Qī fó zànbài jiātā 七佛讚唄伽他
Hymn-Stanzas in Praise of the Seven Buddhas (Saptabuddhastotra) by 法天 (Fǎtiān / Dharmadeva, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian Saptabuddhastotra — a hymn in praise of the seven past buddhas (the saptatathāgata sequence: Vipaśyin, Śikhin, Viśvabhū, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, and Śākyamuni). Translated by 法天 Fǎtiān (Dharmadeva, d. 1001). The Sanskrit title is Saptabuddhastotra (alternative Saptajinastava).
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1682) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The seven-buddhas sequence is one of the canonical Buddhist devotional themes, attested already in the Mahāpadāna-sutta and the Cháng āhán (Dīrgha Āgama, KR6a0001) Dà běn jīng 大本經. The present stotra is a verse hymn praising each of the seven in turn. Comparable Indian stotras survive in Sanskrit and Tibetan witnesses; this Sòng Chinese version represents the Tang/Sòng-period reception of the genre.
Fǎtiān’s translation career began at Pújīn 蒲津 in Hézhōng prefecture in the early 970s — his earliest known translation, the Qī fó zàn 七佛讚, was made there with the local Sanskritist Fǎjìn 法進. Whether the present Qī fó zànbài jiātā is identical with or distinct from that early Qī fó zàn is unclear; the transmission history may have produced variant titles for substantively the same work. The composition window is Fǎtiān’s full career, 973–1001. The Taishō uses 金臧廣勝寺本 as base.
Translations and research
- No substantial dedicated secondary literature located on this specific text.
- Skilling, Peter. Mahāsūtras: Great Discourses of the Buddha. Oxford: Pali Text Society, 1994. — Background on the seven-buddhas tradition.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003.
Other points of interest
The seven-buddhas tradition was central to early Indian Buddhism (where it functioned to root Śākyamuni in a deeper temporal lineage of buddhahood) and persisted through the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna periods. Devotional stotras on the seven were a natural development; this Saptabuddhastotra is one of the few representatives of the genre to survive in any form.
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/