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唯識三十論頌

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Text ID
KR6n0022
Date
648–648
Dynasty
唐

Wéishí sānshí lùn sòng 唯識三十論頌

Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only (Triṃśikā-vijñaptikārikā) by 世親菩薩 (Shìqīn púsà / Vasubandhu, 造) and 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

玄奘’s Chinese rendering of the Triṃśikā-vijñaptikārikā — the foundational verse-text of mature Indian Yogācāra by Vasubandhu (世親菩薩, 世親菩薩, c. 4th–5th c. CE) — in 30 kārikā setting out the eight-consciousness scheme, the three natures (sānxìng 三性), and the bodhisattva path culminating in the zhuǎn yī 轉依 (transformation of the basis). A short single-fascicle text. The Sanskrit original is preserved (edited by Lévi 1925) and was translated separately into Tibetan (Tōh. 4055). Xuánzàng’s Chinese version is the verse-base of the great commentarial fusion KR6n0016 Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論 (T31n1585), and almost all subsequent East Asian Yogācāra teaching unfolds from these 30 verses.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T31N1586) lists KR6n0016 Chéng wéishí lùn 成唯識論 (T31n1585) and KR6n0052 Wéishí sānshí lùn yàoshì 唯識三十論要釋 (T85n2804) as the principal related texts. The single fascicle contains the 30 verses without prose subdivision; the Cí’ēn commentaries divide them into the conventional three sections (verses 1–24 on consciousness, 25–29 on the path, 30 on the result).

Abstract

The translation date is firmly 648 CE (Zhēnguān 貞觀 22), as recorded in the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 (T2154). Xuánzàng translated the verses on their own first; the great commentarial fusion KR6n0016 followed eleven years later in 659. The verses themselves were known in China before Xuánzàng — Paramārtha had translated a closely related text as the Zhuǎn shí lùn (KR6n0024, T31n1587) and the parallel Wéishí lùn (KR6n0053, T31n1588) by Bodhiruci’s school had been available since the 6th century — but Xuánzàng’s was the first complete and accurate translation of the Triṃśikā in the form that was then to receive its great commentary.

The 30 verses set out: (1–2) the negative thesis that all phenomena are vijñapti-mātra “mere cognition”, and the three “transformations of consciousness” (sānzhuǎn shí 三轉識); (3–8) the ālayavijñāna in detail; (9) the manas; (10–16) the six sense-consciousnesses and their associated mental factors; (17–19) the doctrine of the cyclic flux of consciousness; (20–25) the three natures and three non-natures; (26–30) the bodhisattva-path through the five stages culminating in the anāsrava dharmakāya. The verses are densely compressed and scarcely intelligible without commentary, which is why Xuánzàng’s separate translation of the verse-text (this work) was almost immediately accompanied by the commentarial Chéng wéishí lùn.

The text of T1586 is widely cited in the Cí’ēn commentarial corpus, especially in KR6n0026 Chéng wéishí lùn shùjì (T43n1830) by Kuījī, KR6n0050 Wéishí sānshí lùn yuēyì (X51n0827) by Míngyù 明昱, and KR6n0051 Wéishí sānshí lùn zhíjiě (X51n0828) by Zhìxù 智旭.

Translations and research

  • Lévi, Sylvain. Vijñaptimātratāsiddhi: Deux traités de Vasubandhu, Viṃśatikā et Triṃśikā. Paris, 1925. (The principal Sanskrit edition.)
  • Lévi, Sylvain. Matériaux pour l’étude du système Vijñaptimātra. Paris, 1932.
  • Anacker, Stefan. Seven Works of Vasubandhu. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. (Includes English translation of the Triṃśikā from Sanskrit.)
  • Funahashi Naoya 舩橋尚哉. Yuishiki nijū-jūron no kenkyū 唯識二十・三十論の研究. Tokyo: Sankibō Busshorin, 1989.
  • Buescher, Hartmut, ed. and trans. Sthiramati’s Triṃśikāvijñaptibhāṣya: Critical Editions of the Sanskrit Text and its Tibetan Translation. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2007. (Critical Sanskrit edition of Sthiramati’s bhāṣya.)
  • Cook, Francis H., trans. Three Texts on Consciousness Only. Berkeley: Numata Center, 1999.

Other points of interest

The brevity of the Triṃśikā (a mere 240 pādas of verse) belies its doctrinal centrality: the entire mature system of Indian and East Asian Yogācāra unfolds through commentary on these 30 verses. The Cí’ēn tradition memorised the text as a basic curricular requirement. The Tibetan tradition, by contrast, gave equal weight to Vasubandhu’s Viṃśatikā (the KR6n0055 Wéishí èrshí lùn 唯識二十論, T31n1590) and treats the two together as Vasubandhu’s vijñaptimātra doctrine.

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