The Collation and Annotation of Saṃyuktāgama
| Author | Wang Jianwei, Jin Hui |
|---|---|
| Language | Chinese |
| Publisher | East China Normal University Press |
|
Publication date
|
July 2014 |
| Pages | 3720 |
| ISBN |
The Collation and Annotation of Saṃyuktāgama
Early Buddhism evolved schools approximately 100 years after the parinirvana of the Buddha, and was transmitted far southwards and northwards in the period of Ashoka (3rd century BC). Theravada and Sarvastivada were most influential then, throughout the south to Sri Lanka (the Tripitaka and notes and commentaries of Theravada still remain intact today), and north to China (the extant texts of Sarvastivada are most abundant). Yijing (Tang dynasty, 635–713) has said in his A Record of the Buddhist Religion as practised in India and the Malaya Archipelago: All that is spreading in South India and Sinhala (Sri Lanka) is Theravada, and in North India and South Sea States (Southeast Asia) is Sarvastivada. The prevailing of these two sects at that time can be seen.
The Chinese Samyuktagama is an early version of Sarvastivada, which was brought from Sri Lanka by Faxian (337–422), and translated by the eminent Indian monk Gunabhadra (394–468). It's the only one from Sanskrit among the northern four Agamas, deemed to be the words of the Buddha which is closest to the texts of pre-sectarian Buddhism. Correspondingly, the southern Pali version Samyutta Nikaya completely retains the original state of the Theravada's texts 2300 years ago, which is the earliest version among the extant Buddhist texts.
Unfortunately, such a rare edition has been downgraded because of its "Hinayana" status since coming to China. After thousands of years, its sequence was disarranged, and scrolls were lost and became incomplete, coupled with wrong transcribing and wrong complement, which made it difficult to read.
Before modern times, Lucheng, Yinshun and other progenitors did a lot of pioneering research work on it. Just on the base of their work, this set of books represents arduous efforts to extend the exploration in order to reach the truth.
There are three major achievements in this set of books:
Through collation, reorganization and addendum, the whole text consists of 4 parts, 7 chapters, 56 samyuktas and 8491 sutras, divided into 3 categories: sutra, geya and vyakarana. The compiling of this set of books is a huge and complex project; the authors did their utmost, taking more than fourteen years to complete it, filling in many gaps in research fields of Samyuktagama and even pre-sectarian Buddhism. This set of books is collated and punctuated correctly, translated accurately, and annotated in detail, not only restoring Samyuktāgama to the original, clearing out all the obstacles in texts, but also outlining and sharpening the frame of early Buddhism, making this rare ancient edition which has been ignored for thousands of years, renovated and dignified again.
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