Fó shuō sānpǐn dìzǐ jīng 佛說三品弟子經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of Disciples of Three Grades translated by 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, 譯)
About the work
T767 in one fascicle is a brief sūtra-translation traditionally attributed to 支謙 (Zhī Qiān, fl. 222–252) of the Wú court at Jiànyè. Jan Nattier’s reassessment of the third-century corpus (A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations, 2008) has confirmed Zhī Qiān’s authorship of the bulk of the works ascribed to him in the catalogues, including this short doctrinal piece. The title 三品弟子 (sānpǐn dìzǐ) — “disciples of three grades” — names a hierarchical schema of three categories of Buddhist disciples.
Abstract
The text expounds a tripartite classification of Buddhist disciples — typically the uttama-madhyama-adhama (highest, middling, lowest) graded analysis of monastic and lay practitioners. The highest-grade disciple is one who fully embodies the threefold training (śīla, samādhi, prajñā); the middle-grade is one who diligently practises but has not yet completed the path; the lowest-grade is one who has merely taken refuge and observes the rudiments of moral practice. The Buddha addresses the gradation not as an absolute caste but as a description of stages in the development of the Buddhist practitioner.
The schema is well-attested in early Buddhist literature; comparable graded-analyses occur in the Pāli Aṅguttara-nikāya and in Saṃyukta-āgama parallels. Zhī Qiān’s brief Chinese rendering belongs to the early-translation stratum and contains characteristic third-century terminological choices (e.g. transliterations preserved alongside translations). The Sānpǐn dìzǐ jīng is a typical didactic short sūtra of the kind that circulated as free-standing pieces in early Chinese Buddhist communities for monastic instruction.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: Soka University IRIAB, 2008. (Authoritative reassessment of the Zhī Qiān corpus.)
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- 支謙 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (245, 300): [ 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.nz