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四諦經

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Text ID
KR6a0032
Date
148–170
Dynasty
後漢

Sìdì jīng 四諦經

Sūtra of the Four Noble Truths (the Catur-ārya-satya-vibhaṅga; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 31, the Fēnbié shèngdì jīng 分別聖諦經, and to Ekottara-āgama 27.1) by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)

About the work

The Sì-dì jīng is a single-fascicle Eastern Hàn 後漢 translation of the canonical analytical discourse on the Four Noble Truths — the Buddha’s diagnosis of dukkha, its cause, its cessation, and the path to its cessation, with the systematic elaboration of each truth into its sub-categories (the eight phenomena of birth, ageing, sickness, death, etc., for the truth of dukkha; craving in its three forms for the cause; and the noble eightfold path for the way). The Pāli parallel is MN 141 Saccavibhaṅga-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T26[31] (the Fēnbié shèngdì jīng 分別聖諦經 of the Madhyama-āgama) and Ekottara-āgama 27.1 (T125). T32 is the earliest of the Chinese versions.

The text opens at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvasti, with the Buddha addressing the monks: “Monks, the truly-true Dharma-teaching is the Four Truths…” — and the analytical exposition follows. The discourse closes by attributing the detailed doctrinal expansion of the Four Truths to Sāriputta and Moggallāna, the two great wisdom-disciples of the Buddha — a feature shared with all the parallel versions and reflecting the canonical conception of these two disciples as the curators of the Buddha’s analytical legacy.

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」 (cf. KR6a0013 et al.).

Abstract

T32 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. The principal scholarly importance of T32 is its preservation, in mid-second-century Chinese, of the canonical analytical exposition of the Four Truths in a form distinct from the later T26[31] of Saṃghadeva. T32’s diction is markedly archaic — the use of 真正法 (“the truly-true Dharma”) for saccaṃ ariyasaccaṃ (“the truth, the noble truth”), and the use of 苦習 (literally “the cause of dukkha”) rather than the later canonical 集 (samudaya) for the second truth, are diagnostic of the An-Shigao stratum.

Translations and research

  • Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, tr. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — MN 141 with notes.
  • Anālayo, Bhikkhu. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, vol. 2, 805–822. Taipei: Dharma Drum, 2011. — Comparative study of the Saccavibhaṅga parallels including T32.
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
  • Harrison, Paul. “An Shigao’s Treatise on the Four Noble Truths in T32: Some Philological Observations.” Forthcoming.

Other points of interest

  • T32’s term 苦習 (“the cumulative cause of dukkha”) for the second noble truth is one of the most distinctive of the An Shigao stratum’s translation choices. The later canonical 集 (jí, “assembly / aggregation”) rendering of samudaya would displace it almost entirely after Daoan, and T32 is one of the most accessible texts for the modern student to see the older translation in context.

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