Text: T152(79); [no title given in source]

Summary

Identifier T152(79) [T]
Title [no title given in source] [T]
Date [None]
Author Kang Senghui, 康僧會 [Shi Tianchang 1998]

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. — T152 (III) 42a13-b26

Entry author: Michael Radich

Edit

  • Title: [no title given in source]
  • Identifier: T152(79)

No

[Shi Tianchang 1998]  Shi Tianchang 釋天常. "Liu di ji yanjiu" 六度集研究. Chung-Hwa Buddhist Studies 中華佛學研究 2 (1998): 75-104. — 96-100

In treating the texts found in the chapter on dhyānapāramitā in the Liu du ji jing T152, Tianchang notes, like prior scholars (e.g. Link, Zürcher) that T152(74) is actually the preface to the chapter, not a tale like those comprising the typical content of the Liu du ji. However, he demurs from predecessors like Link and Zürcher by holding that T152(75) and T152(76) and not part of this same preface. Tianchang argues that T152(74) and T152(75) share a common topic, namely, the control required for entry into dhyāna and the description of states ensuing upon its attainment. He aims to demonstrate this claim by listing a series of parallels in phrasing between the two. He holds that it would not make sense for such content to be repeated at such length in a single document like a preface, and therefore, that the common passages represent the author of the preface anticipating and echoing the content of the first proper text in the chapter. He then argues that T152(76), by contrast, is closely related to T152(77) and T152(78). No. 76 describes 26 thoughts that conduce to entry into dhyāna. Nos. 77 and 78 rehearse the narrative of the Prince Siddhartha making his excursions from the palace and seeing the "sights" of age, sickness, and death—whereupon he is depicted as returning to the palace and practicing dhyāna. In light of this grouping, Tianchang believes that No. 76 belongs with 77 and 78, and it is therefore inappropriate to treat it as part of the Introduction. By this process of elimination, he concludes that only T152(74) represents Kang Senghui's preface to the chapter.

However, Tianchang also concludes that T152(75) and T152(76) do not fit the general content and structure of the Liu du ji. Tianchang believes that the general mode of presentation of meditation here matches the content of An Shigao's texts, and is compatible with Kang Senghui's authorship, since Senghui is said to have continued Shigao's practices. They feature general instructions on meditation, and do not feature the deeds of Śākyamuni when he was a bodhisattva, or present the six perfections as bodhisattva practice. For Tianchang, these texts should therefore not have been part of any Indic Vorlage for the Liu du ji.

T152(77) presents episodes from Śākyamuni's "present" life like his excursions from the palace, and the episode in which he watches the ploughing; T152(78) presents his birth, marriage, and disillusion with the world. These texts therefore appear more at home in a Buddha biography. However, they also differ from more usual Buddha biographies in some details: the episodes are presented out of chronological order, and when the prince sees the "slights", he reacts by going back to the palace and meditating. These details lead Tianchang to conclude that T152(77) and T152(78) could not have been in an Indic source text for the Liu du ji, and might be Kang Senghui's original works.

Continuing the Buddha-biography theme, T152(79) presents Śākyamuni as a bodhisattva (in his last lifetime) achieving the three superknowledges through his meditative practice, and T152(80) presents the episode in which he was oblivious to a thunderstorm because he was absorbed in meditation. Tianchang holds that these texts, too, do not fit with the usual structure of the Liu du ji, and should not have been part of its Indic original text.

Tianchang also lays out striking matches in wording in passages treating the same episodes in T152(78) and Zhi Qian's Taizi ruiying benqi jing 太子瑞應本起經 T185; and, similarly, between T152(79) and the Yichu pusa benqi jing 異出菩薩本起經 T188 ascribed to Daozhen (98-99). On this basis, he proposes that in composing these texts, Kang Senghui consulted earlier works.

T152(81) presents a version of the Sadāprarudita story, better known from its occurrence in some members of the family of Prajñāpāramitā sūtras. Tianchang notes that this version of the story deviates in some details from the Prajñāpāramitā versions of the same story. In particular, other versions of the story do not present Sadāprarudita as a prior life of Śākyamuni. Tianchang also opines that the story, which he interprets as promoting or praising the perfection of wisdom, sits oddly in a section of the Liu du ji ostensibly devoted to the perfection of dhyāna. He notes further that this is the only example in all of T152 where we encounter the idea of a Mahāyāna bodhisattva. For all these reasons, he holds that it is unlikely that the text was part of any Indic Vorlage for the Liu du ji. He claims further that there are echoes of Kang Senghui's ideas, as attested in other texts, in this version of the story, and that the style is highly consonant with that of Kang Senghui. On this basis, he argues that it is very probable that the story was added to the collection by Senghui himself.

Entry author: Michael Radich

Edit