The Bodhisattva Precepts of the Youposai wujie weiyi jing: Evidence of a Variant Translation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi Bodhisattva Precepts

Abstract

In the text titled Youposai wujie weiyi jing 優婆塞五戒威儀経 （T. 1503; henceforth Weiyi jing）, we find a variant version of the forty or so bodhisattva precepts that appear in the “Śīlapaṭala” of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. Although earlier scholars like Ōno Hōdō conjectured that the bodhisattva precepts of the Weiyi jing were a redaction of the Pusa dichi jing 菩薩地持経 （T. 1581）―the Chinese translation of the Bodhisattvabhūmi by Dharmakṣema 曇無讖―by comparing the bodhisattva precepts of the Weiyi jing with those of all known Chinese translations and the Sanskrit text of the Bodhisattvabhūmi, I propose the possibility that the Weiyi jing’s bodhisattva precepts were in fact based on a hitherto unknown translation of the bodhisattva precepts of the Bodhisattvabhūmi. Furthermore, by comparing the Weiyi jing’s bodhisattva precepts to those of the Book of Zambasta, I discuss the possibility that the underlying text of the Weiyi jing bodhisattva precepts had a close relationship to the underlying text of the Book of Zambasta’s bodhisattva precepts.