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菩薩本緣經

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Text ID
KR6b0002
Date
222–253
Dynasty
吳

Púsà běnyuán jīng 菩薩本緣經

Sūtra on the Past-Life Causes of the Bodhisattva by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯); compiled by Saṃghasena (僧伽斯那, 撰)

About the work

A three-fascicle bodhisattva-jātaka anthology in which fifteen jātaka episodes are narrated in elegant verse-and-prose alternation, each ascribed to a former life of the future Buddha. The translation is by Zhī Qiān 支謙 (lay-name Zhī Yuè 支越, zì Gōngmíng 恭明), the most prolific Three-Kingdoms Wú-period translator (fl. 222–253 CE), whose signature reads 「吳月支優婆塞支謙字恭明譯」 — “translated by Zhī Qiān, upāsaka of Yuèzhī, [in] Wú.” The Indic original is attributed in the head-signature to the compiler 僧伽斯那 (Saṃghasena), a figure also conventionally credited (probably wrongly) with the Bǎi-yú jīng 百喻經 (T209). The work is conceptually parallel to and partly overlapping with [[KR6b0001|Kāng Sēnghuì’s Liù-dù jí jīng (T152)]], with which it shares some narrative material; together they form the principal Wú-period bodhisattva-narrative corpus.

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface in the source file. The only paratext is the canonical attribution-and-translator signature: 「僧伽斯那撰　吳月支優婆塞支謙字恭明譯」.

Abstract

T153 is one of Zhī Qiān’s most stylistically polished translations and exemplifies the literary register he developed for the southern (Wú) court reception of Buddhist narrative literature. Each jātaka opens with a verse gāthā in five-character classical-Chinese metre setting the moral, followed by prose narration: “Even one who gives much, if his mind is mean and the recipient impure, generates a small recompense; but if at the time of giving, even an impure field-of-merit produces a vast intention, the recompense is measureless” (chapter 1, opening verse) sets the tone. The fifteen narratives are organised loosely around the perfections, with overlapping coverage of dāna, kṣānti, vīrya, and the Buddhist analysis of kingship (the Dìzìzài-wáng 地自在王 narrative, chapter 1).

The compiler-attribution to Saṃghasena (僧伽斯那) is preserved consistently in the canonical signature but is not externally attested for this work. The same Saṃghasena-name appears as compiler of the Bǎi-yú jīng 百喻經 (T209) translated by Guṇavṛddhi 求那毘地 in the late fifth century, and modern scholarship (Mizuno; Demiéville) regards the two attributions as distinct figures or as a generic learned compiler-name attached to jātaka anthologies. The translation date can be bracketed as Zhī Qiān’s documented active period in Wú, c. Huángwǔ 黃武 1 (222 CE) to Wū-zī 吳支 / Tài-yuán late period (c. 253), without a more specific anchor.

Translations and research

  • Beal, Samuel, trans. The Romantic Legend of Sâkya Buddha: A Translation of the Chinese Version of the Abhiniṣkramaṇa-sūtra. London: Trübner, 1875. (Background to the jātaka-genre in Chinese; mentions T153.)
  • Nakamura Hajime 中村元 (ed.). Jātaka zenshū ジャータカ全集. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1982–1991. (Comparative apparatus.)
  • Demiéville, Paul. “Sur la pénétration du bouddhisme en Chine.” In Choix d’études bouddhiques, 241–260. Leiden: Brill, 1973. (Treats Zhī Qiān’s translation programme.)
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008. (Survey of the Zhī Qiān corpus including T153.)

Other points of interest

The five-character verse register Zhī Qiān adopts here is consequential for the Chinese reception of Buddhist gāthā literature: he is among the earliest translators to render Indic verse in metrical Chinese rather than in prose paraphrase, a practice that becomes standard in later translators’ verse-handling.

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