添品妙法蓮華經 역출에 대한 재고찰

Abstract

According to the Catalog of Translated Sutras(譯經錄) , there were generally six translations of the Lotus Sutra into Chinese, and among them three are now extant. The earliest translation is the Jeong beophwa gyeong(正法華經) by Dharmarakṣa , which played an important role in the wide dissemination of the doctrines of the Lotus Sutra. Next came the Myobeop yeonhwa gyeong(妙法蓮華經) translated by Kumārajīva, which contributed greatly to the development of the Lotus Sutra faith and associated doctrines. Thus it was known as the representative translation of the Lotus Sutra, and, in particular, it became an important foundation of the Tiantai school of Buddhism. By contrast, Cheompum myobeop yeonhwa gyeong(添品妙法蓮華經), the latest of the three translations made jointly by Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta , did not receive much attention because it was deemed to be merely a revised version of the two scriptures mentioned above. However, I propose that there are some reasons to reconsider this prevailing assessment of the Cheompum myobeop yeonhwa gyeong. In terms its organization, the Cheompum myobeop yeonhwa gyeong combines the “Devadatta pum” chapter with the “Gyeon botap pum(見寶塔品)”chapter as in the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Dharma, but unlike the two preceding versions, places the "Dhāraṇī" chapter below the “Yeorae sillyeok pum(如來神力品)” chapter so that dhāraṇī would be used together with the spiritual power of the Tathāgata to protect and preserve the sutra. Moreover, like the Lotus Sutra of the Correct Dharma, it places the “Chongnu pum(囑累品)” chapter at the end of the sutra to entrust the Buddha's teachings to the faithful and to encourage their dissemination. Thus, this version shows an effort to be more faithful to the general scriptural organization of the chapters into introductory, main doctrinal, and disseminative sections that have emerged through the two preceding translations. In terms of its content, the Cheompum myobeop yeonhwa gyeong has collated the two preceding translations and emended the lacunae in translation by consulting the original text in Sanskrit. In this process, the translators reinforced the key doctrines and supplemented or removed incongruous content, and thus it may be said that the Supplemented Lotus Sutra of the Wondrous Dharma is a more complete scriptural version. In light of these considerations, the significance of the Cheompum myobeop yeonhwa gyeong lies, firstly, in the fact that it has emended the translated text by consulting a Sanskrit original text that is no longer in existence, and provides clues for tracing the origins of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra. Secondly, it is the result of collating and emending the two preceding translations, supplementing and removing content in an effort to arrive at the complete version of the Lotus Sutra. That it does not have any major textual differences with the Myobeop yeonhwa gyeong only serves to show that it secures the completeness of Kumārajīva's translation.