Fó shuō bāo tāi jīng 佛說胞胎經
The Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on Conception in the Womb (Garbhāvakrāntir-nirdeśa) by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
This 1-fascicle text by 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù is the Garbhāvakrāntir-nirdeśa — the Mahāyāna sūtra on the embryological development of a being from conception (garbhāvakrānti, “entering the womb”) to birth, organised as a week-by-week description of the foetus’s development across 38 weeks. Later incorporated into the [[KR6f0001|Mahā-ratnakūṭa]] as assembly 13 (Pútísà chù tāi huì 菩薩處胎會).
Prefaces
No formal preface.
Abstract
The translation belongs to 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù’s Cháng’ān period (266 – 313 CE). The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The doctrinal substance — the embryological cosmology — is one of the more unusual topics in the Mahāyāna canon, integrating Indian medical-anatomical knowledge with Buddhist soteriological teaching.
The Taishō text (T0317) is established on the standard apparatus.
Translations and research
- Kritzer, Robert. Garbhāvakrāntisūtra: The Sūtra on Entry into the Womb. Tokyo: IRIAB Soka University, 2014. — The standard study, with substantial discussion of the parallel translations.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations (2008).
Other points of interest
- The Garbhāvakrāntir-nirdeśa is one of the principal Buddhist sources for medieval Indian embryology, and has been studied extensively in the context of comparative Asian medical-religious traditions.
Links
- CBETA T11n0317
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (300, 303) — Kawano Satoshi 河野訓. Shoki kan’yaku butten no kenkyū: Jiku Hōgo o chūshin to shite 初期漢訳仏典の研究 : 竺法護を中心として. Ise: Kōgakkan Daigaku Shuppanbu, 2006. 73-92, esp. Table 2, 75-77.