Zàn fǎjiè sòng 讚法界頌
Hymn in Praise of the Dharmadhātu by 龍樹菩薩 (Lóngshù / Nāgārjuna, attributed; 造) and 施護 (Shīhù / Dānapāla, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of the Dharmadhātu-stotra (or Dharmadhātu-stava) attributed to Nāgārjuna, by 施護 Shīhù (Dānapāla). The text is a stotra (Sanskrit devotional verse) in praise of the Dharma-realm — i.e., the absolute, ultimate reality.
Structural Division
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Abstract
The Dharmadhātu-stava is one of the principal Indic stotras attributed to Nāgārjuna, alongside the Niraupamya-stava, Lokātīta-stava, Cittavajra-stava, and others — collectively the Catuḥstava corpus. Its philosophical content is Tathāgatagarbha-inflected: the dharmadhātu is praised as the immanent buddhahood within all sentient beings, the matrix that is at once the cause of saṃsāra and the ground of nirvāṇa. Modern scholarship (Lindtner, Tola-Dragonetti) generally treats the Dharmadhātu-stava as authentic to Nāgārjuna or to his immediate circle.
The Sòng translation by Shīhù is dated to his Institute period 982–1017. Shīhù was one of the three principal translators of the early Sòng Institute for the Translation of Sūtras (with 法天 Fǎtiān and 法賢 Fǎxián / 天息災 Tiānxīzāi), and produced a vast corpus of prajñāpāramitā, dhāraṇī, and tantric translations during his three-decade tenure. The Taishō uses 金臧廣勝寺本 as base.
Translations and research
- Lindtner, Christian. Nagarjuniana. Copenhagen, 1982. — Discusses authorship and includes annotated translations of the Catuḥstava.
- Tola, Fernando, and Carmen Dragonetti. Nāgārjuna’s Refutation of Logic. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1995. — Background.
- Brunnhölzl, Karl, trans. In Praise of Dharmadhātu. Ithaca: Snow Lion, 2007. — English translation of the verses with traditional commentary (the Third Karmapa Rangjung Dorje’s commentary).
- Liebenthal, Walter. “The Sanskrit Text of the Dharmadhātustava.” Journal of the Bihar Research Society 38 (1952): 39–47.
Other points of interest
The Dharmadhātu-stava is one of the few Mādhyamika stotras with a clearly Tathāgatagarbha tilt; it has therefore been important for the Tibetan gzhan stong tradition (where it is read as evidence for an “other-emptiness” reading of Nāgārjuna), as well as for the East Asian Tathāgatagarbha-Yogācāra synthesis tradition. The Tibetan translation survives, and the gāthā-text has been partially reconstructed in Sanskrit.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Shīhù): A000844
- 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/