Jiànyù jīng 箭喻經
Sūtra of the Arrow Simile (the Cūḷa-Mālunkya-sūtra; parallel to Madhyama-āgama sūtra 221, the Jiànyù jīng 箭喻經) Anonymous (失譯), conventionally attached to the Eastern Jìn 東晉 catalogue
About the work
The Jiànyù jīng is a single-fascicle anonymous Chinese translation of the famous Cūḷa-Mālunkya-sūtra — the celebrated discourse on the Buddha’s silence regarding ten speculative metaphysical questions, illustrated by the simile of a man wounded by a poisoned arrow who refuses to allow the surgeon to remove it until he has been told who shot the arrow, what it is made of, etc. The Pāli parallel is MN 63 Cūḷa-Mālunkya-sutta; the Chinese parallel is T26[221] (sharing the title Jiànyù jīng).
The text opens at the Jetavana monastery in Śrāvasti, with Mālunkyāputta 鬘童子 demanding that the Buddha resolve the ten metaphysical questions or he will leave the saṅgha.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the catalogue rubric printed at the head: 「失譯人名今附東晉錄」.
Abstract
The Eastern Jìn (317–420) ascription is a catalog-tradition assignment. The defensible bracket is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The arrow-simile is one of the most celebrated images in the entire Buddhist canon, and T94 is one of its principal early-Chinese witnesses.
Translations and research
- Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi, tr. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995. — MN 63 with notes.
- Collins, Steven. Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982. — Influential study including extensive treatment of the arrow-simile and the Cūḷa-Mālunkya.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (390, 420): Mizuno Kōgen 水野弘元, “Chū agon kyō kaidai 中阿含経解題,” in Kokuyaku issaikyō 国訳一切経, Agon bu 阿含部 6, revised edition (1969): 403–411 — dazangthings.nz