Dà zhuāngyán fǎmén jīng 大莊嚴法門經
The Sūtra of the Great Adornment Dharma-Gate (Skt. Mañjuśrī-vikrīḍita-sūtra; alt. Wénshūshīlì shéntōng lì jīng 文殊師利神通力經, Shèng jīnsè guāngmíng dé nǚ jīng 勝金色光明德女經) translated by 那連提耶舍 (Nàliántíyēshè, Narendrayaśas, 譯)
About the work
T818 in two fascicles is the parallel translation of [[KR6i0523|Fó shuō dà jìng fǎmén jīng 佛說大淨法門經 (T817)]] by the Northern-Indian translator 那連提耶舍 (Narendrayaśas), produced under the Suí dynasty (582–585) at Cháng’ān. The Suí translation is significantly more elaborated than Dharmarakṣa’s Western Jìn version, expanding the original one-fascicle text to two fascicles with developed gāthā-passages and additional doctrinal exegesis. Per CANWWW the Sanskrit reflex is the Mañjuśrī-vikrīḍita-sūtra. Alternative Chinese titles in circulation include Wénshūshīlì shéntōng lì jīng 文殊師利神通力經 (“Sūtra of Mañjuśrī’s Supernormal Power”) and Shèng jīnsè guāngmíng dé nǚ jīng 勝金色光明德女經 (“Sūtra of the Maiden of Surpassing Golden Radiance”).
Abstract
The narrative is identical to that of T817: the conversion of the golden-bodied courtesan Shèng jīnsè guāngmíng dé 勝金色光明德 (Suí translation; Dharmarakṣa: 上金光首) by Mañjuśrī, through a upāya by which the merchant-suitor Shàngwēidé 上威德 (Suí translation; Dharmarakṣa: 畏間) is magically rendered dead beside her in her carriage, producing the disenchantment that opens her to the anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti.
The Suí recension is more developed in three respects: (1) Narendrayaśas’s translation of the doctrinal exposition is more thoroughly Mahāyāna-doctrinal in its register, deploying the standard sixth-century Chinese Buddhist technical vocabulary; (2) the gāthā-sections are longer and more elaborated, with additional verses on the prajñā-pāramitā and the bodhisattva-vow; (3) the conversion-formulae are more developed, with explicit prediction (vyākaraṇa) of the courtesan’s future Buddhahood as Bǎoguāng 寶光 (“Jewel-Radiance”).
For the doctrinal summary see KR6i0523. The two-translation situation reflects the typical pattern of major Mahāyāna sūtras entering the Chinese canon: an early Western Jìn rendering by Dharmarakṣa joined some 280 years later by a more developed Suí version produced by an Indian translator working with the more standardised technical vocabulary of the early-medieval period.
Translations and research
See KR6i0523 for the relevant secondary literature. On the courtesan-conversion narrative tradition see:
- Paul, Diana Y. Women in Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
- Wilson, Liz. Charming Cadavers: Horrific Figurations of the Feminine in Indian Buddhist Hagiographic Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (580): [ 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/