聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

佛說大安般守意經

2 min read

Text ID
KR6i0239
Date
148–170
Dynasty
後漢

Fóshuō Dàānbān shǒuyì jīng 佛說大安般守意經

Sūtra of Great Mindfulness on Inhalation and Exhalation (Mahā-ānāpānasmṛti-sūtra) attributed to 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)

About the work

The Dà-ānbān shǒuyì jīng (T602) is a two-fascicle text of immense significance in early Chinese Buddhism — for centuries the principal Chinese exposition of ānāpānasmṛti (mindfulness of breathing) and the foundational text of the chán (dhyāna) movement of the Eastern Hàn 後漢 and Three Kingdoms. The transmitted text, however, is universally recognized in modern scholarship to be a heavily commentated composite, with Ān Shìgāo’s underlying translation overlaid by interlinear and embedded commentary by 康僧會 Kāng Sēnghuì (and possibly 支遁 Zhī Dùn) that has become inseparable from the root text.

Prefaces

僧祐 Sēngyòu’s Chū sānzàng jì jí (T2145, ch. 6) preserves a famous preface by 康僧會 Kāng Sēnghuì describing the lineage of the meditation practice from Ān Shìgāo through his disciples 韓林 Hán Lín, 皮業 Pí Yè, and 陳慧 Chén Huì, whose oral commentary Sēnghuì then incorporated. A second preface by 謝敷 Xiè Fū is also preserved.

Abstract

A composite-witness text that reflects the very earliest layer of dhyāna practice in China. Modern Jan Nattier (2008, 2014) and Stefano Zacchetti (2002, 2010) have shown that Kongō-ji 金剛寺 (Japan) preserves an alternative manuscript redaction without commentary that is much closer to Ān Shìgāo’s translation; T602 should therefore be read as a hybrid commentary-text, not a pure Hàn translation. The bracket 148–170 CE corresponds to Ān Shìgāo’s documented translation activity at Luòyáng under Hàn Huándì 漢桓帝.

Translations and research

  • Zacchetti, Stefano. “An Early Chinese Translation Corresponding to Chapter 6 of the Peṭakopadesa.” Bulletin of SOAS 65 (2002): 74–98.
  • Zacchetti, Stefano. The Da Anban Shouyi Jing — Annotated Translation. Bochum, 2020 (posthumous).
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008.
  • Deleanu, Florin. “The Newly Found Text of the Anban shouyi jing.” Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies 6 (2003): 170–189.

Graph View

Backlinks