Sānhuì jīng 三慧經
The Sūtra of the Three Wisdoms translator unknown (失譯, 譯)
About the work
T768 in one fascicle is an anonymous Chinese rendering placed by the Taishō editors in the broad Han to Six Dynasties period (the Taishō ascription “失譯人名今附東晉錄” — “translator’s name lost; now placed under the Eastern Jìn catalogue”). The title 三慧 (sān-huì) translates Skt. trini prajñā — the three kinds of wisdom: śruta-mayī prajñā (wisdom from hearing/learning), cintā-mayī prajñā (wisdom from reflection), and bhāvanā-mayī prajñā (wisdom from meditative cultivation).
Abstract
The text is a doctrinal exposition of the threefold scheme of prajñā, one of the standard mātṛkā classifications in Buddhist scholasticism. The first stage, śruta-mayī, is the wisdom that arises from hearing the Dharma taught and from learning the sūtra, vinaya, and abhidharma canons. The second, cintā-mayī, is the wisdom that arises from systematic reflection upon what has been heard — the analytical investigation of doctrinal categories. The third, bhāvanā-mayī, is the wisdom that arises from direct meditative realization of the dharma-truths in samādhi. The text illustrates each grade with anecdotal and didactic material and exhorts practitioners to cultivate all three in sequence.
The threefold prajñā schema is foundational to abhidharma analyses of the path and is treated extensively in [[KR6n0023|Abhidharma-kośa]] book 6 and in the [[KR6q0001|Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra]] śrāvaka-bhūmi. The Sānhuì jīng presents the doctrine in a sūtra-frame rather than an abhidharma frame and is one of several anonymous Han-Six Dynasties translations preserved in the corpus that summarise standard doctrinal categories for Chinese audiences. The Sanskrit / Indic source is unknown; the brief and somewhat irregular Chinese style suggests an early date, possibly third- or fourth-century, but no precise attribution is recoverable.
Translations and research
No substantial Western secondary literature located on this specific text. For the trini prajñā schema see the relevant sections of Pruden, Leo M., trans. Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam of Vasubandhu (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1988–1990), vol. 3.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (430): [ 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