Lóngshù púsà zhuàn 龍樹菩薩傳 (recension b)
Biography of the Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna
translated by 鳩摩羅什 (Kumārajīva, 344–413, 譯) under the Later Qín 後秦 (姚秦)
About the work
The second of the two Chinese recensions of the biography of Nāgārjuna 龍樹 transmitted in the Taishō, parallel to KR6r0036 (T2047a). Both recensions are attributed to 鳩摩羅什 and date from his Cháng’ān years 401–413. Recension b (the present text, T2047b) preserves variant readings — chiefly in the order of episodes and in some narrative detail — that the Taishō editors regarded as sufficiently distinct to merit separate publication.
Abstract
The narrative content is essentially the same as in KR6r0036: Nāgārjuna’s birth in southern India, his initial mastery of brahminical learning, his entry into the Buddhist saṃgha, his retrieval of the Prajñāpāramitā sūtras from the nāga kingdom, his composition of the foundational Madhyamaka treatises, and his eventual death. Recension b differs in some details — notably in the framing of the narrative around alchemical and magical motifs, which appear somewhat more developed than in recension a. Modern scholars (cf. Walleser) have interpreted the two recensions as alternate traditions descending from a single Chinese rendering by Kumārajīva, the variations introduced through manuscript transmission.
The principal value of recension b is comparative: it provides an independent witness to the Chinese Nāgārjuna hagiography and supplies readings that supplement those of KR6r0036.
Translations and research
- Max Walleser, The Life of Nāgārjuna from Tibetan and Chinese Sources (Calcutta, 1923) — uses both recensions.
- David Seyfort Ruegg, The Literature of the Madhyamaka School (Wiesbaden, 1981).
- Joseph Walser, Nāgārjuna in Context (New York, 2005).
Links
- CBETA: T50n2047b