. prajña 361
him the esoteric “yoga techniques” (yuqie fa ) of mandalas the
“three mysteries” sanmi ), personal protection hushen ,
and seals yinqi , i.e., mudrās and incantations). Prajña is said to
have learned more than thirty-five hundred verses of scripture detail-
ing these rites within a year.^3
The account of his career in Yuanzhao’s (fl. late eighth c.)
New Bibliography of the Buddhist Teachings Zhenyuan xinding shijiao
mulu) names the subject of his studies slightly differently. At one point
it quotes Prajña stating that he “had from an early age contemplated
the secret store” (guan mizang , a term that, though it can
refer simply to the Buddhist teachings in general, seems in this case
clearly to indicate specifically the religion’s incantatory and esoteric
traditions.^4 Elsewhere the text reports that Prajña “studied the yoga
teachings and ascended the consecration altar, learning all the mantras
of the Five Buddha-Families.”^5
Pending deeper research into Prajña’s work and religious career,
caution must be urged: the texts he is associated with in extant sources
do not seem to bear close relation to the two traditions of high esoteric
Buddhism present in late eighth-century China (or elsewhere), those
associated with the Vajraśekhara and the Mahāvairocana scriptures.
Instead, Prajña’s texts are for the most part in the older pre-tantric
traditions of dhāraṇī practice, traditions that were also known by the
terms “vidyādhara” and “secret store.”
Prajña’s biographers report that he had long desired to travel to
China (Zhina ) because it was thought to be the adopted home
of the great Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī (Wenshu. Thus, having com-
pleted his studies in (broadly) esoteric forms of Buddhism, Prajña set
out for China by sea. The journey, said to have been plagued by mul-
tiple setbacks, took in all about twenty years and he arrived in Guang-
zhou in 781.^6 His translation activities began almost immediately with
his translation of the Dasheng liqu liu boluomi jing, assisted by the
Persian Nestorian Christian priest “Adam,” or Jingjing , author
of the famous “Nestorian Stele” of Chang’an. As Stanley Weinstein
has noted, the translation they produced was a failure: “As might be
expected, the translation, executed by an Indian Buddhist who at the
(^3) Song gaoseng zhuan, T. 2061.50:716a–b.
(^4) Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu, T. 2157.55:893a.
(^5) Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu, T. 2157.55:895c.
(^6) Weinstein 1987b, 97; Zhenyuan xinding shijiao mulu, T. 2157.55:892a.