Nāgārjuna
Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom
Traditional attribution
Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom
*Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra / *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa; chin. 大智度論 Dà zhìdù lùn

A monumental commentary, in one hundred fascicles, on the Perfection of Wisdom Sūtra in twenty-five thousand lines, of which Kumārajīva translated the first chapter in full and abridged the rest. It is an encyclopaedia of the Buddhism of its time —cosmology, ethics, meditation, the Buddha's former lives, polemic with Abhidharma— and was one of the main doctrinal sources in East Asia.
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Authorship note
Ascribed to Nāgārjuna by the Chinese tradition since Kumārajīva's translation (402–406). Lamotte, its translator, concluded that the author was a monk from north-western India trained in Sarvāstivāda, not Nāgārjuna; others ascribe part of the text to Kumārajīva and his team. It survives only in Chinese.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
Chino clásico · 文言
Nāgārjuna
大智度論 Dà zhìdù lùn
The Conscious Library大智度論 Dà zhìdù lùn
Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō, 406
Translation: Kumārajīva
Traducción china antigua, T25 n.º 1509; texto en zh.wikisource.org
Français
Nāgārjuna
Le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (5 vols.)
The Conscious LibraryLe Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (5 vols.)
Bureaux du Muséon / Institut orientaliste (Lovaina), 1944
Translation: Étienne Lamotte
Publicado 1944–1980; reimpr. Peeters, 1981 (t. I, ISBN 9782801701690)
Other works by Nāgārjuna
- Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way · 190
- The Dispeller of Disputes (Vigrahavyāvartanī)
- Seventy Verses on Emptiness
- Sixty Verses on Reasoning
- Crushing the Categories (Vaidalyaprakaraṇa)
- Proof of Convention (lost)
- Precious Garland (Ratnāvalī)
- Letter to a Friend (Suhṛllekha)
- The Four Hymns (Catuḥstava)
- Verses on the Heart of Dependent Origination
- Compendium of Sūtras
- Treatise on the Requisites of Awakening
- Commentary on the Awakening Mind
- Commentary on the Ten Stages
- Twelve Gate Treatise
- Akutobhayā ("Fearless" commentary on the Verses)
- Twenty Verses on the Great Vehicle
- Treatise of One Verse
- Heart of Means Treatise
- Hymn to the Dharmadhātu
- Treatise on Transition between Existences
- The Staff of Wisdom (maxims)
- Compendium of Doctrinal Terms
- The Five Stages (Pañcakrama)
- Rasaratnākara (alchemical treatise)
- Yogaśataka (a hundred medical formulas)
Sources
- Lamotte, Étienne (trad.). Le Traité de la grande vertu de sagesse de Nāgārjuna (Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra). 5 vols. Lovaina: Bureaux du Muséon / Institut orientaliste, 1944–1980.
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