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不退轉法輪經

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Text ID
KR6d0106
Date
397–439
Dynasty
北涼

Bùtuìzhuǎn fǎlún jīng 不退轉法輪經

Sūtra of the Non-Backsliding Dharma-Wheel Translator unknown (失譯), attributed to the Northern Liáng 北涼 catalogue.

About the work

A four-juan anonymous early Chinese translation of the Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra — the second of the three Chinese translations of the same Indic source-text preserved in the canon. The Taishō cross-reference 「No. 267 [Nos. 266, 268]」 documents the parallel translations: T266 = Dharmarakṣa’s Fóshuō Āwéiyuèzhì zhē jīng (KR6d0105), T267 = the present anonymous translation, T268 = Zhìyán’s Fóshuō Guǎngbó yánjìng bùtuìzhuǎn lún jīng (KR6d0107).

Prefaces

The text in the Taishō recension carries the editorial note: Sēngyòu lù yún Āngōng Liángtǔ yì jīng zài BěiLiáng lù dìèr yì 僧祐錄云安公涼土異經在北涼錄第二譯 (“The Sēngyòu lù [the Chū sānzàng jì jí T2145] says: per Master Ān [Dàoān 道安, 312–385], in the Liáng-area divergent-sūtra catalogue of the Northern Liáng, [this is] the second translation”). This editorial framing attributes the translation to the Northern Liáng (397–439 CE) productive period and identifies the work as one of the Liángtǔ yìjīng 涼土異經 (“Liáng-area divergent sūtras”) catalogued by Dàoān.

Abstract

The Bùtuìzhuǎn fǎlún jīng is the second of the three Chinese translations of the Indic Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra. Its anonymous Liáng-period attribution places it in the early-fifth-century Northern Liáng productive context, when the Liáng courts at Liángzhōu sponsored substantial Buddhist translation activity that supplemented and frequently competed with the contemporary Cháng’ān translation bureau under Kumārajīva.

The work’s four-juan extent (against Dharmarakṣa’s three-juan in KR6d0105) suggests either a different recension of the Indic text or substantial expansion in translation. Comparison of the three Chinese translations against the Tibetan and any surviving Indic fragments would clarify the textual relationships, but no detailed comparative study has been published.

The dating is bracketed within the Northern Liáng productive period (397–439).

Translations and research

See KR6d0105 for the bibliography on the Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra tradition.

  • Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

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