Text: T0374; 大般涅槃經

Summary

Identifier T0374 [T]
Title 大般涅槃經 [T]
Date [None]
Translator 譯 *Dharmakṣema, 曇無讖 [T]

There may be translations for this text listed in the Bibliography of Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon into Western Languages. If translations are listed, this link will take you directly to them. However, if no translations are listed, the link will lead only to the head of the page.

There are resources for the study of this text in the SAT Daizōkyō Text Dabatase (Saṃgaṇikīkṛtaṃ Taiśotripiṭakaṃ).

Assertions

Preferred? Source Pertains to Argument Details

No

[T]  T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Ōno 1954]  Ōno Hōdō 大野法道. Daijō kai kyō no kenkyū 大乗戒経の研究. Tokyo: Risōsha 理想社, 1954. — 236-237

Ōno maintains that the account of the translation process of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra 大般涅槃經 (T374) (北本) in the biography of *Dharmakṣema in GSZ is not quite right (236). It records that the first ten juan were translated in 414 CE; *Dharmakṣema went to Khotan 于闐 later and obtained a middle portion; after coming back, he sent a person/persons 使 to obtain the last part; and the translation work was finished on October 23, 421 CE. CSZJJ also records the same in the section of *Dharmakṣema’s works.

Ōno thinks more reliable the preface 經序 by Hexi Daolang 河西道朗 ( T2145 (LV) 59c15-25, quoted on page 236). According to this account, *Dharmakṣema first came to Dunhuang 燉煌 with a variety of scriptures, and then moved to the Northern Liang 北涼, where he translated the first ten juan of T374 upon the request of Juqu Mengxun 蒙遜, finishing on October 23, 421 CE. This preface is included in the Ming edition of the canon and in CSZJJ. In the latter, some lines are added to the end of the preface. Ōno claims that this addition was made after the entire text was translated in order to make the preface by 道朗 look like as if it was written for the later, longer version of the text. GSZ was misled by this addition and recorded incorrectly that the translation of the entire text (not only the first ten juan) was completed in 421 CE (236-237).

Another account of the translation work of T374 is the “Da niepan jing ji” 大涅槃經記 in CSZJJ [but details of this record again contradict other sources]. It records the following: the first ten juan of T374, comprising five chapters 五品, was brought to Gaochang 高昌 by Zhimeng 智猛, which Juqu Mengxun 蒙遜 obtained and had *Dharmakṣema translate. Further chapters existed in Dunhuang 燉煌, and were translated later. However, the true end portion of the text still had to be sent from “Hu dao” 胡道, and ultimately remained untranslated, due to the political instability of the time. Ōno points out about this record that Zhimeng could not in fact have brought the first ten juan because, according to his biography (in CSZJJ), he departed India 天竺 to come back to China in 424 CE, and hence should still have been in India when the first ten juan were translated. Ōno supposes that the “Da niepan jing ji” confused the acquisition of the text by Zhimeng in Pātaliputra, more than a decade after Faxian, with the acquisition of the first ten juan by Faxian himself. Ōno states that it is certain that the source text for the remaining thirty juan incorporated into Dharmakṣema’s T374 came from Khotan, and the translation of the first ten juan was completed in 424 CE. Ōno also states that T374 circulated 流布 in Jiangnan 江南 relatively late, as evidence by traditions about Daosheng’s 道生 interpretations of the texts and its doctrines (237).

Entry author: Atsushi Iseki

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