Jí dà shèng xiāng lùn 集大乘相論
Compendium of Mahāyāna Definitions by 覺吉祥智菩薩 (Jué-jí-xiáng-zhì púsà / Bodhiśrījñāna, 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A short two-juǎn lexical compendium of Mahāyāna doctrinal definitions translated under the Northern Sòng by 施護 (Dānapāla, fl. 980–1018) and his bureau. The work is an anthology of brief technical definitions: the eighteen elements (十八界), the twelve sense-spheres (十二處), the five aggregates (五蘊), the four noble truths, the twelve links of dependent origination, and so on through the major Mahāyāna doctrinal categories. As such, it is a useful reference work but not an original philosophical treatise.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1637) lists no internal sub-divisions for the two-juǎn structure.
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “覺吉祥智菩薩造，西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試光祿卿傳法大師賜紫臣施護奉詔譯”. The Sanskrit original does not survive; the work is one of a number of late Indian Mahāyāna compendia that reached the Sòng court via the regular Indian-mission channel after Dānapāla’s arrival in China in 980. The opening “歸命妙吉祥菩薩摩訶薩” — “I take refuge in Mañjuśrī-bodhisattva-mahāsattva” — is a standard invocation, after which the body of the text proceeds through the doctrinal categories in summary form. The translation date is bracketed by Dānapāla’s arrival in 980 and his death in 1017 or 1018.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The work is one of the lesser productions of Dānapāla’s translation bureau. It is included in the yīnmíng division because of its lexical / definitional nature, even though it has no formal yīnmíng content; the placement reflects the Taishō editors’ classification of late-Indian śāstras by formal genre rather than topical subject.
Links
- CBETA
- 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla) DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): T = CBETA, Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. 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. Dazangthings source
- Kanseki DB