Nígānzǐ wèn wú wǒ yì jīng 尼乾子問無我義經
Sūtra on the Nirgrantha Asking about the Doctrine of No-Self by 馬鳴菩薩 (Mǎmíng púsà / Aśvaghoṣa, 集) and 日稱 (Rìchēng / Sūryakīrti, 譯)
About the work
A short polemical “sūtra” of one juǎn compiled (集) by 馬鳴菩薩 (Aśvaghoṣa, c. 80–150) — though the attribution is conventional rather than certain — and translated by 日稱 (Rìchēng / Sūryakīrti, fl. 1056–1078) under the Northern Sòng. The text presents a dialogue in which a Jaina mendicant (尼乾子 Nirgrantha — i.e. one of Mahāvīra’s disciples) questions the Buddha on the doctrine of anātman (無我), and the Buddha responds with extensive expositions on the absence of an enduring self. Despite the title 經 (“sūtra”), the work is more accurately classed as a śāstra of Aśvaghoṣa’s school; the placement in T32 alongside the other yīnmíng texts reflects this.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1643) lists no internal sub-divisions.
Abstract
The colophon “馬鳴菩薩集，西天譯經三藏朝散大夫試鴻臚少卿宣梵大師賜紫…” breaks off in the source; the full colophon names 日稱 (Rìchēng / Sūryakīrti) as the translator. The Sanskrit original does not survive; the work is one of the late-Indian polemical treatises that reached the Sòng court via the Indian-mission channel in the eleventh century. The verb 集 (“compiled”) in the colophon may indicate that the work is a compilation from earlier Aśvaghoṣa-school materials rather than an original work of his hand. Translation date is bracketed by Rìchēng’s translation activity at the Yìjīng-yuàn 譯經院, c. 1056–1078. The text is structured as a series of question-and-answer dialogues, in classic vāda style. The Sòng rendering of “Aśvaghoṣa” as 馬鳴菩薩 is standard; the rendering as “Fǎchēng” 法稱 in KR6o0046 is a Sòng-period variant.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- CBETA
- 馬鳴菩薩 Mǎmíng púsà (Aśvaghoṣa) DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1060): 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