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王法正理論

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Text ID
KR6n0110
Date
649–649
Dynasty
唐

Wángfǎ zhènglǐ lùn 王法正理論

Treatise on the Right Principles of Royal Government (Rāja-dharma-nyāya-śāstra) attributed to 彌勒菩薩 (Maitreya, 造), translated by 玄奘 (Xuánzàng, 譯)

About the work

A single-fascicle treatise on the dhárma of kingship, attributed in Chinese tradition to Maitreya (彌勒菩薩) and translated by 玄奘 in the Táng. Preserved in the Taishō at T31n1615; sub-section of the great Yogācāra-doctrinal Yújiā shīdì lùn 瑜伽師地論 (the Yogācārabhūmi) tradition. The text is one of the principal Indian Buddhist rājadharma texts to enter the Chinese canon, and the only one preserved with a Maitreya-attribution.

Structural Division

CANWWW does not list internal sub-parts for T31N1615 and does not record cross-references; the text is a single self-contained essay. Its internal structure follows a six-fold scheme that the Buddha gives to King Chūài 出愛王 (Skt. Mūrdhāvasikta?): (1) wángzhī guòshī 王之過失 (a king’s failings — nine kinds), (2) wángzhī gōngdé 王之功德 (a king’s virtues), (3) wáng shuāisǔn mén 王衰損門 (the gates of royal decline), (4) wáng fāngbiàn mén 王方便門 (the gates of royal expedient means), (5) wáng kěài fǎ 王可愛法 (the dharmas a king should cherish), (6) néng yǐnfā wáng kěài fǎ 能引發王可愛法 (the means of bringing forth those dharmas).

Prefaces

The text has no separate preface. It opens with the standard sūtra-style framing — citation of an “Chūàiwáng sūtra” in which King Chūài approaches the Buddha and asks for instruction on the true guò (failings) and gōngdé (virtues) of kings — and then proceeds directly to the Buddha’s exposition. The text is thus a sūtra-genre Mahāyāna treatise (lùn) of the xínglùn 行論 (“essay-by-citation”) type that draws its authority from a Buddha-discourse cited in full.

Abstract

The Wángfǎ zhènglǐ lùn is a Yogācāra extract: in the Sanskrit tradition the same material survives embedded in the Bodhisattvabhūmi section of the Yogācārabhūmi. The Chinese transmission as a stand-alone text is the result of 玄奘’s practice of translating doctrinally significant sub-sections of the Yújiā as independent treatises — a pattern also seen with the KR6n0112 Guān suǒyuányuán lùn, the KR6n0119 Zhǎngzhōng lùn, and others.

The dating is precise: 玄奘’s translation activity on the Yogācāra corpus occurred at Cí’ēnsì in Chángān between his return from India (645) and his death (664); the closely-related Yújiā shīdì lùn was completed in Zhēnguān 22 (648), so the Wángfǎ zhènglǐ lùn is most likely from the immediate translation cycle that followed, conventionally dated Zhēnguān 23 = 649.

The text is doctrinally important as the principal Mahāyāna Buddhist statement of rāja-dharma in the Chinese canon. Its nine vices include lack of self-mastery, violence, anger, niggardliness, accepting flattery, thoughtless action, neglect of the good dharma, ingratitude, and self-indulgence; the corresponding nine virtues are their opposites. The work was widely cited in late-Táng and Sòng Buddhist literature as the canonical Buddhist statement on royal duty.

Translations and research

  • Christoph Kleine, “Buddhist Monks as Royal Advisors,” in The Buddhist Forum 6 (2001).
  • Klaus-Dieter Mathes, A Direct Path to the Buddha Within (2008) — discusses the Yogācārabhūmi tradition in which the Wáng-fǎ zhèng-lǐ lùn is embedded.
  • Lambert Schmithausen, Ālayavijñāna: On the Origin and the Early Development of a Central Concept of Yogācāra Philosophy. 2 vols. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1987.

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