Xūkōngzàng púsà jīng 虛空藏菩薩經
The Sūtra of the Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha by 佛陀耶舍 (Buddhayaśas, 譯)
About the work
The Xūkōngzàng púsà jīng in 1 fascicle is 佛陀耶舍 Buddhayaśas’s late-fourth/early-fifth-century translation of a short Mahāyāna sūtra concerning the bodhisattva 虛空藏 Ākāśagarbha. The Taishō print signs the entry “姚秦罽賓三藏佛陀耶舍譯” (“translated by Buddhayaśas, Tripiṭaka-master of Kashmir, in the Late Qín / Yáo Qín”) and explicitly cross-references the parallel translations Nos. 406–408 — three further Chinese versions of substantially the same Indic source, by anonymous translator (T0406), 曇摩蜜多 Dharmamitra (T0407 = KR6h0011), and 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta (T0408 = KR6h0012).
Prefaces
No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print.
Abstract
The text opens at Khalatika mountain (佉羅底翅山), in the residence of the muni-sage, where the Buddha is preparing to expound the four kinds of eloquence and the threefold samādhi to a great assembly of bhikṣus and bodhisattvas. The bodhisattva Xūkōngzàng 虛空藏 / Ākāśagarbha then descends from the eastern world-system to make offerings; the bulk of the sūtra is the Buddha’s exposition of Ākāśagarbha’s vow and inexhaustible dispensation of boons to those who invoke his name. The work is one of the principal Chinese scriptural sources for the Ākāśagarbha cult, alongside the equivalent section of the [[KR6h0001|Dà jí jīng]] and the longer [[KR6h0008|Dàxūkōngzàng púsà suǒ wèn jīng]] by 不空 Amoghavajra.
The dating window 408–413 reflects the bracket of Buddhayaśas’s translation activity at Cháng’ān, where he worked alongside 鳩摩羅什 Kumārajīva and was responsible most importantly for the [[KR6q0049|Dharmaguptaka-vinaya (《四分律》, T1428)]] and the Dīrgha-āgama (T0001), both completed around 412–413. The Indic source is partially preserved in Khotanese and Tibetan; the multiple Chinese recensions of this short text are an unusual case of a single short Mahāyāna sūtra retranslated four times within two centuries, suggesting active devotional interest in the Ākāśagarbha cult during the medieval period.
Translations and research
- Inagaki, Hisao. “The Bodhisattva Ākāśagarbha.” Ryūkoku Daigaku ronshū 421 (1982). — On the Chinese textual tradition of Ākāśagarbha.
- Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. “The Sūtra on the Ocean-Like Samādhi of the Visualization of the Buddha.” Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1999. — Discussion of related Mahāyāna sūtras of visualization.
Links
- CBETA online text
- DDB entry
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (410): [ T ] 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. dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1