Dà bān niè pán jīng 大般涅槃經 (Southern Recension)
The Sūtra of the Great Parinirvāṇa — the Southern Recension (南本 Nán-běn) by 慧嚴 (Huìyán et al., 等依泥洹經加之)
About the work
The Dà bān niè pán jīng in 36 fascicles — the Southern Recension (Nán-běn 南本) — is the Liú-Sòng editorial revision of 曇無讖 Dharmakṣema’s Dà bān niè pán jīng 大般涅槃經 (KR6g0001, Northern Recension, T0374, 40 fasc.). Re-edited by 慧嚴 Huìyán and 慧觀 Huìguān in collaboration with the Liú-Sòng-court Buddhist establishment c. 433–443 CE, the Southern Recension combines Dharmakṣema’s text with the earlier Pre-Mahāparinirvāṇa (Níyuán jīng 泥洹經, Fó shuō dà bān ní huán jīng 佛說大般泥洹經 KR6g0022) materials translated by 法顯 Fǎxiǎn and 佛陀跋陀羅 Buddhabhadra, smoothing the text for southern Chinese readers and re-arranging the chapter divisions. The Southern Recension and the Northern Recension together constitute the canonical East Asian Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra corpus.
Abstract
The bracket adopted here (433–443) reflects the Liú-Sòng editorial period of Huìyán’s collaboration with Huìguān.
The Taishō text (T0375) is established on a particularly rich apparatus including the Liúbù běn (Disseminated Edition), Fú 福 / Fúyǐ 福乙 (Fúzhōu) witnesses.
Translations and research
- Yamamoto, Kōshō, tr. The Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra (1973–1975).
- Blum, Mark, tr. The Nirvana Sutra: Volume I (2013).
- Radich, Michael. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra and the Emergence of Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine (2015).
Other points of interest
- The Northern / Southern recension distinction is one of the foundational data-points for Liú-Sòng-period Buddhist intellectual history; the two recensions co-existed and were studied together in subsequent East Asian Buddhist tradition, with the Southern Recension generally preferred in southern monastic establishments and the Northern Recension in northern ones.