Jīngāng jīng cǎiwēi 金剛經采微
Picking the Subtle from the Diamond Sūtra by 曇應 Tányìng (述)
About the work
Two-juan Southern-Sòng Tiāntái commentary on the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra by Tányìng of the Huìjiěsì 慧解寺 in Qiántáng 錢唐 (Hángzhōu). The author’s preface, dated Shàoxīng rénzǐ 紹興壬子 = 1132, was composed at the Sīxī Lánruò 思溪蘭若 in Húzhōu — the famous monastery whose printing workshop produced the Sīxīzàng Tripiṭaka in the same decade. A subsequent revision colophon dates a re-examination at Báiyún’ān 白雲菴 in Lóngxīng guǐwèi 隆興癸未 = 1163, after which the commentary was deemed fit to circulate. The text is paired with a structural outline (KR6c0051) and a supplementary volume (KR6c0053), forming a single integrated programme. Preserved in Xùzàngjīng X24 no. 464. notBefore = 1132 (preface), notAfter = 1163 (revision colophon).
Abstract
The work’s title, cǎiwēi 采微 (“plucking the subtle / harvesting the rare”), the author glosses literally: cǎizhāi zhòngmiào, zhí zhù yú jīng 釆摘眾妙，直注于經 — “plucking the subtleties from many sources and noting them directly under the sūtra.” The preface lays out Tányìng’s polemical position: previous Chinese exegesis of the Vajracchedikā — the Asaṅga 無著 śāstra and Vasubandhu 天親 verses (tiānqīn shòu sòng chéng wén 天親受頌成文), and the commentary of Wúxīng 吳興 (i.e. the Jīngāng bānruò shū by 智圓 Zhìyuán of Gūshān) — provided sound kēpàn (科判) outlines but their doctrinal explanations yìlǐ guāiwéi 義理乖違 (“their doctrinal sense is at variance”). Tányìng therefore guǎnkuī Tiāntái yìyì 管窺天台義意 (“peeks through the bamboo-tube of Tiāntái doctrinal intent”), structuring the whole reading around the wǔzhòng xuányì 五重玄義 (the five-fold profound meaning: 名, 體, 宗, 用, 教相) — the standard Tiāntái fivefold hermeneutic codified by Zhìyǐ. The commentary on the title alone runs to several pages, opening with the twin Asaṅga interpretations of “vajra” — yuē jīngāng bǎo 約金剛寶 (the diamond-treasure as substance) and yuē jīngāng xíng 約金剛形 (the painted diamond-pestle as figure) — and develops the latter into a Tiāntái allegory mapping the eighteen abodes of the Bodhisattva path onto the broad-narrow-broad shape of the painted vajra. The body of the work moves through the sūtra under a Tiāntái outline (序分 / 正宗 / 流通), in which the zhèngzōng is sub-divided under “種姓不斷” (“the seed-lineage is not cut”), a heading drawn from Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā vyākhyā. The commented sūtra is the Kumārajīva translation, KR6c0023.
Translations and research
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
No substantial dedicated secondary literature located on Tányìng’s commentary specifically. For the broader Sòng-Tiāntái reception of the Vajracchedikā see general studies of the Sìmíng-pài 四明派 lineage (Brook Ziporyn, Hans-Rudolf Kantor, et al.).
Other points of interest
The Sīxī Lánruò 思溪蘭若 named in the preface is the Yuánjué Chányuàn 圓覺禪院 / Fǎbǎo zīfúsì 法寶資福寺 of Húzhōu, site of the carving of the Sīxī Tripiṭaka 思溪藏 from 1126 to 1132 — the same workshop, in the same year as Tányìng’s preface, was completing China’s first major Southern-Sòng zàngjīng edition. The presence of a Tiāntái scholar of Tányìng’s standing as a guest of the workshop suggests close contact between the Cǎiwēi project and the Sīxī editorial circle.