Lokaksema translates the first Mahayana sutras into Chinese
In 179 the Kushan monk Lokaksema, working in Luoyang, translated into Chinese the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra — the first Mahayana scriptures in Chinese and among the earliest datable Mahayana texts in any language.
- Date
- 179year known
- Place
- Luoyangtoday: Han–Wei city site east of modern Luoyang, Henan, China · East Asia
- Participants
- Lokakṣema, Kushan Empire, Han dynasty, Emperor Ling of Han
- Threads
- East Asia in the 1st–5th centuries
- Also known as
- Lokaksema; Lokakṣema; Zhi Loujiachen; Zhi Chen; Daoxing banruo jing; Banzhou sanmei jing; Локакшема; Чжи Лоуцзячэнь; 支婁迦讖
Lokaksema — in Chinese Zhi Loujiachen, the prefix Zhi suggesting Yuezhi origin — is traditionally said to have been a Kushan. He very probably knew Gandhari, a language of religion, administration and trade in northwestern India, and the scholar Paul Harrison suggests that his mother tongue was Bactrian. He arrived in Luoyang towards the end of the reign of Emperor Huan (146–168), according to the English article (the Russian one gives 147), and between 178 and 189 translated a number of Mahayana scriptures. The Taishō canon attributes twelve texts to him, of which Erik Zürcher considered eight reasonably certain.
Two of them are dated 179. The Daoxing banruo jing, a version of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā, was the first philosophical text of the Mahayana to be translated into Chinese; the Banzhou sanmei jing, the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra, contains the first known mentions of the Buddha Amitābha and his Pure Land, although the surviving text shows signs of later revision. Lokaksema transliterated many Indian terms and kept long Indian sentences, rendering verse as prose. With the fall of the Han he vanishes from the record. Together with the Parthians An Shigao and An Xuan, he shows how much Central Asians did to bring Buddhism to East Asia, where the Mahayana, which he was the first to translate into Chinese, became the dominant tradition.
Connections
Related events
- Reign of Kanishka, the height of the Kushan Empirec. 127 – c. 150 · South AsiaLokakṣema came from the Kushan lands of Gandhara
- An Shigao begins translating Buddhist texts in Luoyang148 · East AsiaThe two great translators of 2nd-century Luoyang: the Parthian An Shigao and the Kushan Lokaksema
Same participants
- The Rabatak inscription of Kanishkabetween 132 and 150 · Central and Northern Asiavia Kushan Empire
- Partisan Prohibitions: purges of scholar-officials166–184 · East Asiavia Han dynasty
- Yellow Turban RebellionMarch 184 – between December 184 and January 185 · East Asiavia Han dynasty
Same place
- Liu Xiu restores the Han: the Eastern Han25 · East Asia
- The Book of Han is writtenc. 54 – 111 · East Asia
- Cai Lun presents papermaking to the Han court105 · East Asia
- Zhang Heng presents the first seismoscope132 · East Asia
- Envoys from Da Qin (Rome) at the Han court166 · East Asia
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Martyrs of Lyon177
- Marcomannic Wars166–180
- Antonine Plague165–180
Eastern Europe
- The Goths settle in Oiumc. 180 – c. 230
- Zarubintsy culturec. 200 BC – c. 200
Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191
Africa
- Scillitan Martyrs17 July 180
- Apuleius’ Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass)150s … 180s
Central and Northern Asia
- Tanshihuai’s Xianbei confederationc. 156 – 181
South Asia
- Heyday of Indo-Roman trade: Muziris and Arikameduc. 30 BC – c. 250
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
- Gold pendant copying a coin of Antoninus Pius at Óc Eobetween 152 and 600
- Sa Huỳnh culturec. 1000 BC – c. 200
North America
- Hopewell traditionbetween 200 and 100 BC – c. 500
- Late Basketmaker II erac. 50 – c. 500
Latin America
- Preclassic Maya collapse: El Mirador is abandonedc. 100 – c. 250
- Rise of Teotihuacanc. 1 – c. 250
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
- Monte Albán II: the Zapotec state expandsc. 100 BC – c. 200
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Lokaksema (Buddhist monk)
- Wikipedia (English): Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra
- Wikipedia (English): Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra
- Wikipedia (English): Mahayana
- Wikipedia (Russian): Локакшема
- Wikipedia (Russian): Махаяна
- Harrison P. The Earliest Chinese Translations of Mahāyāna Buddhist Sūtras: Some Notes on the Works of Lokakṣema // Buddhist Studies Review. — 1993. — Vol. 10, no. 2. — P. 135–177.
- Nattier J. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods. — Tokyo: IRIAB, Soka University, 2008. — (Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica; X).