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取因假設論

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Text ID
KR6n0120
Date
700–711
Dynasty
唐

Qǔyīn jiǎshè lùn 取因假設論

Treatise on Designation Based on Causal Bases (Upādāya-prajñapti-prakaraṇa) by 陳那菩薩 (Dignāga, 造), translated by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 譯)

About the work

A single-fascicle prose treatise by 陳那菩薩 Dignāga (c. 480–540), translated by 義淨 Yìjìng in the early-eighth-century Táng. Preserved in the Taishō at T31n1622. One of the principal short Yogācāra-Madhyamaka treatises in the Chinese canon, demonstrating that all conventional designations (prajñapti) are constructed by adopting (upādāya = qǔyīn 取因) certain factors as their causal basis — neither identical with nor different from those factors.

Structural Division

CANWWW does not record sub-parts or cross-references for T31N1622. The Sanskrit Upādāya-prajñapti-prakaraṇa is preserved in Tibetan translation (Tōh. 3844); the Yìjìng version is the only Chinese witness.

Prefaces

The text opens directly: “The treatise says: In order to block [the wrong views of] one-natured-ness (yī xìng 一性) and different-natured-ness (yì xìng 異性) as not being [the case at the] limit, the Great Master [the Buddha] depended only on conventional designation (jiǎ shīshè 假施設) to declare the doctrinal essence — desiring to bring sentient beings expediently to enter, to direct their attention rightly, to depart from heretical sects, and permanently to cut off afflictions.” The treatise then enumerates the three kinds of upādāya-prajñapti (causally-based designations): (1) zǒngjù 總聚 (total-aggregation, e.g. the chariot from its parts), (2) xiāngxù 相續 (continuum, e.g. the person across moments), (3) fēnwèi chābié 分位差別 (positional differentiation, e.g. youth/middle-age/old-age within one continuum).

Abstract

The Qǔyīn jiǎshè lùn is the canonical Indian Yogācāra-school formulation of upādāya-prajñapti doctrine: the three-fold analysis of how all conventionally-designated objects (chariot, person, time-span) reduce to constructed designations on causal bases that are neither identical with nor different from the constructed object. The doctrine is doctrinally adjacent to Madhyamaka (the Mūla-madhyamaka-kārikā 24’s treatment of conventional truth) but is presented within the Yogācāra apparatus of vijñapti-mātra.

The treatise was translated by 義淨 in his productive Chángān decades (700–711) alongside the related Dignāga short works KR6n0119 Zhǎngzhōng lùn, KR6n0121 Guān zǒngxiàng lùn sòng, and the Dharmapāla commentary KR6n0113 Guān suǒyuán lùn shì. Together these constitute Yìjìng’s principal contribution to the Chinese transmission of the Dignāga corpus, complementing the earlier work of 真諦 and the parallel work of 玄奘.

Translations and research

  • Theodor Stcherbatsky, Buddhist Logic. 2 vols. Leningrad, 1932 — extensive treatment of Dignāga’s logical and analytical works in their Tibetan and Chinese transmissions.
  • Frauwallner, Erich. “Dignāga und sein Schule.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd- und Ostasiens 5 (1961), 125–148.
  • Hidenori Kitagawa 北川秀則, Indo koten ronrigaku no kenkyū: Jinna no taikei. Tokyo: Suzuki gakujutsu zaidan, 1965.

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