An Investigation of the Relationship between Prince Shotoku's Shomangyo-gisho and Two Dunhuang Buddhist Manuscripts: A Debate over Originality and Canonical Value

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between Nai 93 and Tama 24--two manuscript fragments discovered at Dunhuang--and the Shomangyo-gisho, a Buddhist text written in classical Chinese that scholars traditionally attributed to Japan's Prince Shotoku (574-622). This discussion focuses on Fujieda Akira's discovery that these Dunhuang manuscripts predate and closely resemble the text attributed to Shotoku. Fujieda's research caused heated scholarly debate by questioning the Shomangyo-gisho's authorship and value, leading to the production of a substantial body of research in the late 1960s and 1970s seeking to clarify the relationship between the Shomangyo-gisho and the Dunhuang manuscripts. Specialists in Shotoku Studies saw these efforts as crucial because assertions of the Shomangyo-gisho's originality are central to its perceived value. One can view this research as part of the broader search for the 'true record', a goal that informed much of the scholarship on the Shomangyo-gisho and two other Buddhist commentaries attributed to the prince. After discussing Fujieda's work, the article examines how those who accept Shotoku's authorship of the Shomangyo-gisho tried to respond to Fujieda's key findings, focusing on how they address the Dunhuang discoveries in modern translations and critical editions of the text attributed to the prince. It concludes by offering an alternative angle of critical vision on the relationship between these texts that differs in key ways from this received body of scholarship.