Tàizǐ Mùpò jīng 太子墓魄經
Sūtra of Prince Mùpò (alternative recension) by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
A short single-fascicle Western-Jìn jātaka recounting the past life of the Buddha as Prince Mùpò 墓魄 — the same narrative as 安世高 Ān Shìgāo’s earlier [[KR6b0019|T167 Tàizǐ Mùpò jīng]], with a different opening orthography of the prince’s name (墓魄 / 慕魄, both transliterations of Mūka / Mūga). Translated by 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa in the late third / early fourth century. Signature: 「西晉月氏國三藏竺法護譯」. The Taishō head-note records: 「沐魄或慕魄」 (“[the Kāi-yuán-lù] notes the orthographic variant 沐魄 / 慕魄”).
The Taishō header cross-references T152(38) and T167.
Prefaces
The text bears no preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T168 is the second-stage translation of the Mūgapakkha-jātaka into Chinese, succeeding 安世高 Ān Shìgāo’s T167 by some 120 years. The doublet relationship is acknowledged in the canonical cross-reference. The translation is dateable to Dharmarakṣa’s documented Cháng’ān-period activity (c. 285–311 CE), within his late-third-century prolific period. The Chinese translation idiom of T168 is markedly more polished than T167 and shows the editorial maturation that distinguishes the Western-Jìn translation school from the Hàn-period archaic register; comparison of T167 / T168 / T152 chapter 38 has been one of the standard case-studies in Boucher’s and Nattier’s analyses of pre-Kumārajīva Chinese Buddhist translation idiom.
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China.” Asia Major 19 (2006): 13–37.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Dharmarakṣa (竺法護) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (300, 555): Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經 (CBETA reference index) — dazangthings.nz