Dàshèng fāngguǎng zǒngchí jīng 大乘方廣總持經
Mahāyāna Vaipulya Dhāraṇī Sūtra by 毘尼多流支 (Pínímíduōliúzhī / Vinītaruci, 譯)
About the work
A single-juan Suí-period translation of a Mahāyāna dhāraṇī sūtra by Vinītaruci 毘尼多流支, the south-Indian translator who subsequently founded the first major Buddhist school in Vietnamese history. The Taishō cross-reference 「No. 275 [No. 274]」 indicates that the present sūtra is a parallel translation of the same Indic source-text as Dharmarakṣa’s Jì zhū fāngděng xué jīng (KR6d0116, T274). Body attribution: Suí Tiānzhú sānzàng Pínímíduōliúzhī yì 隋天竺三藏毘尼多流支譯.
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 work is a Mahāyāna dhāraṇī sūtra elaborating the doctrine of the Vaipulya (方廣) and the protective-mnemonic dhāraṇī (總持) practice that supports the bodhisattva path. The Suí translation by Vinītaruci is more elaborate and stylistically refined than Dharmarakṣa’s earlier Western Jìn version (T274 = KR6d0116), demonstrating the substantial improvement in Sinitic translation diction between the late-third and late-sixth centuries.
The dating: Vinītaruci’s Chinese productive period began with his arrival at the Suí court in the late sixth century; his Vietnamese productive period began c. 580 with his journey south. The translation must consequently be placed in the period c. 581–594, before his journey to Vietnam.
Vinītaruci’s substantial Indic-Chinese-Vietnamese career — his translation activity in China followed by his foundation of the Vinītaruci lineage of Vietnamese Thiền (Chán) Buddhism — makes him one of the more significant transcontinental figures in pre-modern Buddhist transmission history.
Translations and research
- Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
- Nguyễn Tài Thư. History of Buddhism in Vietnam. Washington: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2008. (For the Vietnamese context of Vinītaruci’s later career.)
Other points of interest
Vinītaruci’s translation activity in late-Suí China and his subsequent foundation of the Vietnamese Thiền tradition demonstrates the substantial Indic-Buddhist commercial and religious network operating across South China and Southeast Asia in the sixth century, well before the better-known Tang-period missions of 義淨 Yìjìng and others.
Links
- CBETA online text T0275
- Kanseki DB
- 毘尼多流支 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (583, 590): 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.