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御注金剛般若波羅蜜經宣演

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Text ID
KR6c0105
Date
735–740
Dynasty
唐

Yùzhù Jīngāng bānruò bōluómì jīng xuānyǎn 御注金剛般若波羅蜜經宣演

Doctrinal Exposition of the Imperially-Annotated Diamond Sūtra by 道氤 (撰)

About the work

A two-juan mid-Táng (Kāiyuán-era) imperial-court Buddhist scholastic exposition (xuānyǎn 宣演) by Dàzhì Dàoyīn 大智道氤 (668–740), the doctrinal commentary on Emperor Xuánzōng’s 李隆基 imperial annotation of the Vajracchedikā (KR6c0100). The author signs as Chì suíjià jiǎnglùn shāmén Dàoyīn jí 勅隨駕講論沙門道氤集 (“By imperial command, doctrinal-lecturer monk Dàoyīn, accompanying the imperial entourage, assembled this”). The work belongs to a distinctive Kāiyuán scholastic genre: monastic exposition of the imperial annotation, in which a court Buddhist scholar elaborates on the emperor’s brief annotated text into a substantive doctrinal commentary. notBefore set to 735 (alignment with the dating of the imperial annotation KR6c0100); notAfter = 740 (Dàoyīn’s death). Recovered from Dūnhuáng and preserved as T85 no. 2733. Catalog dynasty 唐.

Abstract

The text opens with a verse qǐngjiā 請加 (invocation): jīshǒu shànshì dàxiān xióng, zhì duàn cíbēi zhòngdé bèi; yǎnshuō Jīngāng qīngjìng jù, lǐ shēn gōng miào fú nán sī 稽首善逝大仙雄，智斷慈悲眾德備；演說金剛清淨句，理深功妙福難思 (“Bowing the head to the Sugata, Great Immortal Hero — wisdom-cutting, compassion, all virtues complete — expounding the Diamond’s pure phrases, principle deep, achievement subtle, blessings beyond thought”). The body proceeds as a systematic exposition: it takes the imperial annotation phrase by phrase as base-text, then expands each annotation into a substantive doctrinal explanation drawing on the Yogācāra apparatus (Vasubandhu’s Vajracchedikā vyākhyā, Asaṅga’s vyākhyā) and the Huáyán doctrinal categories. The work is one of the most substantial mid-Táng Vajracchedikā commentaries to survive, was reproduced in multiple Dūnhuáng manuscripts (testifying to broad circulation in the late-Táng / Five-Dynasties Héxī corridor), and forms the substrate for the third-order sub-commentary KR6c0106 Jīngāng yìng by Bǎodá 寶達.

Translations and research

  • For the late-Táng / Dūnhuáng Vajracchedikā commentary tradition see modern Sino-Japanese surveys, esp. Kazue Kyoichi 上山大峻 and Tanaka Ryōshō 田中良昭 on the Dūnhuáng Buddhist commentary corpus.
  • For Xuánzōng’s sānjiào program in which Dàoyīn’s xuānyǎn operates, see modern surveys cited at KR6c0100.

Other points of interest

The Dàoyīn → Bǎodá (KR6c0106) commentary chain — imperial annotation, scholastic xuānyǎn, sub-commentary yìng — is one of the most fully-stratified Táng-period Vajracchedikā commentary traditions to survive; the three layers together (imperial / scholastic / sub-scholastic) document the mid-Táng integration of imperial and monastic textual production in unusual depth. Recovery of all three through the Dūnhuáng cache testifies to their use in the Héxī monastic-pedagogical curriculum during the late Táng / Tibetan-occupation centuries.

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