Agenda

Buddha-nature between India and China: Reassessing the Translation Work of Dharmakṣema (曇無讖) in the Early Fifth Century

Christopher V. Jones, University of Vienna

Abstract
One of the most impactful Buddhist works in China has been the Dabanniepan jing (大般涅槃經), a version of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra. The sūtra is a Mahāyāna account of the Buddha’s final days, and has been much celebrated and studied for its exposition of teachings about ‘buddha-nature’ (Ch. foxing 佛性) in all sentient beings. However, the version of this text that remains so influential in East Asia, translated into Chinese by the Indian monk Dharmakṣema around 430CE, is very different from other available versions. Conspicuously, many doctrinal features in Dharmakṣema’s ‘Niepanjing’ are not found in other witnesses to the text; and this is the case also with other translations attributed to him. The present paper attempts an introduction to the current state of research on ‘buddha-nature’ teaching in both its Indian context, in the early centuries of the Common Era, and its transmission to China. With respect to China, we then turn to curious details in Dharmakṣema’s works, and discuss the methodology behind determining that he was more than simply a ‘translator’ of Buddhist texts.

Bio: Christopher V. Jones is Assistant Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. He received his doctoral training at the University of Oxford, and has taught both there and at the University of Cambridge, across departments of Religious Studies and Oriental/Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. His work focuses on Buddhist literature and doctrine, especially of the Mahāyāna tradition, from the early centuries of the Common Era, preserved in Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan sources. His publications include The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman (2021; winner of the Toshihide Numata prize), and, as editor, Buddhism and its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (2022).