Text: T0157; 悲華經

Summary

Identifier T0157 [T]
Title 悲華經 [T]
Date 419 [Ono and Maruyama 1933-1936]
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

[Ono and Maruyama 1933-1936]  Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙, Maruyama Takao 丸山孝雄, eds. Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 佛書解說大辭典. Tokyo: Daitō shuppan, 1933-1936 [縮刷版 1999]. — s.v., Vol.9, 125-129 (Akanuma Chizen 赤沼智善 and Nishio Kyōo 西尾京雄)

Akanuma Chizen 赤沼智善 and Nishio Kyōo 西尾京雄 explain that there were four alternate translations of the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, including 悲華經 T157. Akanuma and Nishio describe the characteristics and problems of each of them as follows.

The first version is the Xian ju jing 閑居經 ascribed to Dharmarakṣa 竺法護. Akanuma and Nishio find this title peculiar, since it cannot have come from the original title (Karuṇā-puṇḍarīka-nāma-mahāyāna-sūtra), and is not related to any other alternate titles. Also, the length of the Xuan ju jing 閑居經 shown in KYL 開元錄, 1 juan, is too short. Akanuma and Nishio identifies the original word behind 閑居 as araṇya (dgon-pa), which is usually transliterated as 阿蘭若, and translated as 閑靜處. Then they look for similar words in the content of T157, and find that the name of the protagonist of the story in juan 2 and 3, 無諍念轉輪王 (離諍王 in the Qin 秦 version), viz., Aranemī (rTsibs-kyimu-khyud) could well be the source of the title given to the Xian ju jing 閑居經. Akanuma and Nishio infer that *Dharmakṣema 曇無讖 and the translator of the Qin 秦 version took 無諍念 and 離諍 respectively from Sanskrit a + raṇa, and Dharmarakṣa took 閑居 from araṇemya and used it as the title.

The above consideration and solution of the problem of the title 閑居經 suggest that this first version of the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka 悲華經 was not a complete version, but probably only part of it, corresponding to the story in juan 2 and 3, where 無諍念轉輪王 appears as the protagonist. Thus, the length of the text, 1 juan, makes sense as well.

Then, Akanuma and Nishio conjecture that probably the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka was produced after the Xian ju jing, taking the content of 無諍念轉輪王’s story as one part, rather than the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka already existing in full at the time when the Xian ju jing was translated.

The second version is entitled 大乘悲分陀利經 T158 and is an anonymous scripture. It has been said that the translator lived under the Qin 秦時 (384-417), but according to Akanuma and Nishio it can be said with certainty that the text was translated about twenty to thirty years before *Dharmakṣema's version.

The third version was the Bei hua jing 悲華經 translated by Daogong 道龔 of 北凉. This text has been lost and Akanuma and Nishio suspect that it might not have existed in the first place.

The fourth version is the Bei hua jing 悲華經 T157 translated by *Dharmakṣema in 419, in ten juan.

Entry author: Atsushi Iseki

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No

[Bagchi 1927]  Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra. Le canon bouddhique en Chine: Les traducteurs et les traductions. Sino-Indica: Publications de l’Université de Calcutta, Tome 1er. Paris: Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1927. — 211, 217-218

Bagchi notes that a Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka 悲華經 is ascribed to Daogong in LDSBJ, DTNDL, Gujin yijing tuji and KYL; KYL states that perhaps the translation ascribed to Daogong is in fact that by *Dharmakṣema (the extant T157). Referring to KYL: 悲華經十卷(第三出與法護閑居經及大悲分陀利曇無讖悲華經等同本房云見古錄似是先譯龔更刪改今疑即無讖出者是), T2154:55.519b20-21.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Kawano 2006]  Kawano Satoshi 河野訓. Shoki kan'yaku butten no kenkyū: Jiku Hōgo o chūshin to shite 初期漢訳仏典の研究 : 竺法護を中心として. Ise: Kōgakkan Daigaku Shuppanbu, 2006. — 83, 90-91 n. 16, referring to CSZJJ T2145 (LV) 11b11-26

Kawano points out that in CSZJJ, dates of translation are given for eight texts in the *Dharmakṣema corpus in the Song(-Yuan-Ming) line of transmission only (as witnessed by the Taishō apparatus), but not in the Korean, which forms the base edition for the Taishō. The extant texts in question are T157, T397(1-13, i.e. portions ascribed to Dharmakṣema only), T387, T663, T1488 and T1581; in addition, two lost texts are also listed, namely, the 海龍王經 and the 菩薩戒優婆戒壇文. This pattern is similar to that observed, but on a much larger scale, for works ascribed to Dharmarakṣa; and for two works ascribed to Guṇabhadra.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Silk 1994]  Silk, Jonathan Alan. “The Origins and History of the Mahāratnakūṭa Tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism with a Study of the Ratnarāśisūtra and Related Materials.” PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1994. — 669

In KYL, Zhisheng discussed the fact that three translations had been reported of the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, by Dharmarakṣa, Daogong 道龔, and *Dharmakṣema. Zhisheng reported a tradition that Daogong had in fact revised and arranged the first translation, by Dharmarakṣa; but Zhisheng's own opinion was that the extant text was in fact probably the *Dharmakṣema version.

KYL: 悲華經十卷(第三出與法護閑居經及大悲分陀利曇無讖悲華經等同本房云見古錄似是先譯龔更刪改今疑即無讖出者是), T2154:55.519b20-21.

[Note: This may mean that the present ascription of T157 in T derives from this judgement of Zhisheng --- MR.]

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Silk 1994]  Silk, Jonathan Alan. “The Origins and History of the Mahāratnakūṭa Tradition of Mahāyāna Buddhism with a Study of the Ratnarāśisūtra and Related Materials.” PhD dissertation, University of Michigan, 1994. — 670

Silk states briefly, referring to KYL, Tokiwa, Yamada, and Hayashiya, that "the evidence seems to suggest that the attribution [of a Bei hua jing to Daogong] is probably false, and that the 'lost' Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka translation of Daogong is rather to be identified wit the extant translation attributed to his more famous contemporary Dharmakṣema.

Entry author: Michael Radich

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No

[Bielu CSZJJ]  Bielu 別錄 as reported by CSZJJ 出三藏記集. — T2145 (LV) 11b16

In an interlinear note, CSZJJ reports that in a/the Bie lu, T157 was ascribed to Gongshang 龔上:

悲華經十卷 ... 別錄或云龔上出[玄始八年十二月出SYM].

Entry author: Michael Radich

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