The (abbreviated DZDL) or Treatise on the Great Wisdom (with reference to ) is a massive MahÃÂyÃÂna Buddhist treatise and commentary on the Pañcaviá¹Âà ÂatisÃÂhasrikàPrajñÃÂpÃÂramitàSà «tra (The Sà «tra of Transcendental Wisdom in Twenty-five Thousand Lines). The original Sanskrit title has been reconstructed as both and . It is an encyclopedic compendium or summa of Mahayana Buddhist doctrine.
The was translated into Chinese by the Kuchean monk KumÃÂrajëva and his Chinese team from 402 to 406 CE. The colophon to this work claims it is written by the Buddhist philosopher NÃÂgÃÂrjuna (c. 2nd century), but various scholars such as ÃÂtienne Lamotte have questioned this attribution. According to Hans-Rudolf Kantor, this work was "fundamental for the development of the Chinese Sanlun, Tiantai, Huayan, and Chan schools."
The DZDL survives only in the Chinese translation of 100 scrolls made by the Kuchean monk KumÃÂrajëva (344âÂÂ413 CE) from 402 to 406 CE. According to the primary sources, the Indic text consisted of 100,000 gÃÂthÃÂs (lines), or 3,200,000 Sanskrit syllables, which was condensed by KumÃÂrajëva by two-thirds to obtain the 100 scrolls of the Chinese translation. KumÃÂrajëva translated the first 34 scrolls in full, and abridged the rest of the material. It was translated by KumÃÂrajëva, working together with his student Sengrui, who "stopped writing, argued for the right translation," and "checked his translation against the original for the entire day" as well as with the Qin emperor Yao Xing (366âÂÂ416 CE).
The DZDL became a central text for the East Asian Sanlun ( J. Sanron) or Madhyamaka school and also influenced all the major schools of Chinese Buddhism. The DZDL acted as a kind of MahÃÂyÃÂna encyclopedia for East Asian Buddhist thought, similar to the status of the Abhisamayalamkara in Tibetan Buddhism.
Traditionally, it is held that the text is by the Indian Madhyamaka philosopher Nagarjuna. Against the traditional attribution of the work to Nagarjuna, ÃÂtienne Lamotte as well as Paul Demiéville, concluded that the author must have been a Buddhist monk of the SarvÃÂstivÃÂda or MulasarvÃÂstivÃÂda school from Northwest India, learned in Abhidharma, who later converted to MahÃÂyÃÂna and Madhyamaka and then composed "a voluminous exegetical treatise which is like a MahÃÂyÃÂna reply to the SarvÃÂstivÃÂdin Abhidharma". This is because the Abhidharma and Vinaya material found in this text coincides with that of the north Indian SarvÃÂstivÃÂda tradition. This is a widely accepted view among modern scholars. Lamotte also remarked on the internal evidence of the text which shows that its author was likely from a region that was within the Kushan Empire.
Hikata Ryusho however argues that there is an ancient nucleus of material in this text that could be attributed by Nagarjuna (as well as a large amount of later accretions). R. Hikata argued that while a part of the text was by Nagarjuna, it also included many "additions or insertions by KumÃÂrajëva." The Chinese scholar Yin Shun meanwhile, argues for the traditional attribution to Nagarjuna.' In a recent study, Po-kan Chou has argued that the DZDL is a product of the editorship of Sengrui (352?-436?), KumÃÂrajëva's student, co-translator and amanuensis.'
The text is primarily Mahayana and explains basic Mahayana doctrines such as PrajñÃÂpÃÂramitÃÂ, and the other bodhisattva paramitas, but also includes much Sarvastivada Abhidharma, Jataka and early Buddhist content. As noted by Lamotte, "the Treatise cites, at length or in extracts, about a hundred sà «tras of the Lesser Vehicle; the majority are borrowed from the ÃÂgama collections". It also cites various Mahayana sutras, such as the Lotus Sutra and the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Dasabhumika Sutra, Gandavyuha Sutra, as well as various Jataka stories and Avadana literature. According to Akira Hirawaka, "The arguments of the Ta-chih-tu lun, are primarily directed against the Vaibhasikas of the Sarvastivadin School."
The DZDL contains 90 chapters (pÃÂn) in 100 rolls (juÃÂ n). It comprises two series of chapters, according to Lamotte the first series of 52 chapters (Taisho. 1509, p. 57c-314b) "appears to be an integral version of the Indian original" while the second series of 89 chapters (Taisho. 1509, p. 314b-756c) seems to be an abridgement.
The content of the first series, which has been translated by Etienne Lamotte (Fr.) and Karma Migme Chodron (Eng.) is as follows:
One third of this work was translated by Etienne Lamotte as Le Traité de la Grande Vertu de Sagesse. An English translation from Lamotte's French was completed by Gelongma Karma Migme Chodron as "The Treatise on the Great Virtue of Wisdom".
Bhiksu Dharmamitra has also translated sections of this work into English, including chapters 17-30 and a collection of 130 stories and anecdotes extracted from the text.