|
Extract from "Abhidhrma Samuccaya" Translated into Franch by Walpola Rahula, English version by Sara Boin-Webb , AHP, 2001
"No early biography of Asanga exist.(1) All that we know of him comes mainly from the biography of his brother Vasubandhu:" The Life of Vasubandhu by Paramartha,"(2) which is the oldest and best source."
(1) it seems a biography of Asanga existed in Chinese around the end of 7th century C.E. or the beginning of the 8th. Hui-ying, a pupil of Fa-tsang, cites in his Ta fang kuang fa hua yen ching kan ying chuan(T2074,p.173b,8ff.) a biography of Asanga. See E. Frauwallner, On the Date of the Buddhist Master of the Law Vasubandhu, Serie Orientale Roma III KsMEO, Rome, 1951,p 47.
(2) The Life of Vasu-Bandhu by Paramartha (A.D. 499-569), trans. by J. Takakusu, T'oung Pao, Ser.II, vol. 5,1904, or offpr. Brill, Leiden, 1904(abbrev, The Life). Paramartha, a Buddhist scholar-monk from Uhhain, sent by the Indian Court at the request of the Chinese Emperior Wu-ti(502-549), arrived in China in 546 C.E. and remained there until his death, devoting himself above all to the translation into Chinese of Sanskrit texts (some 240 manuscripts on palm leaves) which he had brought with him. |
|