Fā pú tí xīn jīng lùn 發菩提心經論
Treatise on the Sūtra Concerning the Production of the Bodhi-Mind by 天親菩薩 (Tiānqīn púsà / Vasubandhu, 造) and 鳩摩羅什 (Jiūmóluóshí / Kumārajīva, 譯)
About the work
A two-juǎn treatise on the production of the bodhi-mind (bodhicittotpāda), traditionally attributed to 天親菩薩 (Vasubandhu, fl. 4th–5th century — 天親 is the older Chinese rendering, the Tang-period and standard rendering being 世親), translated into Chinese by 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 344–413) at the Yáo-Qín 後秦 Cháng’ān workshop. The work treats the systematic production and cultivation of bodhicitta across twelve chapters, drawing on the Daśabhūmika-sūtra and the Bodhisattvabhūmi. The Taishō title-line places this in Kumārajīva’s late Cháng’ān period.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1659) records twelve chapters:
- Quàn fā pǐn 勸發品 — Chapter on Encouragement
- Fā xīn pǐn 發心品 — Chapter on the Production of the Mind
- Yuàn shì pǐn 願誓品 — Chapter on Vows and Oaths
- Tán bōluómì pǐn 檀波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Generosity (dāna)
- Shī bōluómì pǐn 尸波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Morality (śīla)
- Chàn bōluómì pǐn 羼提波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Patience (kṣānti)
- Pílíyē bōluómì pǐn 毘梨耶波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Vigour (vīrya)
- Chán bōluómì pǐn 禪波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Meditation (dhyāna)
- Bōrě bōluómì pǐn 般若波羅蜜品 — Chapter on the Perfection of Wisdom (prajñā)
- Rú shí pǐn 如實品 — Chapter on Suchness
- Kōng wúxiāng wúyuàn pǐn 空無相無願品 — Chapter on Emptiness, Signlessness, and Wishlessness
- Gōngdé chí pǐn 功德持品 — Chapter on the Maintenance of Merit
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “《發菩提心經論》卷上 / 天親菩薩造 / 後秦龜茲國三藏鳩摩羅什譯”. The opening verse honours “the Limitless One, the Buddhas of past, present, and future.” The Sanskrit original does not survive; the work is unattested in the Tibetan tradition. The attribution to Vasubandhu is open to question on stylistic grounds — Kumārajīva’s translation idiom may be slightly different from his other Vasubandhu translations — but no decisive case against authenticity has been made, and modern scholarship generally accepts it as a genuine Vasubandhu work. The translation is registered in the Chū sānzàng jì jí 出三藏記集 of Sēngyòu (T2145, late 5th c.) within Kumārajīva’s Cháng’ān corpus, dated approximately 401–413. The work served as one of the foundational texts on bodhicitta in early medieval Chinese Buddhism and was extensively cited in the Sui-Táng bodhicitta literature of the Tiāntái and Huáyán schools.
Translations and research
- Frauwallner, Erich. On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law Vasubandhu. Rome, 1951. — Foundational on Vasubandhu chronology.
- Mochizuki Bukkyō Daijiten 望月仏教大辞典 s.v. Hatsu-bodaishin kyōron.
- Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Honolulu, 1997. — Treats the broader bodhicitta literature.
Other points of interest
The work was widely cited in Sui-Tang exegesis as a doctrinal authority on bodhicittotpāda; its inclusion of the six perfections within the bodhi-mind framework prefigures the structural convention of later Mahāyāna bodhicitta manuals. Its title — “jīnglùn” 經論 (“sūtra-treatise”) rather than the more standard lùn — suggests that the redactors viewed the work as an authoritative composite of sūtra material with treatise-style commentary, an unusual genre marker in early medieval Chinese Buddhism.
Links
- CBETA
- Dazangthings date evidence (405): [ 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/