Buddhist Translation

The figure of bhikṣuṇī Mahāprajāpatī-the first recognized Buddhist nun-and the narratives surrounding her have been a constant source of validation for the ordination of women in Buddhism. Sometime in or around the fifth century CE, a new Mahāyāna sūtra appeared in Chinese history under the name of Mahāprajāpatī, Da'aidao biqiuni jing 大 愛 道 比 丘 尼 經. Comparing it with other Vinaya texts, Hirakawa Akira (1999 [1960]), for example, excludes the possibility that the sūtra originated in Nikāya, or early Indian, Buddhism. Ann Heirman's 2001 study of the ordination of Chinese nuns in the fifth century shows that the sūtra emphasizes Mahāyāna elements compared with other Vinaya texts. Little doubt now remains that the text was derived from several earlier Indian works translated into Chinese. I argue that t he Da'aidaojing combines an adaptation of a parallel chapter on Mahāprajāpatī from the Zhong benqi jing 中本起經 and newly composed rules for regulating the emerging bhikṣuṇī groups in the Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist community in the fifth century. Imitating the structure of the Vinaya, the newly composed section not only imposes many more restrictive rules on the everyday practices of bhikṣuṇīs, but also highlights the pure positive image of the original disputable eightheavy rules, therefore undermining the Buddha's original acknowledgment of the spiritual potentiality of women by highlighting the obstacles of becoming spiritually established in a female body. This article takes the study of the Chinese bhikṣuṇī one step further by examining the reception and controversy of the Da'aidaojing in the context of modern bhikṣuṇī community building in modern periods. By continuing to include the sūtra as an authoritative canonical source, the bhikṣuṇī community faces a dilemma between the need to embrace

In this paper, I argue that the core, and probably also the earliest layer, of Devadatta’s image depicts him not as an evildoer, but as the first schismatic monk to appear during the Buddha’s lifetime. Many elements of his schismatic narrative, some of which appear disjointed or contradictory, reflect particular Vinaya discussions of schism. Particularly, the narrative of Devadatta’s early monastic life should be understood as a literary device that shows him as fulfilling the prerequisites for being a schismatic. Other details of the Devadatta narrative, such as the number of Devadatta’s supporters, the actual activities that Devadatta engaged in to create a division, and locations associated with these activities, align with and reflect the different interpretations and emphases placed on the criteria for schism within each Vinaya tradition.

keywords: Devadatta, Vinaya, saṅghabheda, saṅgharāja, nānāsaṃvāsa, Buddhist Sects, Mohe sengqi lü

The “Dual Ordination” (erbuseng jie 二部僧戒) is a Vinaya-based ordination procedure introduced to China from Śrī Laṅkā in the fifth century; in the late imperial period it came to be included in the main ordination system. It stipulates that full ordination for nuns is to be carried out first in front of an assembly of bhikṣuṇīs and then another assembly of bhikṣus. However, contrary to this stipulation, ordinations have mainly been conferred to women by bhikṣus alone in China since the tenth century. The Dual Ordination procedures became a topic of discussion during the Republic of China (1911–1949) with the result that it was eventually reintroduced on the Mainland at the beginning of the 1980s, mainly due to the efforts of bhikṣuṇīs Longlian 隆蓮 (1909–2006) and Tongyuan 通願 (1913–1991). The article traces the roots of the restoration of Dual Ordinations during the Republican era and provides an account of their history since the 1980s. Finally, Longlian’s views about bhikṣuṇī ordinati...

本文编译自罗伯塔·瑞妮（Raine，2010；2011；2014）一系列有关藏传佛教翻译史的文章。文章通过文献调查的方式，就藏地佛经译者的组织形式、基本数据和译经规范进行了描述和分析。研究发现，藏传佛教“前弘期”的佛经译者以王室统一资助为主，而“后弘期”译者的组织则相对零散。译者数据方面，藏史中有记载的佛经译者总数为707人，包括本土译师336人及印度班智达371人，不过，译者传记中对翻译活动的记录十分有限。此外，“前弘期”还产生了《翻译名义大集》、《语合二章》等珍贵的翻译辞书与准则，对后世的翻译活动极具指导意义。本研究从一定程度上揭示了佛经译者和王室资助者在藏传佛教翻译史中发挥的重要作用及其对当代藏文佛典译介的启示。

Az aszkézis módjai az Udumbarika-sutta három kínai fordításában Az Udumbarika-sutta a páli nyelvű buddhista kánon, a Tipitaka ('Hármas kosár') Sutta-pitaka ('Beszédek kosara') egységében a legelső, 34 beszédből álló Dīghanikāya ('Hosszú beszédek gyűjteménye', DN) egységének 25. szövege (DN 25). 1 A páli szövegben a vándoraszkétának (paribbājaka) 2 nevezett Nigrodha az Udumbarikā asszony által vándoraszkétáknak fenntartott lakhelyen (paribbājakârāma) tartózkodik aszkétatársaival együtt. Mikor Buddha egyik világi tanítványa, Sandhāna meglátogatja a hangoskodó és különféle világi témákról beszélgető aszkétákat, Nigrodha lecsendesíti a tömeget. Sandhāna megjegyzi az általa korábbról ismert Nigrodhának, hogy a hangoskodó aszkéták mennyire különböznek a pusztaság és az erdők magányába csendben visszahúzódó buddhista szerzetesektől, mire Nigrodha lekicsinylően szóvá teszi, hogy az ilyen periférián élő, vitákban részt nem vevő szerzeteseket, például Gotama szerzetest (samaṇa Gotama) könnyedén képes lenne legyőzni egy vitában, ha eljönne a közösségükbe. A beszélgetést csodálatos képességeivel a távoli Keselyű-csúcson is érzékelő Buddha lemegy a hegyről, és sétáló meditációba kezd a Sumāgadhā-folyó partján. Ekkor Nigrodha ismét lecsendesítve társait megszólítja Buddhát, hellyel kínálja, és megkérdezi tőle, hogy ő milyen módszerrel vezeti tanítványait. Buddha a kérdést a kettejük rendszerének jelentős különbségeire hivatkozva elhárítja, de késznek mutatkozik arra, hogy a Nigrodha és társai által gyakorolt aszkézisről beszéljen, így végül Nigrodha az aszkézis elégséges és elégtelen voltáról kérdezi Buddhát. Gotama ekkor sorolja fel a lent általunk vizsgálandó aszketikus gyakorlatokat, majd ezeket tökéletlennek (aparipuṇṇā) nyilvánítva, mintegy 30 té-1 Köszönöm Ruzsa Ferencnek, hogy jelen tanulmány első változatát elolvasta és kommentálta. 2 A parivrājaka páli megfelelőjét a Páli Kánonban nem használják a buddhista szerzetesekre, annak ellenére, hogy a köztudatban ebbe a kategóriába tartozhattak, vö.

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The institute of southeast asian studies (iseas) was established as an autonomous organization in 1968. It is a regional research centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute's research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). iseas publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

As Buddhism travelled to the East, so did its languages. Sanskrit, and even some texts in Prakrits like Gāndhārī gradually found their way into China. But these sacred texts did not contain mere narratives—they also had mantras—potent formulae with soteriological, ritualistic and even magical significance. There was a problem, however. The argument for the necessity of a mantra’s exactitude had been inherited from the ritual environment of South Asia where Buddhism had grown up. But how to render the sacred sounds of mantras into Chinese? When, a few centuries later, it was brough to Japan, the same problem arose, but this time with Chinese as an intermediary, creating a perfect storm of systems nested within other systems—phonetic, semantic and scriptural. By a roll of the phonetic dice, Japanese is acoustically much better suited to the rendition of Sanskrit than its mainland counterparts. However, this did not prevent Japanese Buddhist schools from developing their own ideas about mantras and their usage, mixing and matching phrases, pronunciations and meanings as they went along. In this talk I will attempt to lay out the fascinating problematics of this dynamic using the example of a Japanese Siddham manual from the year 1695. I will explore the interplay of historic pronunciations and their written renditions and look at examples of how Japanese Buddhist traditions took mantras and over the centuries made them their own. This process is still ongoing, as mantras continue to be made, live and evolve even in present-day Japan.

[摘要] “案本而传”的忠实翻译观在中国传统译论中始终占有重要位置，然而，翻译史的诸多事实显示，有关“变译”的案例不胜枚举。通过梳理佛经汉译相关文献，本文从词汇转换、文体调整及语篇构建三个层面，着重探讨了佛经翻译初期格义迂阔、偈颂变体、异本会译三种变译形式，撮要举隅，以期引发读者对佛经译史中诸多变译事实的思考。总之，佛经变译不仅是语言形式的转变，也是中印文化交融会通的代表，更体现着佛教思想在中国的本土化传播过程。

[关键词] 佛经汉译；案本而传；变译；文化交融

Note: This is a revised version of one of my course papers finished during my graduate study at the Center of Translation Studies of Beijing Foreign Studies University. My gratitude goes to Prof. Zhang Wei for his support and guidance.

Many scholars are aware that the Taishō Tripitaka contains many errors: attribution, dating of the sutras, typography, punctuations, textual errors, etc. The correct punctuation of a sutra is not a luxury; instead it is a basic requirement. A wrong punctuation alters gravely our understanding of the text and is the origin of many misinterpretations. Even the modern electronic version of Taishō Tripitaka, namely, Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) version also contains some punctuation errors. In this study, we will compare Xuan-Zang’s Chinese translation of Diamond Sutra with Gomez & Silk’s (1989) and Harrison & Watanabe’s (2006) Sanskrit texts. We aim to bring to light the problems of punctuations of the Chinese versions and to propose useful solutions to the Buddhist community and the other scholars in the field.

As the first of three articles, the present essay explores the character of selected aspects of early Buddhism in order to assess its potential relevance as a reference point for those engaged in research on mindfulness in psychology. The exploration, which proceeds in critical dialog with suggestions made by Donald Lopez Jr. and Evan Thompson, covers the topics of the Buddha’s omniscience, Buddhist cosmology, the notion of karma, the role of rebirth, the past lives of the Buddha, and the role of religious authority vis-à-vis the scope of personal investigation in early Buddhist thought. The present paper is meant to serve as a corrective to an apparent tendency in recent scholarship, as part of an in itself deserved criticism of exaggerated positions taken by Buddhist modernists, to overlook or even deny rational dimensions of Buddhist thought, here in particular taken up from the viewpoint of its earliest phase. This tendency appears at times to be based on a lack of historical perspective or understanding of Buddhist doctrines and their development.

From the very beginning of the establishment of Buddhist communities, guidelines for the monastic life were set up. Among these guidelines, the rules for food and clothing occupy a particular position. Food and clothing became the symbols of a monastic identity, and the outward sign of an exemplary life, for bhikṣus as well as for bhikṣunīs. Given the fact, however, that women were perceived differently from men, it was felt necessary to have some special rules regarding the bhikṣunīs’ standard clothing. The present research focusses on the latter aspect. It shows which robes were seen as standard by the different extant Vinayas, and how these guidelines for standard clothing were examined and interpreted by the Vinaya master, Yijing 義淨 (635-713).

This paper reconsiders the long-held view that Chapter 36 of the Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan or "Record of the Inner Law Sent Home from the South Seas" written by the Chinese pilgrim Yijing is a translation of a long passage from the Cīvaravastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Through comparing Chapter 36 with the Gilgit Sanskrit text of the Cīvaravastu, the Tibetan translation of the Cīvaravastu, and Yijing's translation of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinayasaṃgraha, this paper reveals, on the one hand, significant differences between Chapter 36 and the extant versions of the Cīvaravastu, and, on the other hand, substantial overlap between Chapter 36 and Yijing's translation of the Vinayasaṃgraha. It argues that Chapter 36 was not translated from the Cīvaravastu (or at least not from a version of the Cīvaravastu identical with or similar to the Gilgit Sanskrit version), but rather seems to have been composed by Yijing through drawing largely (though not entirely) from the Vinayasaṃgraha. This paper therefore demonstrates anew that Yijing's travel record cannot be simply taken as his eyewitness report of Buddhist monastic practices in ancient India.

In the latest decades the concept of translation has dramatically changed: we have gone from absolute equivalence to a widening of the definition of this field which sometimes reaches unforeseen limits. Translation certainly reflects the kind of society which produces it and, thus, it is hardly surprising that a culture like the western one -contradictory, hybrid and enriched thanks to migration but at the same time burdened with problems arising from cross-cultural clashes -offers a definition of translation as a never-neutral and ethically-complex process. The different current theories provide much help when pondering over these issues and reflect the choices which we, translators, constantly make, our negotiations and the margins of (in)fidelity between which we move, always around a core meaning which is no longer universal.

This is the second of two articles on recently discovered and transcribed Prātimokṣasūtras with unusual features. It discusses an anomalous Prātimokṣasūtra fragment in a Saint Petersburg collection that cannot be matched to any known version. It has been suggested that it is close to the version of the Mahāsāṃghika school, but it actually is closer to other versions and might have been connected to the Dharmaguptaka or Kāśyapīya schools. The fragment contains a unique form of the designation of the second category of rules--saṃghādideśya--that is not known from any Indic texts but is attested by explanations found in Chinese translations of Vinaya texts. The article also discusses the possibility of syncretic attitudes among Central Asian monks leading to Prātimokṣasūtra versions that incorporate or blend elements of versions of different Indic schools.

הספר "מראה אל מסורת הזן" נכתב ב-1564 על ידי אחד מגדולי נזירי קוריאה, היו-ג'ונג, הידוע גם בכינויו "ההר המערבי". היו-ג'ונג ליקט מבחר ציטוטים ואזכורים מרכזיים מן הכתבים הבודהיסטים והוסיף פרשנויות על מנת לספק לתלמידי הזן מבוא ומפת דרכים לתרגולם. הספר זכה לפופולריות רבה בקוריאה וביפן, והוא נלמד עד עצם היום הזה על ידי נזירים קוריאנים בתחילת דרכם.
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The transmission of Indian Buddhism to China is one comparatively successful example put forward by peace, in the communication history of ancient human civilization, in which Kumārajīva translating Buddhist scriptures is one important event.

Réflexion autour du Kalama Sutra et la nouvelle traduction de ce sutra. Celui qui de ce sutra s'écarte d'un mot fait alors oeuvre du diable. « Les bouddhas désapprouvent la lecture littérale des sutras », dit une certaine tradition. Mais qu'il s'abstienne de s'écarter d'un seul mot d'un sutra, celui qui cherche à le comprendre, car alors ce qu'il lirait serait un discours hérétique, et non plus du Bouddha. Les sutras bouddhistes utilisent par définition la matière verbale pour expliquer la vérité, le sens fondamental du monde. Ce sens est très profond et son accès est particulièrement difficile. Il y est question du vrai moi, de l'essence du Bouddha. Ce sens n'est pas accessible grâce à la lecture de quelques sutras ou aux discours des maîtres, et il déserte totalement les forums de discussion. L'illumination, en somme, n'est pas accessible par ces voies et la compréhension de ce vrai moi, de ce dharma sans commencement est hors de ces sentiers communs. Le vrai moi n'entend pas, mais sans lui nul ne peut entendre. Il ne parle pas, mais sans lui la parole n'existe pas. Dans le sutra du diamant, on lit ce passage : Subhuti, dit le Bouddha, ne dis à personne que j'ai parlé de l'enseignement. Pourquoi dis-je cela ? Si quelqu'un vient et rapporte : « le Bouddha a diffusé l'enseignement », il porte diffamation contre le Bouddha. Subhuti, celui qui prétendrait cela ne comprendrait pas ce que je dis. En vérité, il n'y a aucun mot qui exprime l'enseignement : telle est la seule manière d'exprimer l'enseignement. Le Bouddha enseigna durant quarante-neuf années. Il donna plus de trois-cents conférences. Pourtant il n'a jamais dit le moindre mot. Si quelqu'un utilise un certain mot sans avoir compris le sens fondamental de l'enseignement du Bouddha, tout le monde prétendra que cette personne ne l'a pas compris. Qu'il s'éloigne en revanche un instant du sutra, qu'il néglige un seul mot, et le sutra perd tout son sens et devient une hérésie. Un ami m'a récemment parlé du Kalama sutra en le qualifiant d'un des plus importants sutras du Bouddha, à cause notamment d'un passage fort connu des occidentaux qui évoquerait un individualisme libéral proche de la pensée occidentale. Ce passage insisterait sur la nécessité de douter de tout, de croire ce que nous avons envie de croire, notamment les théories qui nous sont profitables (alors qu'au contraire, il faudrait refuser toute théorie ne nous apportant aucun profit). En lisant ce passage, les gens en viennent à penser que le bouddhisme est une religion qui invite à tout chercher par soi-même en s'enfermant dans un scepticisme obsessionnel qui va jusqu'à refuser de croire la parole du Bouddha. Seul, le fait de croire en soi est juste.  L’ami qui a évoqué du kalama sutra me disait que le texte contenait dix points,  Lorsque mon ami m’exposa ces dix points, je ne contins pas ma surprise. Je suis pratiquant bouddhiste, et même si ma pratique est très médiocre, je peux affirmer immédiatement que ces dix paroles ne viennent pas du Bouddha, car ce genre de discours conduit les pratiquants à accroître considérablement les doutes qu’ils nourrissaient déjà.

Translation is one of the fundamental resources and conditions for religious propagation. As it relates so closely to the spread of Buddhist teachings, we may see translation as a specific manifestation of the Bodhisattva Way. Thus, we intend to propose the idea of the bodhisattva-translator as a self-chosen way of life, a subjectivity and a habitus  which are constructed in the context of Buddhist practice, whose roots may be traced down to the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas of the Earth. Kumārajīva (344-413), the eminent Dharma Master who translated Buddhism to Chinese and thus enabled the worldwide dissemination of Buddhist teachings, may offer a bright, unparalleled example of the bodhisattva-translator and help us outline new approaches to contemporary Buddhist translation

This essay is an offspring of a graduate thesis in progress in Translation Studies about the life and activities of Dharma Master Kumarajiva (344-413), one of the most remarkable translators in history. Based on significant biographical markers, we suggest eight relevant areas of contemporary research focused in Global Issues, Cognitive Psychology, Politics, Sociology, Translation Studies, Translation Teaching, Ethics, and Philosophy, which may contribute to further interdisciplinary studies. We also introduce two proposals: one is the creation of an international study group about Kumarajiva in the field of Translation Studies, and the other is an action-research project to explore the possibilities and conditions of a contemporary specialized translation school based in Kumarajiva’ approach and in his methodology of work.

The translation of the Buddhist corpus to Chinese at the beginning of the 5th century was one of the highest summits in the history of Translation (Waley 1952) (Chandra 2011).  In many aspects, it changed human civilization as a whole, as the actual focal point from where Mahayana Buddhism spread to the Far East, and from here, to the West, was not its fountain, India, but its channel, China (Keown 2003).
  Behind this tremendous enterprise, we find the astonishing life and habitus of Kumārajīva (344-413), a translator whose work holds inspiring keys for us in the 21st century, in the face of our contemporary challenges in translation. In this regard and borrowing from Foucault’s approach, our interest in Kumārajīva is not just historical, but rather genealogical (Foucault 1979) and focused on the present. In this article, we will outline Kumārajīva’s achievements as the epitome of a civilizational translator who embodied the Lotus Sutra transformative philosophy; also, based on his well-documented life, we will introduce our interdisciplinary research on the subjectification process in translators, cross-fertilizing Western theories on the subject with contemporary Buddhist Studies.

Mit diesem kleinen Aufsatz möchten wir uns in dem Gedenken an unseren verehrten Kollegen und Freund Kōgi Kudara einem Werk zuwenden, dessen alttürkische Version auf das Wirken Šiŋko Šäli Tutuŋs zurückgeführt wird. Das Leben und Wirken dieses bekannten alttürkischen Gelehrten war einer seiner zahlreichen Forschungsbereiche. 1 Durch die umfangreichen Textfunde, besonders der russischen und deutschen Zentralasienexpeditionen, gehört der alttürkische Text des Goldglanzsūtras (Altun Yaruk Sudur) zu den bestbelegten Werken des alttürkischen buddhistischen Schrifttums. Neben den von W. Radloff und S. E. Malov in uigurischen Drucklettern vollständig publizierten Petersburger Handschriften (P 1 und P 2) 2 konnten bisher 1075 Fragmente des Altun Yaruk Sudur (AYS) in der Berliner Turfansammlung nachgewiesen werden. Diese Fragmente, von denen mehrere zusammengesetzt werden können, gehören zu 841 Blättern. Sie sind mehr als 70 verschiedenen Handschriften bzw. Blockdrucken zuzurechnen. Weitere 57 alttürkische Fragmente konnten als Bruchstücke von Kolophonen, Kommentaren und Versifizierungen des Textes identifiziert werden. 3 Das 26. Kapitel des Goldglanzsūtras 4 mit dem Titel "Die Hingabe des Körpers" 5 gehört zweifellos zu den bekanntesten und beliebtesten Abschnitten dieses

Translation is one of the fundamental resources and conditions for religious propagation. As it relates so closely to the spread of Buddhist teachings, we may see translation as a specific manifestation of the Bodhisattva Way. Thus, we intend to propose the idea of the bodhisattva-translator as a self-chosen way of life, a subjectivity and a habitus  which are constructed in the context of Buddhist practice, whose roots may be traced down to the Lotus Sutra’s Bodhisattvas of the Earth. Kumārajīva (344-413), the eminent Dharma Master who translated Buddhism to Chinese and thus enabled the worldwide dissemination of Buddhist teachings, may offer a bright, unparalleled example of the bodhisattva-translator and help us outline new approaches to contemporary Buddhist translation

The translation of the Buddhist corpus to Chinese at the beginning of the 5th century was one of the highest summits in the history of Translation (Waley 1952) (Chandra 2011).  In many aspects, it changed human civilization as a whole, as the actual focal point from where Mahayana Buddhism spread to the Far East, and from here, to the West, was not its fountain, India, but its channel, China (Keown 2003).
Behind this tremendous enterprise, we find the astonishing life and habitus of Kumārajīva (344-413), a translator whose work holds inspiring keys for us in the 21st century, in the face of our contemporary challenges in translation. In this regard and borrowing from Foucault’s approach, our interest in Kumārajīva is not just historical, but rather genealogical (Foucault 1979) and focused on the present. In this article, we will outline Kumārajīva’s achievements as the epitome of a civilizational translator who embodied the Lotus Sutra transformative philosophy; also, based on his well-documented life, we will introduce our interdisciplinary research on the subjectification process in translators, cross-fertilizing Western theories on the subject with contemporary Buddhist Studies.

This article looks at some of the different ways in which the use of the term " da zhangfu " or " great gentleman " is exercised in the writings of seventeenth-century Buddhist monks and laymen in reference to religious women. These uses reflect a wide range of opinion on the question of whether or not women had the strength and determination to embark on the Chan Buddhist path of spiritual training The attitudes expressed by these male writers range from undisguised disapproval to qualified skepticism to wholehearted support and admiration, Regarded as a whole, they reflect the ongoing ambivalence towards religious women as well as the unquestionable changes in attitude, that marked the seventeenth-century.

作者　無著比丘　Bhikkhu Anālayo
　　　　　　　　　　　　　譯者　蘇錦坤

When studying the practice of healing in early Buddhism, a central source of information are Vinaya narratives, in particular those found in the Pāli Vinaya. Here particularly the cures effected by the royal physician Jīvaka stand out as testimonies of an impressive medical ability, going even as far as the successful performance of cranial surgery. Understandably such material has been somewhat at the forefront of studies of healing as reflected in early Buddhist texts. However, Jīvaka reportedly learnt his art in Takkasilā, so his abilities should be understood as reflecting general ancient medical knowledge and skills.

In other words, aside from the fact that he was a Buddhist lay follower and offered free medical service to Buddhist monastics, there is nothing particularly Buddhist about his cures. In order to explore if there might be a more typically Buddhist approach to health, and what that could involve, in what follows I turn to a few selected passages that report how the Buddha or his eminent disciples dealt with a condition of sickness. My approach is based on translating the relevant passages from the Chinese agamas and comparing them to their parallels in the four Pāli Nikāyas, in other Chinese āgamas, and whenever extant also in Sanskrit fragments and Tibetan translation. With the help of such comparative study of this particular genre of texts the early stages in the development of Buddhist thought can be uncovered, in as much as these have left traces in literature.

當研究初期佛教文獻裡的「醫療」時，主要的資訊來源為律藏裡的對話，主要是保存在巴利《毗奈耶》(Vinaya)。特別是此處皇家醫師耆婆(Jīvaka) 治療的一些特殊案例，甚至是包括諸如成功的頭顱手術，成為古代醫療技術的見證。 可以理解這樣的反映在初期佛教文獻的資料，位居此類(古代)醫療研究的優先參考材料。據說耆婆在怛叉尸羅(Takkasilā)學得醫術，所以，他的能力應是反映古代一般的醫學知識與醫療技術。 也就是說，除了他是佛教居士且提供僧伽免費醫療服務之外，關於他的治療沒有其他特別的佛教事蹟。
為了探究是否有一典型的佛教醫療方式與這些醫療會涵蓋那些層面，以下我將考察一些佛陀與他的大弟子如何面對疾病的經文。我的方法是基於漢譯阿含的相關經文，以此與對應的四尼柯耶、其他漢譯阿含經文、存世的梵文殘卷或藏譯作比較。 藉助此一特殊體裁的經文比較研究，在文獻留下蛛絲馬跡的初期佛教的思想發展，可以被顯露出來。