Ānán wèn shìfó jíxiōng jīng 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 Ānán wèn shìfó jíxiōng jīng (T492b) is the “b” recension of the paired text T492 — see KR6i0121 (T492a) for the “a” recension. Both are attributed to 安世高 Ān Shìgāo (fl. 148–170 CE).
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the canonical jīngshǒu formula.
Abstract
This is the parallel recension of KR6i0121. The two recensions provide the same essential content but with textual divergences in vocabulary, syntax, and the ordering of points. The existence of two recensions in the early Chinese canon for a text of this brevity is unusual and reflects pre-Sui canonical instability — different copy-traditions of Ān Shìgāo’s translations were not harmonized into a single standard text until the Liáng-period catalogs.
Translations and research
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and His Offspring. Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1995.
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo, 2008.