170 ann heirman
on Chinese texts. According to the Gaoseng zhuan 11 (Biographies
of Eminent Monks), compiled by Huijiao ca. 530 AD,^12 the rst
vinaya text translated into Chinese is a text called Sengqijiexin
(The Heart of Precepts of the Mahsghikas). The Gaoseng zhuan tells
us that the translation was done by Dharmakla, a native of Central
India, who arrived in Luoyang around 250 AD.^13 Still, since no text
by this title is mentioned in the earliest extant catalogue, the Chu san-
zang jiji (Collection of Records concerning the Tripi aka)
compiled by Sengyou between 510 and 518,^14 it is not certain
that Dharmakla indeed translated such a text. Only in relatively late
catalogues,^15 do we nd references to it. The title of the translation,
Sengqijiexin, probably refers to a prtimoka of the Mahsghika school.^16
The text is not extant. Huijiao also claims that Dharmakla, who was
able to recite all the vinayas, introduced the rst ordination tradition to
China with the help of Indian monks.^17 In all probability, the Indian
monks were needed in order to obtain a suf cient number of ordained
participants necessary to hold a legally valid ordination ceremony.^18
For various reasons, it is not possible to determine which ordination
ceremony or which school Dharmakla might have introduced. First
of all, we do not know to which school Dharmakla himself belonged.
Instead, he is said to have been acquainted with all the vinayas. In
addition, the school af liation of the Indian monks is not mentioned,
and, nally, we have no reference to the basic legal text used at the
ordination ritual.
(^11) Huijiao, T.2059.50.325a3–4.
(^12) Wright 1954, p. 400.
(^13) Also in the chapter on Buddhism and Daoism of the Weishu, a history of the
Northern Wei dynasty, compiled by Wei Shou in 551–554, Dharmakla is said to have
translated a 14 prtimoka (Weishu 114, vol. 8, p. 3029).
Dates of compilation of the catalogues: Mizuno 1995, pp. 187–206.
(^15) Fajing et al., T.2146.55.140b8 (AD 594); Daoxuan, T.2149.55.226c12–26 (AD
664); Jingmai, T.2151.55.351a21–b1 (AD 627–649); Zhisheng, T.2154.55.486c3–24,
648b22–23 (AD 730): the text is reported as lost; Yuanzhao, T.2157.55.783c20–784a13
(AD 800): the text is lost.
(^16) Shih 1968, p. 19 n. 68; Hirakawa 1970, p. 202.
(^17) Huijiao, T.2059.50.325a4–5. These Indian monks might already have been pres-
ent in China, as the biographies of Dharmakla in Jingmai, T.2151.55.351a28–29, in
Zhisheng, T.2154.55.486c23, and in Yuanzhao, T.2157.55.784a12, seem to suggest by
using the expression 18 , ‘he assembled Indian monks’.
A minimum quorum of ten monks is needed (for references to the relevant vinaya
passages, see Heirman, 2001, p. 294 n. 87).