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方便心論

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Text ID
KR6o0005
Date
472–472
Dynasty
後魏

Fāngbiàn xīn lùn 方便心論

Treatise on the Heart of Means (Upāyahṛdaya / Prayogasāra) by 吉迦夜 (Jíjiāyè / Kekaya, 譯)

About the work

A short treatise of one juǎn in four chapters on Indian dialectic and the rules of debate, transmitted only in Chinese and treated by modern scholarship as the earliest surviving Buddhist work on logic — datable, on the basis of its terminology and method, to perhaps the second century, and thus pre-dating Dignāga by some three centuries. The Sanskrit original (presumed Upāyahṛdaya “Heart of Means” or Prayogasāra “Essence of Application”) does not survive. The text covers (1) the proper motives for composing a treatise (明造論品), (2) the points-of-defeat in debate (明負處品), (3) the methods of correct disputation (辯正論品), and (4) types of correlation or pervasion (相應品). The translator 吉迦夜 (Jíjiāyè / Kekaya, fl. mid 5th c.) was an Indian monk active under the Northern Wèi 北魏 who collaborated with the Chinese monk Tányào 曇曜 at Píngchéng 平城 in 472 (Yánxīng 延興 2). The work pre-dates and conceptually is closer to the early Indian Carakasaṃhitā vimānasthāna 8 and Nyāyasūtra materials than to the mature Buddhist pramāṇa tradition; it preserves the early debate-vocabulary of jāti (futile rejoinders) and nigrahasthāna (points-of-defeat) before these were absorbed into the Nyāya system.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T32N1632) records four chapters:

  1. Míng zào lùn pǐn 明造論品 — Chapter Explaining the Composition of the Treatise
  2. Míng fù chù pǐn 明負處品 — Chapter Explaining Points-of-Defeat (nigrahasthāna)
  3. Biàn zhèng lùn pǐn 辯正論品 — Chapter Distinguishing Correct Disputation
  4. Xiāngyīng pǐn 相應品 — Chapter on Correlations (samāna / prasaṅga)

CANWWW lists no related-text cross-references for this title.

Abstract

The Taishō text opens “後魏西域三藏吉迦夜譯”, attributing the translation to 吉迦夜 (Jíjiāyè / Kekaya), an “Indian Tripiṭaka master” active under the Northern Wèi. The standard scriptural catalogs (Lìdài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶記 T2034, Kāiyuán shìjiào lù 開元釋教錄 T2154) place his translation activity at Yánxīng 延興 2 (472 CE) at Píngchéng 平城, in collaboration with Tányào 曇曜. The work has been the subject of considerable modern controversy regarding its authorship: traditional Chinese catalogs ascribe it to Nāgārjuna, but no internal evidence supports this; modern scholarship from Tucci onward has uniformly rejected the Nāgārjuna ascription and treats the work as an anonymous early Buddhist debate-manual, possibly Sarvāstivādin or Vibhajyavādin in origin, perhaps written within a generation either side of the Common Era. The Chinese version is, accordingly, the unique source for an entire stratum of Indian dialectical thought predating both Nyāya and Dignāgan logic. The Taishō follows the Korean canon (高麗藏) collated against Sòng, Yuán, Míng, and palace editions.

Translations and research

  • Tucci, Giuseppe. Pre-Diṅnāga Buddhist Texts on Logic from Chinese Sources. Gaekwad’s Oriental Series 49. Baroda, 1929. — The classic Western edition and English translation.
  • Kajiyama Yūichi 梶山雄一. “On the Authorship of the Upāyahṛdaya.” In Indianisme et bouddhisme. Mélanges offerts à Mgr Étienne Lamotte. Louvain: Institut Orientaliste, 1980, pp. 107–117.
  • Kajiyama Yūichi 梶山雄一. “Hōben shin ron no shisō” 方便心論の思想. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 9.2 (1961): 596–600.
  • Yīnshùn 印順. Yìndù zhī fójiào 印度之佛教 [Indian Buddhism]. Taipei: Zhèngwén, 1985, with extensive treatment of the Fāngbiàn xīn lùn in chapters on early Buddhist debate.

Other points of interest

The Fāngbiàn xīn lùn preserves a rare Buddhist articulation of the early Indian science of debate (tarka-vidyā) before its formal canonization in either the Hindu Nyāya tradition or in the mature Buddhist pramāṇa school. It is the only KR6o text not connected to the Dignāga / Nyāyamukha lineage; its placement here reflects the yīnmíng division’s role as the catch-all for Indian dialectical and logical writings.

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