Fóshuō dàfāngděng dǐngwáng jīng 佛說大方等頂王經
Mahāvaipulya Crowned-King Sūtra (a.k.a. Vimalakīrti’s Son’s Questions) translated by 竺法護 Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa (譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō dàfāngděng dǐngwáng jīng (T477) is a one-fascicle Mahāyāna sūtra translated by 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa (Zhú Fǎhù). The alternate title is Wéimójié zǐ wèn 維摩詰子問 (“Vimalakīrti’s Son’s Questions”) — the protagonist Dǐngwáng 頂王 (“Crowned-King”) is presented as the son of Vimalakīrti, providing a narrative continuation of the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa tradition. The Taishō header cross-references Nos. 478 and 479 — 月婆首那 Yuèpó Shǒunà’s Dàchéng dǐngwáng jīng KR6i0107 (T478) and 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta’s Shànsī tóngzǐ jīng KR6i0108 (T479) parallel translations.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the canonical jīngshǒu formula. The colophon attributes translation to Dharmarakṣa.
Abstract
This text continues the Vimalakīrti narrative cycle by following the bodhisattva career of Vimalakīrti’s son, Dǐngwáng (Sanskrit Murdhāgata or Mūrdhōrṇa, “Crown-Bearing”). The Indian source is the Mahāvaipulya-mūrdharāja-sūtra, of which three Chinese translations survive (T477 by Dharmarakṣa, T478 by 月婆首那 Yuèpó Shǒunà, T479 by 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta). The narrative serves to extend the lay-bodhisattva ideal of the Vimalakīrti into a second generation, modeling how the bodhisattva path is transmitted from father to son.
The translation is dated to Dharmarakṣa’s productive period (266–308 CE).
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna. University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2008 — Dharmarakṣa context.
- Lamotte, Étienne. L’enseignement de Vimalakīrti. Louvain, 1962 — uses the Dǐngwáng texts.