从12条佛教词语(短语)入手,可以考察《大方便佛报恩经》的年代。其中“观世音菩萨”、“四围陀”、“释氏宫”见于后秦译经;“大悲愿”,“不请友”,与《大方便佛报恩经》中如来十号相同的十种具体名称“如来、应供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世间解、无上士、调御丈夫、天人师、佛世尊”以及“萨遮尼乾”,“天宝香、天宝花(华)”和“一箭道”均见于东晋以后译经;“无量百千万亿阿僧祇劫”最早见于东晋十六国及以后译经;“三藏九部”除《大方便佛报恩经》外,其余用例均见于南北朝以后的中土佛教典籍;“五盖十缠”最早见于南朝梁的《慈悲道场忏法》。这12条佛教词语表明,《大方便佛报恩经》不是东汉时期的文献。如果是译经,它的翻译年代当在东晋之后。
Scholars differ in their opinions on the features, author, record, editions and the age of popularity of Dafangbianfo Bao'en Jing whose translator was unknown and which was affiliated to the Buddhist sutra catalogue of Eastern Han Dynasty. Some argued that it was a fake Buddhist sutra. Others claimed that it was a translated Buddhist sutra, but the translation was not done in Eastern Han Dynasty. In this paper,we try to verify its age by analyzing 12 Buddhist terms. According to the studies of Lou Yulie,the term Ava okltesvara (观世音菩萨) appeared for the first time in the translations of the famous Buddha Kumarajiva living in Later Qin Dynasty. The detailed information of the other eleven Buddhist terms is as follows: Some of them appeared for the first time in the translated versions during or after Eastern Jin Dynasty, such as "mahdkaru n a" ( 大悲愿 ) ," Sazhe Niqian" ( 萨遮尼乾 ) ," Tianbaohua" ( 天宝花/华 ), "incalculable kalpafisarn, khyeya" ( 无量百千万亿阿僧祇劫 ) which was an idiom used to describe an extremely long period of time, and "an arrow's flight"(一箭道), a length unit in Buddhist sutras. "Buqingyou"(不请友) appeared in the Buddhist sutras written by native Chinese after Eastern Jin Dynasty. The ten kinds of concrete names--"Buddha" (如来 ) ,"Bhuji.s ya" (应供) ,"Samyak-sambuddha.h" ( 正遍知 ), "Vidy& caran, a- sarn. panna"( 明行足 ) ," Svayarn. - b hu( 善逝), "Lokavi d"( 世间解 ), "Sattva- sara" ( 无上士) ,"Puru.sa-damaka"(调御丈夫),"Nara-ndyaka"(天人师) and "Bhagavat"(佛世尊)-which were the same as the ten names of Buddha in Dafangbianfo Bao'en Jing appeared for the first time in the translations of Eastern Jin Dynasty and were frequently used especially in Kumarajiva's translations. Apart from Dafangbianfo Bao'en Jing, the term "Sanzang Jiubu" ( 三藏九部) appeared in the B