說妙法決定業障經

Shuō miàofǎ juédìng yèzhàng jīng 說妙法決定業障經

The Sūtra Expounding the Definitive Karmic-Obstruction of [Slandering] the Marvelous Dharma (alt. Miàofǎ bōdìng yèzhàng jīng 妙法波定業障經) translated by 智嚴 (Zhìyán of Zhìxiāngsì, 譯)

About the work

T841 in one fascicle is the parallel translation of Chēngzàn dàshèng gōngdé jīng 稱讚大乘功德經 (T840) by Xuánzàng, translated by the Táng monk 智嚴 (Zhìyán) of the Zhìxiāngsì 至相寺 — the celebrated early Huáyán monastery on Zhōngnánshān 終南山 outside Cháng’ān. Both texts are Chinese renderings of the same Indian source-text. Zhìyán’s lifedates are unrecorded; the translation must postdate Xuánzàng’s of c. 645 onward, with no firm later limit. The colophon — 大唐至相寺沙門釋智嚴 — identifies him precisely with the Zhìxiāngsì lineage, but no biographical-reference attribution to a known DILA-authority monk has been secured. (He is to be distinguished from the contemporaneous Huáyán patriarch 智儼 Zhìyǎn (602–668) of the same monastery — different characters in the personal name.)

Abstract

The narrative frame is identical to that of T840: at the Hall of the Dharma-Realm Treasury, the Buddha is teaching innumerable bhikṣus and bodhisattvas. A female interlocutor — here named Gōngdé zhuāngyán kāifūhuā 功德莊嚴開敷花 (“Merit-Adorned-Blossoming-Flower”; corresponding to T840’s 德嚴華) — asks the Buddha which beings are not “good friends” (善知識 shànzhīshí) and so should not be co-resident with the new bodhisattva.

The Buddha responds with the same polemical doctrine as in KR6i0546: the brahmā-rāja-, indra-, catur-mahā-rāja-, śramaṇa-, brāhmaṇa-classes are all good friends to the new bodhisattva, but the śrāvaka-vehicle adherents are NOT good friends (惟除聲聞非善知識). The reason — that śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas seek their own parinirvāṇa and would tempt the new bodhisattva back to the lower vehicle — is glossed parenthetically in Zhìyán’s translation (恐聲聞退修行菩薩大乘道行 “lest the śrāvaka cause the practising bodhisattva to retreat from his Great-Vehicle path”). The injunction follows: not co-resident, not co-seated, not co-walking. Only when the new bodhisattva has attained “vast wisdom and non-dual discernment” may he share quarters — and then only for the purpose of converting the śrāvaka to the Mahāyāna.

The doctrinal content is identical to that of T840 — see for the full doctrinal summary. Zhìyán’s translation register is somewhat closer to the Mahāyāna-Vinaya register of Xuánzàng’s circle than to the Empress-Wǔ-period polished idiom of Divākara, suggesting a date in the late seventh or early eighth century.

Translations and research

Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome

See KR6i0546 for the relevant secondary literature.

Links

• CBETA online
• Kanseki DB
• Dazangthings date evidence (707): [ 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/