四十二章經 Si shi er zhang jing

sì shí èr zhāng jīng
Engelse titel: Sutra in Forty-two Sections

De The Sutra In Forty-two Sections is de eerste in het Chinees vertaalde Boeddhistische tekst.

Sishi’er zhang jing. In Chinese “Scripture in Forty-two Sections,” a short collection of aphorisms and pithy moralistic parables traditionally regarded as the first Indian Buddhist scripture to be translated into Chinese, but now generally presumed to be an indigenous scripture (apocrypha) that was compiled in either China or Central Asia. Most scholars believe that the “Scripture in Forty-Two Sections” began to circulate during the earliest period of Buddhism in China. According to tradition, the “Scripture in Forty-Two Sections” was translated at the behest of Mingdi of the Han dynasty (r. 58–75 CE).

According to the earliest surviving account, Emperor Ming had a dream one evening in which he saw a spirit flying in front of his palace. The spirit had a golden body and the top of his head emitted rays of light. The following day the emperor asked his ministers to identify the spirit. One minister replied that he had heard of a sage in India called “Buddha” who had attained the way (dao) and was able to fly. The emperor presumed that this must have been the spirit he observed in his dream, so he dispatched a group of envoys led by Zhang Qian who journeyed to the Yuezhi region (Indo-Scythia) to search out this sage; he returned with a copy of the “Scripture in Forty-Two Sections.” (…)

According to a relatively late tradition, the Emperor Ming also built the first Chinese Buddhist temple—Baimasi in Luoyang—as a residence for the two Indian translators. Early Buddhist catalogues refer to the text simply as “Forty-Two Sections from Buddhist Scriptures,” or “The Forty-Two Sections of Emperor Xiao Ming.”

The text consists largely of snippets culled from longer Buddhist sūtras included in the Buddhist canon; parallel sections are found in the Āgamas and Nikayas, as well as the Mahavagga. The text also bears a number of Chinese stylistic features. The most obvious is the phrase “The Buddha said” which is used to introduce most sections, rather than the more common Buddhist opening “Thus have I heard” (evam maya srutam). This opening is reminiscent of Confucian classics such as the Xiaojing (“Book of Filial Piety”) and the Lunyu (“Analects”), where maxims and illustrative anecdotes are often prefaced with the phrase, “The master said.” The terminology of the Sishi’er zhang jing borrows heavily from Daoism and the philosophical tradition known as Xuanxue (Dark Learning).
(Bushwell 2014 The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism p826-27)

Robert Sharf schrijft:
There is considerable debate among scholars concerning the date of this legend. (..) Despite questions concerning the date and authenticity of the legend, scholars are generally agreed on two points:
( 1 ) Buddhism was introduced into China prior to the traditional dates given for the "dream of Emperor Ming," and
(2) some form of the Scripture in Forty-two Sections did in fact exist in the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.).
(..)
We know little about the role the scripture played in the propagation of early Buddhism. At first glance the Scripture in Forty-two Sections appears to be a sort of handbook or introduction to basic Buddhist terms and principles for the benefit of novices. Yet this view is not without its problems; one cannot help but notice, for example, the many technical terms and allusions that go unexplained in the text, such as the "nineteen heavens," the "three honored ones," the "three poisons," and the "five hindrances." This might suggest that it was intended for Buddhist adherents rather than for neophytes, or that it was meant to be used in conjunction with oral teachings (as was often the case with Chinese Buddhist texts).

Whether initially compiled in India, Central Asia, or China, the version of the Scripture in Forty-two Sections disseminated in East Asia bears certain unmistakably. Chinese stylistic features. The most obvious Sinitic touch is the phrase "The Buddha said," which is used to introduce most sections. (..) Another interesting example of the "sinification" of the work is the regular use of the word dao ("way" or "path") as a translation equivalent not only for marga, for which it is a standard and appropriate semantic equivalent, but also for what one suspects would be nirvana ("extinction") or dharma ("teachings" or "truth") in an Indic original. This is characteristic of early translations influenced by Daoist and "dark learning" (xuanxue) ideas, and it lends a distinctly Chinese "mystical" tone to what is otherwise a moralistic Hinayanist work. (Sahrf 1996 p360-63)

Haun Saussy schrijft in zijn Translation as Citation:
Traditionally held to be the earliest Buddhist scripture circulated in China (a view that is, like much about the text, far from certain), the so-called Sutra (more precisely a florilegium or sampler) is made up of a prologue and forty-two paragraphs, each delivering an aphorism, comparison, or anecdote. A person schooled in the Chinese classics who encountered Buddhism for the first time through this composition would have found it alternately familiar and disorienting.
(...)
The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections does not much resemble the sutras later translated from Sanskrit. Whereas the great sermon-sutras such as the Diamond Sutra or the Lotus Sutra systematically develop specific points of doctrine within a frame-story of ceremony, dialogue, and assent by the internal audience, this propaganda document is pithy, disconnected, and modular in structure. Its format cannot possibly represent that of a hypothetical Indic original, but an adaptation to the context of reception. Through its organization, the text makes a tacit claim of comparability with the existing scriptures around which interpretive communities had already grown up in China. In it the Buddha occupies the same speaking role as Confucius in the Lunyu (“the Master said” followed by an aphorism or vignette), and its short paragraphs have been described as “stylistically probably modelled upon the Xiaojing [Classic of Filial Piety] or the Daode jing [Book of the Way and its Power].” The reader, then, is encouraged to behave toward this text as he would behave toward those better-known texts, recognizing the voice of authority, the command to practice, and the promise of wonder-working effects.
(...)
As if offering an instruction manual for first-time users, the Sutra in Forty-Two Sections presents a series of “ipse dixit” definitions of the Buddhist Way. Although many readers would have found terms like aluohan, biqiu, and shuntuohan mysterious, the text offers many signals keying its promises to long-familiar aspirations. The Buddha’s Way is a wuweifa, a “pattern of non-action” like those put forth by countless adepts of the Daode jing. Those who follow him can hope to live immeasurably long lives and to fly in the air like the supermen of the Zhuangzi. “Moving heaven and earth,” “guarding one’s intent,” and making the mind tranquil and smooth like a reflecting surface are operations familiar to readers of such basic texts as the Xiaojing, the “Great Preface” to the Shi jing, the Yijing, Zuo zhuan, and Xunzi. Even the great problem of filial piety (that a monk would leave his ancestors without descendants) is briefly addressed. (Haun Saussy 2017 Translation as Citation p64-66)/

Online informatie:

Wikipedia: Sutra of Forty two Chapters (engels)

Webarchive: Lectures by the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua,

Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale: vertaling in Collection of selected Buddhist texts

Chung Tai Zen Center of Sunnyvale: vertaling, engels

Vertaling van D.T. Suzuki in Sermons of a Buddhist Abbot uit 1906

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