Indian Philosophy in China
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Abstract
DaÅapadÄrthÄ« is a text of Indian philosophy and the VaiÅeį¹£ika school only preserved in the Chinese translation made by XuĆ”nzĆ ng ēå„ in 648 BC. The translation was included in the catalogs of East Asian Buddhist texts and subsequently in the East Asian Buddhist Canons (DĆ zĆ ngjÄ«ng 大čē¶) despite clearly being not a Buddhist text. DaÅapadÄrthÄ« is almost unquestionably assumed to be written by a VaiÅeį¹£ika åč Huiyue ę §ę in Sanskrit reconstructed as Candramati or Maticandra. But is that the case? The author argues that the original Sanskrit text was compiled by the Buddhists based on previously existing VaiÅeį¹£ika texts for an exclusively Buddhist purpose and was not used by the followers of VaiÅeį¹£ika. That would explain Xuanzangās choice for the translation as well as the non-circulation of the text among VaiÅeį¹£ikas.