Hébù Jīnguāngmíng jīng 合部金光明經
Composite Sūtra of Golden Light compiled by 寶貴 (Bǎoguì, 合)
About the work
T664 is an editorial composite, not a fresh translation: in eight fascicles and 24 chapters, it splices supplementary chapters from later partial renderings into the frame of 曇無讖’s [[KR6i0301|Jīnguāngmíng jīng 金光明經]] (T663). The work was assembled in 597 by 寶貴 (Bǎoguì), a śramaṇa of the Dà xīngshàn sì 大興善寺 in Cháng’ān, with editorial assistance from the polymath bibliographer 費長房 Fèi Chángfáng (compiler of the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶記) and the philologist 彥琮 Yàncóng of the Rìyán sì 日嚴寺.
Prefaces
The Taishō text is preceded by 寶貴’s own preface, dated 開皇十七年 (597), which is the principal source for the editorial logic of the composite. The preface explicitly cites earlier “composite-sūtra” precedents: 支敏度 Zhī Mǐndù’s combined Śūraṅgama (in five recensions, made into one work in eight fascicles) and his combined Vimalakīrti (in three recensions, made into one work in five fascicles), together with 僧就 Sēngjiù’s combined Mahāsaṃnipāta (《大集》) drawing on four exemplars in sixty fascicles. 寶貴 places his own work in this tradition.
The preface lays out the source material: (i) the four-fascicle, eighteen-chapter Northern Liáng T663 of 曇無讖; (ii) a five-fascicle, twenty-chapter Northern Zhōu rendering by 闍那崛多 Yaśogupta (here referring to the Zhōu-period Jñānagupta) which is no longer extant independently; (iii) Liáng-period 真諦 Zhēndì (Paramārtha)‘s partial translation of four supplementary chapters made at Jiànkāng — Sānshēn fēnbié 三身分別, Yèzhàng miè 業障滅, Tuóluóní zuìjìngdì 陀羅尼最淨地, and Yīkōng mǎnyuàn 依空滿願. 寶貴 had long been troubled that the existing Chinese versions evidently lacked the Zhǔlèi pǐn (entrustment chapter), strongly suggesting an incomplete underlying Indic exemplar. In 597, when the Sui translation bureau acquired a North Indian (Gandhāran) tripiṭaka master 志德 Zhìdé, a fresh examination of the new manuscript yielded both the missing Zhǔlèi pǐn and a new Yínzhǔ tuóluóní 銀主陀羅尼 chapter. 寶貴 then assembled the composite of 24 chapters in eight fascicles. 費長房 acted as scribe (筆受); 彥琮 of Rìyán sì collated (校練).
Abstract
T664 is best understood as the philological response to the perceived deficiencies of 曇無讖’s shorter version: by inserting Paramārtha’s four supplementary chapters and the Zhōu-period Jñānagupta’s additional material along with the freshly recovered Zhǔlèi pǐn and the Yínzhǔ tuóluóní pǐn, it gave Sui Buddhists a more complete and liturgically more useful Suvarṇaprabhāsa. The composite remained a working text in the East Asian sangha for about a century, until it was in turn rendered redundant by 義淨’s [[KR6i0303|Jīnguāngmíng zuìshèngwáng jīng 金光明最勝王經]] (T665, 703) — a single translation of the long Sanskrit recension. Its main scholarly value today lies in its preservation of 真諦’s otherwise lost Suvarṇaprabhāsa fragments and of 寶貴’s preface as a window onto the philological self-conception of the Sui translation bureau.
Structural Division
T664 is divided into 24 chapters (juxtaposing dharma instruction, dhāraṇī cycles, deity cults and Jātaka-style narrative): 序品, 壽量品, 三身分別品, 懺悔品, 業障滅品, 陀羅尼寂淨地品, 讚歎品, 空品, 依空滿願品, 四天王品, 銀主陀羅尼品, 大辯天品, 功德天品, 堅牢地神品, 脂鬼神品, 正論品, 善集品, 思神品, 授記品, 除病品, 流水長者子品, 捨身品, 讚佛品, 付囑品.
Related canonical texts: KR6i0301 (金光明經 / T663), KR6i0303 (金光明最勝王經 / T665).
Translations and research
- Skjærvø, Prods Oktor. This Most Excellent Shine of Gold, King of Kings of Sutras: The Khotanese Suvarṇabhāsottamasūtra. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA: Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, 2004. Useful for understanding the recensional history of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa family.
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Butten wa dō Kan’yaku sareta no ka: Sūtora ga kyōten ni naru toki 仏典はどう漢訳されたのか — スートラが経典になるとき. Tokyo: Iwanami, 2013. Discusses Sui-period composite-translation practice as exemplified by 寶貴.
No book-length English translation of T664 specifically located.
Other points of interest
寶貴’s preface is one of the most explicit early extant statements of Chinese Buddhist editorial method as applied to multi-recensional sūtras: the use of one “frame” recension (Dharmakṣema’s) into which supplementary material is woven, with explicit acknowledgement of provenance for each interpolation, anticipates the structure of much later East Asian harmony works.
Links
- CBETA T0664
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (597): CBETA, Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo, 1924–1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings