Fó shuō shílì jīng 佛說十力經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Ten Powers (Skt. Daśabala-sūtra) translated by 勿提提犀魚 (Wùtítíxīyú = Liánhuá Jīngjìn / Utpala-vīrya, 譯)
About the work
T780 in one fascicle is the unique Chinese translation of the Daśabala-sūtra attributed to the Kuchean monk 勿提提犀魚 (Liánhuá Jīngjìn “Lotus-Vigour”; reconstructible Utpala-vīrya / Padma-vīrya) in the late 8th century. The text was translated at the Liánhuásì 蓮華寺 in Kuchá at the request of the Tang monk 悟空 Wùkōng, who passed through Kuchá on his return journey from Gandhāra to Cháng’ān between 785 and 790. The narrative of the translation is preserved in the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn 宋高僧傳 (T2061, Liánhuá Jīngjìn zhuàn).
Abstract
The Daśabala-sūtra expounds the ten powers (daśa-bala) of a Tathāgata — one of the standard abhidharma enumerations of the Buddha’s exclusive epistemic and karmic knowledge. The ten are: (1) knowledge of what is possible and impossible (sthānāsthāna-jñāna); (2) knowledge of the maturation of karma; (3) knowledge of the various paths leading to various destinies; (4) knowledge of the world’s many constitutions; (5) knowledge of the various aspirations of beings; (6) knowledge of the higher and lower faculties of beings; (7) knowledge of the jhāna, vimokṣa, samādhi, and samāpatti; (8) knowledge of remembering past lives; (9) knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings; and (10) knowledge of the destruction of the āsravas. The Buddha addresses the doctrine to a monastic audience, expounding each of the ten powers and the associated mode of pratisaṃvid through which the Buddha alone perceives the field in question. The doctrine is paired in scholastic literature with the four vaiśāradya (fearlessnesses; see KR6i0472) as the basic enumeration of buddha-properties.
The translation history of this text is unusually well documented. According to the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn biography of Liánhuá Jīngjìn, the Tang monk Wùkōng requested the translation during his stay at the Liánhuásì in Kuchá; on his return to Cháng’ān in Zhēnyuán 6 (790), he presented the translation along with a Buddha-tooth relic to the imperial court. This makes T780 one of the few extant Chinese translations of a canonical Buddhist text produced outside the Chinese-cultural area itself, in a Western Region monastic centre. A separate Sòng-period translation of the same text by 施護 Dānapāla and his colleagues is preserved as Fó shuō Fó shílì jīng 佛說佛十力經 (KR6i0480, T781).
Translations and research
- 馮其庸 Féng Qíyōng. 「悟空入竺記」. (For Wùkōng’s Central Asian and Indian itineraries.)
- Lévi, Sylvain, and Édouard Chavannes. “L’Itinéraire d’Ou-k’ong.” Journal Asiatique 1895/2: 341–384. (Foundational study of Wùkōng’s journey, with translation of the Sòng gāosēng zhuàn biography.)
- Skilling, Peter. “The Daśa-bala-sūtra and Its Recensions.” (Various publications.)
Links
- CBETA online T0780
- Dazangthings source 1 — Dazangthings date evidence (790): [ 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
- 勿提提犀魚 DILA