Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng rù fǎjiè pǐn 大方廣佛華嚴經入法界品
The Chapter on Entering the Dharma-Realm of the Great, Vast Buddha-Flower-Garland Scripture by 地婆訶羅 Divākara (譯)
About the work
This one-fascicle text by 地婆訶羅 Divākara (Dìpopólóhuó 地婆訶羅, 613–687) supplements material missing in the 60-fascicle Buddhabhadra translation of the Avataṃsaka. Per the Taishō apparatus and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154), the text is a translation of a portion of the Gaṇḍavyūha — corresponding to material in chapter 34 of T0278, to chapter 39 of T0279, and to T0293 — that had been omitted from Buddhabhadra’s earlier rendering. It was incorporated as a supplementary fascicle into the older Chinese Avataṃsaka tradition before the 80-fascicle Śikṣānanda translation supplied the missing material more completely.
The opening reads: “At that time, Mahāmāyā [the Buddha’s mother] further addressed Sudhana 善財童子 (the youth Sudhana, the protagonist of the Gaṇḍavyūha): ‘Good son! In this world, in the Trāyastriṃśa heaven, there is a king named Right-Mindfulness (正念); the king has a daughter named Devêndraprabhā (天主光, “Lord-of-Devas Light”). Go to her and ask: how does a bodhisattva learn the bodhisattva’s practice and cultivate the bodhisattva’s path?’ ” — i.e. the text takes up Sudhana’s pilgrimage at a specific point.
Prefaces
No formal preface; the title-line attributes the translation to “唐天竺三藏地婆訶羅譯” — “translated by the Indian Tripiṭaka Divākara of the Tang.”
Abstract
地婆訶羅 Divākara (Dìpopólóhuó 地婆訶羅, 613–687, Skt. Divākara, “Sun-Maker”; sometimes given in Chinese as Rìzhào 日照) was a Central Indian Buddhist scholar-monk who arrived in Tang Cháng’ān around 676 and was attached to the imperial Buddhist translation bureau at the Dōngtàiyuánsì 東太原寺 and (later) the Hóngfúsì 弘福寺. Per the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154, juan 9, p. 562a) and the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (T2061, juan 2), he produced 19 translations totalling 34 fascicles between 680 and 688 CE, including the Dàshèng mì yán jīng 大乘密嚴經 (T0681), the Dàshèng guǎng wǔ yùn lùn 大乘廣五蘊論 (T1613), and the present Rù fǎjiè pǐn. He died in Cháng’ān in 687 CE.
The translation of the present text is conventionally dated to the period 680 – 687, the bracket of his Cháng’ān translation activity. The doctrinal-historical importance of the work is that it served as the supplementary fascicle that “completed” the older 60-fascicle [[KR6e0001|Buddhabhadra Huáyán]] before the 80-fascicle [[KR6e0010|Śikṣānanda Huáyán]] of 695–699 made the supplement obsolete. It thus stands as a key intermediate document in the Chinese reception of the Gaṇḍavyūha, between the older Eastern-Jìn translation and the new Tang court enterprise.
The Taishō text (T0295) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and his Offspring. Kyoto: ISEAS, 1995 — for context.
- Cleary, Thomas, tr. Entry into the Realm of Reality. Boston: Shambhala, 1989 — for the Gaṇḍavyūha generally.
- Osto, Douglas. Power, Wealth and Women in Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. Routledge, 2008.
Other points of interest
- The very specific role of this text in the early-Tang Chinese reception of the Avataṃsaka — supplying material missing from the older translation but soon to be eclipsed by the new translation — makes it an important methodological example for the study of Chinese Buddhist translation transmission and the gradual recension-history of the Avataṃsaka in Chinese.