Fó shuō yīqièfǎ gāowáng jīng 佛說一切法高王經
The Buddha Speaks: The Sūtra of the High King of All Dharmas (alt. Yīqièfǎ yìwáng jīng 一切法義王經, “Sūtra of the Righteous King of All Dharmas”) translated by 瞿曇般若流支 (Qútán Bōrěliúzhī, Gautama Prajñāruci, 譯)
About the work
T823 in one fascicle is the parallel translation of [[KR6i0528|Fó shuō zhūfǎ yǒngwáng jīng 佛說諸法勇王經 (T822)]] by the Eastern Wèi (534–550) brāhmaṇa translator 瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci), produced at the Eastern Wèi capital Yè 鄴 during his Xīnghé 興和 1 (538) → Wǔdìng 武定 7 (550) translation career. A third recension is preserved as [[KR6i0530|Zhūfǎ zuìshàngwáng jīng 諸法最上王經 (T824)]] by Jñānagupta. The three texts represent successive renderings of the same Indian source.
Abstract
The narrative frame and doctrinal content are identical to that of T822: at the Veṇuvana at Rājagṛha on the uposatha day, a newly-ordained bhikṣu asks the Buddha how to receive lay-donations without folly, how to repay them, and how to fulfil the path of the śramaṇa. The Buddha responds with the threefold doctrine of (1) inclusion in the saṃgha-count (the four-pairs-of-arhats and four-attainments); (2) practice of the saṃgha-work (the thirty-seven bodhi-pakṣya-dharma); (3) attainment of the saṃgha’s good fruits (the trī-vidyā, aṣṭa-vimokṣa, and cāturmahābhūta-vipaśyanā). The bhikṣu possessed of all three is the “High King of All Dharmas” (一切法高王 yīqièfǎ gāowáng) of the title.
Prajñāruci’s translation differs from Dharmamitra’s T822 chiefly in the rendering of technical vocabulary — the Yè translation idiom of the 540s being more closely aligned with the standardised vocabulary of post-Bodhiruci Chinese Buddhism than is the southern Liú-Sòng register of Dharmamitra’s c. 430s rendering. The doctrinal content is unchanged. See KR6i0528 for the full doctrinal summary.
Translations and research
See KR6i0528 for the relevant secondary literature. On Prajñāruci’s translation idiom and the Eastern Wèi monastic translation context see:
- Lancaster, Lewis R. The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.
Links
- CBETA online
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (543): [ 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/