The Sutra of the Sun 太陽星君聖經
In this post I will translate the Sutra of the sun. This sutra- or scripture- is mostly a short hymn in praise of the god of the Sun, the Stellar Worthy of Great Yang 太陽星君.
This scripture, although apocryphal, had a following. and is still occasionally printed. The author's father recalled that as a small child in Singapore, he heard his grandmother say the words 太陽出來滿天紅- when the sun rises, the whole sky turns red - one of the lines on the scripture. This is not unexpected, because in The Sutra of the Moon published in this book, we find a Singaporean miracle tale from the Second World War.
This scripture is a prime example of what has been called the "Everyday religion" of China: A free mingling of Buddhism, Daoism,indigenous deities etc. Again, this scripture is rather pragmatic: as much as the scripture allows one to access the Pure Land, the benefits accrued by reciting the scripture are also more worldly- eg healing, children, and wealth, things borne out in the miracle tales. It is also intriguing that the scripture is in parts a complaint of the sun god himself that nobody is worshipping him. This might indicate the decline of the veneration of astral deities in China.
I have chosen to translate the 經 in the title as "Sutra", for the scripture at contains some Buddhist elements, notably the identificaton of the Stellar Lord of the Sun as the Buddha of the Brilliant Pearl. Readers should note, however, the term 經 in Chinese is used to refer to any revered book, not just Buddhist ones
There are a great number of variations of the sutra. This site, for instance, lists no less than three variations of the sutra, from Huzhou, Ningbo and Hong Kong http://www.360doc.com/content/12/1004/23/8175814_239518162.shtml#google_vignette I hope to translate and compare these texts in a later post.
I take as my base text the following copy that was printed by a Singaporean drugstore. https://archive.org/details/taiyangjingimages/page/n3/mode/2up you can find another edition here https://archive.org/details/images_20220217. For the sake of convenience, I have numbered each line of the sutra. Like many such books, printed alongside the scripture text is a series of miracle tales or testimonials. I have translated these as well. This book contains another scripture The Sutra of the Moon which is translated here
____________
3太陽明明珍光佛、 4四大明神正乾坤 The Brilliant Sun is the Buddha of the brilliant pearl, One of the four great gods that rule heaven and earth.
5太陽出現滿天紅、 6曉夜行程不住停 When the sun arises, the whole sky becomes red, Night and day, he never stops in his course
7行得快來催人老、 8行的慢來不留存 When He hastens through the sky, people quickly grow old, When He is delayed, nothing can survive
9家家門前都走過、 10 倒惹诸人叫小名 He travels before each and every household. When he arrives before all people, they call him bad names.
11惱得二人歸山去*、 12 饿死黎民苦眾生 He shall be enraged and so the two people will return to the mountains* And the people shall starve, and lead a bitter life
*Wikipedia 惱得太陽歸山去 Tao Library : 惹得日神歸山去 both meaning “The Sun shall be enraged, and will return to the mountains”
13天上無我無晝夜、 14地下無我少收成 “ Without me, there is neither day nor night, Without my aid, there will be bad harvests
15个个神明有人敬*、
16 那個我敬太陽星
Many Gods are worshipped by men, I will worship the Sun. *Wikipedia無人恭敬太陽星 “But no-one worships the Sun”
17太陽三月十九生、 18 家家念佛敬红燈 The Sun was born in the 19th day of the 3rd month. All families should recite the Buddha, and light red lanterns.
19 有人传我太陽經、 20 全家老幼免災星 “If people shall transmit my Sun-Sutra, Their families shall be spared from disaster.
21无人传我太陽經、 22眼前就是地獄門 “ If no-one transmits my sun-sutra, The gates of hell are just before them.”
23太陽明明珠光佛、 24傳與善男信女們 The Brilliant Sun is the Buddha of the brilliant pearl; Transmit this to good men, and believing women.
25每日早早念七遍、 26永世不入地獄門 Reciting this seven times, early in each day, You shall never enter the gate of Hell.
27 臨終之時生淨土、 28 九泉七祖盡超昇、* After death you shall be reborn in the pure land. The Ancestors in the Nine Springs** shall swiftly attain liberation
* Wiki: 九玄七祖盡超昇、“Your ancestors to the 9th degree shall attain liberation
** the underworld
<Miracle tales of the Scripture of the Sun:>
Upon The 1st day of the second month, The 19th day of the 3rd month, The 19th day of the 11th month, one must sincerely offer incense and prayers.
嘉興府錢姓年，六十七歲尚無子息。夜夢一人，寬袍大袖五綹長髮者，授以此經囑於空心誦念。醒而書於几案，則夫妻二人日日誦念。未及一年，妻已懷孕。 未及一年，妻已懷孕。次年即舉兩子。 後復見齋、入詞館。壽至九十五歲，於道光三年無疾而終。 A most wealthy man , surnamed Nian 年 of the city of Jiaxing 嘉兴, was sixty-seven years old, but yet childless. One night he dreamt of a man with long whiskers, who was wearing a robe with great sleeves, and five tassels 大袖五綹, The robed man then recited this sutra. Upon waking, the wealthy man wrote the sutra down. He and his wife recited this sutra daily. Before the year was out, the wife was pregnant, and the next year, he gave birth to two children. Thereafter, they upheld the Zhai-precepts, and entered into a temple (reading 詞 as 祠). [The Man] died painlessly at the age of 95 in the 3rd year of Daoguang (1823)
湖南長沙府，長沙縣，趙姓名益。者屢試不售。後得此經，朝夕誦念，並發願刻三千張送人，未送二千二數，是年即舉經魁 In Changsha, Hunan, there lived a man called Zhao Yi. Despite multiple tries he failed [the imperial exams]. After acquiring a copy of this scripture, he recited it morning and evening, and also made a vow to print and distribute three thousand copies. Before he had distributed 2200 copies, he passed the provincial exams that very same year.
漂陽縣，周姓字名芳，雙目不明。後遇友人口授此經 。焚香靜誦。將近七月兩眼忽然復明，後亦刊刻五千張送人 In Piaoyang, there was a [woman] called Zhou Fang. She was blind in both eyes. She met a friendly person, who read to her this scripture. Thereafter she burnt incense and recited it silently. Seven months later, sight was restored to her eyes; she then printed 5000 copies to distribute.
金匱縣，鄭復興，年四十七歲。貧苦已極。遇有友傳授 此經。並勸刊送，身無資金。將衣典賣數千文，刊刻一 千五百張送人。次年即遇友人，借本囤買蒜頭。獲利十倍數，年之久竟成富户。復刊刻一萬張送， In Jingui, Deng Fuxing was 47 years old. He was extremely poor. He met a friend who transmitted to him this scripture and encouraged him to print and circulate copies. However, he could not do so as he had no cash at hand. After mortgaging 典賣 his property, he got several thousand taels of cash, which he used to print 1500 copies to give to people. The next year he met that friend who lent him money to buy a stock of garlic. With this, he gained a tenfold profit, and within a few years became rich. Thereafter, he reprinted a further 10,000 copies to distribute.
No comments:
Post a Comment