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薩鉢多酥哩踰捺野經

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Text ID
KR6a0030
Date
987–1000
Dynasty
宋

Sàbōduō sūlīyúnàiyě jīng 薩鉢多酥哩踰捺野經

Sūtra of the Rising of the Seven Suns (Sapta-sūryôdaya-sūtra) (parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 8, the Qīrì jīng 七日經, and to Ekottara-āgama 40.1) by 法賢 (Fǎxián, 譯)

About the work

The Sàbōduō sūlīyúnàiyě jīng — its Chinese title a phonetic transcription of the Sanskrit Sapta-sūryôdaya (“the rising of the seven suns”) — is a single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the canonical discourse on the cosmic destruction of the world-system at the end of a kalpa by seven successively rising suns. The Pāli parallel is AN 7.62 Sattasūriya-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T26[8] (the Qīrì jīng 七日經 of the Madhyama-āgama) and Ekottara-āgama 40.1 (T125).

The text opens at the Markaṭahrada (猨猴井, “Monkey-Pool”) monastery at Vaiśālī (毘舍梨國). The Buddha addresses the monks: “All conditioned things are impermanent and subject to arising and ceasing, lacking firmness, without substance, not ultimate, not bearing weight, not bringing joy. You should know this, and exert yourselves to seek liberation.” The body of the text is the meditation on cosmic impermanence: the gradual heating and drying-up of the rivers and oceans by each of the seven successive suns, the ignition of Mount Sumeru, and the conflagration that consumes the world-system — adduced as a meditation on impermanence (anicca) of the most expansive scale.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Sòng-court translator’s signature at the head: 「西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試光祿卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯」 — the standard Fǎxián byline (cf. KR6a0009). The post-987 name 法賢 with the title 明教大師 places the translation in 987–1000.

Abstract

T30 is one of Fǎxián’s series of Sòng-Institute renderings of Madhyama-āgama discourses; the defensible bracket 987–1000 is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost; the rendering is a fresh translation, retaining the Sanskrit title as a phonetic transcription rather than a semantic gloss — an unusual choice that emphasises the foreign-language origin of the text and the sūtra’s status as a genuinely Indic Sapta-sūryôdaya tradition.

The text is doctrinally significant for its expansive use of cosmological scale as a meditation-object on impermanence: the discourse offers the contemplation of cosmic destruction as a means of inducing saṃvega (urgent religious motivation) and orienting the disciple toward liberation. T30’s rendering of the cosmological details is consistent with the broader cosmological tradition preserved in T1[30], T23, T24 and T25.

Translations and research

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. — AN 7.62 Sattasūriya-sutta.
  • Sadakata, Akira. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins. Tokyo: Kōsei, 1997. — Treats the Saptasūryôdaya tradition.
  • Anālayo, Bhikkhu. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, vol. 1. Taipei: Dharma Drum, 2011.

Other points of interest

  • The phonetic title 薩鉢多酥哩踰捺野 for Sapta-sūryôdaya is one of the longer Sanskrit-title transcriptions in the entire Chinese canon; it preserves the Sanskrit form down to the naya termination. The choice typifies the Sòng Institute’s selective return to phonetic title-transcription in the late tenth century, in cases where the older Chinese versions had used a semantic gloss (the older T26[8] uses the simple 七日 “Seven Suns”).

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