Dàoxíng bōrě jīng 道行般若經
Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā (Way-Practice Perfection-of-Wisdom Sūtra) by 支婁迦讖 (Lokakṣema, 譯)
About the work
A ten-fascicle Eastern-Hàn translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā — the 8,000-verse Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, generally accepted by modern scholarship as the earliest surviving Mahāyāna prajñā text. Translated by Lokakṣema 支婁迦讖 in 179 CE at Luòyáng — the foundational document of the Chinese reception of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Signature: not preserved in the conventional translator-attribution form; the Taishō header lists Lokakṣema based on the Chū sānzàng jì jí attribution.
The text opens with 道安 Dào’ān’s celebrated preface (《道行般若經》序) — one of the most important pre-Tang Chinese Buddhist prefaces. The Taishō header cross-references the Aṣṭasāhasrikā parallels: T220(4 or 5), T225–T228, and T229.
Prefaces
The fascicle 1 opens with 道安 Dào’ān’s preface: “Great indeed is the Wisdom-Crossing! The ten-thousand sages depend on it for their connection, all take it as their model in completion. Earth in conjunction with the sun’s illumination — no Dharma is not encompassed; not relying, not abiding, not weighed down by either name or formlessness — these two it has cast aside, deep and dark and without master. This is the recording of intelligence. As for vast longevity, no beauty surpasses the high-heavens — yet beside it the dying-young child is made one with it; as for spiritual majesty…” The preface continues with extended Mādhyamika doctrinal exposition.
Abstract
T224 is the foundational document of Mahāyāna Buddhism in Chinese. The Indic source is the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, the earliest surviving prajñāpāramitā-text in Sanskrit (edited by Vaidya 1960; Mitra 1888); the text is generally accepted as composed in the 1st century BCE — 1st century CE in northern India / Gandhāra. Lokakṣema’s Chinese translation, dated by the Chū sānzàng jì jí to Guānghé 光和 2 = 179 CE at Luòyáng, predates by a century the better-known Chinese prajñā translations and is the absolute earliest dated Mahāyāna scripture in Chinese.
T224’s vocabulary is the most archaic in surviving Chinese Buddhist literature, reflecting Hàn-period Buddhist linguistic experimentation: Tathāgata is rendered 怛薩阿竭 (transliteration); anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi is 阿耨多羅三耶三佛 (an even-more-archaic transliteration); bodhisattva is 菩薩 (the calque that became standard). Modern philological scholarship (Karashima Seishi; Lancaster) treats T224 as a primary witness for early Mahāyāna prajñā lexicography.
The work is paired with the parallel translations T225 (支謙 Zhī Qiān, Dà míngdù jīng), the various other Aṣṭasāhasrikā renderings, and 玄奘 Xuánzàng’s later integration as the fifth huì of T220.
Translations and research
- Conze, Edward, trans. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary. Bolinas: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973. (Standard English translation; comparative apparatus including T224.)
- Vaidya, P. L. (ed.). Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts no. 4. Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1960.
- Karashima Seishi 辛島静志. A Glossary of Lokakṣema’s Translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2010. (The standard philological apparatus for T224.)
- Lancaster, Lewis R. “An Early Mahāyāna Sermon about the Body of the Buddha and the Making of Images.” Artibus Asiae 36 (1974): 287–291.
- Tang Yongtong 湯用彤. Hàn Wèi Liǎng-Jìn Nánběicháo Fójiào shǐ. Shanghai: Shangwu, 1938.
Other points of interest
T224 is the textual foundation for the entire East-Asian prajñā-doctrinal tradition; its Hàn-period archaic vocabulary made it a key witness for the early Chinese Buddhist linguistic experimentation, and its preface by 道安 Dào’ān is one of the most important early Chinese Buddhist doctrinal prefaces. The connection of T224 to early Mahāyāna Mahāsāṃghika communities in north-west India is the principal historical anchor for dating the emergence of Mahāyāna Buddhism — the fact that the Aṣṭasāhasrikā was already available for translation in 179 CE means it must have been composed earlier than that.
Links
- CBETA T08n0224
- Kanseki DB
- 支婁迦讖 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (186) — Harrison, Paul. The Samādhi of Direct Encounter with the Buddhas of the Present. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1990, p. 236.