Dàshèng bǎifúxiàng jīng 大乘百福相經
Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Hundred Marks of Merit translated by 地婆訶羅 (Dìpóhēluó / Divākara, 譯)
About the work
T661 (one fascicle, alt. title 百福相經; Sanskrit Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā-sūtra) is the Tang translation by 地婆訶羅 (Divākara, 613–687) of a short Mahāyāna paripṛcchā-sūtra in which Mañjuśrī asks the Buddha about the hundred marks of merit through which a buddha-body is generated. The text is the first of two consecutive Divākara translations of the same Indic source: T662 (Dàshèng bǎifú zhuāngyán xiāng jīng) is his second rendering, made later in his career.
Abstract
地婆訶羅 (Divākara, Dìpóhēluó; 613–687) was an Indian translator who came to China in 676 and worked at the Tàiyuán sì 太原寺 in Cháng’ān under imperial patronage; the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (T2061) gives his biography. He is credited with eighteen translations made between 676 and 687. Date bracket follows his attested productive period (676–687). The Sanskrit Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā is preserved in Tibetan; T661 is one of two Chinese versions, both by Divākara. The “hundred marks of merit” (śata-puṇya-lakṣaṇa) doctrine — that each of the thirty-two major marks of a buddha is generated by a hundred meritorious roots — is articulated here in a compact paripṛcchā form. The text was used in Tang scholastic exegesis on the relation between puṇya and jñāna in the bodhisattva path.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Chen, Jinhua. Philosopher, Practitioner, Politician: The Many Lives of Fazang. Leiden: Brill, 2007. — context for late-seventh-century translation projects.
- Forte, Antonino. The Hostage An Shigao and his Offspring. Italian School of East Asian Studies, 1995. — context on Indian translator families.
No book-length English translation located.
Links
- CBETA T16n0661
- Kanseki DB
- 地婆訶羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (680) — T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932.