Dà fāngguǎng fó huáyán jīng xiū cí fēn 大方廣佛花嚴經修慈分
Section on the Cultivation of Compassion in the Great, Vast Buddha-Flower-Garland Scripture by 提雲般若 (Devaprajñā, et al., 等譯)
About the work
This one-fascicle text by 提雲般若 Devaprajñā and his translation team is, like his earlier [[KR6e0049|Bù sī yì fó jìngjiè fēn 不思議佛境界分]] (T0300), a partial Chinese rendering of Avataṃsaka-tradition material from the Khotanese recension. Where T0300 treats the bù sī yì fó jìngjiè 不思議佛境界 (inconceivable Buddha-realm) topic, the present text treats xiū cí 修慈 — the cultivation of compassion (maitrī-bhāvanā) — as it is set out in the Avataṃsaka corpus. The fēn 分 (“section”) in the title indicates the work’s relation to the larger Avataṃsaka compilation: it is one section of a much larger text.
Prefaces
No formal preface; the title-line attributes the translation to “唐于闐三藏提雲般若等奉 制譯” — “translated by the Khotanese Tripiṭaka Devaprajñā et al., by imperial command.”
Abstract
The translation is conventionally datable to the period 689 – 691 CE, the bracket of 提雲般若 Devaprajñā’s documented Cháng’ān 長安 activity. The bracket adopted here reflects this window. As with T0300, the present text antedates [[KR6e0010|Śikṣānanda’s complete 80-fascicle Huáyán]] of 695–699 and was made obsolete by it: Śikṣānanda’s complete translation incorporated the xiū cí 修慈 material (which corresponds to portions of the bodhisattva-stage chapters of T0279) without leaving room for an independent Chinese rendering.
The doctrinal substance — the cultivation of compassion as a foundational bodhisattva-practice — places the work within the broader Mahāyāna bhāvanā / contemplation literature; in the Avataṃsaka tradition specifically, the doctrine of cí 慈 (Skt. maitrī) is integrated into the bodhisattva’s daśabhūmi progression as one of the practices to be cultivated at each successive stage.
The Taishō text (T0306) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Hamar, Imre, ed. Reflecting Mirrors (2007).
Other points of interest
- The “et al.” (等) in the attribution indicates a translation team — typical of Wǔ Zétiān 武則天-period imperial-bureau translation work. The team likely included 復禮 Fùlǐ (the senior Tang Buddhist scholar attached to the imperial bureau) and other Tang-court Buddhists; the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 records Devaprajñā’s working association with Fùlǐ.