《弥勒为女身经》探微

据佛教经录记载,《弥勒为女身经》曾两次单独传译,第一次为东汉末,已失译人,第二次为西晋竺法护译,但至今以上两种译本皆已不存。《大正藏》所收两处有关《弥勒为女身经》的内容,一见梁朝僧？宝唱编《经律异相》,另一载于康僧会所译《六集度经》中。根据现存经文,弥勒菩萨曾受女身并为佛所度化,这一经典流行于汉末至隋,体现了弥勒信仰对女性的宽容,是大乘佛教时期女性地位提升的表现,获得了较多的女性信仰者。

A Study of the View on Bodhisattva Maitreya Being Once a Woman

According to Buddhist Catalogues,the book Bodhisattva Maitreya Being Once a Woman had been translated twice.One is at the end of the Han Dynasty,and the other is in the West Jin Dynasty.For the first book,people do not know who the translator was,and for the second one,it was done by Dharmaraka.However,both of them cannot be found today.In Dazhengzang（大正藏）,two related sutras in Bodhisattva Maitreya Being Once a Woman are included.One is in Jinlvyixiang（经律异相） produced by Seng Minbao,and the other is in Sapāramitā-sannipāta-sūtra translated by Tang Senghui.Based on the sutra available now,Bodhisattva Maitreya was once a woman and taught by Buddha.This story was popular during the end of the Han Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty.It reflected the view that Bodhisattva Maitreya was tolerant to the female,which showed the rising status of the female during that period of Mahayana Buddhism.As a result,it attracted a lot of female Buddhist worshipers.