Niepan jing The Nirvana Sutra; one of the major texts of East Asian Maha^ya^na Buddhism， of which there are three translations: （1） The Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃经. T 374.12.365c-603c （Maha^parinirva^na-su^tra） 40 fasc， tr. in the northern Liang by Dharmaks!ema 昙无谶 in 416-423. （2） Same title， 36 fasc.， trans. in the Song by Jn~a^nabhadra 慧严 and Hui-ning， T 375.12.605-852. （3） the 佛说大般泥洹经， 6 fasc.， translated in the Eastern Qin by Buddhabhadra and Faxian 法显 in 416-418， T 376.12.853-899. This sutra， which is supposed to be the account of the Buddha's final sermon prior to his passing away， stresses the fact that all sentient beings possess the buddha-nature 佛性， and that all beings， even icchantikas 一阐提， will become buddhas. The original sutra had probably been expanded gradually by the time Dharmaks!ema translated it， since the text that Faxian had first brought home from India was only a small work of six fascicles， while Dharmaks!ema's later translation grew to forty fascicles. Still later， Huiguan 慧观， Huiyan 慧严 （363-443） Xie lingyun 谢灵运 （385-433） et.al. of the Liu Song dynasty （420-79） integrated and amended the translations of Faxian and Dharmaks!ema， a single edition of thirty-six fascicles. That version is called the "southern text" of the Maha^parinirva^na-su^tra， while Dharmaks!ema's work is called the "northern text."