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佛所行讚

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Text ID
KR6b0049
Date
414–421
Dynasty
北涼

Fó suǒxíng zàn 佛所行讚

Buddhacarita (Hymn of the Buddha’s Acts) by 馬鳴菩薩 (Aśvaghoṣa, 造); translated by 曇無讖 (Dharmakṣema, 譯)

About the work

A five-fascicle Chinese verse-translation of 馬鳴菩薩 Aśvaghoṣa’s celebrated Sanskrit Buddhist epic Buddhacarita — the foundational Indic Buddhist kāvya on the life of the Buddha. Translated by 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema of Northern Liáng. Signature: 「馬鳴菩薩造／北涼天竺三藏曇無讖譯」. The Chinese rendering preserves the verse-form throughout, in five-character classical-Chinese metre — one of the most ambitious early-medieval Chinese translations of an Indic Sanskrit kāvya.

The Sanskrit original survives in chapters 1–14 of Aśvaghoṣa’s poem, while the latter ten chapters (15–28) are preserved only in T192 (and in Tibetan); T192 is therefore the principal extant witness for Aśvaghoṣa’s full Buddha-biography.

Prefaces

No preface or postface in the source file; only the canonical translator-signature.

Abstract

T192 is one of the major surviving works from 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema’s Northern-Liáng translation programme at Gūzāng 姑臧 c. 414–421 CE. The Sanskrit Buddhacarita is conventionally dated to the late first / early second century CE under Kuṣāṇa patronage and is the earliest surviving substantial Buddhist Sanskrit kāvya. T192’s preservation of chapters 15–28 of the Buddhacarita — the post-awakening Buddha-biography — is one of the most consequential textual outcomes of the early-Chinese Buddhist translation programme: without it, half of Aśvaghoṣa’s masterpiece would be lost.

The Chinese verse-rendering is regarded as one of the most stylistically refined of all early-medieval Chinese Buddhist translations and was widely cited in Chinese Buddhist hagiographic and devotional literature. The doublet companion [[KR6b0050|Fó běnxíng jīng 佛本行經 (T193)]] — translated by 寶雲 Bǎoyún in the Liú-Sòng — represents an alternative Chinese rendering of related Buddha-biography material; Western-language scholarship (Johnston; Olivelle) has used the two Chinese versions comparatively in reconstructing the Sanskrit original.

Translations and research

  • Johnston, E. H., trans. The Buddhacarita: Or, Acts of the Buddha. 2 vols. Calcutta: Punjab University Oriental Publications, 1935–1936. (Standard English translation, with comparative apparatus including T192.)
  • Olivelle, Patrick, trans. Life of the Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa. New York University Press / JJC Foundation, 2008. (Clay Sanskrit Library; partial bilingual edition with comparative notes on T192.)
  • Beal, Samuel, trans. The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King: A Life of Buddha by Asvaghosha. Oxford: Clarendon, 1883. (Sacred Books of the East 19; English translation of T192.)
  • Hartmann, Jens-Uwe. “Aśvaghoṣa and Buddhist Sanskrit Literature.” Various articles.

Other points of interest

T192’s translation of the Buddha-biography in five-character verse is foundational for the medieval Chinese Buddhist verse-hymn tradition; the work was widely chanted and excerpted in Chinese Buddhist liturgy and devotional practice.

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