Móhēsēngqí lǜ dà bǐqiū jièběn 摩訶僧祇律大比丘戒本
The Mahāsāṃghika Bhikṣu-Prātimokṣa by 佛陀跋陀羅 (Buddhabhadra, 譯)
About the work
A one-fascicle extract of the bhikṣu-prātimokṣa drawn from the Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (KR6k0006) by Buddhabhadra 佛陀跋陀羅 (佛陀跋陀羅) at Jiànkāng’s Dàochǎngsì in 416–418 CE. The text gives the 218-rule monastic prātimokṣa in continuous recitation-format — the same rule-set as in the parent Vinaya but stripped of vibhaṅga case-narratives and word-by-word gloss. Standard structure: 4 pārājika + 13 saṅghādisesa + 2 aniyata + 30 naiḥsargika + 92 pāyantika + 4 pratideśanīya + 66 śaikṣa + 7 adhikaraṇa-śamatha (numbers vary slightly across mss.).
Prefaces
The text opens with the standard uposatha opening formula (sambuddho śīla-prātimokṣa). The colophon attributes the translation to 東晉天竺三藏佛陀跋陀羅譯. No formal preface survives.
Abstract
The Móhēsēngqí dà bǐqiū jièběn is the only Mahāsāṃghika bhikṣu-prātimokṣa in the Chinese canon and one of two Sanskritic-tradition Mahāsāṃghika prātimokṣas (the other being the partially-preserved Sanskrit Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda manuscript edited by Pachow 1955 and Tatia 1976). Comparative philological work (Pachow 1955, Prebish 1975) has established that the Chinese recension agrees in substance with the Sanskrit manuscript fragments but diverges from them in the order of certain pāyantika rules and in the formulation of several śaikṣa training-rules. The text was used as the practical recitation-text of the Mahāsāṃghika lineage in southern China during the 5th–6th centuries before being displaced by the Sìfēn lǜ jièběn of the Dharmaguptakas. In Indian and Central Asian sectarian history, the Mahāsāṃghika prātimokṣa is treated by Bareau (1955) and Lamotte (1958) as the indispensable check on the Sthaviravāda lines.
Translations and research
- Pachow, W. A Comparative Study of the Prātimokṣa. Santiniketan, 1955; reprint Delhi, 2000.
- Prebish, Charles S. Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Prātimokṣa Sūtras of the Mahāsāṃghikas and Mūlasarvāstivādins. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1975. — Edition of the Sanskrit Mahāsāṃghika prātimokṣa with comparison to the Chinese.
- Tatia, Nathmal. Prātimokṣa-Sūtra of the Lokottaravāda-Mahāsāṃghika School. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1976.
- Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. Ritsuzō no kenkyū 律藏の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1960.
Links
- CBETA T22n1426
- 佛陀跋陀羅 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (415): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. (source)
- Kanseki DB