Kāśyapa-Mātaṅga: Translation and Annotations of his biography in Gaoseng zhuan

Abstract

This article is a Thai translation and annotations of the biography of Kāśyapa-Mātaṅga, recorded as the first monk in the first chapter of Sutra Translators of The Gaoseng zhuan, Biographies of Eminent Monks, written probably around 530 A.D. by the monk Huijiao. According to Huijiao, Kāśyapa-Mātaṅga was an Indian Buddhist monk who was the first to introduce Buddhism to China. As the first monk it would have been extremely difficult to communicate or understand a different culture in order to successfully adapt the sermon of Buddhism. Therefore, he kept the knowledge of the Dharma to himself and he died before imparting the knowledge of the Dharma. Although the propagation of Buddhism was not fully accomplished by Kāśyapa-Mātaṅga, his arrival in China became the prologue of Chinese Buddhism as a case study for the next generation of monks learn from him to prepare themselves for the propagation of Buddhism abroad to be better than before.

As for the annotations that show an examination and analysis of the content, they can be divided into three categories: 1) Chinese history accounted for 42%, 2) Buddhism accounted for 25%, and 3) language accounted for about 33%. It found that the category of Chinese history contained the most inconclusive issues, such as the nobles and their periods of service compared to other records that differed, as in Fuyi’s case.