Fó shuō zhūdé fútián jīng 佛說諸德福田經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on the Various Fields of Merit and Virtue translated by 法立 (Fǎlì, 譯) and 法炬 (Fǎjù, 譯)
About the work
T683 in one fascicle is the joint Western Jìn 西晉 translation by 法立 (Fǎlì) and 法炬 (Fǎjù) of a short Mahāyāna sūtra on the various “fields of merit” (fútián 福田 / puṇya-kṣetra) — meritorious activities ranging from making roads and digging wells to building bridges, planting fruit trees, lighting lamps, and offering food to the Saṅgha — that ordinary lay devotees can engage in to accumulate karmic merit. The Taishō witness opens “西晉沙門法立、法炬共譯” (“translated jointly by the Western-Jìn śramaṇas Fǎlì and Fǎjù”). Date bracket follows the active period of the 法立 / 法炬 translation team in late Western Jìn, c. 290–306 CE (Yuánkāng 元康 to Tàiān 太安 reign-periods).
Abstract
The Fútián jīng is one of three substantial joint translations by 法立 and 法炬 registered by both the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (KR6s0084, T2145) and the Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (KR6r0011, T2034) — the others being the [[KR6q0084|Fǎjù pìyù jīng 法句譬喻經]] (T211) and the [[KR6a0023|Dà lóutàn jīng 大樓炭經]] (T23). The setting is the standard Jetavana frame at Śrāvastī (舍衛國祇樹給孤獨園); the principal interlocutor is Indra (天帝釋). The doctrinal heart is the typology of seven (or several) fields of merit — building monasteries, planting orchards, building bridges, digging wells, offering food, providing medicine, and so on — as the most accessible Buddhist meritorious practice for the laity. The text is short (one fascicle, fewer than 1500 characters in the Taishō witness) and was widely cited in early Chinese Buddhist apologetic and homiletic literature for its concrete, anti-ascetic conception of merit-making. The shared translation enterprise of 法立 and 法炬 is one of the earliest documented Chinese Buddhist translation collaborations and stands as the principal Western-Jìn precursor to Dharmarakṣa’s later sūtra-translations.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: Soka University, 2008. (Background on Han / Wu / Western-Jin Buddhist translation, situating the 法立/法炬 team.)
- Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. (Treats Dharmarakṣa and the Western-Jin context.)
- Mizutani Sane 水谷真成 (trans.). Datō Saiiki ki 大唐西域記 (KR6r0121). Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1971 (parallel material on the fútián concept).
No standalone book-length translation located.
Other points of interest
The text’s emphasis on infrastructure (roads, bridges, wells, public food) as Buddhist meritorious activity made it influential in the Tang and Song development of Buddhist-led public charity (bēitián 悲田 hospices, fútián relief funds), which derived their conceptual foundation from this and related sūtras.