Fó shuō hùjìng jīng 佛說護淨經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on Guarding Purity translator unknown (失譯, 譯)
About the work
T748 in one fascicle is an anonymous Chinese sūtra on the Buddhist discipline of hùjìng “guarding purity” — the maintenance of ritual and moral purity by monks and laypersons. The translator-attribution is lost; the catalogue dating is to the broad Han-Six Dynasties period.
Abstract
The text exposits the doctrine and practice of hùjìng — the careful preservation of ritual and moral purity. The exposition addresses the dangers of pollution: contact with unclean food, sexual transgression, contact with corpses, intercourse with the unrighteous. The Buddha’s instruction emphasizes both vinaya-ritual purity (the rules of prātimokṣa) and inner moral purity (the cultivation of right mindfulness and intention). The text closes with a list of the karmic benefits of maintained purity — long life, beautiful form, social respect, easy access to samādhi.
The genre — hùjìng discourse — connects to broader Indian Buddhist concerns with śaucā (purity) shared with the Brahmanical tradition but reinterpreted in Buddhist vinaya terms. The text fits within the broader cluster of brief moral-doctrine sūtras characteristic of Six Dynasties Chinese Buddhism, providing scriptural support for the disciplined monastic and lay practices that the period was actively defining.
Translations and research
- Heirman, Ann. Rules for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002. (Background on the vinaya purity-rules.)
- Holt, John C. Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of the Vinayapiṭaka. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981.