Sutra of Forty-two Chapters

The Sutra of Forty-two Chapters is the earliest surviving sutra translated into . It was translated by two ordained Yuezhi monks, Kasyapa-Matanga and , in 67 CE. Because of its early date, it is regarded as "the First Sutra" and is accorded a very significant status.

Story of translation

In the Book of Later Han history, Emperor Ming of Han was said to have dreamed of a "golden man," which his advisors connected with the . Because of his dream and a thousand-year-old prediction from the Book of Zhou, the emperor ordered a delegation to go west looking for the Buddha's teachings, which encountered Kasyapa-Matanga and Dharmaraksha, who they brought back to China as well as many sutras and relics from the Buddha, reportedly on the back of a white horse. When they reached the Chinese capital of Luoyang, the emperor had the White Horse Temple built for them.

They translated six texts, the ''Sutra of Dharmic-Sea Repertory'' , ''Sutra of the Buddha's Deeds in His Reincarnations'' , ''Sutra of Terminating Knots in the Ten Holy Terras'' , ''Sutra of the Buddha's Reincarnated Manifestations'' , ''Compilation of the Divergent Versions of the Two Hundred and Sixty Precepts'' , and the ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters''. Only the last one has survived.

Structure and comparison with other works

The ''Sutra of Forty-two Chapters'' consists of a brief prologue and 42 short chapters , composed largely of quotations from the Buddha. Most chapters begin "The Buddha said..." , but several provide the context of a situation or a question asked of the Buddha.

It is unclear whether the sutra existed in Sanskrit in this form, or was a compilation of a series of passages extracted from other canonical works in the manner of the Analects of Confucius. This latter hypothesis also explains the similarity of the repeated "The Buddha said..." and "The Master said," familiar from Confucian texts, and may have been the most natural inclination of the Buddhist translators in the Confucian environment, and more likely to be accepted than a lengthy treatise. Among those who consider it based on a corresponding Sanskrit work, it is in style considered to be older than other Mahayana Sutras, because of its simplicity of style and naturalness of method.

The similarity of the Buddha described in the text with the Eight Immortals of Chinese legend, in terms of longevity and supernatural abilities, is perhaps to make the religion more familiar to .