Fó shuō sì wèicéngyǒu fǎ jīng 佛說四未曾有法經
Sūtra of the Four Wonderful Qualities (parallel to Ekottara-āgama 42.3, and to T138) by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
A single-fascicle Western Jìn translation of a discourse on the four wonderful qualities (acchariya-abbhūta-dhamma) of a Wheel-turning King — the qualities by which his subjects, his elephant-treasure, his horse-treasure, and his jewel-treasure are all delighted by the sight of him. The Chinese parallel is T125[42.3]; this is a doublet of T138 but covers a different sub-set of the Ekottara material on the same theme.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface. The only paratext is the Western-Jìn translator’s signature at the head: 「西晉三藏竺法護譯」.
Abstract
T139 was produced during Dharmarakṣa’s Western Jìn career (266–313 CE), recorded in the frontmatter. The Indic source is presumed lost.
Links
- CBETA T02n0136 CBETA online text
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (300, 390): Fei Changfang 費長房. Lidai sanbao ji (LDSBJ) 歷代三寶紀 T2034. T2034 (XLIX) 64b3 dazangthings entry