Text: T1500; 菩薩戒本

No

• T1500; 菩薩戒本

Ōno maintains that the Pusa jie ben 菩薩戒本 (*Bodhisatva prātimokṣa?)（Dichi jieben 地持戒本, *Bodhisatvabhūmi prātimokṣa?）(T1500) ascribed to *Dharmakṣema 曇無讖 was produced on the basis of the precepts chapter 戒品 of the Bodhisatvabhūmi 菩薩地持經 (T1581), a fairly long time after T1581 was translated, and that there are some pieces of evidence in T1500 indicating that, influenced by the “book of precepts” (prātimokṣa?) 戒本 in the Vinaya 律, the text was adjusted and used for the bodhisatva precepts 菩薩戒 as recited or administered at bimonthly Mahāyāna “precept assemblies” 説戒會 (that is, the equivalent of prātimokṣa recitation rituals) (415-416).

However, Ōno maintains that T1500 may well have been composed in China, for the following reasons:

CSZJJ lists a “book of bodhisatva precepts” (“bodhisatva prātimokṣa”?) 地持戒本 in the section on the works of *Dharmakṣema, with a note saying that according to the Bie lu, it was “issued” in Dunhuang [or by (the Trepiṭaka) “Dunhuang”?] 別録云燉煌出, without a date of translation. This entry is odd in three aspects:

1) CSZJJ provides the date of translation for other scriptures established as *Dharmakṣema’s work;

2) the claim that the text was “issued” in Dunhuang 燉煌出 is peculiar, as most of *Dharmakṣema’s translations were made in Guzang 姑臧 (Ōno states that although there are editions 藏經本 that record that T1500 was translated in 姑臧, they are not reliable);

3) the Yuqie jie ben 瑜伽戒本 (also called the Pusa jie bein 菩薩戒本) T1501, ascribed to Xuanzang, has added parts that were not in T1581. Ōno argues that, if the added parts had been used in India at Mahāyāna “precept assemblies” 説戒會 (? sic), Xuanzang would have included them in his Yuqie jie ben; since Xuanzang did not include them, it is likely that T1500 was produced in China, under the influence of *Dharmakṣema, who arrived in China as a holder of Mahāyāna precepts 戒 (416).

Ōno conjectures that T1500 was perhaps ascribed to *Dharmakṣema because *Dharmakṣema himself led the composition of this text, after earlier translating the Bodhisatvabhūmi 菩薩地持經 T1581, in which case the date of production should be 433 CE or earlier. However, it may also be the case that somebody else produced T1500 later, on the basis of excerpts from T1581. T1500 was recorded as missing from Yancong on, but regarded as again extant from KYL (416-417).

Entry author: Atsushi Iseki

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• People: *Dharmakṣema, 曇無讖 (author); Anonymous (China), 失譯, 闕譯, 未詳撰者, 未詳作者, 不載譯人 (author)