Fó shuō jiějié jīng 佛說解節經
The Buddha’s Sūtra Loosening the Knots (Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, partial) translated by 真諦 (Paramārtha, 譯)
About the work
T677 in one fascicle is 真諦 / Paramārtha’s partial translation of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, covering only the second chapter of the parent sūtra (the Paramārtha-lakṣaṇa-parivarta 勝義諦相品 / prabhāvitalakṣaṇa — the chapter on the Mark of Ultimate Truth). Translated under the Chén 陳 dynasty in the southern capital, between 真諦’s settled period at Jiànkāng / Guǎngzhōu (557–569). Aligned with chapter T16N0676-2 / Shèngyìdì xiāng pǐn of 玄奘’s full version.
Abstract
The Jiějié jīng is one of three “extract” Chinese translations of individual chapters of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra — the others being KR6i0356 (T678 by Guṇabhadra, partial of chapter 7) and KR6i0357 (T679 by Guṇabhadra, partial of chapter 8). Although the title may suggest a freestanding sūtra, the text is in fact a partial witness of the same parent translated more comprehensively by Bodhiruci in 514 (KR6i0352 / T675) and definitively by 玄奘 in 647 (KR6i0353 / T676). 真諦 (499–569) — the Yogācāra translator-patriarch who reached Liáng China in 546 and worked under increasingly precarious conditions through the late Liáng and early Chén dynasties until his death in 569 — translated this small chapter likely between 557 (the founding of the Chén) and 569 (his death). The single-fascicle translation is brief but historically important: it shows that the Saṃdhinirmocana was already in the corpus that 真諦 brought south, and that the sūtra was being read piece-by-piece in the southern Yogācāra circle that would eventually produce the She lùn 攝論 (Mahāyāna-saṃgraha) school.
The Jiějié version’s terminology differs significantly from 玄奘’s standard Yogācāra vocabulary; for example, 真諦’s renderings of the three self-natures and the three turnings of the wheel use older, less consistent Chinese equivalents. For that reason the text is a key witness for early-sixth-century pre-Xuánzàng Chinese Yogācāra terminology.
Related canonical recensions: complete versions KR6i0352 (T675 by Bodhiruci); KR6i0353 (T676 by Xuánzàng); other partial extracts KR6i0356 (T678) and KR6i0357 (T679); commentary on the parent KR6i0354 (X369 by Wǒnch’ǔk).
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Saṃdhinirmocana sūtra. Louvain, 1935 (collates this version).
- Powers, John. Hermeneutics and Tradition in the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra. Leiden: Brill, 1993.
- Funayama, Tōru 船山徹. Shintai sanzō kenkyū ronshū 真諦三藏研究論集. Kyoto: Kyōto Daigaku Jinbun Kagaku Kenkyūjo, 2012 — comprehensive Japanese-language collection on Paramārtha’s translation activity.
- Paul, Diana Y. Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramārtha’s “Evolution of Consciousness”. Stanford University Press, 1984.