Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng 大方廣佛華嚴經 (新譯 / 八十華嚴)
The Sūtra on the Great, Vast Buddha-Flower-Garland (Buddhāvataṃsaka-mahāvaipulya-sūtra) — the “Eighty-fascicle Huáyán” / “New Translation” by 實叉難陀 Śikṣānanda (譯), commissioned by 武則天 Empress Wǔ Zétiān
About the work
The 80-fascicle Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng — known throughout the East Asian tradition as the Bā shí Huáyán 八十華嚴, the Xīn yì Huáyán 新譯華嚴 (“New Translation Huáyán”), or the Dà Zhōu xīn yì jīng 大周新譯經 (“New Translation of the Great Zhōu”) — is the second and definitive Chinese translation of the Buddhāvataṃsaka / Avataṃsaka-sūtra. Made between 695 and 699 CE under direct imperial patronage of 武則天 Empress Wǔ Zétiān at the Dà biàn-kōng-sì 大遍空寺 and the Fó-shòu-jì-sì 佛授記寺 in Luòyáng, it is in 80 fascicles divided into 39 chapters (品), spanning 9 assemblies (會) at 7 places (處) — the so-called 七處九會 schema, which differs from the 七處八會 of the 60-fascicle version (the new translation adds a ninth assembly in the Tā-huà zì-zài tiān 他化自在天). The translation is on average more polished and more literal than Buddhabhadra’s earlier 60-fascicle version, reflecting a Khotanese Sanskrit (or BHS) Vorlage of approximately 100,000 verses — substantially fuller than Buddhabhadra’s 36,000-verse Vorlage — and fully integrated Tang-court translation methodology.
Prefaces
The Taishō print is preceded by Wǔ Zétiān’s own 《大周新譯《大方廣佛華嚴經》序》 (“Preface to the New Translation of the Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng of the Great Zhōu”), signed by her under her honorific title Tiāncè Jīnlún Shèngshén Huángdì 天冊金輪聖神皇帝. The preface is one of the most distinguished imperial prefaces in the East Asian Buddhist canon — a tour de force of Tang court parallel prose, alternating between cosmological overture, autobiographical justification (her past-life karmic tie to the Buddha; the Mahāmegha and Bǎoyǔ prophecies that confirmed her empress-bodhisattva status), and the historical-bibliographical particulars of the new translation.
In summary the preface argues: (i) The cosmic frame: at the dawn of creation the Way of Heaven was undifferentiated, and only after the appearance of the xiàng 象 (cosmic emblems) did human civilisation emerge; even the 18,000-year-old eras and seventy-two sage-kings of Chinese antiquity could not grasp the boundless meaning of the Buddhadharma. (ii) Her own karmic foundation: “Long ago I planted causes; I am unworthy to have received the Buddha’s prediction. The golden-faced one [Buddha] handed down the message; the verse of the Great Cloud came forth first; the auspicious omens of jade-screen and jewelled-rain followed.” (iii) The Avataṃsaka’s status: “the secret repository of all Buddhas, the ocean-nature of the Tathāgata”; one phrase contains the boundless Dharma-realm; one hair-tip holds buddhakṣetras without crowding. (iv) The historical specifics: the Avataṃsaka was first translated in the Jìn (Buddhabhadra’s effort), but six dynasties and four hundred years had passed; the earlier translation captured only thirty-thousand-odd verses, “opening half the pearl, but not yet beholding the whole jewel.” On hearing that the Sanskrit text was fully preserved in Khotan, the empress dispatched envoys to fetch it, and met the new manuscript with reverence. (v) The dating of the translation: begun on Zhèng-shèng 證聖 1 (695) / 3rd month / xīn-yǒu 14th day at the Dà biàn-kōng-sì, with the empress herself “personally taking up the brush and making editorial deletions” (親受筆削); completed on Shèng-lì 聖曆 2 (699) / 10th month / jǐchǒu 8th day. (vi) The work’s continuing programmatic significance: “May it shine forth across the sand-grain world-systems and pervade the dust-mote regions; may it stand together with the two luminaries [sun and moon] and reach across the ten directions for ever.”
The preface is followed by the formal title-line “于闐國三藏實叉難陀奉制譯” (“Translated by Śikṣānanda, Tripiṭaka of Khotan, by imperial command”), and then the body of the sūtra opens with the Shìzhǔ miào yán pǐn 世主妙嚴品 (“World-Lord’s Wonderful Adornments,” chapter 1).
Abstract
The composition history of the new translation can be reconstructed in detail thanks to (a) Wǔ Zétiān’s preface, (b) the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154, juan 9, p. 565a–566b), (c) the biographies of the translators in the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061, juan 2 for Śikṣānanda; juan 5 for Fǎzàng), and (d) the Huāyán jīng zhuàn jì 華嚴經傳記 (T2073, juan 1) of Fǎzàng. By 695 the empress had concluded that the Buddhabhadra translation was incomplete; she petitioned the Khotan court for the full Sanskrit text; on the Sanskrit’s arrival the Khotanese Tripiṭaka master 實叉難陀 Śikṣānanda (Xuéxǐ 學喜, 652–710) was invited to undertake the new translation. The empress personally inaugurated the translation at the Dà biàn-kōng-sì on 695/3/14. The translation team — assembled at imperial expense and under the empress’s direct patronage — included 菩提流志 Bodhiruci (Pútíliúzhì), 義淨 Yìjìng (himself the great translator of Vinaya material returning from his Indian pilgrimage), 法藏 Fǎzàng (the third Huáyán patriarch, who served as polishing editor and made several philological clarifications now reported in his Huāyán jīng zhuàn jì), and the Khotanese collaborators Fǎxù 法栩 and Xuán-yī 玄儀.
The 80-fascicle text is structurally fuller than its predecessor in three respects. First, it adds the 11 chapters that were missing or merely sketched in the 60-fascicle version — most notably the Rúláixiàn xiàng pǐn 如來現相品 (chapter 2), the Pǔ-xián sānmèi pǐn 普賢三昧品 (chapter 3), and the Shìjiè chéngjiù pǐn 世界成就品 (chapter 4); together these three chapters provide a vastly expanded prelude to the Vairocana cosmology. Second, it expands the Shídì pǐn 十地品 / Daśabhūmika (the conceptual heart of the work) with material absent from the older translation. Third, the closing Rù fǎjiè pǐn 入法界品 / Gaṇḍavyūha — the great pilgrimage of Sudhana — is given in a more complete and stylistically richer version. Together these expansions provided the textual basis for the next generation of Huáyán scholasticism, beginning with 澄觀 Chéngguān’s [[KR6e0011|Huáyán jīng shū 華嚴經疏]] (T1735) and Yǎn yì chāo 演義鈔 (T1736), which became and remained the standard commentaries on the new translation.
The 40-fascicle Sì shí Huáyán 四十華嚴 (KR6e0041, T0293), translated by 般若 Prajñā in 798 CE, is in fact a separate translation of the Gaṇḍavyūha portion alone in greatly expanded form, and is conventionally treated as a supplementary version of the Avataṃsaka. The three Chinese translations of the Huáyán — T0278 (60 fasc., 418/420), T0279 (80 fasc., 695/699), T0293 (40 fasc., 798) — are the primary scriptural basis for the entire East Asian Huáyán / Hwaeom / Kegon tradition.
The Taishō text is established on the Korean Tripiṭaka Koreana (高麗藏 / 麗) collated against the Míng (明), Palace (宮), Northern Míng (北藏), Sòng (宋), Yuán (元), Southern Míng (南藏), Old-Sòng (磧砂), Shèng (聖), Fú (福 — Fúzhōu), Shèng-yǐ (聖乙), the Liúbù běn 流布本 (“Disseminated Edition”), and the Liútōng běn 流通本 (“Circulated Edition”) — an unusually rich apparatus reflecting the work’s centrality and the multiplicity of independent transmission lines.
Translations and research
- Cleary, Thomas, tr. The Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra. Boulder: Shambhala, 1984–1987 (3 vols.); 1-vol. ed. 1993. — The standard complete English translation, based principally on T0279 (the 80-fascicle version), with reference to T0278 and T0293.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism. Asiatische Forschungen 151. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2007.
- Hamar, Imre. “The History of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra: Shorter and Larger Texts,” in Reflecting Mirrors, 139–168 — the definitive recent text-historical survey.
- Forte, Antonino. Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh Century. Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, 1976; rev. ed. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2005. — On the politico-ideological context of Wǔ Zétiān’s patronage of the new translation.
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and his Offspring. Kyoto: ISEAS, 1995 — and the surveys cited there for translation-bureau methodology.
- Osto, Douglas. Power, Wealth and Women in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism: The Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra. Routledge, 2008.
- Cook, Francis H. Hua-yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1977.
- Gimello, Robert M. Chih-yen (602–668) and the Foundations of Hua-yen Buddhism. Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1976.
- Kobayashi Jitsugen 小林實玄. Kegon-kyō kenkyū 華厳経研究. Hōzōkan, 1965.
- Kimura Kiyotaka 木村清孝. Chūgoku Kegon shisōshi 中国華厳思想史. Heirakuji shoten, 1992.
- Cleary, J. C. (tr.) Entry into the Realm of Reality: The Text, Entry into the Realm of Reality: The Guide (Cleary’s 1989 supplementary translations of the Sudhana pilgrimage material).
- Sakamoto Yukio 坂本幸男. Kegon kyōgaku no kenkyū 華厳教学の研究. Heirakuji shoten, 1956.
Other points of interest
- Wǔ Zétiān’s role in the translation of T0279 — both her patronage and her literal participation (“personally taking up the brush”) at the inauguration — is one of the most striking examples in Chinese history of imperial direct sponsorship of a major scriptural project. Her preface is the principal contemporary witness.
- The 7-place / 9-assembly schema (七處九會) of the new translation differs from the 7-place / 8-assembly (七處八會) of the older. This is not merely a structural difference; it reflects a different theory of the Buddha’s preaching of the Avataṃsaka across the cosmos. The new schema added the assembly in the Tā-huà zì-zài tiān (the highest of the heavens of the desire-realm) and was later given doctrinal-theoretical articulation by Fǎzàng and Chéngguān.
- The 80-fascicle version became the canonical liturgical and doctrinal text for the Huáyán schools of China, Korea (Hwaeom), and Japan (Kegon) from the early eighth century onward; nonetheless 法藏 Fǎzàng — who participated in producing it — wrote his definitive commentary [[KR6e0004|Tànxuán jì]] on the older 60-fascicle version, ensuring the latter’s continued doctrinal authority.
- The work’s Khotanese provenance is a major datum for the history of Mahāyāna in Central Asia; the existence of a 100,000-verse Khotan recension is independently corroborated by Khotanese-language and Tibetan parallels.