Rù púsà xíng lùn guǎngjiě 入菩薩行論廣解
Extensive Explanation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra kārikās by 寂天 (Śāntideva, 造頌); commentary by 傑操 (rGyal-tshab Dar-ma rin-chen, 註解); Tibetan-to-Chinese translation by 隆蓮 (法師)
About the work
A Chinese translation of the Bodhicaryāvatāra-pañjikā of rGyal-tshab Dar-ma rin-chen 傑操達瑪仁欽 (1364–1432, the chief disciple and dharma-heir of Tsongkhapa), commenting on Śāntideva’s foundational Bodhicaryāvatāra 入菩薩行論. Śāntideva’s text is a 10-chapter verse treatise of approximately 1,000 stanzas: the first four chapters (Praśaṃsā 讚功德, Pāpadeśanā 懺罪, Bodhicittaparigraha 總持, Bodhicittāpramāda 不放逸) on the cultivation of bodhicitta; the next six (Saṃprajanyarakṣaṇa 守護正知, Kṣānti 安忍, Vīrya 精進, Dhyāna 靜慮, Prajñā 般若, Pariṇāmanā 迴向) on bodhisattva conduct.
Abstract
The Bodhicaryāvatāra was first translated into Chinese in Yōngxī 2 (985 CE) by Tiānxīzāi 天息災 of the Northern Sòng under the title Pútí xíng jīng 菩提行經 (T32 no. 1662); that translation, ascribed to Nāgārjuna and lacking two chapters, is textually difficult and lacks any commentary. The full Tibetan version including rGyal-tshab’s pañjikā circulated only in the Tibetan canon. Lóng-lián fǎshī 隆蓮法師 (1909–2006), the foremost twentieth-century Chinese-bhikṣuṇī Tibetologist, translated the full text plus rGyal-tshab’s Guǎngjiě from Tibetan in the early 1950s; the translation was reviewed by Néng-hǎi fǎshī 能海法師 (1886–1967), and circulated mimeographed in the 1990s as a textbook at the Sì-chuān níz hòng fóxué yuàn 四川尼眾佛學院 and later by the Shaanxi Buddhist Association. The 1996 Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn edition is the first published critical text, with punctuation and collation by Jí-xiáng 吉祥, Fāng Guǎngchāng, Sū Jūn, and Huá Fāngtián, and a preface by Zhào Pǔchū 趙樸初 (Buddhist year 2539, “Buddha-Auspicious Day,” = 1995 CE). The catalog meta entry for Jiécāo dàshī 傑操大師 — the zhùjiě 註解 author — identifies him with the great Tsongkhapa-disciple Gyaltsab Je. Note that bIographical materials in the work itself appear to conflate Gyaltsab with the seventh-eighth-century Tantric master Vajrapāṇi-Śāntideva, placing Śāntideva in the sixth-seventh century — see “Other points of interest” below.
Translations and research
- Crosby, Kate, and Skilton, Andrew, The Bodhicaryāvatāra (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995) — the standard scholarly English translation of Śāntideva’s text.
- Williams, Paul, The Reflexive Nature of Awareness: A Tibetan Madhyamaka Defence (Richmond, Surrey: Curzon, 1998) — the most thorough Western treatment of rGyal-tshab’s pañjikā.
- Lóng-lián fǎshī 隆蓮法師, Rù púsà xíng lùn guǎngjiě yìzhě xù 入菩薩行論廣解譯者序, in the 1996 Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn edition.
- Pezzali, Amalia, Śāntideva, Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles (Firenze: Vallecchi, 1968) — biographical study of Śāntideva.
- Steinkellner, Ernst, “Sukhitaka-Theorema und Auflösung der einzelnen Vermögen,” WZKS 19 (1975) — on Tsongkhapa-school Madhyamaka.
Other points of interest
The work’s zhāojīng 招經 / zhāoyì 招義 schemes (the jiǎyī 甲一 to jiǎsì 甲四 outline) and the technical terminology pǔtèjiāluó 補特伽羅 (pudgala), zàng wén 藏文 transliterations (jiàngqū 降曲 for byang-chub, shēngbā 生巴 for sems-dpa’), and other Tibetological-Sino-philological apparatus make this not just a translation but a model of mid-twentieth-century Chinese-Tibetan technical translation.
The biographical paragraph in the yìzhě xù (translator’s preface) places Śāntideva in the sixth-to-seventh century — gōngyuán liùzhìqī shìjì 公元六至七世紀 — but the tíjiě 題解 places him in the eighth — yuē shēnghuó yú gōngyuán bā shìjì zuǒyòu 約生活於公元八世紀左右. Modern Western scholarship places Śāntideva firmly in the early-to-mid eighth century. The tíjiě and yìzhě xù internal disagreement is preserved here without correction.
The catalog Persons function annotation “傑操大師” treats rGyal-tshab as a single individual; this is correct (rGyal-tshab Dar-ma rin-chen 1364–1432 is the dharma-heir of Tsongkhapa).
Links
- CBETA
- Cf. T32n1662 (Tiānxīzāi’s earlier 985 Pútí xíng jīng translation, eight chapters, ascribed to Nāgārjuna)