Fó shuō rú lái bù sī yì mì mì dà chéng jīng 佛說如來不思議祕密大乘經
The Great Vehicle Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on the Tathāgata’s Inconceivable Secret by 法護 (Fǎhù / Dharmapāla, 譯)
About the work
This 20-fascicle text by 法護 Fǎhù (Dharmapāla, the Northern-Sòng imperial translation-bureau monk, distinct from the Western-Jìn 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa) is a substantial Mahāyāna sūtra on the bù sī yì mì mì 不思議祕密 (“inconceivable secret”) of the Tathāgata — i.e. the doctrine of the secret meaning of the cosmic Buddha-body, paralleling material in the [[KR6f0001|Mahā-ratnakūṭa]] tradition. The text was incorporated into the Bǎo jī tradition as assembly 3 (Mìmì shéntōng huì 密迹神通會 in Bodhiruci’s Bǎo jī).
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
法護 Fǎhù / Dharmapāla (active early 11th c.) was a Northern-Indian Buddhist translator attached to the Northern-Sòng imperial Buddhist translation bureau (the Yìjīngyuàn 譯經院) in Kāifēng. Per DILA and the [[宋會要|Sòng huì yào 宋會要]], he produced more than 100 translations during his Sòng career, alongside 法天 Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva and 法賢 Fǎxián / Devaśānti. The translation of the present text is conventionally placed in the period 1004 – 1058 CE, the bracket of Fǎhù’s documented Sòng-bureau activity. The bracket adopted here reflects this window.
The Taishō text (T0312) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- No substantial Western-language translation located.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade (2003) — for the Northern-Sòng translation bureau.
Other points of interest
- Fǎhù (Northern-Sòng) is to be carefully distinguished from his much earlier namesake 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa (Western-Jìn). The two share the Chinese rendering 法護 but are entirely distinct figures separated by some seven centuries; conflations occur in older secondary literature.
Links
- CBETA T11n0312
- Kanseki DB
- 法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1050) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.