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大集法門經

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Text ID
KR6a0012
Date
982–1017
Dynasty
宋

Dàjí fǎmén jīng 大集法門經

Sūtra of the Great Convocation of Doctrinal Categories (the Saṅgīti-sūtra; parallel to Cháng Āhán sūtra 9, the Zhòng-jí jīng 眾集經, and to the Pāli Saṅgīti-sutta, DN 33) by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)

About the work

The Dàjí fǎmén jīng is a two-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Saṅgīti-sūtra, the doctrinal-summary discourse delivered by Śāriputra at Pāvā (Mallapur, here 末利城) on the death of the Nirgrantha leader Jñātiputra. The Pāli parallel is DN 33; the Cháng āhán parallel is sūtra 9, the Zhòng-jí jīng 眾集經. The Taishō head-note for T12 reads “[No. 1(6)]” — but this is an apparent slip for [No. 1(9)] (the Cháng āhán sūtra 9 = Saṅgīti; the Cháng āhán sūtra 6 is the Cakkavatti-sīhanāda parallel, the Zhuǎnlúnshèngwáng xiūxíng jīng 轉輪聖王修行經, which has nothing in common with T12). Both internal evidence (setting at Pāvā, donor’s name 末利, death of Nirgrantha Jñātiputra, Śāriputra as preacher) and modern comparative scholarship (Mizuno; Anālayo) confirm that T12 is the Saṅgīti parallel. The slip is preserved here as it stands in the source and flagged.

The text opens with the Buddha visiting the city of Mallapur 末利城 (= Pāvā) in the country of the Mallas, where the wealthy upāsaka named Mallí 末利 (= Mallika) has built a fine new public hall (a “moot-hall”). Mallí invites the Buddha and the saṅgha to sanctify the hall by their presence; the Buddha lies down to rest after a long Dharma-discourse, and instructs Śāriputra to teach in his stead. Śāriputra, learning that the Nirgrantha (Jain) leader Nirgrantha Jñātiputra 尼乾陀惹提子 has just died and that the Jain community is splintering into mutually-recriminating factions, takes the occasion to deliver the Saṅgīti — a comprehensive doctrinal-summary in numerical sequence from singletons to tens, organised so that the Buddhist tradition may be authoritatively defined and rehearsed before any comparable factional split could endanger it. The discourse is thus an important moment in the canonical narrative of how Buddhist doctrine was systematised; T12 renders this in full.

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傳法大師賜紫臣施護奉詔譯」. This rendering (without 等 “and others”) suggests Shīhù as the principal author rather than as committee-leader; otherwise the byline pattern is identical to that of T8, T10 and T11.

Abstract

T12 is one of Shīhù’s series of Sòng-Institute renderings of long discourses; the defensible date-bracket is 982–1017 (cf. KR6a0008), recorded in the frontmatter. Comparative work (Mizuno Kōgen; later Anālayo) has shown that T12 is one of the most extensive non-Pāli witnesses to the Saṅgīti doctrinal-summary literature: the discourse is in essence a Buddhist abhidharma avant la lettre, and the systematic enumeration of doctrinal categories (skandha, dhātu, āyatana, indriya, the four foundations of mindfulness, the five faculties, the seven bodhyaṅga, the eightfold path, the nine successive abodes, etc.) provides one of the most important sources for the formation of Buddhist scholastic taxonomy.

The Indic source-text underlying T12 is presumed lost; comparison with the Pāli Saṅgīti and with T1[9] (Zhòng-jí jīng) shows that T12 represents a separate Indic recension. The principal value of T12 to the comparative-scholastic enterprise is the way in which its doctrinal-list categories — particularly the lists of nine and ten — fill out gaps in the older Chinese version. Taken together, T12, T1[9] and the Pāli Saṅgīti constitute the comparative core of Saṅgīti-literature studies; the Tibetan parallel is preserved in the Mahāvyutpatti-derived collections and in the Sarvāstivāda Daśottara (T13, by Mizuno’s reckoning).

Translations and research

  • Mizuno, Kōgen 水野弘元. “Saṅgīti-sutta and Its Chinese Versions.” Komazawa Daigaku Bukkyō Gakubu Kenkyū Kiyō 26 (1968): 1–17. — Foundational Japanese comparative study of the Pāli Saṅgīti and its Chinese parallels including T12.
  • Stache-Rosen, Valentina. Dogmatische Begriffsreihen im älteren Buddhismus II: Das Saṅgītisūtra und sein Kommentar Saṅgītiparyāya. 2 vols. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1968. — Critical edition and German translation of the Sanskrit Saṅgīti-sūtra and its commentary, with extensive comparative reference to the Chinese parallels.
  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 33 with comparative notes.
  • Anālayo, Bhikkhu. “The Death of Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta and Its Implications for the Sangīti-sūtra.” Buddhist Studies Review 30.1 (2013): 109–125. — Compact comparative discussion.
  • Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003 / 2nd ed. 2016.

Other points of interest

  • The Taishō head-note “[No. 1(6)]” is, by both internal and external evidence, an error for [No. 1(9)]. Modern reference works correctly classify T12 as the Saṅgīti parallel, alongside T1[9]. The slip is preserved in the source here as it stands.
  • T12 is one of the most useful non-Pāli sources for the systematic abhidharma-style enumeration of Buddhist doctrinal categories, and its Sòng-Institute Chinese is unusually transparent: terms are rendered semantically rather than transcribed, providing a useful comparand for the older Chinese Saṅgīti tradition.

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