| Buddhism Dictionary: An Shih-kao |
A Parthian monk who migrated to China in 148 and settled in the capital of Lo-yang. He set himself to the task of translating Buddhist texts into Chinese, according to some accounts producing over 30 translations in the 22 years remaining to his life. Much of his output consisted of meditation texts.
| Wikipedia: An Shigao |
An Shigao (Ch:安世高) (in the Wade-Giles transcription system, An Shih-kao) (?-~168) was a prince of Parthia, nicknamed the "Parthian Marquis", who renounced his prospect as a contender for the royal throne of Parthia in order to serve as a Buddhist missionary monk.
The prefix An in An Shigao's name is an abbreviation of Anxi (Ch:安息), meaning Parthia in ancient Chinese: Anxi is a transcription of "Arsaces", the founder of the Arsacid Dynasty of Parthia. Most Parthian visitors who took a Chinese name received the An prefix to indicate their Parthian origin.
In 148, An Shigao arrived in China at the Han Dynasty capital of Luoyang, where he produced a substantial number of translations of Indian Buddhist texts and attracted a devoted community of followers. More than a dozen works by An Shigao are currently extant, including texts dealing with meditation, abhidharma, and basic Buddhist doctrines. An Shigao's corpus does not contain any Mahāyāna scriptures, though he himself is regularly referred to as a "bodhisattva" in early Chinese sources. Scholarly studies of his translations have shown that they are most closely affiliated with the Sarvāstivāda school.
An Shigao is the first Buddhist translator to be named in Chinese sources. Another Parthian translator, a layman named An Xuan, worked in Luoyang (together with a Chinese collaborator, Yan Fotiao) slightly after An Shigao's time, producing a translation of a Mahāyāna scripture, the Ugraparipṛcchā-sūtra (in Chinese, the Fajing jing, Taishō no. 322) c. 181 CE.
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