Fóshuō dàshèng suízhuǎn xuānshuō zhūfǎ jīng 佛說大乘隨轉宣說諸法經
Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Subsequent Turning of the Wheel of Dharmas, as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 紹德 (Shàodé, 等譯)
About the work
T652 (three fascicles) is the Northern Song retranslation by 紹德 (Shàodé) and his team at the Sòng Yìjīng yuàn of the same Indic sūtra underlying T650 (Kumārajīva) and T651 (Jñānagupta). The title — emphasizing the suízhuǎn “subsequent turning” of the dharma-wheel — reflects the Song-period preference for narratively-framed prajñāpāramitā expositions.
Abstract
紹德 (Shàodé) was a Chinese-trained monk at the imperial Yìjīng yuàn established by 宋太宗 Sòng Tàizōng in 982; he served as a translation assistant and later as a lead translator alongside Indian masters such as Dānapāla. Date bracket follows the active period of the Yìjīng yuàn’s first generation (980–1015). The translation reflects a substantially expanded Indic recension relative to Kumārajīva’s T650, with additional bodhisattva-doctrine passages that show the influence of late-Indian Mahāyāna paripṛcchā literature. Together with T650 and T651, T652 forms the three Chinese versions of the Sarvadharmapravṛttinirdeśa tradition.
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 T15n0652
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (1150) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.