Shǎnzǐ jīng 睒子經
Sūtra of Śyāmaka by 聖堅 (Shèngjiān / *Āryasthira, 譯)
About the work
A single-fascicle Western-Qín version of the Śyāmaka-jātaka, by 聖堅 Shèngjiān. Signature: 「西秦沙門聖堅奉詔譯」. Together with the two further recensions T175b and T175c this constitutes the three Taishō witnesses to Shèngjiān’s Chinese rendering of the Śyāmaka narrative — the same translation transmitted in slightly different textual recensions across the Korean, Sòng, Yuán, and Míng canonical traditions, distinguished in the Taishō by the suffix-letters 175a / 175b / 175c.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical signature.
Abstract
T175a is the Korean-canon recension of Shèngjiān’s Śyāmaka-jātaka translation, datable to the Western-Qín period 388–431. The Indic source is the Sāmajātaka / Śyāmaka-jātaka (Pāli Jātaka no. 540). The doublet relationship between this recension and the anonymous T174 has been one of the standard test-cases for studying the catalog-history of Śyāmaka-translations into Chinese.
For broader context on the Śyāmaka-jātaka narrative and its East-Asian reception, see T174.
Translations and research
- See bibliography under T174.