Āpítán Wǔfǎxíng Jīng 阿毘曇五法行經
Abhidharma-pañcadharma-caryā-sūtra: Sūtra on the Practice of the Five Dharmas by 安世高 (譯)
About the work
The Āpítán Wǔfǎxíng Jīng 阿毘曇五法行經 (CBETA T28n1557) is a brief Later Han (後漢) dynasty translation, 1 juan, translated by An Shigao 安世高 (安世高). It is one of the earliest Buddhist texts translated into Chinese and belongs to the category of short Abhidharma texts that An Shigao brought with him from Central Asia. The text treats “five dharma practices” (wǔ fǎxíng 五法行) — a set of five ethical and meditative practices fundamental to early Buddhist training. The DILA authority notes that An Shigao translated this text (T28n1557).
Prefaces
No independent preface survives in the received text.
Abstract
An Shigao 安世高 (Skt. Aṃśuka?; lay name 安清 Ān Qīng; fl. c. 148–170 CE), a Parthian prince who renounced his throne and came to China, was the first systematic translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese. He settled in Luoyang during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han (r. 146–168 CE) and spent some twenty years translating texts, focusing primarily on Abhidharma and meditation materials. His translations are notable for their accuracy and systematic vocabulary.
This text, Wǔfǎxíng jīng, belongs to An Shigao’s corpus of brief Abhidharma or meditation-oriented texts. The “five dharmas” likely refer to a version of the five indriyas (spiritual faculties: faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom) or the five categories of meditative development. As the last entry in the main Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma section (T26–T28) of the Taisho, it represents one of the earliest textual traces of the genre in Chinese, predating the systematic translations by many generations.
Translations and research
- Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2008. — discusses An Shigao’s translations.
- Zürcher, Erik. The Buddhist Conquest of China. Leiden: Brill, 1959; repr. 2007, pp. 33–35. — contextualizes An Shigao’s work.
Links
- CBETA Online
- Taisho Vol. 28, No. 1557
- 安世高 DILA
- Kanseki DB