Shèngjūn huàshì bǎiyù jiātā jīng 勝軍化世百喻伽他經
Sūtra of One Hundred Verse-Parables of Jayasena Transforming the World by 天息災 (Tiānxīzāi / later renamed Fǎxián, 譯)
About the work
A one-juǎn Northern-Sòng translation of an Indian Buddhist verse-parable compendium attributed to the figure Shèngjūn 勝軍 (Skt. Jayasena) — likely the late-Indian Yogācāra master of that name. The work consists of one hundred gāthā-parables (bǎiyù jiātā = “hundred analogy-gāthās”) on Buddhist doctrinal and practical themes. Alternative title Shèngjūn bǎiyù jīng 勝軍百喻經. Translated by 天息災 Tiānxīzāi.
Structural Division
CANWWW (T32N1692) lists no internal sub-divisions and no related-text pointers.
Abstract
The “hundred parables” (śatāvadāna / bǎi yù) genre in Indian Buddhism uses short narrative analogies to convey doctrinal points to a non-specialist audience. The most famous extant exemplar in the Chinese canon is the Bǎi-yù jīng 百喻經 (T209) of Saṅghasena, translated by Guṇavṛddhi in the late Liú-Sòng. The present Shèng-jūn bǎi-yù is a much later (Sòng-period) addition to the genre, attributed to the figure Jayasena and translated by Tiānxīzāi at the Sòng Institute. The Sanskrit original is lost.
The use of the original name 天息災 (rather than the post-987 name 法賢) in the catalog byline suggests the translation pre-dates the 987 imperial rename, placing it in the period 982–987. The Taishō uses 高麗 as base.
Translations and research
- No substantial secondary literature located on this specific text.
- Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2003. — Background on the Sòng Institute.
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr., and Donald S. Lopez Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2014. — Brief reference (s.v. Bǎi-yù jīng).
Other points of interest
The text closes the KR6o division (the Yogācāra and miscellaneous śāstra corpus of Taishō Vol. 32). Its position there reflects the Taishō editors’ organisation of late Indian-Chinese translation literature: didactic and devotional verse compilations are gathered at the end of the volume after the major doctrinal treatises.
Links
- CBETA
- DILA Authority (Tiānxīzāi / Fǎxián): A000146
- Dazangthings date evidence (990): [ 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/