Fóshuō Bāshī jīng 佛說八師經
Sūtra of the Eight Teachers translated by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
The Fóshuō Bāshī jīng (T581) is a one-fascicle short sūtra translated by Zhī Qiān 支謙 (支謙) at the Wú 吳 court. The Buddha enumerates “eight teachers” (bāshī 八師) — eight aspects of the human condition (killing, theft, sexual misconduct, lying, drunkenness, old age, sickness, death) that have instructed him on the way to liberation.
Prefaces
The text opens with the canonical formula.
Abstract
A short didactic sūtra typical of Zhī Qiān’s Āgama-derived corpus, datable to his Wú-period activity (222–252 CE) at Wǔchāng 武昌 and Jiànyè 建業. The “eight teachers” device — calamities re-read as masters — became a popular Buddhist trope in Six-Dynasties literature.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008 — Zhī Qiān’s corpus.
- No further substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- CBETA T14n0581
- Kanseki DB
- 支謙 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (245) — Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. 129–135.