Introduction

i.1In The Myth Chapter, Vajrabhairava, a tantric deity considered to be the wrathful emanation of Mañjuśrī, travels to the city of Yama that lies beyond the southern ocean and easily crushes the iron city. This prompts Yama and his followers to surrender to him and offer him their life force, which takes the form of syllables constituting the thirty-two syllable mantra of Vajrabhairava. Vajrabhairava subsequently teaches the mantra and then empowers Yama and his followers to become servants of liberation. He also commands the female inhabitants of Yama’s city to uphold his teachings during the final five-hundred-year period of the Dharma by supporting the activities of yogins and vidyādharas. Once they all have given their word, Vajrabhairava releases them.

i.1在《神話章》中，金剛怖畏是文殊菩薩的忿怒化身，他前往位於南方海洋彼岸的閻魔城，輕易摧毀了那座鐵城。這促使閻魔及其眷屬向他投降，並獻上他們的生命力，化現為構成金剛怖畏三十二音節咒語的音節。金剛怖畏隨後傳授了這個咒語，並授權閻魔及其眷屬成為解脫的僕人。他也命令閻魔城的女性居民在法的最後五百年時期，通過支持瑜伽士和持明者的活動來維護他的教法。當他們都發誓之後，金剛怖畏便解除了對他們的束縛。

i.2The Myth Chapter begins rather abruptly and lacks the traditional introductory formulas of Buddhist scripture that establishes the time, location, and setting for the discourse. In common with many Buddhist tantras, the fact that the text omits this formula can be attributed to the text’s status as an extraction of a longer, complete text that is inaccessible in the human realm. One such account for the Vajrabhairava cycle states that the Indian siddha Lalitavajra received the transmission of the Vajrabhairava corpus from the ḍākinīs in Oḍḍiyāna and was only allowed to copy and take as much of the text with him back to India as he was able to recite and memorize in seven days. The colophon of the Vajrabhairava Tantra itself states that the tantras of the Vajrabhairava cycle are mere extracts from a much more comprehensive tantra. That The Myth Chapter can be considered such an extract is further indicated by its title, which identifies the text as a rtog pa (Skt. kalpa). While this term often refers to a “ritual” or “procedure,” it can also refer to a section or chapter of a larger work.

i.2《神話品》開篇相當突兀，缺乏佛教經典通常具有的傳統開篇公式，這些公式通常用來確立說法的時間、地點和背景。與許多佛教密續一樣，該文本省略這一公式的原因在於其作為一個更長、更完整的文本提取的身份，而那個完整的文本在人間是無法獲得的。關於金剛怖畏循環的一個相關記載說，印度成就者歡喜金剛從烏仗那的空行母那裡獲得了金剛怖畏教法的傳承，但只被允許複製並帶回印度他在七天內能夠誦讀和記憶的文本內容。《金剛怖畏密續》本身的後記指出金剛怖畏循環中的密續只是一部更加全面、更加詳盡的密續的片段提取。《神話品》被視為這樣的提取文本，這一點還可以由其標題進一步說明，該標題將該文本稱為「rtog pa」（梵文 kalpa）。雖然這個術語通常指的是「儀軌」或「程序」，但它也可以指一部更大著作的一個章節或部分。

i.3The Myth Chapter sparked a degree of controversy in Tibet. According to Tāranātha, some scholars considered The Myth Chapter to be a spurious tantra (rdzun rgyud) because it contains content that suggests a Tibetan provenance. For example, the text includes a reference to non-human beings named tsen (btsan), an indigenous class of beings with no known Indic equivalent. Tāranātha, however, contends that this verse alone was a later interpolation because it is not found in an old witness of this text and that the rest of the text is indeed authentic.

i.3《神話章》在西藏引發了一定程度的爭議。根據塔拉那他的記載，一些學者認為《神話章》是偽造的密續，因為它包含的內容暗示出自西藏的來源。例如，該文本中提到了一類被稱為山神的非人類生命，這是一個沒有已知印度等同物的本土生命形式。然而，塔拉那他辯稱只有這一偈頌是後來插入的，因為在該文本的古老版本中找不到它，而文本的其餘部分確實是真實可信的。

i.4There are at present no known Sanskrit witnesses of The Myth Chapter, nor is there an available extant recension of the source text from which it was extracted. The text is included twice in the Degé canon, once in the Unexcelled Yoga tantra section of the Kangyur (Toh 471), and once again in the Tengyur (Toh 2006). Neither of these versions includes a translator’s colophon, but a colophon is included in the versions preserved in the Kangxi and Lithang Kangyurs. These colophons are, however, quite terse and do not yield much useful data that could help determine the context of the text’s transmission and translation in Tibet.

i.4目前尚無已知的《神話章》梵文文本，也找不到它所摘取之源文本的現存版本。該文本在德格版大藏經中出現過兩次，一次在《甘珠爾》的無上瑜伽密續部分（Toh 471），另一次在《丹珠爾》中（Toh 2006）。這兩個版本都沒有譯者的跋文，但在康熙版和理塘版甘珠爾中保存的版本裡有跋文。然而這些跋文都相當簡短，提供的有用資料有限，無法幫助確定該文本在西藏的傳播和翻譯背景。

i.5This English translation was prepared on the basis of the two Degé witnesses (Toh 471 and 2006), in consultation with the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Degé Kangyur and the version of the text that is preserved in the Stok Palace Kangyur.

i.5本英文譯文乃根據德格版大藏經的兩個版本（Toh 471和2006）編製而成，並參考了德格版甘珠爾的對比版本（dpe bsdur ma）以及斯托克宮藏經中保存的該文本版本。