Biéyì Zá Āhán jīng 別譯雜阿含經
Variant Translation of the Connected Discourses (a partial Saṃyukta-āgama; parallel to Zá Āhán jīng 雜阿含經 (KR6a0099)) Anonymous (失譯), conventionally attached to the Qín 秦 catalogue
About the work
The Biéyì Zá Āhán jīng — its title literally “Variant Translation of the Connected-discourses Sūtra” — is a sixteen-fascicle anonymous Chinese partial Saṃyukta-āgama, conventionally attached in the catalogues to the “Qín” (a generic catalogue rubric covering both Fú-Qín 苻秦 and Yáo-Qín 後秦). The relation between T100 and T99 is that T100 represents a different and partial selection of Saṃyukta-āgama material, in a different recensional ordering, with substantial overlap of content but distinctive translation choices throughout. School affiliation is unclear: modern scholarship has suggested Mahīśāsaka 化地部, Kāśyapīya 飲光部, or some other early Indian school, though no consensus has been reached.
T100 contains some 364 sūtras in 16 fascicles — about a quarter of T99’s contents but in a relatively coherent topical arrangement.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the catalogue rubric printed at the head: 「失譯人名今附秦錄」 — “translator’s name lost; here attached to the Qín catalogue.”
Abstract
The “Qín” ascription is a catalog-tradition assignment encompassing both FúQín and YáoQín; the latest plausible point would be the early LiúSòng (since T100 was clearly known to the cataloguer Sēngyòu by 515 CE). The defensible bracket for the Chinese version is c. 350–431 CE, recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost.
T100 is one of the principal sources for the comparative study of the Saṃyukta-āgama tradition. Its school affiliation is one of the important open questions in modern Buddhist text-historical scholarship — Bingenheimer in particular has argued for a Mahīśāsaka attribution, while others have proposed Kāśyapīya. The text’s distinctive ordering of sūtras — with verse-discourses concentrated in the early fascicles — is one of its most studied features.
Translations and research
- Bingenheimer, Marcus. Studies in Āgama Literature: With Special Reference to the Shorter Chinese Saṃyuktāgama. Taipei: Shin Wen Feng, 2011. — The principal modern monograph on T100 specifically.
- Hiraoka, Satoshi 平岡聡. “The Sectarian Affiliation of the Two Chinese Saṃyuktāgamas.” Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū 49.2 (2003): 500–506. — Comparative study of T99 and T100.
- Anālayo, Bhikkhu. Saṃyukta-āgama Studies. Taipei: Dharma Drum, 2015.
- See KR6a0099 for the wider comparative Saṃyukta-āgama literature.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (417): 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