Jīngāng jīng shū jì kē huì 金剛經疏記科會
Joint Outline-Synthesis of the Diamond Sūtra Commentary and Sub-Commentary by 宗密 Zōngmì (疏), 子璿 Zǐxuán (記), 大璸 Dàbīn (科會)
About the work
A ten-juan multi-layered editorial reissue of the central Huáyán-tradition Vajracchedikā commentary apparatus: it combines (a) the Táng Jīngāng bānruò jīng shūlùn zuǎnyào 金剛般若經疏論纂要 (KR6c0041) 2 juan of Guīfēng Zōngmì (780–841), composed circa 824 (per Zōngmì’s biographical chronology); (b) the Northern-Sòng sub-commentary Jīngāng kāndìngjì 金剛刊定記 of Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán (965–1038); and (c) a Míng-period structural-outline synthesis (kēhuì 科會) by the monk Dàbīn (Wànlì-era), who arranged the Zōngmì + Zǐxuán materials into an integrated visual outline. The text was reprinted in the early Qīng on the basis of a “Yúnqī old printing” recovered by 朱吉川 Zhū Jíchuān of Yúnqī 雲捿, and then again in Qiánlóng 47 = 1782 (per a postface of 孫效曾 Sūn Xiàozēng dated Qiánlóng rényín fódàn — 1782). Catalog dynasty assignment 唐 follows the date of the substrate Zōngmì commentary; notBefore = 824 (Zōngmì); notAfter = 1782 (latest editorial layer in the present recension). Preserved as X25 no. 491.
Abstract
The text is a stratified palimpsest of the Huáyán Vajracchedikā tradition. Stratum 1 (Táng, ca. 824): Zōngmì’s Jīngāng bānruò jīng shūlùn zuǎnyào, the most influential Táng-period scholastic commentary, integrating the Asaṅga / Vasubandhu vyākhyā with Huáyán doctrinal categories and serving as the standard textbook for monastic Vajracchedikā study from the late Táng through the Sòng. Stratum 2 (Northern Sòng): Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán’s sub-commentary Kāndìngjì — the principal Sòng Vajracchedikā commentary of the Huáyán-Yúnián-Tiāntái synthesis school of Sìmíng / Chángshuǐ. Stratum 3 (Míng): Dàbīn’s kēhuì (outline-synthesis), supplying a unified hierarchical visual frame to navigate the Zōngmì + Zǐxuán materials together. Stratum 4 (Qīng): the editorial reissue with prefaces and the 1782 postface.
The opening editorial preface (No. 491-A) frames the project as a recovery operation: the original Míng kēhuì by Dàbīn had circulated only yǐ wú duō liúbù, wèi guǎng jīnliáng 以無多流布，未廣津梁 (“having little circulation, not widely a bridge”), and Zhū Jíchuān of Yúnqī, recovering an old printing, sponsored the present reissue fā yuàn chóng kān, pǔ shī dàzhòng 發願重刊，普施大眾 (“vowing to recut the blocks, broadly bestowing on the assembly”). The body presents the 鳩摩羅什 Kumārajīva Vajracchedikā under Dàbīn’s outline, with Zōngmì’s commentary and Zǐxuán’s sub-commentary as nested annotation blocks beneath each passage.
Translations and research
- For Zōngmì’s Vajracchedikā commentary in its Huáyán hermeneutic context see Peter N. Gregory, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism (Princeton, 1991; rep. Hawaii, 2002).
- For Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán’s sub-commentary tradition see modern Sòng-Buddhism surveys, esp. Daniel Stevenson and Brook Ziporyn on the Sìmíng / Chángshuǐ axis.
- The Dàbīn kēhuì layer is less studied; its existence makes the present text a useful witness to Wànlì-era Huáyán scholastic publishing.
Other points of interest
This text is the principal canonical multi-layer Huáyán Vajracchedikā commentary in the Xùzàngjīng. Its long temporal span (Táng → Sòng → Míng → Qīng, 824–1782) makes it among the most stratified single texts in this section of KR6c. The Qiánlóng 1782 postface coincides with the death of 通理 Tōnglǐ (KR6c0075), placing the reissue in the same generational moment of high-Qīng Buddhist editorial recovery.