Fàngguāng bōrě jīng 放光般若經
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Light-Emitting Perfection-of-Wisdom Sūtra) by 無羅叉 (Mokṣala, 譯)
About the work
A twenty-fascicle Western-Jìn translation of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (the 25,000-verse Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra). Translated by Mokṣala 無羅叉 of Khotan together with the Hàn-Chinese upāsaka 竺叔蘭 Zhú Shūlán, with imperial commission. Signature: 「西晉于闐國三藏無羅叉奉詔譯」. The Taishō header cross-references T220(2) (Xuánzàng’s later re-translation as the second huì of T220), T222 (Dharmarakṣa’s parallel translation), and T223 (Kumārajīva’s later Latter-Qín translation).
The opening chapter title 《放光品》 (“Light-Emitting Chapter”) is the source of the alternative title; the Buddha’s emission of light from his uṣṇīṣa opens the prajñāpāramitā assembly.
Prefaces
No preface or postface in the source file; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T221’s translation is documented in the Chū sānzàng jì jí to Yuánkāng 元康 1 = 291 CE, completed at the Cāngyuánsì 倉垣寺 in Chénliú 陳留 (modern Henan). T221 is one of four full Chinese translations of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (along with T220 second huì, T222, T223), and is one of the principal sources of pre-Kumārajīva Chinese prajñā-school exegesis. 道安 Dào’ān’s commentaries on the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā (now lost) used T221 as the base text, and the Six-Dynasties zōngyào / prajñā-school doctrinal traditions (本無 běnwú, 即色 jísè, etc.) were articulated through the lexicon of T221.
Translations and research
- Conze, Edward, trans. The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. (Comparative apparatus including T221.)
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1944–1980. (Translates T1509 with extensive notes on T221 et al.)
- Yìn-shùn 印順. Bōrě jīng jiǎngjì. (Standard Chinese exegesis on the Prajñāpāramitā corpus.)
- Tang Yongtong 湯用彤. Hàn Wèi Liǎng-Jìn Nánběicháo Fójiào shǐ. Shanghai: Shangwu, 1938. (Section on Six-Dynasties prajñā-school using T221.)
Other points of interest
T221 was the principal Chinese prajñā text-base from 291 CE through the early fifth century, when Kumārajīva’s T223 partly displaced it. The transition from T221 to T223 in Chinese prajñā exegesis is one of the foundational episodes of pre-Tang Chinese Buddhist intellectual history.
Links
- CBETA T08n0221
- Kanseki DB
- 無羅叉 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (291) — Sēngyòu 僧祐, Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145), T2145 (LV) 47c17–18, 48a6–7.