Léngqiéābáduōluó bǎo jīng huìyì 楞伽阿跋多羅寶經會譯
Triple-Translation Collation of the Treasure Sūtra of the Descent into Laṅkā collated by 員珂 (Yuánkē, 會譯)
About the work
X8 in four fascicles is 員珂’s late-Ming triple-translation collation (huìyì 會譯) of the three extant Chinese versions of the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra: T670 (Liú-Sòng 求那跋陀羅, 4 fascicles), T671 (Northern Wèi 菩提流支, 10 fascicles), and T672 (Tang 實叉難陀, 7 fascicles). The book is structurally remarkable: 員珂 takes 求那跋陀羅’s shortest version as the principal text — running it as the head-line — and inserts the parallel passages from 菩提流支 and 實叉難陀 as sub-lines below the head-line, allowing the reader to compare the three Chinese translations in situ.
Prefaces
The Taishō witness preserves at the head 員珂’s own huìyì xù 會譯序 of 1580, which lays out the editorial logic precisely: “this sūtra was translated four times in all, and three remain extant. The first, the four-fascicle Liú-Sòng 求那跋陀羅’s Léngqié ābáduōluó bǎo jīng — the second, the ten-fascicle Northern-Wèi 菩提流支’s Rù léngqié jīng — the third, the seven-fascicle Tang 實叉難陀 / Fùlǐ etc.’s Dàshèng rù léngqié jīng. Forwhich is the marvellous, foremost, and definitive teaching previously spoken by the Buddha — that is why it is called ‘the chapter on the Buddha’s mind-speech’. Bodhidharma came from the West and transmitted it to his second-patriarch [Huìkě]…” The preface continues to date the project firmly to Wànlì 8 (1580).
Abstract
The work is one of the principal late-Míng synthetic Laṅkāvatāra productions, paralleling the contemporaneous Laṅkāvatāra commentaries by 德清 (KR6i0343) and 智旭 (KR6i0345, KR6i0346). 員珂’s huìyì serves a different function from those commentaries: it is not exegetical but textual-comparative, providing the late-Míng reader (Chán or Tiāntái) with a single book in which the three Chinese versions could be checked against one another. As such, X8 is the principal Chinese precursor of the kind of synoptic critical edition that modern philology has produced.
員珂’s collaboration with the lay official Lù Guāngzǔ 陸光祖 (“Lù Sīkōng Guāngzǔ” in his DILA biography) on the project is also notable — the assistance of an established Wànlì lay literato gave the work the social leverage to be printed and circulated.
Related canonical texts: KR6i0327 (T670), KR6i0328 (T671), KR6i0329 (T672) — the three parent translations.
Translations and research
- Suzuki, D. T. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. London: Routledge, 1930. The classic comparative study; uses 員珂’s huìyì implicitly.
- Tokiwa Gishin 常盤義伸. Ryōgakyō no kenkyū. Tokyo: Daitō Shuppansha, 1976.
No book-length English translation located.