Nánhǎi jìguī nèifǎ zhuàn 南海寄歸內法傳
A Record of Buddhist Monastic Discipline as Sent Home from the South Seas
written by 義淨 (Yìjìng, 635–713, 撰)
About the work
A 4-juan late-7th-c. Buddhist vinaya-ethnographical treatise, written by Yìjìng 義淨 (字 Wénmíng 文明, 635–713) — the third great Tang pilgrim to India after Fǎxiǎn (399–413) and Xuánzàng (629–645). The work was composed during Yìjìng’s stay at Śrīvijaya (modern Palembang, Sumatra) on his return voyage from India, and was sent back to China ahead of the author. The autographic colophon dates the work to Tiānshòu 天授 2 (WǔZhōu reign-era) = 691. The text is known by its short title Nánhǎi jìguī zhuàn and is transmitted in Taishō 54 as T2125.
Abstract
The work is a sustained comparative-ethnographic study of contemporary Indian Buddhist monastic life, structured as 40 chapters covering topics in the daily life of the Indian saṅgha, with side-by-side comparison to contemporary Chinese practice. Topics include: monastic robes, ritual ablution, ordination procedure, daily meal-receipt, the uposatha, monastic study programmes, the Sarvāstivāda vinaya practice as observed at Nālandā, the regional differences among the four / five nikāyas of the Indian saṅgha, and many specific institutional practices. The work reflects Yì-jìng’s 25-year residence in India (671–695), during which he studied at Nālandā under Jñānacandra 智月 and others, and acquired the corpus of texts that would become the foundation of his subsequent translation career on his return.
The text is also a major correctional document for Chinese Buddhist practice. Yìjìng’s argument throughout is that Chinese Buddhist practice has departed from the genuine Indian tradition in many specific ways, and that the correct practice — as observed at Nālandā — should be restored. He systematically corrects: the Chinese mis-construal of the vinaya on robes, on the uposatha date, on the standard of ordination, on the propriety of monastic agriculture, on the monastic role of writing-and-reading, etc. The work is therefore a sharply critical reading of contemporary Chinese practice from the position of the Indian establishment.
The closing dedicatory verse beseeches that “Gṛdhrakūṭa be made equal to Shàolín, and Rājagṛha placed alongside our Sacred Land” — fixing the work’s frame as the integration of the Indian centre into the Chinese self-understanding of Buddhist practice. Like its predecessors KR6r0119 Fó-guó jì and KR6r0121 Xī-yù jì, the Nán-hǎi jì-guī zhuàn is one of the principal Tang documentary sources for Indian Buddhism — but it is uniquely focused on monastic practice rather than on geography or biography.
Translations and research
- J. Takakusu, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671–695) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896) — the classic English translation.
- Li Rongxi, Buddhist Monastic Traditions of Southern Asia (Berkeley: Numata Center, 2000) — modern English critical translation.
- 王邦維, 《南海寄歸內法傳校注》 (Běijīng: Zhōnghuá shū-jú, 1995) — the standard modern Chinese critical edition.
- 大野徹, 南海寄歸內法傳の研究 — Japanese-language scholarly treatment.
- John Strong, The Experience of Buddhism: Sources and Interpretations — uses the Nán-hǎi extensively.
- Étienne Lamotte, Histoire du bouddhisme indien (Louvain, 1958).
Other points of interest
The work, together with Yìjìng’s biographical-pilgrimage compendium 《大唐西域求法高僧傳》 DàTáng xīyù qiúfǎ gāosēng zhuàn (T2066, the biographies of 56 Chinese monks who travelled to India in the 7th c.), constitutes the principal late-7th-c. Indian-Buddhist documentary witness. It is a key source for the late state of Indian Buddhism before its progressive disruption in the 8th–12th centuries.
Links
- CBETA: T54n2125
- Wikipedia: Yijing (monk)