Dà zōng dì xuán wén běn lùn 大宗地玄文本論
Foundational Treatise on the Great-Source-Ground Profound Text (Mahābhūmi-rahasya-mūla-śāstra) by 馬鳴菩薩 (Mǎmíng púsà / Aśvaghoṣa, 造 — but see Abstract) and 真諦 (Zhēndì / Paramārtha, 譯)
About the work
A twenty-juǎn doctrinal treatise traditionally attributed to 馬鳴菩薩 (Aśvaghoṣa) and translated into Chinese by 真諦 (Paramārtha) under Chén patronage. The title translates approximately as “Foundational Treatise on the Profound Text of the Great-Source-Ground” — the “five vajra positions” (金剛五位) of the doctrinal scheme. The work is structurally organised as a series of fēn 分 (“divisions” — over forty in the complete twenty-juǎn text), each setting forth a doctrinal classification along the vajra-position axis.
The work is almost certainly a Chinese apocryphon, parallel in character to the Awakening of Faith itself, and like the latter falsely attributed to Aśvaghoṣa and falsely ascribed to Paramārtha as translator. The doctrinal vocabulary (especially the “five vajra positions” framework) is unattested in any Indic source and bears the marks of late sixth- or seventh-century Chinese systematisation. The work was canonised in the Sòng Tripitaka and beyond, but its scholarly provenance is firmly Chinese.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1669) does not record a chapter sub-division beyond juǎn divisions. The text proceeds through forty-some “decision-discrimination divisions” (決擇分 juézé fēn), each treating one aspect of the doctrinal system.
Abstract
The Taishō text opens “《大宗地玄文本論》卷第一 / 馬鳴菩薩造 / 真諦三藏譯” and the first chapter heads “歸依德處無邊大決擇分第一” — “First Great Decision-Discrimination Division on the Limitless Place of Refuge-Virtue”. The opening verse honours “the all-non-residual brightness, the not-one not-many regular-ground”. The work’s distinctive doctrinal contribution is the “five vajra positions” (金剛五位) scheme, set forth in greater detail in [[KR6o0099|Yáng Wén-huì’s Lüè-zhù 略註]] and most influential later through the Qing-period reception of the text. The five positions are: 無超次第漸轉位 (the gradual-transformation position), 無餘究竟總持位 (the unsurpassed dhāraṇī position), 周徧圓滿廣大位 (the universally-pervading vast position), 一切諸法俱非位 (the all-dharmas-are-not position), and 一切諸法俱是位 (the all-dharmas-are-thus position).
The work was canonised in the standard Sòng Tripitaka; it was textually marginal until the late Qing, when Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 (1837–1911) revived interest in it as part of his lay-Buddhist reform programme at the Jīnlíng kèjīngchù 金陵刻經處 in Nanjing. The work’s modern revival is largely due to Yáng’s efforts.
Translations and research
- Mochizuki Bukkyō Daijiten 望月仏教大辞典 s.v. Dai-shū-chi gen-mon hon-ron. — Standard reference summary; treats the apocryphon question.
- Welch, Holmes. The Buddhist Revival in China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. — Treats Yáng Wén-huì’s revival of the text.
- Goldfuss, Gabriele. Vers un bouddhisme du XXe siècle: Yang Wenhui (1837–1911), réformateur laïque et imprimeur. Paris: Collège de France, 2001.
Other points of interest
The work’s structural feature — twenty juǎn divided into forty-some jué-zé fēn — is paralleled in late sixth- and seventh-century Chinese-Buddhist apocryphal literature, particularly the Sì-chéng-tí lún genre. The “five vajra positions” doctrine appears nowhere in genuine Aśvaghoṣa works, and the Sanskrit equivalent is unattested.
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/