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Lokaksema
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Lokaksema (Ch: ???? Zhi Lóujiachèn, sometimes abbreviated ?? Zhi Chèn), born around 147 CE, The name Lokak?ema translates into 'welfare of the world' in Sanskrit. He is the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana sutras into the Chinese language and as such was an important figure in Buddhism in China.
ksema was a Kushan of Yuezhi ethnicity from Gandhara.
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Lokaksema (Ch: ???? Zhi Lóujiachèn, sometimes abbreviated ?? Zhi Chèn), born around 147 CE, The name Lokak?ema translates into 'welfare of the world' in Sanskrit. He is the earliest known Buddhist monk to have translated Mahayana sutras into the Chinese language and as such was an important figure in Buddhism in China.
Origins
Lokaksema was a Kushan of Yuezhi ethnicity from Gandhara. His ethnicity is described in his adopted Chinese name by the prefix Zhi (Ch:?), abbreviation of Yuezhi (Ch:??). As a Yuezhi, his native tongue was one of the Tocharian languages, an Indo-European language group.
He was born in Gandhara at a time when Buddhism was actively sponsored by the Kushan king Kanishka, who convened the Fourth Buddhist Council. The proceedings of this Council actually oversaw the formal split of Nikaya Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. It would seem that Kanishka was not ill-disposed towards Mahayana Buddhism, opening the way for missionary activities in China by monks such as Lokaksema. Second century Gandhara was also a center of Greco-Buddhist art, a fusion of Buddhist and Hellenistic influences.
Lokaksema came from Gandhara to the court of the Han dynasty at the capital Loyang as early as 150 and worked there between 178 and 189. A prolific scholar-monk, many early translations of important Mahayana texts in China are attributed to him, including the very early Prajñaparamita Sutra known as the "Practice of the Path" (Dào Xíng Banruò Jing ?????), Pratyutpanna Sutra(Ban Zhou Sanmèi Jing ?????), adushì Wáng Jing ?????, Za biyu jing ????, Shou lengyan jing ????, Wuliang qingjing pingdeng jue jing ????????, and the Baoji jing ??? .
The sanskrit names of the sutras he translated are as follows: Astasahasrika, Aksobhyatathagatasyavyuha, Surangamasamadhisutra, an early version of a sutra connected to the Avatamsakasutra, Drumakinnararajapariprccha, Bhadrapalasutra, Ajatasatrukaukrtyavinodana, and the Kasyapaparivarta, which were probably composed in the north of India in the first century CE
Activity in China
Lokaksema's work includes the translation of the Pratyutpanna Sutra, containing the first known mentions of the Buddha Amitabha and his Pure Land, said to be at the origin of Pure Land practice in China, and the first known translations of the Prajñaparamita Sutra (The "Astasahasrika-prajnaparamita Sutras", or "Perfection of Wisdom Sutras of the practice of the Way", which later became known as the "Perfection of Wisdom in 8000 lines"), a founding text of Mahayana Buddhism.
Lokaksema's translation activities, as well as those of the Parthians An Shih Kao and An Hsuan slightly earlier, or the Yuezhi Dharmaraksa (around 286 CE) illustrate the key role Central Asians had in propagating the Buddhist faith to the countries of Eastern Asia.
Another Yuezhi monk and one of Lokaksema's students named Zhi Yao (Ch:??),translated Mahayana Buddhist texts from Central Asian around 185 CE, such as the "Sutra on the Completion of Brightness" (Ch:????? Chengiu guangming jing).
See also
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