聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

菩薩投身飴餓虎起塔因緣經

2 min read

Text ID
KR6b0024
Date
414–421
Dynasty
北涼

Púsà tóushēn yìèhǔ qǐtǎ yīnyuán jīng 菩薩投身飴餓虎起塔因緣經

Sūtra on the Stūpa-Origin of the Bodhisattva Throwing his Body to Feed the Hungry Tigress by 法盛 (Fǎshèng, 譯)

About the work

A single-fascicle jātaka / avadāna recounting the celebrated Buddha-past-life narrative of the Bodhisattva who threw himself off a cliff to feed a starving tigress and her cubs — the Vyāghrī-jātaka — and giving the aitiology (因緣 yīnyuán) of the stūpa raised on the spot. Translated under the Northern Liáng by 法盛 Fǎshèng of Gāochāng. Signature: 「北涼高昌國沙門法盛譯」. The narrative is set in the Gandhāra region: the Buddha’s discourse opens at the city of Pūruṣapura in Gandhāra (乾陀越國毘沙門波羅大城).

Prefaces

The text bears no preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.

Abstract

T172 is among the most significant Chinese sources for the Vyāghrī-jātaka tradition. The narrative is preserved in multiple Indic recensions (chapter 1 of the Sanskrit Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra; Jātaka-mālā of Āryaśūra chapter 1; Mahāvastu version) and is the subject of one of the most widely-attested visual narrative cycles in early Indian Buddhist art (Bharhut, Sānchī, Ajaṇṭā, and the Gandhāran sites). Fǎshèng’s translation is the principal stand-alone Chinese version of the narrative.

The translation can be dated to the Northern-Liáng period of c. 414–421, the same period as 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema’s translation programme at Gūzāng. The narrative’s aitiology-frame (the stūpa-origin element that gives the title its second half) connects the jātaka to specific Gandhāran sthānas visited by Fǎshèng on his pilgrimage and is consistent with a fifth-century Gandhāra-region pilgrim’s interest in narrating the relic-and-stūpa topography of the jātaka-sites.

Translations and research

  • Yamabe Nobuyoshi 山部能宜. “The Vyāghrī-jātaka and Its Reception in East Asia.” Various articles.
  • Lévi, Sylvain. “Le sūtra du Roi-Tigresse.” (Suvarṇaprabhāsa chapter 1 studies, applicable to T172.)
  • Karetzky, Patricia E. “The Vyāghrī-jātaka in Buddhist Art.” Artibus Asiae (various).
  • Yamada Isshi 山田一誠. Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka. (Gandhāran-period jātaka and stūpa context applicable to T172.)

Graph View

Backlinks