Yuánqǐ jīng 緣起經
Sūtra of Dependent Origination (the Pratītyasamutpāda-sūtra; parallel to Saṃyukta-āgama sūtra 1248, Ekottara-āgama 49.1, and to T123) by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
The Yuán-qǐ jīng is a single-fascicle Táng-period 唐 translation by Xuánzàng of a discourse on dependent origination — articulating the twelve-fold paṭicca-samuppāda. The Chinese parallel is T99[1248]. (The Taishō head-note’s grouping with T123 is somewhat misleading: T124 and T123 do not in fact render the same Indic discourse, despite the head-note’s pairing.)
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Táng-period translator’s signature at the head: 「三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯」.
Abstract
玄奘 Xuánzàng (602–664) was the most celebrated of all the Chinese pilgrim-translators. He travelled to India by land in 629–645, returning to Cháng’ān in 645 with hundreds of Sanskrit manuscripts, and worked under imperial patronage at the Hóngfúsì 弘福寺 and Cí’ēnsì 慈恩寺 until his death in 664. His translation corpus of some 76 works in 1,347 fascicles is the largest single contribution to the Chinese canon by any individual translator. T124 was produced during this Táng career; the defensible bracket 645–664 is recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost. The translation is in Xuánzàng’s celebrated post-classical Tang Buddhist register, which would shape virtually all subsequent East Asian Buddhist scholarly Chinese.
Translations and research
- Beal, Samuel, tr. Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World. London: Trübner, 1884. — Xuánzàng’s Dà Táng Xīyù jì 大唐西域記.
- Mayer, Alexander L. Xuanzang, Übersetzer und Heiliger. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1992.
Links
- CBETA T02n0124 CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- 玄奘 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (655): Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings entry