Chinese Parallels to the Udāna

Hello, kind people,

I just noticed the Chinese parallels you mention for Ud 1:2 do not really make sense, in that they are totally different than the pali verses. Are these maybe incorrect parallels?

Thank you!

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Hi Marian! Welcome to the forum!
I assume you are referring to Ud1.2 and the associated chinese parallels?

Perhaps @cdpatton can help us out? :thinking:

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They may well be. Not only that, but many parallels haven’t been identified, so what we have in SC is still a work in progress. I think most of it is sourced from academic sources like Akamuna’s Comparative Catalogue.

Let’s look at the parallels we have for Ud 1.2.

So, the Pali verse is:

Yadā have pātubhavanti dhammā,
Ātāpino jhāyato brāhmaṇassa;
Athassa kaṅkhā vapayanti sabbā,
Yato khayaṃ paccayānaṃ avedī”ti.

Anandajoti translates to English:

“When the nature of things becomes really manifest
To the ardent meditating brāhmaṇa,
Then all his doubts disappear,
Since the destruction of causes has been understood.”

The parallel identified from T210 is Chapter 35, verse 8, which reads:

若猗於愛,
心無所著,
已捨、已正,
是滅眾苦。

“If they incline toward craving,
Attach the mind to nothing [?];
Being detached and corrected,
This ceases the manifold sufferings.”

I would agree this isn’t very close. I don’t see other verses in that chapter that are anything like the Pali. This one just has the idea of destroying something at the end.

The T212 parallel is in Chapter 34 Brahmana, verse 5, which comes with a little commentary:

[0769b25] 初習行之人雖在學次,未能分別思惟道果一一明了不失其緒,未獲者獲、未得者得,是故說曰,若猗與愛,心無所著,已捨已正,是滅終苦。

[edit: I had the wrong commentary for this verse here; it follows the verse rather than leading it.]

When someone begins to cultivate, and even in subsequent training, they’ve yet to discern and contemplate the path’s fruit. Clearly understanding and not losing its thread, what’s yet to be won is won and what’s yet to be obtained is obtained. Therefore, it says, 'If they praise craving, attach the mind to nothing. Detached and corrected, this is the final cessation of suffering.

The verse is a slightly edited version of the one in T210.

若猗與愛,
心無所著,
已捨已正,
是滅終苦。

If they praise craving,
Attach the mind to nothing;
Being detached and corrected,
This is the final cessation of suffering.

The verse in T213 is another version of the same verse in T210 and T212.

若倚於愛欲,
心無所貪著,
已捨已得正,
是名滅終苦。

If they incline toward craving,
Attach the mind to no greed;
Being detached and corrected,
This is called the final cessation of suffering.

Yeah, I would agree, it’s pretty questionable as a parallel.

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Better tag venerable @sujato or venerable @Vimala who may indicate how that can get reviewed/fixed?
:anjal:

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Exactly, thank you for confirming, I translated the Chinese similarly and I was thinking maybe I’m missing something. Enjoy your week!

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Yes, that’s exactly what I was referring to.

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Glad to be of help! There have been quite a few discussions about parallels - see this for example. :smiley:

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Thank you @Gabriel_L I had not actually seen your post. For some reason I did not get a notification by email …

Will have a look one of these days to see if I can find out what the source of these parallels are. As I don’t read Chinese, it is difficult for me to know if the parallels indicated in some article or other are correct or not.

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It seems that these Chinese parallels have come in through the Udanavarga lists.
It mentions in SC data:

        "parallels": ["uv33#33.78","t210.35#vgns35.8","t212.34#vgns34.5","t213.33#vgns33.4","uv-kg33#993","uvs33#33.84","sf259#7.9","~san-lo-mvu17#sbvi128","san-lo-mvu64#485","ud1.2#4","pli-tv-kd1#9"]

When looking at Polyglotta, from the University of Oslo, they don’t mention any Chinese parallels to Udanavarga 33.78. It is clear however that the Udana verse matches the Udanavarga one.

I tried to check Ken Su’s tables and he identifies T213 33.4 as parallel to Udanavarga 33.75. However I cannot see this back on Polyglotta. Polyglotta identifies this same verse as part of a parallel to Udanavarga 33.1. So just to make it complicated, I have no idea! So I hope any of you can make sense of this. Personally I feel more at ease with the Polyglotta reference.

I can give you the sources here and you can have a look:


Another error in the above list is the part reference to san-lo-mvu17. This should be san-mu-kd17 instead.
But I think it is clear that the Chinese parallels do not belong in the above list. So that would have to become:

        "parallels": ["uv33#33.78","uv-kg33#993","uvs33#33.84","sf259#7.9","~san-mu-kd17#sbvi128","san-lo-mvu64#485","ud1.2#4","pli-tv-kd1#9"]

So any insights into this would be very much appreciated!

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thanks for the link. much appreciated as i find them very useful.
if you do find any insights yourself, please update. thanks again

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And this one, sorry: T iv, 798a20

For Ud. 1.9, a Chinese parallel is pointed out: T iv 768c14, which is linked to this URL: SuttaCentral . The text you give is:

不以水清淨, 多有人沐浴,
能除弊惡法, 是謂為梵志。

The actual text in the SAT DB for that reference is:

所謂梵志
不但倮形
居嶮臥棘
名爲梵志

And it’s not really a close parallel, I think it should be removed. The correct parallels should be:

T iv, 572c9
T iv 605 a14
T iv, 770a11

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