334 charles d. orzech“Zhenyan” lineages, such as the Rites for Contemplation of and Offer-
ings to Amitāyus Tathāgata (Wuliangshou rulai guanxing gongyang
yigui , T. 930),^97 with its highly structured
ritual choreography of entry, encounter, and exit rites, the Mohe feishi-
luomonaye tipo heluoshe tuoluoni yigui (T. 1246) commences abruptly
with the painting of an image and the construction of an altar. It then
moves on to bodily protection and invocation of Vaiśravaṇa and his
retinue. But this is followed by a “Chapter on Requesting Messengers”
(jiu shizhe pin ), a list of twenty-eight applications taking
the form of “if you want to know whether a person is dead or not
then summon the messenger of the Lord of Destiny of the Left” (
, T. 1246 21.221a22) or “if you wish
to prolong life and not die then call the messenger of Taishan” (
, T. 1246 21.221a26). The manual then
prescribes the spell (zhou ) to use. A manual with this title appears
in Kūkai’s inventory Gō shorai mokuroku credited to a “Prajñacakra”
(Borelun ).^98 Since Kūkai had returned to Japan long before
Zhihuilun was active, this is either another Prajñacakra or an interpo-
lation into Kūkai’s document.
The second manual, the Sheng huanxi tian shi fa ( T.
1275), focuses on Gaṇeśa. The text begins with instructions for setting
up a “Heaven disk” (tianpan ) and an “Earth array” (dipan
).^99 The Heaven disk is in fact a mandala with various versions of
Huanxi tian located in the cardinal directions. The Earth array con-
tains Indra, Agni, Yama, Rāksasa, Varuṇ ̣a, Vāyu, Vaiśravaṇa, Śiva,
the twenty-eight lunar mansions, and so on. Then follows a series of
mudrās and mantras to invoke the various beings, followed by two
Daoist-looking talismans (fu ) and twenty-seven sentences strongly
reminiscent of those found in T. 1246. These are followed by a series
of mudrās and spells (zhou ) for protecting the body, etc. Appended
(fu ) to the text is an outline of a ritual sequence looking more
like what one encounters in the elite lineages: “Mantra and mudrā for
purifying the three karma, next mantra and mudrā for protecting the
body,” and so forth. Given what we know of Zhihuilun as a highly
(^97) This text became one of the touchstones of canonical ritual. See Orzech 2009.
(^98) Gō shorai mokuroku , T. 2161 55.1063a28–29.
(^99) Thus opening with terms freighted with Chinese symbolism—the terms often
refer to stellar arrays on a circular heaven and the three-by-three–square array of the
earth.