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恒水經

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Text ID
KR6a0033
Date
290–311
Dynasty
西晉

Héngshuǐ jīng 恒水經

Sūtra of the Ganges (the Pahārādasūtra / Uposatha-sūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 37, the Zhānbó jīng 瞻波經, and to T34 / T35) by 法炬 (Fǎjù, 譯)

About the work

The Héng-shuǐ jīng is a single-fascicle Western Jìn 西晉 translation of the canonical discourse on the eight wondrous qualities of the great ocean and the eight wondrous qualities of the Dharma. Together with T34 (the Fǎhǎi jīng 法海經, also by Fǎjù) and T35 (the Hǎi-bā-dé jīng 海八德經 by Kumārajīva), T33 forms a three-fold cluster of pre-Saṃghadeva renderings of this sūtra; the Madhyama-āgama parallel is T26[37] (the Zhānbó jīng 瞻波經, “Sūtra of Campā”). The Pāli parallel is AN 8.19 Pahārāda-sutta (also AN 8.20 Uposatha-sutta).

The text opens with the Buddha and the monks beside the Ganges (恒水). On the fifteenth day of the lunar month — the uposatha — the assembly is gathered for the recitation of the Pātimokṣa. Ānanda rises three times to ask the Buddha to recite, but the Buddha remains silent; eventually he reveals that there is an impure monk in the assembly, who is identified and removed by Mahāmoggallāna. The Buddha then takes the uposatha as the occasion for the great discourse on the eight qualities of the ocean (its gradual deepening, its constancy, its rejection of corpses, its single salty taste, its measurelessness, its inhabitation by great beings, its preciousness, its receptive of all rivers) — and the parallel eight qualities of the Dharma.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Western-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「西晉三藏法師法炬譯」.

Abstract

T33 was produced during Fǎjù’s Western Jìn translation period (290–311 CE; cf. KR6a0023 for biographical context), and that bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost; the rendering is one of the Fǎlì–Fǎjù circle’s series of Madhyama-āgama extractions. The doublet relationship of T33 to T34 — both by Fǎjù — is one of the more puzzling cases of duplicate-translation in the Chinese canon: the two are not identical but cover essentially the same Indic material, suggesting either a partial revision or a parallel rendering. T33 is the more elaborate of the two; T34 is more compact.

Translations and research

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. — AN 8.19, AN 8.20 with notes.
  • Anālayo, Bhikkhu. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya. Taipei: Dharma Drum, 2011.
  • No dedicated study of T33 specifically has been located.

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