Chapter 1 · The Lotus Comes East — Three Translations and Kumārajīva

Part One · Sources and Formation

Who translated the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma in your hands? Why this version and not another? Chapter 0 said that three Chinese texts of the Lotus circulated together. This chapter opens that statement. There is no need to search beyond the canon for a history. Three prefaces and colophons transmitted in the Taishō canon have already told the story of the three texts. This chapter simply leads you through them.

1 · The Account on a Single Page — Three Translations

Open volume nine of the Taishō canon. Before the main text stands Daoxuan's Tang “Preface on the Transmission of the Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma.” A few sentences give the whole account of the three translations:

「During the Yongkang era of Emperor Hui of the Western Jin, the bodhisattva Dharmarakṣa of Dunhuang, dwelling at Qingmen in Chang'an, first translated this sutra, naming it the True Dharma Lotus. During the Long'an era of Emperor An of the Eastern Jin and the Hongshi era of the Later Qin, the Kuchean monk Kumārajīva next translated this sutra, naming it the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma. During the Renshou era of the Sui, the North Indian monk Jñānagupta of Daxingshan Monastery later translated a text likewise named Wondrous Dharma. The three sutras overlap, and their wording and purport illuminate one another. What the age honored and followed was in every case the Qin text.」 〔唐道宣〈妙法蓮華經弘傳序〉·大正藏 T09n0262 冠首 0001b17–23·待譯〕 『In today's words: During the Yongkang era of Emperor Hui of the Western Jin, the bodhisattva Dharmarakṣa of Dunhuang, dwelling at Qingmen in Chang'an, first translated this sutra and called it the True Dharma Lotus. During the Long'an era of Emperor An of the Eastern Jin and the Hongshi era of the Later Qin, the Kuchean monk Kumārajīva translated it a second time and called it the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma. During the Renshou era of the Sui, the North Indian monk Jñānagupta of Daxingshan Monastery made the later translation, likewise named Wondrous Dharma. The three sutras overlap, and their wording and purport illuminate one another. What people of the time honored and followed was in every case the Later Qin text.』

First came the True Dharma Lotus, next the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma, and later another text also named Wondrous Dharma: three dynasties, three translators, one sutra translated three times. The final eight characters answer the opening question for you: 「What the age honored and followed was in every case the Qin text.」 The version honored throughout the world was Kumārajīva's Later Qin text. That is the text in your hands. One question remains: on what grounds did it become the text? The three prefaces and colophons continue the account.

2 · The Hongshi Translation Assembly

At the end of Kumārajīva's text, the Taishō canon appends an “Afterword” by the Later Qin monk Sengrui. Sengrui was a participant in the translation assembly and wrote of what he experienced. He begins by saying what kind of sutra this is:

「The Lotus Sutra is the secret treasury of the buddhas and the true substance of the many sutras.」 〔僧叡〈妙法蓮華經後序〉·T09n0262 卷末 0062b07·待譯〕 『In today's words: The Lotus Sutra is the secret treasury of the buddhas and the true substance of the many sutras.』

He then describes the sutra's situation in China before Kumārajīva:

「Although the sutra had circulated in this land for nearly a hundred years, its translators were blind to the hidden ford and no one had opened the numinous gate. Those who discussed it departed from its standards, and few had trodden its hidden traces. Though they searched and studied until their heads turned white, none had glimpsed its entrance.」 〔同序·0062b28–c02〕 『In today's words: Although the sutra had circulated in this land for nearly a hundred years, its translators did not understand the ford into its depths, and no one opened its numinous gate. Those who discussed it departed from its standards, and few ever trod its hidden traces. Though they studied until their heads turned white, no one had glimpsed its entrance.』

The sutra had been present for a hundred years, yet its gate had not opened. It had been translated and discussed, but no one had translated it through to its depths. Then came the turn: the Marquis of Ancheng, Yao Song, met Kumārajīva:

「Once he encountered Dharma Master Kumārajīva and had the text translated and copied, its great return was pointed out. Truly, it was like parting the layered heavens and striding on high, or climbing Kunlun and looking down. At that time more than eight hundred monks heard, received, understood, and awakened to it. All were outstanding talents from every quarter, the heroes of their age. That year was the eighth year of Hongshi, under the cyclical sign Chunhuo.」 〔同序·0062c04–c08〕 『In today's words: Once he encountered Dharma Master Kumārajīva and had the text translated and copied, its great return was pointed out. It was truly like parting the layered heavens and striding on high, or climbing Kunlun and looking down. At that time more than eight hundred monks heard, received, understood, and awakened to it. All were outstanding talents from every quarter, the heroes of their age. That year was the eighth year of Hongshi, under the cyclical sign Chunhuo.』

In the eighth year of Hongshi, more than eight hundred monks in the assembly heard, received, understood, and awakened. This was not the work of one person translating behind a closed door. It was the product of a translation hall filled with outstanding minds, hearing and understanding one line at a time. Every sentence of Kumārajīva's translation that you read now came out of that assembly.

3 · Sui Scholars Collate the Palm Leaves

Nearly two hundred years later, Sui scholars undertook another task. In the first year of Renshou, the two Dharma masters Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta recollated an Indic palm-leaf text at Daxingshan Monastery. The preface to the resulting Supplemented Lotus Sutra itemizes the Chinese inheritance of the Lotus. It first settles one matter:

「Formerly, the monk Dharmarakṣa of Dunhuang translated the True Dharma Lotus in the time of Emperor Wu of the Jin. Later, Yao Xing of the Later Qin again invited Kumārajīva to translate the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma. On examining the two translations, we determined that they were certainly not based on one text. Dharmarakṣa's resembles the palm-leaf text; Kumārajīva's resembles the Kuchean wording.」 〔〈添品妙法蓮華經序〉·T09n0264 0134c02–05·待譯〕 『In today's words: Formerly, the monk Dharmarakṣa of Dunhuang translated the True Dharma Lotus in the time of Emperor Wu of the Jin. Later, Yao Xing of the Later Qin again invited Kumārajīva to translate the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma. On examining the two translations, they determined that the two were certainly not based on one source text. Dharmarakṣa's resembles the palm-leaf text, while Kumārajīva's resembles the Kuchean wording.』

「On examining the two translations, we determined that they were certainly not based on one text.」 The sources underlying Dharmarakṣa and Kumārajīva were not the same Sanskrit text to begin with: one resembled the palm-leaf text, the other the Kuchean wording. Differences between the two Chinese versions first reflect differences in their source texts, not an error by one translator. Sui scholars reached this conclusion by collating the Sanskrit leaves character by character; it was not a conjecture. (This preface places Dharmarakṣa's translation in 「the time of Emperor Wu of the Jin,」 while Daoxuan's transmission preface places it 「during Yongkang under Emperor Hui.」 The two prefaces differ; the difference is recorded without adjudication.) The preface next identifies each text's missing leaves:

「What Dharmarakṣa's text lacks is the verse in the “Universal Gate” chapter. What Kumārajīva's text lacks is half of the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter, the beginnings of the “Pūrṇa” and “Dharma Preacher” chapters, the “Devadatta” chapter, and the verse in the “Universal Gate” chapter.」 〔同序·0134c07–09〕 『In today's words: What Dharmarakṣa's text lacks is the verse in the “Universal Gate” chapter. What Kumārajīva's text lacks is half of the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter, the beginnings of the “Pūrṇa” and “Dharma Preacher” chapters, the “Devadatta” chapter, and the verse in the “Universal Gate” chapter.』

It also records how the texts actually circulated at the time:

「I have privately seen that earlier worthies translated and supplied the “Devadatta” chapter and the verse of the “Universal Gate” chapter, making up what was missing and circulating them.」 〔同序·0134c11〕 『In today's words: I have privately seen that earlier worthies translated and supplied the “Devadatta” chapter and the verse of the “Universal Gate” chapter, making up what was missing and circulating them.』

4 · Missing Leaves and Supplied Leaves — Two Examples

The omissions named in the preface are not empty assertions. The textual studies in this edition's annotated translation have collated two examples character by character.

Half of the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” chapter. Kumārajīva's chapter ends:

「What you have practiced is the bodhisattva path. Train and learn gradually, and you shall all become buddhas.」 〔羅什譯《妙法蓮華經·藥草喻品》·T09n0262 0020b23–24·本版《法華》譯注品五〕 『What you have practiced is the bodhisattva path. Train and learn gradually, and you shall all become buddhas.』〔本版譯注品五·白話層〕

The parable of the person born blind, the good physician's four herbs from Snow Mountain, and the immortal with the five supernormal powers follow in the True Dharma Lotus and the Supplemented Lotus but not in Kumārajīva's text. The supplemented preface says that it 「further added half of the ‘Parable of the Medicinal Herbs’ chapter」 〔0134c16〕. The full collation is recorded in the formation history of the textual study for this edition's Chapter 5.

The verse of the “Universal Gate” chapter. The long verse in the received chapter today, beginning 「The World-Honored One, complete in wondrous marks」 〔0057c09〕, was absent from Kumārajīva's original translation. The textual study for this edition's Chapter 25 establishes this with three converging forms of evidence. First, collation of the three texts: the True Dharma Lotus still has no verse, while the verse in the received T262 and that of the supplemented text are 「character-for-character identical apart from the frame before the verse and differences at the level of four characters.」 Second, the supplemented preface itself says that 「earlier worthies translated and supplied what was missing.」 Third, Kuiji's Profound Praise states explicitly:

「The ‘Universal Gate of Guanyin’ chapter originally had no verse in any text. Where a verse is present, it was supplied by later people.」 〔窺基《妙法蓮華經玄贊》·T34n1723 0660a07·待譯〕 『In today's words: The “Universal Gate of Guanyin” chapter originally had no verse in any text. Where a verse is present, it was supplied by later people.』

Earlier worthies supplied the missing leaves, and those supplied leaves circulated with the sutra. The “Devadatta” chapter and the long “Universal Gate” verse that you read today entered Kumārajīva's text in just this way. A sutra's life is written in the traces of its repairs.

5 · What Is the Supplemented Lotus?

Does the Supplemented Lotus count as a third translation? The determination in the textual study for this edition's Chapter 15 is: 「The supplemented text is a corrected reissue of Kumārajīva's version, not a new translation.」 The entire chapter is almost character-for-character identical to Kumārajīva's text, with a mechanical Han-character similarity of 99.53 percent. The genuine axis of alternate translation is Dharmarakṣa's True Dharma Lotus. Thus the reality of 『three texts transmitted together』 is one true alternate translation, the True Dharma Lotus; one established text, Kumārajīva's; and one collation and corrected reissue based on a Sanskrit manuscript, the supplemented text. The supplemented preface counts its chapters: 「Although it has ten million kotis of verses and its wondrous meaning is difficult to exhaust, the source text is provisionally complete in twenty-seven chapters」 〔0134c19–20〕. It counts twenty-seven because, as the preface itself says, 「the ‘Devadatta’ chapter is included within the ‘Jeweled Stūpa’ chapter」 〔0134c17〕. Kumārajīva's text circulates “Devadatta” separately and therefore has twenty-eight.

6 · The Text in Your Hands

Return to the opening question. The Sutra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma in your hands is Kumārajīva's text from that assembly of more than eight hundred people in the eighth year of Hongshi, together with two supplied portions translated by earlier worthies and circulated to fill omissions: the “Devadatta” chapter and the “Universal Gate” verse. 「What the age honored and followed was in every case the Qin text.」 Sixteen hundred years of preference were not mere inertia. The sources were collated, missing leaves identified, and supplied leaves recorded. The text endured Sui palm leaves, Tang commentaries, and today's character-by-character collation. This edition's annotated twenty-eight chapters use that text. Their textual-study columns let you consult the character-level comparison with the True Dharma Lotus and the supplemented text chapter by chapter as you read.

The sutra reached China and acquired an established text. How was that text read into the inheritance of a school? Nanyue and Tiantai are the next chapter.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏