Text: Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經

No

• Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經

A Wentuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經 is included in Dao'an's list of anonymous scriptures. Fajing’s Zhongjing mulu shows this text as identical with Dingsheng wang gushi jing 頂生王故事經 since Wentuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經 is an alternate translation of the Si zhou jing 四洲經 in the Madhyamāgama 中阿含 T26.60 [A Taishō note equates this text to Divyāvadāna nos. 39, 40]. However, Sengyou 僧祐 listed the Dingsheng wang gushi jing separately in his catalogue of miscellaneous anonymous scriptures 失譯雑經錄, along with another text with a similar title, the Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經. Both of these tests were extant in Sengyou’s time. This being the case, Hayashiya argues, these three texts are different from one another.

In the Taishō, we have extant the Wentuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經T40 and the Dingsheng wang gushi jing 頂生王故事經 T39, which are alternate translations of the Sizhou jing 四洲經. The styles of both texts show clearly that they were produced in the W. Jin 西晋 period or earlier. Hayashiya points out also that the word Dingsheng wang 頂生王is not used in the Wentuojie wang jing T40, and Wentuojie wang is not used in the Dingsheng wang gushi jing T39. The Sanskrit word for Wentuojie wang 文陀竭王 must have been Māndhātṛ or Māndhātā, and the word for Dingsheng wang 頂生王 should have been Mūrdhagata or Mūrdata. Thus, it could not have been the case that the Wentuojie wang jing T40 was initially called Dingsheng wang gushi jing or Dingshengwang yinyuan jing, nor that the Dingsheng wang gushi jing T39 was initially called the Wentuojie wang jing. Thus, it is safe to regard the Wentuojie wang jing T40 as identical with the Wentuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經 in Dao'an's list, and the Dingsheng wang gushi jing T39 as corresponding either to the title Dingsheng wang gushi jing 頂生王故事經 or Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經 as recorded in Sengyou's catalogue of miscellaneous anonymous scriptures 失譯雑經錄. Fajing’s Zhongjing mulu, and some other catalogues that followed it, are therefore incorrect in classifying the Wentuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經 and the Dingsheng wang gushi jing 頂生王故事經 as the same text, while omitting the Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經 altogether.

On the other hand, LDSBJ 三寶記, and following it, KYL 開元錄, treated the three titles as different: but they give the Wangtuojie wang jing 文陀竭王經 as translated by *Dharmakṣema 曇無讖; the Dingsheng wang gushi jing 頂生王故事經 as translated by Faju 法炬; and the Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經 as an anonymous scripture of the Latter Han 後漢 period. Hayashiya maintains that all of these attributions are incorrect or groundless. [For his arguments about T39 and T40, see the separate entries on T39 and T40.] Hayashiya thus holds that he present Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經 should be regarded as a separate, lost text, and its ascription should be regarded as undetermined, since there is no evidence that anybody after Sengyou ever saw the content of the Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing given in his list. It was first alleged that the Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經 was produced in the Latter Han period in LDSBJ 三寶記, but without any reasonable support, so Hayashiya sets the possible production date of that text as sometime between the Latter Han 後漢 and Song-Qi 宋齊periods.

Entry author: Michael Radich

Edit

• Title: Dingsheng wang yinyuan jing 頂生王因縁經
• People: Anonymous (China), 失譯, 闕譯, 未詳撰者, 未詳作者, 不載譯人 (translator 譯)
• Date: 後漢 ; 宋齊