Fó shuō wǔwúfǎnfù jīng 佛說五無返復經
The Buddha’s Sūtra on the Five Without-Reciprocity (recension b, with variant character 返 for 反) translated by 沮渠京聲 (Jūqú Jīngshēng, 譯)
About the work
T751b in one fascicle is the second of two Jūqú Jīngshēng recensions of the Wǔwúfǎnfù jīng (cf. KR6i0446 / T751a), distinguished in the Taishō by the variant title-character 返 (return) for 反 (reverse), but conveying the same meaning. The two recensions are doctrinally identical and represent textual variants in transmission rather than distinct translations.
Abstract
The doctrinal content matches KR6i0446 / T751a: the five categories of beings whose kindness cannot be fully repaid (parents, Three Jewels, teachers, ruler / sentient beings, past-life self), with the bodhisattva-path identified as the only adequate response to such unrepayable benefaction. The textual variation between 751a and 751b is minor and attests to the parallel transmission of the work in different Liú Sòng manuscript lineages.
The pair 751a / 751b illustrates the Taishō editors’ practice of preserving distinct recensions when they show meaningful textual variation — a useful resource for textual criticism of the Sòng-period Chinese Buddhist canon’s textual transmission.
Related: KR6i0446 / T751a, KR6i0448 / T752 — parallel recensions of the same Indian text.
Translations and research
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959 (rpt. 2007).