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法句經

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Text ID
KR6b0067
Date
224–224
Dynasty
吳

Fǎjù jīng 法句經

Dharmapada (Sūtra of Dharma-Verses) by 法救 (Dharmatrāta, 撰); translated by 維祇難 (Vighna, 等譯)

About the work

A two-fascicle Chinese translation of the Dharmapada — the celebrated Buddhist gnomic-verse anthology, here in 法救 Dharmatrāta’s compilation. Translated jointly by 維祇難 Vighna, 支謙 Zhī Qiān, and 竺將炎 Zhú Jiāngyán in the Wú c. 224 CE. Signature: 「尊者法救撰／吳天竺沙門維祇難等譯」. The work opens with a famous preface explicating the Dharmapada’s origin and translation method (preserved separately in the Chū sānzàng jì jí but conceptually linked).

The chapters open with the Anityā-vagga (無常品 Wúcháng pǐn, “Impermanence-chapter”), in 21 verses; the chapter-titles match the Udānavarga Sanskrit recension rather than the Pāli Dhammapada’s 26 chapters.

Prefaces

No preface in the source file; the famous Fǎjù jīng xù 法句經序 (“Preface to the Dharmapada”), traditionally attributed to Zhī Qiān, survives separately in the Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145, juan 7) and is one of the earliest substantial Chinese-language statements on the principles of Buddhist scripture-translation.

Abstract

T210 is the canonical Chinese Dharmapada — one of the foundational texts of the East-Asian Buddhist gnomic-verse tradition. The Indic source is the Sarvāstivādin Dharmapada / Udānavarga recension attributed to 法救 Dharmatrāta, distinct from the Pāli Dhammapada in selection, ordering, and number of verses (T210 contains some 760 verses across 39 chapters; the Pāli has 423 across 26).

The Chinese translation is dated by the Chū sānzàng jì jí to Huángwǔ 3 (224 CE) at Wǔchāng 武昌. The famous translator’s preface — recording the difficulty of Indic-Chinese translation, the collaboration of three translators, and Zhī Qiān’s careful approach to verse-rendering — is one of the foundational documents of pre-modern Chinese Buddhist translation theory.

T210 was widely received in East-Asian Buddhism and is the textual basis of the Dharmapada-citation tradition in Chinese Buddhist commentarial literature. The companion Dharmapada in Chinese — [[KR6b0070|Fǎjí yàosòng jīng (T213)]] — is the late-tenth-century re-translation of the Udānavarga by 天息災 Tiānxīzāi.

Translations and research

  • Brough, John (ed. and trans.). The Gāndhārī Dharmapada. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. (Comparative apparatus including T210.)
  • Bernhard, Franz (ed.). Udānavarga. 2 vols. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965, 1968. (Sanskrit edition; comparative apparatus.)
  • Beal, Samuel, trans. Texts from the Buddhist Canon, Commonly Known as Dhammapada. London: Trübner, 1878. (Early English translation including T210.)
  • Willemen, Charles, trans. The Chinese Udānavarga. Mélanges chinois et bouddhiques 19. Brussels: Institut belge des Hautes Études chinoises, 1978. (English translation of T210.)
  • Mizuno Kōgen 水野弘元. “Hokku-kyō no kenkyū” 法句經の研究. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1981.

Other points of interest

The Fǎjù jīng xù — the preface — is foundational in early Chinese Buddhist translation theory, articulating the translator’s dilemma between literal-Indic fidelity and Chinese stylistic readability. It is one of the principal pre-Dàoān statements on translation method.

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