An early Chinese Buddhist text: The Foshuo sanshiqi pin jings

By : Chengzhong Pu

Page No: 51-92

Abstract:
Buddhist texts by Chinese authors that date back to the earliest phase of Chinese Buddhism are rare. The newly identified Dunhuang manuscript, “Foshuo sanshiqi pin jing 佛説三十七品經”, is one such example. This article examines its contents and writing to identify when and how it was composed and to clarify its relationship with other early Chinese Buddhist texts. The study here also surveys all of such similarly titled texts or texts with points of commonalities if any, in traditional Chinese Buddhist catalogues in order to establish a link between this particular manuscript and any one of such texts. The research paper here argues that the manuscript could date back to the third century CE or earlier, and may be identical to a text mentioned in two of the Sui dynasty Buddhist catalogues.

Authors:
Chengzhong Pu: HKN