Zuì wúbǐ jīng 最無比經
The Sūtra of the Most Incomparable translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
T691 in one fascicle is 玄奘’s rendering of the same Indian sūtra as [[KR6i0380|Xīyǒu jiàoliàng gōngdé jīng 希有挍量功德經]] (T690 by 闍那崛多). The standard Tang Catalogue of the Inner Tripiṭaka (《大唐內典錄》) places this translation at Cí’ēnsì 慈恩寺 in Zhēnguān 23 (649 CE), the year before 玄奘’s great translation programme shifted to Yùhuágōng 玉華宮. The opening colophon “大唐三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯” attributes the rendering to imperial decree.
Abstract
玄奘’s 649 version is the standardized late-Tang rendering of the merit-of-refuge-taking sūtra; the title 最無比 (“the most incomparable”) translates the Sanskrit anuttara and signals that the text’s principal claim is the unsurpassable supremacy of the three refuges as a generator of karmic merit. Like its Suí predecessor T690, the sūtra opens at Śrāvastī (室羅筏 in 玄奘’s transliteration) with Ānanda’s question and proceeds through escalating jiàoliàng (comparative-calculation) similes. The terminological shift from older to standardized Tang Yogācāra-style transliteration (“室羅筏” for Śrāvastī, “苾芻” for bhikṣu, “薄伽梵” for bhagavān) is again evident.
The pairing of KR6i0380 (T690) and KR6i0381 (T691) is a classic case of Suí-period and Tang-period rendering of the same Indian original — useful for tracking the development of Chinese Buddhist technical vocabulary across the late sixth to mid seventh century.
Related canonical text: earlier translation KR6i0380 (T690).
Translations and research
No standalone Western-language translation located.