An Early Chinese Commentary on the Ekottarika-?gama: the Fenbie Gongde Lun ????? and the History of the Translation of the Zengyi Ahan Jing ?????

This study reassesses an old problem in the history of Chinese Buddhism, the origins and nature of the Zengyi ahan jing ????? (Taish? 125). It does so by a close investigation of the Chinese translation of the Ekottarika-?gama at the end of the fourth century and of its most important witness, the Fenbie gongde lun ????? (Taish? 1507). It is argued that the latter document, whose original title was Zengyi ahan jing shu ??????, should be seen as an unfinished commentary to the newly translated collection, produced within the original translation team (including Dao'an ??, Zhu Fonian ??? and the Indo-Bactrian master Dharmananda) during the tumultuous end of the Later Qin ?? empire in A.D. 385. This reconstruction yields further insights into the cultural origins of the Chinese Ekottarika-?gama, and its broader significance for the history of Buddhism