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菩薩地持經

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Text ID
KR6n0003
Date
414–426
Dynasty
北涼

Púsà dìchí jīng 菩薩地持經

Sūtra on the Bodhisattva’s Stage-Upholding (Bodhisattvabhūmi) by 曇無讖 (Tánwúchèn / Dharmakṣema, 譯)

About the work

The earliest complete Chinese rendering of the Bodhisattvabhūmi — the Púsà dì 菩薩地 chapter of the Yogācārabhūmi (KR6n0001) — translated by 曇無讖 (Dharmakṣema, 385–433) at Gūzāng 姑臧 under the Northern Liáng 北涼 between Xuánshǐ 玄始 3 and Yìhé 義和 3 (414–426 CE). Although the title styles it a jīng 經 (“sūtra”) in conformity with early Chinese cataloguing practice, the work is in fact a śāstra corresponding closely to the Sanskrit Bodhisattvabhūmi attested in the Wogihara edition (1930–1936). It is the principal source for the bodhisattva-precepts in the Northern Liáng tradition and a key witness to the early circulation of Yogācāra literature in China before the great Xuánzàng project of the seventh century. The work circulated alongside Dharmakṣema’s better-known Dà bānnièpán jīng 大般涅槃經 (KR6c0001 T374) as a foundation of Northern Liáng Mahāyāna scholasticism.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T30N1581) records the canonical structure in three “places” (處):

  1. Chū fāngbiàn chù 初方便處 — First “skill-in-means” place, in 18 pǐn: Zhǒngxìng pǐn 種性品 (Lineage), Fā pútíxīn pǐn 發菩提心品 (Arousing the bodhicitta), Zìtā lì pǐn 自他利品 (Benefit of self and other), Zhēnshíyì pǐn 真實義品 (Real meaning), Lì pǐn 力品 (Powers), Chéngshú pǐn 成熟品 (Maturation), Wúshàng pútí pǐn 無上菩提品 (Unsurpassed enlightenment), Lìzhǒngxìng pǐn 力種性品 (Power-lineage), Shī pǐn 施品 (Giving), Jiè pǐn 戒品 (Discipline), Rěn pǐn 忍品 (Patience), Jīngjìn pǐn 精進品 (Vigour), Chán pǐn 禪品 (Meditation), Huì pǐn 慧品 (Wisdom), Sìshè pǐn 四攝品 (Four means of conversion), Gòngyǎng xíjìn wúliàng pǐn 供養習近無量品 (Worship, attendance, immeasurables), Pútí pǐn 菩提品 (Awakening), Púsà gōngdé pǐn 菩薩功德品 (Bodhisattva merits)
  2. Cìfǎ fāngbiàn chù 次法方便處 — Second “skill-in-means” place
  3. Bìjìngfāngbiàn chù 畢竟方便處 — Final “skill-in-means” place

Related texts: KR6n0001 Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (T30n1579, juǎn 35–50, Púsà dì 菩薩地) — the Indic source-text of which T1581 is the earliest Chinese translation; KR6n0004 Púsà shànjiè jīng 菩薩善戒經 (T30n1582) — Guṇavarman’s parallel translation; KR6k0021 Yúqié shī dì lùn púsàdì chí jièběn 瑜伽師地論菩薩地戒本 (T30n1501); the Dìchí lùn yìjì 地持論義記 (KR6n0013, X39n0704) — Huìyuǎn’s 慧遠 commentary; Dìchí yìjì juǎn dìsì 地持義記卷第四 (KR6n0012, T85n2803) — fragment from Dūnhuáng.

Abstract

Dharmakṣema’s translation enterprise at Gūzāng under the Northern Liáng court of Jǔqú Méngxùn 沮渠蒙遜 produced (alongside the Dà bānnièpán jīng) what was for two centuries the standard Chinese version of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. The Liáng Sānzàng zàjì 梁三藏雜記 ascribes the translation to the year Xuánshǐ 玄始 3 (414); the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145) places it in the period leading up to Dharmakṣema’s death in 433; the conventional bracket adopted here (414–426) follows the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154). The text was transmitted southward from Liáng to the Liú-Sòng court, where it became the principal authority for the Northern strand of Mahāyāna vinaya in China.

The Bodhisattvabhūmi is the locus classicus for the sānjùjìngjiè 三聚淨戒 (“threefold pure precepts” — saṃvara-śīla, kuśala-dharma-saṃgrāhaka-śīla, sattvārtha-kriyā-śīla) and for the technical structure of the bodhisattva-precepts that became foundational for the East Asian bodhisattva-vinaya tradition through the Fànwǎng jīng 梵網經 (KR6k0017) and Dharmakṣema’s own Púsà jièběn 菩薩戒本 (KR6k0020, T1500). Comparison of T1581 with the parallel translations KR6n0004 (Guṇavarman, 431) and the Púsà dì of KR6n0001 (Xuánzàng, 646–648) is a major topic in the textual history of Yogācāra in China, treated in detail by Demiéville (1929–30) and more recently by Funayama Tōru.

Translations and research

  • Demiéville, Paul. “Le Yogācārabhūmiśāstra de Saṅgharakṣa.” Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient 44 (1954): 339–436. (Includes comparative apparatus on Dharmakṣema’s translation.)
  • Wogihara, Unrai, ed. Bodhisattvabhūmi. Tokyo, 1930–1936. (The Sanskrit edition, against which Dharmakṣema’s text can be collated.)
  • Engle, Artemus B., trans. The Bodhisattva Path to Unsurpassed Enlightenment. Boulder: Snow Lion, 2016. (English translation from the Sanskrit, with comparative notes on Dharmakṣema’s and Guṇavarman’s versions.)
  • Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Rikuchō zui-tō Bukkyō tenseki to bunken kenkyū 六朝隋唐仏教典籍と文献研究. Kyoto: Hōzōkan, 2013. (Includes a major chapter on Dharmakṣema as translator.)
  • Chen Jinhua. The Hagiographical Strategies of Dharmakṣema. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2004. (Standard study of Dharmakṣema’s Chinese career.)

Other points of interest

The work is the basis of the Northern Liáng / Northern dynasties strand of bodhisattva-vinaya transmission, distinct from (and predating) the Fànwǎng jīng 梵網經 line that came to dominate the South. Both Dharmakṣema’s Púsà jièběn 菩薩戒本 (T1500, KR6k0020) and the eponymous Tang re-edition (T1501, KR6k0021) are extracted from this Bodhisattvabhūmi tradition.

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