Jīngāng néngduàn bōrě bōluómì jīng 金剛能斷般若波羅蜜經 (T238)
Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (Dharmagupta’s Translation) by 笈多 (Dharmagupta, 譯)
About the work
A single-fascicle Suí-period Chinese translation of the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā by Dharmagupta 笈多. Signature: 「隋大業年中三藏笈多譯」 (“translated by the Tri-piṭaka Master Jíduō during the Dàyè era”) — Dàyè 大業 = 605–618 CE under Suí Yángdì. The opening praṇāma-formula 「歸命一切佛菩薩海等」 (“homage to the ocean of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas”) is distinctive. The title 能斷 (“able-to-cut”) is a calque-translation of vajra-cchedikā preserving the Sanskrit semantic structure more closely than the earlier 金剛 (“Vajra”) used in T235.
Prefaces
No preface or postface; only the canonical translator-signature.
Abstract
T238 is the fifth of the six Chinese Vajracchedikā translations ([KR6c0001|T220], T235, T236, T237, T238, T239) and is dated to the Dàyè era (605–618 CE) at Cháng’ān. Dharmagupta’s translation idiom is more literal and Sanskrit-preserving than 鳩摩羅什 Kumārajīva’s; the title’s néngduàn lexicon foreshadows 玄奘 Xuánzàng’s later choice of vocabulary in K016 and T239 (義淨 Yìjìng’s). For the Vajracchedikā tradition broadly, see T235.
Translations and research
- See bibliography under T235.
Links
- CBETA T08n0238
- Kanseki DB
- 笈多 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (610) — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭 (Tokyo: 1924–1932; CBReader v 5.0, 2014).