善無畏

Readings

Pinyin: Shànwúwèi

Wade-Giles: Shan Wu-wei

Hangul: 선무외

Korean MC: Seonmuoe

Korean MR: Seonmuoe

Katakana: ゼンムイ

Hepburn: Zemmui

Thiện vô uý

Śubhakarasiṃha

• (637–735) Indian pandit who propagated Buddhist esotericism in China, acknowledged as one of the eight patriarchs of the doctrine 傳授八祖 in Shingon lineages. Born into a royal family of Orissa, he inherited the throne at age thirteen, but renounced it when his brothers began a violent struggle over the succession. He became a Buddhist monk, settling in the Veṇuvanavihāra 竹林精舍 at Nālanda monastery 那爛陀寺. At the behest of his master Dharmagupta 達摩笈多, he embarked on a journey to China via Turfan 吐蕃 arriving in 716. He was met by the emperor Xuanzong 玄宗 in 717, and began translating texts at Ximing temple 西明寺. When the emperor relocated in 724, he moved to Tafusien temple at Loyang, working there with Yixing 一行 on the translation of the Vairocanâbhisaṃbodhi 大日經 (T 848). Though best known for translating that work, he translated a number of important esoteric texts such as the Susiddhi 蘇悉地經 (T 894) as well. He also performed rituals for the state and gave lectures; some of these are recorded in Master Śubha's Guide to Meditation 無畏三藏禪要 (T 917). Another text drafted in China under his guidance, the iconographic Essential Meditations on the Five Families 五部心觀, carries a portrait of Śubhakarasiṃha. Towards the end of his life, he requested permission to return to India, but was refused, and he passed away in Loyang. After his burial in the hills around Longmen 龍門 in 740, devotees continued to worship his corpse. Transliterated as 輸波迦羅.

  One legend in the Sangoku buppō denzū engi 三國佛法傳通緣起 (1311) by the monk Gyōnen 凝然 (1240-1321) states that Śubhakarasiṃha (637-735) came 728-729 to Japan to teach and spread the secret teachings mikkyō 密教 of esoteric Buddhism. He built a small lodge in the south-west of the Tōdaiji 東大寺 that was not yet finished at that time. On the same place Kūkai 空海 (774-835) later founded the Shingon-in 眞言院. When Śubhakarasiṃha recognized that he could not find anybody who understood his teachings, he built a pagoda tō 塔 in the east of the Kumedera 久米寺 in Nara 奈良 and hid a copy of the Dainichi kyō 大日經 under the central pillar 心柱. He made a wish that one day the right person will find it. And indeed it was found by Kūkai. (Rambelli, Fabio. Texts, Talismans, and Jewels: the Reikiki and the performativity of sacred texts in medieval Japan. In Payne and Leighton (2006: 70).

  Reference:

  PayneRichardLeightonTaigen DanielDiscourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese BuddhismTaylor & Francis2006

  [resp. Iain Sinclair, Mark Hosak; source(s): Hirakawa, Nakamura, JEBD, Iwanami]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 644

Bulgyo sajeon, 463a

Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata), 6,78,203,224,238,239,291,374

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 507

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 335a/372

Zen Dust (Sasaki), 190

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 852b

Fo Guang Dictionary, 4892

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0264

Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), 382

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)5078b, (v.9-10)764b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 1068-2*1722-1-29

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2013-08-21