Reopening the Maitreya-files – Two almost identical early Maitreya sūtra translations in the Chinese Canon: Wrong attributions and text-historical entanglements
The relatively early insertion of a Maitreya sūtra in an Ekot-
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| The relatively early insertion of a Maitreya sūtra in an Ekot-
ta ri ka-āgama The fact that the Chinese Ekottarika-āgama contains a Maitreya sūtra might come as a surprise. The same can be said about the discov ery that the Maitreya sūtra in question was extracted from this Āgama to be circulated as an individual translation. It would be interesting to trace the history of this extracted sūtra throughout the various canons. In this respect the postscript by Sugi represents the beginning of the scholarly investigation. 25 Also the Japanese manuscript transmissions still need to be inves tigated. So far I could only access the data on the extant twin Maitreya texts of the Amano Kongō-ji 天野金剛寺 and the Nana tsu-dera 七 寺. 26 The canon of the Amano Kongō-ji has the Mai treya sūtra cor- responding to no. 453 as an independent sūtra, but the canon of the Nanatsu-dera lacks this sūtra. It is further note worthy that the version of the Kongō-ji does not mention any translator’s name. In both canons the Ekot tarika-āgama contains the Maitreya text. The principal question remains why a text of Maitreya’s future buddhahood was incorporated into an Ekottarika-āgama before or during the fourth century AD. Texts related to this Maitreya sūtra exist in various Indian languages as well as in translation, 27 thus we have several Sanskrit manuscripts of a scrip ture called Maitreya- 25 Cf. Appendix III. 26 The photocopies of this and the other Maitreya sūtras included in the Kongō-ji Canon were kindly made available to me by Prof. Ochiai Toshinori, Tokyo, of the Japa nese manuscript project FRONTIER, which aims to catalogue and photograph the ancient manuscript of the Nara and Heian periods kept in manuscript collec tions of Japanese temples (Gakujutsu Furontia “Nara-Heian koshakyō kenkyū shoten no keisei” Purojekuto 学術フロンティア「奈良平安古写経研究拠点の形成」プロジェ クト), Tokyo. 27 Maitreya-texts are extant in a great variety of ancient languages: Pāli, (“Hy brid”) Sanskrit, Tibetan, Iranian, Tocharian, Uyghur, Turkish, and of course Chinese. Cf. foot note no. 1. 262 Elsa I. Legittimo vyākaraṇa. 28 In Pāli, the Anāgatavaṃsa is a similar text. In the Thera vāda tradition it is classifi ed as para-canonical and exists in various ver sions. 29 The Maitreya sūtra recited by Dharmanandin in Chang’an in 385 as part of his Ekotta rika-āgama transmission pre dates the known Sanskrit and Pāli versions. The same can, of course, be said of the Maitreya sūtra no. 349, the Maitreyapari- pṛcchā / Mile pusa suo wen benyuan jing 彌勒菩薩所問本願經, translated by Dhar marakṣa be tween 265 and 313 AD. Whereas in China the several Maitreya sūtras are included in the Chi nese Canon and are therefore considered canonical, and the one under discussion is even included in an Āgama, the San skrit and Pāli Maitreya sūtra versions might never have been part of a canon. 30 In the absence of other complete Indian canons besides the Pāli Canon, the canonical or para-canonical status of the Indian versions might just as well be undeterminable. A large number of sections of the Chinese Ekottarika-āgama still remain unattested in other traditions. This is not only the case with the Maitreya text. The fact that the Indian or Central Asian Ekot tarika-āgama known to Dharmanandin includes material ex- cluded from the Pāli Nikāyas, should not belie the archaism of the collec tion. Before 385 this Āgama was most probably transmit- ted orally, which allowed for the inclusion of material pertinent to its holders. Although more recent entries could easily be set 28 The latest discovery regarding the Maitreyavyākaraṇa is a manu- script fragment contained in the Schøyen Collection. Its transliteration is given together with a concise over view of all the previous critically edited manuscript versions by Jens-Uwe Hartmann 2006: 7–9. 29 For a brief note on the Anāgatavaṃsa cf. von Hinüber 2000: 98, tải về 1.27 Mb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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