炳靈寺169窟第6龕的年代問題 -- 兼及有關佛經的形成和流傳時間=The Question of the Dating of Bingling Temple’s Cave 169, Niche 6 and its Connection to the Time of the Composition and Dissemination of Several Buddhist Scriptures
There is a strong likelihood that the inscription ‘First Year of the Jianhong 建弘 Reign’ (420) in Cave 169 of Bingling Temple 炳靈寺 should actually be read as ‘Fifth Year of the Jianhong Reign’. Nearest to Niche 6 in the cave is not the statue of the Three Sages of the Western Lands, but murals of Śākyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Bodhisattva. Between the statue and the murals of the Śākyamuni Buddha and Maitreya, there is also a mural of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. It is unlikely that Buddhabhadra’s translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra would have at that point already been disseminated throughout the Hehuang 河湟 region. The date of the statue of the Three Sages of West and that of the translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra are also different. The Jianhong inscription mentions a ‘Compassionate One’, which corresponds to the murals of Maitreya Bodhisattva. Consequently, the ‘fifth year of the Jianhong Reign’ inscription should correspond to the murals of Śākyamuni Buddha, Maitreya Bodhisattva, and the Buddhas of the Ten Directions; the dating of Cave 6 must be later, roughly equivalent to the early or middle periods of the Yungang 雲崗 Grottoes. This analysis supports the judgment of modern scholars that identifies the extent 2-juan version of the Wuliangshou jing 無量壽經 [Sutra of Immeasurable Life], translated by Kang Sengkai 康僧鎧 (Saṃghavarman) of Cao Wei 曹魏, as a translation from the early Liu Song Dynasty. The names of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions (十方佛名) are related to the Jin translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, and their dissemination into the Hehuang area should be seen as having to do with the maintenance of good relationships between the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties and the Tuyuhun 吐谷渾, across the Yizhou 益州 frontier.
