Fēnbié yèbào lüè jīng 分別業報略經
Brief Sūtra Discriminating the Karmic Recompense (Karma-vipāka-vibhaṅga-sūtra?) compiled by 大勇菩薩 (Dàyǒng / Mahāvīra or Āryaśūra, 撰), translated by 僧伽跋摩 (Saṃghavarman, 譯)
About the work
T723 in one fascicle is a brief śāstra-like work attributed to the Indian bodhisattva-author 大勇菩薩 (Dàyǒng, “Great Courage”; possibly Mahāvīra or Āryaśūra) and translated into Chinese by the Liú Sòng-period Indian monk 僧伽跋摩 (Saṃghavarman, fl. 433–442). The text expounds the doctrine of karma-vipāka (karmic fruition) in compressed form, classifying actions and their consequences across rebirth.
Abstract
The text presents the karma-fruition doctrine in a compressed didactic form: actions of body, speech, and mind are classified by intention (cetanā), object, and circumstance, and their fruits in the various gati (rebirth-destinies) are systematically enumerated. The genre — karma-vipāka-vibhaṅga “analytical division of karma-fruition” — is one of the standard Indian Buddhist śāstric genres, used for both pedagogical and meditative purposes (i.e., as a contemplation aid for moral discrimination).
The attribution to 大勇菩薩 places the text within the tradition of bodhisattva-authored śāstras (alongside Asaṅga’s, Vasubandhu’s, and other named bodhisattva-authors of Indian Mahāyāna scholastic literature). The exact Sanskrit identity of Dàyǒng is uncertain; the most plausible identification is Āryaśūra (literally “Noble Hero”), the Indian poet-Buddhist whose Jātakamālā and other moral-didactic works share thematic concerns with this text.
僧伽跋摩’s translation activity at the Liú Sòng capital in the 430s–440s included the related Záāpítán xīn lùn 雜阿毘曇心論 (KR6l0017 / T1552), an elaborated Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma summary. The two texts — this karma-fruition compendium and the Sarvāstivāda heart-treatise — frame Saṃghavarman’s translation programme as primarily focused on Indian scholastic systematization for Chinese audiences.
Translations and research
- Demiéville, Paul. “Le yogācārabhūmi de Saṅgharakṣa,” BEFEO 44 (1954), 339–436. (Background on the Indian karma-vipāka tradition.)
- Lamotte, Étienne. Histoire du bouddhisme indien. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1958.
No standalone English translation located.