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大寶積經

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Text ID
KR6f0001
Date
706–713
Dynasty
唐

Dà bǎo jī jīng 大寶積經

The Great Heap-of-Jewels Sūtra (Mahā-ratnakūṭa-sūtra) by 菩提流志 (Bodhiruci II / Pútíliúzhì, 譯)

About the work

The Dà bǎo jī jīng in 120 fascicles is one of the great Mahāyāna sūtra-compendia of the East Asian Buddhist canon — a 49-assembly compilation of significant Mahāyāna sūtras presented within a single overarching framework, the Buddha’s Treasure-Heap Teaching (Ratnakūṭa-dharma-paryāya). The whole was given its definitive Chinese form by 菩提流志 Bodhiruci II under imperial patronage of Tang 中宗 Zhōngzōng and 睿宗 Ruìzōng, c. 706 – 713 CE; some of its 49 constituent assemblies are new translations by Bodhiruci, while others are pre-existing translations (by 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù, 支謙 Zhī Qiān, 玄奘 Xuánzàng, 義淨 Yìjìng, etc.) re-edited and incorporated into the larger compendium. This composite character makes the Bǎo jī one of the most textually complex works in the East Asian Buddhist canon: a single titled work composed of 49 distinct sūtras, each translated by a different translator at a different time and combined under Bodhiruci’s editorial direction.

Prefaces

The work is prefaced by an imperial preface by Tàishànghuáng 太上皇 (“Retired Emperor”) — the title under which Ruìzōng wrote the preface after his abdication in 712 in favor of 玄宗 Xuánzōng. The preface is among the most distinguished imperial Buddhist prefaces in Chinese: it traces Mahāyāna Buddhism from its Indian origins (Aśvaghoṣa, Nāgārjuna, Kumārajīva, 道安 Dàoān) to its difficult passage through the Northern-Wèi and Northern-Zhōu persecutions and into the Tang flourishing; describes Bodhiruci’s South Indian Brahmin background, his early Vedic / yoga training, his conversion to Buddhism after age 60, and his pilgrimages across the five Indias; recounts his summons to the Tang court by 高宗 Gāozōng (683), his 武則天 Wǔ Zétiān-period translation work (T0660 the Bǎo yǔ jīng and others; Ruìzōng numbers them as 11 sūtras totalling); and concludes with the present Bǎo jī project: assembling 49 assemblies into 120 fascicles, some old translations and some new, completed in Xiāntiān 先天 2 (713 CE), 6th month, 8th day. The translation team’s institutional setting was the Chóngfúsì 崇福寺 in Cháng’ān (the same monastery that hosted 般若 Prajñā’s later [[KR6e0041|Sì shí Huáyán]] team).

The work is also followed by a Dà bǎo jī jīng shù 大寶積經述 (“Account of the Bǎo jī”) by 徐鍔 Xú È (a Tang court official), which provides further biographical and bibliographical detail.

Abstract

The Mahā-ratnakūṭa-sūtra is one of the principal Mahāyāna sūtra-compendia of the entire Buddhist tradition (the others being the [[KR6e0001|Avataṃsaka]] and the Mahāprajñāpāramitā); its 49 constituent assemblies cover virtually every major topic of Mahāyāna doctrine. The most important individual assemblies — many of which were independently translated and famous in their own right before being incorporated — include: the Sukhāvatī-vyūha (Wúliàngshòu rúlái huì 無量壽如來會, assembly 5, the Larger Sukhāvatī-vyūha); the Aṣṭāngocara-vyākhyāna (Púmíng pútísà huì 普明菩薩會, assembly 43, the Kāśyapa-parivarta); the Tathāgatamahā-karuṇā-nirdeśa (Wénshūshīlì shòu jì huì 文殊師利授記會, assembly 15); and the Mañjuśrī-buddhakṣetra-guṇa-vyūha (assembly 16). Together the 49 assemblies provide the most extensive single Mahāyāna doctrinal corpus in the canon.

The Sanskrit Mahā-ratnakūṭa survives in fragmentary form (chiefly the Kāśyapa-parivarta / Stäel-Holstein 1926, the Sukhāvatī-vyūha, and isolated other texts); the Tibetan version (the dKon brtsegs / Tibetan Kanjur section) preserves the entire 49-assembly compendium and provides the principal comparative apparatus. Modern scholarship (Pagel 1995, Stäel-Holstein 1926, Schopen 1977) has reconstructed substantial parts of the textual history.

The Taishō text (T0310) is established on a particularly rich apparatus: the Korean Tripiṭaka Koreana collated against the Sòng (宋), Yuán (元), Míng (明), Palace (宮), Southern Míng (南藏), Old-Sòng (磧砂), Shèng (聖), Northern Míng (北藏), and Shèngyǐ (聖乙) witnesses.

Translations and research

  • Chang, Garma C. C., ed. A Treasury of Mahāyāna Sūtras: Selections from the Mahāratnakūṭa Sūtra. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983 — partial translations of selected assemblies into English.
  • Pagel, Ulrich. The Bodhisattvapiṭaka: Its Doctrines, Practices and their Position in Mahāyāna Literature. Tring: Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1995 — substantial study of one major assembly.
  • Stäel-Holstein, Alexander von, ed. The Kāśyapaparivarta: A Mahāyānasūtra of the Ratnakūṭa Class. Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1926 — Sanskrit edition of the Kāśyapa-parivarta.
  • Schopen, Gregory. “Sukhāvatī as a Generalized Religious Goal in Sanskrit Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature.” IIJ 19 (1977): 177–210.
  • Müller, F. Max, tr. The Larger Sukhāvatī-vyūha and The Smaller Sukhāvatī-vyūha. SBE 49 (1894).
  • Inagaki, Hisao, tr. The Three Pure Land Sutras. Berkeley: Numata Center, 1995.
  • Conze, Edward. The Prajñāpāramitā Literature. Tokyo: Reiyukai, 1978 (2nd ed.) — for Prajñāpāramitā-related assemblies.
  • Forte, Antonino. Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias (1988) — for the political-imperial setting.

Other points of interest

  • The Bǎo jī’s 49-assembly structure parallels the [[KR6e0001|Avataṃsaka’s]] seven-place / nine-assembly structure; both works present themselves as cosmic compendia of Mahāyāna doctrine organised around a master architectural scheme.
  • Bodhiruci II’s editorial role — combining new translations with re-edited older translations into a single 120-fascicle compendium — is one of the most ambitious textual-editorial projects of the entire Tang Buddhist tradition.
  • Ruìzōng’s preface, written from his retirement, is a major piece of Tang imperial Buddhist literature and is one of the few surviving prose-prefaces by a retired Tang emperor.

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