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阿毘達磨發智論

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Text ID
KR6l0009
Date
-200–100
Dynasty
唐

Āpídámó Fāzhì Lùn 阿毘達磨發智論

Abhidharma-jñāna-prasthāna-śāstra: Treatise on the Foundation of Wisdom by 迦栴延子 (造), 玄奘 (譯)

About the work

The Āpídámó Fāzhì Lùn 阿毘達磨發智論 (Skt. Abhidharma-jñāna-prasthāna-śāstra, CBETA T26n1544) is the foundational “body text” (śarīra-śāstra 身論) of the Sarvāstivāda canonical Abhidharma, 20 juan, traditionally attributed to Kātyāyanīputra 迦多衍尼子 (迦栴延子). The six “feet” (六足論, KR6l0001–KR6l0007) are the supporting texts that expound and systematize the material in this root work. Xuánzàng 玄奘 translated it at Yùhuá-sì 玉華寺 from February 14, 657 to June 20, 660 — largely concurrently with his translation of the Mahāvibhāṣā (T1545, KR6l0010), the great commentary on this text. The earlier translation, the Āpítán bā jiāndù lùn 阿毘曇八犍度論 (KR6l0008, T1543), was made in 383 CE.

Prefaces

No independent preface survives in the received Xuánzàng translation. The relationship between this text and the earlier Aṣṭagrantha translation (T1543) is explicitly flagged in the Taisho edition: the header of T1543 reads “No. 1543 [No. 1544],” signaling the textual connection.

Abstract

The Jñāna-prasthāna (lit. “the foundation/dwelling-place of wisdom”) is organized in eight skandha (chapters or books): Zá 雜 (Miscellaneous), Jié 結 (Fetters), Zhì 智 (Wisdom), Yè 業 (Karma), Dà 大 (The Great Ones), Dìng 定 (Meditation), Jiàn 見 (Views), and Gēn 根 (Faculties). This “eightfold” structure gives the text its alternate name Aṣṭagrantha 八犍度論 (eight divisions). It is the most comprehensive and technically demanding of the Sarvāstivāda canonical Abhidharma texts, and the Mahāvibhāṣā (KR6l0010) was composed as a detailed commentary on precisely this work.

The attribution to Kātyāyanīputra is accepted as traditional; Dào’ān’s preface to T1543 calls him “义第一” (foremost in interpretation). Modern scholars tentatively situate the composition in the period roughly c. 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE, but the Kaśmīra council under Kaniṣka (c. 100–150 CE) likely produced the recension that Xuánzàng translates. The T1543 translation represents an older, probably Gandhāran recension of the same text, somewhat earlier in its textual development.

The significance of the Jñāna-prasthāna in East Asian Buddhism is enormous: it was the basis for the Mahāvibhāṣā, the most authoritative text of the Kaśmīra Vaibhāṣika tradition, which in turn was the central text of Chinese Abhidharma scholarship. Xuánzàng’s translation of this and the Mahāvibhāṣā (200 juan) represented a massive intellectual project that dominated his final decade.

Translations and research

  • Frauwallner, Erich. Studies in Abhidharma Literature. Albany: SUNY Press, 1995.
  • Cox, Collett. Disputed Dharmas: Early Buddhist Theories on Existence. Tokyo: IIBS, 1995.
  • Willemen, Dessein, and Cox. Sarvāstivāda Buddhist Scholasticism. Leiden: Brill, 1998, pp. 65–88.
  • Dhammajoti, Bhikkhu KL. Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma. 4th ed. Hong Kong: Centre of Buddhist Studies, 2009.
  • Sakurabe Hajime 桜部建 et al., annotated Japanese translation in the Kokuyaku Issaikyō 国訳一切経 series.

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