Xiǎn wú biān fó tǔ gōngdé jīng 顯無邊佛土功德經
The Sūtra on Disclosing the Virtues of the Boundless Buddha-Fields by 玄奘 Xuánzàng (譯)
About the work
This one-fascicle text by 玄奘 Xuánzàng (602–664) corresponds, on the Taishō apparatus’s authority, to chapter 26 of the [[KR6e0001|60-fascicle Huáyán]], to chapter 31 of the [[KR6e0010|80-fascicle Huáyán]], and to the parallel late-Sòng translation by 法賢 Fǎxián T0290. The topic is the relation among the Buddha-fields (佛剎 / 佛土) — i.e. cosmic Buddha-realms each containing a distinct length of kalpa — corresponding to the doctrine that the time-cycles of different Buddha-fields are calibrated differently relative to one another. This is the cosmological topic that Chéngguān treats at length in his [[KR6e0011|Shū]] under the heading of zhū jié rù shèng 諸劫入聖 and that became one of the standard topics of mature Chinese Huáyán cosmological theory.
The opening reads: “Thus have I heard. At one time the Bhagavān was in Magadha at the Xián-jì-fǎ-lín 閑寂法林 (‘Quietude Dharma-grove’), seated on the wonderful Bodhi diamond-firm immeasurable wonderful-jewel-adorned red-lotus-platform lion-throne, together with the great bodhisattvas equal in number to the dust-grains of ten unspeakable koṭi-nayuta hundred-thousand Buddha-fields; and with the various devas, humans…”
Prefaces
No formal preface; the title-line attributes the translation to “大唐三藏法師玄奘譯” — “translated by the Great Tang Tripiṭaka Master Xuánzàng.”
Abstract
玄奘 Xuánzàng’s translation of this text was undertaken in the context of his great post-Indian translation enterprise at the Cíxiánsì 慈恩寺 (Cí’ēnsì) and the Yùhuásì 玉華寺 in Cháng’ān, c. 645 – 664 CE — the period after his return from India in 645 to his death in 664 — when he produced more than 76 translations totalling 1,347 fascicles. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The standard biography (the Cí’ēn zhuàn 慈恩傳, T2053) does not record a precise date for the present text, but on stylistic grounds it is conventionally placed in the early 660s.
The text is one of the few short “extracts” from the Avataṃsaka corpus that Xuánzàng undertook independently of his major projects (the Yogācārabhūmi, the Mahāvibhāṣā, the Abhidharmakośa, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā in 600 fascicles, etc.). The doctrinal topic — the relation of Buddha-field cosmologies — is one that bears directly on the Mahāyāna metaphysics of universal Buddhahood, a topic of central concern to Xuánzàng’s Yogācāra-school colleagues at the Cíxián-sì. The text was widely reproduced in Tang and post-Tang Chinese Buddhist literature.
The Taishō text (T0289) is established on the standard apparatus, including the Dōng 東 (Tōji) Japanese alternate witness.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Nattier, Jan. Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991 — methodology for Xuánzàng-corpus studies.
- Yifa, ven., et al. Hsuan-tsang’s Sūtras and Their Doctrines. Tang Studies Foundation series.
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and his Offspring. Kyoto: ISEAS, 1995 — context for Tang translation work.
Other points of interest
- The cosmological doctrine of differentially-calibrated kalpa-cycles in different Buddha-fields, which this text exposits, is one of the philosophical foundations of mature Chinese Huáyán metaphysics; Chéngguān cites it at length in his [[KR6e0011|Shū]].