Abstract:
There is no true doubt of Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana in modern times in China. What scholars put great emphasis on is the Canon of Lawsscripture of Catalogue in the Sui Dynasty, which put Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana in the catalogue of “Doubt”, but what they doubted was the translator, as apposed to the scripture itself. What Fei Changfang recorded in “the fourth year of Tai Qing” has been seen as the key evidence, showing that the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana was not translated by Paramartha for scholars in modern times. In the normal timeline of Chinese history, the “Tai Qing” reign title only lasted three years, but the historical records such as the Book of Liang recorded the reason to continue using “the fourth year of Tai Qing”. Dao Xuan has copied the records of Fei Changfang, but there was a more “Big” word in Dao Xuan’s version，compared with all other “same fourth year” recordings. It is possibly a fault in the process of circulating copies. Amongst the disciples of Paramartha, were The Records of Paramartha’s Tripitaka and The Bibliography of Paramartha’s Tripitaka written by Cao Pi, The Translation of Paramartha’s Tripitaka written by Zhi Jiao, and The Bibliographic Sketch of Paramartha’s Tripitaka written by Seng Zong. What Fei Changfang recorded was based on The Records of Paramartha’s Tripitaka and The Bibliography of Paramartha’s Tripitaka written by Cao Pi. From findings in modern times, what Cao Pi recorded is more comprehensive. In an overall consideration, what Fei Changfang recorded as a Paramartha translated Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana in the fourth year of “Tai Qing”(A.D. 550) provided a sufficient basis. And this shows that all the doubts towards it are nonsense.
