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大般涅槃經

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Text ID
KR6a0007
Date
413–418
Dynasty
東晉

Dà bānnièpán jīng 大般涅槃經

Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa (the “Hīnayāna” Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra of Faxian) by 法顯 (Faxian, 譯)

About the work

The Dà bānnièpán jīng (T7), in three fascicles (上中下), is the third and last of the early Chinese Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra renderings clustered by the Taishō head-note: it parallels T1[2] (the Yóuxíng jīng 遊行經 of the Cháng Āhán), [[KR6a0005|T5 (Bó Fǎzǔ’s Fó bānníhuán jīng)]] and [[KR6a0006|T6 (the anonymous Bānníhuán jīng)]]. Despite its title — which uses the same characters as the celebrated Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (T376 / T374) — T7 is a non-Mahāyāna text: it gives the canonical narrative of the Buddha’s last journey, illness, and parinirvāṇa in essentially the form known from the Pāli Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, without the Mahāyāna doctrinal additions (tathāgatagarbha, icchantika, etc.) that distinguish the long Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa of Dharmakṣema and Faxian’s own Mahāyāna parallel T376. Within the early Chinese parinirvāṇa cluster T7 is the rendering most closely affiliated with the Mahāsāṃghika tradition, consistent with the Indic source-codices Faxian had brought back from his pilgrimage.

The text opens at the Mahāvana monastery’s Kūṭāgāra-śālā 重閣講堂 in Vaiśālī (毘耶離 Píyélí), where the Buddha announces to Ānanda that he is going to retire to the Cāpāla-caitya 遮波羅支提 to meditate; from there the narrative follows the standard route through Pātaliputra, the Sudhāvasa prediction, the Vajjian welfare-discourse, the rains-retreat at Bāṇavāgāma, the announcement of the impending parinirvāṇa, the donation of Cunda’s last meal, the fatal illness, the entry under the twin śāla-trees at Kuśinagara, the cremation and the relic distribution.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the standard Eastern-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「東晉平陽沙門釋法顯譯」 — “translated by the Eastern-Jìn śramaṇa Shì Fǎxiǎn of Píngyáng.” The catalogue context for the translation is supplied by the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, KR6s0084) entries on Faxian and on the Daochang Monastery (Dàochǎng-sì 道場寺) translation enterprise at Jiànkāng 建康, and by Faxian’s own travel-memoir, the Fóguó jì 佛國記 (T2085, KR2k0136).

Abstract

法顯 Fǎxiǎn (Faxian, c. 338 – c. 422/423) was the first Chinese pilgrim known to have reached India and returned by sea, and one of the most influential single figures in the formation of Chinese Buddhism. Born under the Eastern Jìn into the Gōng 龔 family of Wǔyáng 武陽 (in Píngyáng commandery 平陽郡, modern Línfén 臨汾, Shānxī), he was ordained at the age of three; tradition records that he was struck in middle age by the deficiencies of the Vinaya material then available in Chinese, and in Lóng’ān 隆安 3 (399), already aged about sixty, he set out from Cháng’ān with the monks 慧景 Huìjǐng, 道整 Dàozhěng and others, travelling overland through Central Asia to north India. After six years’ travel he reached central India in c. 405, remained there six years studying and acquiring manuscripts, then returned by sea via Sri Lanka and Yapō (Java?), making landfall at Qīngzhōu 青州 (in modern Shāndōng) in Yìxī 義熙 9 (413). The manuscripts he brought back included recensions of the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, of the Dīrgha-āgama, of the Mahāparinirvāṇa and other works; he then proceeded to Jiànkāng, where he settled at the Daochang Monastery (道場寺) and over the following years translated his manuscripts in collaboration with 佛馱跋陀羅 Buddhabhadra (Fótuóbátuóluó) and others.

T7 was produced at the Daochang Monastery during this Jiànkāng phase, conventionally placed within the years 413–418, and that bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is securely identified as a Mahāsāṃghika-affiliated Sanskrit manuscript that Faxian had brought from India: the same source-text milieu that produced his Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (T376) was responsible for the present “Hīnayāna” parinirvāṇa sūtra. The Chū sānzàng jì jí (KR6s0084, T55.111c) and the Gāosēng zhuàn (KR6r0052, T50.337c–338c) confirm Buddhabhadra’s role as Indic-language partner.

The translation is in the polished, fluent literary register that characterises the Daochang school: noticeably less archaic than T5 / T6, it adopts the form 涅槃 (rather than the earlier 般泥洹) for parinirvāṇa — one of the earliest Chinese texts to use this transcription consistently — and standardizes the proper-name orthography (毘耶離 for Vaiśālī, 阿闍世 for Ajātaśatru, 拘尸城 for Kuśinagara, etc.). T7 thus marks a recognizable translation-historical inflection-point.

Translations and research

  • Waldschmidt, Ernst. Das Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra: Text in Sanskrit und Tibetisch, verglichen mit dem Pāli nebst einer Übersetzung der chinesischen Entsprechung im Vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins. 3 parts. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1950–1951. — The classic synoptic edition; T7 is treated comparatively throughout.
  • Bareau, André. Recherches sur la biographie du Buddha dans les Sūtrapiṭaka et les Vinayapiṭaka anciens, II: Les derniers mois, le parinirvāṇa et les funérailles. 2 vols. Paris: EFEO, 1970–1971.
  • Deeg, Max. Das Gaoseng-Faxian-zhuan als religionsgeschichtliche Quelle: Der älteste Bericht eines chinesischen buddhistischen Pilgermönchs über seine Reise nach Indien mit Übersetzung des Textes. Studies in Oriental Religions 52. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2005. — Comprehensive German translation of and commentary on Faxian’s travel-memoir; foundational for the biographical context.
  • Legge, James, tr. A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms: Being an Account by the Chinese Monk Fâ-Hien of his Travels in India and Ceylon (A.D. 399–414). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886. — The classic English translation of the Fóguó jì.
  • Beal, Samuel, tr. Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun: Buddhist Pilgrims, from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.). London: Trübner, 1869. — Earlier English translation of Faxian’s memoir.
  • Yifa. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China: An Annotated Translation and Study of the Chanyuan Qinggui. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002. — Useful for the institutional context of Faxian’s Vinaya translation enterprise.

Other points of interest

  • T7 is the earliest extant Chinese sūtra-translation to use 涅槃 (rather than 般泥洹) consistently for parinirvāṇa; the form would become canonical from Kumārajīva’s circle onwards.
  • The text survives in three fascicles in the Taishō, although Sòng catalogues sometimes reckon it in six (a recurring source of confusion in pre-modern bibliographic sources, where T7 is occasionally conflated with the long Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra T376 also by Faxian).
  • The Daochang Monastery (道場寺) translation enterprise of c. 413–420 was, alongside Kumārajīva’s Cháng’ān bureau, the second major translation-centre of the Eastern Jìn period and the source of much of the early Chinese Mahāsāṃghika literature.

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