Fó shuō bā wúxiá yǒuxiá jīng 佛說八無暇有暇經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Eight Unleisured and the Leisured States (Skt. Aṣṭa-akṣaṇa-sūtra) translated by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)
About the work
T756 in one fascicle is a Tang-period translation by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 635–713) on the doctrine of the eight inopportune states (aṣṭa-akṣaṇa / aṭṭha akkhaṇā; Ch. 八無暇 bā wúxiá) — the eight conditions of rebirth in which one cannot encounter the Dharma — and, conversely, the leisured state (kṣaṇa) of human birth in a region where a Buddha has appeared and the Dharma is taught. Yìjìng’s translations are dated to the period after his return to Cháng’ān in 695 and before his death in 713; the standard catalogue placement of the Bā wúxiá yǒuxiá jīng is in the 700–711 window of his post-return translation activity.
Abstract
The standard aṣṭa-akṣaṇa schema — the eight states unfavourable to encountering the Dharma — comprises (1) hell-rebirth, (2) hungry-ghost rebirth, (3) animal rebirth, (4) rebirth in the long-life deva heaven, (5) rebirth in border-regions where the Dharma is unknown, (6) rebirth with disabled faculties, (7) rebirth holding wrong views, and (8) rebirth in a kalpa without a Buddha. Yìjìng’s text rehearses the schema in the Buddha’s own voice as an exhortation to monks to value the rare opportunity of human rebirth in a Buddha’s kalpa.
The doctrine has a long history in both the Āgama and Nikāya literature. The Aṣṭa-akṣaṇa-sūtra corresponds to AN 8.29 in the Pāli canon (the Akkhaṇa-sutta) and is also expounded in the Chinese Madhyama-āgama parallel and in the Dīrgha-āgama Daśottara-sūtra. Yìjìng’s stand-alone Chinese rendering, made ca. 705, is one of his shorter doctrinal translations and reflects the late-Indian and Indo-Tibetan tendency to extract well-known mātṛkā lists from the Āgama-Nikāya corpus and circulate them as free-standing texts.
Translations and research
- Bodhi, Bhikkhu, trans. The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha: A Complete Translation of the Aṅguttara Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2012. (Translation of AN 8.29, the parallel Pāli Akkhaṇa-sutta.)
- Wang Bangwei 王邦維, Nán-hǎi jì-guī nèi-fǎ zhuàn jiào-zhù 南海寄歸內法傳校註 (Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1995). (For Yìjìng’s biography and translation programme.)
Links
- CBETA online T0756
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (705): T = CBETA. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. Dazangthings source
- 義淨 DILA