Fóshuō dàshèng zhìyìn jīng 佛說大乘智印經
Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Wisdom-Seal as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 智吉祥 (Zhìjíxiáng / Jñānaśrī, 等譯)
About the work
T634 (five fascicles) is the Northern Song re-translation, by 智吉祥 (Jñānaśrī) and his colleagues at the imperial Yìjīng yuàn 譯經院, of the same Indic sūtra underlying T632 (Zhī Qiān’s Huìyìn sānmèi) and T633 (the anonymous Liú-Sòng version). It is by far the most expansive of the three Chinese versions and reflects a much later Indic recension of the Tathāgatajñānamudrāsamādhi-sūtra.
Abstract
智吉祥 (Jñānaśrī) was a second-generation translator at the Sòng Yìjīng yuàn established by Tàizōng in 982; he was active in the second quarter of the eleventh century, after the deaths of the founding generation ( Tiānxīzāi d. 1000, Dānapāla d. 1017). The “等譯” notation indicates that he led a team rather than translating alone; this was standard practice at the Bureau. Date bracket follows his attested productive period (c. 1017–c. 1048). Compared with the older versions, T634 contains expanded sections on the wisdom-seal as a prajñāpāramitā meditation and incorporates terminology characteristic of the late Indic paripṛcchā tradition. The text is a useful witness to the late-period Sanskrit recension of this sūtra, which is otherwise lost.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
- Jan Yün-hua. Studies on Northern Song translation enterprise.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0634
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1053) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.