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 Yogācāra-Mādhyamika 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
Reminder: AI generated list - beware of hallucinations. Corrections and additions welcome
- 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