Dàshèng rù Léngqié jīng 大乘入楞伽經
Mahāyāna Sūtra of Entry into Laṅkā (Skt. Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, seven-fascicle Táng recension) translated by 實叉難陀 (Shíchānántuó / Śikṣānanda, 譯)
About the work
T672 in seven fascicles is the third and latest of the three extant Chinese translations of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra. Produced under Empress Wǔ Zétiān 武則天 by 實叉難陀, the great Khotanese translator of the Tang Wǔ Zhōu period (best known for his 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka), T672 represents the most polished and literarily refined of the Chinese Laṅkāvatāra renderings.
Abstract
The translation is canonically ascribed to 實叉難陀 on the basis of the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (T2154) and the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn (T2061). The work was begun in 700 at the imperial Dà biànkōngsì 大遍空寺 and Fóshòujìsì 佛授記寺, and completed in 704; the project ran in parallel with 實叉難陀’s 80-fascicle Huáyán (completed 699) and was undertaken with the same translation team — including 菩提流志 Bodhiruci, 義淨 Yìjìng, 法藏 Fǎzàng (as scribe and editor), and the polymath Mítuóshān 彌陀山. The Empress is recorded to have personally edited (筆削) portions of the translation.
T672 is widely regarded — both in the East Asian commentarial tradition and in modern philology — as the most reliable Chinese witness to the underlying Sanskrit, although T671 preserves the Sagāthaka verse-appendix that T672 abbreviates. The most authoritative classical commentary on T672 is T1791 of the Sòng monk 寶臣; 法藏’s Rù Léngqiéxīn xuányì (T1790) is in part also based on T672.
Structural Division
T672 is divided into 10 chapters (CANWWW): 羅婆那王勸請品 (Rāvaṇa’s Request), 集一切法品, 無常品, 現證品, 如來常無常品, 剎那品, 變化品, 斷食肉品, 陀羅尼品, 偈頌品 (the verse compendium). The 10-chapter division is rhetorically more polished than T671’s 18 chapters, with the consolidated framing chapters preserving Indic divisional structure.
Related canonical texts: KR6i0327 (楞伽阿跋多羅寶經 / T670), KR6i0328 (入楞伽經 / T671); commentary KR6i0334 (注大乘入楞伽經 / T1791); related commentary KR6i0333 (入楞伽心玄義 / T1790).
Translations and research
- Nanjio 1923, Vaidya 1963: Sanskrit edition.
- Tokiwa Gishin 常盤義伸. Ryōgakyō no kenkyū. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 1976. Compares all three Chinese translations.
- Tokiwa Gishin. The Lankavatara Sutra: A Mahayana Text in ‘Recent’ Translation. Kyoto: Hanazono University, 2003. Translation including T672 readings.
- Sutton, Florin G. Existence and Enlightenment in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra. Albany: SUNY, 1991.
Links
- CBETA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (695): 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