In my preceding paper (Okano 2018), a new critical edition of the Sanskrit text of the SGK (“the Verses of the Six Realms of Existence”) was published, together with its Tibetan, Pāli, and Chinese texts. In the Chinese Tripiṭaka, there are five texts that are closely related to the SGK. In that paper, I showed details of correspondence of the SGK with those five important parallel Chinese texts. The five texts are as follows: (1) the Liuqu lunhui jing (六趣輪廻経 No. 726), (2) the Foshuo liudao qietuo jing (仏説六道伽陀経 No. 725), (3) the Fenbie yebao lüe jing (分別業報略経 No. 723), (4) the second half part of the Fenbie shan’e suoqi jing (分別善悪所起経 No. 729), (5) a long quotation in the Da zhidu lun (大智度論 No. 1509). It is well known that texts (1) and (2) are Chinese translations of the SGK. The relationship between the SGK and the Chinese texts (3) and (4) has not been studied so far, but their elucidation has great significance for the study of the SGK. Texts (3) and (4) seem to be two different Chinese translations of the same Sanskrit work, which is probably “a sister recension” of the SGK and belongs to the Sarvāstivādins.
This paper concentrates on comparing the contents and structure of text (3) and the SGK. My aim is to clarify commonalities and differences between these two recensions of the SGK, which I believe derived from a common source, the Ur-SGK.
