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成實論

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Text ID
KR6o0050
Date
411–412
Dynasty
姚秦

Chéng shí lùn 成實論

Treatise on the Establishment of Reality (Tattvasiddhi-śāstra) by 訶梨跋摩 (Hēlíbáimó / Harivarman, 造) and 鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí / Kumārajīva, 譯)

About the work

The most important Indian abhidharma treatise of the Sautrāntika–Bahuśrutīya school transmitted to China, in 16 juǎn and 202 chapters: the Tattvasiddhi-śāstra of 訶梨跋摩 (Harivarman, fl. c. 250–350), translated by 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 344–413) at the Xiāo-yáo-yuán 逍遙園 in Cháng’ān 長安 in Hóngshǐ 弘始 13–14 (411–412). The work is structured as a four-part vāda (發聚, 苦聚, 集聚, 道聚) treatment of the Four Noble Truths, with extensive analyses of the basic abhidharma categories on each. It became the foundational text of the “Chéng-shí” 成實 school of southern China — one of the major systematizing schools of fifth- and sixth-century Chinese Buddhism, with disputed-question literature filling several Sòng-period catalogs — before being eclipsed in the Sui-Táng period by Madhyamaka and Yogācāra schools.

Structural Division

CANWWW (T32N1646) records 202 chapters arranged in four “aggregates” (聚 jù):

  1. Fā jù 發聚 — Initial Aggregate (chapters 1–35: introductory, on the Three Jewels)
  2. Kǔ jù 苦聚 — Aggregate of Suffering (chapters 36–94: on the duḥkha-satya)
  3. Jí jù 集聚 — Aggregate of Origination (chapters 95–140: on the samudaya-satya)
  4. Miè jù / Dào jù 滅聚 / 道聚 — Aggregate of Cessation / Path (chapters 141–202: on the nirodha-satya and mārga-satya)

(Detail of all 202 chapter titles in CANWWW.)

Abstract

The Taishō text opens “成實論卷第一，訶梨跋摩造，姚秦三藏鳩摩羅什譯”. The composition of the underlying Sanskrit Tattvasiddhi-śāstra by Harivarman is conventionally placed in the third or early fourth century in northern India. Harivarman’s school affiliation is debated in modern scholarship: traditional Chinese exegesis (after Sēng-yòu 僧祐 and Sēng-zhào 僧肇) classed the Chéng-shí lùn as a “Hīnayāna” treatise of the Sautrāntika branch, but later Chinese commentators (especially of the Sānlùn 三論 school) noted its substantial agreement with Madhyamaka positions on emptiness; the modern consensus is that Harivarman represents an independent strand of abhidharma — variously called Sautrāntika, Bahuśrutīya, or Dārṣṭāntika — that anticipates aspects of Madhyamaka without being identifiable with it. The Sanskrit original does not survive; reconstructions of individual passages are possible from quotations in Yaśomitra’s Abhidharmakośa-vyākhyā and other sources. Translation date is fixed by the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 (T2145) and Gāosēng zhuàn 高僧傳 (T2059) to Hóngshǐ 13 (411), with revision in 412. The Chéng-shí school tradition in China was foundational for the Liáng-Chén period (5th-6th centuries); the Sāntián tōnglùn 三田統論 attributed to Liáng Wǔ-dì’s preceptor Sēng-yòu is one of the principal Chinese sub-commentaries.

Translations and research

  • Katsura Shōryū 桂紹隆. “Jōjitsu-ron no kenkyū” 成實論の研究. Indogaku Bukkyōgaku kenkyū 26.2 (1978).
  • Mizuno Kōgen 水野弘元. “Harivarman no Jōjitsuron” ハリヴァルマンの成實論. Komazawa daigaku Bukkyōgakubu kenkyū kiyō 32 (1974).
  • Sato Tetsuei 佐藤哲英. Tendai Daishi no kenkyū 天台大師の研究. Tokyo, 1961. — Treats the Chéng-shí tradition’s role in Tiāntái development.
  • Lai, Whalen. “The Chéng-shí lùn: Hīnayāna or Mahāyāna?” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 11.3 (1984): 211–229.
  • Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. — Treats the relation of the Chéng-shí lùn to early Chinese Madhyamaka.

Other points of interest

The Chéng-shí lùn is the largest of all Kumārajīva’s translations after the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-upadeśa 大智度論. Its placement in the yīnmíng division (KR6o) is, like that of KR6o0048, a Sòng-canon convention reflecting genre rather than content; the Taishō editors classed it among the lùn-jí 論集 (“miscellaneous treatises”). The Chéng-shí school in China developed an extensive literature of its own (the so-called 涅槃成實 school of Liáng-Chén Jiāngnán), much of which survives only in fragments quoted by Sui-Táng polemicists.

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