Fóshuō dàfāngguǎng wèicéngyǒu jīng shànqiǎo fāngbiàn pǐn 佛說大方廣未曾有經善巧方便品
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha — Mahāvaipulya Unprecedented Sūtra, Chapter on Skillful Means by 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A single-fascicle Sòng-translated Mahāyāna sūtra (T17 no. 844, alt. title Wèicéngyǒu jīng shànqiǎo fāngbiàn pǐn 未曾有經善巧方便品) by 施護 Shīhù (Skt. Dānapāla) at the Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras. The text presents itself as the shànqiǎo fāngbiàn pǐn 善巧方便品 (“Chapter on Skillful Means”) of the Dàfāngguǎng wèicéngyǒu jīng 大方廣未曾有經 (the Mahāvaipulya Unprecedented Sūtra, otherwise unknown), and addresses the bodhisattva-practice question of how to act skilfully within the five sense-objects (五欲境) — the kind of upāya discussion that became canonical in late-Indian Mahāyāna literature. The bodhisattva interlocutor is Dàyì 大意 (Skt. Mahāmati).
Abstract
The signature line gives Shīhù’s truncated court title 西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試鴻臚卿傳法大師臣施護奉詔譯, indicating that this translation was produced after Shīhù had received the shì hónglú qīng 試鴻臚卿 honorary title (which followed his initial guānglù qīng 光祿卿 title). Like the larger KR6i0575 Bùsīyì shéntōng jìngjiè jīng, the present text was produced during Shīhù’s tenure at the Institute (980–1017). The Sanskrit original is not extant; no Tibetan parallel is known. The text is short, focused in argument, and well-translated by the standards of the Sòng Institute output.
Shīhù’s bibliographic apparatus: K1421 (Korean Tripiṭaka); H067 (Zhōnghuá); Nanjio 992. The work appears in the Dàzhōngxiángfú fǎbǎo lù among the credited Shīhù translations.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The text’s Mahāvaipulya wèicéngyǒu title-form has nothing to do with the older Wèicéngyǒu jīng 未曾有經 (T17 nos. 688–689) which is a separate small sūtra; the names are coincidentally similar. The Sòng-era Mahāvaipulya wèicéngyǒu must have circulated in India as a discrete late-Mahāyāna scripture of which only this upāya-chapter has survived in Chinese.