Fǎhuá lóngnǚ chéngfó quánshí yì 法華龍女成佛權實義
The Provisional-and-Real Meaning of the Dragon-Girl’s Buddhahood in the Lotus Sūtra by 源清 (Yuánqīng / Fèngxiān Yuánqīng, 述)
About the work
A single-juan Northern-Sòng treatise by Yuánqīng 源清 (d. 1000) on the doctrine of the Dragon-Girl’s Buddhahood (lóngnǚ chéngfó 龍女成佛) — the famous episode in chapter 12 of the Lotus Sūtra in which an eight-year-old nāga-princess attains Buddhahood instantaneously. The doctrine is one of the most controversial of the Lotus Sūtra and the principal Lotus Sūtra evidence for the doctrine of universal Buddhahood including women and animals.
Abstract
Yuánqīng’s treatise addresses the quánshí 權實 (provisional-and-real) interpretive question — whether the Dragon-Girl’s Buddhahood is upāya (provisional) or real. The composition is bracketed within Yuánqīng’s productive period c. 980–1000.
Translations and research
- Yü, Chün-fang. Kuan-yin: The Chinese Transformation of Avalokiteśvara. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
- Schuster, Nancy. “Changing the Female Body: Wise Women and the Bodhisattva Career in Some Mahāratnakūṭasūtras.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 4 (1981): 24–69.