Fó shuō púsà nèixí liù bōluómì jīng 佛說菩薩內習六波羅蜜經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Bodhisattva’s Inner Cultivation of the Six Perfections translated by 嚴佛調 (Yán Fótiáo, 譯)
About the work
T778 in one fascicle is one of the earliest surviving Chinese Buddhist translations, traditionally attributed to the Eastern Hàn lay-translator 嚴佛調 (Yán Fótiáo, fl. ca. 181–188), the first known Chinese-born convert to translate Buddhist scriptures. The title 菩薩內習六波羅蜜 (púsà nèixí liù bōluómì) — “the bodhisattva’s inner cultivation of the six pāramitās” — identifies the work as one of the earliest Chinese expositions of the six pāramitās doctrine.
Abstract
The text expounds the ṣaṭ-pāramitā — the six perfections of the bodhisattva path: (1) dāna (giving 施 shī), (2) śīla (moral discipline 戒 jiè), (3) kṣānti (patience 忍 rěn), (4) vīrya (energy 進 jìn), (5) dhyāna (concentration 定 dìng), and (6) prajñā (wisdom 慧 huì). The distinguishing feature in the title — nèixí “inner cultivation” — emphasizes that the perfections are to be developed as inner mental dispositions rather than merely as external practices. The text rehearses each pāramitā with brief illustrative material and exhortation. As one of the very earliest Chinese expositions of the six pāramitās, the work uses pre-standardized terminology, with phonetic transcriptions of pāramitā (波羅蜜) and translation choices that often differ from the later Kumārajīva and Xuánzàng standards.
Yán Fótiáo is recorded in the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145) as the first Chinese-born Buddhist translator. Working with 安玄 (Ān Xuán) at Luòyáng during the Guānghé 光和 reign (178–184), he produced — alongside Ān Xuán — the Ugraparipṛcchā 法鏡經 (KR6f0014), a foundational early Chinese Mahāyāna text. The Púsà nèixí liù bōluómì jīng attributed to him is one of the earliest sources for Mahāyāna pāramitā-doctrine in China and accordingly a textually significant work, though Jan Nattier’s reassessment of the early-translation corpus (2008) treats the precise attribution with some caution given the pre-standardized state of late-Han Buddhist translation activity.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā). Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. (For Yán Fótiáo’s principal collaboration with Ān Xuán.)
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations. Tokyo: Soka University IRIAB, 2008. (Authoritative reassessment.)
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959 (rev. ed. 2007).
Links
- CBETA online T0778
- Dazangthings source 1 — Dazangthings date evidence (186): [ 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.
- Kanseki DB
- 嚴佛調 DILA
- 安玄 DILA