Dàfàntiānwáng wèn fó juéyí jīng 大梵天王問佛決疑經
Sūtra of the Great Brahmā King’s Questions Resolving the Buddha’s Doubt (one-fascicle redaction) (apocryphal; author unknown)
About the work
X27 is the one-fascicle redaction of the same Chán-related apocryphon also transmitted in two fascicles as KR6i0237 (X26). The shorter version concentrates on the niānhuā wéixiào “flower-sermon” episode and omits much of the cosmological framing of the longer version.
Prefaces
No translator preface; the text presents itself as a Buddhist sūtra but is a Chinese composition.
Abstract
A condensed parallel of KR6i0237, occupying roughly the same period of composition (post-tenth-century, pre-Yuán). Foulk (1993) and Welter (2000) treat both X26 and X27 as variant Sòng-period redactions of a single Chán-school apocryphon authoring the niānhuā wéixiào myth. The two redactions circulated in parallel in late-imperial China.
Translations and research
- Welter, Albert. “Mahākāśyapa’s Smile.” In The Kōan, ed. Heine & Wright. Oxford, 2000, 75–109.
- Foulk, T. Griffith. “Myth, Ritual, and Monastic Practice in Sung Ch’an Buddhism.” In Religion and Society in T’ang and Sung China. Honolulu, 1993, 147–208.