Fóshuō fómǔ bǎodézàng bōrěbōluómì jīng 佛說佛母寶德藏般若波羅蜜經

Northern-Sòng Translation of the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā by 法賢 (Fǎxián / Dharmadeva, 譯)

About the work

A three-fascicle Northern-Sòng Chinese translation of the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā — the verse-summary of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, an early-medieval Indic prajñā text in 41 vaggas of Sanskrit gāthā. Translated by Fǎxián 法賢 / Dharmadeva at the Northern-Sòng Yìjīngyuàn. Signature: 「西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試光祿卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯」.

Prefaces

No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.

Abstract

T229 is the only Chinese translation of the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā, a verse-summary of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā that survives independently in Sanskrit (edited by Yuyama 1976). Modern scholarship treats the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā as preserving an even earlier verse-form of the Prajñāpāramitā-doctrine than the Aṣṭasāhasrikā prose-recension; some chapters of the Ratnaguṇa are now thought to predate the corresponding prose-narrative in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā. T229 is therefore an important late-Sòng-period witness for an early-Mahāyāna prajñā-doctrinal layer.

Translations and research

  • Yuyama Akira 湯山明 (ed.). Prajñā-pāramitā-ratna-guṇa-saṃcaya-gāthā. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976. (Sanskrit edition; comparative apparatus including T229.)
  • Conze, Edward, trans. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and Its Verse Summary. Bolinas, 1973. (English translation including the verse-summary corresponding to T229.)