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人仙經

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Text ID
KR6a0009
Date
987–1000
Dynasty
宋

Rén xiān jīng 人仙經

Sūtra of the Human Sage (the Janavasabha-sūtra; parallel to Cháng Āhán sūtra 4, the Shénísha jīng 闍尼沙經) by 法賢 (Fǎxián, originally Tiānxīzāi 天息災, 譯)

About the work

The Rén xiān jīng is a single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Janavasabha-sūtra, the canonical narrative of the death of King Bimbisāra of Magadha and his rebirth as the yakṣa-king Janavasabha. The Taishō head-note marks T9 as a parallel to the fourth sūtra of the Cháng Āhán (T1[4] = Shénísha jīng 闍尼沙經), which is the older Chinese rendering. The Pāli parallel is the Janavasabha-sutta of the Dīgha-nikāya (DN 18). The Chinese title 人仙 (“Human Sage / Human Immortal”) is a translation gloss of Janavasabha (Pāli Jana-vasabha = “Bull-of-the-People”), here interpreted as 人 + 仙 in a loose semantic register typical of Sòng Institute renderings.

The narrative is set at the village of Nādikā (那提迦城), in the Kuñjikā 崐左迦 (= Giñjakāvasatha) brick-built monastery; Ānanda, alone in retreat, falls to wondering — listing the great kingdoms (Aṅga, Magadha, Kāśī, Kosala, Vajji, Malla, Cedi, Vatsa, Kuru, Pañcāla, Matsya, Śūrasena, Aśvaka and Avanti — the standard ṣoḍaśa-mahājanapada list) — about the post-mortem fate of the lay devotees who have died in his master’s circles. The Buddha appears, and the spirit Janavasabha 人仙, formerly King Bimbisāra of Magadha, descends and reports that he has been reborn as a yakṣa-king in the retinue of Vaiśravaṇa; he then narrates the assembly of the gods of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven and the discourse delivered there by the great Brahmā, Sanaṅkumāra, on the four bases of psychic power, the seven samādhi-supports, and the four foundations of mindfulness.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Sòng-court translator’s signature at the head: 「西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試光祿卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯」 — “Translated by imperial command by your servant Fǎxián, śramaṇa, Tripiṭaka-master of the Translation [Bureau] of the Western Lands, Court Gentleman for Court Service (朝奉大夫), Acting Chamberlain for the Imperial Stud (試光祿卿), bearing the bestowed title Master of Bright Teaching (明教大師).” The presence of the name 法賢 (rather than 天息災) and of the title 明教大師 places the translation after the imperial renaming of Yōngxī 雍熙 4 (987) and before the translator’s death in Xiánpíng 咸平 3 (1000).

Abstract

法賢 Fǎxián — the Sòng renaming of Tiānxīzāi 天息災 (DILA cross-references 法賢 to disambiguate from the unrelated 法天 Fǎtiān) — was a North-Indian monk of Kāśmīra who had been resident at the Misraka monastery (密林寺) in Jālandhara (惹爛陀國) in the central Indian plain. In Tàipíng-Xīngguó 太平興國 5 (980/2) he and his junior colleague 施護 Shīhù arrived together at the Sòng capital Kāifēng; both were granted the purple robe by Sòng Tàizōng. With the inauguration of the Institute for the Translation of Sūtras (譯經院) in Tàipíng-Xīngguó 7 (982), Tiānxīzāi was installed as the senior of the three principal translators (with Shīhù and Fǎtiān) and was given the title 明教大師 (“Master of Bright Teaching”). In Yōngxī 雍熙 2 (985) he received the additional civil rank of Cháosàn-dàfū shì hónglú-shàoqīng 朝散大夫試鴻臚少卿; in Yōngxī 4 (987) Sòng Tàizōng renamed him Fǎxián 法賢. He died on Xiánpíng 咸平 3 / 8 / 4 (= 10 September 1000) and was given the posthumous name Huìbiàn 慧辯.

T9 is registered in the Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù 大中祥符法寶錄 (KR6s0100, juan 6, 11, etc.) but the surviving witnesses available here do not pin its translation to a specific year within his career. Since the byline gives him under his post-987 name 法賢 and his post-985 civil titles, the defensible bracket for the translation is 987–1000, recorded here. The Indic source-text is presumed lost; comparison with T1[4] (Shénísha jīng) and with the Pāli parallel suggests that T9 renders a recension of the Janavasabha narrative distinct from that underlying T1[4] — a fresh translation rather than a revision.

The standing of T9 in the cluster T1[4] / T9 thus mirrors the position of T8 in the cluster T1[3] / T8 and of T10 in the cluster T1[5] / T10: a tenth–eleventh-century Sòng reissue of an Āgama discourse already long since available in Chinese, executed by the Institute for the Translation of Sūtras as part of its programme of bringing the canonical narrative repertoire into the modernised translation register.

Translations and research

  • No dedicated study of T9 specifically has been located. For the Pāli parallel and its history see:
  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 18 Janavasabha-sutta with notes.
  • Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 / 2nd ed. 2016. — Background on 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; 6.2 (1966): 135–168.

Other points of interest

  • The translation 人仙 of the proper name Janavasabha — read by the Sòng Institute as jana + ṛṣi (“people-sage”) rather than jana + vasabha (“people-bull”) — illustrates the Institute’s preference for transparent semantic glosses over phonetic transcription where the latter (here T1[4]: 闍尼沙) might be felt to be opaque to a Chinese reader.
  • The standard list of the ṣoḍaśa-mahājanapada in this text — given in Sòng-Institute transcription as 盎誐 (Aṅga), 摩伽陀 (Magadha), 迦尸 (Kāśī), 憍薩羅 (Kosala), etc. — is one of the more useful Northern-Sòng witnesses to the Indic geographical lexicon at the close of the first millennium.

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