Dàfāngguǎng rúláizàng jīng 大方廣如來藏經
Mahāvaipulya Tathāgatagarbhasūtra (alternative translation) translated by 不空 (Bùkōng / Amoghavajra, 譯)
About the work
T667 in one fascicle is 不空’s eighth-century retranslation of the same Indic Tathāgatagarbhasūtra underlying T666 of 佛陀跋陀羅. The two Chinese versions diverge in title (T666 Dàfāngděng 大方等; T667 Dàfāngguǎng 大方廣 — both equally valid renderings of mahāvaipulya) and in literary register: 不空’s rendering is freer and more idiomatic in late-Tang Chinese, where Buddhabhadra’s KR6i0323 is a more literal calque of the Indic syntax.
Abstract
The attribution to 不空 (Amoghavajra, 705–774) is canonical and uncontested in the Táng catalogues. Date bracket follows 不空’s mature productive period at the Dàxìngshànsì 大興善寺 in Cháng’ān after his return from India and Sri Lanka in 746, until his death in 774; T667 is generally dated to the late 750s or 760s. 不空 presumably had access to a Sanskrit exemplar he had brought back from his Indian / Sinhalese sojourn.
The two Chinese versions preserve the same nine-simile cycle (cf. T666), but 不空’s rendering reflects the doctrinal elaboration of the tathāgatagarbha tradition over the three centuries between the two translations: the Tang version’s vocabulary already presupposes the Awakening of Faith’s 真如 / 如來藏 framework. As such, T667 is less a fresh translation than a doctrinally repositioned recension; for philological purposes T666 remains the more useful witness.
Related canonical texts: KR6i0323 (大方等如來藏經 / T666), the parallel earlier translation by 佛陀跋陀羅.
Translations and research
- Zimmermann, Michael. A Buddha Within: The Tathāgatagarbhasūtra. Tokyo: IRIAB, 2002. Treats both T666 and T667 in parallel.
- Takasaki Jikidō 高崎直道. Nyoraizō shisō no keisei. Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1974.
Links
- CBETA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (750): 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