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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 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 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

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

  • 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 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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