Bǎonǚ suǒ wèn jīng 寶女所問經
The Sūtra on the Questions of the Jewel Maiden (±Mahāyānopadeśa / Ratnadārikā-paripṛcchā) by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The Bǎonǚ suǒ wèn jīng in 4 fascicles is 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù’s Western-Jìn translation of an Indic source corresponding to Ratnadārikā-paripṛcchā (or Mahāyānopadeśa in older identifications), later incorporated as section 3 (Bǎonǚ pǐn 寶女品) of the [[KR6h0001|Dà jí jīng]]. The Taishō print signs the entry “西晉月支三藏竺法護譯” and explicitly cross-references No. 397(3). The protagonist is the bodhisattva-princess Bǎonǚ “Jewel Maiden” (Skt. Ratnadārikā) who poses doctrinal questions to the Buddha; the work belongs to the paripṛcchā (questions) genre common in the Mahāsaṃnipāta cycle.
Prefaces
No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print.
Abstract
The work is recorded in the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145, j. 2) among Dharmarakṣa’s translations and in subsequent catalogues including the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 and the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄. The translation is conventionally dated to Tàikāng 7 (286) or shortly thereafter, in the same Cháng’ān workshop period during which Dharmarakṣa produced the Zhèngfǎhuá 正法華 (T263) and the Guāngzàn 光讚 (T222). The dating window 286–291 follows that bracket. Doctrinally the sūtra treats the bodhisattva path through a series of question-answer exchanges between the princess Ratnadārikā and the Buddha, with extensive treatment of the six pāramitās and the bodhisattva’s progressive cultivation. As elsewhere in the Mahāsaṃnipāta cycle, the female questioner functions as a vehicle for affirming the Mahāyāna doctrine that women too may attain bodhisattvahood — a theme parallel to the Śrīmālā-sūtra and the Vimaladattā-paripṛcchā (T338, also a Dharmarakṣa translation).
The Indic source-text is partially preserved in Tibetan translation; the Indic paripṛcchā genre to which it belongs is well attested at Gilgit and Bāmiyān.
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996. — Studies of Dharmarakṣa’s Mahāyāna translation idiom that include this work.
- Paul, Diana Y. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahāyāna Tradition. 2nd ed., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985. — Frame for the female-questioner Mahāyāna sūtra genre.
Links
- CBETA online text
- DDB entry
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (287, 300): [ Boucher 1996 ] Boucher, Daniel. “Buddhist Translation Procedures in Third-Century China: A Study of Dharmarakṣa and his Translation Idiom.” PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996. 275 dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/289