Fóshuō Ānán sìshì jīng 佛說阿難四事經
Sūtra of Ānanda’s Four Matters translated by 支謙 Zhī Qiān (譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō Ānán sìshì jīng (T493) is a one-fascicle short sūtra on Ānanda’s questions about four matters of Buddhist practice, translated by 支謙 Zhī Qiān in the Eastern Wú.
Prefaces
The text opens directly with the canonical jīngshǒu formula. The colophon attributes the translation to “吳月支居士支謙譯” (Zhī Qiān, Yuèzhī layman of the Wú).
Abstract
This early Chinese sūtra continues the Ānanda-centered narrative cycle. Zhī Qiān (fl. 222–252 CE) was the leading translator at the Wú court at Wǔchāng / Jiànyè. The Sìshì jīng belongs to his Hīnayāna sūtra translation corpus, contemporaneous with his major Wéimójié jīng KR6i0075 translation. The four-matters scheme is one of the standard Buddhist enumerative pedagogical formats.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo, 2008 — careful evaluation of the Zhī Qiān corpus.