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佛說四輩經

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Text ID
KR6i0466
Date
266–313
Dynasty
西晉

Fó shuō sìbèi jīng 佛說四輩經

The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Four Assemblies translated by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎhù = Dharmarakṣa, 譯)

About the work

T769 in one fascicle is a brief sūtra-translation by 竺法護 (Dharmarakṣa, fl. 266–313), the great Western Jìn Yuezhi-Chinese translator whose oeuvre established the textual basis of Mahāyāna Buddhism in China. The title 四輩 (sìbèi, “four ranks”) translates Skt. catuṣ-pariṣad — the four-fold Buddhist community of bhikṣus (monks), bhikṣuṇīs (nuns), upāsakas (laymen), and upāsikās (laywomen).

Abstract

The text expounds the doctrine of the four-fold saṅgha and the proper conduct, training, and mutual relations of its four constituent assemblies. The Buddha addresses each of the four in turn, prescribing for each its specific vinaya and ethical responsibilities: the monks and nuns are to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to renunciation, the precepts, and the cultivation of samādhi and prajñā; the lay community is to support the monastic saṅgha, to keep the five lay precepts, and to participate in the bi-monthly poṣadha days. The text emphasises the interdependence of the four assemblies — the monastic and lay communities form a single Buddha-sāsana and each cannot flourish without the other — and exhorts the four-fold community to practise mutual respect and harmony.

The doctrine of the catuṣ-pariṣad is foundational to Buddhist communal ethics from the earliest canonical period and recurs across the vinaya-piṭaka and the sūtra-piṭaka. Dharmarakṣa’s brief Chinese rendering of a free-standing exposition of the doctrine is one of his characteristic sūtra-translations of late-Indian bodhisattva-piṭaka didactic texts, fitting the pattern of his work providing Chinese audiences with stand-alone doctrinal expositions of central abhidharma and vinaya concepts.

Translations and research

  • Boucher, Daniel. Bodhisattvas of the Forest and the Formation of the Mahāyāna: A Study and Translation of the Rāṣṭrapālaparipṛcchā-sūtra. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2008. (For Dharmarakṣa’s translation programme and milieu.)
  • Boucher, Daniel. “Gāndhārī and the Early Chinese Buddhist Translations Reconsidered: The Case of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 118.4 (1998), 471–506.
  • Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: Soka University IRIAB, 2008. (For Dharmarakṣa’s vinaya-related translations.)

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