Dà shēngyì jīng 大生義經
Sūtra on the Great Meaning of Origination (the Mahānidānasūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 97, and cf. Cháng Āhán sūtra 13 and T14) by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
The Dà shēngyì jīng is a single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Mahānidānasūtra — the great discourse on dependent origination addressed by the Buddha to Ānanda. The Pāli parallel is DN 15 Mahānidāna-sutta; the Chinese parallels are T26[97] (the Dà yīn jīng 大因經 of the Madhyama-āgama), T1[13] (the Dàyuán fāngbiàn jīng 大緣方便經 of the Cháng āhán), and T14 (An Shigao’s Rénběn yùshēng jīng). T52 is the latest of the four Chinese versions.
The text opens at “the Kuru village” (俱盧聚落) — Kammāsadhamma in the Kuru country — where the Buddha and the saṅgha are gathered. Ānanda, alone in retreat, reflects on the Buddha’s saying that paṭicca-samuppāda is profound and approaches him to ask why something so subtle should appear so clear. The Buddha’s reply unfolds the canonical Mahānidāna analysis: dependent origination traversed forwards and backwards through its links.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Sòng-court translator’s signature at the head: 「西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試鴻臚卿傳法大師臣施護奉詔譯」.
Abstract
T52 is one of Shīhù’s series of Sòng-Institute renderings; the defensible bracket 982–1017 is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. T52’s value lies in its position as the latest in the four-fold Chinese cluster of Mahānidāna renderings — the diachronic series T14 (148–170), T1[13] (413), T26[97] (398) and T52 (c. 982–1017) provides exceptional comparative material for the diachronic study of how the foundational doctrine of dependent origination was rendered into Chinese over eight centuries.
Translations and research
- See KR6a0014 for the comparative Mahānidāna literature.
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu. The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahānidāna Sutta and Its Commentaries. Kandy: BPS, 1984.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Shīhù DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): CBETA, Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭 (Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai / Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932) — dazangthings.nz