Chih-ch'ien
Chih-ch'ien
支謙 (n.d.) (PY Zhiqian; Jpn Shiken)
A translator of Buddhist scriptures in China during the third century. His family was from the Great Yyeh-chih kingdom in Central Asia. A layperson well versed in six languages, he studied Buddhism under Chih-liang, a disciple of Lokakshema. Later, to avoid the danger of war, he fled south to the kingdom of Wu where he was welcomed and esteemed by the king Sun Ch'yan, and became a teacher to the royal prince. During the thirty years from 223 to 253, he translated into Chinese a number of scriptures including the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Words of Truth Sutra, and the Sutra of the Buddha's Marvelous Deeds in Previous Lifetimes, thus contributing to the propagation of Buddhism in China. As to the number of sutras he translated, different accounts claim 27, 36, 49, 88, and 129.
