Fó shuō zuìfú bàoyìng jīng 佛說罪福報應經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on the Karmic Recompense for Sin and Merit (recension a) translated by 求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra, 譯)
About the work
T747a in one fascicle is one of two related Liú Sòng versions of a karma-recompense sūtra attributed to 求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra, 394–468), preserved together in the Taishō under the jīng number 747 with the suffix-letter discrimination 747a / 747b. The pair illustrates the Taishō editors’ practice of preserving both transmitted recensions when they show significant textual divergence. Guṇabhadra’s date bracket of 435 (arrival in China) – 468 (death) gives the date window for the translation.
Abstract
The text exposits the standard karma-vipāka doctrine: sinful actions (zuì 罪) and meritorious actions (fú 福) generate corresponding negative and positive karmic recompense (bàoyìng 報應). The Buddha addresses the disciples with paired examples — what action leads to what rebirth — covering the canonical six gati. The exposition is doctrinally close to the KR6i0442 / T747b recension and the better-known KR6i0418 / T724 (attributed to Ān Shìgāo); the three may share a common Indian source.
求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra) is best known for his major Mahāyāna translations — the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, the Śrīmālādevī-siṃhanāda-sūtra, and the great Saṃyukta-āgama (T99) — but his enormous translation programme also included a substantial number of brief karma- and moral-doctrine sūtras like this one. The Liú Sòng-period production of these brief karma-recompense texts reflects the period’s strong emphasis on Buddhist popular ethics in support of the post-Eastern-Jìn legitimation of Buddhist monasticism in southern China.
Related: KR6i0442 / T747b (parallel recension), KR6i0418 / T724 (closely-related Ān Shìgāo-attributed sūtra).
Translations and research
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959 (rpt. 2007). (Background on Liú Sòng Buddhism.)
- Suzuki Daisetsu Teitaro. Studies in the Lankavatara Sutra. London: Routledge, 1930. (Background on Guṇabhadra’s translation activity.)