Fóshuō Yìzú jīng 佛說義足經
Aṭṭhakavagga (Sūtra of the Foot of Meaning) by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
A two-fascicle Wú-period Chinese translation of one of the most archaic strata of Buddhist verse-literature: the Aṭṭhakavagga / Arthapāda — sixteen verse-discourses preserved in the Pāli Sutta-Nipāta (chapter 4) and recognised by modern scholarship (K. R. Norman; Vetter; Bhikkhu Bodhi) as among the very earliest layers of Buddhist canonical literature. The Taishō head-note “八雙十六輩” identifies the sixteen vagga-divisions (eight pairs / sixteen kinds). Translated by 支謙 Zhī Qiān. Signature: 「吳月支優婆塞支謙譯」.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature. Each of the sixteen vaggas opens with its title (Jiétānwáng jīng “Sūtra on the King with Excessive Greed”, etc.).
Abstract
T198 is one of the philologically and doctrinally most important of the early Chinese translations: it is the only extant Chinese version of the Aṭṭhakavagga / Arthapāda, a text that in its Pāli form is widely accepted as one of the absolute earliest layers of Buddhist canonical literature, possibly composed within a generation of the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The Indic source underlying T198 is a Sanskrit Arthapada recension, of which fragments survive (Bapat 1951); the Chinese text is one of two principal extant sources for this proto-canonical Buddhist verse literature alongside the Pāli.
The translation falls within Zhī Qiān’s Wú-period activity (222–253). T198’s archaic-doctrinal content (e.g., explicit critique of dogmatic adherence to views, anti-metaphysical orientation, severe ascetic ethics) preserves a Buddhist register sometimes contrasted by modern scholarship with the more developed Mahāyāna literature.
Translations and research
- Bapat, P. V. Arthapada Sūtra. Visva-Bharati Studies 13. Santiniketan, 1951. (Edition and English translation of T198, with comparison to the Pāli Aṭṭhakavagga.)
- Norman, K. R., trans. The Group of Discourses (Sutta-Nipāta). 2nd ed. Oxford: Pali Text Society, 2001. (Standard Aṭṭhakavagga translation; with notes on the Chinese parallel.)
- Vetter, Tilmann. “Mysticism in the Aṭṭhakavagga.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 34 (1990): 36–56.
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans. The Suttanipāta: An Ancient Collection of the Buddha’s Discourses. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2017. (With Aṭṭhakavagga translation and comparative notes.)
Other points of interest
T198 is one of the very few witnesses in any language for the Arthapāda tradition outside the Pāli, and is therefore one of the philologically most significant of all early Chinese Buddhist translations.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Zhī Qiān (支謙) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (245): [ Nattier 2008 ] Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica X. Tokyo: IRIAB, Soka University, 2008. 134 — dazangthings.nz