The Scripture on the Production of Buddha Images

🤓 Admin Zone 🛠️ hidden to non-admins
view on research edit on research Add an excerpt Add a bilingual page Add full text subpage

Chapter in a Book

Sutras (Chinese)

LibraryArticlesBibliography PDF Link

Please note that many items in our library are simply pages that represent a detailed library catalog entry and citation of someone else's work, presentation, or performance. Read our General Disclaimer for more information.

Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

No abstract given. Here are the first relevant paragraphs:

The Scripture on the Production of Buddha Images (Zuo Jo xingxiangjing) is a short text that actively encourages the dissemination of Buddhist icons by enumerating the marvelous rebirths that await those who produce them. Unfortunately, we know virtually nothing of the provenance of the Scripture on the Production of Buddha Images: there are no extant Sanskrit or Tibetan versions, and the identity of the translator was lost at an early date. Be that as it may, an examination of the rather archaic language of the text, together with evidence provided by early Chinese Buddhist catalogues, suggest that the text was translated toward the end of the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 C.E.) or shortly thereafter. This places the text among the earliest known Buddhist scriptures translated into Chinese.

. . . This translation of the Zuo Jo xingxiangjing is based on the text found in the Taisho daizokyo (T 692: 16. 788a-c), consulting the parallel but somewhat less obtuse translation done in the Eastern Jin (Zaoli xingxiang Ju.baa jing, T 693:16.788c-790a). (Sharf, introductory remarks, 261–62; 264)

Citation

Sharf, Robert H., trans. "The Scripture on the Production of Buddha Images." In Religions of China in Practice, edited by Donald S. Lopez Jr., 261–67. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Tathāgatapratibimbapratiṣṭhānuśaṃsasaṃvadanadharmaparyāya [आर्यतथागतप्रतिबिम्बप्रतिष्ठानुशंससंवदन्तिनामधर्मपर्याय]. 'phags pa de bzhin gshegs pa'i gzugs brnyan bzhag pa'i phan yon yang dag par brjod pa zhes bya ba'i chos kyi rnam grangs [འཕགས་པ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཟུགས་བརྙན་བཞག་པའི་ཕན་ཡོན་ཡང་དག་པར་བརྗོད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་ཆོས་ཀྱི་རྣམ་གྲངས།]. [The Dharma Discourse Describing the Benefits of Establishing Representations of the Tathāgatha (84000)]. Translated by Dharmākara, Dpal ye shes snying po, Ska ba dpal brtsegs. Kangyur, RKTSK 320 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=320&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

In this sūtra, the Buddha Śākyamuni tells a group of monks how they should respond when asked about the karmic benefits accrued by patrons who create representations of the Buddha. He explains five kinds of benefits that such virtuous deeds bring. (Source: 84000)