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 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
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- 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.