Xiǎosòng 小誦
Khuddakapāṭha — The Short Recitations Pali source-text translated by 鄧殿臣 (譯)
About the work
A modern Chinese translation of the Khuddakapāṭha (Pali “small reading”), the first text of the Khuddaka-nikāya (Sk. Kṣudraka-nikāya; Ch. Xiǎobù níjiā-yē 小部尼伽耶) of the Theravāda Pali canon. The text is a short novice’s handbook collecting four formulae and five sūtras: the four formulae — Saraṇagamana (Sān-guī wén 三皈文), Dasasikkhāpada (Shí-jiè wén 十戒文), Dvattiṃsākāra (Sānshí’èr shēn-fèn 三十二身份), and Kumārapañha (Wèn shāmí wén 問沙彌文); and five sūtras — Maṅgalasutta (Jí-xiáng jīng 吉祥經), Ratanasutta (Bǎo jīng 寶經), Tirokuṭṭasutta (Hùwài jīng 戶外經), Nidhikaṇḍasutta (Fú-zàng jīng 伏藏經), and Mettasutta (Cí-bēi jīng 慈悲經). All these short scriptures originally circulated in other parts of the Pali canon and were assembled here as a primer for new ordinands.
Abstract
Although Buddhaghosa 佛音 (5th c. CE) suggested that the Khuddakapāṭha gave its name to the entire Khuddaka-nikāya, modern Pali scholarship rejects this: linguistic and structural analysis shows that Khuddakapāṭha is a late Sinhalese compilation (possibly 3rd c. BCE to 1st c. CE), assembled long after most of the other texts of the Khuddaka-nikāya. The composition window for the received recension is therefore late: somewhere between the formal closing of the canon at the Aluvihāra council (29 BCE, traditional date) and the period of the early aṭṭhakathā commentaries.
The translator, Dèng Diànchén 鄧殿臣 (1937–1999), worked from the Sinhala-printed Pali edition issued by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Buddhist Affairs (the Buddha Jayanti Tipiṭaka and its successors). This is the only complete Chinese translation of the Khuddakapāṭha and was published in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 5 (1998) — the Zàngwài series’ first major effort to integrate Theravāda canonical material into the Chinese-Buddhist corpus, complementing the Sanskrit-derived translations that dominate the Dàzàng jīng. Companion texts in the same volume include KR6v0058 Udāna, KR6v0059 Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka, and KR6v0060 Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna-sutta.
Translations and research
- Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu, The Minor Readings (Khuddakapāṭha) and the Illustrator of Ultimate Meaning (Paramatthajotikā I) (London: Pali Text Society, 1960) — the standard English translation with translation of Buddhaghosa’s commentary.
- Norman, K. R., Pāli Literature: Including the Canonical Literature in Prākrit and Sanskrit of all the Hīnayāna Schools of Buddhism (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1983) — text-historical placement.
- Dèng Diànchén 鄧殿臣, Xiǎo-sòng yìzhě xù (translator’s preface) in Zàngwài fójiào wénxiàn vol. 5 (1998).
- Wynne, Alexander, The Origin of Buddhist Meditation (London: Routledge, 2007) — discussion of the underlying suttas.
Other points of interest
The Khuddakapāṭha is the first complete Chinese rendering of any Pali-canon text whose source is identified as Sinhalese-printed Pali (rather than via earlier French, English, or Japanese intermediaries). Dèng Diànchén’s translations are thus a milestone in Sino-Theravāda textual transmission. His 1990s effort accompanied a broader Chinese-Buddhist re-evaluation of “Southern” (nán-chuán 南傳) Theravāda materials in the post-Mao period.
Links
- CBETA
- Pali Text Society: https://www.palitext.com (canonical Pali edition)
- Cf. KR6v0058 Udāna, KR6v0059 Mahā-Ummagga Jātaka, KR6v0060 Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna-sutta