Dharmakṣema

Dharmakṣema (transliterated 曇無讖 (pinyin: Tánmó-chèn), translated 竺法豐 (pinyin: Zhú Fǎfēng); 385–433 CE) was a Buddhist monk, originally from Central India, who went to China after studying and teaching in Kashmir and Kucha. He had been residing in Dunhuang for several years when that city was captured in 420 by Juqu Mengxun, the king of Northern Liang. Under the patronage of Mengxun, Dharmakṣema took up residence in Guzang, the Northern Liang capital in 421. As well as being a valued political adviser to Mengxun, he went on to become one of the most prolific translators of Buddhist literature into Chinese. The colophons to translated texts attributed to Dharmakṣema, indicate that he was one of the few Indian scholar-monks active in China who was sufficiently proficient in spoken Chinese to make the preliminary oral translations of Buddhist texts himself without an interpreter, although the further stages in the production of the translations were done by his team of Chinese assistants. He was assassinated on the orders of his erstwhile patron Mengxun, for quasi-political reasons, on another journey to the West in 433.

Based on canonical catalogues and biographies such as Sengyou's Chu Sanzang Jiji (出三藏記集) and the Wei Annals, it has been possible to reconstruct an outline of Dharmakṣema's life and career.Kṣema in his name means ‘peace and security’.

When he was six years old, Dharmakṣema lost his father. His mother supported the family as a weaver of fine woollen cloth. One day a popular and wealthy monk, Dharmayaśas, was in the area. Impressed by his prosperity, Dharmakṣema's mother had the young boy of ten taken on as a pupil. Throughout his youth, Dharmakṣema studied the Hīnayāna scriptures and showed great promise as he was gifted with considerable powers of memory and eloquence. On the other hand, he seems to have taken an early interest in the use of magic and spells, competing with other boys in challenges.

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