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妙法蓮華經

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Text ID
KR6d0001
Date
406–406
Dynasty
姚秦

Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng 妙法蓮華經

Sūtra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra) by 鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí / Kumārajīva, 譯)

About the work

The standard East-Asian recension of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, in seven juan and twenty-eight chapters, translated by Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 (344–413) at Cháng’ān in Hóngshǐ 弘始 8 (406) under the Later Qín 後秦 ruler Yáo Xìng 姚興. Of the three full Chinese translations preserved in the canon — Dharmarakṣa’s Zhèng fǎhuá jīng 正法華經 (T263 = KR6d0002), Kumārajīva’s translation here, and the Sui-period Tiānpǐn miàofǎ liánhuá jīng 添品妙法蓮華經 (T264 = KR6d0003) by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta — Kumārajīva’s version became the overwhelming standard for liturgical, doctrinal, and exegetical use throughout China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

Prefaces

The text opens with two prefatorial pieces. The first is the Imperial Preface to the Mahāyāna Lotus Sūtra (《御製大乘妙法蓮華經序》) issued by the Yǒnglè 永樂 emperor on the 17th day of the 4th month of Yǒnglè 18 (= 1420 CE), framing the translation history of the sūtra and exhorting devotional reading. The Yǒnglè preface narrates that “tracing back to its source — born yonder in Tiānzhú, it flowed forth in Zhèndàn — from the Western Jìn the śramaṇa Zhú Fǎhù first added a translation, calling it Zhèng fǎhuá; then in the Eastern Jìn the Kuchean tripiṭaka-master Kumārajīva re-translated it, calling it Miàofǎ liánhuá; reaching the Sui, the Indic śramaṇa Jñānagupta translated yet again, also under the name Miàofǎ. Though the three sūtras’ literary expression overlaps and intersects, only the tripiṭaka-master uniquely grasped the meaning.”

The second is the famous Preface to the Wide Transmission of the Lotus Sūtra (《妙法蓮華經弘傳序》) by the Táng vinaya-master Dàoxuān 道宣 (596–667) of Zhōngnán Shān 終南山, the most influential medieval framing of the Lotus Sūtra: “The Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng unifies the source-purpose of all the Buddhas’ descent of spirit. It congealed in great Tiānzhú, emerging there for a thousand years; it transmitted east to Zhèndàn, three hundred-odd years ago. … From the Hàn to the Táng, six hundred-odd years, totalling some four thousand scrolls of texts in all — none equals this sūtra in the abundance of its faithful upholders.” Dàoxuān’s preface is the source for the standard Sinitic exegetical schema dividing the Lotus into a trace-gate (jìmén 跡門, chapters 1–14) and an origin-gate (běnmén 本門, chapters 15–28).

Abstract

The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra is the central scriptural text of the Tiāntái 天台 and Nichiren 日蓮 traditions and one of the most widely diffused Mahāyāna sūtras in East Asia. Its principal doctrinal content is the proclamation of the ekayāna (一乘, “One Vehicle”) — that the threefold distinction of śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva vehicles is provisional and that all sentient beings will ultimately attain Buddhahood — together with the revelation in chapter 16 (Rúlái shòuliàng pǐn 如來壽量品) that the historical Śākyamuni’s lifespan is in fact incalculably long, the apparent extinction at Kuśinagar being merely a pedagogical device.

Kumārajīva’s translation was completed at the Xiāoyáo Yuán 逍遙園 in Cháng’ān, where he led a translation bureau of several hundred monks under the patronage of Yáo Xìng. The base manuscript appears to have been a recension reasonably close to what is now reconstructable as the Central Asian / Kuchean transmission of the Sanskrit. The 28-chapter division of the received text reflects later editorial additions: the Devadatta chapter (Típódáduō pǐn 提婆達多品, ch. 12 in modern editions) and the second half of the Avalokiteśvara chapter (普門品偈頌) were added in the 6th century from Jñānagupta-Dharmagupta’s translation, and the original Kumārajīva translation contained 27 chapters in 7 (sometimes 8) juan. The catalogues of Sēngyòu 僧祐 (《出三藏記集》, T2145) and the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (T2034) document the translation date and provenance.

The Indic textual history is complex and is among the most thoroughly studied for any Mahāyāna sūtra: the surviving Sanskrit recensions divide into the Nepalese (Kashmir-related) recension and the Central Asian (Kashgar / Petrovsky / Gilgit) recensions, with the Central Asian materials standing significantly closer to the text underlying the Chinese translations. The composition of the Indic Saddharmapuṇḍarīka is generally dated to roughly the 1st century BCE through the 2nd century CE, with later strata (the chapters from Dhāraṇī onward, and the Avalokiteśvara chapter’s verse portion) accreting subsequently.

Translations and research

  • Kern, Hendrik, trans. Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka, or The Lotus of the True Law. Sacred Books of the East 21. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884. (The classical English translation, made from the Nepalese Sanskrit.)
  • Hurvitz, Leon, trans. Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (The Lotus Sūtra). New York: Columbia University Press, 1976; rev. ed. 2009. (The standard English translation of Kumārajīva’s Chinese text; 2009 revision incorporates Kashgar Sanskrit comparisons.)
  • Watson, Burton, trans. The Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993. (Widely circulated English translation of Kumārajīva.)
  • Kubo Tsugunari and Yuyama Akira, trans. The Lotus Sutra: Taishō Volume 9, Number 262. BDK English Tripiṭaka 13-I. Berkeley: Numata Center, 2007.
  • Reeves, Gene, trans. The Lotus Sutra: A Contemporary Translation of a Buddhist Classic. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2008.
  • Bunnō Katō et al., trans. The Threefold Lotus Sutra. New York: Weatherhill, 1975.
  • Burnouf, Eugène, trans. Le Lotus de la bonne loi. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1852. (The first European-language translation, from the Nepalese Sanskrit; foundational for Western Buddhist studies.)
  • Yamada Ryūjō 山田龍城. Bonbun hokekyō 梵文法華經. Tokyo: Tōyō Bunko, 1959.
  • Kabutogi Shōkō 兜木正亨. Hokke hangyō no kenkyū 法華版経の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1980.
  • Karashima Seishi 辛嶋静志. A Glossary of Kumārajīva’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra. Tokyo: Soka University, 2001.
  • Karashima Seishi. A Glossary of Dharmarakṣa’s Translation of the Lotus Sutra. Tokyo: Soka University, 1998.
  • Pye, Michael. Skilful Means: A Concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism. London: Duckworth, 1978; 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2003.
  • Tamura Yoshirō 田村芳朗 and Umehara Takeshi 梅原猛. Hokke shisō 法華思想. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1969.
  • Stone, Jacqueline I. Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999. (Standard study of the medieval Japanese Lotus tradition.)
  • Teiser, Stephen F., and Stone, Jacqueline I., eds. Readings of the Lotus Sūtra. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009. (Important essay collection on Lotus Sūtra exegesis and reception.)

Other points of interest

The Lotus Sūtra is the most-translated Mahāyāna scripture into European languages and the single most thoroughly studied Buddhist text in modern Japanese scholarship; the bibliographical apparatus collected at the Risshō University Hokekyō Bunka Kenkyū-jo 立正大学法華経文化研究所 alone occupies many thousands of entries. Kumārajīva’s translation effectively created the literary register of Sinitic Mahāyāna devotional vocabulary and many of the most recognisable phrases of East-Asian Buddhism — zhū fǎ shí xiāng 諸法實相, kāishìwùrù 開示悟入, yī fó shèng 一佛乘, the parable of the burning house (火宅), the parable of the prodigal son (窮子), the ratnastūpa of Prabhūtaratna (多寶佛塔) — derive their canonical Chinese form from this translation.

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