妙沙經 (
Miao Sha Jing
The scripture of Wonderous Sand: APOCRYPHAL
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.
