Bānruò bōluómìduō xīnjīng 般若波羅蜜多心經 (T08n0253)
Heart of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra translated by 般若 (等譯), 利言 (等譯)
About the work
A one-juan late-Táng (Zhēnyuán-era) translation of the Sanskrit Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra by the Indian translator Prajñā 般若 (Bōrě, fl. 781–810) and the Kuchean translator Lìyán 利言 (the latter supplying linguistic competence in Chinese), with a translation team — hence the catalog credit-line děng yì 等譯 (“and others, translated”). Distinguished from the earlier renderings (Kumārajīva KR6c0127, Xuánzàng KR6c0128, Dharmacandra KR6c0129) by being the first Chinese rendering to include the prajñā-pāramitā mantra explicitly within the canonical text — i.e., the jiēdì jiēdì pōluójiēdì pōluósēngjiēdì pútí sàpóhē mantra is treated as canonical scripture rather than as a paratext. Cross-reference field cites Nos. 250-252, 254, 255, 257. Preserved as T8 no. 253. notBefore / notAfter set to the late-Zhēnyuán era (790–800). Catalog dynasty 唐.
Abstract
Prajñā’s translation is the fourth major Chinese rendering of the Heart Sūtra and the most explicitly mantra-centered version. Where Xuánzàng’s standard text (T251) had included the mantra at the closing, Prajñā’s version embeds the mantra-recitation framework throughout the text in the manner of late-Indian Tantric Mahāyāna practice. The translation team’s collaboration of an Indian master (Prajñā) with a Kuchean Sanskrit-Chinese intermediary (Lìyán) and Chinese-language editors is characteristic of the late-Táng Chángān imperial-translation bureau under Dàizōng / Dézōng. Prajñā was also responsible for the contemporaneous translation of the Mahāyāna-saṃparigraha and the Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna — the broader work programme of the late-Táng Indian Buddhist re-engagement.
Translations and research
- See KR6c0127 and KR6c0128 for principal modern studies of the Hṛdaya tradition.
- For Prajñā’s broader translation programme see modern Sino-Indian scholarship; Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T’ang (Cambridge UP, 1987).
Other points of interest
This translation includes a substantial frame narrative absent from Xuánzàng’s spare canonical version, with the text presented as a discourse delivered by Avalokiteśvara to Śāriputra at Gṛdhrakūṭa (Vulture Peak) in the presence of the Buddha — making it a long-recension Heart Sūtra in contrast to the short-recension of Kumārajīva and Xuánzàng. The long-recension form is doctrinally important: modern scholarship (Lopez, Tanahashi) has emphasized that the Sanskrit Heart Sūtra may have circulated in both short and long recensions, with the Indian Tantric tradition preferring the long form and the East Asian liturgical tradition preferring the short.
Links
- 般若 DILA
- CBETA online
- Translators: Prajñā 般若 + Lìyán 利言 + others — see person notes 般若, 利言
- Sanskrit: Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra (long recension)
- Cross-references: T250 (KR6c0127), T251 (KR6c0128), T252 (KR6c0129), T254, T255, T257
- Dazangthings date evidence (755, 800): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/
- Kanseki DB