Lives of Buddha (1): Fo-pen-hing-king

There is no life of Buddha in the Southern school. Facts connected with his life are found in the different canonical books, and these being put together give an out-line of his career, though there is no single work devoted to the account of his life. But there are many such works in the Chinese collection of books. Some of them still exist, others have been lost. The earliest of which we have any record was translated by Cu-fa-lan (Gobharaṇa) between A.D. 68 and A.D. 70. It was called the Fo-pen-hing-king in five chapters. It is lost, but there are quotations from it found in Chinese Buddhist books which indicate its character. In the commentary, for example, of Taou-shih, who edited a life of Buddha by Wong pūh, there is frequent reference to a work, Pen-hing-king, which in all probability is the book under our present consideration. This we gather from a comparison of these quotations with the text of other works that bear a similar title. For instance, there is a book called Fo-pen-hing-tsih-king, which is stated to be a Chinese version of the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, that is sometimes quoted as the Pen-ping-king, but the passages given by Taou-shih are not to be found in this work. Neither are they taken from the Pen-hing-king, written by Paou-Yun, nor are they to be found in the Pen-hing-king by Aśvaghoṣa.

We may justly argue therefore that the commentator, Taou-shih, in quoting from the Pen-hing-king, refers to the work translated by Cu-fa-lan, which is now lost. If so, the book can have differed in no material point from the common legendary account of Buddha's early career.

In § 8 the Pen-ping is quoted in reference to the selection of Buddha's birth-place.
In § 11 the dream of Māyā at the conception of the child is referred to.
In § 23 there is the history of Asita and his horoscope.
In § 27 the trial in athletic sports.
In § 29 the enjoyment of the prince in his palace for ten years.
In § 31 the account of the excursion beyond the walls and the sights of suffering.
In § 33 the interview with his father before his flight from the palace.
In § 38 the act of cutting his hair with his sword and the intervention of Śakra.
In § 39 his exchange of garments with the hunter.
In § 40 his visit to the Ṛṣis in the snowy mountains
In § 41 the account of his six years' fast at Gayā.
In § 44 there is allusion to the Nāgas Kalika and Mucilinda.
In § 46 the rice milk given by the two daughters of Sujāta.

Here the quotations from the Pen-hing conic to an end. We can scarcely doubt therefore that this work ended with the account of the supreme enlightenment of Buddha. It is said that the Fo-pen-hing was in five kiouen; it could not therefore have been a short abstract, but must have been a complete history of Buddha from his birth to the period of his victory over Māra. It would thus correspond with what is termed the 'intermediate epoch,' in the Southern records. We may conclude therefore that such a life of Buddha was in circulation in India in a written form at or before the beginning of our era. It was brought thence by Cu-fa-lan, and translated into Chinese A.D. 67-70. M. Stanislas Julien, in the well-known communication found on p. xvii n. of the translation of the Lalita Vistara from Tibetan by M. Foucaux, speaks of this work as the first version of the Lalita Vistara into Chinese.