Fó shuō bùshī jīng 佛說布施經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on Giving (Dānasūtra) translated by 法賢 (Fǎxián, 譯)
About the work
T705 in one fascicle is a Northern-Sòng translation by Fǎxián of a brief Mahāyāna sūtra on the typology of giving (dāna / bùshī 布施). The Taishō witness colophon “西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚少卿明教大師臣法賢奉詔譯” gives 法賢’s full late-Sòng-imperial honorific: “Tripiṭaka of the West-Indian Translation Institute, Court Gentleman Discharging Affairs, Probationary Vice-Director of the Court of State Ceremonial, Míngjiào dàshī, the minister Fǎxián, has translated [this sūtra] by imperial decree.” Date bracket: 法賢’s mature period at the Translation Institute, 989 (when he succeeded 天息災 / 法天 as senior translator) – 1001 (his death).
Abstract
The setting is Jetavana at Śrāvastī, where the Buddha addresses the bhikṣu-saṅgha on the topic of bùshī fǎ 布施法 (the dharma of giving), enumerating thirty-seven varieties of dāna — beginning “以信” (“through faith”) and proceeding through giving with respect, giving to the poor, giving with mindful intention, etc. The thirty-seven-fold typology is one of the most extensive Mahāyāna scriptural classifications of dāna and was widely cited in Sòng-period Chinese Buddhist apologetic and homiletic literature on giving as the foundational pāramitā of the bodhisattva path. The work is short and didactic; the rhetorical structure of the long enumerated list — characteristic of late-Indian devotional Mahāyāna — was particularly effective for liturgical and homiletic use.
法賢 is the Sòng-imperial-titled name of the same monk earlier known as 天息災; the two names mark different phases of his career under successive Northern-Sòng emperors.
Translations and research
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu, 2003.
- Bagchi, Prabodh Chandra. Le canon bouddhique en Chine. Paris, 1927–1938.
No standalone English translation located.