菩提流支 (1) (?-527) Bodhiruci, one of the most prolific translators of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Chinese. His name is also transliterated as 菩提留支 and translated according to its meaning as Daoxi 道希. He was originally from northern India, and after settling down in the Northern Wei capital of Loyang, completed the translation of over thirty Mahāyāna sutras and treatises. Most of these were reflective of the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, most importantly Consciousness-only related works, and these translations ended up having a major impact on East Asian Buddhism from this time. Among the most important of these were the Lankāvatāra Sutra 入楞伽經, Jingang panruo jing (Diamond Sutra) 金剛般若經、 Foming jing 佛名經、 Faji jing 法集經、 Shenmi jietuo jing 深密解脱經, Dabao jijing lun 大寶積經論, Fahuajing lun 法華經論, and the Wuliang shoujing lun (Treatise on the Sutra of Infinite Life) 無量壽經論.
The northern branch of the Ten Stages sect 地論宗 was formed based on his translation and studies of the Treatise on the Book of the Ten Stages 十地經論. Danluan 曇鸞, one of the early founders of the Pure Land School 浄土宗, based many of his ideas on Bodhiruci's translation of the Treatise on the Sutra of Infinite Life. One of his most important colleagues was Ratnamati 勒那摩提, who worked together with him on the Dilun. Based on the differing interpretations of the two regarding key doctrines contained in this, the Dilun school developed into two branches of northern, started by Bodhiruci's disciple Daochong 道寵 and the southern, represented by Ratnamati's student Huiguang 慧光. (2) There was also a Bodhiruci who came to Loyang during the Tang, who served as a translator under the reign of empress Wu.
菩提留支 Bodhiruci. See 菩提流支.
道希 Chinese translation of the name Bodhiruci 菩提流支.
Bodhiruci
(6th c. ce)
A north Indian monk and esoteric master who came to China in 508 and became very active as a teacher and translator, producing translations of 39 works in 127 fascicles. Among these, the most important were the Sūtra on the Ten Grounds and commentary (Sanskrit, Daśabhūmika Sūtra; Chin., Shih ti ching lun), and the Shorter Sukhāvatī-vyūha Sūtra and commentary. The former text became the object of study by the Ti-lun school, of which Bodhiruci is regarded as the patriarch. This school was the forerunner of the Hua-yen school. The latter text commented on one of the three foundational scriptures of the Pure Land school.
Bodhiruci figures prominently in the story of Pure Land master T'an-luan's conversion to this form of Buddhism around 530. According to the story, T'an-luan, disturbed by an illness that presented him with the spectre of his own mortality, had travelled to south China to get a Taoist work on immortality practice. Upon returning north, he encountered Bodhiruci. The latter expressed disdain for Taoist teachings and recommended that T'an-luan concentrate his efforts on attaining the Pure Land instead, handing him copies of Pure Land scriptures. T'an-luan accepted this advice, threw away his Taoist works, and spent the rest of his life in the exclusive practice of Pure Land.
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