Zhū pútísà qiú fó běn yè jīng 諸菩薩求佛本業經
The Sūtra on the Various Bodhisattvas Seeking the Buddha’s Original Practice by 聶道真 Niè Dàozhēn (譯)
About the work
This one-fascicle proto-Avataṃsaka text by 聶道真 Niè Dàozhēn (active late 3rd – early 4th c.) is a Western-Jìn-period translation of the same material as [[KR6e0029|Fó shuō pútísà běn yè jīng 佛說菩薩本業經]] (T0281, by Zhī Qiān). It corresponds to chapter 7 of the [[KR6e0001|60-fascicle Huáyán]], to chapter 11 of the [[KR6e0010|80-fascicle Huáyán]], and to T0282 (the present text). The two parallel translations (Zhī Qiān’s earlier and Niè Dàozhēn’s later) provide an important comparative witness to the textual development of the Avataṃsaka in the Chinese tradition.
The opening reads: “If the Yěnǎshìlì 若那師利 / Jñānaśrī bodhisattva asks the Wén-shū-shī-lì 文殊師利 / Mañjuśrī bodhisattva: ‘For what cause does a bodhisattva, in respect of bodily action, not [allow] others to obtain his strengths and weaknesses; in respect of speech and word, not [allow] others to obtain his strengths and weaknesses; in respect of mental thought, not [allow] others to obtain his strengths and weaknesses?’…”
Prefaces
No formal preface; the title-line attributes the translation to “西晉優婆塞聶道真譯” — “translated by the Lay Believer Niè Dàozhēn of the Western Jìn.”
Abstract
Niè Dàozhēn was a layman (優婆塞 upāsaka) and the chief Chinese-language assistant of the great Western Jìn translator 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù (active 266 – 313 CE) at the Cháng’ān translation bureau. Per the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, juan 13) and the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (T2034), Niè Dàozhēn — together with his father Niè Chéng-yuǎn 聶承遠 — collaborated with Zhú Fǎhù on numerous translations and produced several independent translations of his own; the Zhū pútísà qiú fó běn yè jīng belongs to the latter category. The Chū sānzàng jì jí attributes a number of texts to Niè Dàozhēn, mostly Mahāyāna sūtras of the Pratyutpannabuddha and Avataṃsaka genre.
The text is conventionally dated to the period of Niè Dàozhēn’s collaboration with Zhú Fǎhù at the Cháng’ān bureau, c. 280 – 313 CE; the bracket adopted here (280 – 312) reflects this window before the bureau dispersed in the late-Western-Jìn collapse. The Taishō text is established on the standard apparatus.
This is one of the smaller Western-Jìn proto-Avataṃsaka translations and provides important early evidence for the circulation of bodhisattva-practice material in the third- to fourth-century Chinese Buddhist community. Together with T0281 (Zhī Qiān’s earlier version of the same material), T0283 (Zhú Fǎhù’s Pútísà shízhù xíng dào pǐn), T0284 (Jì Duō-mì’s Pútísà shízhù jīng), and T0285 (Zhú Fǎhù’s Jiàn bèi yīqiè zhì dé jīng / Daśabhūmika), it documents the systematic accumulation in third- and fourth-century Chinese Buddhism of the materials that would later constitute the complete Avataṃsaka cycle.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB Soka University, 2008.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Gāndhārī and the Early Chinese Buddhist Translations Reconsidered: The Case of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118 (1998): 471–506 — methodological background.
- Hamar, Imre. “The History of the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra,” in Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
- Tsukamoto Zenryū 塚本善隆. Chūgoku Bukkyō tsūshi 中国仏教通史 vol. 1. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1968 — substantial treatment of the Niè family of translators.
Other points of interest
- The choice in this text of Jñānaśrī / 若那師利 (rather than the more common Jñānavajra) as Mañjuśrī’s interlocutor is a distinctive feature of the early-Chinese-translation tradition; the Jñānaśrī / Mañjuśrī dialogue-pair appears in several other proto-Avataṃsaka texts and provides one means of tracking the textual history of these materials.
Links
- CBETA T10n0282
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (186, 300) — Nattier 2005 — Nattier, Jan. “The Proto-History of the Buddhāvataṃsaka: The Pusa benye jing 菩薩本業經 and the Dousha jing 兜沙經.” ARIRIAB VIII (2005): 323–360.