Fóshuō Ānán wèn shìfó jíxiōng jīng 佛說阿難問事佛吉凶經
Sūtra of Ānanda’s Questions on Auspicious and Inauspicious Aspects of Serving the Buddha translated by 安世高 Ān Shìgāo (譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō Ānán wèn shìfó jíxiōng jīng (T492a) is a one-fascicle short sūtra translated by 安世高 Ān Shìgāo (fl. 148–170 CE), the first identifiable Chinese Buddhist translator. The text is the “a” version of the paired text T492 — see KR6i0122 (T492b) for the parallel “b” recension. Ān Shìgāo was a Parthian (安息) prince who renounced his throne to become a monk and arrived at Luòyáng in 148 CE, becoming the founding figure of Chinese Buddhist translation.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the canonical jīngshǒu formula. The colophon attributes the translation to “後漢安息三藏安世高譯” (Ān Shìgāo, Tripiṭaka master from Parthia, of the Later Hàn).
Abstract
This early sūtra is structured as Ānanda’s interrogation of the Buddha on the practical question of how to serve the Buddha — what conduct is auspicious (jí 吉) and what conduct is inauspicious (xiōng 凶). The Buddha’s responses outline the basic ethical and ritual practices of Buddhist lay devotion. The text belongs to Ān Shìgāo’s Hīnayāna corpus (he translated primarily Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma and meditation texts, not Mahāyāna). The translation is dated to his Luòyáng productive period (148–170 CE).
The text is paired with KR6i0122 (T492b) — the two recensions present essentially the same content but with significant textual differences, suggesting the existence of multiple Chinese versions that were not fully harmonized in the standard canon. Both recensions are attributed to Ān Shìgāo by the early catalogs.
Translations and research
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring. Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1995.
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. 3rd ed. Brill, 2007.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo, 2008 — careful evaluation of the Ān Shìgāo authentic corpus.
Other points of interest
The Ān Shìgāo authentic corpus has been the subject of detailed scrutiny by Erik Zürcher, Antonino Forte, and Jan Nattier. The Wèn shìfó jíxiōng jīng is included in the contested second-tier of the Ān Shìgāo corpus — Nattier considers attribution likely but not certain.