Fó shuō sì zìqīn jīng 佛說四自侵經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on the Four Self-Inflicted Harms translated by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù / Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
T736 in one fascicle is a brief moral-doctrinal sūtra rendered into Chinese by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, c. 233–c. 311), the most prolific translator of the Western Jìn 西晉 period. Dharmarakṣa’s date bracket of 266–313 reflects his attested translation activity at Chang-an and Dūnhuáng. The title — sì zì-qīn “four self-inflictions” — refers to the four kinds of harm one inflicts on oneself through unwholesome action.
Abstract
The text expounds the four ways in which the unenlightened person harms themselves through their own actions: typically classified as harm through neglecting opportunities for merit, harm through negative actions, harm through ignoring the Dharma, and harm through wasting human life. The Buddha addresses each, exposing how these self-inflictions arise from ignorance and craving, and how the cultivation of mindfulness and wisdom is the path to non-harm.
The text fits the genre of brief moral-didactic sūtras typical of Dharmarakṣa’s enormous translation corpus (over 150 texts attributed). His translation style is more elaborate than 安世高’s but less polished than the later Kumārajīva tradition; his renderings are notable for preserving Indian doctrinal vocabulary in transliteration where Chinese calques were not yet established.
The thematic cluster of Dharmarakṣa’s brief moral-doctrine sūtras includes this work KR6i0430, KR6i0431 / T737 Suǒ-yù zhì-huàn jīng 所欲致患經, KR6i0432 / T738 Fó shuō fēnbié jīng 佛說分別經. Each is in one fascicle; together they document the moral-doctrinal segment of Dharmarakṣa’s translation programme alongside his major Mahāyāna sūtra renderings (the Saddharma-puṇḍarīka T263, the Vimalakīrti-nirdeśa T474, etc.).
Translations and research
- Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna: A Study and Translation of the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. (Background on Dharmarakṣa’s translation programme.)
- 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.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Gāndhārī and the Early Chinese Buddhist Translations Reconsidered: The Case of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118.4 (1998), 471–506.