Wénshūshīlì wèn púsà shǔ jīng 文殊師利問菩薩署經
Sūtra of Mañjuśrī’s Questions on the Bodhisattva’s Pledge translated by 支婁迦讖 Zhī Lóujiāchèn (Lokakṣema, 譯)
About the work
The Wénshūshīlì wèn púsà shǔ jīng (T458) is a one-fascicle sūtra attributed to the Eastern Hàn translator Lokakṣema 支婁迦讖 (支婁迦讖; fl. 178–189 CE), the Yuèzhī monk who is the first identifiable Mahāyāna translator into Chinese. It is the opening text of the long Mañjuśrī cycle (KR6i0059–0074) in the Taishō, and one of the earliest Chinese Mahāyāna texts on the bodhisattva path. The Chinese term shǔ 署 (“pledge, signature, attestation”) translates Sanskrit vyākaraṇa (declaration / prediction of buddhahood) — the text addresses the question of how a bodhisattva is “pledged” or “signed” to attain buddhahood.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the sūtra. The colophon attributes the translation to “後漢月氏三藏支婁迦讖譯” — Lokakṣema, Tripiṭaka master of the Yuèzhī, of the Later Hàn. The narrative frame has Śāriputra rising from his seat to ask the Buddha about the bodhisattva pledge (菩薩署); the Buddha responds that since Śāriputra has heard from Mañjuśrī about Tathāgata-pledge (怛薩阿竭署 = Tathāgata-vyākaraṇa) but has not understood it fully, he will now expound. The phonetic transliteration “怛薩阿竭” for Tathāgata is characteristic of Lokakṣema’s translation idiom — phonetic and unsystematic, reflecting an early stage of Chinese Buddhist translation before the regularization of terminology under Kumārajīva.
Abstract
The Wénshūshīlì wèn púsà shǔ jīng is one of the earliest substantial Mañjuśrī sūtras in Chinese — possibly the earliest, given Lokakṣema’s traditional dating. It treats the metaphysics and soteriology of the bodhisattva vyākaraṇa (prediction/pledge) through a dialogue between Mañjuśrī, Śāriputra, and the Buddha. The Yuán-Liáng cataloger Sēngyòu’s Chū sānzàng jì jí lists this text under Lokakṣema, but Erik Zürcher (The Buddhist Conquest of China, 1959) and Jan Nattier (2008) have raised questions about the authentic Lokakṣema corpus, and the textual style here — though phonetically and lexically archaic — is somewhat smoother than the most secure Lokakṣema translations like the Dàoxíng bōrě jīng 道行般若經 (T224). Lokakṣema’s translation work is dated to the Guānghé 光和 to Zhōngpíng 中平 reign-eras (= 178–189 CE) by all early catalogs.
The text’s importance lies in its early treatment of the bodhisattva vyākaraṇa concept and in its centrality of Mañjuśrī. It was followed by 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù’s KR6i0060 Wénshū huǐguò jīng and 竺法護’s KR6i0061 Wénshūshīlì jìnglǜ jīng in the Western Jìn — successive expansions of Mañjuśrī sūtra material in the third and fourth centuries CE.
Translations and research
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. 3rd ed. Brill, 2007 [original 1959] — for Lokakṣema’s translation work.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, 2008 — for the early translation corpus.
- Harrison, Paul. “Who Gets to Ride in the Great Vehicle? Self-Image and Identity Among the Followers of the Early Mahāyāna.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 10 (1987): 67–89 — Mañjuśrī cycle.
- Tribe, Anthony. “Mañjuśrī: Origins, Role and Significance.” The Buddhist Forum II (1991): 1–25.
Other points of interest
The text’s title term shǔ 署 is unusual; later Buddhist Chinese standardized on 授記 shòujì for vyākaraṇa. The presence of shǔ in the title is itself a signal of the text’s archaic character.