Yīnchírù jīng zhù 陰持入經註
Annotations on the Skandha-Dhātu-Āyatana Sūtra by 陳慧 (Chén Huì, 撰)
About the work
A two-fascicle interlinear commentary on Ān Shìgāo’s Eastern-Hàn translation [[KR6i0240|Yīnchírù jīng 陰持入經 (T0603)]] — a foundational early-Hàn rendering of an early-Buddhist Skandha-Dhātu-Āyatana-style discourse on the five aggregates, six elements, and the entrances of perception. The commentary was composed by the Three-Kingdoms Wú-period Buddhist layman Chén Huì 陳慧 at Jiànkāng 建康, who was a lay disciple of the Sogdian master Kāng Sēnghuì 康僧會 (d. 280); throughout the body of the commentary the formula 「師云」 (“the master says”) records Sēnghuì’s oral exegesis, so that the work transmits the third-century Jiànkāng exegetical tradition of Sēnghuì’s circle in fixed written form. The commentary is set as fine-running gloss directly under each clause of the sūtra-text; lexical glosses (resolving Ān Shìgāo’s archaic Hàn-Buddhist vocabulary) and substantive doctrinal explanations alternate freely.
Prefaces
The text opens with Chén Huì’s own preface, signed “陳氏注” (“annotated by Mr. Chén”). It opens with a passage of self-effacing autobiographical reflection — “Reflecting upon myself: from past good fortune I was born far from the eight obstacles to spiritual life, and have witnessed the radiance of the Three Jewels…” — and goes on to give a brief note on the sūtra’s history: “Yīnchí 陰持 is a name for practice (行之號); it has the same source as the Ānāpāna [discourse] but flows by a different stream. Ān Hóu Shìgāo 安侯世高 [= Ān Shìgāo] is a Bodhisattva universally seen — he relinquished the splendour of kingship, took up poverty and joy in the Way, rose early and went to bed late, full of pity for those drowning in the mire, broadcast the Three Jewels and made them shine in the capital. Thereupon eminent men gathered like clouds and the teaching prospered…“. The preface closes with a request for further glossators: “I beg the wise to ponder; if three persons examine my errors and somnolence and add what is needed, then together we may display the Three Jewels and not mislead future generations.”
The translator’s signature beneath the preface attributes the underlying sūtra to: 「後漢安息國三藏安世高譯」.
Abstract
T1694 is one of the two earliest substantial Chinese Buddhist commentaries on an Ān Shìgāo translation to survive intact (the other being [[KR6a0161|Dàoān’s Rénběn yùshēng jīng zhù (T1693)]]). It is the principal documentary witness for the Wú-period Jiànkāng exegetical tradition: Kāng Sēnghuì 康僧會 (Sogdian-Vietnamese, d. 280, who arrived at Jiànkāng in 247 CE under Sūn Quán 孫權) is the “master” whose oral teachings on the Yīnchírù jīng are recorded by his lay disciple Chén Huì in this text. The work therefore stands at the head of the Jiānghuái 江淮 / lower-Yangzi Sarvāstivāda-influenced dhyāna-doctrinal tradition and complements the northern (Luòyáng / Yèsì) Sarvāstivāda exegetical tradition for which Dàoān is the principal witness. Date-bracket reflects the Wú dynasty (222–280); a tighter window cannot be defended without surviving documentary evidence.
The work is also one of the earliest Chinese-composed prose statements on the religious biography of Ān Shìgāo: the preface’s identification of Ān Shìgāo as “a Bodhisattva universally seen” (普見菩薩) who renounced his Parthian throne is the earliest extant Chinese-language hagiographical formulation of the Ān Shìgāo legend, antedating by a century or more the parallel hagiography in the Chū sānzàng jì jí.
Translations and research
- Zacchetti, Stefano. “An Early Chinese Translation Corresponding to Chapter 6 of the Petakopadesa: An Shigao’s Yin chi ru jing T 603 and its Indian Original — A Preliminary Survey.” Bulletin of SOAS 65/1 (2002): 74–98. (Discusses T1694 as commentary on T603.)
- Zacchetti, Stefano. “Yin-chi-ru jing 陰持入經” (commentary entry). In Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E. Buswell. New York: Macmillan, 2004.
- Tang Yongtong 湯用彤. Hàn Wèi Liǎng-Jìn Nánběicháo Fójiào shǐ 漢魏兩晉南北朝佛教史. Shanghai: Shangwu, 1938. (Sections on Kāng Sēnghuì’s circle and Chén Huì.)
- Lin Mei-ying 林美瑩. “Yīn chí rù jīng zhù yánjiū” 陰持入經註研究. MA thesis, National Chengchi University, 2008.
Other points of interest
The orthography of the source manuscript is unusually archaic: 𧗪 (“walking”) is consistently used for 行 throughout, with the editor’s marginal note “此經多𧗪字他本皆作行” (“this jīng uses many xíng (𧗪) characters; in other recensions they are all written 行”). The variant is a paleographical clue to the manuscript transmission of the Ān Shìgāo corpus through the Wú period.
Links
- CBETA online text T1694
- Kanseki DB
- 陳慧 DILA
- 康僧會 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (160, 230, 240): CBETA [Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association]. Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經. Edited by Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭. Tokyo: Taishō shinshū daizōkyō kankōkai/Daizō shuppan, 1924–1932. CBReader v 5.0, 2014. dazangthings source 1