Fó shuō dàogǎn jīng 佛說稻芉經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on the Stalk of Rice (Śālistamba-sūtra, anonymous Eastern-Jìn version) translator unknown (失譯, 譯)
About the work
T709 in one fascicle is the second of the seven Chinese versions of the Śālistamba-sūtra (the Mahāyāna Sūtra on the Stalk of Rice). The Taishō prefatory note identifies it as 闕譯附東晉錄 (“translator unknown, attached to the Eastern Jìn 東晉 catalogue”). It is paired in the Taishō with the earlier Wú-period rendering by 支謙 (KR6i0400 / T708) and with the later parallel translations KR6i0402 / T710 (Amoghavajra), KR6i0403 / T711 (Dānapāla), KR6i0404 / T712 (anonymous, Tang).
Abstract
The opening transposes the well-known Mahāyāna formula — “見十二因緣即是見法，即是見佛” (“To see the twelve links of dependent-origination is to see the dharma; to see the dharma is to see the Buddha”) — into a dialogue between Maitreya 彌勒 and Śāriputra 舍利弗 in the Bamboo Grove at Rājagṛha. After the Buddha sees a rice plant and pronounces the formula, Maitreya is asked by Śāriputra to expound the meaning. Maitreya then explicates the twelve nidānas (從無明緣行 … 老死) using the rice-stalk image: the seed-shoot relation as the structural model for the absence of jīva and the operation of conditioned causation.
The doctrinal core is the Mahāyāna identification of pratītyasamutpāda with the dharmakāya. The discourse is delivered by Maitreya rather than by the Buddha himself — the future Buddha as exegete of the present Buddha’s gnomic utterance. The unknown-translator status and the Eastern-Jìn catalogue attachment make this an early-medieval witness to the Śālistamba tradition, alongside the extant Tibetan and Sanskrit recensions.
The seven Chinese versions of the Śālistamba span: KR6i0400 / T708 (Zhī Qiān, Wú), this work KR6i0401 / T709 (anonymous, Eastern Jìn), KR6i0402 / T710 (Amoghavajra, Tang), KR6i0403 / T711 (Dānapāla, Northern Sòng), KR6i0404 / T712 (anonymous, Tang), KR6i0405 / T2782 (Fǎchéng commentary, Tang), and KR6i0407 / T713 (Zhī Qiān again, but a different rendering of a related sūtra).
Translations and research
- Schoening, Jeffrey D. The Śālistamba-sūtra and Its Indian Commentaries. Vienna: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, 1995.
- Reat, N. Ross. The Śālistamba Sūtra: Tibetan Original, Sanskrit Reconstruction, English Translation, Critical Notes. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1993.
- Frauwallner, Erich. Die Philosophie des Buddhismus. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1956.