Royal Authority and Ideas of Protecting the Country in the Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra

Abstract

The Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra (Jinguangming jing 金光明経) is known in East Asia particular for its idea of protecting and stabilizing the country. Some previous research insists that the chapter Devendrasamayaṃ nāma rājaśāstra parivarta (Zhenglun pin 正論品) presents the fundamental theory of the political thought of this text. This paper shows that the chapter Caturmahārāja parivarta (Sitianwang pin 四天王品) has another view of royal authority and theory of protecting the country.