Yuánshēng shù jīng 園生樹經
Sūtra of the Garden-Born Tree (the Pāricchattakasūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 2, the Zhòudù shù jīng 晝度樹經, and to Ekottara-āgama 39.2) by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
The Yuán-shēng shù jīng is a short single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of a brief and pedagogically-charming discourse on the pāricchattaka (Pāli pāricchattaka; Skt. pārijāta) — the great coral-tree of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, whose seasonal cycle of leaf-shedding, sprouting, budding, blossoming, full-blossom and final shedding-of-blossoms is offered as an analogy for the six progressive stages of a disciple’s path from going-forth to arhatship. The Pāli parallel is AN 7.69 Pāricchattaka-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T26[2] (the Zhòu-dù shù jīng 晝度樹經 of the Madhyama-āgama) and Ekottara-āgama 39.2 (T125).
The text opens with the Buddha at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvasti. He addresses the monks: “You should know that in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven (三十三天) there is a great tree called the Garden-Born Tree (園生 Yuán-shēng = pāricchattaka) — its root-coil is five yojanas across, its height a hundred yojanas, its leaves and branches covering fifty yojanas. The gods come to it in season for sport, and the tree…” — etc., with the analogy made explicit.
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鴻臚卿傳法大師臣施護奉詔譯」 — the standard Shīhù byline (cf. KR6a0008).
Abstract
T28 is one of Shīhù’s series of Sòng-Institute renderings of Madhyama-āgama discourses; the defensible bracket 982–1017 is recorded in the frontmatter (cf. KR6a0008). The Indic source is presumed lost. The translation is straightforward and unsurprising; the principal interest lies in T28’s preservation, in mid-Sòng Chinese, of the developed canonical list of six stages of the disciple’s path — a list that aligns with the parallel material in T26[2] but with characteristic Sòng-Institute lexical preferences (e.g. 苾芻 for bhikṣu, 由旬 for yojana, etc.).
Translations and research
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. — AN 7.69 with notes.
- No dedicated study of T28 specifically has been located.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Shīhù DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): Taishō Tripiṭaka T28 (per CBETA reference index) — dazangthings.nz