Lokaksema
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Lokaksema (Ch: 支婁迦讖 Zhī Lóujiāchèn， sometimes abbreviated 支讖 Zhi Chan), born around 147 CE, The name "Lokaksema" translates into 'welfare of the world' in Sanskrit. He is the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language.
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[edit] Origins
Lokaksema was a Kushan of Yuezhi ethnicity from Gandhara. His ethnicity is described in his adopted Chinese name by the prefix Zhi (Ch:支), abbreviation of Yuezhi (Ch:月支). As a Yuezhi, his native tongue was one of the Tocharian languages, an Indo-European language group.
He was born in Gandhara at a time when Buddhism was actively sponsored by the Kushan king Kanishka, who convened the Fourth Buddhist Council. Though this Council had no connection with Mahayana, it would seem that Kanishka was not ill-disposed towards Mahayana Buddhism, opening the way for missoinary activities in China by monks such as Lokaksema. Second century Gandhara was also a center of Greco-Buddhist art, a fusion of Buddhist and Hellenistic influences.
Lokaksema came from Gandhara to the court of the Han dynasty at the capital Loyang as early as 150 and worked there between 178 and 189. A Prolific scholar monk, many early translations of important Mahāyāna texts in China are attributed to him, including the Dào Xíng Bānruò Jīng 道行般若經, Bān Zhōu Sānmèi Jīng 般舟三昧經, ādūshì Wáng Jīng 阿闍世王經, Za biyu jing 雜譬喩經, Shou lengyan jing 首楞嚴經, Wuliang qingjing pingdeng jue jing 無量淸淨平等覺經, and the Baoji jing 寶積經 .
[edit] Activity in China
Lokaksema's work includes the translation of the Pratyutpanna Sutra, containing the first known mentions of the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land, said to be at the origin of Pure Land practice in China, and the first known translations of the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra (The "Astasahasrikaprajnaparamita Sutras", or "Perfection of Wisdom Sutras of the practice of the Way", a part of the "Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines"), a founding text of Mahayana Buddhism.
Lokaksema's translation activities, as well as those of the Parthians An Shih Kao and An Hsuan slightly earlier, or the Yuezhi Dharmaraksa (around 286 CE) illustrate the key role Central Asians had in propagating the Buddhist faith to the countries of Eastern Asia.
Another Yuezhi monk and one of Lokaksema's students named Zhi Yao (Ch:支曜)，translated Mahayana Buddhist texts from Central Asian around 185 CE, such as the "Sutra on the Completion of Brightness" (Ch:成具光明經 Chengiu guangming jing).
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[edit] See also
[edit] References:
"Religions of the Silk Road" Richard C.Foltz ISBN 0-312-23338-8
[edit] Notes
- ^ Dictionary References: Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha) p.287b/319. Fo Guang Shan Dictionary, p. 1416. Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), p. 569. Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), p. 341.Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki)(v.1-6), p. 2858a.
