Clerics › Religious Figure
Zhu Fahu
Western Jin translator monk of Yuezhi descent from Dunhuang who brought Indian scriptures east and translated the Zhengfahua jing among many others.
In a temple courtyard at dusk, a great bronze bell hangs at the right and incense smoke rises from a bronze urn; monks in orange robes and plainly dressed visitors walk toward a lamplit hall, lotus flowers bloom in a stone basin, and a gold prayer wheel stands at the left.
Also known as Dharmaraksa · Dunhuang Pusa · Zhi Fahu
Zhu Fahu, known in Sanskrit as Dharmaraksa, was descended from Yuezhi settlers long resident in Dunhuang and was originally surnamed Zhi. Ordained at eight under the foreign monk Zhu Gaozuo, he took his teacher's surname. In the reign of Emperor Wu of Jin he travelled with his teacher through the states of the Western Regions, learned many languages and brought a large store of Sanskrit texts back east, translating them along the road from Dunhuang to Chang'an. From 266 to 308 he translated without pause; the Chu sanzang jiji lists more than 150 works from him, among which the Zhengfahua jing (Lotus Sutra) and the Guangzan bore jing had the widest influence, and contemporaries called him the Bodhisattva of Dunhuang. The Yulanpen jing is traditionally ascribed to him, but early catalogues name no translator for it.
Life and times
Dates Dates disputed; translated scriptures from 266 to 308 under Western Jin and died aged 78