Fó shuō shèngfǎyìn jīng 佛說聖法印經
Sūtra of the Sacred Dharma-Seals (Skt. Ārya-dharma-mudrā-sūtra; parallel to Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 80, and to T104) by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The Fó shuō shèng-fǎ-yìn jīng — sub-titled “天竺名阿遮曇摩文圖” (“the Indian name is Ārya-dharma-mudrā [-mudrā?]“) — is a single-fascicle Western Jìn 西晉 translation of a discourse on the three “Dharma-seals” (dharma-mudrā): all conditioned phenomena are impermanent, all phenomena are without self, and nirvāṇa is peace. The Chinese parallels are T99[80] (the Saṃyukta-āgama parallel) and T104 (Shīhù).
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Western-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「西晉月氏國三藏竺法護譯」.
Abstract
T103 was produced during Dharmarakṣa’s Western Jìn career (266–313 CE), recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The discourse is one of the foundational sources for the doctrine of the three Dharma-seals, which would become a fundamental classification of Buddhist doctrine in later East Asian scholasticism.
Translations and research
- No dedicated study of T103 specifically has been located.
Links
- CBETA T02n0103 CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (300): Kawano Satoshi 河野訓. Shoki kan’yaku butten no kenkyū: Jiku Hōgo o chūshin to shite 初期漢訳仏典の研究 : 竺法護を中心として. Ise: Kōgakkan Daigaku Shuppanbu, 2006. Table 6, p. 87. dazangthings entry