Juédìng zàng lùn 決定藏論
Treatise on the Treasury of Decisive Determinations (Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī) by 真諦 (Zhēndì / Paramārtha, 譯)
About the work
A three-fascicle Chinese rendering by 真諦 (Paramārtha, 499–569) of the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī — i.e. the Shèjuézé fēn 攝決擇分 (“section of decisive selections”) of the Yogācārabhūmi (KR6n0001, T30n1579), corresponding to the second of the five major sections of the master treatise. Paramārtha’s translation predates 玄奘’s complete version by nearly a century and represents an alternative early Yogācāra reception of the text in China, transmitted through the Liáng-Chén translation milieu in Guǎngzhōu 廣州.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T30N1584) lists KR6n0001 Yúqié shī dì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (T30n1579) — specifically the Shèjuézé fēn — as the related parent text. The three juǎn are not formally subdivided in T1584 but follow the topical structure of the corresponding portion of the Sanskrit Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī, opening with selections on the ālayavijñāna and the eight consciousnesses.
Abstract
The work is conventionally dated to Paramārtha’s late-life translation period in Guǎngzhōu (557–569), the same window in which he produced the Shèdàshèng lùn (KR6n0059, T31n1593) and the Shèdàshèng lùn shì (KR6n0061, T31n1595). The Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶紀 (KR2m0021 T2034) and Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154) place the text in this group; the precise year is uncertain but falls between Paramārtha’s relocation to Guǎngzhōu in 557 and his death in 569. The dynasty-tag 梁 in the catalog reflects Paramārtha’s institutional affiliation rather than the political fact that the Liáng court had collapsed by the time he was working in the south.
T1584 covers material that Xuánzàng would later translate as the Shèjuézé fēn of the Yogācārabhūmi itself; the comparative philological work of Lambert Schmithausen (Ālayavijñāna, 1987) treats T1584 as a critical witness to the early form of the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī’s teaching on ālayavijñāna. As with most of Paramārtha’s translations, the rendering reflects his distinctive technical vocabulary — including such characteristic terms as 阿摩羅識 āmala-vijñāna “the immaculate consciousness”, which became a major doctrinal issue in subsequent Cí’ēn–Shèlùn polemics.
Translations and research
- Schmithausen, Lambert. Ālayavijñāna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1987. (Treats T1584 as a major early witness to the Viniścaya-saṃgrahaṇī and ālayavijñāna doctrine.)
- Paul, Diana Y. Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramārtha’s “Evolution of Consciousness”. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1984. (Foundational study of Paramārtha’s Yogācāra translations, including T1584.)
- Funayama Tōru 船山徹. Shintai sanzō kenkyū ronshū 真諦三藏研究論集. Kyoto: Kyoto University Institute for Research in Humanities, 2012. (Critical collective volume on Paramārtha’s translation corpus.)
- Frauwallner, Erich. On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law Vasubandhu. Rome: IsMEO, 1951. (Includes important comparative material on Paramārtha’s transmission of Yogācāra texts.)
Other points of interest
T1584 is the only one of the three principal pre-Xuánzàng partial translations of the Yogācārabhūmi (alongside the Púsà dì of KR6n0003 and KR6n0004) that covers the Saṃgrahaṇī / Shèjuézé fēn. Comparison with the Xuánzàng version of the same material (in juǎn 51–80 of KR6n0001) is therefore the principal way to test the claim — common in modern Yogācāra scholarship — that Paramārtha and Xuánzàng represent two textually and doctrinally distinct strands of the early Yogācāra reception in China.
Links
- CBETA online text
- Dazangthings date evidence (565): [ Sakaino 1935 ] Sakaino Kōyō 境野黄洋. Shina Bukkyō seishi 支那佛教精史. Tokyo: Sakaino Kōyō Hakushi Ikō Kankōkai, 1935. 707-708 Dazangthings source
- 真諦 Zhēndì DILA
- Kanseki DB