(Difference between revisions)
Revision as of 22:15, 22 March 2010
The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Dàshèng qǐxìn lùn 大乘起信論) is an important text of the East Asian Buddhist tradition. Although it is traditionally attributed to Aśvaghoṣa 馬鳴 (fl. 1st - 2nd centuries CE), the earliest versions appeared in Chinese in the sixth and seventh centuries of the Common Era.
Content
Several influential East Asian Buddhist figures wrote commentaries on the text:
- Huiyuan 慧遠: Commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Dàshéng qǐxìnlùn yìshū 大乘起信論義疏)
- Wonhyo 元曉: Commentary on the Awakening of Faith (Gisillon so 起信論疏) and Further Notes on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Daesung gisillon byeolgi 大乘起信論別記)
- Fazang 法藏: Notes on the Meaning of the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna (Dàshèng qǐxìnlùn yìjì 大乘起信論義記)
- Zongmi 宗密: Annotations and Commentary on the Awakening of Faith (Qǐxìn zhùshū 起信註疏; Qǐxìnlùn zhùshū 起信論註疏)
Modern Influence and Controversy
According to his biography, Yáng Wénhuì 楊文會 moved to study Buddhism thanks to reading a copy of this text.
In the mid 1920s a debate broke out among Chinese Buddhists over whether or not the Awakening of Faith was an apocryphal text composed in China, or whether it had been written in India in Sanskrit as tradition held. See the article on 大乘起信論真偽辯.
Bibliographic Information
The Sanskrit title of the text is often given as Mahāyāna-śraddhôtpāda or Mahāyānâdhimukty-utpāda, though as mentioned above no Sanskrit edition exists. In the Taishō canon, it appears as T 1666.32.575b-583b. There are at least three English translations that have been widely published:
- Hakeda, Yoshito S., trans. Awakening of Faith Attributed to Aśvaghoṣa. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967; Reprint, 2006.
- Richard, Timothy. The Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna Doctrine, the new Buddhism. Shanghai: Christian Literature Society, 1907. Later published by Kelly and Walsh in 1918 with a slightly different title.
- Suzuki, Daisetsu Teitaro. Aśvaghoṣa's Discourse on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana. Chicago: Open Court Publishing Co, 1900.
Notes
References and Resources