Text: T2878; Jiuhu jibing jing 救護疾病經; 救疾經; Jibing jing 疾病經; Jiu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jiuhu zhongsheng eji jing 救護眾生惡疾經

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• T2878; Jiuhu jibing jing 救護疾病經; 救疾經; Jibing jing 疾病經; Jiu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jiuhu zhongsheng eji jing 救護眾生惡疾經

Fang discusses the Jiu ji jing 救疾經 T2878 as one of a group of four Dunhuang apocrypha that furnish evidence of Chinese Buddhist attitudes to and ideas about illness. The text is witnessed in seventeen manuscripts in the Pelliot, Stein, China National Library and other collections, and in a lengthy appendix, Fang describes each individual manuscript in detail. The text also has the alternate titles Jiuhu zhongsheng eji jing 救護眾生惡疾經; Jiuhu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jiu jibing jing 救護疾病經; and Jibing jing 疾病經. Fajing's catalogue mentions the text, which it treats as a "forgery". A manuscript copy bears the date of 595. This evidence means that the text must date before the late sixth century. Fang declares that the term eji 惡疾 was only adopted in the secular medical literature form the middle of the seventh century (referring to the writings of Sun Simiao 孙思邈, ?-682), which leads her to favour a later date (in the sixth century) for the text. Fang discusses the term eji in greater detail (1015-): it denotes conditions in which the symptoms are physical and external; it is an old term, that can be traced (in non-medical literature) back to the Gongyang commentary on the Chunqiu, which was already glossed by He Xiu 何休 (129-182), and Fang also discusses mentions in the Shuo wen jie zi and in Daoist writings from the Jin (317-420). Fang also gives a summary of the content of the text (1003-1004). Fang remarks of all four texts under discussion that they frequently attribute illness to pathological influences which are typically Chinese, such as "winds, miasmas, and demonic possession" (the Zhoumei jing 呪魅經, for instance, although it is presented as an Indian scripture, reveals a series of practices associated with Chinese sorcery); some passages are resonant with Daoist apocalyptic texts; and the texts feature "a throng of bodhisattvas associated with the stars, and the powers of the earth and vegetation, which are the invention of popular Chinese religion"; moreover, almost all the illnesses featuring in the Jiu ji jing are also included in the Jin jing 禁經 (which Fang translates "The Book of Exorcisms"), compiled under the Tang by Sun Simiao (1036-1037). The texts frequently prescribe the copying of sūtras as a cure, and Fang remarks that we see here an assimilation of the copying of sūtras to Chinese talismans that are pasted on doorways. Fang estimates that all the texts in the group date before the Tang.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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• Title: Jiuhu zhongsheng eji jing 救護眾生惡疾經; Jiuhu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jiu jibing jing 救護疾病經; Jibing jing 疾病經
• Date: 6th century