Jīngāng bōrě bōluómì jīng 金剛般若波羅蜜經 (T237)
Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Paramārtha’s Translation) by 真諦 (Paramārtha, 譯)
About the work
A single-fascicle Chen-dynasty Chinese translation of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā by Paramārtha 真諦 (499–569 CE), the great Yogācāra translator. Signature: 「陳天竺三藏真諦譯」. For the Diamond Sūtra tradition broadly, see T235.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T237 falls within Paramārtha’s documented Chen-period activity (562–569 CE) at Yángzhōu and Guǎngzhōu. The translation is one of six Chinese versions of the Vajracchedikā ([KR6c0001|T220], T235, T236, T237, T238, T239, K016). Paramārtha’s translation is the third Chinese rendering after 鳩摩羅什 Kumārajīva and 菩提流支 Bodhiruci, and the doublet relationships among the six Chinese versions have been a key topic in modern Vajracchedikā studies. Paramārtha is one of the most consequential Yogācāra translators in pre-Tang Chinese Buddhism, and his rendering reflects the Yogācāra-doctrinal reading of the Diamond Sūtra that became the doctrinal background of the Mahāyāna-saṃparigraha tradition.
Translations and research
- See bibliography under T235.
- Paul, Diana. Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramārtha’s “Evolution of Consciousness”. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984.
Links
- CBETA T08n0237
- Kanseki DB
- 真諦 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (565) — Fāng Guǎngchāng 方廣錩, “Dūnhuáng wénxiàn zhōng de Jīngāng jīng jí qí zhùshū” 敦煌文獻中的《金剛經》及其注疏, Shìjiè zōngjiào yánjiū 世界宗教研究 (1995) no. 1: 73–80, p. 73.