Jīngāng bānruò lùn huìshì 金剛般若論會釋
Synthetic Interpretation of the Vajracchedikā Treatise by 窺基 (撰)
About the work
A three-juan early-Táng (Lóngshuò / Líndé / Xiánhēng / Yífèng-era) Yogācāra commentary by Kuījī 窺基 (632–682; signs as Dàshèng Jī 大乘基), chief disciple of Xuánzàng 玄奘 and the foundational systematizer of Chinese Fǎxiàng / Yogācāra. The work is a huìshì (“synthetic interpretation”) — a meta-commentary on the Indian Vajracchedikā vyākhyā tradition (specifically Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā vyākhyā, as translated by Bodhiruci into Chinese as T25 no. 1511 — which the catalog-cross-reference cf. No. 1511 in the source explicitly notes), reading the verses through the developed Indian Yogācāra apparatus that Kuījī had inherited from his master Xuánzàng. Preserved as T40 no. 1816 in the Taishō Tripiṭaka. notBefore = 660 (Kuījī’s mature commentary period after his ordination); notAfter = 682 (death). Catalog dynasty 唐.
Abstract
The work opens with a programmatic three-fold structural analysis: yī bù fēn sān: chū jìng suǒ shī, xù biāo zuòyì; cì kē zōngyì, zhèng shì jīngwén; hòu tàn yú shēn fǎ chéng yǐn miè 一部分三：初敬所師，敘標作意；次科宗義，正釋經文；後嘆愚深法成隱滅 (“the work is divided in three: first, reverence to the teachers, with stated authorial intent; second, structural-school-meaning, with proper exposition of the sūtra-text; third, lamentation that, deep though the dharma is, it has come to hidden extinction”). The first section is itself sub-divided (5 sub-divisions of the opening verse-praises), in the manner of strict scholastic Indian-style śāstra-commentary. Kuījī establishes the transmission lineage with care: the Vajracchedikā vyākhyā verses are originally Maitreya’s (彌勒菩薩); transmitted to Asaṅga (無著); transmitted by Asaṅga to Vasubandhu (天親), who composed the prose commentary on the verses (tiānqīn lùn jì, mílè púsà wéi Wúzhuó shuō, Wúzhuó shòu yǔ Tiānqīn, lìng zào shì gù 天親論偈，彌勒菩薩為無著說，無著授與天親，令造釋故). This is the canonical Indian transmission-history of the Vajracchedikā śāstra, and Kuījī’s affirmation of it sets the scholastic standard for all subsequent Chinese commentary in the Yogācāra tradition. The body of the huìshì proceeds verse by verse through the Vasubandhu commentary, with Kuījī’s “synthetic interpretation” gloss arranging multiple readings under each lemma. The work is one of the foundational texts of the Chinese Fǎxiàng (法相宗) reading of the Vajracchedikā.
Translations and research
- For Kuījī’s broader Fǎxiàng project see Dan Lusthaus, Buddhist Phenomenology: A Philosophical Investigation of Yogācāra Buddhism and the Ch’eng wei-shih lun (RoutledgeCurzon, 2002); Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T’ang (Cambridge UP, 1987); Yoshimura Shūki’s standard Japanese-language studies.
- For the Vajracchedikā vyākhyā tradition itself see Giuseppe Tucci, Minor Buddhist Texts I (Rome, 1956); Edward Conze, Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā (SOR, 1957); Paul Harrison’s collected writings.
Other points of interest
This is the earliest substantive Chinese Yogācāra commentary on the Vajracchedikā in the Xuánzàng / Kuījī line, and the scholastic reference point against which all later Chinese Vajracchedikā commentaries that engage the Vasubandhu vyākhyā (Chángshuǐ Zǐxuán’s Kāndìngjì, the various Sòng commentaries, the late-Míng Hánshān / Zhìxù productions) implicitly position themselves. Kuījī’s signing as Dàshèng Jī 大乘基 (“Mahāyāna Jī”) rather than the more common Cíēn Jī 慈恩基 (Cíēn Temple Jī) signals the work’s claim to general Mahāyāna authority rather than narrowly school-affiliated identity.
Links
- 窺基 DILA
- CBETA online
- Author: Kuījī 窺基 (632–682), chief disciple of Xuánzàng — see person note 窺基
- Substrate: Vasubandhu Vajracchedikā vyākhyā (T25 no. 1511, Bodhiruci tr.)
- Indian transmission affirmed: Maitreya → Asaṅga → Vasubandhu
- Commented text: KR6c0023
- Kanseki DB