Wénshūshīlì Púsà wèn pútí jīng lùn 文殊師利菩薩問菩提經論
Treatise on the Sūtra in Which the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī Inquires about Bodhi (alt. title Jiāyēshāndǐng jīng lùn 伽耶山頂經論, “Treatise on the Sūtra at the Summit of Mount Gayā”) by 天親菩薩 (Vasubandhu, 造) — translated by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
A 2-fascicle Yogācāra treatise attributed to 天親菩薩 Vasubandhu (Tiānqīn) and translated into Chinese by 菩提流支 Bodhiruci (d. ca. 527) at Luòyáng 洛陽 during the Northern Wèi 元魏 period. The work is a upadeśa-style commentary on the Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā-bodhi sūtra (Skt. Mañjuśrī-paripṛcchā-buddhabodhi; the Chinese alt. title Jiāyēshāndǐng jīng 伽耶山頂經 — Sūtra at the Summit of Mount Gayā — refers to the parallel Chinese version of the underlying scripture). The sūtra-text begins with the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī inquiring of the Buddha — at the summit of Mount Gayā where the Buddha had retreated immediately after his awakening — what bodhi truly is and how it is to be cultivated. Vasubandhu’s commentary supplies a Yogācāra reading of the underlying sūtra’s response, organising the material around the bodhicitta doctrine, the prajñāpāramitā, the bodhisattva praṇidhāna, and the anuttara-samyak-sambodhi doctrine of Mahāyāna awakening.
Abstract
Bodhiruci arrived at the Wèi capital Luòyáng in Yǒngpíng 1 (508) and worked there until his death circa 527, producing some 39 Buddhist translations totalling 127 fascicles — one of the largest single-translator outputs of the early-medieval period. The composition window for the present translation falls within his Luòyáng tenure (508–527). The Sanskrit original of Vasubandhu’s commentary is not extant; the Chinese translation is the principal surviving witness, complemented partly by the Tibetan parallel (Tōhoku 4019, Tengyur).
The underlying Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā sūtra survives in two principal Chinese versions: the Wénshūshīlì wèn pútí jīng 文殊師利問菩提經 (T14 no. 464), translated by Kumārajīva, and the Jiāyēshāndǐng jīng 伽耶山頂經 (T14 no. 465), translated by Bodhiruci himself. Vasubandhu’s commentary is keyed to one of these versions; the textual evidence suggests the Bodhiruci-translated Jiā-yē-shān-dǐng form, hence the alternative title for the commentary. The treatise belongs to Vasubandhu’s mature Yogācāra phase (after his conversion from Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma) and articulates a cittotpāda-and-pāramitā-centred reading of bodhi consonant with his other Yogācāra works.
Translations and research
- Inagaki Hisao 稲垣久雄. “Vasubandhu’s Treatise on the Mañjuśrīparipṛcchā-bodhi-sūtra.” Indogaku Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 19/2 (1971).
- Lamotte, Étienne. Mañjuśrī. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, 1960. — Treats the broader Mañjuśrī-paripṛcchā literature in which the present text and its underlying sūtra belong.
Other points of interest
The sūtra’s narrative setting — Mount Gayā in the moments immediately after the Buddha’s awakening, with Mañjuśrī as the principal interrogator on the meaning of bodhi — became the basis for an extensive iconographic tradition in early Mahāyāna Buddhist art, especially the Mahābodhi-temple imagery and the closely related Mañjuśrīmūla-tantra visual programme. Vasubandhu’s commentary represents the principal Indian Yogācāra contribution to this exegetical tradition.