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古來世時經

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Text ID
KR6a0044
Date
317–420
Dynasty
東晉

Gǔlái shìshí jīng 古來世時經

Sūtra of the Times of Past and Future Ages (the Cakkavatti-sīhanāda-sūtra / Maitreya-vyākaraṇa tradition; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 66, the Shuō běn jīng 說本經) Anonymous (失譯), conventionally attached to the Eastern Jìn 東晉 catalogue

About the work

The Gǔlái shìshí jīng is a single-fascicle anonymous Chinese translation of a discourse on the cyclical decline and renewal of human society and on the future appearance of the Buddha Maitreya. The Pāli parallel is DN 26 Cakkavatti-sīhanāda-sutta (with related material in MN 81 Ghaṭīkāra); the Chinese parallel is T26[66] (the Shuō běn jīng 說本經 of the Madhyama-āgama).

The text opens at “the Deer Park where the Sages dwell” (波羅奈仙人鹿處) — the Mṛgadāva at Vārāṇasī. The Buddha addresses the monks on the cyclical decline of human moral standards, the eventual reversal at a future date, and the appearance of the Buddha Maitreya 彌勒佛 to renew the Dharma in a coming age. The discourse is one of the most important canonical sources for the early Buddhist Maitreya-doctrine.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the catalogue rubric printed at the head: 「失譯人名附東晉錄」 — “translator’s name lost; attached to the Eastern Jìn catalogue.”

Abstract

The Eastern Jìn (317–420) ascription on T44 is a catalog-tradition assignment. The defensible bracket for the Chinese version is therefore 317–420 CE, recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost.

The principal scholarly importance of T44 is its preservation of the early-Buddhist Maitreya tradition in pre-Saṃghadeva Chinese: the text is one of the foundational sources for the millenarian-Maitreya doctrine that would, in subsequent centuries, become so important in East Asian Buddhism (and would underwrite a long series of medieval Chinese Buddhist apocalyptic / millenarian movements). The vocabulary preserves several archaic features: 古來 (“from of old” — semantic gloss for atīta) and 世時 (“worldly time” — for kāla / yuga) are diagnostic of pre-Daoan diction.

Translations and research

  • Walshe, Maurice, tr. The Long Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — DN 26 Cakkavatti-sīhanāda-sutta with notes.
  • Sponberg, Alan, and Helen Hardacre, eds. Maitreya, the Future Buddha. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988. — Background on the Maitreya tradition.
  • Nattier, Jan. Once upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991. — Foundational study of the Buddhist decline-and-renewal tradition; treats T44 implicitly.
  • No dedicated study of T44 specifically has been located.

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