Fènxùnwáng wèn jīng 奮迅王問經
The Sūtra of the Questions of King Vikurvāṇa (Vikurvāṇa-rāja-paripṛcchā, Eastern Wèi recension) by 瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci, 譯) and 曇林 (Tánlín, 譯)
About the work
The Fènxùnwáng wèn jīng in 2 fascicles is the Eastern-Wèi 東魏 retranslation of the Vikurvāṇa-rāja-paripṛcchā (cf. Kumārajīva’s earlier version, T0420). The Taishō print signs the entry “元魏婆羅門瞿曇般若流支譯” — “translated by the Brahman Gautama Prajñāruci, in the Yuán Wèi” — though the editorial apparatus records that the Yuán and Míng editions read instead “元魏婆羅門三藏瞿曇般若流支等譯” (with the additional 等 indicating a translation team). The Taishō header explicitly cross-references No. 420 — the Kumārajīva version. Strictly the Yuán Wèi 元魏 here refers to the Eastern Wèi 東魏 successor state of the Northern Wèi.
Prefaces
The Taishō text preserves at its head the Fènxùnwáng wèn jīng fānyì zhī jì 《奮迅王問經》翻譯之記 — “Translation Record of the Sūtra of the Questions of King Vikurvāṇa” — a brief but precise dated colophon. It records that the translation was sponsored by Wèi Shàngshū lìng Yítóng Gāo gōng 魏尚書令儀同高公 (i.e., a high official of the Eastern-Wèi state, of the Gāo 高 imperial clan), that the translators were the monk 曇林 Tánlín and 瞿曇般若流支 Gautama Prajñāruci, and that the work was completed at the patron’s residence on a jiǎwǔ 甲午 day in the Xìnghé 興和 4 era — bǐngxū year, 7th month, 1st day yǐchǒu — corresponding to 542 CE. The text totals 18,341 characters.
Abstract
The Fènxùnwáng / Vikurvāṇa-rāja (lit. “King of Magical Display” or “King of Self-Mastery”) is the same protagonist as in [[KR6h0029|Kumārajīva’s Zìzàiwáng púsà jīng]], the two Chinese titles representing alternative renderings of the Sanskrit name. The opening narrative is closely parallel to Kumārajīva’s: the assembly is at the Anāthapiṇḍada-ārāma in Śrāvastī, gathered with twenty thousand bhikṣus and ten thousand bodhisattvas-of-one-life-remaining including 彌勒 Maitreya and 得大勢 Mahāsthāmaprāpta. The bodhisattva Fènxùnwáng rises and questions the Buddha on the four kinds of fènxùn / vikurvāṇa (mastery / magical display) of the bodhisattva and the means by which beings may be brought to the Mahāyāna. The Buddha’s reply expounds the four kinds of mastery, the bodhisattva’s broken vehicle of all-conquest of Māra, and the resolution of the bodhisattva’s encounter with conventional and ultimate truth.
The dating record makes this one of the most precisely-datable Chinese Buddhist sūtra-translations of the entire pre-Suí period.
Translations and research
- Funayama, Toru. “Translation, Transcription, and What Else? Some Reflections on the Sino-Indian Cultural Translation in the Six Dynasties Period.” In Daoism, Buddhism, and Chinese Religion, ed. John Lagerwey and Pengzhi Lü. Leiden: Brill, 2009. — On the Eastern-Wèi translation institute and Gautama Prajñāruci’s milieu.
Other points of interest
- The Eastern-Wèi translation institute under 高歡 Gāo Huān and his successors (the “Gāo gōng” 高公 of the colophon may refer to the chancellor 高澄 Gāo Chéng) was responsible for several Mahāyāna sūtra retranslations including the Fènxùnwáng wèn jīng and the [[KR6f0017|Yíjiào jīng 遺教經]] of 瞿曇般若流支. The institute is one of the more institutionally well-documented mid-sixth-century translation operations.
Links
- CBETA online text
- DDB entry
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (543): [ 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