Fó běnxíng jīng 佛本行經
Sūtra of the Buddha’s Practice (Buddha-biography in verse) by 釋寶雲 (Shì Bǎoyún, 譯)
About the work
A seven-fascicle Buddha-biography in five-character verse, translated by 釋寶雲 Shì Bǎoyún (376–449) at Jiànkāng under the Liú-Sòng. Signature: 「宋涼州沙門釋寶雲譯」. The Taishō header notes the alternative title 佛本行讚傳 (“Buddha-Biography Hymn-Tradition”). The work is a verse-rendering of Buddha-biography material parallel to but distinct from 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema’s [[KR6b0049|Fó suǒxíng zàn (T192)]].
Prefaces
No preface or postface in the source file; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T193 is the second of the two principal verse Buddha-biographies in the Chinese canon, alongside T192. The Indic source is conventionally treated as a now-lost Sanskrit Buddha-biography epic distinct from Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, possibly representing a Mūlasarvāstivāda-school recension of related material; the precise Indic original is unidentified. The translation is dateable to Bǎoyún’s documented Liú-Sòng activity at Jiànkāng (420–449), with most of his major translations in the period 425–449 at the Dàochǎngsì 道場寺.
The relationship between T192 and T193 — two Liú-Sòng-period Chinese verse Buddha-biographies — has been a key topic in modern Buddhist hagiography studies; the works represent two distinct Indic recensions and translation strategies rather than doublets of a single source.
Translations and research
- Beal, Samuel, trans. The Fo-Sho-Hing-Tsan-King: A Life of Buddha by Asvaghosha. Oxford: Clarendon, 1883. (Comparative methodology applicable to T193.)
- Karetzky, Patricia E. The Life of the Buddha. Lanham, 1992.
- Mizuno Kōgen 水野弘元. Bukkyō no genten. Tokyo: Daihōrin-kaku, 1990.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Shì Bǎoyún (釋寶雲) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (300, 380, 440): Gotō Gijō 後藤義乗. “Butsu hongyō kyō, Shi tennō kyō no Kan’yakusha” 仏本行経・四天王経の漢訳者. IBK 55, no. 2 (2007): 982–978[L] — dazangthings.nz