Āpídámó Shíshen Zúlùn 阿毘達磨識身足論
Abhidharma-vijñāna-kāya-pāda-śāstra: Treatise on the Body of Consciousness by 提婆設摩 (造), 玄奘 (譯)
About the work
The Āpídámó Shíshen Zúlùn 阿毘達磨識身足論 (Skt. Abhidharma-vijñāna-kāya-pāda-śāstra, CBETA T26n1539) is one of the “six feet” (六足論) of the Sarvāstivāda canonical Abhidharma, 16 juan, traditionally attributed to the Venerable Devaśarman 尊者提婆設摩 (提婆設摩). Xuánzàng 玄奘 translated it during the Táng dynasty; the Taisho text header identifies the translator as “三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯.”
Prefaces
No separate preface survives in the received Taisho text. The colophon in the final juan of the related Aṭṭha-grantha tradition confirms this text belongs to the same Sarvāstivāda canon.
Abstract
The Vijñāna-kāya-pāda is remarkable for its doctrinal focus on questions of consciousness (vijñāna) and the theory of the “person” (pudgala). It is the only one of the six feet that explicitly attacks Vātsīputrīya views on the pudgala (person), and it engages in extended polemics against the notion of a personal self. This places it in a specific historical context: the Pudgalavāda school was a significant rival of the Sarvāstivāda, and the Vijñāna-kāya appears to represent an early phase of inter-sectarian controversy, perhaps the earliest strata of the six feet.
The text is traditionally attributed to Devaśarman 提婆設摩 (Tiānjì 天寂), an early Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma master. The attribution is accepted as plausible by modern scholars such as Frauwallner (1995), who argued that the Vijñāna-kāya and the Dharma-skandha (KR6l0002) preserve some of the oldest layers of Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma. The composition is generally placed in the first to third centuries CE within the Kaśmīra-Gandhāra region.
The Mahāvibhāṣā (KR6l0010) cites the Vijñāna-kāya frequently in discussions of the orthodox Sarvāstivāda position on impermanence, consciousness, and the moment-to-moment arising of dharmas.
Translations and research
- Frauwallner, Erich. Studies in Abhidharma Literature. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995, pp. 52–79.
- Priestley, Leonard C. D. C. Pudgalavāda Buddhism: The Reality of the Indeterminate Self. Toronto: Centre for South Asian Studies, 1999.
- Willemen, Dessein, and Cox. Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Scholasticism. Leiden: Brill, 1998.
Links
- CBETA Online
- Taisho Vol. 26, No. 1539
- Kanseki DB