Miàofǎ liánhuá jīng lùn yōupótíshè 妙法蓮華經論優波提舍
Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa (Vasubandhu’s Treatise on the Lotus Sūtra; alternate Northern-Wèi translation) composed by 婆藪般豆菩薩 (Vasubandhu / Pósǒupándòu púsà, 造); translated by 勒那摩提 (Ratnamati, 等譯) and 僧朗 (Sēnglǎng, 等譯)
About the work
A single-juan Northern-Wèi (Yuán-Wèi) translation of 世親菩薩 Vasubandhu’s Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa by 勒那摩提 Ratnamati and 僧朗 Sēnglǎng — the parallel translation to 菩提留支 Bodhiruci’s two-juan version at KR6d0126 (T1519). The Taishō cross-reference 「No. 1520 [No. 1519]」 documents the parallel-translation pattern. Body attribution: Pósǒupándòu púsà zào / Yuán-Wèi zhōng Tiānzhú sānzàng Lènàmótí gòng Sēnglǎng děng yì 婆藪般豆菩薩造 / 元魏中天竺三藏勒那摩提共僧朗等譯.
Prefaces
The text in the Taishō recension carries the standard front matter and opens with the standard sūtra-citation opening Rúshì wǒ wén 如是我聞 (“Thus have I heard”), followed by the explicit citation of the Lotus Sūtra opening passage and Vasubandhu’s commentary thereon.
Abstract
Ratnamati’s translation of Vasubandhu’s Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa differs in significant respects from Bodhiruci’s parallel translation (KR6d0126, T1519): the Ratnamati version is more compressed (one juan vs. Bodhiruci’s two), reflecting either a different Indic recension or different translation methodology. Modern critical study of the two translations remains valuable for the comparative reconstruction of the Indic original and for documenting the early sixth-century Sinitic Yogācāra translation tradition.
The doctrinal content is essentially the same: Vasubandhu’s Yogācāra-school exposition of the Lotus Sūtra, providing the foundational Indic Mahāyāna commentary on which subsequent Sinitic Yogācāra readings of the Lotus (窺基 Kuījī’s Xuánzàn KR6d0026 and the Cí’ēn subcommentarial tradition) were ultimately based.
The Ratnamati–Sēnglǎng translation is bracketed within Ratnamati’s productive period at Luòyáng (c. 508–535).
Translations and research
See KR6d0126 for the full bibliography on Vasubandhu and the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa.
- Frauwallner, Erich. On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law Vasubandhu. Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1951.
- Anacker, Stefan. Seven Works of Vasubandhu, the Buddhist Psychological Doctor. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984.
- Lusthaus, Dan. Buddhist Phenomenology. London: Routledge, 2002.
- Karashima Seishi 辛嶋静志. The Textual Study of the Chinese Versions of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra. Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1992.
Other points of interest
The two distinct Northern-Wèi translations (T1519 and T1520) of Vasubandhu’s Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa are one of the better-documented cases of the early-sixth-century institutional separation between the Bodhiruci and Ratnamati translation teams at Luòyáng. The two teams produced parallel translations of the same Indic source-texts on multiple occasions (the Daśabhūmika-sūtra-śāstra, the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka-upadeśa, and others), with the parallel translations preserving distinctive translation idioms that document the formation of the Northern Dào 北道 (Bodhiruci) and Southern Dào 南道 (Ratnamati) Dìlùn 地論 lineages.
Links
- CBETA online text T1520
- DDB 妙法蓮華經論優波提舍
- Kanseki DB
- 世親菩薩 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (505, 510, 520, 530): Ono and Maruyama 1933–1936 — Ono Genmyō 小野玄妙, Maruyama Takao 丸山孝雄, eds. Bussho kaisetsu daijiten 佛書解說大辭典. Tokyo: Daitō shuppan, 1933–1936 [縮刷版 1999]. vol. 10, pp. 367–369.