| Identifier | [None] |
| Title | Saporetuo juanshu zhuangyan jing 薩婆若陀眷屬莊嚴經 [Strickmann 1990] |
| Date | 510 [Tokuno 1990 ] |
| Author | Miaoguang 妙光 [Strickmann 1990] |
| Preferred? | Source | Pertains to | Argument | Details |
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[Funayama 2013] Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Butten wa dō Kan’yaku sareta no ka: sūtora ga kyōten ni naru toki 仏典はどう漢訳されたのか スートラが経典になるとき. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten: 2013. — 142-145 |
Funayama discusses the case of Miaoguang's 妙光 forgery of the Saporetuo juanshu zhuangyan jing 薩婆若陀眷屬莊嚴經, and gives an extended translation of Sengyou's account of the matter. Entry author: Michael Radich |
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[Strickmann 1990] Strickmann, Michel. "The Consecration Sutra: A Buddhist Book of Spells" in Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr., 75-118. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990. — 100-102 |
The Saporetuo juanshu zhuangyan jing 薩婆若陀眷屬莊嚴經 was composed by Miaoguang 妙光. In 510 Miaoguang claimed to possess “auspicious signs or bodily markings” and was acclaimed as a saint. He caught the disapproving attention of the “provincial rector of the saṃgha” and was forced to flee to Puhong 普弘 monastery, where he composed the sūtra with the help of the calligrapher Lu Yan 路琰. The authorities eventually caught up with Miaoguang and he was sentenced to death by beheading. However, a group of distinguished monks petitioned the throne and overturned Miaoguang’s sentence. Instead, he was expelled from the saṃgha and his sūtra destroyed. Strickmann adds that during Miaoguang’s era there were very strong restrictions on the production of texts, and an author of a new Buddhist text was risking a great deal. But Strickmann suggests that Miaoguang’s original sentence was related to his popularity and the group’s potential for political dissidence, whereas the condemnation of the monks was concerned with the distortion of the Buddha’s words. Entry author: Michael Radich |
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[Tokuno 1990 ] Tokuno, Kyoko. "The Evaluation of Indigenous Scriptures in Chinese Buddhist Bibliographical Catalogues." In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, edited by Robert E. Buswell, Jr., 31-74. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1990. — 38-39, 43-44 |
Tokuno relates the story, recorded by Sengyou, of the Saporetuo juanshu zhuangyan jing 薩婆若陀眷屬莊嚴經 was authored by Miaoguang 妙光 in 510 who claimed sainthood and composed this text (supposedly coated in “dazzling vermillion gauze”) in the pursuit of fame and wealth. His plan worked, initially, and the text attracted throngs of followers. However, the imperial court was threatened by Miaoguang’s popularity and the Emperor personally sent Sengyou, Huichao and twenty other monks to interrogate him. Miaoguang admitted his crime, which spared him the death penalty. The monks expelled him from the order, sentenced him to a long imprisonment and destroyed all copies of his sūtra. Sengyou’s attribution of this text was later repeated by Fei Changfang, who listed this text among the three scriptures he regarded as “apocryphal” and noted that the author, Miaoguang, “deceived the masses” and was thus expelled from the order. Entry author: Michael Radich |
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