Dìyī yì fǎshèng jīng 第一義法勝經
The Sūtra of the Dharma’s Victory in the Highest Truth (Skt. Paramārtha-dharma-vijaya-sūtra) translated by 瞿曇般若流支 (Qútán Bōrěliúzhī, Gautama Prajñāruci, 譯)
About the work
T833 in one fascicle is a Mahāyāna sūtra on the doctrine of the victory of the Dharma at the highest truth (第一義法勝 dìyī yì fǎshèng; Skt. paramārtha-dharma-vijaya), translated by the Eastern Wèi brāhmaṇa translator 瞿曇般若流支 (Gautama Prajñāruci) at the Eastern Wèi capital Yè 鄴. The text uniquely preserves a translator’s preface dated 興和 4 = 542 CE — placing this translation precisely in the year Xīnghé 4 (542), under the patronage of the Eastern Wèi 尚書令儀同 高澄 Gāo Chéng (or another high official surnamed Gāo, the preface gives only 高公). The preface notes that the translator collaborated with the monk 曇林 Tánlín over four sittings, settling 5,576 characters of text. A parallel translation by 闍那崛多 (Jñānagupta) of the Suí survives as [[KR6i0540|Dà wēidēngguāng xiānrén wènyí jīng 大威燈光仙人問疑經 (T834)]].
Abstract
The text opens at Gayā (伽耶城 Jiāyé-chéng), shortly after the Buddha’s awakening (成道未久), where the Buddha is surrounded by 9.9 koṭi of bodhisattvas, 2.8 koṭi of devas, 86,000 bhikṣu-arhats and the four-fold lay-assembly, 60,000 malla-strongmen, 12 koṭi Nirgrantha-Jain ascetics, and 84,000 five-knowledge ascetic-sages — the latter described in vivid detail: bodies emaciated by fire-asceticism, only skin and bone, hair matted into felt, clothed in deer-skin or tree-bark, holding water-pots — all gathered to dispute with the newly-awakened Buddha.
The Buddha enters the ratna-tyāga-samādhi (“Treasure-Releasing Samādhi”), and from his body issues a vast array of magical manifestations: countless emanation-Tathāgatas, emanation-bodhisattvas, emanation-Indras and Brahmās, emanation-Arhats, emanation-monastics and lay-disciples, emanation-cakravartins (great, intermediate and minor), emanation-Hari and Drāviḍa-southerners, emanation-kṣatriyas and brāhmaṇas. The display draws all the disputants to the Buddha; the Buddhas of the ten directions also send emanation-bodies, who bow before Śākyamuni and merge with him; Śākyamuni’s emanations enter the bodies of the Buddhas of the ten directions.
A bodhisattva named Shèngyīn 勝陰 (“Victorious-Skandha”; Skt. probably Vijaya-skandha) rises and praises the Buddha in gāthā-form, including the celebrated lines in which the heterodox sages confess their own emaciation and impotence in the face of the Buddha’s neṛddhi-pāda. The body of the sūtra expounds the victory of the paramārtha in the conventional realm: the bodhisattva’s perfect penetration of the paramārtha allows him to transmute the saṃvṛti without abandoning it, manifesting in countless forms throughout the trichilio-cosmos while remaining grounded in prajñā-pāramitā.
Translations and research
No standalone Western translation located. The 542 CE preface is one of the few precisely dated translation-prefaces in the Eastern Wèi corpus, and is foundational evidence for the chronology of Prajñāruci’s translation activity at Yè.
Other points of interest
The translator’s preface is preserved in the Taishō text and dated Xīnghé 4, 9th month, 1st day, jiǎzǐ (= 542 CE), one of the most precisely dated translation events of the Eastern Wèi. The preface attests that the text was settled in four sessions (“始末四功，質義乃定”) with 曇林 Tánlín, totalling 5,576 characters.
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/