聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

四品學法經

2 min read

Text ID
KR6i0468
Date
435–443
Dynasty
劉宋

Sìpǐn xuéfǎ jīng 四品學法經

The Sūtra of the Four Grades of Studying the Dharma translated by 求那跋陀羅 (Qiúnàbátuóluó = Guṇabhadra, 譯)

About the work

T771 in one fascicle is a brief sūtra-translation by 求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra, 394–468), the great Liú-Sòng (劉宋) translator from Central India. The title 四品學法 (sìpǐn xuéfǎ) — “the four grades of studying the dharma” — describes a fourfold gradation of the Buddhist student’s progress in doctrinal learning.

Abstract

The text expounds a four-fold schema of doctrinal study (xuéfǎ = adhyayana / śikṣā): the four grades correspond progressively to (1) the elementary student who learns the basic doctrinal mātṛkās (the four noble truths, the eightfold path, the doctrines of impermanence-and-non-self); (2) the intermediate student who learns the systematic abhidharma analyses; (3) the advanced student who has internalised the doctrines and now investigates them analytically; and (4) the consummate scholar-practitioner who has integrated paryāpti (textual mastery) with adhigama (realisation). Variants of this fourfold gradation are well-attested in the Vinaya and the Yogācāra-bhūmi; the Sìpǐn xuéfǎ jīng presents the schema in a stand-alone sūtra-form.

The text’s relationship to the closely-titled [[KR6i0469|Mahāyāna Four Dharmas Sūtra 大乘四法經]] of Divākara and the [[KR6i0471|second Mahāyāna Four Dharmas Sūtra]] of Śikṣānanda is one of subject-overlap rather than direct textual relation: the three texts each present a fourfold doctrinal schema but with different content. Guṇabhadra’s brief rendering belongs to his characteristic translation programme of mid-length Mahāyāna and Sarvāstivāda sūtras in the 430s–440s, the same period in which he produced the Saṃyuktāgama 雜阿含經 (T99) and the [[KR6i0327|Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra (T670)]].

Translations and research

No substantial Western secondary literature located on this specific text. For Guṇabhadra’s translation programme see:

  • Lai, Whalen. “The Three Jewels in China,” in Buddhist Spirituality: Indian, Southeast Asian, Tibetan, Early Chinese, ed. Takeuchi Yoshinori. New York: Crossroad, 1993.
  • Funayama, Tōru 船山徹. 『仏典はどう漢訳されたのか：スートラが経典になるとき』. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2013. (For the Liú-Sòng translation programme.)

Graph View

Backlinks