Fóshuō huáshǒu jīng 佛說華手經
Sūtra of the Flower-Hand as Spoken by the Buddha translated by 鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí / Kumārajīva, 譯)
About the work
T657 (ten fascicles, alt. title 華首經; Sanskrit Kuśalamūlasamparigraha-sūtra, alt. Kuśalamūlaparidhara) is a major Mahāyāna sūtra on the bodhisattva’s accumulation of meritorious roots (kuśala-mūla), translated by 鳩摩羅什 at Cháng’ān. The huáshǒu “Flower-Hand” of the title is a bodhisattva who serves as the principal interlocutor; the sūtra is built around his questions to the Buddha about how a bodhisattva should accumulate, protect, and dedicate the roots of merit.
Structural Division
T657 is a long text in 35 chapters covering the entire bodhisattva path. Principal sections include 序品 (introductory), 神力品 (spiritual powers), 不退轉品 (irreversibility), 為法品 (acting for the Dharma), 法門品 (dharma-gates), 囑累品 (entrustment). The full chapter list is preserved in CANWWW (T16N0657-1 through T16N0657-35).
Abstract
T657 is unanimously ascribed to 鳩摩羅什 in the canonical bibliographies. Date bracket follows his Cháng’ān period (401–413). The Sanskrit Kuśalamūlasamparigraha-sūtra is referenced in [[KR6c0005|the Dà zhìdù lùn]] and survives in fragments; a complete text is preserved in Tibetan. The Chinese translation is one of Kumārajīva’s longer works and is stylistically continuous with the Mahāprajñāpāramitā group: long doctrinal expositions interleaved with verse summaries, avadāna-style narratives, and bodhisattva-encounter scenes. Together with T656 (Zhú Fóniàn’s Púsà yīngluò), T657 is among the major source texts for Chinese conceptions of the kuśala-mūla — the “roots of good” that a bodhisattva must plant, protect from being uprooted (e.g. by anger), and dedicate to enlightenment.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse, vol. 5. — discusses Kuśalamūla doctrine with extensive citation of T657.
- Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008.
No book-length English translation located.
Links
- CBETA T16n0657
- Kanseki DB
- 鳩摩羅什 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (405) — Sengrui 僧叡. Er Qin lu 二秦錄, as preserved in Fèi Chángfáng 費長房, Lìdài sānbǎo jì (LDSBJ) 歷代三寶紀 T2034. T2034 (XLIX) 77b26–79a10.