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寂志果經

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Text ID
KR6a0022
Date
381–395
Dynasty
東晉

Jìzhì guǒ jīng 寂志果經

Sūtra on the Fruits of the Quietist Life (the Sāmaññaphala-sūtra; parallel to Cháng Āhán sūtra 27, the Shāmén guǒ jīng 沙門果經, and to Ekottarāgama 43.7) by 竺曇無蘭 (Zhú Tánwúlán, 譯)

About the work

The Jì-zhì guǒ jīng is a single-fascicle Eastern Jìn 東晉 translation of the Sāmaññaphala-sūtra, the celebrated discourse in which King Ajātaśatru of Magadha asks the Buddha for a defence of the Buddhist monastic life by way of comparison with the parallel claims of the six “heretical teachers” (ṣaḍ-tīrthika) of his time. The Pāli parallel is DN 2 Sāmaññaphala-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T1[27] (the Shāmén guǒ jīng 沙門果經 of the Cháng āhán) and Ekottarāgama 43.7 (T125). The Chinese title 寂志果經 — “Sūtra on the Fruits of the Quietist Life” — is Tánwúlán’s distinctive gloss of sāmañña / śramaṇya: 寂志 (“quietist resolve”) for the renunciant life, 果 (“fruit”) for phala.

The text opens at the Jīvaka mango grove (耆域奈園) outside Rājagṛha, on the night of the seventh-month full moon — the close of the rains-retreat. King Ajātaśatru, accompanied by his ministers, comes seeking spiritual counsel. The body of the discourse is the king’s catalogue of the six rival teachings (those of Pūraṇa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambala, Pakudha Kaccāyana, Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta, and Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta — preserved in T22 with characteristic Tánwúlán transcriptions), each refuted by the Buddha as “answering at cross-purposes” to the king’s question; the Buddha then articulates the proper Buddhist answer — the gradual progression of fruits of the śramaṇa-life, from the immediate dignities of monastic ordination through the jhāna-attainments to the realisation of the four noble fruits.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Eastern-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「東晉西域沙門竺曇無蘭譯」 — “translated by the śramaṇa Zhú Tánwúlán, of the Western Regions, under the Eastern Jìn.” The byline confirms his Central Asian (西域) origin and his monastic status.

Abstract

竺曇無蘭 Zhú Tánwúlán (DILA primary name 曇無蘭, alternates 曇無闌 Tánwúlán, 法正 Fǎzhèng) was a fourth/fifth-century Central Asian (西域) monk active in Yangdu 楊都 (= Jiànkāng 建康, Eastern-Jìn capital) at the Xiè-zhèn-xī monastery (謝鎮西寺). He was at the temple from at least Tàiyuán 太元 6 (381) until Tàiyuán 20 (395) — a fifteen-year period during which he composed a synoptic study of the prātimokṣa (the Dà bǐqiū èr-bǎi liù-shí jiè sānbù héyì 大比丘二百六十戒三部合異, in two fascicles) and translated some 61 works in 63 fascicles. T22 was produced during this Yangdu period; the defensible bracket 381–395 is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost.

The principal scholarly interest of T22 lies in its preservation of the doctrines of the six tīrthika teachers in the pre-Buddhayaśas Chinese register: the doxographic accounts of Pūraṇa Kassapa’s amoralism, Ajita Kesakambala’s materialism, Pakudha Kaccāyana’s atomism, Sañjaya’s evasiveness, Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta’s Jainism, and Makkhali Gosāla’s determinism are rendered with greater detail than in any other early Chinese version, and constitute one of the most important pre-Tang Chinese sources for the religious-philosophical landscape of the Indian pre-Mauryan period.

Translations and research

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship: The Sāmaññaphala Sutta and Its Commentaries. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1989. — Definitive English translation of the Pāli parallel with the Sumaṅgalavilāsinī commentary.
  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 2 with notes.
  • MacQueen, Graeme. A Study of the Śrāmaṇyaphala-sūtra. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1988. — Comparative study including T22, T1[27] and the Sanskrit (Mūlasarvāstivāda) parallel.
  • Vogel, Claus, and Klaus Wille. Some Hitherto Unidentified Fragments of the Pravrajyāvastu Portion of the Vinayavastu Manuscript Found near Gilgit. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984. — Background on the Indic recensions in dialogue with which T22 should be read.
  • Anālayo, Bhikkhu. “The Sāmaññaphala-sutta and Its Chinese Parallels.” Buddhist Studies Review 25.2 (2008): 197–214.

Other points of interest

  • T22’s translation 寂志 (“quietist resolve”) of śramaṇya is unique in the Chinese canon — both T1[27] and T125 prefer the standard 沙門 (transcription) for śramaṇa / samaṇa. Tánwúlán’s choice is one of his characteristic translation idiosyncrasies: a tendency toward semantic gloss rather than transcription that is also visible elsewhere in his corpus.
  • The doxographic catalogue of the six tīrthika teachers in T22 is an important early-Chinese source for the religious-philosophical landscape of the Indian fifth century BCE; together with the parallel material in T1[27] and the Pāli, it constitutes the classical locus for the Buddhist representation of contemporary heterodox movements.

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