Bínàiyē 鼻奈耶
The Vinaya (an early Sarvāstivāda-affiliated Vinaya text) by 竺佛念 (Zhú Fóniàn, 譯)
About the work
A ten-fascicle Chinese translation by Zhú Fóniàn 竺佛念 (竺佛念) of an early Sarvāstivāda-affiliated Vinaya text — possibly the Daśa-bhāṇavāra-vinaya of the Sarvāstivāda in an alternative recension, or a related text from the Vibhajyavāda group. 鼻奈耶 bí-nài-yē is an alternate transliteration of vinaya (cf. the standard 毘奈耶 pínàiyē). Translated at Cháng’ān 長安 in 383 CE under the Former Qín (sometimes attributed to the Later Qín — the 秦 dynasty designation in the Taishō reflects the latter).
Prefaces
Translator’s colophon (variant): 秦罽賓沙門竺佛念譯. The text is documented in the Chū sānzàng jìjí (T55n2145) j. 11.
Abstract
The Bí-nài-yē (T1464) is the earliest Chinese Vinaya translation that survived complete, predating Buddhayaśas’s Sìfēn lǜ (410–412) by nearly thirty years. Its school identification remains debated: some scholars (Demiéville 1953) treat it as a Sarvāstivāda Vinaya in a recension preceding the Shísòng lǜ, others (Hirakawa 1960) as a Vibhajyavāda or earlier Mahīśāsaka recension. The text contains the bhikṣu-vibhaṅga in summarised form — focusing on the prātimokṣa rule-formulations and basic case-narratives, omitting much of the detailed vibhaṅga exposition. As such, it stands in a transitional position between prātimokṣa-only extracts and full vibhaṅga recensions. Its translation date marks the formal beginning of complete-Vinaya-translation in China.
Translations and research
- Hirakawa Akira 平川彰. Ritsuzō no kenkyū 律藏の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō, 1960.
- Demiéville, Paul. “Le bouddhisme chinois.” In Encyclopédie de la Pléiade: Histoire des religions I, Paris: Gallimard, 1970.
- Yìnshùn 印順. Yuánshǐ fójiào shèngdiǎn zhī jíchéng. Taipei: Zhèng-wén, 1971; rev. 1988.
Links
- CBETA T24n1464
- 竺佛念 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (380, 390): [ Sakaino 1935 ] Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. 223 (source)
- Kanseki DB