Dà bōrě guān 大般若關
“Passage-Key” of the Great Prajñā (anonymous; Fángshān stone-engraving)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous guān (“passage-key”) extract from 玄奘 Xuánzàng’s 600-fascicle Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra (T220, KR6c0001), preserved among the Fángshān Stone Sūtras 房山石經 at Yúnjūsì 雲居寺 (modern Beijing). Admitted to the digital canon as F03n0181. One fascicle.
The work consists of selected passages from fascicle 136 of the Mahāprajñā (the Chūfēn jiàoliàng gōngdé pǐn 初分挍量功德品 = “Initial Section Comparison-of-Merit Chapter”) and presents them as a guān (passage-through-key) — paralleling the Sòng-period guānfǎ methodology of 大隱 Dàyǐn (KR6c0227) but in a stone-engraved excerpt-form for ritual recitation.
Prefaces
The opening passage records the dialogue between Heaven Lord Indra (天帝釋) and the Buddha on the question of xiāngsì-bōrě (similitude-Prajñā) versus zhēn-bōrě (true-Prajñā) — one of the central doctrinal-distinctions of the Mahāprajñā’s kōng doctrine: 「爾時天帝釋白佛言。世尊。云何名說相似般若靜慮精進安忍淨戒布施波羅蜜多。佛言。憍尸迦。若善男子善女人等說有所得般若靜慮精進安忍淨戒布施波羅蜜多。如是名說相似般若靜慮精進安忍淨戒布施波羅蜜多。」 — “At that time, Heaven Lord Indra spoke to the Buddha: ‘World-Honoured One, what is meant by saying similitude-Prajñā / dhyāna / vīrya / kṣānti / śīla / dāna pāramitā?’ The Buddha said: ‘Kauśika, if good-men-and-women say there is anything-attained pāramitā — this is what is meant by similitude-Prajñā…‘”
Abstract
F03n0181 is one of the Fángshān Stone Sūtras’ guān-extracts from the Mahāprajñā, paralleling Dàyǐn’s contemporary guānfǎ methodology (KR6c0227) but in a stone-engraved excerpt-form. The selection of fascicle 136 (the jiàoliàng gōngdé pǐn) is interesting: this chapter contains some of the most important Prajñā doctrinal distinctions, including the similitude-Prajñā / true-Prajñā contrast that became canonical in subsequent East Asian Prajñāpāramitā exegesis.
For the wider history, F03n0181 is significant as: (i) a primary witness to the Liáo / Jīn / Yuán-era Fángshān stone-sūtra programme’s engagement with the Mahāprajñā; (ii) a documentation of the guān (passage-key) methodology in stone-engraving form; and (iii) a small but valuable Fángshān contribution to the broader Sòng-period Mahāprajñā reception tradition.
The Fángshān stone-engraving programme spans Liáo / Jīn / Yuán dynasties (c. 11th–14th centuries); without internal dating evidence, the bracket notBefore 1020 / notAfter 1200 reflects the Liáo-era likely engraving period, contemporary with or slightly later than Dàyǐn’s textual guānfǎ.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- For the Fángshān stone sūtras, see Lothar Ledderose, ed., Buddhist Stone Sutras in China and the parallel publications on the Fángshān corpus.
- For the guānfǎ methodology, see KR6c0227 (Dàyǐn’s Dà bōrě jīng guānfǎ).
- For the Mahāprajñā reception, modern scholarship including 印順《大智度論之作者及其翻譯》 and others.
Other points of interest
The pairing with Dàyǐn’s textual guānfǎ (X448, c. 1020–1063) is suggestive: the Fángshān stone-engraved guān may be either contemporary with or slightly later than Dàyǐn’s textual methodology, and both reflect the same Sòng-period concern with making the very long Mahāprajñā manageable for memorisation and ritual use through passage-key methodologies.