Fó shuō shí fēishí jīng 佛說時非時經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of Proper and Improper Times (Skt. Kālākālasūtra) translated by 若羅嚴 (Ruòluóyán, 譯)
About the work
T794a in one fascicle is a brief sūtra-translation by the Western Jìn “outside-region” (外國) monk 若羅嚴 (Ruòluóyán, fl. ca. 290–306). The translation event is documented in a colophon preserved with the text: “the foreign Dharma-master Ruòluóyán held the Indian-language manuscript and recited the translation orally; a monk of Liángzhōu wrote it down in the city of Khotan (Yútián 于闐).” The translation thus took place not in China proper but at Khotan, the major Central Asian Buddhist centre on the southern silk route — one of the few Chinese Buddhist canonical texts produced outside the Chinese-cultural area itself.
The same translator’s work survives in a parallel recension as [[KR6i0499|Fó shuō shí fēishí jīng (T794b)]], representing a slightly different textual descent of the same translation. The title 時非時 (shí fēishí) — “proper times and improper times” — translates Skt. kālaakāla, a vinaya-doctrinal term for the bi-fold division of the day into the time when monks may receive food (before noon) and the time when they may not (after noon).
Abstract
The text expounds the vinaya-doctrinal division of the day into proper and improper times for the monastic alms-round. The Buddha addresses an audience of monks on the precise rules for the eka-bhakta-bhojin (one-meal-a-day) discipline that is foundational to the prātimokṣa: monks may take food only between sunrise and noon, and the bhojana (meal) must be completed before the sun crosses the meridian. After the noon-line, food is akāla (improper-time) and may not be eaten or even handled; only certain “after-time-permissibles” (such as fruit-juice in specified circumstances, or medicinal substances) may be taken, and only under defined exceptions. The text rehearses the rule in detail, with discussion of edge cases (cloudy days when the meridian-line is hard to determine; long-days vs. short-days; permissible exceptions for the sick, the long-travelling, etc.) and prescriptions for the proper observance.
The doctrine is one of the foundational prātimokṣa-rules and is treated extensively in all Vinaya-traditions (the Pāli Suttavibhaṅga, the Mahāsāṅghika-vinaya, the Mūla-Sarvāstivāda-vinaya, etc.). The free-standing sūtra-form exposition translated by Ruòluóyán is one of the few canonical Chinese-language sources presenting the doctrine in a stand-alone narrative frame rather than as an embedded vinaya-rule.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. For the kāla-akāla doctrine in the Buddhist vinaya see:
- Dutt, Sukumar. Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India. London: Allen and Unwin, 1962.
- Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. 『律蔵の研究』. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, 1960.