Sì dì lùn 四諦論
Treatise on the Four [Noble] Truths (Catuḥsatya-śāstra) by 婆藪跋摩 (Pósǒubámó / Vasuvarman, 造) and 真諦 (Zhēndì / Paramārtha, 譯)
About the work
A four-juǎn Indian abhidharma treatise on the Four Noble Truths (duḥkha, samudaya, nirodha, mārga), composed by Vasuvarman 婆藪跋摩 (a teacher of uncertain school affiliation, possibly Sautrāntika or Sammitīya, fl. uncertain) and translated into Chinese by 真諦 (Paramārtha, 499–569) during his late Cantonese period under Chén patronage. The text is structured around the four truths with introductory and summary sections, drawing extensively on a treatise of “the great sage Kātyāyaniputra” (大聖栴延論 — i.e. the Jñānaprasthāna) and on a longer “treatise of the elder Buddhamitra” (大德佛陀蜜); these two acknowledgements at the head of the work suggest that the Catuḥsatya-śāstra is, in genre, an introductory digest in the Sarvāstivāda-Sautrāntika tradition.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1647) records six chapters:
- Sīzé pǐn 思擇品 — Chapter on Investigation (juǎn 1)
- Lüèshuō pǐn 略說品 — Chapter on Brief Exposition (juǎn 2)
- Fēnbié kǔdì pǐn 分別苦諦品 — Chapter Analysing the Truth of Suffering (juǎn 2–3)
- Sīliáng jídì pǐn 思量集諦品 — Chapter Considering the Truth of Origination (juǎn 3)
- Fēnbié mièdì pǐn 分別滅諦品 — Chapter Analysing the Truth of Cessation (juǎn 3)
- Fēnbié dàodì pǐn 分別道諦品 — Chapter Analysing the Truth of the Path (juǎn 4)
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “《四諦論》卷第一，婆藪跋摩造，陳天竺三藏真諦譯” and frames itself with a programmatic verse acknowledging the Jñānaprasthāna of Kātyāyaniputra (“大聖栴延論”) and the longer treatise of Buddhamitra (“大德佛陀蜜”) as its two principal sources. The Sanskrit original does not survive; reconstructions of individual passages are possible only from the Chinese. The author Vasuvarman is otherwise virtually unknown — he is not listed in the standard Sarvāstivāda or Sautrāntika lineages — and modern scholars (notably Kanakura Enshō, Yamabe Nobuyoshi) have proposed Sāṃmitīya or Sautrāntika affiliation; the question remains open. The translation date is not precisely fixed by the Lì-dài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶記 (T2034) or the Kāiyuán-lù 開元錄 (T2154), but falls within Paramārtha’s Chén-period activity at Guǎngzhōu (557–569). The work was overshadowed in subsequent Chinese tradition by Vasubandhu’s [[KR6m0001|Abhidharmakośabhāṣya 阿毘達磨俱舍論]], also translated by Paramārtha (T1559, 567), but it remains an important witness to lesser-known abhidharma lineages of the late northern Indian schools.
Translations and research
- Yamabe Nobuyoshi 山部能宜. “Shitai-ron no chosha to shisō” 四諦論の著者と思想. Komazawa daigaku Bukkyōgaku-bu kenkyū kiyō 50 (1992).
- Kanakura Enshō 金倉円照. “Shitai-ron ni tsuite” 四諦論について. Indo tetsugaku Bukkyōgaku 5 (1990).
- Funahashi Naoya 舟橋尚哉. “Shitai-ron no kenkyū” 四諦論の研究. Section in his Nepāru shahon yori mita Yuishikichū-ron no genten kenkyū.
- Mochizuki Bukkyō Daijiten 望月仏教大辞典 s.v. Shitai-ron — provides a synoptic table of the relations between this text and the Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya.
Other points of interest
The opening verse’s acknowledgement of “the great sage Kātyāyaniputra’s treatise” (the Jñānaprasthāna) and “the elder Buddhamitra’s broad-and-deep treatise” — both Sarvāstivāda foundational works — places the Catuḥsatya-śāstra squarely within that exegetical orbit, even though Vasuvarman’s own school identification remains uncertain. The text was apparently never widely studied in China and stands as one of the more obscure abhidharma treatises in the Taishō Yújiā / Lùn-jí division; its scholarly recovery is essentially a twentieth-century achievement.
Links
- CBETA
- Dazangthings date evidence (565): [ T ] T = CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by 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. https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/1/