Dàshèng chéngyè lùn 大乘成業論
Mahāyāna Treatise on the Establishment of Karman (Vasubandhu, Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa) by 世親菩薩 (Shìqīn púsà = Vasubandhu, 造) and 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)
About the work
玄奘’s standard single-fascicle Táng translation of Vasubandhu’s Karmasiddhi-prakaraṇa, the second Chinese version of the work after KR6n0085 Yè chéngjiù lùn (T31n1608) by 毘目智仙. Translated at the Dàcí’ēnsì 大慈恩寺 in 651 (Yǒnghuī 永徽 2), per the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù j. 8.
Structural Division
CANWWW does not preserve a structural division for T31N1609. The single fascicle is internally organised as a systematic argument: (i) statement and refutation of various Sarvāstivāda accounts of karmic causation (the avijñapti-rūpa doctrine); (ii) statement and refutation of the Sautrāntika alternative (the bīja doctrine in conventional consciousness); (iii) presentation of the Yogācāra solution via the ālayavijñāna substrate.
Abstract
The Xuánzàng translation supplants the earlier Vimokṣaprajñā-ṛṣi version (KR6n0085) as the canonical East Asian text of the Karmasiddhi. It presents Vasubandhu’s argument with Xuánzàng’s standardised Yogācāra technical vocabulary — particularly the use of ālàiyē shí 阿賴耶識 for ālayavijñāna (against Vimokṣaprajñā’s older transliterations) and the careful preservation of the Indian abhidharma polemical structure of the original.
The dating is firm: 651 (Yǒnghuī 2), per the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù j. 8 and the Dà Táng dà cí’ēnsì sānzàng fǎshī zhuàn j. 7. The work is short and is not extensively commented upon in the Cí’ēn tradition; it is included in the canon principally as part of the systematic Vasubandhu corpus and as the doctrinal locus of the karmasiddhi argument. The text is one of the standard Vasubandhu writings in the Tibetan tradition (D 4062) and has been a focus of significant modern scholarship — particularly Étienne Lamotte’s groundbreaking 1936 study of the Karmasiddhi — that has clarified Vasubandhu’s contribution to the Indian karman-debate.
Translations and research
- Lamotte, Étienne. Le traité de l’acte de Vasubandhu, Karmasiddhiprakaraṇa. MCB 4 (1935–1936): 151–263.
- Anacker, Stefan. Seven Works of Vasubandhu. Delhi: Motilal, 1984. (English trans. of T1609.)
- Pruden, Leo M. Karma-Siddhi-Prakarana. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1987.
- Schmithausen, Lambert. Ālayavijñāna. Tokyo: IIBS, 1987.
Links
- CBETA
- 世親菩薩 Shìqīn púsà DILA
- 玄奘 Xuánzàng DILA
- Kanseki DB
- Dazangthings date evidence (655): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924-1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/