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佛說十二頭陀經

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Text ID
KR6i0482
Date
435–443
Dynasty
劉宋

Fó shuō shíèr tóutuó jīng 佛說十二頭陀經

The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the Twelve Dhūtaṅgas (Skt. Dvādaśa-dhūtaguṇa-sūtra) translated by 求那跋陀羅 (Qiúnàbátuóluó = Guṇabhadra, 譯)

About the work

T783 in one fascicle is a brief sūtra-translation by 求那跋陀羅 (Guṇabhadra, 394–468), the great Liú-Sòng Central Indian translator who arrived in China in 435. The title 十二頭陀 (shíèr tóutuó) — “twelve dhūta-guṇa” — uses the standardised Chinese transliteration tóutuó (頭陀) for Skt. dhūta “shaken-off [defilements].” The dhūta-guṇas (Pāli dhutaṅga) are the twelve ascetic practices of forest-dwelling Buddhist monks.

Abstract

The text enumerates and expounds the twelve dhūta-guṇa — voluntary ascetic disciplines beyond the basic prātimokṣa by which a forest-dwelling monk shakes off attachment to comfort and defilement. The twelve typically include: (1) wearing only refuse-rag robes (paṃsukūla); (2) wearing only three robes (tecīvarika); (3) eating only what is begged on alms-round (piṇḍa-pātika); (4) eating without skipping any house on alms-round (sapadāna-cārika); (5) eating only at one sitting (ekāsanika); (6) eating only what fits in one bowl (pattapiṇḍika); (7) refusing food after the meal-time (khalu-pacchā-bhattika); (8) dwelling in a forest (āraṇyaka); (9) dwelling at the foot of a tree (rukkha-mūlika); (10) dwelling in the open air (abbhokāsika); (11) dwelling at a cremation ground (sosānika); (12) sleeping always in the sitting posture (nesajjika). The Buddha addresses an audience of monks and recommends these twelve practices as accessory disciplines for the dedicated forest-dwelling renunciant; he distinguishes between the indispensable basic prātimokṣa and the optional but meritorious dhūta-guṇa.

The dhūta-guṇa doctrine is one of the foundational frameworks of Buddhist asceticism, traceable to the early canonical Vinaya and further developed in abhidharma literature (notably Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga II), where the same twelve are systematically expounded. Guṇabhadra’s brief Chinese rendering provides the Chinese Buddhist tradition with a stand-alone sūtra-form exposition of the doctrine and was widely cited in subsequent Chinese vinaya and meditation literature, especially in Chán and Pure-Land contexts where forest-dwelling and ascetic practice retained ideological centrality.

Translations and research

  • Dantinne, Jean. Les qualités de l’ascète (dhutaguṇa): étude sémantique et doctrinale. Brussels: Thanh-Long, 1991. (Foundational study of the dhūta-guṇa tradition.)
  • Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, trans. The Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). Kandy: BPS, 1956 (rev. ed. 1991). (For the Theravāda exposition.)
  • Ray, Reginald A. Buddhist Saints in India: A Study in Buddhist Values and Orientations. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

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