Fóshuō shèngyì kōng jīng 佛說勝義空經
Sūtra on Ultimate Emptiness as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 等譯)
About the work
T655 (one fascicle) is a very short prajñāpāramitā sūtra translated by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, d. 1017) and his colleagues at the Sòng Yìjīng yuàn. The text expounds the paramārtha-śūnyatā — ultimate emptiness — as the sole final object of bodhisattva contemplation.
Abstract
T655 is recorded in the Fózǔ tǒngjì and the Sòng huìyào among Shīhù’s translations. Date bracket follows his Bureau career (980–1017). The “等譯” notation indicates a team translation under his direction. The text is a Chinese rendering of a brief late-Indian prajñāpāramitā manual on ultimate emptiness; it parallels material in the Saṃyukta-āgama on the paramārtha-śūnyatā doctrine attributed to the Buddha (Saṃyutta-nikāya equivalents in Pali). The brevity and the technical vocabulary suggest that the underlying Indic source was a late compilation rather than an early canonical sūtra.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
No book-length Western translation located.
Links
- CBETA T15n0655
- Kanseki DB
- 施護 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.