Zhòngxǔ móhēdì jīng 眾許摩訶帝經
Sūtra of the Universally-Approved Mahāsaṃmata by 法賢 (Fǎxián / Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A thirteen-fascicle Buddha-biography sūtra opening at the Nyagrodha-grove of Kapilavastu — the Mahāsaṃmata (摩訶帝, “the Universally-Approved One”) of the title is the cosmogonic first-king of the Buddhist world-cycles, ancestor of the Śākya clan. The work is a Buddha-vaṃśa-type Buddha-biography emphasising the Buddha’s lineage origins from Mahāsaṃmata and the early kings of the Śākya descent. Translated by 法賢 Fǎxián (= 法天 Fǎtiān / *Dharmadeva, d. 1001) in the Northern-Sòng Yìjīngyuàn. Signature: 「西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚少卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯」.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T191 belongs to Fǎxián’s documented late-tenth-century output at the Northern-Sòng Bureau, datable to the period 982–1001 CE. The Indic source corresponds to a Mahāsāṃghika or Mūlasarvāstivāda Buddha-vaṃśa-tradition of the Mahāsaṃmata-genealogy type — i.e., a Buddhist royal-genealogy text giving the Buddha’s lineage descent from the cosmogonic first king through the Śākya ancestors. The genre is well attested in Indic Buddhism (cf. the Pāli Mahāvaṃsa’s prologue and the Mahāvastu’s opening chapters).
Translations and research
No substantial Western-language secondary literature located.
- Mizuno Kōgen 水野弘元. Shū-kyō Mahāsaṃmata kyō ni tsuite 衆許摩訶帝経について. Bukkyō kenkyū (article on T191).
Links
- CBETA online text
- Fǎxián (法賢 / 法天) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1001): Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經 (CBETA reference index) — dazangthings.nz