contents
Open Questions and Possible Research Projects | Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya Essays | Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā | Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā | Pañcaviṃśātisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā | Sarvāstivāda |
See also my website of primary sources for Heart Sutra research: Xīnjīng | Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya
Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya Bibliography
Primary sourcesSecondary Sources
Open Questions and Possible Research Projects
Last Updated: 4 June 2024
A list of open questions and potential projects for Buddhist Studies students/academics. Feel free to make suggestions in comments and I'll incorporate them. Let me know if you decide to take on one of these questions/projects.
Open Questions
- Who composed the Heart Sutra?
- Who completed the back-translation into Sanskrit? And when?
- What is the basis for the dating and attribution of Chinese Heart Sutra texts (esp T 252, 253, 254, 255, 257)?
- What, if any, role did Wu Zhao play in the creation and/or popularisation of the Heart Sutra?
- When was the Dàmíngzhòu jīng (T 250) composed? Earliest ref is the Kaiyuan Catalogue, 730 CE. Earliest artefact?
Open Research Projects
- Translate Jingmai's «般若波羅蜜多心經疏» "Commentary on the Prajñāpāramitāhrdaya" (X 26 No. 522). Investigate the provenance of the manuscript (a late Japanese copy?).
- Transcribe and edit the manuscripts containing the commentary by Zhixian 智詵 (609-702). Partial text in Pelliot Chinois 4940. For other, incomplete copies of the same commentary, cf. the Pelliot Chinois 2178 verso B. 3, S. 839 and the mss. of Beijing 為52 (Pelliot Chinois 4489), 昆12 (Pelliot Chinois 4490) and 闕 9 (Pelliot Chinois 4491).
- Re-translate Fazang's commentary (T 1712), since Cook's translation does not seem wholly reliable.
- Compare the language of the commentaries by Kuījī and Woncheuk with other works known to be by them, to try to confirm their authorship. Try to identify *when* the commentaries were composed.
- In 1932, Matsumoto Tokumyo argued (in German) that Rénwáng bōrě bōluómì jīng «仁王般若波羅蜜經» was composed in Chinese. A comparison of his reasoning with Nattier (1992) would be very helpful. Would make a good article.
- List, transcribe, and make available images of all the Heart Sutra texts in older editions of the Chinese Tripiṭaka. Note variants.
- List, transcribe, and make available images of all the Heart Sutra texts from Dunhuang. (Though see Ben Nourse's 2010 conference presentation which is a good preliminary survey. I got my copy direct from the author).
Translate articles into English language
- ―. 1991. “Hannya shingyō seiritsuron josetsu―Maka hannya haramitsu dai myōju kyō to Daibon hannyakyō no kankei o chūshin to shite” 般若心経成立論序説 ― 『摩訶般若波羅蜜大明呪経』と『大品般若経』の関係を中心として [Prolegomenon to the formation of the Heart Sūtra: With a focus on the relationship between the Mo-ho po-jo po-lo-mi ta ming-chou ching and the Ta-p‘in po-jo ching]. Bukkyōgaku 仏教学 31: 41–86.
- 贺铭 续小玉. (2017) Draft AI translation online: https://www.academia.edu/120810264/Early_Versions_of_the_Heart_Sutra
Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya Essays
Published
Attwood, Jayarava. (2015). ‘Heart Murmurs: Some Problems with Conze’s Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya.’Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 8: 28-48. http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/104 [free access]
Blog Posts
Far from systematic, this collection of essays are my notes from several years of studying this text and its antecedents in the light of Jan Nattier's landmark, 1992 article (see the first essay on the list).
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Heart Sutra Text & Antecedents click to embiggen |
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| Heart Sutra Flow of Texts click to embiggen |
1. The Heart Sūtra - Indian or Chinese? (17 Sep 2007) Precis of Jan Nattier's 1992 article on the provenance of the Heart Sutra.
2. Words in mantras that end in -e (6 Mar 2009) The Grammatical function of the -e case marker in mantras, suggesting that this is from Prakrit and indicates a masculine nominative singular.
3. Tadyathā in the Heart Sūtra. (13 Nov 2009) Grammar and syntax of tadyathā in relationship to mantras. Not originally intended to be included in recitation.
4. Some Additional Notes: The -e ending in mantras. (30 Jul 2010) Further note on the -e ending which shows that it was in widespread us as nominative singular in Northern India [Signe Cohen].
5. Heart Sutra Syntax .(23 Nov 2012) Initial notes on a grammatical error discovered in Conze's critical edition of the Sanskrit Heart Sutra, with proposed changes to the text. Now submitted to an academic journal.
6. Heart Sutra: Horiuzi Palm-leaf mss. Transcription (5 Dec 2012) An important Sanskrit manuscript of the Heart Sutra.
7. Emptiness for Beginners. (14 Feb 2013) Brief explanation of the concept of emptiness based on close study of Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamkakārikā.
8. Heart Sutra Mantra. (30 Aug 2013) Detailed notes on the source texts for the mantra found in the Heart Sutra. Definition of mantra vs dhāraṇī with suggestion that the "mantra" is in fact a dhāraṇī.
9. Heart Sutra Mantra Epithets. (6 Sep 2013) Notes on the epithets often associated with the mantra. Shows that "mantra" is probably the wrong Sanskrit word, and that the source texts, particularly Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra has "vidyā". Epithets are in fact unrelated to the dhāraṇī and refer to prajñāpāramitā more generally.
10. Who Translated the Heart Sutra into Sanskrit? (13 Sep 2013). Using idiosyncrasies in the language to place limits on who could have translated it from Chinese to Sanskrit.
11. Fixing Problems in the Sanskrit Heart Sūtra. (20 Sep 2013). Given the problems created by translating from Chinese into Sanskrit, how would we improve on the present sutra.
12. A New Sanskrit Heart Sutra. (27 Sep 2013). A revision of the edition of the Heart Sutra by Edward Conze, with some back story, notes and a new translation.
13. An Alternate Sanskrit Heart Sutra. (11 Oct 2013). A speculative text based on extracts of the Gilgit manuscript of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra.
14. Why is there a Dhāraṇī in the Heart Sūtra? (18 Oct 2013) Looking at dhāraṇī, attitudes of scholars and the role of magic in Buddhism through the lens of Ariel Glucklich's work.
15. Variations in the Heart Sutra in Chinese. (25 Oct 2013) Examining a critique of Jan Nattier's Chinese origins thesis on the basis of variant readings in the Chinese Tripiṭaka.
16. The Act of Truth in Relation to the Heart Sutra. (1 Nov 2013) Description of the satyakiriya or act of truth, an obscure branch of Buddhist lore and how it might inform the use of a text like the Heart Sutra
17. Roots of the Heart Sutra. (15 Aug 2014). A possible source text for the epithets passage in the Hṛdaya in the form of a verse from the Ratnaguṇasaṃcayagāthā.
18. New Heart Sutra Manuscript. (26 Dec 2014). Diplomatic edition of EAP676/2/5: Ārya Pañcaviṁśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Mantranāma Dhāraṇī (aka the long text Heart Sutra).
19. Chinese Heart Sutra: Dates and Attributions. (3 April 2015). A critical review of Jan Nattier's arguments about the chronology of the Heart Sutra, in the light of a 2003 article by Dan Lusthaus presenting evidence which he argues poses a serious challenge to Nattier's theory.
20. Avalokiteśvara & the Heart Sutra. (24 Apr 2015) Forensic examination of the name in Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan, along with some notes about the role of the bodhisatva in the Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya.
21. The Heart Sutra in Middle Chinese. (15 May 2015). A transcription of the Xīnjīng or the Heart Sutra according to the Baxter & Sagart reconstruction of Middle Chinese. This is the Heart Sutra as it might have sounded at the time it was composed.
Form is Emptiness.A version of this essay will shortly appear in the Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, title "Form is (not) Emptiness"
- 22. Part I: Establishing the Text. (17 Jul 2015) First part of this essay works through the process of establishing the text to be commented on. The method involves examining the manuscript/epigraphical tradition of Sanskrit and the canonical Chinese texts as well as versions of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra in both languages.
- 23. Part II: Commentary. (24 Jul 2015) In the second part of this essay we briefly consider the traditional commentaries, then move on to treating the Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra as a commentary on the famous passage from the Heart Sutra, providing an authoritative alternative to the common Zen inspired readings of the text.
- 24. Part III: Commentary continued. (31 Jul 2015). In the third and final part of this essay we discover that the phrase rūpam śūnyatā śūnytaiva rūpaṃ has in fact been altered. In the Aṣṭa it is rūpameva māyā māyaiva rūpam. We explore the implications of this, and sum up the whole project.
25. Taishō 256: The Other Chinese Heart Sutra. (25 Dec 2015). A first look at the other short text Heart Sutra in the Chinese Tripiṭaka and the associated manuscript in the British Library. Previously attributed to Xuanzang, this essay shows why it is not associated with Amoghavajra.
26. The Oldest Dated Heart Sutra. (1 Jan 2015). The story of the stele commonly known as 集王聖教序并記 or Preface and Notes to the Preface to the Holy Teaching with the Collected Wang's Calligraphy. Erected in 672, composed using examples of the calligraphy of 王羲之 Wang Xizhi, it is the oldest dated version of the Heart Sutra.
27. Thich Nhat Hanh's Changes to The Heart Sutra. (04 March 2016). Critiquing TNH's response to discovering the inherent contradiction in the two phrases śūnyatā rūpam and śūnyatāyām na rūpam. He changes his translation to obscure this contradiction.
28. Further Problems with the Heart Sutra: aprāpti. (07 April 2017). Summarising and critically assess the article Apocryphal Treatment for Conze’s Heart Problems by Huifeng (2014). Translating 無智亦無得 以無所得故.
29. Further Problems with the Heart Sutra: acittāvaraṇa. (14 Apr 2017). Summarising and critically assess the article Apocryphal Treatment for Conze’s Heart Problems by Huifeng (2014). Translating the phrases 心無罣礙 and 無罣礙故.
30. Heart Sutra Anomaly. (20 Apr 2017). The problem of the phrase 是諸法空相 = sarvadharmāḥ śūnyatālakṣanā.
31. The Heart Sutra and the Crisis in Buddhist Philology. (30 June 2017) Blog no.500.
32. Fixing the Broken Heart Sutra. (11 August 2017). I show that Conze bungled the editing of the Section VI. of the Heart Sutra (Section VII in my nomenclature) and how to fix the received text.
33. Red Pine's "Vagaries of Sanskrit grammar". (13 October 2017). Pines struggle with the Sanskrit of Conze's Section VI text reveals that he tacitly translates the Chinese instead, but also highlights differences in the two versions at this point, which suggest the original translator misread the Chinese.
34. The Horror of Apocrypha. (20 October 2017). How Kaz Tanahashi avoids the reality that the Heart Sutra was composed in China, by inventing a pious fiction involving divine revelation in India.
35. Japanese Reception of the Chinese Origins Thesis. (24 November 2017).
36. Types of Errors in the Heart Sutra. (12 January 2018). A structuralist review of errors by type: scribal, editorial, mistranslation, etc.
37. The Chinese Origins of the Heart Sutra Revisited (19 January 2018). A review of the Chinese features found in the Heart Sutra.
38. Anupalambhayogena: An Underappreciated Mahāyāna Term (11 May 2018) Matt Orsborn (aka Huifeng) noted that the Chinese phrase—以無所得故—does not correspond to aprāptitvād but to Sanskrit anupalambhayogena. I show how this fits with Chapter 10 of the Pañcaviṃśātisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra.
39. Review of Ji Yun's 'Is the Heart Sutra an Apocryphal Text? A Re-examination'. (01 June 2018). Very long (11k words) critical review.
40. The Earliest Dated Heart Sutra Revisited. (22 June 2018). Examination of the Fangshan Stele dated 661 CE (note before Xuanzang died).
41. Critical Thinking in Buddhist Historiography. (29 June 2018). Exploration of issues in historiography in relation to Xuanzang's biography composed by Huìlì and Yàncóng. Raises doubts about the trustworthiness of the source. [Watch out for an article by Jeffrey Kotyk on this subject!]
42. Sutras in Stone for the End of the Dharma. (06 July 2018). Background on Jìngwǎn (靜琬) and the Fángshān (房山) collection of stone sūtras containing the oldest dated Heart Sutra.
The True History of the Heart Sutra.
- 43. Part I (03 August 2018). Bibliographies up to the Tang and early commentaries.
- 44. Part II (10 August 2018). The historical background, Xuanzang, and the emergence of the Heart Sutra
- 45. Part III (17 August 2018). Assessing the evidence, and outlining the true history of the Heart Sutra
46. Svāhā in The Heart Sutra Dhāraṇī. (05 July 2019). Looking especially at the various Chinese translations. If we assume only one character changed at a time, then they form a rough sequence.
47. Inscription of the Prajñāpāramitā Epithets (26 July 2019). Evidence from an inscription in Shandong Province that the epithets passage circulated separately in the mid 6th Century.
48. Notes on the History of the Dàmíngzhòujīng. (06 September 2019). Includes the scholarly consensus that the attribution to Kumārajīva is false and some provisional findings on the earliest dated physical text.
49. Another Failed Attempt to Refute the Chinese Origins Thesis. (13 September 2019). Critique of a summary of the thesis put forward by Harada Wasō.
50. Heart Sutra: Work, Text, Document. (11 Oct 2019). Some reflections on the nature of my project on the Heart Sutra and the nature of texts and in particular Buddhist texts.
51. Xuanzang and the Heart Sutra. (29 Nov 2019) Summary of my recent paper: 'Xuanzang’s Relationship to the Heart Sūtra in Light of the Fangshan Stele.' Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies (2019, 32: 1–30).
52. Removing All Suffering. (3 Jan 2020). Problems with the Sanskrit translation of the phrase 能除一切苦 in the Heart Sutra.
53. Jingtai's Catalogue: Wu Zhao and Digest Texts. (21 Feb 2020). My detailed notes on an essay by Stefano Zacchetti in a volume on Chinese epigraphy. Zacchetti touches in two main subjects of interest to my research on the Heart Sutra: the role of Wu Zhao in mid-late 7th Century China and the place of digest texts in Chinese Buddhism.
54. Revisiting Avalokiteśvara in the Heart Sutra. (10 April 2020). Riffing on Max Deeg's argument that in the Notes on the Western Regions (西域記 Xīyù jì), Xuanzang uses Avalokiteśvara for didactic and political purposes. Avalokiteśvara in the Heart Sutra might be seen as a veiled reference to the admonition of Taizong in the Notes. Problematises the name Avalokitasvara.
55. Mantra in the Early Prajñāpāramitā Literature. (15 May 2020). Despite having proved that there is no mantra in the Heart Sutra (Attwood 2017b "Epithets) I decided it was worth looking at the few mentions of the word mantra in Aṣṭasāhasrikā and Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā to illustrate the attitude to mantra in those texts. What I find confirms that it is not likely that Indian Buddhists added a mantra to a Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra in the time frame usually assumed in the Indian origins thesis.
56. Did The Heart Sutra Ever Go To India? (05 June 2020). This essay covers the many difficulties we face in trying to reconstruct history using religious documents. It also critiques the kinds of assumptions that plague Buddhist Studies. I cast doubt on the idea that the Heart Sutra was ever known, let alone popular, in India. Rather, it seems more likely that it went directly from China to Tibet.
The Extended Heart Sutra Series
- 57. The Extended Heart Sutra: Sources. (10 July 2020). Basic materials for studying the extended text
- 58. The extended Heart Sutra: Nidāna. (17 July 2020). Close reading of the extended text opening paragraph part 1. The nidāna or framing story. Variants but no tell-tales for where it was composed.
- 59. The Extended Heart Sutra: The Buddha's Samādhi. (24 July 2020). Some confusion over the dharmaparyāya and the samādhi one of which named gambhīrāvabhāsaṃ in Sanskrit or "extensive" guǎng dà 廣大 and "profound" shèn shēn 甚深 (gambhīra). In the Skt the dharmaparyāya is named, in the Sanskrit it is the samādhi.
- 60. The Extended Heart Sutra: Enter Avalokiteśvara. (31 July 2020). Further confusion between versions. Recension Two goes off on a tangent. T 253 and 254 show influence from the standard version. An insight into how to read zhàojiàn wǔyùn jiē kōng 照見五蘊皆空. Substitution of substitution of svabhāvaśūnyan for śūnyatā (i.e. Madhyamaka for Prajñāpāramitā?)
- 61. The Extended Heart Sutra: Śāriputra's Question. (07 August 2020)
- 62. The Extended Heart Sutra: Avalokiteśvara Preaches. (14 August 2020)
- 63. The Extended Heart Sutra: The Buddha's Endorsement (21 August 2020). Moving on to the conclusion. A few inexplicable variations. R2 has no equivalent of this part (Para T, U, & V).
- 64. The Extended Heart Sutra: Rejoicing. (28 August 2020) Final part of the added conclusion.
65. The Extended Heart Sutra: Overview. (09 October 2020). A summary of the points raised in 53a-h.
66. An Alternative Wikipedia Entry for the Heart Sutra. (5 March 2021).
67. If You Meet Conze on the Road, Set Fire To Him. (16 April 2021). The problems of repudiating the law of non-contradiction.
68. Some Notes on Cessation and Prajñāpāramitā. (2 September 2022). Notes to accompany my article (2022) "The Cessation of Sensory Experience and Prajñāpāramitā Philosophy." International Journal of Buddhist Thought and Culture 32(1):111-148.
69. Just How Crazy if the Heart Sutra? (23 Sept 2022). A critique of the absurdist Tricycle Magazine article by Karl Brunnhölzl.
70. On the Indo-Tibetan Commentaries and Methods in Buddhist Studies. (11 November 2022). A critique of Mathes, Klaus‑Dieter. (2021). "The Eight Indian Commentaries on the Heart Sūtra’s Famous Formula 'Form Is Emptiness; Emptiness Is Form'."
71. On the Cognitive Linguistics of Emptiness. (24 March 2023).
72. Nattier's Response to Fukui on the Chinese Origins of the Heart Sutra. (14 April 2023). My notes on Nattier's unpublished response to Fukui's outrageous criticisms.
73. The Lost Translations of the Heart Sutra (28 July 2023). A summary of Watanabe 1991 which debunks the entire idea of lost translations.
74. How Xuanzang Saw Dhāraṇī. (22 December 2023). My notes on a study of Xuanzang's translations of dhāraṇī texts. For my purposes this establishes that Xuanzang was not interested in Tantric Buddhism.
75. On the Evolution of the Heart Sutra (19 January 2024). An overview of my idea that the Heart involves a convergence of ideas, followed by a divergence of forms. Each of three main lines of development see to solve a particular historical problem, involving: (1) an attempt to push back the date of composition; (2) an attempt to create a "Sanskrit original"; and (3) Two attempts to provide the missing introduction and conclusion.
76. Guanyin Does Not Speak in the Heart Sutra. 09 February 2024.
77. The Oldest Heart Sutra Inscriptions (31 May 2024). Notes on "Early Versions of the Heart Sutra" by Hè Míng and Xù Xiǎoyù (2017). A survey of the oldest witnesses of the Heart Sutra.
78. Xuanzang's Devotion (28 June 2024). Xuanzang was a devotee of Maitreya and of the Yogācāra Buddhism attributed to Maitreya. His connection to Guānyīn, in for example the Xiyu ji, was manufactured post hoc to help explain the anomalous presence of Guānyīn in the Xīn jīng. (note also #75 however)
79. Revised Heart Sutra Editions and Translations (5 July 2024). The bare text of my revised editions. For explanations on the need for new editions and the changes I propose, see the published article.
80. Notes on Zhishen's Heart Sutra Commentary (23 August 2024). Notes on Zhishen and his milieu; he doesn't mention the absence of introduction and dissemination sections.
81. What Have We Proven About the Heart Sutra? (06 September 2024). Stating the case without adding any unestablished conjectures or speculations. Argues for three propositions: (1) Two passages in the Chinese Heart Sutra were copied from the Chinese Large Sutra translation by Kumārajīva (T 223). (2) The Sanskrit Heart Sutra was translated from a Chinese source. (3) The Heart Sutra enters the historical record in a Chinese document dated to 25 Dec 656 CE.
82. Notes on Atikūṭa and Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» (T 901). 13 September 2024. Back ground to post #70.
83. Notes on the Tuóluóní jí jīng «陀羅尼集經» and the Heart Sutra Dhāraṇī. (20 September 2024) I show that the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī was copied from the Tuóluóní jí jīng. We can now be confident about the earliest possible date for the Heart Sutra at 6 May 654 CE.
84. The Mantra at the end of Xuanzang's Dà bānrě bōluómìduō jīng «大般若波羅蜜多經» (4 October 2024). Noting that the version of the gate gate dhāraṇī/mantra at the end of Xuanzang's mammoth collection of Prajñāpāramitā translations (T 220) is a late interpolation and unrelated to the provenance of the Heart Sutra dhāraṇī.
85. Notes on T253 and T254. (1 November 2024). T254 is not an independent translation. It seems to be a redaction of T253, likely composed in Chinese. Where the extant Sanskrit texts seem to demand changes, no such changes occur. Both texts contain the whole of T251 and were thus both redacted in Chinese. At best on the introductions and conclusions were "translated".
86. Minor Figures: Lìyán 利言 and Liú Zhìchéng 劉志成. (15 November 2024). Liyan is credited with helping to translate both T252 and T253, some fifty years apart. In all likely he is responsible for the Chinese texts as neither Fǎyuè 法月 nor Bānrě 般若 could communicate in Chinese. Research turned up mention of the failed rebellion by Liú Zhìchéng 劉志成 which led to China expelling all foreign Buddhists. Since this episode is virtually unknown in Heart Sutra research and not included in standard histories it seemed important to document it.
Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā Essays
Aṣṭasāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā
Essays
Editions
Falk, Harry and Karashima, Seishi. (2012) A first‐century Prajñāpāramitā manuscript from Gandhāra - parivarta 1 (Texts from the Split Collection 1). ARIRIAB XV, 19-61. Online: https://www.academia.edu/3561115/prajnaparamita-5
Karashima Seishi. (2011) Critical edition of Lokakṣema's translation of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. Tokyo: IRIAB, Soka University.
Mitra, Rajendralal. (1888) Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. [Bibliotheca Indica 110]. Calcutta: Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal.
Vaidya, P.L. Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute, 1960. Gretil Archive, 2014. Including Karashima, S. (2013) On the "Missing" Portion in the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. ARIRIAB, 16: 189-192.
Wogihara U. (1935) Abhisamayālaṃkār'alokā Prajnāpāramitāvyākhyā (commentary on Aṣțasahasrika-Prajbāpāramitā) by Haribhadra, together with the text commented on. Tokyo: The Toyo bunko.
Yuyama, Akira. (1976) Prajñā-pāramitā-ratna-guṇa-saṃcaya-gāthā (Sanskrit Recension A). Cambridge University Press.
Pañcaviṃśātisāhasrika-prajñāpāramitā
Editions
Dutt, N. (1934). Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: edited with critical notes and introduction. London, Luzac & Co, 1934.
Karashima, Seishi, et al. (2016) Mahāyāna Texts: Prajñāpāramitā Texts (1). Gilgit Manuscripts in the National Archives of India Facsimile Edition Volume II.1. The National Archives of India and The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University, Tokyo.
Kimura, Takayasu. (2009). Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā.
Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin
Zacchetti, Stefano. (2005) In Praise of the Light: A Critical Synoptic Edition with an Annotated Translation of Chapters 1-3 of Dharmarakṣa's Guang zan jing, Being the Earliest Chinese Translation of the Larger Prajñāpāramitā. (Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica Buddhica, 8). IRIAB. Sanskrit text also available from Gretil.
Sarvāstivāda Essays
The Prajñāpāramitā, especially the extracts found in the Hṛdaya, is partly a response to developments in mainstream Buddhism especially by the Ābhidharmikas of the the Sarvāstivāda sect. The Sarvāstivādins were the dominant sect of Buddhism in North Indian for a considerable period, before Mahāyāna Buddhism displaced them. Even those who reject their ideas, are forced to do so at length. The following essays are aimed specifically at providing background reading for those interested in Prajñāpāramitā.
Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya Bibliography
See also prajnaparamitahrdaya.wordpress.com my website for Heart Sutra primary sources - manuscripts and inscriptions in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan.Sanskrit Manuscripts
Cambridge Manuscripts (Transcribed Dec 2012)
- Add 1164 (date uncertain, the script is similar to Add 1553)
- Add 1485 (1677 CE)
- Add 1553 (18th century)
- Add 1680 (ca. 1200 CE)
Beneviste, Émile. (1940) Textes Sogdiens: édités, traduits et commentés.
Conze, Edward (1948) Text, Sources, and Bibliography of the Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, April 80(1-2): 33-51.
Conze, Edward. (1967) The Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdaya Sūtra in Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies: Selected Essays, Bruno Cassirer, pp. 147-167. Modified version of Conze (1948).
Conze, Edward. (1975) Buddhist Wisdom Books: The Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra. George Allen & Unwin. First Ed. 1957.
EAP676/2/5: Ārya Pañcaviṁśatikā Prajñāpāramitā Mantranāma Dhāraṇī. Privately owned Ms. scanned as part of the British Library, Endangered Archives Project. See my diplomatic edition (2014). https://independent.academia.edu/JayaravaAttwood
Matsumoto, Tokumyo. (1932) Die Prajñāpāramitā Literatur. Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat zu Bonn. [based on T 8.256]
Milloué, L de (1883) Quelques mots sur les anciens textes sanskrits du Japon, à propos d'une traduction inédite du Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra par MM. Paul Regnand et Y. Ymaizoumi d'après un vieux texte sanskrit-japonais. Actes du Sixième Congrès international des orientalistes tenu en 1883 à Leide, 3e partie, section 2: Aryenne (Leide, E. J. Brill, 1885), p. 181-197. [Sanskrit text based on Freer’s polyglot edition] Online: http://archive.org/stream/actesdusiximeco01unkngoog#page/n200/mode/1up
Mironov, N.D. (1933) The Prajñāpāramitāhṛdayasūtra as an inscription.’ Urusvati Journal. Vol 3: 73-78. Online: http://emrism.agni-age.net/english/Urusvati/Urusvati_3_73-78.pdf
Müller, Max. (1881) ‘The Ancient Palm Leaves containing the Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛidaya Sūtra and Uṣniṣa-vijaya-Dhāraṇi.’ in Buddhist Texts from Japan (Vol 1.iii). Oxford University Press. Online: http://archive.org/details/buddhisttextsfr00bhgoog
Shaku Hannya (1923) ‘The Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya Sutra,’ The Eastern Buddhist. 2(3&4): 163-175.
Vaidya, P.L. (1961) Mahāyāna-sūtra-saṃgrahaḥ (part 1). Buddhist Sanskrit Texts No. 17. Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute. Online: http://dsbc.uwest.edu/ [Based on Müller 1881]
Xuánzàng (Mid 7th Century) 般若波羅蜜多心經. [Sanskrit Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya Sūtra transliterated with Hanzi]. Taishō Tripiṭaka. T 256. [Transcribed in Matsumoto, 1932.]
Chinese
Short Text
T251 《般若波羅蜜多心經》 = Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra.Long Text
T252 《普遍智藏般若波羅蜜多心經》 translated by 法月 Fǎyuè (Skt. *Dharmacandra?).T253 《般若波羅蜜多心經》 translated by Prajñā, ca. 788 CE.
T254 《般若波羅蜜多心經》 translated by Prajñācakra, 861 CE.
T257 《佛說聖佛母般若波羅蜜多經》 translated by Dānapāla, 1005 CE.
Tibetan
Long Text
Silk, Jonathan A. (1994) The Heart Sūtra in Tibetan: a Critical Edition of the Two Recensions Contained in the Kanjur. Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studien, Universität Wien.རྒྱ་གར་སྐད་དུ། བྷ་ག་བ་ཏཱི་པྲཛྙཱ་པཱ་ར་མི་ཏཱ་ཧྲྀ་ད་ཡ། (rgya gar skad du | bha ga ba ti pradznyā pā ra mi tā hri da ya) = Ārya Bhagavatī Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya. Long Text Heart Sutra in the Tibetan Kangyur, Derge Edition, Vol. 34: 144b.6-146a.3. Tibetan & Himalayan Library.
Short Text
Or. 8212/77- International Dunhuang Project. http://idp.bl.uk/database/large.a4d?recnum=7852&imageRecnum=122101 (Record has no date).
- in Zwalf, W. (1985) Buddhism, Art and Faith. p. 61, 64. London: British Museum.
Other Primary Sources
Asanga Abhidharmasamuccaya. Pradhan, Prahlad (Ed.) Visvabharati, Santiniketan. West Bengal, India. 1950. Online: http://www.dsbcproject.org/node/6670
Asanga (aka Maitreyanath). Mahāyānasutrālaṅkāra. Bagchi, S. (ed). Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarnath. 2000. Online: http://www.dsbcproject.org/node/6118
御製大乘妙法蓮華經序 [Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra] CBETA Ed. Online: http://tripitaka.cbeta.org/T09n0262_001
Bidyabinod, B. B. (1927) 'Fragment of a Prajnaparamita Manuscript from Central Asia', Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India32: 1-11. = AṣṭāB. Online: Gretil Archive: http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/ppfrag_u.htm
Dutt, N. (1934) Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra: edited with critical notes and introduction. London, Luzac & Co, 1934.
Konow, Sten (1942) 'Central Asian fragments of the Ashṭādaśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā and of an unidentified text'. Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, 69. = AṣṭāK, unidentified = Praj(U1). Online: Gretil Archive. http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/ppfrag_u.htm
KIMURA Takayasu (2010). Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. Vol. I-1, Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin 2007. Online: http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/psp_1u.htm [Input by Klaus Wille, Göttingen, April 2010].
Vaidya, P.L., Ed. (1960) Saddharmapundarikasutra. (Buddhist Sanskrit Texts, 6) Darbhanga: The Mithila Institute. Online:http://fiindolo.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/4_rellit/buddh/bsu036_u.htm
Vaidya, P. L. (1960) Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning. Also online: http://www.dsbcproject.org/node/8242
Vaida, P.L. 1961. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts No. 17 Mahāyāna-sūtra-saṃgrahaḥ (part 1). Darbhanga, The Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrit Learning. [contains both versions of the Heart Sūtra]
Secondary Sources
Translations of the Heart Sutra
Please note that I've made no attempt to systematically collect translations - they don't interest me very much in comparison to the text itself and offer very little illumination of the issues that concern me.
Conze, Edward. (1973). Perfect Wisdom: The Short Prajñāpāramitā Texts. Buddhist Publishing Group.
Conze, Edward. (1975). Buddhist Wisdom Books : Containing the Diamond Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra. 2nd Ed. London : George Allen & Unwin. First Ed. 1957.
Jones, Richard H. (2012) The Heart of Wisdom. Jackson Square Books.
Rulu (2011). ‘Sūtra of the Great Illumination Mantra of Mahā-Prajñā-Pāramitā.’ (T 250) Buddha Sūtras Mantras Sanskrit. http://www.sutrasmantras.info/sutra15.html
Tanahashi, Kazuki. (2014). The Heart Sutra: A Comprehensive Guide to the Classic of Mahayana Buddhism. Shambala.
Traditional Commentaries
Eckel, Malcolm David. (1987) Indian Commentaries on the Heart Sūtra: The Politics of Interpretation. The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 10(2): 69-79Hakeda, Yoshito (trans.) (1972). 'The Secret Key to the Heart Sutra' in Kūkai: Major Works. Columbia University Press.
Hyun Choo, B. (2006) An English Translation of the Banya paramilda simgyeong chan: Wonch'uk's Commentary on the Heart Sūtra (Prajñāpāramitā-hṛdaya-sūtra). International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture. 6: 121-205.
Lopez, Donald S. (1988) The Heart Sūtra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries. State University of New York Press.
Lopez, Donald S. (1996) Elaborations on Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra. Princeton University press.
McRae, John R. (1988). "Ch'an Commentaries on the Heart Sûtra: Preliminary Inferences on the Permutation of Chinese Buddhism". Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 11, no. 2: 87-115. Online: http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=19327107
Shih, Heng-Ching & Lusthaus, Dan. (2006) A Comprehensive Commentary on the Heart Sutra (Prajnaparamita-hyrdaya-sutra). Numata Center for Buddhist Translation & Research.
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Other Works
Su, Ken [蘇錦坤 Sū Jǐnkūn] comments on binomial words in Chinese Buddhist translations in Ji (2012: 39)
