Overbey, Ryan Richard. “The Perfection of Wisdom in the Sutras.” In Buddhist Stone Sutras in China. Sichuan Province, Volume 3, Wofoyuan Section C, edited by Claudia Wenzel and Sun Hua 孫華, 125-141. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag/Hangzhou: China Academy of Art Press, 2016.
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The (Fo shuo) Xiuduoluo banre boluomi jing (佛說)修多羅般若波羅蜜經 is not included in the canon. Overbey studies the text as preserved at Wofoyuan in Sichuan, which is the only known complete exemplar. He argues that the text was composed in China. Evidence for this assertion includes several verbatim citations from portions of the Mahāsaṃnipāta T397 ascribed to *Dharmakṣema, and debts to other texts from the fifth century. The frame narrative echoes the "Larger Prajnāpāramitā" T223 of Kumārajīva. Overbey therefore dates the composition of the text after 422, and most likely in the late fifth or early sixth century. Fragments of the text are quoted in two eighth-century Chan manuscripts. Overbey gives a full translation, and also summarises the content of the text, which demonstrates concern with the decay of monastic practice and purity (a theme commonly associated with a broadly "endtimes" 末法 mentality). |