KUM?RAJ?VA

Kum?raj?va (350–409 or 413), the most important translator in East Asian Buddhist history, was born to a noble family in Kucha, a center of largely main-stream Buddhist schools on the northern branch of the Silk Road. His native language, now known as Tokharian B, belonged to the Indo-European family. Under the guidance of his mother, Kum?raj?va became a monk while still a boy, then traveled with her to Kashmir to study Buddhist philosophy of the Sarv?stiv?da school. While continuing his studies in Kashgar (roughly between Kucha and Kashmir), Kum?raj?va was converted to the Mah?y?na by a monk who was a former prince of Yarkand, in the Khotan area, along the southern Silk Road. Eventually, Kum?raj?va converted his earlier Indian teacher to the Mah?y?na.

In 383 a Chinese army occupied Kucha and took Kum?raj?va away as a captive. He was held for some two decades in Liangzhou near Dunhuang in the Gansu corridor, where he presumably learned to speak and read Chinese. When the Later Qin regime conquered Liangzhou in 401, Kum?raj?va was taken to the Chinese capital of Chang'an, where he was immediately put at the head of a large translation staff.

Although a brilliant scholar, Kum?raj?va was painfully aware of his own failings as a monk. While in Chang'an he was forced by the ruler to sire numerous children, in the hopes of producing offspring as gifted as their father. Nothing is known of them.

There are four aspects to Kum?raj?va's greatness. First and most important is the volume, variety, and richness of his translations. Kum?raj?va and his staff translated seventy-four works in 384 fascicles, including the Amit?bha-s?tra (402), about the Pure Land paradise in the west; a new and more readable Pañcavi??tis?hasrik?prajñ?ramit?-s?tra (Perfection of Wisdom in 25,000 Lines, 404), a basic prajñ?p?ramit? text; the Dazhidu lun (Great Perfection of Wisdom Treatise, 405), a massive commentary attributed to Madhyamaka philosopher N?g?rjuna (ca. second century c.e.), but edited and probably compiled by Kum?raj?va; the Lotus S?tra (Saddharmapundar?ka-s?tra, 406), the single most important Mah?y?na scripture in all of East Asian Buddhism; the Vimalak?rtinirde?a-s?tra (406), a very readable scripture about a wise lay bodhisattva; and the Zhonglun (Treatise on the Middle, 409?), N?g?rjuna's M?dhyamakak?rik? (Verses on Madhyamaka) and commentary. The translations produced by Kum?raj?va's team borrowed significantly from predecessors such as Zhi Qian (fl. mid-third century) and are known for their fluent and readable style. In cases where multiple Chinese translations exist, it is always Kum?raj?va's version that is used.

The second aspect of Kum?raj?va's greatness is that individual translations or groups of texts became the bases for distinctive exegetical traditions, especially the Tattvasiddhi-??stra (Chinese, Chengshi lun; Completion of Truth) and the "Three Treatises" or Sanlun of the Madhyamaka school. Third, Kum?raj?va's texts contained much more than doctrine; they also included various types of songs and poetry, legends and stories, literary styles and motifs, and a vast repertoire of religious images. Fourth, and certainly not least, is that Kum?raj?va taught a group of gifted students who wrote texts that formed the foundation of East Asian Buddhism, including Sengzhao (374–414), Daosheng (ca. 355–434), Sengrui (also Huirui; 352–436), and others.

See also:Param?rtha; ?ik??nanda

Bibliography

Ch'en, Kenneth Kuan Sheng. Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Liu Mau-Tsai. Kutscha und seine Beziehungen zu China vom 2. Jh. v. bis zum 6. Jh. n. Chr., 2 vols. Wiesbaden, Germany: Harrassowitz, 1969.

Robinson, Richard H. Early M?dhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967.

Tsukamoto Zenry?. A History of Early Chinese Buddhism: From Its Introduction to the Death of Hui-yüan, tr. Leon Hurvitz. Tokyo and New York: Kodansha, 1985.

Zürcher, E. The Buddhist Conquest of China: The Spread and Adaptation of Buddhism in Early Medieval China. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 1959 (1972).

John R. McRae