Reception and transformation of the Huiji Jin’gang shuo shentong daman tuoluoni fashu Lingyao men: the discovery and significance of medieval Japanese scripture manuscripts

ABSTRACT

Investigative research of the Buddhist manuscripts in Japan are garnering the attention of the international community, but these achievements are all oriented toward problems associated with the traditional methods of research into Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures. In other words, they are demonstrating the dangers of relying too much on printed editions of texts. This suggests both the importance of a relatively strict revision of Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures based on the discovery and application of medieval Japanese scripture manuscripts, as well as the possibility of grasping more correctly the historical process of change of textual content, via the work of revision. Moreover, this situation will help promote the potential for a relatively flexible understanding of the reception and transformation of Buddhist scriptures in East Asia. To concretely present the validity and potential of this type of research methodology, this paper takes as a topic the Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures associated with Huiji Jin’gang, first introducing the various transmitted editions of this scripture. It points out problems contained in the genealogy and content of the printed texts, and further clarify the process of transformation of this scripture, based on the medieval manuscript editions from Dunhuang and Japan.

KEYWORDS:

• Buddhist manuscript
• Dunhuang manuscript
• Buddhist canon
• apocryphal scripture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Yiqiejing yinyi, T no. 2128, 54: 36.545c22–24.

2. See, for example, Mikkyō Jiten Hensankai (comp.), Mikkyō daijiten, 117.

3. Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu, T no. 2157, 55: 14.878b5–9: 右三部四巻, 其本見在, 北天竺國三藏沙門阿質達霰 (唐言無能勝將) 於安西譯. 開元二十年, 因法月三藏貢獻入朝, 附上件經至于京邑, 不及得入開元目錄錄. 准敕勅編入《貞元新定釋釋教目錄錄》.

4. Please refer to table appended at the end of this article.

5. Of the three scriptural texts translated by Azhidaxian 阿質達霰 [Skt. Ajitasena?], printed canons containing the texts of the Lingyao men and the Jin baibian are given as follows: Chongning 崇寧, Pilu 毗盧, Yuanjue 圓覺, Zifu 資福, Jisha 磧砂, Puning 普寧, Hongwu 洪武, Zhaocheng 趙城, Korean, Yongle (Southern Cannon) 永楽南, Yongle (Northern Cannon) 永楽北, Jiaxinng 嘉興, Qing 清藏, Pingjia 頻伽, Hongjiao 弘教, Taishō 大正. See Tong, Ershi’erzhong dazangjing tongjian, 330.

6. The Korean canon spoken of here is not the initially carved Korean canon 高麗初彫大蔵経 (completed between 1011 and 1082) that is a reissue of the Kaibao canon 開寶藏 of the Northern Song, but rather the re-carved Korean canon 高麗再彫大蔵経. The re-carved Korean canon is a print edition of the canon based primarily on the initially carved Korean canon as revised using the Khitan canon 契丹蔵 (completed between 990 and 1010), among others. Because the end the text of the Lingyao men and Jin baibian entered in this canon records the phrase ‘丙午歳高麗國大藏都監奉勅彫造,’ we know that these [editions] were completed in 1246.

7. Annotation in the Taishō edition of the Jin baibian gives ‘麗本印図總無之今依明本載之’ (Taishō vol. 21, p. 160, first annotated note).

8. In addition to the Song edition housed at Zōjōji, a Song edition of the Jin baibian from the Fuzhou Kaiyuansi Canon 福州開元寺大蔵経 (a Song-edition canon carved [to woodblock] between 1112 and 1151, and also called the Pilu Canon 毘盧蔵) is currently also stored at the library of the Imperial Household Agency (Kunaichō shoryōbu). See the Toshoryō kanseki zenpon shomoku furoku 図書寮漢籍善本書目附錄.

9. Yongle beizang zhengli weiyuan hui, Yongle beizang.

10. Collected in BZ vol. 149.

11. The Baopuzi is a book explaining the techniques for retaining youthfulness and living long, written in 317 by Ge Hong 葛洪 (282–363) of China’s Eastern Jin dynasty.

12. BZ vol. 149: 7.

13. ZS vol. 2: 178.

14. Misaki, Chūgoku, 164.

15. Osabe, ‘Ryūju gomyōron shōkō,’ 235.

16. Ono (ed.), Bussho kaisetsu daijiten, vol. 1: 247.

17. Kokusai Bukkyōgaku daigakuin daigaku gakujutsu jikkō iinkai (comp.), Nihon genson hasshu issaikyō taishō mokuroku, 錄 126.

18. Amanosan Kongōji [Kongō Temple of Amano Mountain], located in Ōsaka’s Kawachinagano 河内長野 city, is a major head temple of the Omuro branch of Shingon (真言宗御室派). In addition to housing several tens of thousands of Buddhist texts of Kongōji, it also maintains as many as four thousand fascicles from the complete Buddhist canon (Ochiai, ‘Gen’ō sen “Issaikyō ongi” no Tonkō shahon to Nihon shahon’). According to Kajiura (‘Kongōji issaikyō chōsa no keii,’ 9–16), of the 16 hand-copied Buddhist canons extant from before the Edo period, the Kongōji canon is said to be comprised primarily of materials transcribed intermittently from the end of the Heian period to the latter part of the Kamakura period. For an overview and discussion of its characteristics, see the introductions by Miyoshi, ‘Kongōji issaikyō no zenbō,’ 1898–1918; Kajiura, ‘Kongōji issaikyō to shinshutsu An Seikō yaku butten’; and Ochiai, Kongōji issaikyō no kisoteki kenkyū to shinshutsu butten no kenkyū.

19. Kōshōji is a Rinzai 臨濟 monastery located (simplified for clarity) on Horikawa-dōri 堀川通 in Kamigyō-ku 上京區 of Kyōto. This Buddhist canon totals 5,261 items, said to be mostly comprised of ‘a Buddhist canon that was copied at the Sairakuji 西楽寺 located in Ogawa-gō 小川郷, Kuwata-gun 桑田郡, Tamba no kuni 丹波國, at the end of the Heian period, and which later passed over to Kaijūji 海住寺 of Minamiyama-jō 南山城 and finally to Kōshōji 興聖寺 during the Keichō 慶長 era (1596–1615)’ (Ōyama, ‘Sairakuji issaikyō shosha no zaichi kankyō ni tsuite,’ 417).

20. Tōenzan Nanatsudera 稲園山七寺 is presently in Ōsu 大須, Naka-ku 中區, Nagoya-shi 名古屋市, but at the time of soliciting support for the Buddhist canon it was in Nanatsudera-mura 七寺村 of Nakashima-no-kōri 中嶋古里, now Inazawa-shi 稲沢市. Regarding the Nanatsudera canon, see Nanatsudera issaikyō hozonkai, Owari shiryō nanatsudera issaikyō mokuroku 錄 and Akao, ‘Koshakyō shi kara mita nanatsudera issaikyō.’ The Nanatsudera canon was conceived by Ōnakatomi Yasunaga for the blessing of his daughter and for the pacification of the domain. The abbot of the time, Eigei 栄芸, and his disciple, Great Dharma-master Eishun 大法師栄俊, were charged with oversight of the project. From the fifth year of Jōan 承安 era (1175) to the third year of Jishō 治承 era (1179), copying of over five thousand scrolls of the Buddhist canon was completed.

21. I have personally carried out a measurement of the dimensions of this manuscript.

22. According to the Kōshōji issaikyō chōsa hōkokusho, 132, this manuscript is currently stored in box 208 of the Kōshōji issaikyō 興聖寺一切經, and is number 2209 in the comprehensive numbering scheme. In addition to this published bibliographic information occurring in the above-mentioned published report’s index to the canon (132), I have supplemented it by way of a photographic record. In order to tell the two apart, I attach a ※ to bibliographic information that I have supplemented.

23. Under ‘Jin’gang wushushamo fayin zhoupin’ 金剛烏枢沙摩法印咒品 in the ninth fascicle of Foshuo tuoluoni jijing 佛説陀羅尼集經, we see the following: ‘烏枢沙摩身印咒第二. 以右手無名指小指、従左手無名指背後入中指無名指岐間. 以右大指押右無名小指甲上、握左無名指小指. 次屈左無名小指、復以左大指押左無名小指甲上、作環相鉤. 各竪両頭指及中指、頭相拄頭指来去咒曰:唵^一跛折囉^二俱嚕馱^三摩訶婆^去音囉^四訶那馱^去音訶^五跛者毘枳囉^六毘馱崩^二合寫^七闍置囉^八藍蒲陀囉^九烏樞沙摩^二合十俱嚕馱^十一嗚合牛扌巿扌巿^十二莎訶^十三’ (T no. 901, 18: 860c18–26).

24. Under ‘Jin’gang wushushamo fayin zhoupin’ 金剛烏枢沙摩法印咒品 in the ninth fascicle of Foshuo tuoluoni jijing, we find ‘烏枢沙摩羂索法印咒第九. 準前身印、惟改頭指、苾在中指後、頭相拄咒曰:唵^一阿儞尼^二摩儞尼^三訖儞尼^二合噓拏^二合杜範^補甘反四莎訶^五’ (T no. 901, 18: 862b9–13).

25. Under ‘Jin’gang wushushamo fayin zhoupin’ 金剛烏枢沙摩法印咒品 in the ninth fascicle of Foshuo tuoluoni jijing, we see ‘烏枢沙摩解穢法印第十七. 以二小指相鉤掌中. 二無名中指食指直竪相博. 二大母指安在掌中二小指上. 合腕咒曰:修利摩利^一摩摩利摩利^二修修利^三莎訶^四’ (T no. 901, 18: 863b3–7).

26. Shanghai guji chubanshe, et al. (ed.), Faguo guojia tushuguan cang Dunhuang Xiyu wenxian.

27. Go shōrai mokuroku, T no. 2161, 55: 1063a8-9: 《穢迹金剛說神通大滿陀羅尼法術靈要門》一卷_(五紙).

28. Nittō shingu shōgyō mokuroku, T no. 2167, 55: 1080c4-5: 穢跡金剛說神通大滿陀羅尼法術靈要門一卷_{(沙門阿質達霰譯)}.