Dàfāngguǎng Huáyán shí’è pǐn jīng 大方廣華嚴十惡品經
The Mahāvaipulya Avataṃsaka Chapter on the Ten Evils anonymous Chinese composition; critical edition by 徐紹強 (整理)
About the work
A short propagandistic apocryphal sūtra in one fascicle (also titled Dàfāngguǎng Huáyán shí’è jīng, Dàfāngguǎng Huáyán jīng shí’è pǐn, or simply Huáyán shí’è jīng), masquerading as a chapter of the Avataṃsaka. The doctrinal centre is the soteriological priority of bù yǐn jiǔ 不飲酒 (“no alcohol”) and bù shíròu 不食肉 (“no meat-eating”), framed within five precepts (no harm, no idleness, no alcohol, no meat, constant great compassion). The bulk of the text expounds the karmic consequences of intoxication and meat-eating and the merits of abstaining.
Abstract
The sūtra is a textual product of the duànshí jiǔròu 斷食酒肉 (abstention from alcohol and meat) movement led by Liáng Wǔdì 梁武帝 and his court (cf. Guǎng hóngmíng jí 廣弘明集, juan 30–31). It is first listed in Fǎjīng lù 法經錄 (j. 2, 594 CE) and consistently classified as wěi jīng 偽經 in subsequent catalogues (Rénshòu lù 仁壽錄 j. 4, Nèidiǎn lù 內典錄 j. 10, DàZhōu lù 大周錄 j. 15, Kāiyuán lù 開元錄 j. 18). It was excluded from all Chinese canons. The Taishō text (T85n2875) was set from S.1320 alone, an incomplete fragment. The 1995 critical edition by Xú Shàoqiáng 徐紹強 collates seven Beijing Library + British Library Dūnhuáng witnesses (Běi 76 / nài 59 — base text; Běi 77, 78, 79; S.1320, S.6790, S.5612 verso) and notes two further witnesses (Russian Mèng 1098, Lǐ Shèngduó 李盛鐸 collection) not collated. Composition is firmly bracketed by the catalogue history (504/520–594) — an early-sixth-century Liáng product.
Translations and research
- Lévi, Sylvain, “Notes sur l’apocryphe Houa-yen che-è king,” T’oung Pao 7 (1906) — the earliest Western treatment.
- Suwa Gijun 諏訪義純, “Liáng Wǔdì 〈duàn jiǔ ròu wén〉 to gisaku kyōten 梁武帝〈断酒肉文〉と偽作経典,” in Chūgoku chūsei bukkyōshi kenkyū 中国中世仏教史研究 (Tōkyō: Daitō shuppansha, 1988) — the standard study, arguing for direct connection to Liáng-Wǔdì’s vegetarianism programme.
- Kieschnick, John, “Buddhist Vegetarianism in China,” in Of Tripod and Palate, ed. R. Sterckx (New York: Palgrave, 2005) — broad context.
- Xú Shàoqiáng 徐紹強, “Dàfāngguǎng Huáyán shí’è pǐn jīng 整理本前言,” in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 1 (Beijing: Zōngjiào wénhuà, 1995).
Other points of interest
The work is one of the cleanest known cases of Chinese-composed scripture commissioned to support imperial religious policy: the LiángWǔdì decree forbidding monastic meat-eating and the present sūtra emerge in tandem, and the text’s xìnxíng 信行 / bèishòu 背受 rhetoric directly mirrors the imperial proclamations preserved in Guǎng hóngmíng jí. It is therefore an important data-point in the history of Buddhist-imperial textual collaboration in Southern China.
Links
- CBETA
- Cf. T85n2875 (older Taishō recension based on S.1320 alone)