Jīngāng jīng yìjiě 金剛經易解
The Diamond Sūtra: Easy Explanation by 謝承謨 Xiè Chéngmó (註釋)
About the work
A two-juan late-Qīng (Guāngxù-era) Vajracchedikā commentary by the layman Xiè Chéngmó (zì Guànsān 貫三, sobriquet Pílíng jūshì 毗陵居士 — Pílíng = Chángzhōu, Jiāngsū). Self-prefaced 光緒十五年歲次己丑三月之望 = mid-spring 1889 full-moon = 1889-04-15, with sponsoring prefaces by 唐養愚 Táng Yǎngyú (sobriquet Láiyúnzǐ 來雲子, of Pearl-River descent) and 劉紹南 Liú Shàonán (sobriquet Yuánjué jūshì 圓覺居士) of Zhēnzhōu 真州 (Jiāngsū). The catalog credit-line zhùshì 註釋 (“annotation-and-explanation”) and the title’s yìjiě 易解 (“easy explanation”) together identify the work as a late-Qīng accessible commentary in the qiǎnjiě / yìjiě devotional-pedagogy genre. notBefore / notAfter = 1889. Preserved as X25 no. 510. Catalog dynasty 清.
Abstract
The opening preface lays out the work’s accessibility-rationale: the Vajracchedikā is the most circulated Buddhist sūtra “for several thousand years” because its yán jiǎn yì jīng, nǎi fǎnyuē zhī dào yě 言簡義精，乃反約之道也 (“language is concise yet meaning is precise — the way of pulling back to the essential”); the present commentary aims to make this precision accessible to general readers. Xiè’s prose is plain and direct — characteristic of the late-Qīng Jiāngnán lay-devotional commentary register that bridges the kǎozhèng-disciplined commentary of KR6c0094 (俞樾 Yú Yuè) and the popular devotional commentary of KR6c0078. Xiè also composed a parallel Bānruò xīnjīng yìjiě, on the principle that the Heart Sūtra condenses the Vajracchedikā in capsule form — together they comprise his coordinated yìjiě corpus.
Translations and research
No substantial dedicated secondary literature located.