Fó shuō chùchù jīng 佛說處處經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on Various Places (collection of brief teachings) translated by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, 譯)
About the work
T730 in one fascicle is one of the so-called “miscellaneous teachings” sūtras attributed to 安世高. The title — chùchù jīng “sūtra of various places / various points” — indicates a compilation rather than a single discourse: a collection of brief moral and doctrinal teachings, set in different locations or addressing different topics.
Abstract
The text consists of brief, loosely-organized doctrinal and moral teachings on diverse topics: the proper conduct of monks and laypersons, observations on karma and rebirth, dialogue-style mini-instructions, and short narrative episodes. The compilation may represent a sermon-handbook or notebook of doctrinal points used by an early translator-monk for pedagogical purposes. Modern critical literature (Nattier, Zacchetti) has questioned the attribution to 安世高 and views the text as belonging more probably to the early third century, but it preserves Eastern Hàn vocabulary and may include genuine Ān Shìgāo material in compiled form.
The genre — a “various places” sūtra-cum-handbook — is unusual in the Indian Buddhist canon and may reflect a specifically Chinese editorial process: an early translator’s notebook of short Buddhist teachings compiled into sūtra form for liturgical and pedagogical use. The text is a useful source for the early Chinese reception of Buddhist moral and doctrinal vocabulary.
The cluster of 安世高 / pseudo-Ān Shìgāo karma- and moral-doctrine sūtras: KR6i0418, KR6i0423, this work KR6i0424, KR6i0425, KR6i0426, KR6i0427, KR6i0428.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo, 2008.
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959 (rpt. 2007).
- Zacchetti, Stefano. In Praise of the Light: A Critical Synoptic Edition with an Annotated Translation of Chapters 1–3 of Dharmarakṣa’s Guang zan jing 光讚經. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2005. (Background on early Chinese Buddhist translation practice.)