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
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).
22 Form is Emptiness.
"Form is (not) Emptiness"
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 53a. The Extended Heart Sutra: Sources. (10 July 2020). Basic materials for studying the extended text.
- 53b. 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.
- 53c. 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.
- 53d. 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?)
- 53e. The Extended Heart Sutra: Śāriputra's Question. (07 August 2020)
- 53f. The Extended Heart Sutra: Avalokiteśvara Preaches. (14 August 2020)
- 53g. 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).
- 53h. The Extended Heart Sutra: Rejoicing. (28 August 2020) Final part of the added conclusion.
54. The Extended Heart Sutra: Overview. (09 October 2020). A summary of the points raised in 53a-h.
55. An Alternative Wikipedia Entry for the Heart Sutra. (5 March 2021).
56. If You Meet Conze on the Road, Set Fire To Him. (16 April 2021). The problems of repudiating the law of non-contradiction.
57. 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.
58. Just How Crazy if the Heart Sutra? (23 Sept 2022). A critique of the absurdist Tricycle Magazine article by Karl Brunnhölzl.
59. 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'."
60. On the Cognitive Linguistics of Emptiness. (24 March 2023)
61. Nattier's Response to Fukui on the Chinese Origins of the Heart Sutra. (14 April 2023)
62. The Lost Translations of the Heart Sutra (28 July 2023).
63. How Xuanzang Saw Dhāraṇī. (22 December 2023).
64. On the Evolution of the Heart Sutra (19 January 2024)
65. Oldest Heart Sutra Inscriptions (31 May 2024)
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)