曇無讖
Readings
Pinyin: Tán Wúchèn
Wade-Giles: T'an Wu-ch'en
Hangul: 담무참
Korean MC: Dam Mucham
Korean MR: Tam Much'am
Katakana: ドンムセン
Hepburn: Don Musen
Đàm Vô sấm
According to his biography in the Chu sanzang ji ji 出三藏記集, Dharmakṣema became a disciple of Dharmayaśas 達磨耶舍 at the age of six. Later, he moved to study with a master called Baitou 白頭, who gave him a copy of the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra (MPNS), leading to Dharmakṣema's conversion to Mahāyāna. In his youth in India, Dharmakṣema was skilled in spells and magic (getting water from stones!). He enjoyed a period of patronage from an unnamed Indian king, but intrigued when he started to lose favor, and when he was exposed, he was forced to flee to Kucha 庫車. From there he went to Guzang, arriving, according to Chen's study, in 420. In Guzang, Dharmakṣema worked under the patronage of Juqu Mengxun 沮渠蒙遜 (368–433), who had taken over the rule of the Northern Liang in 401. He translated approximately a dozen texts over a period of several years. Subsequently, distressed by the fact that his copy of MPNS was incomplete, Dharmakṣema returned to India or Central Asia to find the remainder. While he was there, his mother died, delaying his return. On his way back to Liang, he found further portions of the MPNS in Khotan, and after his return to Guzang he translated these, yielding his extant, longer "Northern" version of the text. (In another section of his article, Chen presents information that at least portions of this longer translation may have derived from texts brought back to China by Zhimeng 智猛, who may also have collaborated on the translation.) Dharmakṣema is subsequently supposed to have departed once more for India in search of still more portions of MPNS, but to have been assassinated en route by agents of Juqu Mengxun, who was afraid that Dharmakṣema would fall into the hands of his rival Tuoba Tao 拓拔焘, i.e. Emperor Taiwu 太武帝 of the Northern Wei 北魏 (r. 423–452), who could then use Dharmakṣema's magical powers against Juqu.
A different, more scandalous story is told by our only secular source for Dharmakṣema's biography, Wei Shou's 魏收 Wei shu 魏書. In this version of the biography, Dharmakṣema is said to have gone to Shanshan 鄯善, where he got himself into trouble by seducing a royal sister called Mantoutuolin 曼頭陀林. He then fled to Liangzhou and was patronized by Juqu Mengxun. However, eventually he got into trouble in Liangzhou too, because he "taught... his sexual skills to some Liangzhou women, including the female members of the royal house" (Chen, 227–228). Tuoba Tao is supposed to have asked Juqu Mengxun to give him Dharmakṣema because he wanted access to these sexual techniques. When Tuoba was refused, he exposed Dharmakṣema, and an infuriated Juqu Mengxun had him tortured to death.
Dharmakṣema is attributed with the translation of Wentuojiewang jing 文陀竭王經 T 40; 悲華經 (Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka-sūtra) T 157; 大方廣三戒經 (Trisaṃvaranirdeśaparivarta-sūtra) T 311; 大般涅槃經 (the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra) T 374 (which an interlinear note in the Chu sanzang ji ji states was begun on December 3 421); 大方等無想經 (Mahāmegha-sūtra)T 387; 腹中女聽經 T 563; 金光明經 (Chapters of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra) T 663; and some chapters of 合部金光明經 (the collocated translation of the Suvarṇaprabhāsa) T 664; 優婆塞戒經 (Upāsaka-śīla-sūtra) T 1488; 菩薩戒本 (*Bodhisattva-śīla sūtra) T 1500; and 菩薩地持經 (an independent translation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi) T 1581. Tradition also ascribes to him a first translation of the Laṅkâvatāra sūtra 楞伽經, no longer extant (Suzuki, Studies in the Laṅkâvatāra-sūtra, 4, where his name is incorrectly given as "Dharmarakṣa"). For a fuller list of works (including works no longer extant) ascribed to Dharmakṣema in the Chu sanzang ji ji, see Chen 224-225; for Chen's conclusions about the order in which texts were translated, and our best information about the dates of translation, see 258.
References:
Dictionary References:
Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 794
Bulgyo sajeon, 143a
Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata), 18,21,49,51,68,74,109,112,118,119,146,221,227,258,298,308,342,360,389
A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki), 37
Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 48a/53
Zen Dust (Sasaki), 373, 377, 408
Fo Guang Dictionary, 6234
Ding Fubao
Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0610
Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), 502
Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)3971c
Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 1291-1
Notes
Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller
generated: 2013-09-17