Introduction
i.1The Shorter Devatā Sūtra (Skt. Alpadevatāsūtra, Tib. lha’i mdo nyung ngu) is a brief sūtra in which the Buddha, while staying in Śrāvasti, is approached by an unnamed divine being (Skt. devatā , Tib. lha), who inquires about what behavior merits rebirth in the higher realms. The Buddha replies with a series of simple and powerful verses in which he states that those who relinquish the ten nonvirtues of body, speech, and mind—killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, telling lies, slander, harsh words, idle talk, covetousness, ill will, and wrong views—and embrace their opposites, the ten virtues, here called “the tenfold path of the good Dharma”, will be reborn in the higher realms.
i.1《短版天神經》（梵文：Alpadevatāsūtra，藏文：lha'i mdo nyung ngu）是一部簡短的經文。佛陀在舍衛城時，有一位未命名的天神來請教他，詢問什麼樣的行為能夠導致往生上界。佛陀用一系列簡潔而有力的偈頌來回答，他說那些放棄身、語、意三方面的十不善——殺生、偷盜、邪淫、妄語、惡口、粗惡語、綺語、貪心、瞋恚和邪見——並且修習它們的對立面，即十善，也就是這裡所說的「十善法道」的人，將會被往生到上界。
i.2A Sanskrit manuscript fragment of the Alpadevatāsūtra, covering only the initial part of the sūtra, is found among the Gilgit Buddhist manuscripts discovered in 1931. This fragment is written in the proto-Śāradā script that was in use from the seventh century ᴄᴇ and is mostly found in non-Mahāyāna texts. It is believed that the Gilgit manuscripts were written during the Palola Ṣāhi Dynasty (sixth to eighth century ᴄᴇ). In this manuscript, as in the Tshalpa Kangyurs, The Shorter Devatā Sūtra appears immediately after The Devatā Sūtra (Toh 329), which is slightly longer and shares the general framing narrative and the theme of rebirth in higher realms but is otherwise distinct. Both texts have been published in a number of modern Sanskrit editions, all based on the Gilgit manuscript. As compared to the Tibetan, the Sanskrit fragment of the Alpadevatāsūtra has a slightly longer prose introduction, specifying that the devatā who came before the Buddha was beautiful and arrived at night. Otherwise, the three extant Sanskrit stanzas that open the dialogue are very close to the first three verses in the Tibetan translation.
i.2在1931年發現的吉爾吉特佛教手稿中，發現了《短版天神經》的一份梵文手稿殘片，其中僅涵蓋該經的初始部分。這份殘片以第七世紀開始使用的原始沙拉達字體書寫，主要見於非大乘文本中。據認為吉爾吉特手稿是在帕洛拉沙希王朝統治期間（西元六至八世紀）書寫的。在這份手稿中，就像在茨爾帕甘珠爾中一樣，《短版天神經》緊跟在《天神經》（編號329）之後，後者篇幅稍長，具有相似的框架敘事和來世轉生到上界的主題，但在其他方面則各具特色。兩份文本都已在多個現代梵文版本中出版，這些版本均以吉爾吉特手稿為基礎。與藏文版本相比，《短版天神經》的梵文殘片具有篇幅稍長的散文導言，明確指出來到佛陀面前的天神外貌美麗且在夜晚到達。除此之外，開啟對話的三首現存梵文詩頌與藏文翻譯中的前三首詩頌非常接近。
i.3The Shorter Devatā Sūtra is extant in two Chinese translations, both of which are found in the Saṃyuktāgama, and are probably based on a Sanskrit text from the (Mūla)sarvāstivāda school. These are sūtra no. 1299 of the Saṃyuktāgama (Za a han jing 雜阿含經, Taishō 99), which was translated by Guṇabhadra during the Song (宋) between 435–443 ᴄᴇ in Jiankang (today’s Nanjing); and sūtra no. 297 of what is known as the Alternative Saṃyuktāgama (Bie yi za a han jing 別譯雜阿含經, Taishō 100), which was translated earlier during the Three Qin (三秦) period, probably between 385–431 ᴄᴇ, by an unknown translator in the Gansu corridor. While the Sanskrit and Tibetan correspond in their parsing of the opening three verses, the second Sanskrit verse is instead found as a short prose passage in Taishō 99. However, the opening narrative in both Chinese translations aligns more closely with the Sanskrit than the Tibetan translation.
i.3《短版天神經》現存於兩部漢文翻譯中，兩者都收錄在《雜阿含經》中，可能是根據說一切有部（或根本說一切有部）的梵文文本翻譯而成。一部是《雜阿含經》第1299經（《雜阿含經》，大正藏99），由求那跋陀羅在宋代於建康（今南京）於公元435至443年間翻譯；另一部是稱為《別譯雜阿含經》第297經（大正藏100），在三秦時期較早翻譯，可能在公元385至431年間，由一位不詳身份的譯者在甘肅走廊翻譯。雖然梵文和藏文在開篇前三偈的分段上相對應，但第二梵文偈頌卻在大正藏99中以簡短的散文段落形式出現。不過，兩部漢文翻譯中的開篇敘述與梵文翻譯的對應程度更高於藏文翻譯。
i.4A colophon in Kangyurs of the Tshalpa lineage as well as the Narthang and Lhasa Kangyurs states that the sūtra was translated into Tibetan by the master translator Bandé Yeshé Dé, suggesting a translation from a Sanskrit source. The sūtra is listed among “Hīnayāna” (Tib. theg pa chung ngu) sūtras in the Denkarma imperial catalog, as well as in the Phangthangma catalog, confirming that it was translated no later than the early ninth century ᴄᴇ.
i.4在宗喀巴系統的甘珠爾以及納唐和拉薩甘珠爾的跋文中，都提到這部經文是由大譯師班智達耶舍德翻譯成藏文的，這表明是從梵文原典進行的翻譯。這部經文在丹噶目錄中被列為「小乘」經文之一，在《藏經目錄》中也有記載，確認了它的翻譯時間不晚於西元九世紀初期。
i.5Although no copy of The Shorter Devatā Sūtra is found among the manuscripts recovered from the cave library at Dunhuang, we know that the teaching on the ten virtues (Tib. dge ba bcu) had considerable prominence in the Tibetan imperial period, when it was established as a public code of ethics that would lay the foundation for Tibetan law (khrims) for centuries to come.
i.5雖然在敦煌洞窟圖書館發現的手稿中沒有找到《短版天神經》的副本，但我們知道十善的教導在藏地帝國時期曾有相當的重要性，當時它被確立為一套公共倫理規範，為藏地法律奠定了長期的基礎。
i.6The Shorter Devatā Sūtra has been the object of Western scholarly attention since the end of the nineteenth century, when a full French translation from the Tibetan was published by Léon Feer in his Extraits du Kandjour, together with a short introduction on the subject of the ten virtues. Most modern scholarly attention on the sūtra has been concerned with the Gilgit manuscript. Adelheid Mette published a Sanskrit edition of the fragmentary Shorter Devatā Sūtra along with The Devatā Sūtra (Toh 329), in which the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts are compared, and a partial German translation from the Tibetan is presented. Soon after that publication, Hisashi Matsumura published further Sanskrit editions of the same texts in two separate articles, also based on the facsimile edition of the Gilgit manuscripts, and improving on Mette’s editions. The second of these articles (Matsumura 1983) presents The Shorter Devatā Sūtra with the Sanskrit and Chinese (Taishō 99) texts placed side by side, and in those portions of the text where the Sanskrit is not extant, with the Tibetan and Chinese side by side. Differences are highlighted and references are also made to some textual parallels identified by Fumio Enomoto, such as two corresponding verses in the Gāndhārī Dharmapada.
i.6《短版天神經》自十九世紀末以來就成為西方學術界關注的對象。當時萊昂·費爾在其《甘珠爾摘選》中發表了從藏文翻譯的完整法文譯本，並附上了關於十善主題的簡短介紹。現代學術界對該經文的關注大多集中在吉爾吉特手稿上。阿德海德·梅特出版了《短版天神經》的梵文殘篇版本以及《天神經》（Toh 329），其中梵文和藏文文本進行了比較，並提供了從藏文翻譯的部分德文譯本。此後不久，松村久視在兩篇單獨的文章中發表了相同文本的進一步梵文版本，這些版本也是基於吉爾吉特手稿的影印版本，改進了梅特的版本。第二篇文章（松村1983年）呈現了《短版天神經》，並將梵文和中文（大正99）文本並排放置，在梵文不存在的文本部分，則將藏文和中文並排放置。差異被突出顯示，並且還參考了榎本文雄所確認的一些文本對應，例如《犍陀羅法句經》中的兩首對應詩句。
i.7The Shorter Devatā Sūtra is found in the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section in all Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, the mixed line, Hemis I, and in the independent Kangyurs, such as the Phukdrak, Langdo, and Namgyal. It is also included in some collections from Western Tibet, such as Tholing and Gondhla. However, it is missing from the Kangyurs of the Thempangma lineage.
i.7《短版天神經》在噶舉派傳承的所有甘珠爾、混合傳承、赫美斯一世甘珠爾，以及獨立甘珠爾（如普卻、朗多和南加爾）中，都收錄在總經藏（經部）部分。它也被收入西藏的一些經藏集合中，如托林和剛達。然而，在寺廟派系甘珠爾中卻找不到它。
i.8The Tibetan title, in all editions, is lha’i mdo nyung gu, but the various Kangyurs offer three variants on its Sanskrit title. In most Kangyurs of the Tshalpa line, the title is Alpadevatāsūtra, while the Qianlong and Kangxi have Albalbadevatasūtra and Alpalbadevatasūtra (sic for Alpālpadevatāsūtra) respectively, meaning The Very Short Devatā Sūtra. The Yongle, Hemis I, and independent Kangyurs have Svalpadevatāsūtra, also meaning The Shorter Devatā Sūtra.
i.8藏文標題在所有版本中都是 lha'i mdo nyung gu，但不同的甘珠爾對其梵文標題提供了三種變體。在大多數察爾巴系甘珠爾中，標題是《短版天神經》，而乾隆版和康熙版分別為《極短天神經》和《極短天神經》（應為 Alpālpadevatāsūtra）。永樂版、赫米斯第一版和獨立甘珠爾則使用《短版天神經》。
i.9This translation is based on the Tibetan as found in the General Sūtra (mdo sde) section of the Degé Kangyur, in consultation with the variants recorded in the Comparative Edition (dpe bsdur ma), and other editions such as the Phukdrak, Hemis I, and Gondhla. All significant variations have been recorded in the notes. Matsumura’s annotated edition of the Sanskrit fragment among the Gilgit manuscripts as well as the parallel verses of the Gāndhārī Dharmapada have also been consulted, and where differences with the Tibetan are apparent this has also been recorded in the notes. Léon Feer’s French translation, and Adelheid Mette’s partial German translation were also consulted.
i.9本翻譯基於德格版甘珠爾總經部分所載的藏文文本，並參考了對勘版中記錄的異文以及其他版本如布庫德版、海米斯I版和貢德拉版。所有重要的文本異同都已在註釋中記錄。吉爾吉特手稿中松村久視的梵文片段注釋版本，以及《犍陀羅法句經》的平行偈頌也已參考，藏文與其他版本有差異之處亦已在註釋中記錄。萊昂·費爾的法文翻譯和阿德海德·梅特的部分德文翻譯也經過參考。