Buddha’s birthday; puṣyanakṣatra; April 8; Vaiśākha; Sino-Indian calendar
摘要
Two dates, the 8th day of the 4th lunar month (Date A) and the 8th day of the 2nd lunar month (Date B), are found in Chinese Buddhist translations as the Buddha’s birthday. However, how to understand the simultaneous existence of both of these dates remains an unresolved problem. This paper proposes a rather new interpretation to try to solve this puzzle, and provide an answer to the question: whence the 8th day of the 4th lunar month as the Buddha’s birthday? It is argued that: (1) The date of the Buddha’s conception and the date of his birth were both translated variously as Date A or Date B in early Chinese Buddhist literature. However, many later texts referring to the Buddha’s birthday do not include reference to an auspicious junction star (puṣyanakṣatra), which is critical for understanding these dates; (2) Both the Indian and Chinese traditions regard an individual’s life to begin at the moment of conception; therefore, the so-called Buddha’s birthday could be argued as the date of his conception; (3) The date of conception of the Buddha was specified as the 8th day of the śuklapakṣa of the month Vaiśākha, the day of the vernal equinox. This corresponds to Date A in the Chinese Xia calendar.
目次
Abstract 1 Keywords 1 1. Introduction 1 2. An Indispensable Element in the Moment of the Buddha’s Birth: An Auspicious Junction Star 2 2.1. Star Fei 沸星 2 2.2. Star Fei’s Other Names or Interpretations: Bright Star 明星, Fusha 弗沙, and Gui Mansion 鬼宿 3 3. The Derivation of the Buddha’s Birthday: The Date of Conception Instead of Birth 5 3.1. Conception Month: Vaiśākha 5 3.2. The First Step of the Buddha’s Life: Conception 6 4. The 8th Day of the 4th Lunar Month: The Connection to the Month of Vaiśākha 8 5. Concluding Remarks 14 Notes 15 References 17 Primary Sources 17 Secondary Sources 17
