Xīzhèng yīnyuán jīng 息諍因緣經
Sūtra on the Causes of Quenching Disputes (the Sāmagāmasūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 196, the Zhōunà jīng 周那經) by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
The Xīzhèng yīnyuán jīng is a single-fascicle Northern-Sòng translation of the Sāmagāma-sūtra, the discourse on how disputes within the saṅgha should be settled — the canonical seven-fold adhikaraṇa-samatha (the seven means of pacifying disputes). The Pāli parallel is MN 104 Sāmagāma-sutta; the Chinese parallel is T26[196] (the Zhōunà jīng 周那經 of the Madhyama-āgama — Cunda being the disciple who reports to the Buddha that the death of Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta has caused the Jain community to splinter).
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光祿卿傳法大師賜紫臣施護奉詔譯」.
Abstract
T85 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. The text is one of the most important canonical sources for the seven-fold adhikaraṇa-samatha — a foundational doctrine of Vinaya jurisprudence preserved here in a relatively late Chinese rendering.
Translations and research
- Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, tr. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — MN 104 Sāmagāma-sutta with notes.
- Anālayo, Bhikkhu. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, vol. 2. Taipei: Dharma Drum, 2011.
- Yifa. The Origins of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2002. — Background on the adhikaraṇa-samatha in Chinese reception.
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