Fóshuō fǎlǜ sānmèi jīng 佛說法律三昧經
Sūtra on the Samādhi of Dharma and Discipline as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
T631 (one fascicle, alt. title 法律經) is a short Mahāyāna samādhi-sūtra translated by the Yuezhi-Wu lay translator 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, fl. 222–253) at Jiànyè 建業 under the patronage of 孫權 Sūn Quán. The text expounds the fǎlǜ sānmèi — a samādhi in which “the law” (fǎ = dharma) and “the discipline” (lǜ = vinaya) are realized as fundamentally inseparable. The colophon in the source attributes the translation to “[支謙], a layman of Yuezhi origin in the State of Wu, [translated] by imperial command” (吳月支國居士支謙奉詔譯).
Abstract
支謙 (Zhī Qiān) was the most prolific Mahāyāna translator of the Three Kingdoms period and a foundational figure in southern (Wu) Chinese Buddhism. The [[KR6s0084|Chū sānzàng jì jí]] (T2145, juan 2) lists T631 among his attested works. Date bracket follows Zhī Qiān’s productive period in Wu (222–253). The CANWWW database (Wittern) erroneously lists 支曜 as translator (a data error from the AUT00021 key); the catalog meta, the source colophon, and the Sēngyòu catalog all agree on Zhī Qiān. The text develops the equivalence of formal monastic discipline and meditative samādhi as two aspects of a single bodhisattva path, and is an important early Chinese statement of the Mahāyāna critique of mere vinaya observance without insight.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2008. — extensive treatment of Zhī Qiān’s corpus.
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0631
- Kanseki DB
- 支謙 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (245, 316) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.