The Prefaces To the Chinese Dharmapadas Fa-Chü Ching and Ch'U-Yao Ching

Abstract

Since S. Levi's article in Journal Asiatique of I9I2, p. 203-294, L'Apramadavarga, etude sur les recensions des Dharmapadas, and since K. Mizuno's article in Komazawa Gakuh6 (hereafter K. G.) 2, I953, p. 3-24, Udana to Hokku (Udana and Dharmapada), the Dharmapada literature has been a focus of attention in Europe as well as in Japan. P. K. Mukherjee commented on the Chinese, Indian, Tibetan and Tocharian Dharmapadas in the Indian Historical Quarterly II, I935, p. 74I-760, The Dharmapada and the Udanavarga, and J. Brough discussed this subject in his introduction to The Gandhari Dharmapada, London I962. Japanese studies such as E. Maeda's History of the Formation of Primitive Buddhist Texts (Genshi Bukkyo Seiten no Seiritsnshi Kenkyui), Tokyo I964, and R. Yamada's Bongo Butten no Shobunken (The Texts of Buddhist Sanskrit Literature), Ky5to I959, draw upon K. Mizuno's article when dealing with the Dharmapadas. Finally there is F. Bernhard's publication of the Udanavarga, Gottingen I965. However, in spite of this interest in Dharmapada literature we still know very little of the origins of these texts, the relationship between them, the language of the Indian originals from which the Chinese translations were made, etc. With our translation of the Chinese prefaces to the Dharmapadas we will attempt to provide some additional source material for those who are examining the problem of the relation between Dharmapada, Udanavarga and Udana, and the place of these texts within the canonic literature of Buddhism. The Chinese Dharmapadas are the following: