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ABSTRACT
Buddhist ritual procedures such as the setting up of Sky-wheel Lamps 天輪燈 and Earth-wheel Lamps 地輪燈 were previously only seen in the Dunhuang manuscript (D2074, BD15147, G015, etc.) and its related materials. It turns out that these procedures can also be found in the ordinance and ritual (keyi 科儀) manuscript used by Azhali 阿吒力 monks in Dali 大理, as well as in Song text Shuilu yi 水陸儀 [Water-land Rituals], and in the Dali manuscript Zhufo pusa Jin’gang deng qiqing 諸佛菩薩金剛等啟請. Three different types of Choutian xiedi manuscripts collected recently from Yunnan all share similar contents and contain phrases such as ‘Master Yixing sets up earth-wheel lamp’ (一行禪師設地燈), which corresponds to the Dunhuang manuscript Yixing dashi shi shijie dilun dengfa. This chain of evidence demonstrates that the Dali Buddhist tradition in Nanzhao 南詔 as well as the Azhali tradition were all components of Chinese Buddhism. On the other hand, these findings provide new examples for the important reference value of Yunnan Chinese Buddhism as for the study of post-Tang Chinese Buddhism.
Abbreviations
| BD = | = | BeiDun 北敦, numbered manuscripts from Dunhuang held in the National Library in Beijing, China. |
| G = | = | numbered manuscripts from Dunhuang held in the Gansu Provincial Museum in Lanzhou, China. |
| P = | = | numbered manuscripts from Dunhuang in the Pelliot collection held at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, France. |
| S = | = | numbered manuscripts from Dunhuang in the Stein collection held at the British Library in London, UK |
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Translator’s note: Azhali jiao 阿吒力教 is sometimes translated as the ‘Religion of the Ācāryas.’ See Hou, ‘The Chinese Origins of Dali Esoteric Buddhism.’
2. Hou, ‘Daliguo xiejing “Huguo sinan chao” jiqi xueshu jiazhi.’
3. For related discussions on the issue, see Hou, Baizu xinshi; idem, Yunnan yu Bashu fojiao yanjiu lungao; idem, Yunnan Azhali jiao jingdian yanjiu; and idem, ‘Baimi’ hezai.
4. Translator’s note: The term yujiajiao 瑜珈教 seems to refer to a distinctive tradition formed after the Huichang Persecution of Buddhism in the Tang in contemporary Chinese scholarship. Ye Mingsheng 叶明生 and Li Zhihong 李志鸿 have written about the transformation of the Indian Yogâcāra school that was first introduced to China in the Tang into a semi-Buddhist and semi-Daoist folk tradition in the Song. See Ye, ‘Shilun “yujiajiao” zhi yanbian jiqi shisuhua shixiang’; Li, ‘Song Yuan xin daofa yu Fujian de “Yujiajiao.”’
5. See Hou, ‘Mijiao zhongguohua de jingdian fenxi.’
6. Some of these texts have been organized and published. See Fang, eds., Zangwai Fojiao wenxian Vol. 6, 35–381; Vol. 7, 114–225; Vol. 8, 53–358; Vol. 12, 63–278; Vol. 16, 25–38; Fan, ed., Taiwan zongjiao yanjiu tongxun, 95–129, etc.
7. See Tanaka, ‘Zenshū tōshi no hatten’; idem, Tonkō Zenshū bunken no kenkyū, 644–647; Hirai, ‘Tonkō shutsudo gigikyō bunken yori mita Mikkyō to Zen’; idem, ‘Tonkōbon Mikkyō gikyōten kō’; Lü, Zhongguo mijiao shi, 254–255; Tanaka, Tonkō Mikkyō to bijutsu, 195–216; Li, Dunhuang mijiao wenxian lungao, 8–9, 29–30, 278–279; Kuo, ‘Dunhuang hanchuan mijiao jingdian yanjiu’; Yu, Shendao renxin, 57–74; Tanaka Ryōshō has also published many articles on the subject that are too numerous to list here.
8. Translator’s Note: the translation of the title of this text is borrowed from Goodman, The Ritual Instructions for Altar Methods, 44; for an alternate translation, see Schimd, ‘Concept of the Netherworld and Modifications in the Chinse Articulation of Karma.’
9. Ibid.
10. Ueyama, Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū, 419; Duan, ed., Gansu cang Dunhuang wenxian, Vol. 4: 373.
11. Translator’s note: I am following Amanda Goodman’s translation of this colophon. See Goodman, The Ritual Instructions for Altar Methods, 26.
12. BD15147 is the new number assigned by the National Library in Beijing. All manuscripts mentioned in this article that begin with BD are part of this Dunhuang manuscript collection at the National Library. The numbers in the parentheses following the BD numbers are the numbers as listed in the Dunhuang Baozang 敦煌寶藏 and the qianziwen 千字文 numbering systems.
13. Li, Dunhuang Mijiao wenxian lungao, 9, 278.
14. Duan, ed., Gansu cang Dunhuang wenxian, vol. 4: 373.
15. Beijing tushuguan shanben zu, Dunhuang jie yu lu xubian, 114.
16. Ren, ed., Guojia tushuguan cang Dunhuang yishu, vol. 139: 395–409.
17. Shangwu yinshuguan, ed., Dunhuang yishu zongmu suoyin, 341.
18. Yoritomi (Sun trans.), ‘Dunhuang wenxian zai Zhongguo mijiao shi shang de diwei’; Lü, Zhongguo mijiao shi, 255.
19. Hirai, ‘Tonkō shutsudo gigikyō bunken yori mita Mikkyō to Zen,’ 142, 152–155; Ueyama, Tonkō Bukkyō no kenkyū, 419; Tanaka, Tonkō Mikkyō to bijutsu, 210; Kuo, ‘Dunhuang hanchuan mijiao jingdian yanjiu,’ 331–333.
20. Hirai, ‘Tonkōbon mikkyō gikyōten kō.’
21. For example, Li Xiaorong recognizes these texts as the lost writings of the Jin’gangding lianhua bu xin niansong yigui 金剛頂蓮花部心念誦儀軌 and cannot be verified. See Li, Dunhuang mijiao wenxian lungao, 29–30.
22. Translator’s note: For the translation of this line, I am following Amanda Goodman’s translation in her dissertation. See Goodman, The Ritual Instructions for Altar Methods, 18–9.
23. Dunhuang yanjiuyuan, Dunhuang yishu zong mulu suoyin xinbian, 101.
24. Shanghai tushuguan & Shanghai guji chubanshe, eds., Shanghai tushuguan cang Dunhuang Tulufan wenxian jilu, 11.
25. Li Xiaorong mistakenly considers P.2777 and P.2887 as both from S.3427. See Li, Dunhuang mijiao wenxian lungao, 263.
26. Kuo, ‘Dunhuang hanchuan mijiao jingdian yanjiu,’ 331–33.
27. The content is as follows (the original text does not contain punctuation marks; I herein punctuated and divided the text into paragraphs based on its meanings):
一行大師十世界地輪燈法
按經云: 地藏菩薩哀湣世間. 人世有橫死者不少, 或犯四煞, 或天羅地網,
觸突三尊, 惡神所拘, 致令非友, 三屍說邪牙 (?) 減筭, 不得壽終. 世
間興作, 或犯土工, 不避神煞. 凡人拜壇, 上官皆有衰捐, 亦因起作, 入
新宮宅, 可先建十世界地輪燈.
於堂殿中畫地爲輪, 以爲十道. 每輪七燈, 輪心安地藏菩薩. 施主虔心勸
請, 發露懺悔, 黃昏燃燈燒香, 每輪淨食一分, 各具疏, 于菩薩前燒. 香、
花、果、淨水、刀子. 其食乃大悲心咒加持廿一遍, 即普遍三千大千世界,
水陸並蒙飽足, 罪業消滅. 至五更, 以食以爲三分, 一分施獄囚, 一分送
於野外, 一分送致河沲中. 所有衰年厄月, 並得消散, 轉禍爲福. 上至人
王, 下至群臣黎庶, 力辦隨喜. 此亦名施水陸冥道齋法.
眾生在世, 多被怨家讎讎訟, 身遭橫死. 若能設此燈法, 應是殃厄, 悉得
消散. 若有怨敵, 欲來侵伐, 亦設此燈, 彼自遭殃, 不果所願. 蝗蟲犯境,
五稼不成, 雨雷傷苗, 疾病流行, 亦得消滅. 遇辦即作, 不要擇日, 具法
如右.
天曹府君, 地府閻羅天子, 司命並諸持 (= 侍) 從, 大 (= 太) 山府君並諸侍從, 司錄
並諸侍從, 五道大神並諸侍從, 察命並諸侍從, 地府都官並諸侍從, 本命都官本命
都官, 主錄庫使者, 太歲諸神並諸侍從主錄庫使者, 六道都判使者, 本命神宿,
土地靈祇, 龍王之屬, 南北闘屬司命使者, 地府諸司一切官屬, 天曹司判
使者, 地獄獄卒一切使者.
28. Hou, ‘Yang E “Shuilu yi” kao’; idem, Zhongguo fojiao yishi yanjiu, 281–379.
29. http://www.kongfz.cn/13615530/, last accessed: December 1, 2019
30. http://www.kongfz.cn/13616278, last accessed December 1, 2019
31. For scholarship related to the Xiaozai jing, see Huang, ‘‘Xiaozai jing’ kao.’
32. http://www.kongfz.cn/34136878/, last accessed December 1, 2019
33. http://book.kongfz.com/268,376/1,015,698,852/, last accessed 2 December 2018
34. See the explantions made by the Tanfa yize:
1. 次結水陸燈壇之法. 其壇四方, 像於天地, 天有八山爲柱, 地有四海爲環. 其壇是天地之輪 (Fang, ed., Zangwai Fojiao wenxian, Vol. 11: 32);
2. 五佛壇、天輪燈壇, 用八方善神、四金剛. 其燈輪三千六百輻, 三千六百盞燈. 四角安八方善神, 各執一幡 (ibid, 42);
3. 地輪燈壇闊二丈四, 高三肘, 或闊丈二, 高二肘. 其燈輪三千六百輻, 燈三千六百盞. 壇四角用八方善神, 各執幡一口. 四門用四金剛, 地是水波. 又裡有眾生天輪、地輪、八方之壇. 其八方壇有四善神, 各執一幡. 四金剛燈用三百六十盞燈, 輪用三百六十輻 (ibid, 43).
35. Ibid, 45.
36. Hou, ‘Yang E “Shuilu yi” kao,’ 17–33; idem, Zhongguo Fojiao yishi yanjiu, 337–352.
37. Guo, ed., Dali congshu Dazangjing pian, vol.3: 115.
38. See, for example, the beginning lines of the incomplete scroll:
次成就九觀極果儀軌品
正性正知正見是種性, 如西國二十八祖, 漢地七祖, 傳此印信. 至第八
代周遍流行, 得道之人不可窮數. 印義列後.
39. Hou, ‘Mijiao zhongguohua de jingdian fenxi,’ 153–165; idem, Hanchuan fojiao, Zongjiao yishi yu jingdian wenxian zhi yanjiu, 43–53.
40. Hou, ‘Mijiao zhongguohua de jingdian fenxi,’ 146–169; idem, Hanchuan fojiao, Zongjiao yishi yu jingdian wenxian zhi yanjiu, 36–58.