. esoteric buddhism under the xixia (–) 475
tices to the emperor and high-ranking courtiers and clerics. They were
not necessarily all ethnic Tibetans, although they appear to have been
trained in that tradition. Evidence from Chinese, Tangut, and Tibetan
sources suggests that there were at least three to five imperial precep-
tors dating from the mid-twelfth century to 1227, the fall of Xia.
The earliest documented reference occurs in the twelfth-century
Tangut edition (and in its 1447 reprinting in Chinese and Tibetan)
of the Sheng shenghui dao bi’an gongde baoji jie, which lists the per-
sons involved in producing the original translation from Tibetan (the
translators provided the Sanskrit title as well) into Chinese and Tangut
during Renzong’s reign. Mentioned here is the Xianjue Imperial Pre-
ceptor Boluoxiansheng , along with Kashmiri
monk Jayānanda and his Tibetan translator Ānanda-kīrti (Luo 1983).
The 1447 notation repeats in Chinese information from the original
Tangut colophon, only in the opposite order to Tangut custom, nam-
ing the high-ranking Boloxiansheng last, right before the emperor.
Boluoxiansheng was at the Tangut court by no later than the 1160s;
he is mentioned in six Khara Khoto texts, the most complete being the
above, where he is described as “Lecturer in Sūtra, Abhidharma, and
Vinaya; Director of the Sangha Office; Superintendant.. ., and Holder
of the Rank of ‘Completed Precept.’ ” The name Boluoxiansheng sug-
gests a Tibetan or Indian (or another non-Tangut Inner Asian, not
yet identified), or a clerical fashion for Tibetanized or Sanskritized
names.
Also documented in texts from Khara Khoto and in the Yuan-era
compilation Dacheng yaodao miji is Dacheng Xuanmi (Mahāyāna
Esoteric) Imperial Preceptor Huicheng , whose
name appears in four Khara Khoto Tangut texts, in company with that
of State Preceptor Dehui, author of The Collection of Basic Notes on
the Ultimate Great Seal [Mahāmudrā] analyzed by
Solonin (forthcoming). Although Xuanmi’s name, Huicheng, can be
reconstructed in Tibetan as Śes-rab grags-pa (Prajñākīrti), he has not
yet been identified with any known historical figure. In the Dacheng
yaodao miji, Xuanmi Imperial Preceptor appears in transmission
lineages for two “great seal” teachings, linking Tibetan and Tangut
monks over time and space, and suggesting that this figure was active
by the mid-twelfth century (Shen 2007b; Dunnell 2009ab). A Xuanmi
State Preceptor is mentioned in colophons to Chinese sūtras issued by
Renzong in 1189 and his widow Empress Luo in 1194 (Shi 1988). Thus