Jiāyè jié jīng 迦葉結經
Sūtra on the Convocation by Kāśyapa
translated by 安世高 (Ān Shìgāo, fl. 148–170, 譯)
About the work
A brief sūtra in one juan, traditionally classified under the Shǐchuán-bù 史傳部 because its subject matter is the First Council of Rājagṛha and the compilation of the canon by Mahākāśyapa, Ānanda, and Upāli. The Taishō edition (T49 no. 2027) attributes the translation to the Parthian master Ān Shìgāo, the foundational figure of Han-period Buddhist translation in China.
Abstract
The colophon attributes the translation to 安世高, whose Chinese activity is conventionally dated to the years 148–170 CE under Emperor Huán 桓 of the Later Hàn 後漢. The Ān Shìgāo attribution has been preserved consistently from the Chū sānzàng jì jí of 僧祐 onward and is repeated in the Lìdài sānbǎo jì (KR6r0011), the Kāiyuán shìjiào lù (KR6m0014 / T55 no. 2154), and the Taishō.
Modern philological scholarship — most prominently Jan Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations (Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, 2008) — has been cautious about wholesale acceptance of Ān Shìgāo attributions, distinguishing a small “core” of stylistically secure works from a much larger penumbra of texts attributed to him in later catalog tradition. The Jiāyè jié jīng is not in Nattier’s secure core; she treats it as a later attribution. The most defensible conclusion is that the text is an early translation (probably second- to third-century) of an Indic source closely related to the Council narratives in the vinayas of the various schools, and that the Ān Shìgāo attribution reflects later catalog convention rather than secure authorship.
The sūtra narrates the convocation summoned by Mahākāśyapa shortly after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa, the recitation of vinaya by Upāli and sūtra by Ānanda, and the dispute about whether the minor and lesser rules might be abrogated.
Translations and research
- Jan Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han 東漢 and Three Kingdoms 三國 Periods (Tokyo: IRIAB / Soka University, 2008) — the standard critical guide to Ān Shìgāo and his school; classifies the Jiāyè jié jīng among the later, non-core attributions.
- Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien (Louvain, 1958) — uses the text as a witness to Chinese receptions of the First Council narrative.
Links
- CBETA: T49n2027