Fóshuō Xīnmíng jīng 佛說心明經
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha on Xīnmíng (the Lucid-Minded Brahmin Wife) translated by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō Xīnmíng jīng (T569) is a one-fascicle short narrative sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa 竺法護 (竺法護). The CANWWW alternate title 心明女梵志婦飯汁施經 makes the plot explicit: a brahmin’s wife named Xīnmíng 心明 (“Lucid Mind”) gives the Buddha the rice-water (fànzhī 飯汁) she had reserved for her husband and is rewarded with a prophecy of buddhahood.
Prefaces
The text opens with the canonical formula. No translator preface survives.
Abstract
A brief almsgiving (dāna) story in the same wise-women cluster as the preceding T567 and T568, transmitted as the work of Dharmarakṣa and dated to his Western Jìn translation activity (266–308 CE). The merit-narrative pattern — humble offering by a low-status woman, immediate prediction of awakening — typifies Dharmarakṣa’s Mahāyāna avadāna corpus. Catalogues from Chū sānzàng jì jí onward consistently retain the attribution.
Translations and research
- Paul, Diana Y. Women in Buddhism: Images of the Feminine in the Mahāyāna Tradition. Berkeley, 1979.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China.” Asia Major 19 (2006): 13–37.
Links
- CBETA T14n0569
- Kanseki DB
- 竺法護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (300) — T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014.