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The ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'' (also called the ''Sutra of Forty-two Sections'', Chinese: 四十二章經) is often regarded as the first Indian
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
sutra ''Sutra'' ( sa, सूत्र, translit=sūtra, translit-std=IAST, translation=string, thread)Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aph ...
translated into
Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
. However, this collection of aphorisms may have appeared some time after the first attested translations, and may even have been compiled in Central Asia or China. According to tradition, it was translated by two
Yuezhi The Yuezhi (;) were an ancient people first described in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat ...
monks, Kasyapa Matanga (迦葉摩騰) and Dharmaratna (竺法蘭), in 67 CE. Because of its association with the entrance of Buddhism to China, it is accorded a very significant status in East Asia.


Story of translation

In the ''
Annals of the Later Han ''Annals of the Later Han'' or ''Hou Hanji'' (後漢紀) is a Chinese history book of the Eastern Han dynasty. It was written by Yuan Hong (328–376) during the Jin dynasty (266–420). Yuan spent eight years to complete his Annals. The annal ...
'' and the '' Mouzi lihuo lun'',
Emperor Ming of Han Emperor Ming of Han (15June 28 – 5September 75), born and also known as and as , was the second emperor of China's Eastern Han dynasty. He was the fourth son and second crown prince of Emperor Guangwu. It was during Emperor Ming's reign ...
(r. 58-75 C.E.) was said to have dreamed of a spirit, who had a "gold body" and a head which emitted "rays of light". His advisers identified the spirit as
Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...
, who was supposed to have the power of flight. The emperor then ordered a delegation (led by Zhang Qian ) to go west looking for the Buddha's teachings. The envoys returned, bringing with them the two Indian monks Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna, and brought them back to China along with the sutra. When they reached the Chinese capital of
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
, the emperor had the
White Horse Temple White Horse Temple () is a Buddhist temple in Luoyang, Henan that, according to tradition, is the first Buddhist temple in China, having been first established in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming in the Eastern Han dynasty. The site is ...
built for them. They are said to have translated six texts, the ''Sutra of Dharmic-Sea Repertory'' (法海藏經), ''Sutra of the Buddha's Deeds in His Reincarnations'' (佛本行經), ''Sutra of Terminating Knots in the Ten Holy Terras'' (十地斷結經), ''Sutra of the Buddha's Reincarnated Manifestations'' (佛本生經), ''Compilation of the Divergent Versions of the Two Hundred and Sixty Precepts'' (二百六十戒合異), and the ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters''. Only the last one has survived. Scholars, however, question the date and authenticity of the story. First, there is evidence that Buddhism was introduced into China prior to the date of 67 given for Emperor Ming's vision. Nor can the sutra be reliably dated to the first century. In 166 C.E., in a
memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
to Emperor Huan, the official Xiang Kai referred to this scripture multiple times. For example, Xiang Kai claims that, "The Buddha did not pass three nights under the
ame #REDIRECT AME #REDIRECT AME {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from ambiguous page ...
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mulberry tree; he did not wish to remain there long," which is a reference to Section 2 of the scripture. Furthermore, he also refers to Section 24 of the scripture, when Xiang Kai tells the story of a deity presenting a beautiful maiden to the Buddha, to which the Buddha replies that "This is nothing but a leather sack filled with blood." Nonetheless, while these sections seem to mirror the extant edition of the text, it is possible that the edition we now have differs substantially from the version of the text circulating in the second century.


Structure and comparison with other works

The ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'' consists of a brief prologue and 42 short chapters (mostly under 100
Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the Written Chinese, writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are k ...
s), composed largely of quotations from the Buddha. Most chapters begin "The Buddha said..." (佛言...), but several provide the context of a situation or a question asked of the Buddha. The scripture itself is not considered a formal sutra, and early scriptures refer to the work as "Forty-two Sections from Buddhist Scriptures" or "The Forty-two Sections of Emperor Xiao Ming." It is unclear whether the scripture existed in
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
in this form, or was a compilation of a series of passages extracted from other canonical works in the manner of the
Analects The ''Analects'' (; ; Old Chinese: '' ŋ(r)aʔ''; meaning "Selected Sayings"), also known as the ''Analects of Confucius'', the ''Sayings of Confucius'', or the ''Lun Yu'', is an ancient Chinese book composed of a large collection of sayings a ...
of
Confucius Confucius ( ; zh, s=, p=Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; or commonly zh, s=, p=Kǒngzǐ, labels=no; – ) was a Chinese philosopher and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who is traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. C ...
. This latter hypothesis also explains the similarity of the repeated "The Buddha said..." and "The Master said," familiar from Confucian texts, and may have been the most natural inclination of the Buddhist translators in the Confucian environment, and more likely to be accepted than a lengthy treatise. Among those who consider it based on a corresponding Sanskrit work, it is considered to be older than other
Mahayana Sutras The Mahāyāna sūtras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures (''sūtra'') that are accepted as canonical and as ''buddhavacana'' ("Buddha word") in Mahāyāna Buddhism. They are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibetan B ...
, because of its simplicity of style and naturalness of method. Scholars have also been able to find the aphorisms present in this scripture in various other Buddhist works such as ''Digha'', ''Majjhima'', ''Samyutta'', ''Anguttara Nikayas'', and ''Mahavagga''. Furthermore, scholars are also uncertain if the work was first compiled in India, Central Asia, or China.


In fiction

In
Jin Yong Louis Cha Leung-yung (; 10 March 1924 – 30 October 2018), better known by his pen name Jin Yong (), pronounced "Gum Yoong" in Cantonese, was a Chinese wuxia (" martial arts and chivalry") novelist and essayist who co-founded the Hong Kong d ...
's novel ''
The Deer and the Cauldron ''The Deer and the Cauldron'', also known as ''The Duke of Mount Deer'', is a comic historical novel by Jin Yong (Louis Cha), the longest of his novels and the last to be published but chronologically it is the eighth novel. It was initially pub ...
'', the ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'' is the key to the Manchu's treasures. The
Shunzhi Emperor The Shunzhi Emperor (15 March 1638 – 5 February 1661) was the second Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty of China, and the first Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1644 to 1661. A Deliberative Council of Prince ...
, who is unwilling to let out the secret, spread rumours about it being the source of life of the invading Manchus. The protagonist,
Wei Xiaobao The following is a list of characters from the novel ''The Deer and the Cauldron'' by Jin Yong. Some of these characters previously appeared in another novel ''Sword Stained with Royal Blood'', which is also written by Jin Yong. Some of these char ...
, manages to get hold of all the eight books at the end of the novel.


In modern Buddhism

The Sutra in Forty-two Chapters is well known in East Asian Buddhism today. It has also played a role in the spread of Buddhism to the West.
Shaku Soen Soyen Shaku (, January 10, 1860 – October 29, 1919; written in modern Japanese ''Shaku Sōen'' or ''Kōgaku Shaku Sōen'') was the first Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhist master to teach in the United States. He was a rōshi of the Rinzai school and was ...
(1859-1919), the first Japanese Zen master to teach in the West, gave a series of lectures based on this sutra in a tour of America in 1905-6. John Blofeld, included a translation of this scripture in a series begun in 1947.Sharf 1996, p.362.


Notes


References

* Sharf, Robert H. "The Scripture in Forty-two Sections" ''Religions of China In Practice'' Ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press,1996. 360-364. Print. * Cheng Kuan, tr. and annotater.
The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters
Divulged by the Buddha: An Annotated Edition''. Taipei and Howell, MI: Vairocana Publishing Co., 2005. *
Urs App Urs App (born 1949 in Rorschach, Switzerland) is a historian of ideas, religions, and philosophies with a special interest in the history and modes of interaction between East and West. Biography Urs App was born in 1949 in Rorschach on the Swis ...
: **
Schopenhauers Begegnung mit dem Buddhismus."
(PDF, 1.56 Mb, 28 p.) ''Schopenhauer-Jahrbuch'' 79 (1998), pp. 35-58. *
Arthur Schopenhauer and China. ''Sino-Platonic Papers'' Nr. 200 (April 2010)
(PDF, 8.7 Mb, 164 p.) (This book contains a chart with the textual history of The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, discusses its first translation into a European language by de Guignes, traces Western translations such as those by de Guignes, Huc, D. T. Suzuki, and Schiefner to specific text versions, and discusses the sutra's early influence on Schopenhauer).


Text of the Sutra


Translations


English

* Shaku, Soyen: Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, trans. (1906)

in: Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot, Zen For Americans, Chicago, The Open Court Publishing Company, pp. 3-24 * Matanga, Kasyapa, Ch'an, Chu, Blofeld, John (1977)
The Sutra of Forty-Two Sections
Singapur: Nanyang Buddhist Culture Service
OCLC
* The Buddhist Text Translation Society (1974)

Spoken by the Buddha. Lectures by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua given at Gold Mountain Monastery, San Francisco, California, in 1974. (Translation with commentaries) * Beal, Samuel, trans. (1862)

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 19, 337-348. * Chung Tai Translation Committee (2009)
The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters
Sunnyvale, CA * Sharf, Robert H. (1996). "The Scripture in Forty-two Sections". In: ''Religions of China In Practice'' Ed. Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 360-364 * Heng-ching Shih (transl.)
The Sutra of Forty-two Sections
in: Apocryphal Scriptures, Berkeley, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2005, pp 31-42. * Matsuyama, Matsutaro, trans. (1892): The Sutra of forty-two sections and other two short Sutras, transl. from the Chinese originals, Kyoto: The Buddhist Propagation Society


German

* Karl Bernhard Seidenstücker (1928). ''Die 42 Analekta des Buddha''; in: Zeitschrift für Buddhismus, Jg. 1 (1913/14), pp. 11–22; München: revised edition: Schloß-Verlag. (based on D.T. Suzuki's translation)


Latin

* Alexander Ricius
Orsa Quadraginta duorum capitum
{{Buddhism topics 67 Mahayana sutras Buddhism in China 1st century in religion