Zhū jiào jué dìng míng yì lùn 諸教決定名義論
Treatise on the Definitive Names and Meanings of the Various Doctrines (Sarva-deśanā-niścaya-nāma-artha-śāstra) by 慈氏菩薩 (Císhì púsà / Maitreya, 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn short doctrinal treatise traditionally attributed to 慈氏菩薩 (Maitreya — the Yogācāra Maitreya, the celestial bodhisattva regarded as the source of the Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra and other foundational Yogācāra texts), translated into Chinese by 施護 (Dānapāla, fl. 980–1017) at the Sòng-period imperial Yìjīng-yuàn 譯經院 (“Translation Bureau”). The work establishes definitive names and meanings for the principal terms of Mahāyāna doctrine — bodhicitta, the trikāya, the pāramitās, the bhūmis — within a Yogācāra framework. Its homage verse honours the three jewels (Buddha, Dharma, Saṃgha) using the standard Sòng-period verse pattern.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1658) does not record an internal sub-division.
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “諸教決定名義論 / 聖慈氏菩薩造 / 西天譯經三藏朝奉大夫試鴻臚卿傳法大師臣施護奉詔譯” — the standard Sòng Yìjīngyuàn attribution-line for 施護. The translation falls within Dānapāla’s long activity at the imperial Translation Bureau founded by Sòng Tàizōng 太宗 in 982; Dānapāla’s translations span the Tàipíngxīngguó 太平興國 through Tiānxǐ 天禧 reigns. The Sanskrit original does not survive; the Tibetan tradition does not preserve a parallel attributed to Maitreya, and the attribution to “Maitreya” should be understood — as is generally the case with works ascribed to Maitreya in the late Indian period — as marking the work’s affiliation with the Yogācāra philosophical tradition rather than literal authorship by the celestial bodhisattva. The text is a compact systematising introduction to Mahāyāna terminology, more pedagogical than philosophical in character, and stands alongside other Sòng-period imperial-translation digests such as Pútíxīn líxiāng lùn 菩提心離相論 and Guǎngshì pútíxīn lùn 廣釋菩提心論 as part of the late Mahāyāna bodhicitta literature transmitted in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- Frauwallner, Erich. Die Philosophie des Buddhismus. Berlin, 1956. — Brief contextual notice.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino-Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — Treats the broader Sòng Yìjīng-yuàn translation programme; useful context.
- Jan Yün-hua. “Buddhist Relations Between India and Sung China.” History of Religions 6.1, 6.2 (1966). — Foundational study of the Sòng translation programme.
Other points of interest
The text is one of approximately 130 translations produced by 施護 over his thirty-five-year career at the Sòng Yìjīng-yuàn; many of them, like this one, are short doctrinal digests of late Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Taishō editors’ classification of the text in T32 alongside foundational Yogācāra-Madhyamaka treatises is somewhat generous; in stylistic terms it is closer to a doctrinal handbook than to a śāstra proper.
Links
- CBETA
- Dazangthings date evidence (1000): [ 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/