Fó shuō Fǎchéngyì juédìng jīng 佛說法乘義決定經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of Definitive Meaning of the Dharma-Vehicle translated by 金總持 (Jīn Zǒngchí, 等譯 — “and others”)
About the work
T763 in three fascicles is a Northern Sòng translation directed by 金總持 (Jīn Zǒngchí, fl. early 11th c.), an Indian-trained translator who served on the staff of the Sòng Translation Bureau alongside 惟淨 and the second-generation translators. The title 法乘義決定 (fǎchéng yì juédìng) combines the Mahāyāna technical term yāna (vehicle) with nītārtha (definitive meaning): “the determined meaning of the dharma-vehicle.”
Abstract
The text is a doctrinal compendium organising the Mahāyāna dharma under the standard yāna-classification (śrāvaka-, pratyekabuddha-, and bodhisattva-vehicles), expounding for each the appropriate doctrinal mātṛkā and culminating in the determination that the Mahāyāna alone constitutes the nītārtha — definitive — vehicle. The three-fascicle extent allows for fuller treatment than the typical Sòng-period one-fascicle compendium and includes characteristic yogācāra-influenced passages on the bodhisattva-stages and the ālaya-vijñāna. The work belongs to the late-Indian bodhisattva-piṭaka compendium genre and is one of the more substantial Sòng Bureau translations of doctrinal-summary literature.
The textual situation is comparable to that of the Dharmasaṃgīti-sūtra 法集經 (KR6i0458) translated by Bodhiruci three centuries earlier: a Mahāyāna doctrinal compendium organising the path under enumerative mātṛkā-heads. The Sòng Bureau’s productive engagement with this genre reflects the late-Indian (Pāla) Buddhist scholastic emphasis on systematic doctrinal classification, which Jīn Zǒngchí and his Indian colleagues brought to the Chinese reception.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. For the Sòng Bureau and the late-Indian doctrinal compendium genre see Tansen Sen, Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400 (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003).
Links
- CBETA online
- Dazangthings date evidence (1115): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. 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 1
- Kanseki DB