Bēihuā jīng 悲華經
Karuṇā-puṇḍarīka-sūtra (Sūtra of the Lotus of Compassion) by 曇無讖 (Dharmakṣema, 譯)
About the work
A ten-fascicle Mahāyāna sūtra (Karuṇā-puṇḍarīka, the “Lotus of Compassion”) translated by Dharmakṣema 曇無讖 (385–433) of the Northern Liáng 北涼 at Gūzāng 姑臧 in Hé-xī 河西 in the early fifth century. The signature reads 「北涼天竺三藏曇無讖譯」. The sūtra opens with a Vulture-Peak Buddha-assembly of 62,000 bhikṣu-arhats; its central narrative is the past-life vow-narrative of the Buddha Ratnagarbha (寶藏佛) and the Bodhisattva Sthāmaprāpta (大悲菩薩 — “Great-Compassion”), who in his bodhisattva-pre-incarnation makes the famous “five hundred great vows” (五百大願) to attain Buddhahood in a defiled world (sahā-realm) precisely so as to save sentient beings, in deliberate contrast to other Buddhas who choose pure Buddha-fields. The sūtra is doctrinally the principal scriptural source for the Mahāyāna doctrine of the Buddha’s karuṇā-driven choice of the sahā-world.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface in the source file; the only paratext is the canonical translator-signature 「北涼天竺三藏曇無讖譯」.
External documentary evidence for the translation is preserved in 僧祐 Sēngyòu’s Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (KR6s0084, juan 8 and juan 14) and in 慧皎 Huìjiǎo’s Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (KR6r0052, biography of Dharmakṣema), where the translation is dated to the Xuánshǐ 玄始 era (412–428) of the Northern-Liáng ruler 沮渠蒙遜 Jǔqú Měngxùn; a tighter bracket of c. 414–421 reflects the period when Dharmakṣema’s principal translation projects at Gūzāng can be securely dated.
Abstract
T157 is one of the major translations of Dharmakṣema’s Northern-Liáng workshop, a translator-circle that also produced the influential Northern-Liáng Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra 大般涅槃經 (T374) and the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra 金光明經 (T663). The Indic source of T157 is independently witnessed by a Chinese doublet — [[KR6b0007|Dàshèng bēifēntuólì jīng 大乘悲分陀利經 (T158)]] — an earlier (pre-405 CE) anonymous translation registered as 失譯今附秦錄 (“translator’s name lost; presently appended to the [Former] Qín register”); the doublet relationship is acknowledged within the canon. T157 is generally regarded as the more accomplished and idiomatic Chinese translation, as well as the more widely received liturgically and doctrinally; T158 is more literal and preserves features of the Indic source that have been smoothed in T157.
The doctrinal centre of gravity is the bodhisattva-vow theology articulated through the past-life narrative of Ratnagarbha / Sthāmaprāpta: the bodhisattva’s deliberate selection of an impure Buddha-field as the arena of his future Buddhahood — implicitly contrasted with Amitābha’s selection of Sukhāvatī — has been one of the key Mahāyāna doctrinal points for the elevation of karuṇā over prajñā in salvific theology. The Sanskrit original survives (edited by Yamada Isshi, 1968), and comparative work between the Sanskrit and the two Chinese translations has been extensive (Yamada 1968; Yamabe 1989; Boucher).
Translations and research
- Yamada Isshi 山田一誠. Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka, Edited with Introduction and Notes. 2 vols. London: SOAS, 1968. (Critical edition of the Sanskrit, with comparative analysis of T157 and T158.)
- Yamabe Nobuyoshi 山部能宜. “Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka and Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra: Comparative Notes.” Indian Philosophy and Buddhism (1989).
- Hodge, Stephen, trans. The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (online translation; with discussion of Dharmakṣema’s translation programme that includes T157).
- Chappell, David W. (ed.). Buddhist and Taoist Practice in Medieval Chinese Society. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1987. (Sections on T157’s reception.)
- Lévi, Sylvain. “Le sūtra du sage et du fou.” T’oung Pao (1925). (Comparative jātaka methodology, partly applied to T157 narratives.)
Other points of interest
The opening Buddhakṣetra-vow scene in T157 is among the most influential single Mahāyāna scriptural passages for East-Asian bodhisattva-vow tradition: the Sthāmaprāpta-vow has historically been read alongside the Amitābha-vows of the Sukhāvatīvyūha as a paired template for bodhisattva-vow taking, a reading institutionalised in the Tiāntái and Pure-Land vow-traditions.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Dharmakṣema (曇無讖) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (430): Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙, Maruyama Takao 丸山孝雄, eds. Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 佛書解說大辭典. Tokyo: Daitō shuppan, 1933–1936 [縮刷版 1999], s.v., Vol. 9, 125–129 (Akanuma Chizen 赤沼智善 and Nishio Kyōo 西尾京雄) — dazangthings.nz