聞分館君 Ask BunKanKun

大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經

4 min read

Text ID
KR6j0118
Date
705–705
Dynasty
唐

Dà fódǐng rúlái mìyīn xiūzhèng liǎoyì zhū púsà wànxíng Shǒuléngyán jīng 大佛頂如來密因修證了義諸菩薩萬行首楞嚴經

Sūtra of the Hero-March (Śūraṅgama): The Esoteric Cause and Cultivation-Verification of Definitive Meaning, the Myriad Practices of All Bodhisattvas, of the Great-Buddha-Crown Tathāgata (commonly Léngyán jīng 楞嚴經, Śūraṅgama-sūtra) by 般剌蜜帝 Bōlàmìdì (Pāramiti, 譯), with 彌伽釋迦 Míjiā Shìjiā (oral interpreter, 譯語) and 房融 Fáng Róng (scribe-recorder, 筆受)

About the work

A 10-fascicle scripture — the Śūraṅgama-sūtra — translated at Guǎngzhōu in 705 CE by Pāramiti (般剌蜜帝) with Míjiā Shìjiā (彌伽釋迦) as oral interpreter and Fáng Róng (房融) — the Táng minister and Buddhist devotee — as scribe-recorder. The Śūraṅgama-sūtra is one of the most influential — and most-debated — scriptures in East Asian Buddhism.

Abstract

The Śūraṅgama-sūtra presents itself as a Buddhist scripture set at Veṇuvana near Rājagṛha, in which Ānanda is troubled by the courtesan Mātaṅgī’s seduction-mantra and is rescued by the recitation of the Sitātapatra-dhāraṇī (KR6j0116). The narrative frame establishes the doctrinal exposition: a comprehensive Buddhist doctrinal system covering the tathāgatagarbha (Buddha-nature), the seven inquiries into the location of mind, the eight consciousnesses, the fifty-five-stage path of the bodhisattva (the catur-pratipad — four-progressive-paths), and the fifty demonic states (五十陰魔 wǔshí yīnmó) that the practitioner must avoid in advanced meditative practice.

The text’s centrality to East Asian Buddhism is enormous: it became one of the foundational scriptures of the Chán tradition (especially in the Sòng-Yuán-Míng), the foundational scripture of the daily-practice Léngyán zhòu (Śūraṅgama-mantra) tradition, and a principal source for the doctrines of tathāgatagarbha and yogācāra synthesis as developed in East Asian Buddhism.

The text’s authenticity has been debated since the Sòng period. Traditional scholarship (and the Taishō editors) accept Pāramiti as a legitimate Indian translator of an authentic Sanskrit Śūraṅgama-sūtra. Modern critical scholarship (since at least Mochizuki in the 1930s, with substantial elaboration by Yán Shàngwén and others) has argued that the Śūraṅgama-sūtra is a Chinese apocryphal composition (wěijīng 偽經) — composed in Chinese (likely with Fáng Róng’s significant input) and falsely presented as a translation. Arguments for apocryphal status: (i) no Sanskrit or Tibetan parallel survives; (ii) the doctrinal content reflects Chinese Buddhist concerns rather than Indian; (iii) the literary style is markedly Chinese; (iv) the integration of tathāgatagarbha with yogācāra in the way the text presents reflects post-Paramārtha Chinese Yogācāra rather than Indian Yogācāra. Counter-arguments cite the formal Buddhological vocabulary, the consistent doctrinal exposition, and the lack of distinctively Chinese cultural elements.

The debate remains unresolved in modern scholarship. The text retains continuous canonical status in East Asian Buddhism regardless of the apocryphal-attribution question.

Translations and research

  • Charles Luk (Lu K’uan-yü). The Śūraṅgama Sūtra: Lengyan jing. London: Rider, 1966. — Classic English translation.
  • Buddhist Text Translation Society. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra: A New Translation with Commentary by Master Hsüan Hua. Burlingame: BTTS, 2009. — Comprehensive recent English translation.
  • Benn, James A. “Another Look at the Pseudo-Śūraṅgama-sūtra.” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 68 (2008): 57–89. — Argues for apocryphal Chinese composition.
  • Epstein, Ronald B. “The Śūraṅgama-Sūtra (T 945): A Reappraisal of Its Authenticity.” Journal of Buddhist Studies (1976). — Defends authenticity.
  • Mochizuki Shinkō 望月信亨. Bukkyō kyōten seiritsu shi-ron 仏教経典成立史論. Tokyo: Hōzōkan, 1946. — Foundational argument for apocryphal status.

Other points of interest

Among East Asian Buddhist scriptures, the Śūraṅgama-sūtra is unusual in combining (i) sustained doctrinal exposition, (ii) a long narrative framework, and (iii) one of the longest dhāraṇīs in the canon (the Śūraṅgama-mantra), all in a single text. This integrative scope — combined with its accessible literary style — accounts for its enormous historical influence. The fifty demonic states (五十陰魔) chapter is particularly important: it provides the principal Chinese Buddhist analytical framework for diagnosing meditative pathologies and pseudo-attainments, widely cited in subsequent Chán and Pure Land literature.

Graph View

Backlinks