འཕགས་པ་གསར་འད་དམ་པ་མད་སྡའ་དབང་པའ་རྒྱལ་པ་ཞས་བྱ་བ་ཐག་པ་ཆན་པའ་མད intro.27

intro.27

The Mogao caves of Dunhuang, which were sealed in the eleventh century, contained a great number of manuscripts of the sūtra, particularly those of Yijing’s translation into Chinese. The sūtra became popular for its teachings on freeing oneself from the effects of bad karma. For example, Yijing’s Chinese translation (and the Uighur and Tangut versions derived from it) has a preface that states how the sūtra saved Zhang Judao, ruler of Tangut, from going to hell because he had slaughtered cattle for a big feast. This narrative is illustrated in a twelfth-century Tangut woodcut that is preserved in St. Petersburg.¹⁶