Lokaksema (Buddhist monk)

Lokakṣema (Chinese: 支婁迦讖; pinyin: Zhī Lóujiāchèn, sometimes abbreviated Zhīchèn Chinese: 支讖), born around 147 CE, was the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana sutras into Chinese, and as such, is an important figure in Chinese Buddhism. The name Lokakṣema means "welfare of the world" in Sanskrit.

Origins

Lokaksema was a Kushan of Yuezhi ethnicity from Gandhara. (See Greco-Buddhism.) His ethnicity is described in his adopted Chinese name by the prefix Zhi (Chinese: 支), an abbreviation of Yuezhi (Chinese: 月支). As a Kushan Yuezhi, his native tongue might have been the official Kushan language, Bactrian, Prakit, one of the Tocharian languages, or even Persian or Greek. All of these are Indo-European languages and were spoken by the peoples of the Kushan Empire during his era.

Lokaksema was born in Gandhara, a center of Greco-Buddhist art, at a time when Buddhism was actively sponsored by the king, Kanishka the Great, who convened the Fourth Buddhist council. The proceedings of this council actually oversaw the formal split of Nikaya and Mahayana Buddhism. It would seem that Kanishka was not ill-disposed towards Mahayana Buddhism, opening the way for missionary activities in China by monks such as Lokakṣema.

Lokaksema came from Gandhara to the court of the Han dynasty at the capital, Luoyang, as early as 150 CE and worked there between 178-189 CE. A prolific scholar monk, many early translations of important Mahāyāna texts in China are attributed to him, including the very early prajñāpāramitā sutra ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པའི་མདོ།༼བརྒྱད་སྟོང་པ༽known as the "Practice of the Path" (Chinese: 道行般若經), the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra (Chinese: 般舟三昧經)(འཕགས་པ་ད་ལྟར་གྱི་སངས་རྒྱས་མངོན་སུམ་དུ་བཞུགས་པའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།), the Ajātaśatru Kaukṛtya Vinodana Sūtra (Chinese: 阿闍世王經,(འཕགས་པ་མ་སྐྱེས་དགྲའི་འགྱོད་པ་བསལ་བ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།) Taisho XV 627 iii 424a22-425a25), Zá pìyù jīng (Chinese: 雜譬喩經), Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra (Chinese: 首楞嚴經)(འཕགས་པ་དཔའ་བར་འགྲོ་བའི་ཏིང་ངེ་འཛིན་ཅེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ) Infinite Life Sutra (Chinese: 無量淸淨平等覺經), and the Mahāratnakuta Sutra (Chinese: 寶積經)(དཀོན་མཆོག་བརྩེགས་པའི་མདོ།).^{[1][2][3][4][5]} He also translated an early version of a sutra connected to the Avatamsaka Sutraཕལ་པོ་ཆེའི་མདོ།, the Drumakinnararajapariprccha'(འཕགས་པ་མི་འམ་ཅིའི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྡོང་པོས་ཞུས་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།)', the Bhadrapala Sutra(བཟང་སྐྱོང་གི་མདོ།) and the Kasyapaparivarta'འཕགས་པ་དཀོན་མཆོག་བརྩེགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས་ལེའུ་སྟོང་ཕྲག་བརྒྱ་པ་ལས་འོད་སྲུངས་ཀྱི་ལེའུ་རྒྱ་ཆེར་འགྲེལ་པ',^[6] which were probably composed in the north of India in the first century.^[7][8]

Activity in China

Lokaksema's work includes the translation of the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra, containing the first known mentions of Amitābha and his pure land, said to be at the origin of Pure Land Buddhism in China. He also translated the Akṣobhyavyūha Sūtra (Taishō Tripiṭaka, 313), an even earlier Pure Land Buddhist sutra about Abhirati, the pure land of Akshobhya.^[9]

He also provided the first known translations of the prajñāpāramitās (The Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita sutras, or "Perfection of Wisdom Sutras of the practice of the Way", which later became known as the "Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines"), a foundational text of Mahayana Buddhism.

Lokaksema's translation activities, as well as those of the Parthians An Shigao and An Xuan slightly earlier, or his fellow Yuezhi Dharmarakṣa (around 286 CE) illustrate the key role Central Asians had in propagating Buddhism to the countries of East Asia.

One of Lokaksema's students, another Yuezhi monk named Zhi Yao (Chinese: 支曜), translated Mahayana texts from Central Asia around 185 CE, such as the "Sutra on the Completion of Brightness" (Chinese: 成具光明經).

See also

• History of Buddhism
• Buddhist texts
• Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

References

1. ↑ Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) p. 287b/319
2. ↑ Fo Guang Shan Dictionary, p. 1416
3. ↑ Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), p. 569
4. ↑ Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), p. 341
5. ↑ Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki)(v.1-6), p. 2858a
6. ↑ A History of Indian Buddhism - Hirakawa Akira (translated and edited by Paul Groner) - Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1993, p. 248-251
7. ↑ "The sudden appearance of large numbers of (Mahayana) teachers and texts (in North India in the second century AD) would seem to require some previous preparation and development, and this we can look for in the South." A. K. Warder, Indian Buddhism, 3rd edition, 1999 p. 335.
8. ↑ A History of Indian Buddhism - Hirakawa Akira (translated and edited by Paul Groner) - Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi, 1993, p. 252, 253
9. ↑ Nattier 2000, p. 76.

Bibliography

• Nattier, Jan (2000). "The Realm of Aksobhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 23 (1): 71–102. 

Further reading

• Foltz, Richard (2010). Religions of the Silk Road Premodern Patterns of Globalization. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1. 
• Harrison, Paul (1993). "The Earliest Chinese translations of Mahayana Buddhist Sutras: Some Notes on the Works of Lokaksema," Buddhist Studies Review 10 (2), 135-177
• Nattier, Jan (2008). A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods, Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica, IRIAB Vol. X, 73-88; ISBN 978-4-904234-00-6