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Dirgha Agama

Buddhist scriptures

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  • 4 chapters

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The Chinese Dīrgha Āgama (T 1)

A Chinese translation of a Dīrgha Āgama text attributed to the Dharmaguptaka school is included in the Chinese Buddhist canon as T 1, 長阿含經. This translation was based on a Prakrit text read out by Buddhayaśas and translated by Zhu Fonian into Chinese in the Later Qin dynasty, dated to 413 CE. This recension consists of 30 sūtras in contrast to the 34 suttas of the Dīgha Nikāya of the Pāli Canon. It also differs from the latter in adopting a four-part division rather than one into three parts.

Of the 30 discourses in this Chinese Dīrgha Āgama collection, 3 do not have a parallel in the Dīgha Nikāya: DĀ 11, DĀ 12, and DĀ 30. The first two of these, DĀ 11 (增一經) and DĀ 12 (三聚經), are similar in type to the two preceding discourses, DĀ 9 and DĀ 10, which are parallels to the Saṅgīti Sutta and Dasuttara Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya. All of these discourses list items arranged according to a numerical grid. However, DĀ 11 and DĀ 12 are significantly shorter, in fact too short to warrant their inclusion in a collection of long discourses. For this reason, according to Bhikkhu Anālayo these two discourses may have come into being as extracts from the preceding two discourses. In other words, DĀ 11 and DĀ 12 would have emerged within the context of an already existing Dīrgha Āgama collection.

The situation of DĀ 30 (世記經) is substantially different. This is an exceedingly long discourses, covering 5 fascicles out of the altogether 22 fascicles of the entire Chinese Dīrgha Āgama collection. It contents are also rather unusual, as it covers in detail matters of cosmology. Its existence is responsible for the Chinese Dīrgha Āgama collection having 4 divisions rather than the 3 of the Dīgha Nikāya. Bhikkhu Anālayo considers this discourse to be a later addition to the collection based on the incorporation of extraneous material.

The Chinese Dīrgha Āgama collection has been translated into English by Ichimura Shohei, although unfortunately his translation appears to be unreliable.

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