Pú tí zī liáng lùn 菩提資糧論
Treatise on the Provisions for Enlightenment (Bodhisaṃbhāra-śāstra) by 龍樹 (Lóngshù / Nāgārjuna, 本) — root verses, 自在 (Zìzài / Īśvara, 釋) — commentary, and 達磨笈多 (Dámójíduō / Dharmagupta, 譯)
About the work
A six-juǎn verse-and-commentary work consisting of root verses (mūla) attributed to 龍樹 (Nāgārjuna) and a prose commentary (vyākhyā) by the Indian master 自在 (Īśvara, “the Sovereign-Bhikṣu”; 比丘自在), translated into Chinese during the Suí 隋 period by 達磨笈多 (Dharmagupta, fl. 590–619). The work is a systematic treatise on the bodhisaṃbhāra — the “provisions” or “equipment” required for the attainment of bodhi, principally the six perfections (pāramitās) and the bodhicitta itself. The verses reflect a fully Madhyamaka analytic of śūnyatā and upāya; the commentary develops them in conventional doctrinal language.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1660) does not record an internal sub-division. The text is divided only by juǎn.
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “菩提資糧論卷第一 / 聖者龍樹本 比丘自在釋 / 大隋南印度三藏達磨笈多譯”. The structural framework is the standard Mahāyāna analysis of bodhi-mārga into “provisions” (saṃbhāra) of merit (puṇya) and wisdom (jñāna). The Sanskrit original does not survive complete; substantial fragments are extant, and a Tibetan translation in the bsTan-‘gyur (D 3939, 3940) preserves both the verses and the commentary. Comparison shows Dharmagupta’s Chinese is a faithful but typically somewhat compressed rendering. The translation is fixed by the Lì-dài sānbǎo jì 歷代三寶記 (T2034) within Dharmagupta’s Suí-period activity at Cháng’ān 長安 and Luòyáng 洛陽 between Dà-yè 大業 1 (605) and 12 (616). The attribution of the verses to Nāgārjuna is generally accepted in modern scholarship; the commentary’s author Īśvara is otherwise unattested in Indian sources but probably belongs to the late Madhyamaka tradition. The work is doctrinally a continuation of the Bodhicitta-vivaraṇa and Ratnāvalī programmes — the latter also translated by Paramārtha as KR6o0061 — and part of the corpus of Madhyamaka bodhicitta literature transmitted to East Asia.
Translations and research
- Lindtner, Christian. Nagarjuniana: Studies in the Writings and Philosophy of Nāgārjuna. Copenhagen, 1982. — Treats the Bodhisaṃbhāra extensively.
- Hahn, Michael. “Nagarjuna’s Suhṛllekha.” Indo-Iranian Journal (various). — Studies Nāgārjuna’s pedagogical works.
- Walser, Joseph. Nāgārjuna in Context. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005. — Treats the bodhicitta literature.
- May, Jacques. “On Madhyamaka Philosophy.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 6 (1978): 233–241. — General context.
Other points of interest
The work is one of three Madhyamaka bodhicitta texts associated with the Nāgārjuna-Āryadeva-Candrakīrti lineage and transmitted to East Asia in Chinese: the Ratnāvalī (KR6o0061), the Bodhisaṃbhāra-śāstra (KR6o0065), and the Bodhicaryāvatāra (KR6o0067, translated 982 by 天息災 — though wrongly attributed to Nāgārjuna in the Taishō, see KR6o0067 for discussion).
Links
- CBETA
- Dazangthings date evidence (610): [ 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/