Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra
The Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra (Sanskrit, Sutra of the Fundamental Vows of the Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha; ) or Kṣitigarbhasūtra is a Mahāyāna sūtra teaching about the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and is one of the more popular sūtras in Chinese Buddhism. The sutra tells of how Kṣitigarbha became a bodhisattva by making great vows to rescue other sentient beings and a description of how he displayed filial piety in his past lifetimes. The sutra also expounds at length the retributions of unwholesome karma, descriptions of Buddhist hells and the benefits of good merit both great and small. History The Kṣitigarbhasūtra was first translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in the 7th century during the Tang dynasty by the Tripiṭaka master Śikṣānanda, a monk from Khotan who also provided a new translation of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. Some scholars suspected that instead of being translated, this text may have originated in China since no Sanskrit manuscripts of this text have been found. Part of the reason for suspicion is that the text advocates filial piety, which is commonly associated with Confucianism in Chinese culture. Since then, other scholars such as Gregory Schopen have countered that Indian Buddhism also had traditions of filial