Móhē bōrě bōluómì jīng 摩訶般若波羅蜜經
Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Kumārajīva’s Mahāprajñāpāramitā Sūtra) by 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 譯)
About the work
The principal pre-Xuánzàng Chinese translation of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā — the Móhē bōrě bōluómì jīng, in twenty-seven fascicles. Translated by Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 (344–413) at Cháng’ān under Latter-Qín 後秦 patronage. Signature: 「後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯」. The Taishō header cross-references [KR6c0001|T220] (玄奘 Xuánzàng’s later re-translation), T221, and T222 — all four being Chinese versions of the same Indic Prajñāpāramitā-recension.
The most-influential Chinese translation of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā before Xuánzàng, T223 was the textual base for the celebrated Mādhyamika commentary [[KR6c0005|Dàzhìdù lùn (T1509)]] also translated by Kumārajīva, and provided the canonical lexicon for East-Asian prajñā-doctrine.
Prefaces
No preface or postface in the source file; the substantial 僧叡 Sēngruì 僧叡 preface to T223 is preserved separately and circulated with T1509 (see that entry).
Abstract
T223’s translation is dated to Hóngshǐ 弘始 5–6 = 403–404 CE at the Cháng’ān 西明閣 / Dàotiānsì 道天寺 under 姚興 Yáo Xìng’s patronage. Kumārajīva’s translation team included 僧叡 Sēngruì, 僧肇 Sēngzhào, and 道生 Dàoshēng as principal Chinese-language editors. T223 is more fluent and idiomatically polished than the earlier T221 / T222, and its terminology — translating Sanskrit prajñāpāramitā as 般若波羅蜜 (transliteration), anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi as 阿耨多羅三藐三菩提, etc. — became the standard Chinese Buddhist prajñā-vocabulary that endured into modern East-Asian Buddhism. The doctrinal substance of T223 was foundational for the establishment of the Sānlùn 三論 (Three-Treatise) school of Chinese Mādhyamaka, the prajñā-doctrinal heart of Mahāyāna in East Asia.
T223 is paired liturgically and exegetically with T1509 — Kumārajīva’s translation of Nāgārjuna’s commentary on the same sūtra — and the two together constitute the Chinese-Mādhyamaka prajñā-corpus.
Translations and research
- Conze, Edward, trans. The Large Sutra on Perfect Wisdom. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. (Standard English translation; uses T223 as the principal Chinese reference.)
- Lamotte, Étienne, trans. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse de Nāgārjuna. 5 vols. Louvain, 1944–1980.
- Yìn-shùn 印順. Bōrě jīng jiǎngjì.
- Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. (Discusses T223’s role in the Chinese Mādhyamika formation.)
Links
- CBETA T08n0223
- Kanseki DB
- 鳩摩羅什 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (390, 404, 405, 410) — Fèi Chángfáng 費長房, Lìdài sānbǎo jì (LDSBJ) 歷代三寶紀 T2034, T2034:49.77b26–27.