Fóshuō Guǎngbó yánjìng bùtuìzhuǎn lún jīng 佛說廣博嚴淨不退轉輪經
Sūtra of the Vast and Pure Non-Backsliding Wheel (Taught by the Buddha) by 智嚴 (Zhìyán, 譯)
About the work
A six-juan Liú-Sòng translation of the Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra by Zhìyán 智嚴 (350–427), one of three Chinese translations of the same Indic source-text preserved in the canon: T266 = Dharmarakṣa’s Fóshuō Āwéiyuèzhì zhē jīng (KR6d0105, 3 juan), T267 = anonymous Northern-Liáng Bùtuìzhuǎn fǎlún jīng (KR6d0106, 4 juan), T268 = the present Zhìyán translation (6 juan). The expanded title — adding Guǎngbó yánjìng 廣博嚴淨 (“vast and broad, pure and purified”) — distinguishes this translation by its more elaborate Sinitic literary register, characteristic of Liú-Sòng-period translation diction. Body attribution: Sòng Liángzhōu shāmén Zhìyán yì 宋涼州沙門智嚴譯 (“translated by the śramaṇa Zhìyán of Liángzhōu of the Sòng [dynasty]”).
Prefaces
The text in the Taishō recension carries the standard front matter and proceeds with the Lotus-style opening rúshì wǒ wén 如是我聞 (“Thus have I heard”).
Abstract
Zhìyán’s translation is the most elaborate of the three Chinese versions of the Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra and was the standard medieval recension. The translation was undertaken in Yuánjiā 4 (427), the year of Zhìyán’s death, in collaboration with the śramaṇa 寶雲 Bǎoyún — a partnership that produced several major translations including the Pǔyào jīng 普曜經 (the Lalita-vistara).
The Sòng Avaivartika-cakra translation belongs to the post-Kumārajīva translation tradition of the Liú-Sòng court, characterised by more elaborate Sinitic literary diction than the earlier Western Jìn translations of Dharmarakṣa and his contemporaries. The expanded Guǎngbó yánjìng title reflects this stylistic shift.
The triple-translation pattern of the Avaivartika-cakra-sūtra (T266 / T267 / T268) demonstrates the substantial East-Asian Buddhist interest in the avaivartika bodhisattva doctrine; together they constitute the most extensive Chinese translation tradition of any single Indic Mahāyāna sūtra outside the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka and the Prajñāpāramitā corpora.
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.
Links
- CBETA online text T0268
- Kanseki DB
- 智嚴 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (415, 440): T CBETA Taishō — 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.