An Shigao (, Korean: An Sego, Japanese: An Seikō, Vietnamese: An Thế Cao) (fl. c. 148–180 CE) was an early Buddhist missionary to China, and the earliest known translator of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese. According to legend, he was a prince of

Parthia Parthia ( ''Parθava''; ''Parθaw''; ''Pahlaw'') is a historical region located in northeastern Greater Iran. It was conquered and subjugated by the empire of the Medes during the 7th century BC, was incorporated into the subsequent Achaemeni ...

, nicknamed the "Parthian

Marquess A marquess (; ) is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German-language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman with the rank of a marquess or the wife (or wid ...

", who renounced his claim to the royal throne of Parthia in order to serve as a

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

monk A monk (; from , ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a man who is a member of a religious order and lives in a monastery. A monk usually lives his life in prayer and contemplation. The concept is ancient and can be seen in many reli ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

Origins

The prefix ''An'' in An Shigao's name has raised many questions and hypotheses as to his origin and story. Some believe that it is an abbreviation of ''Anxi'', the Chinese name given to the regions ruled by the

Parthian Empire The Parthian Empire (), also known as the Arsacid Empire (), was a major Iranian political and cultural power centered in ancient Iran from 247 BC to 224 AD. Its latter name comes from its founder, Arsaces I, who led the Parni tribe ...

. Most visitors from that country who took a Chinese name received the ''An'' prefix to indicate their origin in ''Anxi''. It is still unknown whether he was a monk or layperson or whether he should be considered a follower of the Sarvāstivāda or Mahāyāna, though affiliation with these two groups need not be viewed as mutually exclusive. The unresolved mystery of who An Shigao was is studied in the academic work of Antonino Forte. Antonio Forte found in various secular sources that there were several individuals living in the 4th to 8th century China who were of

Iranian Iranian () may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Iran ** Iranian diaspora, Iranians living outside Iran ** Iranian architecture, architecture of Iran and parts of the rest of West Asia ** Iranian cuisine, cooking traditions and practic ...

descent and claimed ancestry from an individual called An Shigao. Given that the

was decentralised in structure, some theorise that he may have been a member of a small royal family that held power in the eastern end of the Empire like

Margiana Margiana ( ''Margianḗ'', Old Persian: ''Marguš'', Middle Persian: ''Marv'') is a historical region centred on the oasis of Merv and was a minor satrapy within the Achaemenid satrapy of Bactria, and a province within its successors, the Seleu ...

where it would have been plausible for them to come into contact with Buddhism. An alternative viewpoint exists which hypothesises that An Shigao was a descendant of Gondophares, the founder of the

Indo-Parthian kingdom The Indo-Parthian kingdom was a Parthian kingdom founded by Gondophares, and active from 19 CE to c. 226 CE. At their zenith, they ruled an area covering parts of eastern Iran, various parts of Afghanistan and the northwest regions of the Indian ...

however the argument against this is that the ''An'' prefix may not have been applied if this was the case. An Shigao migrated eastward into China, settling at the Han capital of

Luoyang Luoyang ( zh, s=洛阳, t=洛陽, p=Luòyáng) is a city located in the confluence area of the Luo River and the Yellow River in the west of Henan province, China. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zheng ...

in 148 CE, where he produced a substantial number of translations of Indian Buddhist texts and attracted a devoted community of followers. More than a dozen works by An Shigao are currently extant, including texts dealing with meditation,

abhidharma The Abhidharma are a collection of Buddhist texts dating from the 3rd century BCE onwards, which contain detailed scholastic presentations of doctrinal material appearing in the canonical Buddhist scriptures and commentaries. It also refers t ...

, and basic Buddhist doctrines. An Shigao's corpus does not contain any Mahāyāna scriptures, though he himself is regularly referred to as a "

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person who has attained, or is striving towards, '' bodhi'' ('awakening', 'enlightenment') or Buddhahood. Often, the term specifically refers to a person who forgoes or delays personal nirvana or ''bodhi'' in ...

" in early Chinese sources. Scholarly studies of his translations have shown that they are most closely affiliated with the Sarvāstivāda school.

Works

In Erik Zürcher's pioneering studies of the works attributed to An Shigao, he uses both the information provided by later Chinese catalogues and internal stylistic evidence to conclude that only sixteen of the nearly two hundred translations attributed to him by later Chinese catalogues may be regarded as authentic. Stefano Zacchetti has proposed, in light of recent research, that thirteen of the sixteen texts originally listed by Zürcher can be reliably ascribed to An Shigao. These thirteen are (listed by Taishō number): T 13 Chang Ahan shi bao fa jing
T 14 Ren ben yu sheng jing
T 31 Yiqie liu sheshou yin jing
T 32 Si di jing
T 36 Ben xiang yi zhi jing
T 48 Shi fa fei fa jing
T 57 Lou fenbu jing
T 98 Pu fa yi jing
T 112 Ba zheng dao jing
T 150a Qi chu san guan jing
T 603 Yin chi ru jing
T 607 Dao di jing
T 1508 Ahan koujie shi'er yinyuan jing The remaining three translations enumerated by Zürcher that (according to Zacchetti) should be reconsidered are: T 602 Da anban shouyi jing
T 605 Chan xing fa xiang jing
T 792 Fa shou chen jing Recent scholarship has proposed a number of additional texts that may be attributed to An Shigao. Paul Harrison has provided evidence that An Shigao translated the previously anonymous collection of saṃyuktāgama

sutra ''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...

s, ''Za ahan jing'' (Taishō 101). Stefano Zacchetti has suggested that, though initially considered inauthentic according to Zürcher's conservative criteria, Taishō 1557, ''Apitan wu fa xing jing'' , may indeed be the work of An Shigao. Two manuscripts discovered by Kajiura Susumu in 1999 in the collection of the Kongōji in

Osaka Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kansai region of Honshu. Osaka Prefecture has a population of 8,778,035 () and has a geographic area of . Osaka Prefecture borders Hyōgo Prefecture to the northwest, Kyoto Prefecture to the north, Nara ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, present four heretofore unknown works which, based on their apparent antiquity, may be attributable to An Shigao. The first three of these texts are related to meditation practices such as ''ānāpānasmṛti'' ("mindfulness of breathing") and the "twelve gates". The fourth appears to be a record of an oral commentary on topics covered in the preceding texts. Another ''Anxi'' translator, a layman named An Xuan, was a disciple of An Shigao. An Xuan also worked in Luoyang (together with a Chinese collaborator, Yan Fotiao), producing a translation of a Mahāyāna scripture, the

Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra The ''Ugraparipṛcchā Sūtra'' (''The inquiry of Ugra'') is an early Indian sutra which is particularly important for understanding the beginnings of Mahayana Buddhism. It contains positive references to both the path of the bodhisattva and the ...

(in Chinese, the Fajing jing, Taishō no. 322) c. 181 CE.

Origins

Works

See also

References

Further reading