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本相猗致經

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Text ID
KR6a0036
Date
148–170
Dynasty
後漢

Běnxiāng yīzhì jīng 本相猗致經

Sūtra on the Origins, Manifestations, and Concomitant Causes (of Existence) (the Avijjāsūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 51, the Běnjì jīng 本際經, and to T37) by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)

About the work

The Běn-xiāng yī-zhì jīng is a single-fascicle Eastern Hàn 後漢 translation of a short canonical discourse on the chain of conditions that gives rise to bhava (existence): from ignorance, to the five hindrances, to non-restraint of sense-faculties, to misconduct, to repentance, to ill-will, etc. — a paṭicca-samuppāda-style chain explaining the origin of avijjā (ignorance) itself by tracing it back through its conditioning factors. The Pāli parallel is AN 10.61 Avijjā-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T26[51] (the Běnjì jīng 本際經 of the Madhyama-āgama) and T37 (the Yuán-běn-zhì jīng 緣本致經, anonymous Eastern Jìn). The unwieldy Chinese title 本相猗致 is An Shigao’s interpretive paraphrase of the Indic upanissaya / upanidhā concept (the technical term for “supporting condition” in paṭicca-samuppāda analysis): 本 běn “root”, 相 xiāng “manifestation”, 猗 yī “concomitant” (in the An-Shigao stratum a calque for upa-), 致 zhì “leading-to”.

The text opens at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvasti. The Buddha addresses the monks: “There is the supporting-cause from which arises ‘love-for-becoming’ (有愛 bhava-taṇhā); not that ‘love-for-becoming’ has no supporting-cause.” The body of the text is the systematic regress through ten conditioning factors back to ignorance, presented both forwards and backwards.

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」.

Abstract

T36 was produced during Ān Shìgāo’s Luòyáng period (148–170 CE), recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The principal scholarly importance of T36 is its preservation, in mid-second-century Chinese, of the canonical upanisā / upanidhā analysis — the doctrinal framework for the conditioned-arising of avijjā itself, which would later become a foundation-stone of the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma’s analysis of the path. T36 is also one of the principal early-Chinese examples of An Shigao’s translation idiom for the technical paṭicca-samuppāda terminology: the calque 猗 (“concomitant”) for upa- and the gloss 有愛 (“love-for-becoming”) for bhava-taṇhā are diagnostic of the An-Shigao stratum.

Translations and research

  • Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. — AN 10.61 with notes.
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
  • No dedicated study of T36 specifically has been located.

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