Shètóujiàn tàizǐ èrshíbā xiù jīng 舍頭諫太子二十八宿經
Sūtra of Prince Śārdūlakarṇa and the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions (alt. Hǔ-ěr jīng 虎耳經, Tiger-Ear Sūtra) by 竺法護 (Zhú Fǎ-hù, Dharmarakṣa, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle Indian astronomical-narrative sūtra translated by the great Western Jin Yuèzhī master Dharmarakṣa (竺法護, fl. 266–308 CE). It is the third Chinese parallel of the Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna / Mātaṅgīsūtra cycle (after the brief Hou-Hàn translation T14n0551 and the Wú-period KR6j0531 T1300), and the fullest and most learned of the three — the colophon’s alternate title 虎耳經 Hǔ-ěr jīng directly reproduces the Sanskrit Śārdūla-karṇa (“tiger-ear”, the seer’s name), and the text is the proximate Chinese source from which most of the Indian 28-nakṣatra material reached the Chinese canon.
Abstract
The narrative skeleton matches that of KR6j0531 T1300: Ānanda begs water from Prakṛti, the caṇḍāla girl named 波機提 (here glossed as Chinese 志性, a calque of Skt. Prakṛti); her mother summons him by vidyā-spell; the Buddha intervenes; the past-karmic tale of an ancient seer named Tiger-Ear (Hǔ-ěr 虎耳 = Śārdūlakarṇa) is told; the seer expounds the 28 nakṣatra system, the divisions of time, and astrological electional rules to a brāhmaṇa king Triśaṅku (三沙鳩, transcribed). Dharmarakṣa’s version is the longest and most technically dense of the three Chinese parallels and preserves several technical terms (e.g. the muhūrta hour-divisions, ayanāṃśa solstice-points, ṛkṣa-deities of the nakṣatras) closer to the Sanskrit original than either the Hou-Hàn or Wú versions.
The colophon (西晉三藏竺法護譯) ascribes the translation to Dharmarakṣa simpliciter, without the joint-translator pattern of KR6j0531. The sub-title 一名虎耳經 (“alternative title: Tiger-Ear Sūtra”) is preserved in the body of the text. Internal Sinographic forms (e.g. 𣧑 for 旃, archaic transcriptional fashions) confirm a Western Jin date. The dating bracket here follows Dharmarakṣa’s documented active period at Cháng-ān and Dūn-huáng, 266–308 CE.
The principal astronomical content mirrors and elaborates KR6j0531’s — the 28 nakṣatras with their tutelary deities, the lunar half-month, the muhūrta hours, the 12 solar months and saṃkrānti (transitional days), and a long electional-astrology section. Bill Mak (2015) has shown that the Sanskrit Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna — of which T1301 is the longest Chinese witness — is among the oldest substantively datable Indian astronomical texts; its preservation in Chinese gives it a terminus ante quem of c. 280 CE in Dharmarakṣa’s translation.
The text is the principal Indian astronomical resource available to Chinese Buddhist astrologers and calendar-makers from the late 3rd century until the Tang; later Buddhist astrological texts (notably KR6j0530 T1299) presuppose familiarity with the Hǔ-ěr jīng’s 28-nakṣatra catalogue.
Related texts (CANWWW cross-references, normalised to KR ids):
- KR6i0182 Fóshuō Módèngnǚ jīng 佛說摩鄧女經 (T14n0551, transl. 安世高).
- KR6j0531 Módēngjiā jīng 摩登伽經 (T21n1300, transl. 竺律炎 + 支謙).
Translations and research
- Mukhopadhyaya, Sujitkumar (ed.). The Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna. Santiniketan: Visvabharati, 1954 — critical edition with extensive comparative apparatus to T1300 and T1301.
- Mak, Bill M. 麥文彪. “The Date and Nature of Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna — Investigation Through the Earliest Source.” History of Science in South Asia 3 (2015): 1–31.
- Mak, Bill M. “The Last Chapter of Sphujidhvaja’s Yavanajātaka Critically Edited with Notes.” SCIAMVS 14 (2013): 59–148 — comparative apparatus relevant to T1301’s astronomical chapter.
- Boucher, Daniel. “Dharmarakṣa and the Transmission of Buddhism to China.” Asia Major (Third Series) 19, nos. 1–2 (2006): 13–37 — on Dharmarakṣa’s translation idiom and reliability.
- Yano, Michio. Mikkyō senseijutsu 密教占星術. Rev. ed., Tōyō shoin, 2013 — surveys the place of T1301 in Indian jyotiṣa transmission to East Asia.
- Niu Weixing 鈕衛星. Xī wàng Fàn-tiān 西望梵天. Shanghai jiāotōng, 2004.
- Zenba Makoto 善波周. “Matōga-gyō no tenmon-rekisū ni tsuite” 摩登伽經の天文曆數について. Tōyō gakuhō 36.4 (1954): 18–48 — covers T1300 and T1301 jointly.