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大法鼓經

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Text ID
KR6d0109
Date
435–443
Dynasty
劉宋

Dà fǎgǔ jīng 大法鼓經

The Great Dharma-Drum Sūtra by 求那跋陀羅 (Qiúnà-bátuóluó / Guṇabhadra, 譯)

About the work

A two-juan (上 / 下) Liú-Sòng translation of the Mahābherī-sūtra by Guṇabhadra 求那跋陀羅 (394–468), the great mid-fifth-century translator who came to China from central India in 435. The sūtra belongs to the broader Tathāgatagarbha (如來藏) sūtra cycle, parallel to Guṇabhadra’s better-known translations of the Śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda-sūtra (T353) and the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra (T670). The title’s metaphor fǎgǔ 法鼓 (“dharma-drum”) indicates the sūtra’s claim to be the proclamation of the supreme Buddhist teaching, as the dharma-drum sounds out across the cosmos. Body attribution: Sòng Tiānzhú sānzàng Qiúnàbátuóluó yì 宋天竺三藏求那跋陀羅譯 (“translated by the Indic Tripiṭaka Guṇabhadra of the Sòng [dynasty]”).

Prefaces

The text in the Taishō recension carries the standard front matter and opens with the standard sūtra-opening rúshì wǒ wén 如是我聞 (“Thus have I heard”).

Abstract

The Dà fǎgǔ jīng is a key text of the Tathāgatagarbha (如來藏) sūtra cycle and one of the foundational scriptures of the doctrine that all sentient beings possess the tathāgatagarbha (the embryo or matrix of the Tathāgata) — the doctrinal claim that ultimately grounds the Mahāyāna teaching of universal Buddhahood. The sūtra’s narrative frame presents the doctrine through the metaphor of the great dharma-drum that sounds out the supreme teaching for the benefit of those capable of receiving it.

The work is thematically connected to the Lotus Sūtra through its articulation of the doctrine of universal Buddhahood — the same doctrine that informs the Lotus’s ekayāna teaching — and its inclusion in the Lotus-related division of the canon (KR6d) reflects this thematic affinity. The sūtra was extensively cited by both Tiāntái and Huāyán scholars as a Tathāgatagarbha-tradition authority for their respective doctrinal positions on universal Buddhahood.

The composition of the Indic original is generally placed in the third or fourth century CE, with the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra cycle (the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra, the Śrīmālā, the Mahāyāna-Mahāparinirvāṇa, the Mahābherī, and the Anūnatvāpūrṇatva) representing the Indic Mahāyāna tradition that developed the doctrine of universal Buddhahood as a corrective to the Yogācāra gotra doctrine.

The dating of Guṇabhadra’s translation is bracketed within his Liú-Sòng productive period (435–468), with the work most plausibly placed in his early productive period c. 435–443 at the Qíyuánsì 祇洹寺 in Jiànkāng under the patronage of Sòng Wéndì 宋文帝.

Translations and research

  • Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1930. (For the broader Guṇabhadra translation context.)
  • Brown, Brian E. The Buddha-Nature: A Study of the Tathāgatagarbha and Ālayavijñāna. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.
  • Wayman, Alex, and Wayman, Hideko. The Lion’s Roar of Queen Śrīmālā. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974.
  • Diana Y. Paul. The Buddhist Feminine Ideal: Queen Śrīmālā and the Tathāgatagarbha. Missoula: Scholars Press, 1980.
  • Karashima Seishi 辛嶋静志, ed. The Mahābherī-Sūtra. (Forthcoming critical edition; see Karashima’s broader publications on the Tathāgatagarbha sūtra cycle.)
  • Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Other points of interest

The Dà fǎgǔ jīng is one of the few Tathāgatagarbha sūtras whose Sanskrit original is now lost (preserved only in Chinese and Tibetan translations); the Chinese translation by Guṇabhadra is consequently the principal philological witness for the work’s content. Modern critical study of the Indic Tathāgatagarbha tradition depends substantially on Chinese translations of this kind, demonstrating the importance of the early Liú-Sòng translation enterprise for the modern reconstruction of the broader Indic Mahāyāna scriptural tradition.

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