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提婆菩薩破楞伽經中外道小乘四宗論

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Text ID
KR6o0043
Date
508–535
Dynasty
後魏

Típó púsà pò Léngqié jīng zhōng wài dào xiǎo shèng sì zōng lùn 提婆菩薩破楞伽經中外道小乘四宗論

Bodhisattva Āryadeva’s Refutation of the Four Non-Buddhist and Hīnayāna Theses Mentioned in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra by 提波菩薩 (Típó púsà / Āryadeva, 造) and 菩提流支 (Pútíliúzhī / Bodhiruci, 譯)

About the work

A short one-juǎn polemical treatise attributed to Āryadeva — written in the colophon as 提波菩薩 (a Wèi-period orthographic variant of the canonical 提婆菩薩) — translated by 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci) under the Northern Wèi 後魏. The text takes the four non-Buddhist theses listed in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra — (1) 因中有果 kāraṇe kāryasattvavāda (the effect pre-exists in the cause; the Sāṃkhya position), (2) 因中無果 kāraṇe kāryāsattvavāda (the effect is non-existent in the cause; the Vaiśeṣika position), (3) 因中亦有亦無果 kāraṇe sad-asad-kārya-vāda (both pre-existent and non-pre-existent; the Jaina position), and (4) 因中非有非無果 kāraṇe nāsanno na sannāsta-kārya-vāda (neither; the Mādhyamika opponent’s position) — and refutes each in sequence using Mādhyamika arguments.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T32N1639) lists no internal sub-divisions.

Abstract

The Taishō text opens “提波菩薩造，後魏北印度三藏菩提流支譯”. The translator 菩提流支 (Bodhiruci, fl. 508–535) was an Indian translator at the Northern Wèi capital Lùoyáng 洛陽 and later Yè 鄴, where he produced an extensive corpus of Yogācāra and Laṅkāvatāra translations including the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra itself (T671) and the Daśabhūmikabhāṣya of Vasubandhu (T1522). The treatise itself is closely related to the materials in the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra, ch. 2; modern scholarship treats it as a derivative compilation rather than as a free-standing original by Āryadeva. The Sanskrit and Tibetan parallels do not survive; the Chinese is the only canonical witness. Translation date is bracketed by Bodhiruci’s translation career, 508–535.

Translations and research

  • Lindtner, Christian. Nāgārjuniana. Copenhagen, 1982. — Discusses the attribution issue.
  • Tola, Fernando, and Carmen Dragonetti. On Voidness: A Study of Buddhist Nihilism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1995. — Treats the four-thesis materials.
  • Suzuki, D. T. Studies in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. London: Routledge, 1930. — Frames the doctrinal context.

Other points of interest

The text is the first of a paired set with KR6o0044 (the Pò Léngqié jīng zhōng wài dào xiǎo shèng nièpán lùn — Refutation of the Twenty Non-Buddhist Theories of Nirvāṇa in the Laṅkāvatāra). Both are short polemical works that depend on the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra for their Buddhist source-material; both are translated by Bodhiruci; both attribute themselves to Āryadeva; both survive only in Chinese.

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