Wéimójié suǒshuō jīng 維摩詰所說經
Sūtra Spoken by Vimalakīrti translated by 鳩摩羅什 Jiūmóluóshí (Kumārajīva, 譯)
About the work
The Wéimójié suǒshuō jīng (T475) is Kumārajīva’s 鳩摩羅什 (鳩摩羅什) classical three-fascicle translation of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa-sūtra, produced at Cháng’ān at Xiāoyáo Yuán 逍遙園 in 406 CE under the Yáo Qín. It is the canonical Chinese text of the Vimalakīrti and is one of the most influential single texts in East Asian Buddhist literature. The Taishō header cross-references Nos. 474 and 476 — Zhī Qiān’s earlier and Xuánzàng’s later translations.
Prefaces
The text was originally accompanied by 僧肇 Sēngzhào’s preface (preserved in his Bǎolùn 寶論 / Zhàolùn 肇論), which describes the Cháng’ān translation milieu and Vimalakīrti’s preeminent place in early-fifth-century Chinese Mahāyāna. The preface narrates that the translation team consisted of Kumārajīva at the helm with several thousand monks in attendance; Sēngzhào himself worked as one of the principal Chinese editors.
Abstract
This is the canonical Chinese Vimalakīrti — the version cited, commented, and recited throughout pre-modern East Asian Buddhism. Kumārajīva’s polished classical Chinese translation transformed Vimalakīrti from an obscure Mahāyāna text (in Zhī Qiān’s KR6i0075 form) into a literary masterpiece that reshaped Chinese intellectual culture: the lay-bodhisattva ideal, the doctrine of bùèr 不二 (non-duality), and the rhetoric of upāya (skillful means) all became central to medieval Chinese thought through this version.
Kumārajīva (344–413 CE) translated the text in 406 CE according to the Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145) and Sēngzhào’s preface. The text generated the largest commentarial corpus of any single Chinese Buddhist sūtra. Among the major commentaries: 僧肇 Sēngzhào’s Zhù Wéimójié jīng (KR6i0078 = T1775); 淨影慧遠 Jìngyǐng Huìyuǎn’s Wéimójié yìjì (KR6i0079 = T1776); 智顗 Zhīyǐ’s Wéimójīng xuánshū (KR6i0080 = T1777) and Wéimójīng lüèshū (KR6i0081 = T1778); 吉藏 Jízàng’s Jìngmíng xuánlùn (KR6i0083 = T1780) and Wéimójīng yìshū (KR6i0084 = T1781); 窺基 Kuījī’s Shuō wúgòuchēng jīng shū (KR6i0085 = T1782); and many more.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. L’enseignement de Vimalakīrti. Louvain, 1962.
- Watson, Burton. The Vimalakirti Sutra. Columbia University Press, 1997 — translation of T475.
- Thurman, Robert A. F. The Holy Teaching of Vimalakīrti. Pennsylvania State University Press, 1976 — translation from the Tibetan.
- McRae, John R. The Sutra of Queen Śrīmālā of the Lion’s Roar / The Vimalakīrti Sutra. BDK English Tripiṭaka. Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2004.
- Mather, Richard B. “Vimalakīrti and Gentry Buddhism.” History of Religions 8.1 (1968): 60–73.
- Yamada Mumon 山田無文. Yuima-gyō kōwa 維摩経講話. Tokyo, 1968.
Other points of interest
Kumārajīva’s Vimalakīrti is among the most quoted sūtras in Chinese literature. The opening of chapter 9 — Vimalakīrti’s silent response to Mañjuśrī’s question on the gateway of non-duality — became a gōng’àn / kōan model and figured prominently in Chan / Zen literature. The phrase 不二法門 entered general Chinese vocabulary as a stock idiom.