Introduction

i.1The Samantabhadra Perfection of Wisdom is a brief Mahāyāna sūtra that is included among the twenty-three prajñāpāramitā sūtras. It is one of five prajñāpāramitā sūtras associated with five bodhisattva figures: Sūryagarbha, Candragarbha, Samantabhadra, Vajrapāṇi, and Vajraketu. The five sūtras are found in all Kangyurs, whether of Tshalpa, Themphangma, or mixed lineage. They are all short, “unpretentious treatises” (Conze) whose originals are variously dated from the sixth century ᴄᴇ to the seventh or eighth.

i.1普賢菩薩般若波羅蜜是一部簡短的大乘經，被列入二十三部般若波羅蜜經中。它是與五位菩薩人物相關聯的五部般若波羅蜜經之一，這五位菩薩分別是日藏菩薩、月藏菩薩、普賢菩薩、金剛手菩薩和金剛旗菩薩。這五部經在所有甘珠爾藏經中都能找到，無論是察爾巴版本、特芒巴版本還是混合版本。它們都是簡短的「樸素論著」（貢澤語），其原文的成書時間各異，大約在西元六世紀至七、八世紀之間。

i.2There are no extant Sanskrit versions or translations in the Chinese canon for any of the works in this group of five sūtras; they are preserved only in Tibetan. There are no colophons and so the Tibetan translators are unknown. None of these texts are listed in the two extant ninth-century inventories, the Denkarma and Pangthangma, and they do not appear in a list of translations by Yeshé Dé. The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom (Toh 27) is the only one mentioned in the thirteenth-century inventory of Chomden Rigpai Raltri. Some decades later, all five were included in the fourteenth-century list of canonical translations in Butön’s History. Butön notes that the five are not included in the traditional list of six “mother” and eleven “child” prajñāpāramitā sūtras.

i.2這五部經典中沒有現存的梵文版本，也沒有在漢文大藏經中的譯本；它們只保存在藏文中。由於沒有後記，藏文譯者身份不詳。這些文獻都沒有列在兩部現存的九世紀目錄——丹噶瑪和朋唐瑪中，也沒有出現在智慧獅子的譯經清單裡。只有月藏菩薩般若波羅蜜（Toh 27）在十三世紀恰美智慧海的目錄中被提及。幾十年後，這五部經都被列入十四世紀布敦的佛教史典譯經清單中。布敦指出這五部經不包括在傳統的六部「母」經和十一部「子」般若波羅蜜經的清單中。

i.3The two main features of this particular sūtra are the key point it makes about wisdom and its link to the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. The first key point concerns the distinction between two levels of wisdom (prajñā). It elucidates what resembles wisdom and what actually is wisdom. What actually is wisdom arises only on the first bodhisattva ground as a direct experience, and the unstated implication behind the term “what resembles wisdom” is that until that point it can only be a conceptual image of true wisdom. A very similar distinction between “contaminated and uncontaminated” types of the perfection of wisdom is made in The Candragarbha Perfection of Wisdom. The Buddha explains contaminated wisdom as dualistic and pertaining to the stage of devoted conduct, and uncontaminated wisdom as arising on the path of seeing (the equivalent of the first ground, as mentioned in the present text). Here, however, “contamination” as such is not mentioned.

i.3這部經的兩個主要特點是它對般若的關鍵論述和與菩薩普賢菩薩的關聯。第一個關鍵論述涉及對般若的兩個層次的區分。它闡明什麼是相似般若，什麼才是真正的般若。真正的般若只在菩薩初地時作為直接體驗而生起，而「相似般若」這個術語背後的未言明含義是，在此之前，它只能是對真實般若的概念性認知。在《月藏菩薩般若波羅蜜經》中也做出了類似的區分，即「有漏和無漏」的般若波羅蜜。佛陀解釋有漏般若為二元對立性的，屬於發心修行的階段，無漏般若則在見道時生起（在本經中提到相當於初地）。但在本經中，「有漏」作為術語本身並未被提及。

i.4The second main feature of the sūtra is its link to the bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is an interlocutor in many Mahāyāna sūtras and is included in the group of important bodhisattvas known as the “eight great sons.” He does not appear at all in the long prajñāpāramitā sūtras. However, he does play a major role in the sūtras of the Buddhāvataṃsaka family. The present text echoes two passages in the final chapter of The Stem Array (Gaṇḍavyūhasūtra, Toh 44-45), which is focused particularly on the figure of Samantabhadra. First, where our text says “all of them remained in the conduct of having mastered Samantabhadra’s aspiration,” this is a reference to the aspiration that Samantabhadra describes in that final chapter and then sets out in his celebrated “Prayer for Good Conduct” (Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna, bzang spyod smon lam). Second, the mention of Samantabhadra’s meditative stability causing world systems and buddhafields to shake echoes this passage in that final chapter: “Some, through thinking of me, become ripened in one day… Some become ripened through seeing my light, some through seeing the light rays I radiate, some through the realm shaking, some through the manifestation of my form body, and some through rejoicing in it.”

i.4這部經文的第二個主要特點是它與普賢菩薩的關聯。普賢菩薩是許多大乘經中的對話者，也被列為重要菩薩群體中的「八大菩薩」之一。他根本不出現在較長的般若波羅蜜經中。然而，他在華嚴經系列的經文中扮演主要角色。本經文呼應《華嚴經》最後一章《華嚴經》（《華嚴經》，Toh 44-45）中的兩個段落，該章特別以普賢菩薩為主角。首先，我們的經文說「他們都安住於已掌握普賢菩薩願的行」，這是指普賢菩薩在最後一章所描述的願，然後在他著名的《普賢菩薩行願品》中闡述的願。其次，提到普賢菩薩三昧導致世界和佛剎震動，呼應了該最後一章中的這段話：「有些人通過思想我而在一天內成熟……有些人通過見到我的光而成熟，有些人通過見到我所放射的光線，有些人通過佛剎震動，有些人通過我身體的顯現，還有些人通過對它的欣悅。」

i.5We have based our work on the Degé xylograph and consulted the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma) of the Kangyur, the Hemis Monastery manuscript, and the Shey Palace manuscript. The differences between the manuscripts slightly impact their interpretation, as is reflected in the two previous translations of this sūtra into Western languages. For his English translation, Edward Conze (1973) based his work on the Narthang Kangyur, while George Driessens refers in his French translation (1996) to the Degé Kangyur. A recent translation into Chinese has been published online by the Kumarajiva Project.

i.5我們的工作以德格木刻版為基礎，並參考了甘珠爾的對勘版藏經、赫米寺的手稿和舍宮的手稿。這些手稿之間的差異對其解釋會產生輕微的影響，這一點反映在本經的兩個西方語言早期翻譯版本中。康茲在他的英文翻譯（一九七三年）中以納唐版甘珠爾為基礎，而德利賽恩斯在他的法文翻譯（一九九六年）中參考的是德格甘珠爾。鳩摩羅什計畫近期在線上發布了一個中文翻譯版本。