Dà bān niè pán jīng 大般涅槃經
The Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa (Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, 北本 / Northern Recension) by 曇無讖 (Dharmakṣema, 譯)
About the work
The Dà bān niè pán jīng in 40 fascicles — universally known in the East Asian tradition as the Niè-pán jīng 涅槃經 or, more specifically, the Northern Recension (北本 Běi-běn) — is the great Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra, narrating the Buddha’s final discourses before his parinirvāṇa and expounding the central doctrine of the Buddha-nature (fó xìng 佛性): that all sentient beings — including those classified as icchantikas (extreme heretics, the yī chǎn tí 一闡提) — possess Buddha-nature and are capable of attaining Buddhahood. The work is one of the most consequential Mahāyāna scriptures in the East Asian tradition; together with the [[KR6e0001|Avataṃsaka]] and the Lotus, it is one of the three foundational yuán jiào / “complete teaching” sūtras and the principal scriptural source for the doctrine of universal Buddha-nature.
Prefaces
No formal preface in the Taishō print.
Abstract
The translation by 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema (385–433 CE), the Central-Indian master of the Northern-Liáng court, is conventionally datable to 414–421 CE, the bracket of his Liángzhōu / Gūzàng 姑臧 translation activity per the Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145). The bracket adopted here reflects this window. The translation is the long recension (40 fascicles) — the principal Chinese version, longer than the parallel short recension by 法顯 Fǎxiǎn / 佛陀跋陀羅 Buddhabhadra (Fó shuō dà bān ní huán jīng 佛說大般泥洹經 KR6g0022, T0376, 6 fasc.) and the southern Liú-Sòng recension (the Nán-běn 南本, Dà bān niè pán jīng 大般涅槃經 KR6g0003, T0375, 36 fasc., re-edited by 慧嚴 Huìyán et al.).
The doctrinal substance is fundamentally important to East Asian Mahāyāna: the foxing (Buddha-nature) doctrine articulated here became the conceptual basis for the entire tathāgatagarbha tradition (cf. [[KR6f0045|the Śrīmālā-sūtra]]), and indirectly for the Tang Chán and Huáyán synthesis. The work’s universalising doctrine of Buddha-nature — including the controversial inclusion of icchantikas — was the major doctrinal controversy of fifth-century Chinese Buddhism, with 道生 Dào-shēng (~360–434) famously prophesying the doctrine’s full scriptural support before the Dharmakṣema translation arrived to confirm his prediction.
The Taishō text (T0374) is established on a particularly rich apparatus.
Translations and research
- Yamamoto, Kōshō, tr. The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra. Ube: Karinbunko, 1973–1975 (3 vols.). — Standard English translation.
- Blum, Mark, tr. The Nirvana Sutra: Volume I. Berkeley: BDK America, 2013. — More recent partial translation in the Numata/BDK series.
- Liu, Ming-Wood. “The Doctrine of the Buddha-Nature in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 5.2 (1982): 63–94.
- Habata, Hiromi. Die zentralasiatischen Sanskrit-Fragmente des Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra. Bremen: Hempen, 2007 — for the Sanskrit fragments.
- Radich, Michael. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine. Hamburg: HUP, 2015. — The standard recent monograph.
Other points of interest
- The doctrinal controversy over the inclusion of icchantikas (the yī chǎn tí — those traditionally regarded as forever excluded from Buddhahood) was the central Buddhist theological controversy of fifth-century China; 道生 Dào-shēng’s pre-emptive insistence on universal Buddha-nature, vindicated by the arrival of the Dharmakṣema translation, became one of the most-told stories of Chinese Buddhist intellectual history.