Chūyào jīng 出曜經
Udānavarga (Sūtra of Dharma-Verses with Auto-Commentary) by 竺佛念 (Zhú Fóniàn / Buddhanandi, 譯)
About the work
A thirty-fascicle Latter-Qín 姚秦 translation of the Udānavarga — 法救 Dharmatrāta’s compilation of Buddhist gnomic-verse — together with extensive prose avadāna-commentary pairing each verse with a narrative occasion. Translated by 竺佛念 Zhú Fóniàn (= Buddhanandi). This is the most extensive Chinese Udānavarga / Dharmapada-with-commentary text. The work opens with a translator’s preface (《出曜經》序) attributing the underlying compilation to Dharmatrāta 法救 (referred to as “Vasumitra’s maternal uncle”): 「《出曜經》者，婆須密舅法救菩薩之所撰也，集…」 (“The Chūyào jīng is what the Bodhisattva Dharmatrāta — Vasumitra-the-elder’s maternal uncle — compiled, collecting…”).
Prefaces
The text opens with a substantial translator’s preface giving the genealogy of the work: Dharmatrāta as compiler, in relation to Vasumitra; the structure of the Udānavarga in 33 chapters; the Sarvāstivādin transmission; and the circumstances of the Latter-Qín translation under 姚興 Yáo Xìng’s patronage.
Abstract
T212 is the most-extensive of the Chinese Udānavarga texts: a verse-by-verse Chinese rendering with extensive prose-narrative commentary, of which both verse and commentary are translated together. The work is the principal pre-Tang Chinese witness for the Sarvāstivādin Udānavarga tradition, with the prose-commentary providing extensive avadāna-narrative occasions for each verse. The translation can be dated to Zhú Fóniàn’s documented Latter-Qín activity, c. 398–399 CE under Yáo Xìng’s patronage at Cháng’ān; the Chū sānzàng jì jí preserves the relevant chronological details.
T212 is foundational for East-Asian Buddhist gnomic-verse literature; together with T210 (the shorter Wú-period Dharmapada) and T213 (Tiānxīzāi’s late-tenth-century Udānavarga), it constitutes the principal Chinese-canon set of Dharmapada / Udānavarga witnesses.
Translations and research
- Bernhard, Franz. Udānavarga. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1965, 1968. (Sanskrit critical edition.)
- Brough, John. The Gāndhārī Dharmapada. London: Oxford University Press, 1962. (Comparative apparatus.)
- Willemen, Charles. The Chinese Udānavarga. Brussels: Institut belge des Hautes Études chinoises, 1978. (Comparative analysis applicable to T212.)
- Lin Pei-ying 林佩瑩. Chūyào jīng yánjiū 出曜經研究. Taipei: 法鼓文化, 2007.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Zhú Fóniàn (竺佛念) DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (390, 399, 408): [ 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