Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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菩提流支

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Bodhiruci

Senses:

  • (?-527) A Buddhist scholar-monk, one of the most prolific translators of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Chinese. He was originally from northern India, and after settling down in the Northern Wei capital of Loyang, completed the translation of over thirty Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises. Most of these were reflective of the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, most importantly Yogâcāra-related works, and these translations ended up having a major impact on East Asian Buddhism from this time. Among the most important of these were the Laṅkâvatāra-sūtra 入楞伽經, the Diamond Sutra 金剛般若經, the Foming jing 佛名經, Faji jing 法集經, Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra 深密解脫經, Dabao jijing lun 大寶積經論, Fahuajing lun 法華經論, and the Wuliang shoujing lun (Treatise on the Sutra of Immeasurable Life) 無量壽經論. The northern branch of the Ten Stages school 地論宗 was formed based on his translation and studies of the Treatise on the Book of the Ten Stages 十地經論. Danluan 曇鸞, one of the early founders of the Pure Land school 淨土宗, based many of his ideas on Bodhiruciʼs translation of the Treatise on the Sutra of Immeasurable Life. One of his most important colleagues was Ratnamati 勒那摩提, who worked together with him on the Dilun. Based on the differing interpretations of the two regarding key doctrines contained in this, the Dilun school developed into two branches of northern, started by Bodhiruciʼs disciple Daochong 道寵 and the southern, represented by Ratnamatiʼs student Huiguang 慧光. His name is also transliterated as 菩提留支 and translated according to its meaning as Daoxi 道希.

    He is credited with the following translations:

    Note: this Bodhiruci is to be distinguished from the later translator of the same name, Bodhiruci 菩提流志, who worked under the Tang, 693–727.

    [Charles Muller, Michael Radich; source(s): Ui, JEBD, Hirakawa, Iwanami]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata) 362

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 947

    Bulgyo sajeon 295a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1152b

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 736

    Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) 18b/20

    Zen Dust (Sasaki) 374

    Fo Guang Dictionary 5204

    Ding Fubao

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 1017

    Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono) 604

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4671c,128a,3967c

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1632-3

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1997-09-15

    Updated: 2015-07-20