Jīngāng jīng Shí zhù 金剛經石注
The Diamond Sūtra: Shí’s Annotation by 石成金 Shí Chéngjīn (撰集)
About the work
A one-juan mid-Qīng (Kāngxī-late / Yōngzhèng-era) accessible Vajracchedikā commentary by Shí Chéngjīn (born 1659; zì Tiānjī 天基; sobriquets Liángjué jūshì 良覺居士, Xǐng’ān yúrén 醒庵愚人), the prolific late-Kāngxī / early-Qiánlóng popular morality-book author and Yángzhōu Buddhist layman. The author signs the preface as Shí Chéngjīn Tiānjī. The catalog credit-line zhuànjí 撰集 (“composed-and-assembled”) indicates an editorial composition on the basis of multiple sources. The format, per the self-preface, is měi jiē fēn zhù-lùn-jiǎng-zhèng sì duàn 每節分註論講證四段 (“each section divided into four segments: zhù annotation, lùn discussion, jiǎng exposition, zhèng verification”) fǎng Zhāng Jūzhèng sìshū zhíjiě lì 倣張居正四書直解例 (“imitating 張居正 Zhāng Jūzhèng’s Sìshū zhíjiě model”) — i.e., explicitly following the late-Míng grand secretary’s standard Sìshū commentarial format applied to a Buddhist sūtra. Preserved as X25 no. 497. notBefore / notAfter set conservatively to 1700 / 1740 — Shí’s productive lifespan. Catalog dynasty 清.
Abstract
Shí’s self-preface (No. 497-A) is unusually candid: he says many existing Vajracchedikā commentaries are gé xuē náo yǎng 隔靴撓痒 (“scratching the itch through the boot”), and his project is to give a zhíshuō gēnyuán 直說根源 (“directly tell the root source”). The format announces a programmatic borrowing of the Zhāng Jūzhèng Sìshū zhíjiě four-step pedagogy (annotation → discussion → exposition → verification), making this one of the more striking examples of a late-Míng / early-Qīng Confucian-format commentary applied to a Buddhist sūtra. The volume includes ten dúfǎ 讀法 (“reading rules”) and ten pìwàng 闢妄 (“refutations of false views”) as paratext, marking it as a comprehensive devotional study-edition. Shí Chéngjīn was best known to his contemporaries as the author of the Chuánjiā bǎo 傳家寶 popular-morality compendium and the Rénshì tōng 人事通 — and this Shízhù belongs to the same accessible-pedagogy literary moment.
Translations and research
- For Shí Chéngjīn’s broader morality-book and popular-religious literary output see modern Chinese-language studies, including Zhōu Lìbō and others on late-imperial popular Buddhist publishing.
Other points of interest
The conscious imitation of Zhāng Jūzhèng’s Sìshū zhíjiě model — itself the most influential Míng-Qīng vernacular-leaning Sìshū commentary — applied to the Vajracchedikā is a notable instance of cross-traditive commentary-genre transfer: a Confucian pedagogical-publication template imported wholesale into Buddhist scriptural exegesis. Shí’s project signals the late-imperial assimilation of Buddhist sūtra commentary to the same vernacular-pedagogy market that produced the Sìshū jiǎngyì genre.