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帝釋所問經

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Text ID
KR6a0015
Date
987–1000
Dynasty
宋

Dìshì suǒwèn jīng 帝釋所問經

Sūtra of the Questions of Indra (Śakra) (the Sakkapañha-sūtra; parallel to Cháng Āhán sūtra 14, the Shìtí huányīn wèn jīng 釋提桓因問經, and to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 134) by 法賢 (Fǎxián, originally Tiānxīzāi 天息災, 譯)

About the work

The Dìshì suǒwèn jīng is a single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Sakkapañha-sūtra, the discourse delivered by the Buddha to Śakra (Indra), king of the Trāyastriṃśa gods, in the Indrasailaguhā (“Indra’s Cave”) on the Vediyaka mountain north of Rājagṛha. The Taishō head-note marks T15 as a parallel to T1[14] (the Shìtí huányīn wèn jīng 釋提桓因問經 of the Cháng āhán) and to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 134; the Pāli parallel is DN 21 Sakkapañha-sutta.

The text opens at the Indrasailaguhā, “Indra’s Cave” (帝釋巖) on the Vediyaka mountain (毘提呬山) north of the great brahmin village in Magadha. Śakra, having learned that the Buddha is in residence there, takes the gandharva-prince Pañcaśikha 五髻乾闥婆王子 with his blue lapis-lazuli vīṇā (瑠璃寶裝箜篌), and the host of the Trāyastriṃśa gods, and approaches. Pañcaśikha plays an introductory song-cycle in praise of the Buddha (the Pañcasikha-gītā), and Śakra then puts to the Buddha a series of philosophical questions on the springs of strife among gods, asuras and humans: their origin in envy and stinginess, the origin of envy and stinginess in liking-and-disliking, and so on back through the chain of conditions to prapañca (papañca, conceptual proliferation). The discourse is one of the principal canonical sources for the early Buddhist analysis of mental defilements.

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」. As with T9, the use of the post-987 name 法賢 with the title 明教大師 places the translation in the period 987–1000, recorded in the frontmatter.

Abstract

T15 is one of Fǎxián’s (= Tiānxīzāi’s) post-987 series of Sòng-Institute renderings of Cháng āhán discourses. The Indic source is presumed lost; the rendering is a fresh translation rather than a revision of T1[14], with characteristic Sòng-Institute lexical choices (e.g. 帝釋 alongside the older 釋提桓因 / 釋帝桓因 for Sakka / Śakra; 毘提呬山 for Vediyaka; the personal-name transcription 五髻 for Pañcaśikha).

The principal scholarly interest of T15 lies in its rendering of the philosophical core of the Sakkapañha: the regress through mental conditions from strife back to prapañca-saṃjñā-saṃkhā (the conceptual proliferation that issues in objectifying perception). T15 retains the doctrinal content of the older Chinese versions but presents it in the polished mid-Sòng register, providing a useful comparand for the diachronic study of how this important early-Buddhist analysis was rendered into Chinese.

Translations and research

  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 21 Sakkapañha-sutta with notes.
  • Choong, Mun-keat. “A Comparison of the Pāli and Chinese Versions of the Sakkapañha-sutta and the Sakka-saṃyutta.” Buddhist Studies Review 31.2 (2014): 179–198. — 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 introductory song-cycle of the gandharva Pañcaśikha (the Pañcasikha-gītā) — a series of love-verses to his beloved Bhaddā Sūriyavacchasā framed as praise of the Buddha — is one of the more remarkable poetic passages of the Dīgha-nikāya tradition. T15 preserves the song-cycle, rendered into Sòng Chinese verse.

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