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摩訶僧祇比丘尼戒本

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Text ID
KR6k0008
Date
416–418
Dynasty
東晉

Móhēsēngqí bǐqiūnī jièběn 摩訶僧祇比丘尼戒本

The Mahāsāṃghika Bhikṣuṇī-Prātimokṣa by 法顯 (Fǎxiǎn, 譯) and 覺賢 (Juéxián / Buddhabhadra, 譯)

About the work

A one-fascicle extract of the bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa (290 rules in this recension) from the parent Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya (KR6k0006). Translated jointly by Faxian 法顯 (法顯) and Buddhabhadra (覺賢 / 佛陀跋陀羅) at Jiànkāng’s Dàochǎngsì in 416–418 CE — the same translation team and venue as the parent Vinaya. The catalog meta records the translator under his Chinese rendering 覺賢; the same person appears in the parent-Vinaya catalog under the phonetic 佛陀跋陀羅.

Prefaces

The text opens with the standard uposatha opening formula and the bhikṣuṇī-saṃghādisesa invocation. Translator’s colophon: 東晉平陽沙門釋法顯共覺賢譯.

Abstract

The Móhēsēngqí bǐqiūnī jièběn is the only Mahāsāṃghika bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa in the Chinese canon. The text is unusually well-preserved in the Sanskrit manuscript tradition: a substantial Sanskrit Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda Bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa manuscript was edited by Gustav Roth (1970) from Patna, providing a Sanskrit witness for direct comparison with the Chinese. Roth’s edition demonstrates that the Chinese rendering generally preserves the Sanskrit rule-formulations faithfully, with most divergences explainable as standard transmission variants. The Mahāsāṃghika bhikṣuṇī-prātimokṣa shows distinctive features against the Sthaviravāda lines: the rule-count is higher (290 vs. 311 for Theravāda, but the categorisation differs), and certain rules concerning bhikṣuṇī-discipline reflect the Mahāsāṃghika institutional independence of the bhikṣuṇī-saṃgha from male oversight in particular procedural matters.

The text was used as the practical recitation-text for nuns of the Mahāsāṃghika lineage in southern China and was a key resource for the early development of the Chinese bhikṣuṇī-saṃgha — the Bǐqiūní zhuàn 比丘尼傳 (T50n2063), the earliest Chinese collection of nuns’ biographies, refers extensively to the practical use of this prātimokṣa in 5th-6th century convents.

Translations and research

  • Roth, Gustav. Bhikṣuṇī-Vinaya: Manual of Discipline for Buddhist Nuns. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1970. — Sanskrit edition with comparison to the Chinese.
  • Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. Monastic Discipline for the Buddhist Nuns: An English Translation of the Chinese Text of the Mahāsāṃghika-Bhikṣuṇī-Vinaya. Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1982. — Full English translation.
  • Heirman, Ann. Rules for Nuns according to the Dharmaguptakavinaya. 3 vols. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2002. — Comparative apparatus uses the Mahāsāṃghika text throughout.
  • Tsai, Kathryn Ann. Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese Buddhist Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries: A Translation of the Pi-ch’iu-ni Chuan. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1994.

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