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大乘大集地藏十輪經

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Text ID
KR6h0015
Date
651–651
Dynasty
唐

Dàshèng dàjí dìzàng shílún jīng 大乘大集地藏十輪經

The Mahāyāna Mahāsaṃnipāta Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha-sūtra by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

The Dàshèng dàjí dìzàng shílún jīng in 10 fascicles is 玄奘 Xuánzàng’s mid-Táng retranslation of the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha-sūtra — the principal sūtra of the 地藏 Kṣitigarbha cult. The Taishō print signs the entry “三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯” and explicitly cross-references No. 410 — the older anonymous translation KR6h0014. Xuánzàng’s version became the canonical text of the Shílún jīng in the East Asian tradition and largely displaced the older Northern-Liáng anonymous version in subsequent doctrinal and devotional usage.

Prefaces

No separate preface is preserved in the canonical print, only the imperial signature.

Abstract

The translation is precisely datable. According to 圓測 Wǒnch’ǔk’s [[KR6f0058|Jiě shēnmì jīng shū 解深密經疏]] and the standard biographical account of 玄奘 in the [[KR6r0007|Dà cí’ēnsì sānzàng fǎshī zhuàn 大慈恩寺三藏法師傳]] (T2053, j. 7), the Shílún jīng was rendered at the Dàcí’ēn 大慈恩 monastery in Cháng’ān in Yǒnghuī 永徽 2 (651), shortly after Xuánzàng’s return from India and roughly contemporary with his translation of the Saṃdhinirmocana (T676) and other middle-period works of his enterprise. The frontmatter date 651 reflects this single-year completion.

The text is the fullest Chinese version of the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha-sūtra. Its 10 chapters (序品, 十輪品, 無依行品, 有依行品, 懺悔品, 善業道品, 福田相品, 獲益囑累品, 念佛三昧品 etc.) systematically expound the doctrine of the Ten Wheels of Kṣitigarbha’s protective dispensation; Xuánzàng’s translation idiom — markedly more literal and Sanskritising than the older anonymous version — became the basis for 圓測 Wǒnch’ǔk’s commentary and the standard understanding of Kṣitigarbha doctrine in the Táng Yogācāra tradition. With [[KR6h0016|the Dìzàng púsà běnyuàn jīng (T0412)]], it constitutes the principal canonical foundation of the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Kṣitigarbha cults; the Dìzàng 地藏 / Jizō devotional culture of medieval East Asia is grounded in these two sūtras.

Translations and research

  • Wang-Toutain, Françoise. Le Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha en Chine du Ve au XIIIe siècle. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1998. — Standard monograph on the Chinese Kṣitigarbha cult, with extensive treatment of Xuánzàng’s Shílún jīng.
  • Zhiru, Ng. The Making of a Savior Bodhisattva: Dizang in Medieval China. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. — Recent monograph emphasising the Shílún corpus.
  • Mochizuki, Shinkō. Bukkyō kyōten seiritsushi-ron 仏教経典成立史論. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 1946. — Older but still useful philological discussion of the Daśacakra tradition.

Other points of interest

  • The Kṣitigarbha cult that this sūtra grounds is one of the most widely diffused Mahāyāna devotional cults in East Asia, with major continued importance in the Korean and Japanese (Jizō) traditions, where the bodhisattva’s protective concern for children and travellers retains a substantial popular following into the modern period.

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