勝宗十句義論

Shèngzōng shí jùyì lùn 勝宗十句義論

The Treatise on the Ten Categories of the Vaiśeṣika School (= Daśapadārtha-śāstra) composed by 慧月 (造) (= Maticandra); translated by 玄奘 (譯)

About the work

A single-juan Chinese translation of the Daśapadārtha-śāstra (the Treatise on Ten Categories) of Maticandra 慧月 — one of the foundational treatises of the orthodox Indian Vaiśeṣika 勝論 philosophical school. The work treats the ten categories (shí jù-yì 十句義 / daśa-padārtha) — dravya (substance), guṇa (quality), karma (action), sāmānya (universal), viśeṣa (particular), samavāya (inherence), plus the four added by Maticandra: abhāva (non-being), śakti (power), aśakti (impotence), and sādṛśya (similarity). The original Vaiśeṣika treatise of Kaṇāda had only six categories; Maticandra’s augmentation to ten is one of the principal late-classical Vaiśeṣika developments. Translated into Chinese by Xuán-zàng 玄奘 (596–664) in his imperial translation bureau. Preserved at T54 no. 2138.

Prefaces

The byline reads 勝者慧月造，三藏法師玄奘奉詔譯 (“Composed by the Vaiśeṣika [partisan] Maticandra; translated by imperial command by the Tripiṭaka Master Xuán-zàng”). The text has no separate preface; it opens immediately with the doctrinal exposition:

There are ten categories (shí jù-yì 十句義): (1) dravya 實 (substance), (2) guṇa 德 (quality), (3) karma 業 (action), (4) sāmānya 同 (universal), (5) viśeṣa 異 (particular), (6) samavāya 和合 (inherence), (7) śakti 能 (power), (8) aśakti 無能 (impotence), (9) sādṛśya 俱分 (similarity / common-and-particular), (10) abhāva 無說 (non-being / non-predication).

Of the dravya category: there are nine kinds of substance — these are called the dravya category. Which are the nine?…

[The text continues with systematic exposition of each category.]

Abstract

Authorship and date: composed by Maticandra 慧月 (Sanskrit name reconstructed; “moon-of-wisdom” — Mati + candra; lifedates ca. 6th–7th c. India), a Vaiśeṣika scholar whose late-Vaiśeṣika augmentation of the canonical six categories to ten is preserved primarily through this Chinese translation (the Sanskrit original is lost). Translated by Xuán-zàng during his post-645 translation bureau career, before his death in 664. notBefore = 645 (Xuán-zàng’s return from India and the establishment of the imperial translation bureau); notAfter = 664 (Xuán-zàng’s death). Catalog dynasty 唐.

The work is the principal Chinese-canonical access point to the Vaiśeṣika philosophical school, complementing Paramārtha’s translation of the Sāṃkhya-kārikā (KR6s0072) for Sāṃkhya. Together, the two works represent the canonical Chinese-Buddhist scholarly access to the two principal orthodox non-Buddhist Indian philosophical schools that Buddhist apologetic literature systematically engaged with — particularly the Buddhist logical and Yogācāra 唯識 traditions which systematically refuted Vaiśeṣika positions on substance, universal, and inherence.

The work is also of great importance for the Sanskrit philological recovery of late-Vaiśeṣika doctrine — Maticandra’s Sanskrit Daśapadārtha-śāstra survives only through Xuán-zàng’s Chinese translation, with no extant Sanskrit witness. This makes the Chinese translation a primary source for late-classical Vaiśeṣika studies. Modern Sanskrit-back-translation projects have used Xuán-zàng’s text to reconstruct the lost Sanskrit original.

The augmentation of the canonical six categories (Kaṇāda’s original Vaiśeṣika-sūtra set: dravya, guṇa, karma, sāmānya, viśeṣa, samavāya) to ten by adding śakti, aśakti, sādṛśya, abhāva reflects engagement with Buddhist and Mīmāṃsā philosophical critiques and represents a substantial late-classical development of Vaiśeṣika ontology.

Translations and research

• Stcherbatsky, Frauwallner, and successor European Indologists for the Vaiśeṣika tradition.
• Karl H. Potter (ed.), Indian Metaphysics and Epistemology: The Tradition of Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika up to Gaṅgeśa (= Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, vol. 2, Princeton, 1977) — comprehensive treatment of the Vaiśeṣika tradition; treats Maticandra and the Chinese-canonical witness.
• Wilhelm Halbfass, On Being and What There Is: Classical Vaiśeṣika and the History of Indian Ontology (SUNY, 1992).
• Hattori Masaaki 服部正明, scholarship on the Yogācāra–Vaiśeṣika debates and Xuán-zàng’s translation work.

Other points of interest

The Chinese-canonical preservation of an otherwise-lost Sanskrit Vaiśeṣika treatise — and one as substantively important for understanding the late-classical augmentation of the classical Vaiśeṣika ontology — illustrates the inadvertent canonical-philological function of the Chinese Buddhist canon: by including comparative-reference texts from non-Buddhist traditions, the canon preserved important Indian philosophical material that the Indian-side Sanskrit transmission lost.

Links

• DILA authority: (慧月 entries are not preserved in the Buddhist Person Authority; A000300 is the Tang 玄奘-team translator entry above for 玄應)
• CBETA: T54n2138
• Translator: Xuánzàng 玄奘 (596–664), great pilgrim-translator
• Author of original: Maticandra 慧月 (ca. 6th–7th c. India), late-classical Vaiśeṣika scholar
• Companion non-Buddhist Indian philosophical work in Chinese: KR6s0072 Jīn qī-shí lùn (Sāṃkhya-kārikā, Paramārtha tr.)
• Foundational Vaiśeṣika source: Kaṇāda Vaiśeṣika-sūtra (six categories; Maticandra augments to ten)