Zēngyī Āhán jīng 增壹阿含經

The Numbered Discourses (Ekottara-āgama) by 瞿曇僧伽提婆 (Saṃghadeva, 譯; from a base translation by 曇摩難提 Dharmanandi)

About the work

The Zēng-yī Āhán jīng, in 51 fascicles, is the Chinese version of the Ekottara-āgama — the fourth of the four Indic-language āgama collections that, on the northern side of the transmission, correspond to the Pāli Aṅguttara-nikāya. It contains some 472 sūtras (compared to about 2,344 in the Pāli — though the count depends on how the divisions are counted) organised into “groups” (nipāta) by ascending numerical category, from the section of “ones” to the section of “elevens.” The translation history of T125 is unusually well-documented, thanks to a substantial preface by 道安 Dàoān (312–385) preserved at the head of the text — one of the most important contemporary witnesses to early-Chinese translation practice.

The school affiliation of the underlying Indic recension is contested: a Mahāsāṃghika identification has been proposed (Bareau, on the basis of certain Mahāsāṃghika-specific sūtras included in T125), but a Sarvāstivāda or Mahīśāsaka identification has also been argued. The matter is complicated by the fact that the surviving T125 contains a substantial overlay of Mahāyāna doctrinal material — sūtras on the bodhisattva-mārga, on the six pāramitās, and explicit references to “Mahāyāna” dharma — which suggests that the underlying Indic Vorlage already had some Mahāyāna features, or that the Chinese translation incorporated such features from a different source.

Prefaces

T125 is unusually rich in paratext. A substantial preface by Daoan 道安 (晉沙門釋道安撰) is preserved at the head, briefly summarised here:

“The four Āgamas are alike in import. The Madhyama-āgama opens with the explanation of their purpose, and I shall not preface the matter again. The Ekottara-āgama arranges Dharma in numerical sequence: when the count reaches ten, one more is added, hence ‘one-increased’; and the numbers themselves keep increasing, so ‘increase’ is its meaning. As for its content, it records much in the way of Vinaya — disciplinary admonitions cut deep, taking the reader’s measure as one passes through this world. The mountain hermits and ocean-travellers among foreign monks have particularly favoured this āgama in their recitations.

“There was a foreign śramaṇa named Dharmanandi, of Tukhāra (兜佉勒國 = Tukharistan), who renounced the lay life as a child and was learned in many things. He could recite from memory two āgamas. He travelled through every country of the Western Regions. In Jiànyuán 20 of the Qín (= 384 CE) he came to Cháng’ān, where his foreign countrymen all praised him; the Wǔwēi Prefect 趙文業 Zhào Wényè requested that he produce a translation. Fóniàn (= 竺佛念 Zhú Fóniàn) translated [orally] and 曇嵩 Tánsōng took dictation. The work began in the summer of the jiǎshēn year (= summer 384) and was completed by the spring of the next year (= 385) — 41 fascicles, in upper and lower parts: the upper part of 26 fascicles is fully preserved, but the lower part of 15 fascicles has lost its uddāna-summary verses. I, with 法和 Fǎhé, jointly revised it, and Sēng[?] 僧󰒯 and 僧茂 Sēngmào helped check for omissions. After 40 days the work was complete. That year there was the campaign at Ā-chéng (阿城), with the war-drums sounding near the suburbs, and yet the project went forward without interruption. With both āgamas now in 100 fascicles, the Vibhāṣā (鞞婆沙), the Vasumitra-saṅgīti (婆和須蜜), and the Saṅgharakṣa (僧伽羅剎), I have transmitted these five great scriptures. Since the Dharma flowed eastward, this is the finest crop of translations to have come forth. The four Āgamas were assembled by the forty arhats: each ten of them compiled one part, recording the beginning and end with uddāna-verses, fearing lest, with the long passing of the Dharma in the world, anything might be lost.”

The byline at the head of fascicle 1 — 「東晉𦋺賓三藏瞿曇僧伽提婆譯」 — gives Saṃghadeva (a Kashmirian, 𦋺賓 = Kashmir) as translator. The text is conventionally transmitted under his name, but Daoan’s preface (above) makes clear that the work originally arose in Cháng’ān under Dharmanandi 384–385, with Zhú Fóniàn as oral translator and Tánsōng as scribe. Modern scholarship is divided as to whether the surviving T125 is substantially Dharmanandi’s original (with Daoan-circle revisions) or whether Saṃghadeva later subjected it to a thoroughgoing revision in the Eastern Jìn south. The truth is probably mixed: the work as we have it represents a complex layered text-history, with elements from both Dharmanandi (384–385) and Saṃghadeva (c. 397–398), and the bracket recorded in the frontmatter (384–398) reflects this composite history.

Abstract

The Ekottara-āgama is, alongside the Madhyama-āgama (T26), one of the two great Āgama collections of the late-fourth-century Chinese translation enterprise. Its school affiliation, distinctive Mahāyāna-influenced content, and textually layered transmission make it one of the most fascinating and one of the most discussed of all Chinese Āgamas. T125 is the only complete Chinese Ekottara; there is no parallel cluster of variant translations as for the Cháng āhán (T1) or the Saṃyukta (T99). Several individual sūtras of T125 do, however, have parallels in shorter Chinese translations — many of which have been catalogued earlier in this division, e.g. T27, T46, T118, etc.

The text-historical position of T125 is foundational for modern study of the development of the Āgama tradition. The Mahāyāna doctrinal overlay — particularly noticeable in the early fascicles where the introductory uddāna of the seven Buddhas is followed by an overtly Mahāyāna bodhisattva discourse — has been variously interpreted as evidence for a late Indic recension that already incorporated such material, or as evidence for editorial intervention by Daoan or Saṃghadeva. Anālayo’s work in particular has clarified that the Mahāyāna elements are unevenly distributed throughout the text, suggesting a complex layered composition rather than uniform editorial overlay.

The translation diction is in the late-Eastern-Jìn register: a marked development from the Dharmanandi-Cháng’ān (FúQín) idiom toward the standardised post-Daoan Chinese Buddhist vocabulary that would become canonical from Kumārajīva onward.

Translations and research

Anālayo, Bhikkhu. The Foundation History of the Nuns’ Order. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2016. — Treats the Ekottara-āgama’s long bhikṣuṇī-foundation narrative, one of the most distinctive features of T125.
Anālayo, Bhikkhu. The Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal. Hamburg: Hamburg Buddhist Studies 1, Hamburg University Press, 2010. — Treats T125’s distinctive bodhisattva material.
Lamotte, Étienne. Histoire du bouddhisme indien des origines à l’ère Śaka. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1958. — Foundational treatment of the Āgama literature, including T125.
Bareau, André. Les sectes bouddhiques du petit véhicule. Saigon: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1955. — Argues for a Mahāsāṃghika identification of T125’s underlying Indic recension.
Pāsādika, Bhikkhu. The Ekottarāgama: A Study of the School Affiliation. Various articles. — Discusses the school-affiliation question.
Hartmann, Jens-Uwe. “Ekottarikāgama Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection.” Various articles. — Sanskrit fragments with possible Ekottarikāgama connections.
Bingenheimer, Marcus. “Bibliography of Translations from the Chinese Buddhist Canon into Western Languages.” (Online.) — Cumulative bibliography of T125 translations.
Mei, Iuk Wai 黃郁玟, et al. (Dharma Drum). Translation of the Ekottara-āgama (in progress).
Bodhi, Bhikkhu, tr. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. — The Pāli parallel.

Other points of interest

Daoan’s preface to T125 is one of the most important contemporary documents on early-Chinese translation practice, and is widely cited in modern philological scholarship. Its summary of the four Āgamas’ translation history, the personnel involved, and the difficulties encountered is unique in the Chinese canon.
T125’s distinctive Mahāyāna doctrinal overlay — particularly noticeable in the early bodhisattva-themed fascicles — makes it the only one of the four Chinese Āgamas to bear clear Mahāyāna influence. This has been one of the central problems of modern Ekottara studies and has occasioned a substantial monographic literature (see esp. Anālayo, Genesis of the Bodhisattva Ideal).
The role of 竺佛念 Zhú Fóniàn as oral translator on the original 384–385 work places T125 in the same Cháng’ān translation-circle as the Sìfēn lǜ (佛陀耶舍 Buddhayaśas with Zhú Fóniàn; KR6k0009) and the [[KR6a0001|Cháng āhán]] (Buddhayaśas with Zhú Fóniàn).

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增壹阿含經

Zēngyī Āhán jīng 增壹阿含經

About the work

Prefaces

Abstract

Translations and research

Other points of interest

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