31. VAJRABODHI 671741
Charles D. OrzechVajrabodhi (Jin’gangzhi or Bariluoputi ), the
teacher of Amoghavajra, propagated the newly developed Sarvata-
thāgatatattvasaṃgraha (also referred to as the Vajraśekhara or Vajra-
usṇīsạ, hereafter STTS) in China, and he may with some justification
be seen as the source of what came to be called “Yoga” (yuqie )
or alternately “Mantra” (zhenyan ) Buddhism in China. Vajra-
bodhi, Amoghavajra, and Śubhākarasiṃha are often referred to
as the “Three Great Ācāryas” of the Tang and as the “founders” of
the Chinese Zhenyan school. This is in fact misleading, as the three
together did not constitute themselves as a “school” ( ), though
later Chinese disciples and Japanese scholars regarded them as such.^1
Śubhākarasiṃha propagated the related but substantially different
teachings of the Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi sūtra (T. 848) and the
Susiddhikāraṃahātantra-saddhanopāyikāpatala ̣ (T. 893).^2
Accounts and Sources
The main sources for Vajrabodhi’s life are Zanning’s biography
Tang Loyang guangfu si Jin’gang zhi zhuan in
the Song gaoseng zhuan ( T. 2061.50: 711b6–712a22, trans.
Chou I-liang, 1945); the notices by Vajrabodhi’s lay disciple Lu Xiang
in Yuanzhao’s Zhengyuan xinding shijiao mu lu
( T. 2157.55:875b1–876b27, also known as the Xing ji
); and the account that follows Lu Xiang’s in the same source by
Kunlunweng ( T. 2157.55:876b29–877a21). Further informa-
tion can be gleaned from Yuanzhao’s collection of correspondence
(^1) The notion of “school” or “sect” in Chinese Buddhism is the source of much
confusion. For a clear analysis of the topic, see Foulk 1992, 18–31. 2
See Pinte, “Śubhākarasiṃha,” and Orzech, “Esoteric Buddhism in the Tang: From
Atikūta to Amoghavajra (651–780),” in this volume. For the ̣ Mahāvairocanābhisaṃbodhi
sūtra, see Hodge 2003; for the Susiddhikāramahātantra-saddhanopāyikāpaṭala, see
Giebel 2001, 109–324.