Text: Jing du sanmei jing 淨度三昧經

Summary

Identifier [None]
Title Jing du sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 [Chen 2013]
Date 400-450 [Chen 2013]
Revised Xiao Ziliang 蕭子良 [Chen 2013]
Translator 譯 Baoyun, 寶雲 [Chen 2013]

Assertions

Preferred? Source Pertains to Argument Details

No

[Chen 2013]  Chen, Frederick Shih-Chung. “Who Are the Eight Kings in the Samādhi-Sūtra of Liberation through Purification? Otherworld Bureaucrats in India and China.” Asia Major 3rd ser., 26, no. 1 (2013): 55-78. — 58-59, 69-72

Chen points out that according to Fajing, the Jing du sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 was translated by Baoyun 寶雲 [T2146 (LV) 115b14], but that Fajing also mentions a version of the text that was "tampered with" by Xiao Ziliang 蕭子良 [T2146 (LV) 127a16-b8]. Before Fajing, Sengyou (CSZJJ) had also listed two versions of the text, one similarly by Xiao Ziliang, but the other anonymous. Chen suggests that some link between Baoyun and the Jing du sanmei jing may be plausible, based on the following facts: 1) Baoyun came from Liangzhou (ruled over at that time by the Northern Liang); 2) In the Northern Liang region, votive stūpas (studied by Stanely Abe, Eugene Wang, Yin Guangming and others) have been found which feature a set of "Eight Trigrams Deities", an idea Chen traces to Daoist sources; 3) the Eight Trigrams Deities" feature in the Jing du sanmei jing (or one of its source texts), so that the Jing du sanmei jing itself can be regarded as evidence that those deities had been adopted into Buddhist practice in Liangzhou. Partly on these grounds, Chen dates the Jing du sanmei jing to the period 400-450. As further support of this possible link between the Jing du sanmei jing and Baoyun, Chen also notes that on one of the votive stūpas (the Suo E 索阿 or Suo Ejun 索阿俊 stūpa) there appears the phrase tian shen wang 天神王, which also appears in a text ascribed to Baoyun (and Zhiyan 智嚴), the Si tianwang jing 四天王經 T590.

Chen is careful to state that some of his arguments strictly pertain to "only one section of the so-called composite version of Jingdu sanmei jing, a section that may be called 'Record of the Days of the Eight Kings'." Catalogues include evidence indicating that the Jing du sanmei jing as a whole might have been modified after its initial composition, and scholars (Sunayama, Kamata) have suggested that it may contain heterogeneous material "composed by different 'translators'". Sengyou (CSZJJ) also says that a text entitled Ba wang ri zhai yuan ji 八王日齋緣記 is excerpted from the Jing du sanmei jing [T2145 (LV) 91a4], and a similar account of the Days of the Eight Kings appears in the Tiwei jing 提謂經, suggesting that this portion of the text might have circulated independently in various contexts.

Among the various contents of the Jing du sanmei jing, Chen identifies as the earliest to treat the Days of the Eight Kings "a fragmentary quotation titled 'The Eight King Messengers Inspect Good and Evil on the Six Abstinence Days' 八王使者於六齋日簡約善惡". This passage is quoted in the Jing lü yi xiang 經律異相, in a passage which seems to combine various sources, including the Dunhuang manuscripts S. 4546 and B. 8654. Among these sources is also B. 8222, which bears a note stating that it is the first juan of the Jing du sanmei jing, and is also paralleled in the second juan of the Nanatsu-dera version of the text.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Teiser 1994]  Teiser, Stephen F. The Scripture of the Ten Kings and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994. — 82-83

Teiser briefly discusses Zhisheng's reasons for excising the Jing du sanmei jing from the canon.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Sakaino 1935]  Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. — 634-635

According to Sakaino, Fei ascribes the Jingdu sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 to Guṇabhadra, stating that he referred to the Li Kuo catalogue 李廓錄. Further, Fei reports that it is one of four alternate translation of the same text: that translated by Zhiyan 智嚴 of the (Liu) Song, that by Baoyun 寶雲, that by Guṇabhadra, and that by Tanyao 曇曜. However, Sakaino points out that it is plausible that Fei misunderstood a single version co-translated by Zhiyan 智嚴 and Baoyun 寶雲 as two different texts, as CSZJJ records that those two scholars are supposed to have indeed co-translated three scriptures: the 廣博嚴淨經 T268, the 四天王經 T590, and the 普曜經 [??]. Sakaino adds that there is also a possibility that Fei simply allocated one title in Sengyou/Dao’an’s catalogue of anonymous texts 失譯錄 to four different translators 譯者.

Entry author: Atsushi Iseki

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No

[Sakaino 1935]  Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. — 543-545

LDSBJ newly ascribes the Fu fazang zhuan 付法藏傳 (cf. T2058) and the Jing du sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 (cf. X15) to Baoyun 寶雲. Sakaino claims that both are highly dubious. Both titles are also listed as the works of Tanyao 曇曜 in LDSBJ, which, Sakaino claims, suggests that there was some confusion in recording those titles. The title Jing du sanmei jing appears in the “recompiled catalogue of anonymous scriptures” 新集失譯錄 of CSZJJ with the alternate title Jing du jing 淨度經. LDSBJ lists three translations of the 淨度三昧經: in addition to that ascribed to Baoyun, one ascribed to Zhiyan 智嚴, and another ascribed to Tanyao 曇曜. LDSBJ lists also three translations of the Fu fazang zhuan: in addition to that ascribed to Baoyun 寶雲, one ascribed to Tanyao 曇曜, and another ascribed to Jijiaye 吉迦夜. Sakaino lists several external reasons to conclude that it is hard to believe any of those ascriptions.

Entry author: Atsushi Iseki

Edit

Yes

[Ziegler 2001]  Ziegler, Harumi Hirano. “The Sinification of Buddhism as Found in an Early Chinese Indigenous Sūtra: A Study and Translation of the Fo-shuo Ching-tu San-mei Ching (the Samādhi-Sutra on Liberation through Purification Spoken by the Buddha).” PhD dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 2001.

"Indigenous sutra", i.e. composed in China. See also Makita Tairyō 牧田諦亮 and Ochiai Toshinori 落合俊典, ed. Chūgoku senjutsu kyōten (sono 2) 中國撰述經典(其之2) (Tokyo: Daizō shuppansha, 1994–1996), 32–118.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Fang and Lu 2023]  Fang Yixin 方一新 and Lu Lu 盧鹭. “Jin shiyu nian cong yuyan jiaodu kaobian keyi Fojing chengguo de huigu yu zhanwang” 近十余年從語言角度考辨可疑佛經成果的回顧與展望.” Journal of Zhejiang University (Humanities and Social Sciences Online Edition), Jan. 2023: 1–24. — 15

In an article surveying scholarship on questions of attribution in the Chinese canon published in the last decade, Fang and Lu state that Xiong Juan argues that the Jing du sanmei jing 淨度三昧經 may have been produced in the early Northern and Southern dynasties, but also features some terms coined after the Sui and Tang dynasties. They refer to

Xiong Juan 熊娟. Hanwen Fodian yiwei jing yanjiu 漢文佛典疑偽經研究. Shanghai: Shanghai guji chubanshe, 2015: 179–221.

Entry author: Mengji Huang

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