Jīngāng bānruò jīng zhǐzàn 金剛般若經旨贊
Praise-Discourse on the Tendency of the Diamond Sūtra by 曇曠 (撰)
About the work
A two-juan late-Táng Yogācāra Vajracchedikā commentary by Tánkuàng 曇曠 of the Jīng Xīmíng dàochǎng 京西明道場 — i.e., the great Xīmíngsì 西明寺 in Chángān, the imperial Buddhist establishment that under Xuánzàng and Yuáncè 圓測 became the doctrinal centre of Chinese Yogācāra. The catalog title zhǐzàn 旨贊 (“tendency-and-praise”) signals the work’s hermeneutic frame: it elaborates the Vajracchedikā’s doctrinal zhǐ (tendency) through a zàn (praise / encomium) format, in the manner of substantive scholastic exposition. Recovered from Dūnhuáng and preserved as T85 no. 2735. notBefore set conservatively to 750, notAfter = 800 — the late-Táng / pre-occupation Héxī period during which Tánkuàng was active. Catalog dynasty 唐.
Abstract
The opening passage is a tour-de-force of late-Táng scholastic prose, despite some lacunae from the Dūnhuáng manuscript damage: fū shíjì wú yán, bì jí yán yǐ biàn shí; zhēnzōng fěi xiāng, yào jiǎ xiāng yǐ xiǎn zhēn 夫實際無言，必即言以辨實；真宗匪相，要假相以顯真 (“the limit of reality has no language, yet must use language to discriminate the real; true tradition lacks marks, yet must borrow marks to display the true”). The dialectic of jí yánshuō, jí xiāng (using-yet-not-using language, using-yet-not-using marks) is then deployed as the working hermeneutic for the Vajracchedikā: yán jí shí gù, suī shuō ér shuō wú; xiāng jí zhēn gù, xiàn xíng ér wú xíng 言即實故，雖說而說無；相即真故，現形而無形 (“language being the real, though speech occurs there is no speech; mark being the true, though form appears there is no form”). The body of the commentary moves through the sūtra under this YogācāraMādhyamika synthesis frame, with the Vasubandhu vyākhyā schema (eighteen abodes / twenty-seven doubts) integrated. The work is among the more philosophically substantial Dūnhuáng-recovered Vajracchedikā commentaries, aligned with the Xīmíngsì Yogācāra tradition descending through Yuáncè.
Translations and research
- 上山大峻 Kazue Kyoichi (Ueyama Daishun), Tonkō bukkyō no kenkyū 敦煌仏教の研究 (Hōzōkan, 1990) — standard work on Dūnhuáng Buddhist manuscripts including Tánkuàng’s commentaries.
- For the Xīmíngsì Yogācāra tradition see modern surveys of Táng Buddhist scholasticism, esp. Stanley Weinstein, Buddhism under the T’ang (Cambridge UP, 1987); John Jorgensen, Inventing Hui-neng, the Sixth Patriarch (Brill, 2005), for context.
Other points of interest
Tánkuàng’s Dàshèng bǎifǎ míngmén lùn shūjì (a separate Yogācāra work) is also Dūnhuáng-preserved, providing modern scholarship with two substantive late-Táng Yogācáras commentaries from the same author — uncommon survival for the period. The opening paradox-language (語言 / 實際 / 真宗 / 相 — “language / reality-limit / true-tradition / mark”) is among the more philosophically dense pieces of Táng-period Buddhist prose to survive in any form.
Links
- DILA authority: A001049 (曇曠)
- CBETA online
- Author: Tánkuàng 曇曠 of Xīmíngsì — see person note 曇曠
- Hermeneutic context: Xīmíngsì Yogācāra lineage descending through Xuánzàng and Yuáncè
- Companion Yogācāra work by author: Dàshèng bǎifǎ míngmén lùn shūjì
- Commented text: KR6c0023
- 曇曠 DILA
- Kanseki DB