《釋摩訶衍論》考──兼論《大乘起信論》的真偽

Re-examination of the authorship of the Commentary to the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna

The Commentary to the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna, the Shi Moheyanlun, was attributed to Nāgārjuna in the tradition of Chinese Buddhism. This attribution is doubted by modern scholarship, which argues that this commentary was composed in China by a Chinese author. Taking this issue, the present paper analyzes in depth the content and doctrines of the text in question, and the translation history of both the root treatise and the commentary. The article shows that the root treatise, the Awakening of Faith in Mahāyāna, was doubtlessly translated by Paramārtha at the Jianxing si of the Shixing commandery in the Heng in the third year of Chengsheng era of the Liang Dynasty (554), and conclude that the Commentary was translated by Paramārtha himself.