VINAYA: from india to china 175
- The Translation of VINAYA Texts: the Northern Schools
3.1. The Fifth CenturyThe rst vinaya texts entered China via the northern land routes. These
texts all belong to the so-called northern tradition, in opposition to
the southern, that is, the Pli Theravda tradition. At the end of the
fourth century, no complete vinaya had yet been translated. This situa-
tion changed rapidly when in the beginning of the fth century^50 four
complete vinayas were translated into Chinese.^51 The rst one was the
Shisong lü (T.1435, Vinaya in Ten Recitations), Sarvstivdavinaya,
translated between 404 and 409 by Punyatrta/Puyatara,^52 Kumrajva
and Dharmaruci, and revised a few years later by Vimalka.^53 The
translation team worked in Chang’an, at that time the capital of the
Yao Qin or Later Qin (384–417),^54 one of the northern
(^50) Since that time, and apart from the four complete vinayas, many other vinaya
texts, such as lists of precepts (prtimokas) and lists of procedures (karmavcans)
have been translated. Among the latter texts also gure some texts of two other
schools of which complete vinayas do not survive in Chinese. These are the K yapya
school of which a bhikuprtimoka has been translated by Prajñruci in 543 (Jietuo
jiejing , Prtimokastra, T.1460), and the Samatya school, known through
the translation of a commentary on a lost bhikuprtimoka by Paramrtha in 568 (Lü
ershi’er mingliao lun , Explanatory Commentary on Twenty-two Stanzas
of the Vinaya, T.1461). For details, see Yuyama 1979.
(^51) The fth century also saw a growing popularity of the so-called bodhisattva rules,
intended to provide the Chinese Buddhist community with a guide of Mahyna moral
precepts. The most in uential text is the Fanwang jing (T.1484), the Brahm’s
Net Stra, that contains a set of fty-eight precepts. This text has been translated into
French by J. J. M. De Groot, Le code du Mahyna en Chine, Son in uence sur la vie monacale
et sur le monde laïque, Amsterdam, Johannes Müller 1893. Although the Fanwang jing is
traditionally said to have been translated from Sanskrit into Chinese by Kumrajva
in 406, it is in fact a text composed in China probably around the middle of the
fth century. The Fanwang jing was considered to be a Mahyna supplement, and
in China until today, the ordination based on the traditional Hnayna vinaya texts
always comes rst. This is in accordance with the opinion expressed in texts such as
the Bodhisattvabhmi Stages of the Bodhisattva, of which two translations (possibly based
on two different Indian versions, cf. Groner, 1990b, p. 226) were made in the fth
century. One is the Pusadichi jing (T.1581), translated by Tanwuchen
between 414 and 421 (see, in particular, T.1581.30.910b5ff.). The other one
is the Pusashanjie jing (T.1582 and T.1583 (the latter text might in the
fact be the tenth scroll of T.1582, cf. Kuo 1994, p. 40)), translated by Guavarman
in 431 (see, in particular, T.1583.30.1013c24–1014a2). For more details see, among
others, Demiéville, 1930; Groner 1990a, pp. 251–257; Groner 1990b; Kuo 1994, pp.
37–58.
(^52) Furuoduoluo.
(^53) See Yuyama 1979, p. 8.
(^54) Gernet 1990, p. 165.