眞諦

Readings

Pinyin: Zhēndì

Wade-Giles: Chen-ti

Hangul: 진제

Korean MC: Jinje

Korean MR: Chinje

Katakana: シンタイ

Katakana: シンダイ

Hepburn: Shintai

Hepburn: Shindai

Chân đề

ultimate truth

• The holy truth; absolute truth; beyond referentiality. See 勝義諦. (Skt. paramârtha, paramârtha-satya, *ārya-satya, paramârtha-sat, satya, paramârtha-sat). [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura, JEBD, Yokoi, Hirakawa, Iwanami]
• Paramârtha (499–569); his original Indian name was Kulanâtha 拘羅那陀 (also given as 拘那陀羅). A scholar-monk of brahman background from Ujayinī in the Avanti region of Western India, who become one of the "four great translators" in Chinese Buddhist history. After traveling throughout India, he had been staying in Funan 扶南國 (present-day Cambodia), when, in 546, he was invited to the Liang by Emperor Wu 梁武帝 (r. 502–549) of the southern court. He proceeded to Jiankang 建康 where he undertook the translation of Buddhist texts—a project seen by Wu as a way of bringing peace to a land long torn by military struggles. After the emperor's demise, political conditions in the Liang deteriorated rapidly, and since they did not stabilize for the duration of Paramârtha's career, he ended up having to move from place to place on a fairly regular basis, rarely able to enjoy extended periods of time to work with a stable team. Thus, the sixty-four works in 278 fascicles that he translated is nothing short of an amazing output. Among these translations were such influential scriptural texts as the Suvarṇa-prabhāsa-(uttama)-sūtra 金光明經, the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha 攝大乘論 and the Madhyânta-vibhāga 中邊分別論. He is also (problematically) attributed with the translation of the Awakening of Mahāyāna Faith 大乘起信論. His translation and study of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha would cause that text to become very influential in helping Chinese clearly define the distinctions between the categories of Mahāyāna/Hīnayāna, and Paramârtha would eventually come to be regarded as the founder of the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha school (Shelun zong 攝論宗).

  Although his interest in Mahāyāna texts and doctrines was broad, his primary concerns fell in the areas of Yogâcāra 唯識 and Tathāgatagarbha 如來藏 thought, which he tended to treat together as part of a single broad tradition. While responsible for many of the earlier translations of Yogâcāra texts, the extent of his influence by Tathāgatagarbha thought led to a blending of these two doctrinal streams in his writings, which in turn brought a profound and lasting impact on the subsequent trajectory of these "mind-only" schools of thought in East Asian Buddhism. On the other hand, during the next century East Asian Yogâcāra scholars such as Xuanzang 玄奘 came to doubt the faithfulness of some of his translations to the original Yogâcāra doctrine, a fact which motivated Xuanzang to personally go to India to obtain copies of Sanskrit original works. Paramârtha spent the last years of his life in the region of Canton. Also commonly referred to as 眞諦三藏. The most thorough treatment of Paramârtha's life and works in English is that by Diana Paul, listed below. His name is transliterated as 波羅末陀.

  The Monk Zhigai (6th c.) of Yangzhou's 揚州僧智愷 Preface to the Awakening of Faith gives the name as Gou-lan-nan-duo 拘蘭難陀, which would be Kulānanda. 三藏拘蘭難陀，譯名眞諦 (T 1666.32.575a18-19).

  [resp. Charles Muller, Dan Lusthaus]
• la suprême vérité [resp. Paul Swanson]
• References:

  Funayama, ToruThe work of Paramârtha: An example of Sino-Indian cross-cultural exchange JIABS31.1-2141–1832008

  Iwata Ryōzō 岩田良三Paramârtha's Trisvabhāva Theory IBK21.11972355–5722.1 1973107–110

  Paul, Diana Y Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramârtha's "Evolution of Consciousness" Stanford Stanford University Press 1984

  [resp. Charles Muller]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 601

Bulgyo sajeon, 834a

Chūgoku bukkyōshi jiten (Kamata), 7,17,56,62,73,78,88,99,114,118,119,149,165,174,182,232,257,273,283,21,338,351,389

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.), 619a

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 467

A Glossary of Zen Terms (Inagaki), 350

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 286a/317, 286b/317

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi), 659

Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga), 15-P131

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 785b

Fo Guang Dictionary, 4228

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0878

Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), 351

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)1606c,2072a

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 877-1*1096-3-28

Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2013-08-23