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尸迦羅越六方禮經

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Text ID
KR6a0016
Date
148–170
Dynasty
後漢

Shījiāluóyuè liùfāng lǐ jīng 尸迦羅越六方禮經

Sūtra of Sigāla[ka]‘s Worship of the Six Directions (the Sigālovādasūtra; parallel to Cháng Āhán sūtra 16, the Shànshēng jīng 善生經, to T17 and to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 135) by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)

About the work

The Shījiāluóyuè liùfāng lǐ jīng is a single-fascicle Eastern Hàn translation of the Sigālovāda-sūtra, the celebrated discourse on lay-Buddhist ethics in which the Buddha encounters the young householder Sigālaka 尸迦羅越 ritually saluting the six directions (east, south, west, north, up and down) at his late father’s behest, and reinterprets the practice as the cultivation of right relationships with parents, teachers, spouse, friends, employees, and śramaṇas. The Pāli parallel is DN 31 Sigālovāda-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T1[16] (the Shànshēng jīng 善生經), T17 (the West-Jìn Shījiāluóyuè liùxiàng bài jīng 尸迦羅越六向拜經), and Madhyama-āgama sūtra 135 (the Shànshēng jīng 善生經 of Zhōng āhán). T16 is the earliest of the surviving Chinese versions.

The text opens at “the Mountain of Cocks” (鷄山, 雞山, Kukkuṭa-pāda / Gṛdhrakūṭa?) outside Rājagṛha, where the householder’s son Sigālaka, having risen at dawn, washed, and put on his fine garments, performs four obeisances each towards the east, south, west, north, the zenith, and the nadir. The Buddha, on his alms-round, observes him and asks the meaning of the practice. Sigālaka replies that his father had ordered him to perform it but had not explained the doctrinal sense, and that he has not dared to neglect it after his father’s death. The body of the text is the Buddha’s reinterpretation: each of the six directions is reassigned to a category of human relationship, and each relationship is articulated through a list of mutual obligations. The discourse closes with general moral instruction on the avoidance of the six “outflows” of wealth (drink, gambling, etc.) and the recognition of true and false friends.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the canonical translator’s signature at the head: 「後漢安息國三藏安世高譯」. The byline pattern is identical to that of T13 and T14.

Abstract

T16 was produced during Ān Shìgāo’s Luòyáng period (148–170 CE), and that bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost; comparative work suggests a (proto-)Sarvāstivāda affiliation typical of the An-Shigao translation milieu. Together with T17 (a Western Jìn revision), T1[16] (a Yáo-Qín retranslation by Buddhayaśas) and T26[135] (Saṅghadeva’s mid-Sòng Zhōng āhán), T16 forms part of one of the most fully-attested sūtra-clusters in the Chinese canon, providing exceptional comparative material for the diachronic study of Chinese Buddhist translation.

The principal scholarly importance of T16 lies in its diction. Unlike the longer Chinese versions, T16 is short, syntactically simple, and lexically archaic — the proper-name 尸迦羅越 (an unusual transcription of Sigālaka preserving the -ka termination as 越 rather than the later 迦), the directional formula 六向 / 六方, and the term 應法 (“what corresponds to the dharma”; later standardised as 法) are diagnostic of the An-Shigao stratum. The doctrine is in full canonical form, but the rendering is unmistakably second-century Hàn.

Translations and research

  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008. — Standard modern survey of An Shigao; treats T16.
  • Pannasiri, Bhadanta. “Sigālovāda-sutta.” Visva-Bharati Annals 3 (1950): 150–228. — Comparative study of the Pāli Sigālovāda and its Chinese versions.
  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Dīgha Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 31.
  • Hashimoto, Hōkei 橋本芳契. “Zenshōkyō no shisōteki kōsatsu” 善生経の思想的考察 [Doctrinal study of the Shànshēng jīng]. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 7.1 (1958): 116–119.
  • Schmithausen, Lambert. Maitrī and Magic: Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude Toward the Dangerous in Nature. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997. — Background on early Buddhist lay ethics; uses T16 / Sigālovāda as a touchstone.

Other points of interest

  • The transcription 鷄山 (“Mountain of Cocks”) for the Buddha’s residence is unusual: the standard rendering of Gṛdhrakūṭa (Vulture Peak) is 耆闍崛山 / 靈鷲山, and 鷄山 / 雞山 is more commonly Kukkuṭa-pāda (the mountain associated with Mahākāśyapa’s death-meditation). The slip — if it is one — is preserved in T16 as it stands.
  • The list of “true and false friends” in T16 is one of the earliest Chinese examples of Buddhist Mitra-praśasti literature; it provided the basis for later Chinese moralistic compilations on friendship and the patron–client relationship.

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