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七佛經

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Text ID
KR6a0002
Date
973–1001
Dynasty
宋

Qī fó jīng 七佛經

Sūtra of the Seven Buddhas (Saptabuddhaka-sūtra) by 法天 (Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva, 譯)

About the work

The Qī fó jīng is a single-fascicle Buddhist sūtra translated under imperial command by the North-Indian monk Fǎtiān 法天 (Dharmadeva, d. 1001) in the early Northern Sòng. The text — formally titled Fó shuō Qī fó jīng 佛說七佛經 — is a Mahāyāna-redacted version of the canonical narrative of the seven Buddhas of the past, the saptatathāgata: Vipaśyin (毘婆尸), Śikhin (尸棄), Viśvabhū (毘舍浮), Krakucchanda (俱留孫), Kanakamuni (俱那含牟尼), Kāśyapa (迦葉) and Śākyamuni 釋迦牟尼 himself. The Buddha, addressed by his monks at the Jetavana grove (祇樹給孤獨園), recounts in turn the kalpa, varṇa (family), parents, bodhi-tree, principal disciples and lifespan of each of his predecessors. The Taishō head-note marks T2 explicitly as a parallel to the first sūtra of the Cháng Āhán jīng (T1[1], the Dà běn jīng 大本經 / Mahāvadāna-sūtra) and to T3 and T4 (Fǎtiān’s Pípóshī fó jīng 毘婆尸佛經 and the anonymous Qī fó fùmǔ xìngzì jīng 七佛父母姓字經).

Prefaces

The text carries no prologue or postface; only the standard Sòng translator’s signature at the head: “Translated by imperial command by your servant Fǎtiān, śramaṇa, Tripiṭaka-master of the Translation [Bureau] of the Western Lands, Court Gentleman for Comprehensive Counsel (朝散大夫), Acting Vice-Director of the Court of State Ceremonial (試鴻臚卿), bearing the bestowed title Master Who Transmits the Teaching (傳教大師)” (西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚卿傳教大師臣法天奉詔譯). The signature is the standard Sòng-court translation-bureau byline and identifies Fǎtiān unambiguously in his post-Tàipíng-Xīngguó 太平興國 7 (982) capacity, after Sòng Tàizōng had established the Institute for the Translation of Sūtras (譯經院) and bestowed the title 傳教大師 on him.

Abstract

法天 Fǎtiān (Skt. Dharmadeva, also given as 達理摩犖义多 Dharmadeva and, posthumously and erroneously, 法賢) was a monk of Nālandā and a native of Magadha (中天竺) who arrived in China in Kāibǎo 開寶 6 (973). He worked first at Pújīn 蒲津 in Hézhōng 河中 prefecture, where his early translations were brushed by the Hézhōngfǔ Sanskritist-monk Fǎjìn 法進; in TàipíngXīngguó 5 (980) he was summoned to the capital and given the purple robe, and in TàipíngXīngguó 7 (982) he was installed as one of the three principal translators (with 法賢 Tiānxīzāi 天息災 and 施護 Shīhù) at the newly founded Institute for the Translation of Sūtras at Kāifēng. He died on Xiánpíng 咸平 4 / 5 / 18 (= 18 June 1001 CE) and was given the posthumous name Xuánjué 玄覺. The Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù 大中祥符法寶錄 (KR6s0100, juan 3–12) registers his entire translation output, which runs to over 110 titles in the Taishō.

The Qī fó jīng itself is not securely datable to a specific year within Fǎtiān’s career: the Fǎbǎo lù records the translation but its exact bureau-date is not unambiguously preserved in the witnesses available here. Convention assigns it to the TàipíngXīngguó / Yōngxī period at the Institute (982 onwards), but a defensible window for the Chinese version is 973–1001 (Fǎtiān’s full Chinese career), and that bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic original is presumed lost.

The work is a small but characteristic example of late-period Sòng jīng-translation: the language is straightforward, the technical vocabulary follows the post-Xuánzàng / Bǔkōng standard, and the sūtra-frame (“Thus have I heard … one time the Buddha was at Śrāvastī …”) is the conventional Mahāyāna opening. Doctrinally the work has no Mahāyāna content beyond the framing; substantively it is an avadāna on the seven past Buddhas of the present and last bhadrakalpa and vyūhakalpa, and as such forms part of a small group of Chinese translations on this theme (with T1[1], T2, T3 and T4).

Translations and research

  • No substantial monograph specifically on T2 has been located. Discussions of the Qī fó jīng appear within wider studies of the saptatathāgata / Mahāvadāna literature, e.g.:
  • Fukita, Takamichi 吹田隆道. The Mahāvadānasūtra: A New Edition Based on Manuscripts Discovered in Northern Turkestan. Sanskrit-Wörterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden, Beiheft 10. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003. — The standard critical edition of the Sanskrit Mahāvadāna, with extensive comparative reference to the Chinese parallels (T1[1], T2, T3, T4).
  • Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 / 2nd ed. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. — Provides the institutional context for Fǎtiān’s career at the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras.
  • Jan, Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6.1 (1966): 24–42 and 6.2 (1966): 135–168. — Classic study of the Sòng-period India-China translation enterprise of which Fǎtiān was a leading figure.
  • Bingenheimer, Marcus. “Qī fó jīng” entry in the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (DDB), s.v. — Concise summary with bibliographic pointers.

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