Gēnběn shuōyīqiēyǒubù pínàiyē chūjiā shì 根本說一切有部毘奈耶出家事
The Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya: Pravrajyā-vastu (Going Forth) by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)
About the work
A four-fascicle Chinese translation of the Pravrajyā-vastu 出家事 — the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya skandhaka on the procedure for “going forth” (Skt. pravrajyā) and ordination (upasaṃpadā). The first of the seventeen Mūlasarvāstivāda vastu “matters”. Translated by Yìjìng (義淨) at Cháng’ān in the early 8th century.
Prefaces
Translator’s colophon: 大唐三藏義淨奉制譯.
Abstract
The Pravrajyā-vastu presents the canonical procedure for monastic ordination: the requirements for the candidate, the upādhyāya-relationship, the formal karmavācanā of upasaṃpadā, the early restrictions on ordination (age, debts, parental consent, etc.), and the foundational narratives of the early ordinations of Yaśas, the Five Ascetics, and the Buddha’s family. This text is the single most important Vinaya skandhaka for understanding the Indian institutional setting of monastic ordination. The Sanskrit text is preserved in the Gilgit manuscripts (Vogel & Wille 1984), enabling word-by-word comparison with Yìjìng’s Chinese — a key resource for Mūlasarvāstivāda philology.
Translations and research
- Vogel, Claus & Klaus Wille. Das Pravrajyāvastu im Vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1984. — Sanskrit edition with German translation.
- Eimer, Helmut. Rab tu ‘byuṅ ba’i gźi: die tibetische Übersetzung des Pravrajyāvastu im Vinaya der Mūlasarvāstivādins. 2 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1983.
- Schopen, Gregory. “The Ritual Obligations and Donor Roles of Monks in the Pāli Vinaya,” in Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997.
Links
- CBETA T23n1444
- 義淨 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (705): [ 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