Bāguānzhāi jīng 八關齋經

Sūtra of the Eight Precepts of the Fast-Day (the Uposatha-sūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 202, to Zhāi jīng 齋經 (KR6a0087) / Yōubēyí Duòshèjiā jīng 優陂夷墮舍迦經 (KR6a0088)) by 沮渠京聲 (Jūqú Jīngshēng, 譯)

About the work

The Bāguānzhāi jīng is a single-fascicle Liú-Sòng 劉宋 translation of the Uposatha-sūtra. The Chinese title 八關齋 (“eight-precept fast”) is the standard later term for the lay-Buddhist uposatha observance and would become canonical in subsequent East Asian Buddhism.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Liú-Sòng translator’s signature at the head: 「宋居士沮渠京聲譯」 — “translated by the layman Jūqú Jīngshēng under the [Liú-]Sòng.”

Abstract

Jūqú Jīngshēng 沮渠京聲 (also written 沮渠安陽矦; the title 安陽侯 “Marquis of Ānyáng” was inherited from his Northern-Liáng heritage; DILA Authority A000751; d. 464) was a member of the Northern Liáng royal family — the son of Jūqú Méngxùn 沮渠蒙遜 (the Northern-Liáng ruler under whom Dharmakṣema worked) and brother of the last Northern-Liáng emperor. After the Northern Liáng fell to the Northern Wèi in 439, Jūqú Jīngshēng fled to the Liú-Sòng south, where he settled at Jiànkāng under the patronage of Sòng Wén-dì and worked as a lay translator until his death on 26 January – 12 July 464 CE during the reign of Sòng Xiào-Wǔ-dì. The defensible bracket for T89 is 433–464 (his attested period of activity, with 433 the conventional starting-point of his early Liáng-period activity), recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost.

Translations and research

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

  • See KR6a0087 for the comparative Uposatha literature.