀 (ritual manual) for Vajracchedikā chanting. The text-form is the direct ancestor of the popular printed Vajracchedikā editions used in late-imperial China and still in use today, which begin with Bā Jīngāng + Sì púsà invocations precisely as in this Dūnhuáng witness.
The composition window for the late-type witnesses is conservatively given as late-Táng to early-Sòng (800–1000), based on the developed esoteric apparatus and the parallel late-Táng kēyí tradition (cf. KR6v0065 Xiāoshì Jīngāngjīng kēyí).
Translations and research
- Dá-zhào 達照, Jīngāng-jīng zàn yán-jiū 金剛經讚研究 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 2002).
- Levering, Miriam, “Fù Dàshì,” in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell (New York: Macmillan, 2004) — context on the historical Fù dàshì.
- Sharf, Robert, “Mindfulness and Mindlessness in Early Chan,” Philosophy East and West 64 (2014).
- Wāng Juān 汪娟, Dūnhuáng lǐ-chàn-wén yán-jiū (Taipei: Fagu wenhua, 1998).
Other points of interest
The Fù dàshì sòng Jīngāngjīng preface is one of the canonical popular-Buddhist hagiographic narratives. It also provides a key data-point for Fù dàshì’s late-medieval reception: by the late Táng he had been transformed from his historical role (lay-tantric Liáng-period mystic) into a Buddhist Mile 彌勒 (Maitreya) descent, with his wooden pāibǎn 拍板 becoming a symbol of his iconography (he is invariably depicted holding pāibǎn in late-imperial Chinese Buddhist art).