Buddhist Apocrypha: 佛說眼明經 The Bright-Eye sutra spoken by the Buddha

佛說眼明經 The Bright-Eye sutra spoken by the Buddha 

Continuing in this blog's series on Buddhist apocrypha, here is a positively tiny "sutra", the Fo shuo Yanguangming Jing: The Bright-eye sutra spoken by the Buddha  Just a hundred characters long, it might be more properly characterised as an incantation which cures eye trouble.  

The sutra seems to be relatively popular. There are at last two copies of the sutra online http://www.boder.idv.tw/fsumj.htm and  https://simple.taolibrary.com/category/category50/c50126.htm, and the sutra appears in the otherwise solidly canonical collection of sutras called 五經合刊 (A collection of Five Sutras) published by 和裕出版社 in Taiwan (See appendix 1). What makes this surprising, is that from a preliminary search, a sutra of this name does not appear in any of the Buddhist canons, even as an apocryphon. I have yet to find the sutra's true origin. It does not seem to appear in the Chanmen Risong (Zen daily recitations) which otherwise contains numerous apocrypha, that have been translated elsewhere on this blog 

However, it appears elsewhere, as for example appended to a copy of the Surangama Mantra that I possess. (see appendix 2). The text also appears in a book entitled 九品高王觀音經  (Nine Sutras including the High King Guanyin Sutra) by 佛經堂 (hall of buddhist sutras), which I have scanned on Archive, and is accessible here https://archive.org/details/fojingtang/page/n13/mode/2up. This is a collection of numerous Guanyin-related sutras, and the text of the sutra in that book has been reproduced as appendix 3. This sutra is followed by a "Mantra to give brightness to the eyes" 眼光明咒 

To confuse matters,  there is another scripture of the same title 佛說眼明經 , but is somewhat longer. This sutra is associated with the True Buddha School(the sect of Lu Sheng-yen). A translation of the sutra into English has been made here http://lotuschef.blogspot.com/2016/06/clear-vision-sutra_27.html as the "Clear Vision Sutra". These two sutras have little in common with one another. For starters, the Clear Vision Sutra begins by invoking Guanyin, and then ends by invoking Mahamayuri.

 For more discussion about these two sutras in Chinese see https://ch.tbsn.org/dynamics/detail/494 and http://www.gelupa.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=19843&extra=&page=1 

UPDATE: 16 April 2026: Rearranged introduction to make it clearer; added additional source of the scripture 

大聖末劫經 GREAT SAGE END KALPA SUTRA

 大聖末劫經

GREAT SAGE END KALPA SUTRA 

From https://archive.org/details/dsmjj_images/page/n5/mode/2up 

It might strike the reader as surprising to see the 'laughing buddha' depicted on such a serious scripture, but this is actually the traditional chinese depiction of Maiterya. 

This text is one of a series of rather curious 'folk' scriptures. it will hopefully be first of a series of such scriptures that I intend to translate and will post on this blog. All these sutras have a common theme: A series of disasters will soon come to strike humanity; the wicked will perish, and the good survive. If the readers would repent in time and cultivate morality/distrubute the scripture, then they would be saved. 

The earliest such scripture is the Scripture of the Five Lords 五公經 which I have previously featured here https://edwardwhite123.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-sutra-of-five-lords.html

(I presently possess an English translation of the sutra, but the Chinese text from which I take it is so jumbled that the translation barely makes sense. When I get a better copy of the sutra I will revise the translation and publish it). However the Scripture of the Five Lords is not alone: The Great Sage End Kalpa sutra is another such example. 

Before I go further I should speak of the religious affiliation of the text. The boundaries between buddhism and Daoism have always been blurred in China- especially at a popular level, and this scripture is no exception. We have Maiterya, the future Buddha, as well as Guanyin having a dialogue with the Jade emperor.

 However, as much as this work works in a buddhist/daoist cosmology, it is far from the mainstream chinese buddhist [or indeed, daoist] scripture- not least because there have been numerous rebellions of people who proclaimed themselves as Maitreya. if I recall correctly I did not acquire this text from a Buddhist temple, but rather from a 'tract table' in a Daoist temple, where people place holy books for free distribution. (Chinese Daoists are really more polytheists: they have a more relaxed attitude to these things) 

It is also worth noting how the sutra came to earth- via the well-established method of fuji, or planchette writing -- the sutra's colophon states precisely when and where the  the sutra was revealed. Furthermore, the book from which the sutra is extracted has a whole plethora of messages from the god at the back, likewise revealed through FuJi. The fact that this text was revealed by planchette writing may also show why it is so disjointed: it goes backwards and forwards, often repeating itself. 

I have doubts about some translations, and there may be errors. If my readers can spot such errors or have any other suggestions, I would be glad to hear of them. 

Buddhist Apocrypha: 分珠經 The scripture on the Divisions of the beads

分珠經：偽造

The scripture on the Divisions of the beads (APOCRYPHAL)

This is the second of a series of buddhist apocrypha from that are collected in this 1931 edition of Chanmen Risong: 禪門日誦 Zen Daily Recitations. For an introduction to what this book is, you should read this post about another apocryphon in the same collection, the Scripture of Wondrous Sand 

This present scripture- the Fen Zhu Jing -- 分珠經 -- Scripture of the division of beads  is a curious one. It is composed in two parts that have little to do with one another. 

All genuine Buddhist sutras begin with a scene describing where the Buddha delivered the sutra, as well as  who was present. This text also possesses such a scene, but it was quite obviously, and crudely, tacked on to the "sutra proper", which describes how you can evade  hell, through (in effect) deceiving the underworld guards. This transition is particularly obvious, as the introduction is written in prose, whilst this section is written in seven-character verse, with the title of the scripture even mentioned at the very end of it! 

Like an other apocrypha in this collection (eg: the Scripture of Wonderous Sand above), the scripture on the division of beads expresses a concern about crossing the River Nai. This is the river which separates the world of the living from hell. Sinners are pushed straight into the river to be tormented, whilst the good may ascend a golden or silver bridge over the river. However this bridge is guarded What the scripture shows, is that If you tell the guards of you are from the Naga-puspa assembly (龍華會 Longhua hui = dragon flower assembly) – i.e. the assembly around Nagapuspa tree, under which Maitreya will become a buddha, you will get to crosss the bridge, and go straight to the western paradise of Amithaba without any questions asked. 

The second section of the scripture begins just as abruptly. The assembly asked the Sixth Patriarch (i.e. Huineng) why the japamala has 108 beads.  The replies by giving a list of buddhist lists, the total number of articles adds up to 108. He finishes by describing respectful treatment of a japamala. One of the things that seems to be noted is that you should not put the japamala over the "Storehouse of the seven treasures"-- perhaps meaning buddhist scriptures.  The author has heard of a similar prohibition that is still extant today. 

 The scripture concludes with a reiteration of the benefits of the scripture. 

****

The edition from which I have taken the scripture is accessible here at google books

Note, however, that this book has been digitalised back to front, so as you scroll down the page, you will go earlier in the book. There is a 1915 edition of the Zen Daily Recitations that has this scripture, but it is not punctuated.It is accessible here  There is additional a 19thc manuscript copy of the sutra accessible here https://books.google.com.sg/books?id=UvNpSbgSqFEC&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&dq=%E5%88%86%E7%8F%A0%E7%B6%93&pg=PP48#v=onepage&q=%E5%88%86%E7%8F%A0%E7%B6%93&f=false but I have not checked the text below against this manuscript. 

Buddhist Apocrypha: 妙沙經 The Scripture of Wondrous Sand

妙沙經 (偽造)

Miao Sha Jing 

The scripture of Wonderous Sand: APOCRYPHAL 

The frontispiece to a Ming-dynasty (萬曆辛丑年=1601  copy of the Scripture, now kept in Tokyo. From  Open Museum 

This scripture will be a first in a series of apocryphal scriptures that are collected in this 1931 edition of Chanmen Risong: 禪門日誦 Zen Daily Recitations. The heart of this book are the Buddhist morning and evening services: collections of scriptures that are chanted in the mornings and evenings by buddhist monasteries, a practise that continues to this day. However, in addition to the morning and evening services, the book contains other material that would be useful to buddhists, like  hymns that would be sung before and after sutras were recited, essays on various aspects of buddhism, tables of religious festivals, mantras for various purposes, and finally, short sutras. 

This is where the current apocryphal text, the "Scripture of Wondrous Sand" Miaosha Jing 妙沙經  fits in. This extremely short scripture is an incantation, invoking hosts of buddhas. The scripture proclaims that reciting it would allow you to deliver yourself- and your ancestors- from hell. In that respect, it resembles things like the Eighty-Eight Buddhas Litany 八十八佛懺 or the Three Thousand Buddhas Repentance litany 三千佛洪名寶懺: Still-practised rites which consist of lists of buddhas's names (although these rites are based on non-apocryphal sutras). It is not inconceivable that this "sutra" started off life as a litany or hymn that eventually was ascribed magical powers. Indeed, as we shall see, all the apocrypha in the Zen Daily recitations have a common feature: Reciting them has magical power. 

 Unlike other scriptures in the collection, The compilers of this text clearly marked it as 偽造 FALSELY CREATED, or perhaps idiomatically "Apocryphal" But if it was marked as "false", why would it be included in such a collection in the first place?

This was probably because the scripture was probably very popular, The scripture is rather short, and easily memorised even by people of meagre ability, empowering them to take over the destinies of their ancestors and themselves. Indeed, as can be seen above, this popularity spread to elite circles. Emperor Shenzhong-- the Wanli Emperor-- commissioned a copy of the sutra written in gold characters.  Religious professionals could ill-afford to ignore the wishes of their lay clients, who placed trust in such scriptures. 

However, in the end, orthodoxy triumphed. As far as the author can tell, This scripture is no longer recited by modern-day buddhists. As such, this intriguing little incantation has no English translation, apart from what is presented below. 

The Thousand Character Classic numbered 千字文數字對照表

 The Thousand Character Classic  is a Chinese text that contains 1000 characters, of which no character appears twice. This characteristic lent the work to an interesting off-label use: numeration

Because every character in the text is unique, you could use individual characters to compactly represent any number from 1-1000. So instead of writing 七百一十七(717), you could simply write  林 "forest" to represent the number seven hundred and seventeen.  Volumes of the Qianlong Tripitaka 乾隆大藏經  were numbered in this fashion (using the first 724 characters!) , as well as examination cells, etc.  Even until recently, Taiwanese conscripts' serial numbers started with one of the first four characters of the Thousand Character Classic. 

Another related use was the lottery known as Puckapoo, which used the first 80 characters as entries for punters to place bets on. Sometimes the first 100 characters were used, but rather awkwardly characters 98-100 are 弔民伐罪 which could be interpreted as "the people are hanged for their crimes" (the actual meaning is 'the people are consoled; crimes are punished"), and various substitutions were made. 

The system is not perfect. For example, some natural numbers are in the text, and awkwardly not in the corresponding positions. Eg: two is character number 415. A complete list is shown below:

One 壹 =123

Two 二=415 

five 五=151

four 四=149

eight 八=499 

nine 九=609 

hundred 百=613 

thousand 千=603 

ten thousand 萬=143 

To the author's knowledge, no such table corresponding each number of the 1000 character classic to natural numbers has been attempted. As such he places this table on his blog, for the convieneicence of the public. His base text has been the Wikisource text . Some of the characters have alternate forms, or have commonly established subsitutions (eg 元-玄); these are placed in square brackets. If there are any errors or omissions in the text below, please let him know of them, for which he will be most grateful. 

Update 15 April 2024:Fixed bug  where only the first 796  entries were displayed. Thanks, George Pollard! 

UPDATE: 3 July 2024. I have finally have had the spare time to add the simplified characters. The simplified characters are placed in (round brackets) in the text. From a count of the characters, there are 364 of them that have an exclusively simplified form (I am not counting traditional variants like  no. 394 真/眞 or 848 牀/床). 

As my readers would know, In the process of simplification, what were previously separate characters in traditional were merged. This has happened for the following 7 characters in the Thousand Character Classic, (which have been marked with an asterisk in the main text)

i.         i. 102發  and 148髮 ——>「发」

2. 51巨 and 637鉅 ——>「巨」(although 钜 is also known as a simplified form of 637)
3. 47崑 and 633昆——>「昆」
4. 749 慼 and 818戚 ——>「戚」
5. 33 雲and 623云——>「云」
6. 616并 and 933並——>「并」
7. 164絜 and 836潔——>「洁」

As such the text contains 993 different characters when it is printed in the simplified script. Of course, this gives a problem when the text is used to number things (so volume 发 may be either 102 or 348). This might be the case when (say) an old book is republished in Simplified chinese, but otherwise I do not think this would be an issue: if the editors were careful, they would've numbered the books with ordinary numerals as a primary reference. 

Again, from a linguistic standpoint this merging has no effect. Firstly, the seven words above are already homophones in spoken mandarin. Secondly, by reading the thousand character classic as a whole the context would dispel every ambiguity. So character 102 means "prosper" (in the context of a person's name: Fa of Zhou, i.e. King Wu of Zhou) and character 148 means "hair". 

弔民伐罪，周發殷湯｜吊民伐罪，周发殷汤。

Relieve the people, right the wrong; as did Fa of Zhou and Yin of Tang

    蓋此身髮。四大五常。 ｜盖此身发。四大五常。

These bodies and this hair of ours; Four Great Things, Five Principles. 

(translation based on the one by Nathan Sturman  another copy of his translation)