Shèlìfú wèn jīng 舍利弗問經
The Sūtra of Śāriputra’s Inquiry (translator unknown)
About the work
A one-fascicle anonymous sūtra in question-and-answer form: Śāriputra 舍利弗 (Skt. Śāriputra) asks the Buddha questions about Vinaya history, monastic discipline, the schisms after the parinirvāṇa, and the future decline of the Dharma. Translator and date unknown; the catalog tradition assigns it to “lost translation” (失譯) of the Eastern Jìn period (4th–5th c.).
Prefaces
No translator-attribution survives.
Abstract
The Shèlìfú wèn jīng is one of the principal Buddhist apocryphal-historical sūtras in Chinese: it presents an account of the early Buddhist schisms framed as a Buddha-prophecy delivered to Śāriputra, listing the eighteen schools and their characteristic doctrinal positions. The text shows clear Mahāsāṃghika sympathies — its narrative treats the Sthavira lineage critically — and has been used by modern scholars (Bareau 1955, Sasaki 2000) as a key witness for the early-medieval Indian sectarian historiography. Its inclusion in the Vinaya division of the canon reflects its concern with monastic discipline and the disciplinary causes of schism, even though the text is formally a sūtra rather than a Vinaya. Some scholars (Demiéville 1924) have proposed Chinese composition rather than Indian translation; the question remains open.
Translations and research
- Bareau, André. Les sectes bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule. Saigon: EFEO, 1955.
- Lamotte, Étienne. Histoire du bouddhisme indien. Louvain, 1958.
- Sasaki Shizuka 佐々木閑. Indo bukkyō hen’i ron インド仏教変移論. Tokyo: Daizō shuppan, 2000.