Study Of The Buddha Sutra Of Yueshangnv

The Buddha Sutra of Yueshangnv is a two-volume-sutra translated by Jn~a^nagupta in Sui Dynasty, and is included in Taisho-pitaka as Number.480. It mainly tells the story about how Yueshangnv, the daughter of Vimalakīrti in Liche Town, becomes a bodhisattva. This sutra is included in the Buddhist Sutra Catalogues of different dynasties and some temples in Japan.There are two manuscripts in Dunhuang documents of this sutra, one is Ф112-1 in Russia, the other is Yu730 in Japan. These two manuscripts are very similar that might be written by the same person, and they are also similar with the Shogozo version. The biography of Jn~a^nagupta proves the existence of the sutra’s Sanskrit version. After Song Dynasty, the Buddha Sutra of Yueshangnv becomes a Zen koan and is used to pray for one’s mother to become a male in the next life. But the story about Yueshangnv cutting down her breasts in Brahmajāla-sūtra is wrongly written. Besides,the Buddha Sutra of Yueshangnv possibly has influenced the Japanese story Taketori Monogatari.