Fó shuō lüèjiàojiè jīng 佛說略教誡經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of Brief Admonitions translated by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)
About the work
T799 in one fascicle is a brief admonitory sūtra translated by the great Táng pilgrim-translator 義淨 (635–713) by imperial order (奉制譯). The colophon’s “Dà Táng sānzàng Yìjìng fèng zhì yì” places the translation among the works produced in the Translation Office of the Fú-xiān 福先 or Dà-jiàn-fú 大薦福 monasteries during the late Wǔ Zhōu / early Zhōngzōng period. The text is the Sanskrit Saṃkṣipta-prātimokṣa / Avavāda-sūtra type — a short admonition against monastic laxity. The standard Sanskrit reflex is Saṃkṣipta-praśāsana / Saṃkṣipta-anuśāsana.
Abstract
The Buddha at the Jetavana addresses an assembly of bhikṣus on the meaning of monastic renunciation. He reminds them that the monastic life of “few-desires-and-contentment” (少欲知足) — shaving the head, wearing dyed robes, begging from house to house — is despised by foolish worldlings, but is undertaken by those of genuine pure faith for the sake of liberation, not from coercion (royal compulsion, fear of bandits, debt, or destitution). He then condemns the vicious bhikṣu who, despite ordaining, remains attached to the five sense-objects (pañca-kāma-guṇa), gives way to anger, lustful and aggressive thoughts, neglects mental cultivation and pursues low-grade activities — comparing such a person to a charred half-burnt corpse-stake left in the wilderness, useful neither to villager nor to forest-dweller.
The three kinds of unwholesome thought (五欲, 瞋害, 欺誑) all arise from ignorance (avidyā, 無明), and the bhikṣu who fails to extirpate ignorance falls at death into the three lower destinies. The Buddha closes with an exhortation: as the great Master, he gives the disciples the essential summary; they should retire to forest, araṇya, tree-roots, or open ground, contemplate diligently and not be heedless, lest they regret it later. The disciples receive the teaching with joy.
The text is an instance of the genre of “brief admonition” sūtras used in the prātimokṣa-recitation context as supplementary admonitory material for the fortnightly poṣadha assembly.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. On Yìjìng’s translation idiom and his role in late-Táng monastic translation work see:
- Lahiri, Latika. Chinese Monks in India: Biography of Eminent Monks Who Went to the Western World in Search of the Law during the Great T’ang Dynasty. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1986.
- Wang, Bangwei. “Dà Táng Xīyù qiú-fǎ gāosēng zhuàn jiào-zhù 大唐西域求法高僧傳校註.” Beijing: Zhōnghuá shūjú, 1988.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (705): [ 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. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/