Fēnbié yuánqǐ chūshèng fǎmén jīng 分別緣起初勝法門經
Sūtra Discriminating the Dharma-Door of the Initially Excellent [Categories of] Dependent-Origination (Pratītyasamutpāda-ādivibhaṅga-nirdeśa-sūtra) translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
T717 in two fascicles is Xuánzàng’s Tang retranslation of the Pratītyasamutpāda-ādivibhaṅga-nirdeśa-sūtra, complementing the Suí version by 達摩笈多 (KR6i0410 / T716). Xuánzàng’s date bracket of 645 (return from India) – 664 (death) is the standard window for his Chang-an translation programme. The expanded title — fēnbié “discriminating” + fǎ-mén “Dharma-door” — reflects Xuánzàng’s characteristic preference for clear doctrinal structure markers over the more literal Sanskrit phrasing of the older translation.
Abstract
The text exposits dependent-origination through the eleven viśeṣa (initially excellent categories), the standard Yogācāra analytical schema attributed to the Asaṅga lineage: (1) excellence of meaning (義勝), (2) excellence of cause (因勝), (3) excellence of basis (依勝), and so forth, ending with (11) the excellence of differentiation (分別勝). Each viśeṣa discriminates a doctrinal aspect under which dependent-origination is to be understood as superior. The text is set as a discourse of the Buddha to the bodhisattvas, with structured question-and-answer format characteristic of the Yogācāra scholastic style.
Xuánzàng’s rendering is the standard reference text in Tang and post-Tang Yogācāra exegesis. Where Dharmagupta’s earlier version (KR6i0410 / T716) preserves Sanskrit phrasing more faithfully, Xuánzàng prioritizes doctrinal clarity and accessibility — the eleven viśeṣa are clearly enumerated, the question-answer structure is preserved, and technical Yogācāra terminology is rendered with the Tang standard vocabulary (ālayavijñāna as 阿賴耶識, trisvabhāva as 三性, etc.).
The text is one of the canonical Yogācāra scriptural sources for the doctrine of dependent-origination as understood within the trisvabhāva framework — paratantra-svabhāva (the dependent nature) being read as the Yogācāra equivalent of pratītyasamutpāda. Its interpretation became foundational for the Faxiang 法相 school in China and Hossō 法相 school in Japan.
Related canonical Chinese versions: KR6i0410 / T716 (Dharmagupta, Suí), this work KR6i0411 / T717 (Xuánzàng, Tang).
Translations and research
- Tucci, Giuseppe. “A Fragment from the Pratītyasamutpāda-vyākhyā of Vasubandhu,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1930, 611–623.
- Frauwallner, Erich. Die Philosophie des Buddhismus. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1956.
- Yoshimura Shūki 芳村修基, Indo daijō bukkyō shisō kenkyū インド大乗仏教思想研究. Kyoto: Hyakkaen, 1974.
- Lusthaus, Dan. Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng Wei-shih lun. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. (Background on Xuánzàng’s Yogācāra translation programme.)