Shēnmì jiětuō jīng 深密解脫經
Sūtra Liberating [the Hidden Doctrine] from Profound Mystery (Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra) translated by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
T675 in five fascicles is the second-earliest complete Chinese rendering of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra — the foundational sūtra of the Yogācāra school, expounding ālayavijñāna 阿賴耶識, the three self-natures (trisvabhāva 三自性), and the three dharma-cakra (三轉法輪) doctrine according to which the Saṃdhinirmocana itself is the third and definitive turning. The translation was carried out at Luòyáng 洛陽 by the North-Indian Yogācāra translator Bodhiruci of Northern Wèi 北魏 in Yánchāng 延昌 3 (514 CE) under the Northern Wèi imperial translation programme.
Abstract
The Northern-Wèi recension is the second-oldest complete witness, preceded only by the partial Buddhabhāṣita jiějié jīng 佛說解節經 (KR6i0355 / T677, single fascicle by 真諦/Paramārtha covering only the second chapter), and superseded by Xuánzàng’s definitive five-fascicle Jiě shēnmì jīng 解深密經 (KR6i0353 / T676, dated 647). 菩提流支 arrived in Luòyáng in 508 and worked under Wèi imperial patronage until the early 530s; the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (KR6r0011, T2034) records the 514 date for this translation. The Tàishàngzhāo Tánníng 沙門都釋曇寧 preface preserved at the head of the Taishō witness — “夫至迹虛微、理包言像之外，幽宗沖祕、旨絕名相之域” (“The supreme trace is empty and subtle, its principle envelops what lies beyond word and image; the recondite tenet is deep and secret, its purport sunders the domain of name and mark”) — frames the sūtra as the climactic turning of the wheel and the principal scriptural ground for Yogācāra teaching. The text is also the chief source for the four partial Chinese translations registered in the Taishō under T677–T679 (= KR6i0355, KR6i0356, KR6i0357).
The Bodhiruci version is structured in eleven chapters (品), one more than Xuánzàng’s ten-chapter version (the Wèi version splits Xuánzàng’s first chapter “勝義諦相品” into two), and lacks the heavy Yogācāra-vijñapti-mātra terminology that 玄奘 later standardized; for that reason it is an essential witness for both the Indian-language vorlage of the Saṃdhinirmocana and for the early-sixth-century pre-Xuánzàng Chinese Yogācāra vocabulary. Saṃdhinirmocana itself probably reached final form in northwest India between c. 200 and c. 350 CE.
Structural Division
Following CANWWW (T16N0675), the eleven-chapter division is:
- Xù pǐn 序品 — Preface chapter.
- Shèngzhě shànwèn púsà wèn pǐn 聖者善問菩薩問品 — The bodhisattva Suviśuddhamati questions.
- Shèngzhě Tánwújié púsà wèn pǐn 聖者曇無竭菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Dharmodgata questions.
- Shèngzhě shànqīngjìnghuì púsà wèn pǐn 聖者善清淨慧菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Suviśuddhamati questions.
- Huìmìng Xūpútí wèn pǐn 惠命須菩提問品 — The elder Subhūti questions.
- Shèngzhě Guǎnghuì púsà wèn pǐn 聖者廣惠菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Viśālamati questions.
- Shèngzhě Gōngdélín púsà wèn pǐn 聖者功德林菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Guṇavana questions.
- Shèngzhě chéngjiù dìyīyì púsà wèn pǐn 聖者成就第一義菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Paramārtha-samudgata questions.
- Shèngzhě Mílè púsà wèn pǐn 聖者彌勒菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Maitreya questions.
- Shèngzhě Guānshìzìzài púsà wèn pǐn 聖者觀世自在菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara questions. ↔ partial parallel: KR6i0356 Xiāngxù jiětuō dìbōluómì liǎoyì jīng 相續解脫地波羅蜜了義經 (T678).
- Shèngzhě Wénshūshīlì fǎwángzǐ púsà wèn pǐn 聖者文殊師利法王子菩薩問品 — Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī questions. ↔ partial parallel: KR6i0357 Xiāngxù jiětuō rúlái suǒzuò suíshùnchù liǎoyì jīng 相續解脫如來所作隨順處了義經 (T679).
Related canonical recensions / translations: KR6i0353 (解深密經 / T676 by Xuánzàng); KR6i0355 (佛說解節經 / T677 by Paramārtha); KR6i0356 (T678 by Guṇabhadra); KR6i0357 (T679 by Guṇabhadra).
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Saṃdhinirmocana sūtra : L’explication des mystères. Louvain: Université de Louvain, 1935 (foundational French translation from the Tibetan, with extensive collation of the Chinese).
- Powers, John. Wisdom of Buddha: The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1995. English translation from Tibetan with reference to the Chinese.
- Powers, John. Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra. Leiden: Brill, 1993.
- Keenan, John P. The Scripture on the Explication of Underlying Meaning. Berkeley: Numata Center, 2000. BDK English Tripiṭaka translation from Xuánzàng’s T676.
- Tagawa Shun’ei 田川俊英 et al. (eds), Genjō yaku Gejinmikkyō to sono shūhen 玄奘訳『解深密経』とその周辺. (Yogācāra-philological work in Japanese.)