Śataśāstra

*Śataśāstra. (C. Bai lun [alt. Bo lun] 百論). Literally, “The Hundred Treatise,” is a text attributed to Āryadeva, a student of Nāgārjuna.

The text is counted as one of the Three Treatises of the East Asian Madhyamaka (Salun) school.

The Princeton Dictionary states:

The Śataśāstra was translated into Chinese by Kumārajīva in 404. No Sanskrit or Tibetan recensions of the work are known to exist; the Sanskrit title is a reconstruction.

Some have speculated that the work is an abbreviated version of Āryadeva’s most famous work, the Catuḥśataka. The two works consider many of the same topics, including the nature of nirvana and the meaning of emptiness (sunyata) in a similar fashion and both refute Sāṃkhya and Vaiśeṣika positions, but the order of their treatment of these topics and their specific content differ; the Śatakaśāstra also contains material not found in the Catuḥśataka. The Śataśāstra is therefore probably not a mere summary of the Catuḥśataka, but may instead represent Kumārajīva’s interpretation of Āryadeva’s text.