Pǔyào jīng 普曜經
Lalitavistara-sūtra (Sūtra of the Universally-Manifest [Acts of the Buddha]) by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The earliest complete Chinese translation of the Lalitavistara — the celebrated Mahāyāna Buddha-biography in mixed prose and verse, recounting the descent, birth, youth, renunciation, and awakening of Śākyamuni in līlā-mode (the Buddha’s life as cosmic play). Translated by 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa in the Western Jìn. Signature: 「西晉月氏三藏竺法護譯」. The Taishō header notes the alternative title 方等本起 (“Origin-of-the-Vaipulya”) and cross-references T187, the later Tang re-translation by 地婆訶羅 Divākara.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T186 is the principal Western-Jìn translation of the Mahāyāna Lalitavistara tradition; the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (KR6s0084) records its translation date as Yǒngjiā 永嘉 2 = 308 CE at Tiānshuǐ 天水. The Indic source corresponds closely to the Sanskrit Lalitavistara edited by Lefmann (1902–1908) and Vaidya (1958), though T186 reflects an earlier and slightly different Sanskrit recension than the Tang re-translation T187 (地婆訶羅 Divākara, c. 685 CE). The two Chinese versions of the Lalitavistara — separated by some 380 years — have been one of the principal test-cases in the comparative study of Chinese Buddhist translation idiom.
T186 is doctrinally consequential as the principal Mahāyāna Buddha-biography in Chinese during the period from Western Jìn through the early-medieval period, before Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita came into wider circulation through 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema’s [[KR6b0049|Fó suǒxíng zàn (T192)]]. The Lalitavistara’s emphasis on the Buddha’s life as cosmic līlā — and on the Mahāyāna proposition that the Buddha’s apparent biography is a soteriological upāya — was foundational for East-Asian Buddhist Buddha-biography reception.
Translations and research
- Lefmann, Salomon (ed.). Lalita Vistara. Halle: Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, 1902–1908. (Standard Sanskrit edition.)
- Vaidya, P. L. (ed.). Lalita-Vistara. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 1. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1958.
- Foucaux, Philippe-Édouard, trans. Lalita Vistara. Paris: Annales du Musée Guimet, 1884–1892. (French translation, with comparative notes on Chinese versions.)
- Bays, Gwendolyn, trans. The Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion. The Lalitavistara Sūtra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1983.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China.” Asia Major 19 (2006): 13–37.
- Demiéville, Paul. “L’Inde classique.” (Various entries on the Lalitavistara.)
Other points of interest
T186 is one of the most important Buddha-biography sūtras translated into Chinese before Kumārajīva and stands at the head of the Western-Jìn formation of a Chinese-Buddhist hagiographic literature. The doublet relationship with T187 and Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita tradition makes it a key witness for studying the Indic Buddha-biography genres in their Chinese reception.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Dharmarakṣa (竺法護) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (300, 308): Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996, 265 — dazangthings.nz