Shèngsīwéi Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng lùn 勝思惟梵天所問經論
Treatise on the Sūtra of the Inquiry of Excellent-Reflection Brahmā (Skt. Brahmaviśeṣacintā-paripṛcchā-śāstra) by 天親菩薩 (Vasubandhu, 造) — translated by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, 譯)
About the work
A 4-fascicle Yogācāra treatise attributed to 天親菩薩 Vasubandhu and translated by 菩提流支 Bodhiruci at Luòyáng during the Northern Wèi period (508–527 CE), commenting on the Mahāyāna sūtra known in Chinese as the Shèngsīwéi Fàntiān suǒwèn jīng 勝思惟梵天所問經 (T15 no. 587 — Bodhiruci’s own translation; the corresponding Sanskrit is the Brahmaviśeṣacintā-paripṛcchā-sūtra). The underlying sūtra is a Mahāyāna paripṛcchā (inquiry) sūtra in which the brahmā-deity Viśeṣacintā (“Excellent Reflection”, 勝思惟梵天) puts a series of dialectical-ontological questions to the Buddha on the nature of prajñāpāramitā, the relation of conventional and ultimate truth, and the Mahāyāna doctrine of the upāya-based bodhisattva path.
Abstract
The treatise applies Vasubandhu’s mature Yogācāra exegetical method — careful identification of the technical-doctrinal content of the brahmā-Buddha dialogue, mapping of each lemma onto the Yogācāra path-and-result framework, and supply of definitional clarifications for the underlying sūtra’s prajñāpāramitā terminology. Together with the KR6i0590 Wénshūshīlì wèn pútí jīng lùn and several other smaller Yogācāra commentary treatises, the work belongs to the cluster of Vasubandhu’s Mahāyāna-sūtra commentaries that Bodhiruci translated systematically as part of the great Luòyáng Yogācāra introduction project.
The Sanskrit original is not extant; the Tibetan canon does not preserve a parallel translation under the same title, though related Brahmā-paripṛcchā material is scattered throughout the Tengyur. The Chinese version is therefore the principal — and effectively the only — surviving witness to this Vasubandhu treatise.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1944–80. — Treats the broader Mahāyāna paripṛcchā literature.
- Schmithausen, Lambert. Ālayavijñāna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1987. — On Vasubandhu’s mature Yogācāra commentary phase.
Other points of interest
Bodhiruci’s project of translating the Vasubandhu Mahāyāna-sūtra commentaries during his Luòyáng tenure (508–527) effectively transmitted to China the entire Indian Yogācāra exegetical apparatus on the paripṛcchā and related Mahāyāna scriptures. The present treatise, together with the KR6i0590 Mañjuśrī-paripṛcchā commentary, the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā (T1521), and a substantial body of prajñāpāramitā-treatise material, constitutes the foundation on which the later East Asian Yogācāra-school doctrinal-curricular tradition was built.