Dàchéng dǐngwáng jīng 大乘頂王經
Mahāyāna Crowned-King Sūtra translated by 月婆首那 Yuèpó Shǒunà / Upaśūnya (譯)
About the work
The Dàchéng dǐngwáng jīng (T478) is a one-fascicle alternate translation of the Mūrdharāja-sūtra, parallel to 竺法護 Dharmarakṣa’s Fóshuō dàfāngděng dǐngwáng jīng KR6i0106 (T477) and 闍那崛多 Jñānagupta’s Shànsī tóngzǐ jīng KR6i0108 (T479). It was translated by the Liáng Indian monk 月婆首那 Yuèpó Shǒunà (Upaśūnya), a member of the eastern-Indian royal house who came to Liáng China around 538 CE.
Prefaces
The text opens with rúshì wǒwén. The colophon attributes the translation to Yuèpó Shǒunà.
Abstract
Yuèpó Shǒunà 月婆首那 was active as a translator at Jiànkāng during the late Liáng (538–552 CE). He had originally come from eastern India to Liáng’s capital after a brief sojourn in Magadha. After the fall of the Liáng to the Western Wèi (552), he moved north to the Western Wèi / Northern Zhōu court, where he continued his translation activity. The Mūrdharāja translation is one of his major works.
This is the second translation of the Mūrdharāja, more polished than Dharmarakṣa’s earlier T477 but less philosophically engaged than Jñānagupta’s later T479. Comparison of the three translations is a standard exercise in Chinese Buddhist philology.
Translations and research
- Liu Ming-Wood. Madhyamaka Thought in China. Brill, 1994 — Liáng-Chen translation context.
- Lamotte, Étienne. L’enseignement de Vimalakīrti. Louvain, 1962.