Jīngāngxiān lùn 金剛仙論
Vajra-ṛṣi’s Sub-commentary on Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā-vyākhyā by 世親菩薩 (Vasubandhu, 造); explained by 金剛仙論師 (Vajra-ṛṣi, 釋); translated by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
A ten-fascicle Northern-Wèi Chinese sub-commentary on Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā-vyākhyā — the most extensive of the Chinese Vajracchedikā exegetical works. The Indic Vajra-ṛṣi (金剛仙) is the named explainer/sub-commentator on Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā commentary; Bodhiruci translated both the underlying Vasubandhu vyākhyā and Vajra-ṛṣi’s sub-commentary as a single integrated work. The Taishō header cross-references T1511 — Bodhiruci’s other Vasubandhu Vajracchedikā-translation — and the related works at T1513 / T1514.
The opening of the text is a substantial Chinese-language exposition of the Prajñāpāramitā corpus, identifying its eight huì (= the Mahāyāna eight-section prajñā doctrinal classification) and giving the verse-counts for each: 「《金剛般若波羅蜜》者，總括八部之大宗，契眾經之綱要…其第一部十萬偈(《大品》是)，第二部二萬五千偈(《放光》是)…」 — “the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā gathers the great purport of the eight sections, contracting the essentials of all sūtras… The first section is in 100,000 verses (= Mahāprajñāpāramitā); the second in 25,000 verses (= Fàngguāng / T221)…”
Prefaces
The opening Prajñāpāramitā eight-section programmatic exposition serves as the work’s prologue.
Abstract
T1512 is the most extensive of the Chinese Vajracchedikā commentaries and is one of the most-detailed pre-Tang Mahāyāna doctrinal commentaries in the Chinese canon. The work is one of the principal sources for the East-Asian Buddhist conception of the eight-fold structural classification of the Prajñāpāramitā corpus, as articulated in its opening exposition. Translation is dateable to Bodhiruci’s documented Luòyáng activity (509–527).
The “金剛仙” sub-commentator’s identification is unclear; modern scholarship (Mochizuki; Nattier) has questioned whether 金剛仙 might be a translator’s tag rather than a separate Indic author, with the prose-commentary in T1512 representing Bodhiruci’s elaboration on Vasubandhu’s verse-text rather than a strictly Indic three-author chain.
Translations and research
Links
- CBETA T25n1512
- Kanseki DB
- 世親菩薩 DILA
- 菩提流支 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (520, 530) — Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙 and Maruyama Takao 丸山孝雄, eds., Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 佛書解說大辭典 (Tokyo: Daitō shuppan, 1933–1936 [縮刷版 1999]), vol. 3, 475–476.