Jiāshè xiānrén shuō yī nǚrén jīng 迦葉仙人說醫女人經
Sūtra on the Sage Kāśyapa Expounding the Healing of Women by 法賢 (Fǎxián / Tiānxīzāi, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian medical-Buddhist sūtra in which the sage Kāśyapa (迦葉仙人 Jiā-shè xiān-rén) expounds the medical treatment of women’s illnesses. Translated by 法賢 Fǎxián at the Sòng Institute. The sage in question is the Indian medical-Vedic figure Kāśyapa (associated with the Kāśyapa-saṃhitā of the Āyurvedic tradition), Buddhicized in the Mahāyāna context.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1691) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The text is one of the more unusual entries in the Buddhist canon — a medical sūtra concerned specifically with women’s ailments and their treatment. The figure of Kāśyapa as expounder reflects the Indic medical-religious tradition in which sages of the early Vedic period were the conventional authorities on medicine; the Kāśyapa-saṃhitā (a Vedic-medical compendium) provides the doctrinal background. The Buddhicization of the figure into a Buddhist xiān-rén makes the work a Buddhist appropriation of the Vedic medical tradition. The Sanskrit original is lost; the work is preserved only in this Chinese version.
The Sòng translation is bracketed by Fǎxián’s Institute career, 982–1000. The Taishō uses 金臧廣勝寺本 as base.
Translations and research
- Salguero, C. Pierce. Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. — The standard study of Buddhist medical translation in China; treats the present text.
- Wujastyk, Dominik. The Roots of Ayurveda. London: Penguin, 2003. — Background on Indian Āyurveda.
- No further substantial dedicated study located.
Other points of interest
The text is one of very few canonical Buddhist works dedicated specifically to women’s medicine, and is therefore an important witness to the role of Buddhist monastic institutions in the transmission of Indian medical knowledge to East Asia.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Fǎxián): A000146
- Dazangthings date evidence (1001): [ 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/