Jí zhū fǎ bǎo zuì shàng yì lùn 集諸法寶最上義論
Compendium on the Supreme Meaning of the Various Dharma-Treasures by 善寂菩薩 (Shànjì púsà / Śāntipa, 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A two-juǎn late-Indian Mahāyāna compendium on the doctrine of emptiness (空) and the supreme meaning (paramārtha-satya), translated under the Northern Sòng by 施護 (Dānapāla)‘s bureau. The work argues that the various dharma-ratna — i.e. the eighteen elements, twelve sense-spheres, five aggregates, etc. — are all without intrinsic nature (無自性), and that their “supreme meaning” lies in the recognition of this emptiness. Like the parallel Jí dàshèng xiāng lùn KR6o0041, the work is a concise reference treatise rather than a major philosophical work.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1638) lists no internal sub-divisions.
Abstract
The colophon “善寂菩薩造，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” credits Dānapāla’s bureau with the translation. The author 善寂 (Śāntipa / Śānti-bhadra, possibly the late-Indian Vikramaśīla master Ratnākaraśānti) is one of several late Indian paṇḍitas whose works reached the Sòng court in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries. The work is structured as a series of doctrinal aphorisms with brief glosses, in the manner of a late Indian Mādhyamika or Yogācāra summary treatise. Translation date 980–1017.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
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