Zhuànjí bǎiyuán jīng 撰集百緣經
Avadānaśataka (Compiled Anthology of One Hundred Conditions) by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
A ten-fascicle avadāna-anthology of one hundred narratives organised in ten vaggas of ten — the Chinese version of the celebrated Avadāna-śataka, one of the foundational Indic Buddhist avadāna-anthologies. Translated by 支謙 Zhī Qiān in the Wú. Signature: 「吳月支優婆塞支謙譯」. Each vagga groups avadānas thematically: the first chapter is Bodhisattva-vyākaraṇa (菩薩授記品), the second on bhikṣu-arhat origins, etc. The Indic source survives in Sanskrit (the Avadāna-śataka, edited by Speyer, 1906–1909).
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T200 is one of the most important early Chinese avadāna-anthology translations and is the principal Chinese witness for the Avadāna-śataka. The translation is conventionally attributed to Zhī Qiān in the Wú, and the attribution has been broadly accepted in modern scholarship despite some lexical anomalies that raise questions about whether parts of the text were edited or supplemented in Western-Jìn or Eastern-Jìn time (Mizuno; Nattier). The bracket 222–253 reflects Zhī Qiān’s documented Wú-period active range.
The work is one of the textual cornerstones of the Indic avadāna tradition; T200 made it available in Chinese centuries before the Sanskrit recensions were studied in modern times.
Translations and research
- Speyer, J. S. (ed.). Avadāna-çataka: A Century of Edifying Tales Belonging to the Hīnayāna. 2 vols. St. Petersburg: Académie impériale des sciences, 1906–1909.
- Vaidya, P. L. (ed.). Avadāna-śataka. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 19. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1958.
- Feer, Léon, trans. Avadâna-Çataka: cent légendes bouddhiques. Paris: Leroux, 1891. (Standard French translation.)
- Demoto Mitsuyo 出本充代. “Avadānaśataka no Chū-yaku to sono yakushutsu jūki” 『阿婆陀那百縁経』の中譯とその譯出時期. Bukkyō kenkyū (1998).
Links
- CBETA online text
- Zhī Qiān (支謙) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (245, 265, 316, 550, 594, 600): [ T ] Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932 — dazangthings.nz