Fó yībǎibā míng zàn 佛一百八名讚
Hymn on the One Hundred and Eight Names of the Buddha by 法天 (Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian Buddhist nāmastotra — a hymn enumerating one hundred and eight epithets of the Buddha. Translated by 法天 Fǎtiān (Dharmadeva, d. 1001), one of the three principal translators of the early Sòng Institute. The variant title Fó yībǎibā míng zàn jīng 佛一百八名讚經 (with the jīng suffix) is also attested.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1679) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The nāmastotra genre — a hymn enumerating a fixed number (108, 1008, or 10,008) of names or epithets of a deity — is characteristic of late Indian Buddhist devotional literature, with parallels in the Hindu and Jain traditions. The number 108 is canonically auspicious. The Sanskrit original of this Fó yī-bǎi-bā míng zàn is not preserved, but the genre is well-known from numerous parallels (e.g., the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṅgīti, etc.).
The translation is bracketed by Fǎtiān’s career — broadly 973–1001 (he came to the Sòng in 973; from 982 he was at the Institute; he died in 1001). The Taishō uses 金臧廣勝寺本 as base.
Translations and research
- Davidson, Ronald M. Indian Esoteric Buddhism. New York: Columbia UP, 2002. — Background on the nāmastotra genre.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — Frame for Fǎtiān’s career.
- Jan Yün-hua. “Buddhist Translation Activity in the Northern Sung.” History of Religions 6 (1966).
Other points of interest
The text is one of a sequence of devotional zàn / sòng (Indian stotra) texts translated by Fǎtiān, 施護, and 法賢 in the late-tenth century at the Sòng Institute, attesting the institutional commitment to translating the late-Indian Buddhist devotional corpus rather than just the canonical sūtras and śāstras.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Fǎtiān): A000690
- Dazangthings date evidence (980): [ 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/