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十誦律

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Text ID
KR6k0016
Date
404–409
Dynasty
後秦

Shísòng lǜ 十誦律

The Ten-Recitation Vinaya (Skt. Sarvāstivāda-vinaya / Daśa-bhāṇavāra-vinaya) by 弗若多羅 (Puṇyatara, 譯) and 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 譯)

About the work

The Shísòng lǜ 十誦律 — the complete Vinaya-piṭaka of the Sarvāstivāda school (Skt. Sarvāstivāda-vinaya; the alternative title Daśa-bhāṇavāra-vinaya “Ten-recitation Vinaya” reflects the work’s organisation in ten bhāṇavāra “recitation-portions”) — in sixty-one fascicles. Translated at Cháng’ān 長安 between 404 and 409 CE under Yáo Xīng 姚興 of the Later Qín 後秦 (姚秦) by the Kashmiri vinayācārya Puṇyatara 弗若多羅 (弗若多羅) and Kumārajīva 鳩摩羅什 (鳩摩羅什); after Puṇyatara’s death in 404 the work was completed by Dharmaruci 曇摩流支 with Kumārajīva, and the final redaction was supervised by Vimalākṣa 卑摩羅叉 — Kumārajīva’s Vinaya-teacher who arrived at Cháng’ān in 405.

Prefaces

The text is preceded in the canon by the brief preface of Sēngyòu 僧祐 (preserved in the Chū sānzàng jìjí T55n2145) reconstructing the translation history. The fascicle-1 colophon: 姚秦三藏弗若多羅共羅什譯.

Abstract

The Shísòng lǜ is the first complete Indian Vinaya translated into Chinese (404–409, predating Buddhayaśas’s Sìfēn lǜ of 410–412 by a few years). It is the only complete Sarvāstivāda Vinaya in any single language, since the later Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya of Yìjìng (KR6k0023 etc.) represents a different sub-school. As a consequence, the Shísòng lǜ is the indispensable witness for the early Sarvāstivāda — the historically dominant school in Mathurā, Kashmir, and Gandhāra in the early centuries CE and the textual home of the early abhidharma (the seven Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma texts and the Mahā-vibhāṣā).

The school identification is well-attested: Sarvāstivāda (說一切有部 Shuō-yīqiē-yǒu-bù) — “those who hold that all-three-times-exist” — was the dominant Sthavira-derived school in northwestern India and Central Asia during the 1st–6th centuries CE. The text’s “ten recitations” are: (1) Bhikṣu-vibhaṅga I (covering pārājika and saṅghādisesa); (2) Bhikṣu-vibhaṅga II; (3) seven skandhakas (upasaṃpadā, uposatha, pravāraṇā, vassa, carma, bhaiṣajya, cīvara); (4) seven more skandhakas; (5) seven more skandhakas; (6) Bhikṣuṇī-vibhaṅga; (7) upāsaka (lay-precepts); (8) the Pari-vāra-equivalent appendix; (9) the Vinaya-mātṛkā; (10) summary verses. The structure differs significantly from the Pāli, Mahāsāṃghika, Mahīśāsaka, and Dharmaguptaka lines.

The Shísòng lǜ was the dominant practical Vinaya in southern China during the 5th century — the Sēngyè 僧業 → Huìxún 慧詢 → Sēng Qú (僧璩) lineage of Shísòng specialists at Jiànkāng — before being displaced by the Sìfēn lǜ under Dàoxuān’s Nánshān school in the late Tang.

Translations and research

  • Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. Ritsuzō no kenkyū 律藏の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1960. — Detailed treatment of the Shísòng alongside the other Vinayas.
  • Yamagiwa Nobuyuki 山極伸之. Shīsen jūsōritsu no kenkyū 四川十誦律の研究. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 1988.
  • Pachow, W. A Comparative Study of the Prātimokṣa. Santiniketan, 1955.
  • Demiéville, Paul. “Les versions chinoises du Milinda-pañha.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 24 (1924): 1–258. — Discusses the Shísòng in the context of Sarvāstivāda transmission.
  • Lévi, Sylvain & Édouard Chavannes. “Les seize arhats protecteurs de la loi.” Journal Asiatique 8 (1916): 5–50, 189–304. — Sarvāstivāda transmission.
  • Sasaki Shizuka 佐々木閑. Indo bukkyō hen’i ron インド仏教変移論. Tokyo, 2000. — Sarvāstivāda schism narratives.

Other points of interest

The text records (j. 60–61) detailed accounts of the First Council at Rājagṛha and the Second Council at Vaiśālī, with a Sarvāstivāda recension of the schism narrative that diverges in significant detail from the Theravāda Cullavagga and the Mahāsāṃghika (KR6k0006) accounts. This recension is one of the principal primary sources for Bareau’s (1955) and Lamotte’s (1958) reconstructions of early Buddhist sectarian history. Some Buddhological scholarship (Demiéville 1953, Frauwallner 1956) notes that the Sarvāstivāda skandhaka-organisation in this text closely parallels that of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya-vibhaṅga preserved in Tibetan, suggesting a common archetype.

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