Miàobì púsà suǒwèn jīng 妙臂菩薩所問經
Sūtra of the Questions of Bodhisattva Subāhu / “Excellent-Arm” (alternative Sòng translation; cf. Subāhu-paripṛcchā-sūtra) by 法天 (Fǎtiān, 譯)
About the work
A four-fascicle Sòng-period Esoteric translation by Fǎtiān (法天) of the same Sanskrit Subāhu-paripṛcchā-sūtra that Śubhakarasiṃha had translated as KR6j0065 / KR6j0066 (T895a/b). The title’s Miàobì 妙臂 (“Excellent-Arm”) is the Sòng-period semantic translation of the Sanskrit name Subāhu (where the earlier Tang renderings used the phonetic Sūpóhū 蘇婆呼). The text is thus the second Chinese translation of the same Sanskrit scripture, separated by some 250 years from Śubhakarasiṃha’s earlier rendering.
Abstract
The Miàobì púsà suǒwèn jīng is the Sòng-period re-translation of the Subāhu-paripṛcchā-sūtra (KR6j0065/0066). The two Chinese translations — Śubhakarasiṃha’s mid-Tang rendering and Fǎtiān’s late-10th-century rendering — are valuable parallel Chinese witnesses to the same Sanskrit scripture, allowing modern scholars to compare the two phases of Chinese Esoteric translation tradition (Tang vs. Sòng) and to triangulate against the Sanskrit and Tibetan parallels.
The translation dates from Fǎtiān’s career at the Sòng Yìjīngyuàn (980–1001).
Translations and research
- Skilling, Peter. “Notes on the Subāhuparipṛcchā-sūtra.”
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.