Introduction

i.1Advice to a King (1), which carries the alternative colophon title “Advice to King Bimbisāra,” is a poetic discourse on the value of understanding impermanence and the nature of suffering as the key to unlocking the prison of saṃsāra. In concise and direct language, it evokes the fragility and impermanence of human life, points out the futility of worldly accomplishments, and describes in detail the inevitable sufferings of saṃsāra in the six realms of rebirth. The teaching concludes with refrains on nirvāṇa as the cessation of suffering and the supreme happiness.

i.1《勸王經(1)》又稱為《勸頻婆娑羅王經》，是一部詩體論述，闡述了理解無常和苦的本質作為開啟輪迴囚籠鑰匙的價值。經文用簡潔直接的語言，生動描繪了人類生命的脆弱與無常，指出了世俗成就的虛無，並詳細描述了輪迴六道中不可避免的苦。教說的結尾透過反覆詠唱強調了涅槃作為苦的止息和究竟快樂的殊勝性。

i.2The text is one of three sūtras (Toh 214, 215, and 221) included in Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line under the identical title The Mahāyāna Sūtra “Advice to a King.” The present sūtra (Toh 214) consists of advice given to Bimbisāra, the king of Magadha. The sūtra that immediately follows it in the Degé Kangyur (Toh 215) consists of advice to Udayana, the king of Vatsa. Finally, a longer sūtra in the next volume of the Degé Kangyur (Toh 221) presents advice to Prasenajit, the king of Kośala.

i.2本文是三部經典（編號214、215、221）之一，這些經典被收錄在薩巴傳統的甘珠爾中，共同使用統一的標題《大乘經「勸王經」》。現有經典（編號214）包含了給摩揭陀國王頻婆娑羅王的勸告。在德格甘珠爾中緊接著它的經典（編號215）包含了給跋提國王優陀耶那的勸告。最後，德格甘珠爾下一冊中的一部較長經典（編號221）呈現了給憍薩羅國王波斯匿的勸告。

i.3Only the third of these three (Toh 221) is attested in either Sanskrit or Chinese, while both the present text, Advice to King Bimbisāra (Toh 214), and Advice to Udayana, King of Vatsa (Toh 215) have no known Sanskrit or Chinese witnesses and exist only in Tibetan. In their colophons, both of these sūtras are attributed to the translators Dānaśīla and Bandé Yeshé Dé, who were active during the height of Tibetan imperial patronage of Buddhism in the late eighth and early ninth centuries ᴄᴇ. However, neither of the two texts is mentioned in the Phangthangma or Denkarma imperial-period catalogs, nor are they mentioned in Chomden Raldri’s late thirteenth-century survey of translated texts. Adding further to the uncertainty of their provenance, neither text is found in any Kangyurs of the Thempangma recensional line.

i.3這三部經典中，只有第三部（Toh 221）在梵文或漢文中有記載，而目前的這部《給頻婆娑羅王的勸告》（Toh 214）和《給跋提王優陀耶那的勸告》（Toh 215）都沒有已知的梵文或漢文文獻，只存在於藏文中。在它們的末尾記述中，這兩部經都被歸屬於翻譯家施戒和班智達智慧光，他們在西元八世紀末至九世紀初，西藏帝國贊助佛教的鼎盛時期活躍於此。然而，這兩部文本都沒有提及於《芳當瑪》或《敦喀瑪》帝國時期的目錄中，也沒有在尊者若迪十三世紀晚期的翻譯文獻調查中被提及。進一步加深了它們出處的不確定性，這兩部文本都沒有出現在任何《檀巴瑪》學派的甘珠爾版本中。

i.4King Bimbisāra of Magadha, whose capital was at Rājagṛha, was a contemporary of the Buddha Śākyamuni (according to some sources he was born on the same day) and he was among the most important royal patrons of the Buddha and his early community. As such, he features frequently in Buddhist literature. As Skilling notes, however, the framing narrative of Advice to King Bimbisāra “is strikingly out of step with the received tradition” concerning this king’s relationship with the Buddha. Other sources, such as the Vinaya literature and the biography of the Buddha titled The Play in Full (Lalitavistara, Toh 95), suggest that the king first met the Buddha while the latter was still a wandering mendicant and was impressed by him even then. In contrast, this text has the Buddha going to meet King Bimbisāra, apparently for the first time, only after the Buddha’s community was already established at Prince Jeta’s Grove (under the patronage of King Prasenajit of Kośala), and it portrays King Bimbisāra rudely rebuffing him at first. This unusual framing story raises further questions about the textual history of this sūtra. Such questions notwithstanding, at the heart of the sūtra is an eloquent, concise, and forceful teaching on impermanence, suffering, karma, and the promise of peace.

i.4摩揭陀國的頻婆娑羅王，其首都位於王舍城，是佛陀釋迦牟尼的同時代人物（根據某些記載，他們生於同一天），也是佛陀及其早期僧團最重要的皇家護持者之一。因此，他在佛教文獻中出現頻繁。然而如斯基林所指出的，《勸王經》中頻婆娑羅王的敘事框架「與關於這位國王與佛陀關係的傳統記載相差很大」。其他文獻來源，例如律藏文獻和名為《普曜經》的佛陀傳記（托號95），都暗示這位國王首次見到佛陀時，佛陀還是一位行腳的出家人，國王甚至當時就對他印象深刻。然而本經卻記載佛陀去拜訪頻婆娑羅王，似乎是首次相見，且此時佛陀的僧團已經在祇樹給孤獨園成立（在憍薩羅國波斯匿王的護持下），經文還描寫頻婆娑羅王初時粗魯地拒絕了佛陀。這個不尋常的敘事框架引發了對該經文獻歷史的進一步疑問。儘管存在這些疑問，但本經的核心內容是一部優美、簡潔而有力的關於無常、苦、業及平靜之應許的教法。

i.5There have been two previous English translations of Advice to King Bimbisāra: an early, loose translation published in 1973 by Thubten Kalzang Rinpoche et al., and a richly annotated and fine translation by Peter Skilling published in 2021. This English translation was made from the Tibetan as found in the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with variants recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma).

i.5《勸誡國王經》已有兩個先前的英文翻譯版本：一個是1973年由土登嘎爾桑仁波切等人發表的早期、較為自由的翻譯，另一個是彼得·斯基林在2021年發表的註解豐富且精準的翻譯。本英文翻譯是根據德格甘珠爾中的藏文版本製作，並參考了對勘本中記載的異文。