Fó shuō Kāijué zìxìng bōrě bōluómìduō jīng 佛說開覺自性般若波羅蜜多經
Sūtra of the Self-Nature-Awakening Perfection of Wisdom by 惟淨 Wéijìng (等譯) and others of the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn team
About the work
A four-fascicle Northern Sòng Yìjīngyuàn translation of a Prajñāpāramitā sūtra, attributed to a translation team led by 惟淨 Wéijìng (d. 1051) — the second-generation Sòng translation-bureau Sanskrit specialist and nephew of the Southern Tang Lǐ Yù. Preserved in the Taishō as T260. Four fascicles.
The Sanskrit title is reconstructable as Svabhāvavibodha-prajñā-pāramitā-sūtra — the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra of Self-Nature Awakening — a late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā discourse with a distinctive zìxìng (self-nature) doctrinal frame.
Abstract
T260 is one of the last substantial Prajñāpāramitā sūtra translations produced by the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn, dated to the period of Wéijìng’s mature work as zhèngfànyì (authenticator of meaning) and Yìjīng sānzàng (Translation-Bureau Tripiṭaka), c. 1006 onward. The four-fascicle scale makes it a substantial translation, larger than the contemporary short-sūtra translations by Shīhù and Tiānxīzāi.
The zìxìng (self-nature, svabhāva) doctrinal frame is characteristic of late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā literature that engaged with Yogācāra-influenced doctrinal vocabulary; the work brings together the Prajñāpāramitā kōng doctrine with a positive zìxìng analysis, paralleling the broader late-Indian yogācāra-madhyamaka synthesis.
For the wider history, T260 is significant as: (i) one of the larger Sòng Yìjīngyuàn Prajñāpāramitā translations; (ii) a primary witness to Wéijìng’s mature scholarly leadership of the bureau; and (iii) a documentation of the late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā corpus’s continuing transmission to China through the late-Northern Sòng period.
Composition date: Wéijìng’s translation activity spans 989 (his entry to the bureau as a child scribe) to 1051 (his death). The bracket reflects this; the work is most likely from his mature Yìjīng sānzàng period (c. 1006 onward).
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located of T260 specifically.
- For Wéijìng and the second-generation Sòng Yìjīngyuàn, Tansen Sen (2003).
- For late-Indian Prajñāpāramitā literature, Edward Conze (1960; rev. 1978).
Links
- 惟淨 DILA
- CBETA T08n0260
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000, 1050) — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō dating.
- Kanseki DB