Jīngāng jīng zhù 金剛經註
Annotated Diamond Sūtra (the Yěfù Dàochuān 冶父道川 Diamond Sūtra) by 道川 (Yěfù Dàochuān, 著語)
About the work
A three-juan Sòng Chán-school commentary on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra, by Yěfù Dàochuān 冶父道川 (Japanese Yafu Dōsen, fl. 1127, lay surname Dí 狄), a Línjì-school Chán master at Yěfùshān 冶父山. The work is famous for its alternating verse-and-prose Chán commentary (zhuóyǔ 著語 = “attaching words”) format — providing each Vajracchedikā passage with both prose comment and verse-encomium. It became one of the most-loved Chán-school Vajracchedikā commentaries in the late-imperial period and is widely transmitted in Chán liturgical practice. Preserved at X24 no. 461. notBefore = 1100, notAfter = 1200.
Abstract
Yěfù Dàochuān 冶父道川 (the work’s preface gives the dating as Jiànyán 1 = 1127) was a Línjì-Yángqí-school Chán master active in the Liǎngzhè region. The work is also known by his alternate sobriquet Shí’ān Dàochuān 實菴道川 in some catalogs.
The zhuóyǔ 著語 (alternating verse-and-prose Chán commentary) format makes the work distinctively Chán-school in its commentarial register — combining doctrinal exposition with the Chán gōngàn literary aesthetic. The work has been continuously popular in Chinese Chán-and-Pure-Land liturgical practice into the modern period and is one of the most frequently-printed pre-modern Vajracchedikā commentaries.
Translations and research
- Several modern English translations of the Yěfù Dàochuān Vajracchedikā commentary exist in popular Chán-tradition publications.
- Buswell, Robert E., Jr., and successor scholars on Sòng Chán literature.