Dàpǐn jīng yóuyì 大品經遊意
Wandering-Meaning of the Great-Section Sūtra (Programmatic Exposition of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā) by 吉藏 (Jízàng, 撰)
About the work
A short single-fascicle Suí-period programmatic commentary by Jízàng 吉藏 (549–623) on Kumārajīva’s [[KR6c0004|Móhē bōrě bōluómì jīng (T223)]] — the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā. The yóuyì 遊意 (“wandering-meaning” / programmatic prefatorial exposition) genre is one of Jízàng’s signature commentarial forms, presenting the prajñāpāramitā-doctrine in its broadest doctrinal sweep before the line-by-line exegesis of the longer commentary.
Prefaces
The text opens with Jízàng’s own programmatic prologue (effectively the whole work is preface): “This Way is profound and subtle, deep and far, hard to fathom; without knowing, without illuminating, without name, without form. Principle cuts off the hundred negations; the Way perishes in the four propositions. Speech has nowhere to lay its discourse, perception has nowhere to sink its mentality. Yet though one-mark is no-mark, the ten-thousand uses are not lacking; though utmost-still and utmost-empty, the Way illuminates the dharma-dhātu…” — a doctrinal prajñā-elegy in the Sānlùn idiom.
Abstract
T1696 is one of three Jízàng commentaries on T223 included in the canon (T1696, X451, and T1697 — the last by 元曉 Wǒnhyo, not Jízàng — see entries). The single-fascicle yóuyì form gives the doctrinal-philosophical core of Jízàng’s reading of the Prajñāpāramitā; the longer [[KR6c0009|Dàpǐn jīng yìshū (X451)]] gives the line-by-line commentary. The work is dateable to Jízàng’s documented active commentarial period, c. 580–623 CE. T1696 is one of the principal sources for the formation of Sānlùn / Mādhyamika prajñā-doctrine as a Chinese philosophical system.
Translations and research
- Robinson, Richard H. Early Mādhyamika in India and China. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1967. (Sustained discussion of Jízàng’s prajñā exegesis.)
- Liú Guǐlóng 劉貴龍. “Dàpǐn jīng yóuyì zhī yánjiū” 大品經遊意之研究. Buddhist Studies (Chinese-language article).
Links
- CBETA T33n1696
- Kanseki DB
- 吉藏 DILA
- Dazangthings date evidence (600) — Taishō shinshū daizōkyō 大正新脩大藏經, ed. Takakusu Junjirō 高楠順次郎 and Watanabe Kaigyoku 渡邊海旭 (Tokyo: 1924–1932; CBReader v 5.0, 2014).