Fóshuō zhūfǎ běnwú jīng 佛說諸法本無經
Sūtra on the Original Non-Existence of All Dharmas as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 闍那崛多 (Shénàjuéduō / Jñānagupta, 譯)
About the work
T651 (three fascicles; Sanskrit Sarvadharmapravṛttinirdeśa-sūtra) is the Sui-period retranslation by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta) of the same Indic source underlying T650 (Kumārajīva’s Zhūfǎ wúxíng jīng). Jñānagupta’s title — “all dharmas are originally non-existent” (běnwú 本無) — preserves an older Chinese term for prakṛti-śūnyatā (intrinsic emptiness) that had largely fallen out of use after Kumārajīva but was revived for stylistic effect.
Abstract
T651 is unanimously ascribed to 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta) in the canonical bibliographies. Date bracket follows his late Sui productive period at Dàxīngshàn sì 大興善寺 in Cháng’ān (591–600 — from the consolidation of his programme to his death). The translation is somewhat fuller than Kumārajīva’s T650 and may reflect a slightly different Indic recension. Comparison of the two has been a standard exercise for understanding the changing register of Chinese Buddhist translation across the Six Dynasties / Sui transition.
The text is also closely related to the Northern Song re-rendering T652, translated by 紹德 Shàodé and his colleagues at the Sòng Yìjīng yuàn.
Translations and research
- Chen, Jinhua. Philosopher, Practitioner, Politician: The Many Lives of Fazang (643–712). Leiden: Brill, 2007. — context on Sui–Tang transitional translation enterprise.
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse, vol. 4, n. ad loc. — on the Sarvadharmapravṛttinirdeśa tradition.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0651
- Kanseki DB
- 闍那崛多 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (590) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.