Series Four Volume 5

The Chinese Biography of Jīvaka, Buddhist King of Physicians

Jīvaka is a legendary physician frequently mentioned in Buddhist sources. Buddhist traditions from around Asia present him as a model healer and lay patron of the monastic order. The extant biographies can be divided into three relatively distinct streams of transmission (Pāli, Sanskrit-Tibetan, and Chinese), and regionally specific legends about Jīvaka have grown around this core narrative. While the other versions of the legend have been translated into English, the Chinese biography of Jīvaka has yet to be. Jīvaka’s legend is found in Chinese in several different versions dating from the fourth to fifth centuries. The translation below is of the longer recension of the Chinese Jīvaka biography, called the Āmrapāli and Jīvaka Avadāna Sutra (Foshuo nainü Zhiyu yinyuan jing 佛說㮈女祇域因緣經), found in text number 553 of the Taishō Tripiṭaka. The translation was completed by William Giddings, while this introduction was authored by Pierce Salguero.